***OFFICE & NEWS***

Adobe Reader is free software that lets you open, view, search, and print Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files. download

Foxit Reader is a free reader for PDF documents. You can view and print PDF documents with it. The download size is around 1MB, so you can download it quickly. It doesn't need any lengthy installation, so you can start to run it as soon as you can download it. download

OpenOffice.org is an open-source, multiplatform and multilingual office suite comparable with MS Office. It is compatible with all other major office suites and is free to download, use, and distribute. It was previously known as StarOffice before it became an open-source project. OpenOffice comes with OpenWriter - a word processor, OpenCalc - a spreadsheet and OpenImpress - a presentational package. download

PowerPoint Viewer lets you view full-featured presentations created in PowerPoint 97 and later versions. This viewer also supports opening password-protected Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. You can view and print presentations, but you cannot edit them in the PowerPoint Viewer. download

***IMAGING***

FastStone Image Viewer is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It has a nice array of features that include image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping and color adjustments. download

IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative Freeware (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows. download

Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run XP, Server 2003 or Vista. It started development at Washington State University as an undergraduate senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. It is meant to be a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with all Windows operating systems. download

Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you will recognize. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organized. download

***FILE TRANSFER***

Cute FTP Home is a utility for transferring files between your computer and a remote File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server anywhere on the Internet. download

FileZilla is a powerful FTP-client for Windows NT4, 2000 and XP. It has been designed for ease of use and with support for as many features as possible, while still being fast and reliable. download

FlashGet is specifically designed to address two of the biggest problems when downloading files: Speed and management of downloaded files. download

GMail Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google Gmail account, allowing you to use Gmail as a storage medium. download

SmartFTP allows you to transfer files across the Internet. It features an Explorer-like, customizable interface and supports drag-and-drop functions. Multiple FTP connections can be opened at the same time, and you can copy files from one remote host to another (FXP). Remote-host directory information is cached for future viewing, and FTP URLs are supported. download

***COMPRESSION & BACKUP***

7-Zip is an open source file archiver predominantly for the Microsoft Windows operating system. It operates either as a command line program or with a graphical user interface. It also features integration with the Windows shell environment. 7-Zip is free software, distributed under the GNU LGPL license. download

WinRAR is a powerful archive manager. It can backup your data and reduce size of email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded from Internet and create new archives in RAR and ZIP file format. download

WinZip is the original Windows Zip file utility. Combining power and flexibility with ease of use, WinZip appeals to the entire spectrum of data-compression users. First-time users are comfortable with the intuitive WinZip Wizard, while power users appreciate WinZip's seamless Windows Explorer interface and choose the award-winning WinZip Classic interface for their most sophisticated compression needs. In addition to basic zipping and unzipping, features include tight integration with Windows Explorer, support for most Internet file formats, advanced AES encryption, and much more. download

***DESKTOP***

ObjectDock is a program that enables users to add a "dock" to their Windows desktop that contains short-cuts, running tasks, and "docklets". It is highly configurable, easy to use, and very useful. download

RocketDock is a smoothly animated, alpha-blended application launcher that is similar to ObjectDock. RocketDock renders quickly like MobyDock, has the visual sharpness of Y'z Dock, and the stability that neither seem to possess. download

WindowBlinds is a program that enables users to safely add thousands of new visual styles to Windows to change the look and feel of your computer. download

Yahoo! Widget Engine (formally known as Konfabulator) is a JavaScript runtime engine for Windows and Mac OS X that lets you run little files called Widgets that can do pretty much whatever you want them to. Widgets can be alarm clocks, calculators, can tell you your WiFi signal strength, will fetch the latest stock quotes for your preferred symbols, and even give your current local weather. download

***ANTI-VIRUS***

The AntiVir Personal Edition offers the effective protection against computer viruses for the individual and private use on a single PC-workstation. In order to make possible an easy operation, the AntiVir Personal Edition is developed to the essential points. download

Avast! 4 Home Edition is a full-featured antivirus package designed exclusively for home users, non-commercial users. Home Edition is free of charge, since in our opinion, it is possible to avoid global virus spreading by efficient prevention; however, many user are not able or do not want to pay for antivirus software. download

AVG Free Edition is the well-known anti-virus protection tool. AVG Free is available free-of-charge to home users for the life of the product! Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high-level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Free is easy-to-use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements). download

***MESSAGING & CHAT***

AOL AIM Triton is the next generation release of AOL Instant Messenger. It is an all new user experience with an elegant, tabbed look and feel. download

Google Talk is a simple and free way to talk with and send instant messages to your friends. Like Gmail, Google Talk uses Google's innovative technologies to help people communicate more effectively and efficiently. Think of it as Google's approach to communications. download

Pidgin (previously called Gaim) is a multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows. It is compatible with AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, GroupWise Messenger, and Zephyr networks. download

Skype is software for calling other people on their computers or phones. Download Skype and start calling for free all over the world. The calls have excellent sound quality and are highly secure with end-to-end encryption. You don't even need to configure your firewall or router or any other networking gear. download

Thunderbird gives you IMAP/POP support, a built-in RSS reader, support for HTML mail, powerful quick search, saved search folders, advanced message filtering, message grouping, labels, return receipts, smart address book LDAP address completion, import tools, and the ability to manage multiple e-mail and newsgroup accounts. download

Trillian is a fully featured, stand-alone, skinnable chat client that supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC. It provides capabilities not possible with original network clients, while supporting standard features such as audio chat, file transfers, group chats, chat rooms, buddy icons, multiple simultaneous connections to the same network, server-side contact importing, typing notification, direct connection (AIM), proxy support, encrypted messaging (AIM/ICQ), SMS support, and privacy settings. download

With MSN Messenger you can chat online instantly in real time with friends, family and colleagues. It's faster than e-mail, more discreet than a phone call. download

Use Yahoo! Messenger to call and talk over the Internet just like you're on the phone. All you need is a headset, or a microphone and speakers. It's that easy - just click the Call button. If no one's there, leave a voicemail! download

***CD & DVD TOOLS***

ImgBurn can write most types of CD / DVD images and it supports all the latest writers (including booktype / bitsetting on many of the major ones - i.e. BenQ, LiteOn, NEC, Plextor, Sony). You can even use ImgBurn to erase / format your rewritable media! download

DVD Shrink is a freeware tool for fitting a DVD-Video disc on a single DVD-R. DVD Shrink will also burn your backup DVD, if you have installed the latest version of Nero. If you already possess alternative burning software and prefer to stick with it, then you can still use DVD Shrink. The output from DVD Shrink can be saved as files on your hard drive, which you can then burn with software of your choice. download

DeepBurner is a free CD and DVD burning tool from Astonsoft It comes loaded with an extensive list of practical and amazingly valuable features that will totally satisfy your burning needs. These start from compiling your CDs and DVDs in different formats and ending with the creation of fascinating photo albums and rock solid, reliable backups. download

WARNING: This software contains an optional adware toolbar. We recommend you deselect this option during installation.

DAEMON Tools is a virtual cd/dvd-rom emulator and is able to emulate nearly all known copy protections on the market today. The application mounts ISO images to a virtual drive without having to burn them to a CD. download

***FIREWALLS & SECURITY***

Comodo claim that their firewall is unique in that it passes all known leak tests to ensure the integrity of data entering and exiting your system. Comodo has put firewall through all kinds of sophisticated tests to ensure its firewall powerful enough to ward off these attacks with default settings. No other firewall has had to work this hard. download

PeerGuardian 2 is Phoenix Labs' premier IP blocker for Windows. PeerGuardian 2 integrates support for multiple lists, list editing, automatic updates, and blocking all of IPv4 (TCP, UDP, ICMP, etc), making it the safest and easiest way to protect your privacy on P2P. download

Kerio Personal Firewall (KPF) helps users control how their computers exchange data with other computers on the Internet or local network. Kerio Personal Firewall is a necessity for all desktop computers connected to broadband Internet, using DSL, cable, ISDN, WiFi or satellite modems. download

Free for personal use, Sygate Personal Firewall provides best of breed security in a user friendly interface, protecting your PC from hackers, trojans and DoS attacks. New features include full-ICS support, protocol driver level protection, enhanced logging, and more. download

ZoneAlarm is an easy-to-use firewall that blocks hackers and other unknown threats.

• Intrusion Blocking systematically identifies hackers and blocks access attempts.
• Stealth Mode automatically makes your computer invisible to anyone on the Internet.
• Automatic Program Configuration provides safety and simplicity by automatically configuring programs. Automatically decides whether to allow or deny Internet access to individual programs.
• Expert Controls give savvy users precise control over security settings. download
  

***FILE SHARING***

Azureus is a java bittorrent client offering multiple torrent downloads, queuing/priority systems (on torrents and files), start/stop seeding options and instant access to numerous pieces of information about your torrents. download

BitComet is a p2p file-sharing freeware fully compatible with Bittorrent, which is one of the most popular p2p protocol designed for high-speed distribution of 100MB or GB sized files. BitComet is a powerful, clean, fast, and easy-to-use bittorrent client. It supports simultaneous downloads, download queue, selected downloads in torrent package, fast-resume, chatting, disk cache, speed limits, port mapping, proxy, ip-filter, etc. download


eMule is a filesharing client which is based on the eDonkey2000 network but offers more features than the standard client.

• Clients use several networks to create one reliable network. (ED2K, Source Exchange, Kad)
• Kad is now in an open testphase, eMule v0.42 can be enabled to use Kad
• eMule's Queue and Credit system helps to ensure that everyone will get the file he wants by promoting those that upload back to the network. download

LimeWire is a fast P2P file-sharing application, letting users share and search for all types of computer files, including movies, pictures, games, and text documents. The application's other features include dynamic querying, the ability to preview files while downloading, advanced techniques for locating rare files, and an extremely intuitive user interface. download

uTorrent is an efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint. It was designed to use as little cpu, memory and space as possible while offering all the functionality expected from advanced clients. download

Shareaza is a file sharing system that can harness the power of up to four separate peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, including EDonkey2000, Gnutella, BitTorrent and Shareaza's native network, Gnutella2 (G2). download

***AUDIO & VIDEO***

iTunes is an audio player for playing and organizing digital music files, and purchasing digital music files in the FairPlay digital rights management format. The iTunes Music Store is the component of iTunes through which users can purchase digital music files from within iTunes. download

K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs, DirectShow filters and tools. Codecs and DirectShow filters are needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video formats. The K-Lite Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your movie files. With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play all the popular audio and video formats and even some rare formats. download

QuickTime Alternative allows your system to play QuickTime movie files (.mov) without having to install the full version of the Quicktime Player. It includes the browser plugins to allow seemless playback of movies within webpages. download

The new QuickTime Player not only delivers startling quality, but it's easier to use than ever. It requires no set up for content that streams over the network. Instead, QuickTime Player automatically determines your system's connection speed and chooses the highest quality stream for the amount of bandwidth you have available. And if you ever lose a connection while watching streaming video, QuickTime Player automatically reconnects. Now, thats convenience. download

Real Alternative allows your system to play Real Media files (.ra .ram) without having to install the full version of RealPlayer. download

RealPlayer is a digital-media player for finding and downloading new music, playing and managing audio and video clips, and taking your digital entertainment with you. RealPlayer offers a streamlined interface that allows you to keep your media library close at hand. Keep all your digital-media clips organized in one place; save CD tracks with one click; pause and rewind live streams; transfer music to CDs and portable devices; and enjoy clear, smooth video playback and multichannel, surround-sound support. download

VLC (initially VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. download

Nullsoft Winamp is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity music and video player for Windows. Winamp supports MP3, CD, WAV and other audio formats, custom appearances called skins, plus audio visualization and audio effect plug-ins. additional features including free-form skins, a new decoder, built-in cross fade, and an advanced Media Library. download

Windows Media Player is the all-in-one media player that provides the best experience for discovering, playing, and taking your digital entertainment anywhere--on Windows XP-based PCs and the widest choice of portable devices. download