Friday, March 30, 2007
101 Fantastic Freebies
http://msn.pcworld.com/article/id,130045-page,12-c,freeware/article.html
Want to make your PC more productive, secure, informative, and entertaining? These downloads and services will do the trick--and they don't cost a dime.
Preston Gralla, PC World
Once upon a time you actually had to pay for great software and services -- hard to believe, but true.
We revved up our cable modem and searched for the most intriguing free offerings out there. After we took each download or service for a test-drive, we picked the very best, and came up with the following list of 101 great freebies.
Luckily, we no longer live in that world. The Internet is stuffed with great downloads and Web sites offering free software and services of every kind. Want to tune up your PC, keep it safe, create graphics, or back up your system with gobs of free storage space? You can find free software and sites to do all that, and plenty more.
We didn't do it alone, though -- you helped. We polled PC World readers, asking for your top freebies in several categories, so here you'll find your favorites as well as ours. (And be sure to read more details on the People's Choice Winners.)
Fantastic Freebies, by Category
System Utilities
Windows XP Tweaks
Windows Vista Tweaks
Security Software
Registry Cleaner
Hardware Utility
Communications and File Sharing
E-Mail for Free
File Sharing
Instant Messaging, Voice, and Video
Blogs and News Reading
Personal Web
Online RSS Reader
Software RSS Reader
Blogging Site
File Management
Desktop Search
Backup and File Synchronization
Productivity and Office Apps
Office Software and Services
Time Management
Notepad Replacement
Business Productivity
Music, Photos and Video
Entertainment Software
Image Editing
- Google Picasa
- Snapfire
- Irfanview
- StudioLine Photo Basic
- Microsoft Photo Info
- FastStone MaxView
- Media Purveyor
- GIMP -- GNU Image Manipulation Program
- Paint.Net
Web Video Site
Multimedia Tools and Toys
