Interesting Windows programs

Here are several links to various software and other related websites for Microsoft Windows (10/8/7) .

With many great Free and Open Source Software for Windows listed at TTCS OSSWIN online at https://ttcsosswin.ttcs.tt/ and available for download as TTCS OSSWIN , this article will focus on useful freeware programs.

This article was last updated on November 12 2021.

Contents

AntiVirus

For Windows 8 and 10, Windows Defender is preinstalled.

For Windows 7, BitDefender Antivirus Free Edition – lightweight, free anti-virus software.

Windows Utilities

  • BleachBit Reclaims disk space by removing temporary files from Windows and many Windows applications
  • Speccy – system information tool for your PC
  • John’s Background Switcher – periodically changes the wallpaper on your Windows desktop – you can specify to update your wallpaper from a variety of online sources (Flickr, Unsplash, etc) as well as images from your computer or network share
  • ProduKey – displays the product keys of Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows – useful when you want to re-install the software and you don’t have it available.
  • CutePDF Writer – Create PDF documents from any Windows application that can print
  • Neutron – small and simple time synchronizing program that retrieves the accurate time from one of several time servers on the Internet and updates the Windows’ clock.
  • Attribute Changer – Windows Explorer addon to easily change file and folder attributes and date/time stamps, including photo (EXIF) information.
  • CDBurnerXP – burn CD and DVDs including Blu-rays
  • Open-Shell-Menu – brings back the Classic Start Menu for Windows 7,8,10 – great for Windows 8 which “broke” the start menu UI
  • ImageUSB – backup USB drives to an image and write an image concurrently to multiple USB Flash Drives.
  • Teracopy – utility to copy files better than Windows – can pause / resume copying and in the case of a copy error, it would skip the file rather than stop the entire copy operation
  • Windows PowerToys – set of Windows 10 utilities from Microsoft
  • Wox – quickly launch programs or search for programs and files with a few keystrokes

Windows Internet Applications

  • Mozilla Firefox – Award-winning Web browser that’s fast, secure, and easy to use.
  • Google Chrome – web browser by Google noted for its speed and minimalist interface.
  • MailStore Home – archive and backup/restore email from a variety of email clients and Internet mail (POP3 / IMAP / Gmail / Yahoo!)

Windows Applications

  • LibreOffice free office productivity suite (word processor, spreadsheet, presentations) compatible with all major office suites
  • 7-Zip file archiver with high compression ratio. Supports ZIP files
  • Stickies – place sticky notes on your desktop and/or send to other users’ desktops over a LAN ; can be set to disappear and reappear on your screen to acts as reminders
  • Convert – easy to use unit conversion program that will convert units such as distance, mass and MANY others
  • VideoLAN – multimedia player for various audio and video formats
  • IrfanView – excellent image viewer / converter / manipulator
  • FastStone Image Viewer – image browser, converter and editor. Free for home use.
  • XMPlay – minimal, yet powerful audio player. Support skins to change its appearance
  • Paint.NET – image and photo editing software with features such as layers, unlimited undo and special effects.

Other Useful Windows Sites

  • gHacks Technology News – great technology blog on Windows and the Internet.
  • FOSSHub – good download site of Freeware and Free and Open Source Software
  • FileHippo.com – well organised collection of Windows software organised by categories to download
  • TinyApps.Org – a catalog on tiny (< 1.44MB) programs for Windows