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Free Windows Programs You Should Use




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Introduction

Microsoft Windows does not come with much. As a result many users borrow copies of Microsoft Word or the like in an effort to get the applications they need. Savvy user know however that most of the apps that people need to function are available for free.

The following are all free programs written by kind-hearted hobbyists who basically have far too much free time on their hands. Rather than try to make money off their hobby programs, which is pretty much a futile enterprise, they have given their software away for free.

Mostly these are "open source" programs, meaning that programmers can obtain a copy of the instructions that make the program work and make improvements.

The List

Video

  • FairUse = a good DVD/Divx ripper (shareware)
  • Media Player Classic: similar to Windows Media Player but accepts more file formats
  • DVD Flick = the only good free tool for making DVDs
  • DVD Decrypter 3.5.4 = free DVD backup program.
  • Xvid = vital media codec for making and playing free movies including HD movies.
  • VirtualDub video editing and conversion tool
  • AviSynth a tool for manipulating video streams via scripting.

Audio

  • CDex = a good free CD ripper.
  • Winamp = a decent free mp3 player that has been around for years.

Photography

  • The GIMP = an excellent and free replacement for Photoshop

Internet

Office

  • PDFCreator: a free print-to-PDF utility
  • Scribus = desktop publishing program
  • OpenOffice = a complete office suite and replacement for Microsoft Word
  • Wanderlust = my own outline editor program.

Utilities

  • Winzip = the classic Zip archival utility a free version is available
  • AutoHotkey = decent free program for keyboard macros

Addendum

Another type of program that is useful an encryption utility, in case you ever need to send a sensitive file across the Internet to keep it out of the wrong hands.

The program I know of is FileEncryptor but do note, it does not work with Microsoft Vista.

Another option might be TrueCrypt. It encrypts an entire hard drive partition. I have not tried it myself but it looks good.

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