Must Have Free Computer Software

Here's the good free stuff (may want to look into F.lux as well):

• Microsoft Office Beta - It's a full version of MSOffice that's working well for me, this one's the same as the rest except it has useful cloud features. You'll need a Microsoft account, but no credit card is required
• Mufin - Great for putting metadata on music
• Avidemux - Free video editor
• CCleaner - "Cleaner" for your PC
• Camstudio - Screencapture
• Avira - Antivirus. Best success rate, but has annoying popups at times (not always)
• Jahshaka - Open source video editor... very advanced. Like CS
• Peerblock - Blocks nosy computers probing into your stuff
• Soluto - Easy way to speed up boot times
• VirtualCloneDrive - Mounts .iso files virtually (no CD necessary)
• VideoPad - Yet another video editor. Also good.

The following can all be downloaded using Ninite - an easy downloading software that will download and update programs for you:

• Chrome - If you're not looking at this using Chrome, you're probably not looking at this
• Skype - Video chat
• VLC - Video player. Supports EVERY file type.
• Audacity - Audio editor
• K-Lite - Codec pack. VLC now supports EVERY EVERY file type
• MediaMonkey - Music manager. There are tons. I can't recommend just one... this one's good, but not necessarily the best.
• Gimp - Image editor like photoshop
• LibreOffice - Like OpenOffice, but this one has support. Free (and best) alternative to Microsoft Office.
• Foxit - Views PDF
• uTorrent - Light and easy torrenter
• Dropbox - Online file storage
• EverNote - Note taking software
• TeamViewer - Lets you view others' and others view your computer and navigate. Secure. It's like troubleshooting software. Don't let just anyone connect, though.
• TeraCopy - Copies files more efficiently
• Revo Uninstaller - AMAZING. Uninstalls programs COMPLETELY. Seriously... get this
• WinDirStat - Shows (using boxes) what is taking up space on your hard drive. Great for cleaning your hard drive... just don't delete windows files. Hard to delete files using this, though.
• 7-zip - Opens .zip, .rar, and almost every other similar type of compresses file. Better than WinRAR
• NotePad++ - AMAZING NOTEPAD. If you're a programmer... GET THIS. If you work with other languages... GET THIS. Heck... just get it.

The free antivirus war popped up again. Basically, all of their success rates are very close together. Right now, I'm using avast! instead of avira. Honestly, as long as you don't go for something weird, any of the free AV programs will work.

Here are some more good ones:

• CDBurnerXP - if you still burn CDs or DVDs, this is probably the best free option.
• Inkscape - as close to Illustrator as you're going to get for free.
• Paint.Net - GIMP pissing you off? Try this.
• FileZilla - if you're using FTP at all, you want this.
• wget - if you're comfortable with the command line, this is one of your best friends for downloading stuff.
• Calibre Got a few ebooks? You probably want this.
• HandBrake For all your DVD ripping needs.
• Rootkit Revealer detecting them rootkits.