Best Free Software Library 

iTunes is an award-winning jukebox program that runs on Mac or Windows computers. You can play MP3s, enjoy pristine-quality AAC-encoding from audio CDs, make your own "smart playlists", listen to over 250 free Internet radio stations, and burn your playlists to CDs. You can share music via Rendezvous with other computers over any network. The iTunes Music Store offers 99-cents-per-song pricing from a catalog with more than 1,000,000 songs and 2,000 music videos .

Download at:  http://www.download.com/3000-20-10235268.html?part=undefined&subj=dl&tag=button (36 MB)

Audacity has features such as noise reduction, recording of live audio, conversion of your tapes and records into digital music on your hard disk or on CDs, MP3 editing, WAV sound files, splicing tracks one after the other, and sound mixing. For Windows 98 and later (plus MAC and Linux)

Download at:  http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ (2.3 MB)

CDBurnerXP Pro is an easy-to-use program that can create data CDs, music CDs, disk copies and more. It also lets you print CD covers, play audio files and rip CDs to MP3 and other formats. It works on Windows 98 and later .

Download at:  http://www.cdburnerxp.se/ (11 MB)

EssentialPIM does many of the same things as MicroSoft's Outlook PIM, and will import Outlook data as well. You can manage time with a color-coded, printable scheduler. The to-do list features categories of tasks, priority levels, and due date. Its outliner shows a tree-like structure that you can fill with pictures and any text font. There's an easy-to-use, flexible contact manager with fast searching and sorting. There are both free and paid versions of EssentialPIM, but most individuals and small business will do just fine with the free version.

Download at:  http://www.essentialpim.com/?r=products&pr=provsfree (1.6 MB)

With OfficePrinter you can design and print business cards, letterheads, envelopes, address labels, and CD labels. To speed things up there are predesigned templates, logos and clip art. You can apply many special effects such as shadowed text, vertical text, and shapes such as arches and circles. You can also make mailing lists to make it easy to print batches of address labels and envelopes.

Download at:  http://www.mossbaysoftware.com (3.2 MB)

Thunderbird is a free email client developed by Mozilla.org, the developers of the Firefox browser.  If you're using Outlook Express for handling email, you'll get features such as better security, spam filtering, anti-phishing, a RSS newsreader, fast email search, as-you-type spell checking, inbox filters and automatic updates to your software.  If you use web-based email such as Hotmail or Yahoo! mail, you don't need Thunderbird.  It can be used with POP and IMAP account, and if you update it with Webmail you can access webmail services operated by Yahoo, Hotmail and some others.  Fortunately Thunderbird can import Outlook account settings.  It also looks and works similar to OE, so the learning curve isn't steep.  For Win 98 and later.

Download at:  http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird (6 MB)

MailWasher checks your email on your mail server before it ever gets to your PC. It checks your messages and flags any that are possibly spam or have viruses.  Most versions of Mailwasher are now shareware, but you can still download a slightly older version for free.  If you use web-based email such as Hotmail or Yahoo! mail, you don't need Thunderbird. 

Download at:  http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page2.html#Mailwasher (1.57 MB)

If you have a decent internet hookup, you can enjoy internet phone conversations with good sound quality for free with Skype. In tests Skype was easy to download and set up, and it sounded very good even when making international calls.  Skype handles security automatically, so there's no danger of your phone call being intercepted.  It's possible to make conference calls so a number of other people can take part in the conversation.  Their SkypeIn service gives you your own phone number for Skype, and take it wherever you can take your laptop or handheld computer (you can add voicemail to serve as an answering machine.)  SkypeOut lets you call regular phones and mobile phones around the world at local rates.  If you have a PC with a microphone and speakers, you're ready to use Skype.  You can also use Skype with any headset.  There are telephones that plug into a USB port so you can use Skype much like a regular phone, for less than $50.  Those who don't want their conversations to be tied to their desktop computer can buy a cordless Skype-compatible phone for about $100.

Download at:  http://www.skype.com (13 MB)

Trillian Basic is an "IM" program that works with many different instant messaging networks. It supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, IRC and Yahoo! IM networks. It displays no ads and is more secure than most other IM programs.

Download at:  http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/learn/ (9 MB)

Do you sometimes run out of hard disk space? Then try Empty Temp Folders, a free utility that cleans unused, temporary and unnecessary files off your hard disk. You'll spend a few minutes on setup, tell it what type of files you want cleaned, and then you can just click a button to recover many megabytes of disk space.

Download at:  http://www.danish-shareware.dk/soft/emptemp (665 KB)

You need a startup manager so you can easily control which programs start automatically with Windows. The Startup Control Panel fills the bill nicely. It's easy to use, small and intuitive, but gives you the power to stop programs from starting up automatically or adding them to the list of startup programs. You can even make a web page start up when you turn your computer on. Instructions for the program are found on the download page (you'd be well advised to print them.) If you see a program listed in the Startup Control Panel that you don't recognize... leave it alone!

Download at:  http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml (59 KB)

Have you ever lost computer files that you wanted back? PC Inspector can recover accidentally deleted files, as well as many files lost through file system corruption. It works with any Windows system, even the older ones. Data recovery isn't an easy task even for the experienced, so be careful when using any data recovery program. At the download page, get the File Recovery program via "HTTP download", not "smart recovery" -- that's for digital cameras only.

Download at:  http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm (6 MB)

AceMoney Lite lets you track your spending habits, stock portfolio, retirement accounts and bill payments. It can be used for home finance management and is even powerful enough for small businesses. It's support of QIF and OFX file formats means you can import data from other accounting software. It can generate custom reports and charts, and analyze mortgage proposals.

Download at:  http://www.mechcad.net/products/acemoney/index_lite.shtml (1.7 MB)

MrSwing lives in your system tray, giving you instant access to level II quotes, market news, charts showing all the latest indicators, high volume alerts, sector movements, and company earnings reports. You can read articles on investing, and chat in real-time with other MrSwing users.

Download at:  http://messenger.mrswing.com (896 KB)

Internet Explorer (IE) is adequate but is so vulnerable to spyware and other malicious exploits that it's become a significant security risk.  Microsoft hasn't come out with a major upgrade in many years, and other browsers have surpassed IE in many respects.  The most popular alternative is Mozilla Firefox.  It's safer than IE, significantly faster and more stable. It's easy to install and use, and there are over 600 free "extension" add-ons that allow you to customize your browsing experience.  You'll occasionally run across a web site that Firefox doesn't handle well, so keep IE on your PC for those instances.

Download at:  http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ (5 MB)

"Form Filler" programs automate the common tasks of logging in with your username/password and/or filling in web forms with one click. To log in to a site you type the "master password" for the program, which then automates logging in with password information for that site. Roboform works well with Internet Explorer and FireFox, and easily moves your saved passwords between PCs. The free version allows only 30 forms or passwords to be stored, so you'll may want to buy the full version for $29.99. If you're asked if you want to upgrade to a newer version for free, be aware that the newer version only stores 10 forms or passwords. The Roboform website will then ask you to register, but you do not have to do that. This program runs on Windows.

Download at:  http://www.roboform.com/dist/AiRoboForm-5-7-6.exe (1.8 MB)

With the Google Toolbar you can do web searches without first having to go to Google.com.  It also blocks most popups, can automatically fill forms with your personal data at the click of a button, and has a built-in spell checker for when you fill out forms on the Web.  There are versions for both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Download at:  http://toolbar.google.com/deskbar/ (447 KB)

The Google Web Accelerator is a best-of-breed browsing accelerator that actually stores data on Google's own web servers to help speed up browsing. It works with Internet Explorer and Firefox. DSL and Cable surfers can expect an improvement of 10% to 30%! However, it doesn't work for dial-up users. Also, you'll need Windows XP for this program.

Download at:  http://webaccelerator.google.com (1.5 MB)

When activated, K9 Web Protection redirects all your browsing through K9's servers and filters the content. It works with IE, Firefox and any other browser. You can filter nearly any type of objectionable content including porn and spyware sites. You can also read reports on sites that have been visited on your computer. However, your browsing will be slightly slower because of the redirecting through their servers. It is designed to be difficult for anyone (e.g. teenagers) to disable.

Download at:  http://www.k9webprotection.com (5 MB)

PhotoPlus 6.0 is easy to use and comes pre-loaded with a diverse toolkit of functions and effects.  You can adjust brightness and contrast, remove red-eye, airbrush photos, use layer effects, rotate, skew, add perspective, create animations, and use many special effects. You can get your designs and photos printed onto coffee mugs, mouse mats, jigsaw puzzles, T-shirts, sweatshirts and much more.

Download at:  http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/PhotoPlus/default.asp (20 MB)

Picasa can scan your entire hard drive for photos and videos, and even orgnizes them into folders. Editing features included most needed functions including red-eye reduction and labeling. You can import your images from your camera, send photos to your web printing services, make photo CDs, print photos or upload them to blogs or instant-messaging programs. Picasa was recently picked up by Google. For Windows 2000 or later.

Download at:  http://picasa.google.com/ (4 MB)

PrintScreen lets you capture any window or the full monitor screen, then send it to either the printer or a graphics file that you can load into a paint program or photo editor. You just press the "Print Screen" key (or "PrtSc" on some keyboards) and PrintScreen does the rest. You can use it to email screenshots of web pages to people, or get a nice graphic for use in your cards, pictures and letters.

Download at:  http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/?prnscr (1.1 KB)

Many people use AVG Free Antivirus, but some people experience glitches when installing it.  Probably the best choice is Avast! 4 Home Edition. It offers fairly wide protection, including shields against worms, email viruses and malicious web pages.

If you want a lighter antivirus program, Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition is small and makes a tiny demand on your system resources. Automatic updates occur daily (their manual actually recommends that you update at least once every six hours, but it seems you can only do that if you buy the commercial version.) There's a nice tabbed user-friendly interface that's very easy to use. However, it lacks email protection so we suggest you use an email service that has this protection (such as Yahoo! Email). If you can't do that, resolve to not open email attachments (unless you trust the sender AND you know they have email antivirus protection). A window comes up daily reminding you to buy the Premium edition, which does have email protection. We experienced a JavaScript error in this window but it wasn't caused by the actual antivirus program.

Download at:  http://www.free-av.com/, http://www.avast.com/eng/programs.html (~15 MB)

Microsoft's Windows Defender program is the most effective Anti-spyware program and even offers protective capabilities if you keep it running.  However it does need legitimate Windows XP, it won't run on pirated versions nor on previous versions of Windows such as Windows 2000.  Users of those systems should try Ad Aware (2.7 MB) or SpyBot Search and Destroy (4.8MB)

Download at:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=435bfce7-da2b-4a6a-afa4-f7f14e605a0d (4.9 MB)

You need a firewall to stop unauthorized "sneak attack" program executions on your computer.  For those who don't want to rely on the simple and slightly leaky firewall that comes preinstalled with Windows, ZoneAlarm is fairly simple to use while offering good protection.  It has an "Internet lock" to block any Internet traffic while your computer is unattended. It will alert you to any Internet attack, but it also alerts you to normal communications and asks you whether you want to allow them. Because you'll need to know what its messages really mean, this software is mainly for advanced users or very active Internet surfers. There is a paid version, but the free version works well for everyday users.  There isn't much else to say really:  you install it, adjust the settings if you like, and it works in the background. Note: Microsoft Windows may generate a security warning when you install it (we ignored the warning) and after you restart your computer, your Internet programs will only work after you've finished setting up ZoneAlarm.

Download at:  http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp (13 MB)

7-Zip is a file archiver that packs files into smaller sizes with a very good compression rate. The program supports most common compression methods such as ZIP, RAR, CAB, ARJ, LZH, TAR, Z and the new 7Z formats. The compression ratio of 7z is often 30% - 50% better than the original ZIP format. For all versions of Windows.

Download at:  http://www.7-zip.org/ (1.1 MB)

The HotLaunch program lets you define hotkeys so that you can use a single key to insert commonly used text into almost any Windows program, launch an application, take you instantly to a web page, open a commonly-used document, send email to a specified email address, and more. After you install it, look for a little green pyramid in your system tray. For all Windows versions.

Download at:  http://www.pssoftlab.com/pshl_info.phtml (740 KB)

StickyPad is a simple reminder program that places a note on your screen at any time and date you choose. Optionally you can make it sound an alarm, choose the note size and font, and much more. Unfortunately it doesn't allow recurring notes (e.g. once every week or month), for that you should get ATNotes which is still available, in spite of having been officially "discontinued" by the author.

Download at:  http://www.greeneclipsesoftware.com/stickypad.html (48 KB)

Easy To-Do has features such as single appointments, recurring reminders, audible and visual alarms, a snooze button and more. It calls reminders "tasks", which can be used for anything but is an odd word to use for anniversaries for example. It works on all Windows systems.

Download at:  http://www.xanadutools.com/ (1.2 MB)

When you select a word in any document and click the WordWeb tray icon, a screen will appear telling you the word's meaning and synonyms. For example, in most browsers you can select any word on a page by simply double-clicking on it. There's a free version, as well as a paid version with an expanded dictionary for a low price.

Download at:  http://wordweb.info/free/ (6 MB)

TinySpell corrects your spelling as you type when you use MicroSoft Word (but not Notepad or forms in a web page). You can add words to the dictionary, so it won't keep pestering you to correct the spelling of unusual words and proper nouns. An expanded version is available at a low price that allows you to add words to the dictionary.

Download at:  http://tinyspell.m6.net/ (550 KB)