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Our List of Essential Free Windows Downloads

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Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 2, 2009

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  • IHaveIssues, on 06/02/2009, -7/+221Oh dear, NOT the current version of AVG Free. Best to go with Avira AntiVir.
    Also skip out on SpyBot and AdAware and go with MalwareBytes' free product.
  • diggan8, on 06/02/2009, -0/+174CCleaner should be on that list.

    I'd also like to nominate Autoruns.
  • hockeyjay96, on 06/02/2009, -4/+100I'd add Malwarebytes to that list.
  • skabyss, on 06/02/2009, -18/+106Winamp > Itunes
  • Lasereth, on 06/02/2009, -1/+81If you haven't tried Malwarebytes' Antimalware, do it (it should be on this list). It's better than Ad-Aware and Spybot, and if you do a scan in safe mode it removes pretty much every spyware/adware that I've seen. It has a funny name but trust me it is worth it.
  • twiztidsinz, on 06/02/2009, -2/+76Taco Bell gives me the Autoruns....
  • FrEaK40, on 06/02/2009, -6/+75***** > Itunes
  • talonjasra, on 06/02/2009, -1/+65I'm going to hate myself for this, but your job wouldn't happen to be farming MMO currency would it?
  • the41stgrave, on 06/02/2009, -17/+68As always great recommendations from the Lifehacker Staff. sadly, this list isn't all that new to me as I already run 2/3 of the list as it is, but it's still handy and informative.
  • kevintootill, on 06/02/2009, -1/+52Haven't tried Avira, but as AVG is starting to get bloated and slow, i will try it right now, thanks for the recomendation :)
  • AtomicTheory, on 06/02/2009, -14/+64Gah, you rock. I can't believe you already use two thirds of this list of extremely well-known apps.

    Keep rockin' man.
  • darkNiGHTS, on 06/02/2009, -2/+41How come Avast gets no love? It has a very tiny memory footprint and is said by many to be slightly better than AVG at virus detection.
  • rednaxela825, on 06/02/2009, -0/+387zip = free
  • Zoshchenko, on 06/02/2009, -0/+36CCleaner and IrfanView belong on the list.
  • TheInformer, on 06/02/2009, -0/+33CCleaner gets my vote as well.
  • D14852001neko, on 06/02/2009, -2/+34Autohotkey... Without it, I wouldn't be able to do my job! Got to love macros!
  • Ki77erB, on 06/02/2009, -1/+31I agree with you 100%. I dropped AVG a few months ago for Avira. So much faster, updates quicker, scans better. Only downside is the nag screen after updates (which Im told can be disabled, but it really doesnt bother me that much). I also use MalwareBytes to clean up my co-workers computers from time to time. Its been a life saver, and is much faster than Spybot.
  • S4MF1SHER, on 06/02/2009, -2/+28VLC how I love thee...

    /What?
  • jacobo, on 06/02/2009, -0/+22i am using Avast, everything is ok so far
  • inactive, on 06/02/2009, -10/+32Great list but Media Player Classic + K Lite Codec pack > VLC
  • TrevorBradley, on 06/02/2009, -0/+21No love for WinDirStat?
  • homercles337, on 06/02/2009, -1/+19I was surprised to not see TrueCrypt.
  • steakneggs, on 06/02/2009, -1/+19Media Monkey > iTunes

    Also lets me burn a cd directly off of files from my iPod. Havent used iTunes in a while, so I dont know what updates it has. But, iTunes always seemed like a resource hog to me.
  • IHaveIssues, on 06/02/2009, -3/+21So why did you even bother looking at this article?
  • brainflakes, on 06/02/2009, -2/+19Forget AVG, Antivir is a much better free av program
  • fxu1989, on 06/02/2009, -0/+17Unlocker deserves to be there as well. That program is so useful with some of those pesky files.
  • poonaka, on 06/02/2009, -2/+19foxit is full of bloatware now... it used to be good.
  • TheInformer, on 06/02/2009, -1/+18Agreeance 100%.

    Avira has been doing a great job as has MalwareBytes. Dropping IE in favor of Firefox and Opera hasn't hurt either.
  • ganjamonsta, on 06/02/2009, -0/+16sounds like you got a virus.
  • duffman03, on 06/02/2009, -1/+17Since you didn't elaborate on how it is better than notepad++ I decided to look. First thing I noticed is that it is not free, which removes it from the potential list of essential 'free' windows downloads.

    From their faq:
    "Will Intype be free?"

    "No. Intype is neither Open Source nor is it freeware."
  • StandardsDT, on 06/02/2009, -0/+15The current version of AVG is fine for me. Never noticed any slow downs or of this bloat everyone speaks of but that might be, because I have the scans set during a time that no one is likely to use the computer. Malwarebytes seems to be the best program for finding malware/adware.

    Spybot is extremely slow, the development team needs to get their act together and speed up not only scan times but the amount of time it takes to download a major update.
  • rhabdomancer, on 06/02/2009, -1/+16Using a pirated antivirus program; what could possibly go wrong??
  • FrEaK40, on 06/02/2009, -5/+20Oh dear, NOT Itunes
  • Zcrubby, on 06/02/2009, -0/+14It is if you're using IE
  • Zcrubby, on 06/02/2009, -2/+16Winamp already have everything you need without taking a ***** on your computer
  • uknowwhoibe, on 06/02/2009, -1/+15I love Avast!
  • vanarothiel, on 06/02/2009, -7/+21foobar2k>>Winamp
  • Cidinho, on 06/02/2009, -0/+13Maybe because the average user doesn't hide porn in such a complicated manner?
  • Davers, on 06/02/2009, -0/+13Steam IS free.
  • uknowwhoibe, on 06/02/2009, -0/+13IE still has like ~60% of the market share: Firefox is an essential download.
  • McBadass, on 06/02/2009, -0/+12If by funny name you meant awesome name, I agree.
  • DonutGuy, on 06/02/2009, -1/+13It can also introduce random artifacts into h264 video, which is pretty much everything worth watching.

    ffdshow + any player > vlc.
  • geoken, on 06/02/2009, -1/+12Postbox is new to me. Looks neat. When I read 'built on Thunderbird' I was expecting TB with a custom theme but it seems they've significantly extended it.
  • mrpunman, on 06/02/2009, -1/+12But can iTunes whip the llama's ass?
  • cyoder, on 06/02/2009, -1/+12I'm still happy with Spybot, but I lost my patience for Ad-Aware a couple years ago. The newest major release (at that time) was a resource hog compared to the previous versions, at least on my system. As you guys have mentioned, the same goes for AVG. Still, you have to appreciate devs releasing freeware that actually works to protect your system. The handful that stick with you certainly earn their donations.
  • djdisconess, on 06/02/2009, -0/+11Um, I don't think your computer not accessing the AVG website (or updates) is really their fault. It is possible your host file has been modified to block access to their site. Or a number of things. Just don't blame them for something that could be your problem :/
  • faceless323, on 06/02/2009, -0/+10http://www.elitekiller.com/files/disable_antivir_n ...
  • Ommatidia, on 06/02/2009, -1/+11Yes, because it certainly belongs on a list of "Essential Free Windows Downloads".
  • faceless323, on 06/02/2009, -0/+10http://www.elitekiller.com/files/disable_antivir_n ...
  • Ommatidia, on 06/02/2009, -2/+12Having probably logged a good 1000+ hours on it myself, I can't say that I remember a single instance where Steam itself demonstrated bugs/errors.

    However, some of the games that connect to it have crashed on me before. It's hard to say which is the culprit in those instances, though.
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