Ad-Aware - It somewhat crosses over with Spybot's protection, but if you (or a friend/relative) have a system that's regularly filled with mysterious, malicious stuff, it's never a bad idea to let Ad-Aware comb through and safely clean the cruft out. [Download]
Spybot Search & Destroy - Just read through the list of what Spybot protects against—trackerware, info-tracking cookies, homepage hijackers, trojans, pop-up producers, keyloggers, advertising controllers—and you'll want to stop thinking about what a trip around the net leaves inside your system. Spybot is a tested and true veteran of the net annoyance wars, and has a support network of enthusiastic updaters. [Download]
AVG Free - We actually prefer versions of this free anti-virus app earlier than 8.0 for their, shall we say, more quiet and subtle operation. But it still does a good job of keeping up to date on the latest virus threats and protecting against them, when needed. [Download]
KeePass - It's where you keep your passwords, and create one password to track them all. It has lots of great plug-ins for your browser, other programs, and cool functionality. And it's available for every platform, so you never have to fear losing all the secrecy you pour into its secure little well. [Download] [Portable]
Mozy - If Dropbox is where you stash the stuff you're working on or enjoying at the moment, Mozy is the backup service that saves everything for when your system goes black on bootup. The free accounts for PCs (and Macs) offer 2GB of free online space, and with the really smart filtering tools, you can have Mozy crawl your whole system and back up financial documents, Excel sheets, and any file with "Rick" in it. If you spring for a monthly unlimited plan, Mozy is a smart whole-system saver, one that doesn't eat bandwidth when you're using it, and works when you're not working. [Download]
Dropbox - Put simply, Dropbox makes synchronizing your files across Windows, Mac, or Linux systems a very simple, almost magical process. Put a copy of what you're working on or want saved in your Dropbox folder, and it's synchronized to your account, which has 2GB to start with, and gets bigger if you recommend friends. When you're at another one of your own computers, your Dropbox updates and grabs those files. If you're at someone else's system or on a smartphone, head to Dropbox's mobile-friendly site and grab what you need. It's not quite a backup tool, but it is one of those utilities that makes a lot of old habits—thumb drive copying, CD burning, multi-email self-mailing—seem unnecessary. [Download]
No iPhone or iPod—Songbird - Like iTunes, except open-source, open to killer add-ons, and much more web-savvy—point it at a web page full of music, and it plays it like it's just really fancy playlist. It can, in fact, play Apple-formatted tracks with a (default) add-on, including any older, copy-protected songs you bought from iTunes, and manages non-iPhone/touch iPods fairly well, but you'll still need iTunes for restoring, upgrading, and backing up your device. For music in general, though, Songbird is a nice midway point between iTunes' big, big tent and a tight little open-source player. [Download]
If you own an iPod or iPhone—iTunes - For seamless syncing between your iPhone or iPod devices and your music collection, it's hard to beat iTunes—which is, of course, Apple's intended outcome. There are other iPod-to-computer solutions, but none are really worry-free and seamlessly integrated with everything an iPod can do, including updates, album art transfers, and, in the case of iPhones and iPod touch models, backups. It's not that bad a music manager, either, especially if you've got a huge collection or compatible Apple devices, like AirTunes-capable speakers. If you need it to do more, check out our picks for the 23 best iTunes add-ons. [Download]
VLC - Got a video or audio file to play? VLC probably plays it. Don't like how naggy and heavy-running Windows Media Player is? VLC is lighter. Want it free, working on any system, and have it show album art from your tracks? Done and done. [Download] [Portable]
Picasa - One of the few software recommendations that this editor's wife, parents, and other relatives actually stick with after installation. Google's free software indexes your computer's pictures and makes them a snap to flick through, lightly edit without a Photoshop degree, and share through email or uploading to Picasa Web Albums (or an add-on button). Most important of all, it makes importing pictures from any digital camera a lot more intuitive than Windows' own process. [Download]
ImgBurn - It does just about everything you can possibly do with a CD, DVD, Blu-Ray or HD-DVD disc, and the image files that make them. Use this instead of the software that came with your system or add-on disc drive, because it can make music discs, data backups, video DVDs, and other projects with grace and speed, and all for free. [Download]
TeraCopy - Windows is slow, and occasionally fails, at copying large files, or just big batches of them. TeraCopy copies things between destinations faster, with more options on what to replace or skip based on file dates, and can actually be (gasp!) paused if you need to do something else while The Complete Works of Woody Allen are being transferred. [Download (+Portable)]
Revo Uninstaller - Windows doesn't always remove everything that a program leaves behind—file folders, Start menu items, menu entries, you name it. Revo Uninstaller does. It runs a standard uninstaller, then it searches your system for everything the program changed or touched while it was installing. If you don't know the name of a program you want to kill off, or don't see it offered when Revo starts up, choose "Hunter Mode" and click on a window or message from that program. Got annoying programs that start up with your computer without permission? Yeah, Revo handles them too. It's like the software equivalent of bleach. [Download (+Portable)]
µTorrent - Also known as uTorrent. If you're a complete newcomer to BitTorrent, uTorrent makes it easy. Install it, and any torrent file you click on is automatically handled and grabbed by uTorrent, and saved in your Downloads folder, making a seemingly nerd-core activity as easy as opening an MP3.If you're a BitTorrent pro, you should know that uTorrent's features—remote control and download starting from the web, a phone, or using Dropbox—truly set it apart. [Download]
Everything - Does what you really want when you hit "Search" in Windows. It's really tiny, doesn't need to be installed if you don't want, and searches for files across your system with the speed of a jackrabbit gone rogue on old-school cold medicine. Faster than that, really, and it makes finding and deleting file types, digging through your browser cache, and any other file search task far faster. We used to recommend Google Desktop for a system-wide search tool, and it certainly has its merits—including some neat gadgets for Gmail and Google Calendar—but, in most cases, you're not going to need to find a single word out of every single document on your system. You just want that apples.doc thing, wherever it is, and Everything finds it as fast as you can type it. [Download (+Portable)]
7-Zip - The fix-all archiving/un-zipping program. It basically fills in all the gaps in your system's compression abilities. Multi-file RAR packages, Mac-formatted archives, and even ISO images can all be opened, and the right-click integration makes it all too easy to do so. [Download] [Portable]
Postbox - If you're not using your email's web interface, use this. It's basically Thunderbird, the open-source email client we'd previously included in our Lifehacker pack, but remixed with stronger, almost Gmail-like powers. It finds and indexes all the attachments in your email account, groups together conversations with similar subject chains with the "Gather" command (like Gmail's conversations), offers tabbed inbox and message views, and lets you organize emails under your own chosen "Topics." It's also got built-in easy setup steps for Gmail and other webmail systems—in other words, everything we're waiting to see Thunderbird implement. [Download]
Pidgin - Do you ever use AOL/AIM, Google Talk, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Jabber, or even old-school IRC to chat online? Pidgin has you covered, and it's got plenty of recommendable plug-ins. It can tab your chats in a single window, update you on new emails, and work inside most any smiley system out there (which has, oddly enough, become a notable issue). And while the up-and-coming IM app and-then-some Digsby has garnered a lot of users, its large footprint and questionable installation choices (it's got a really unfriendly installer that tries installing a lot of adware) keep us firmly in the Pidgin camp for now. [Download] [Portable]
Texter - Whether you write code, write out the same address repeatedly, or constantly misspell a certain word, Lifehacker's own text replacement app wakes up whenever you type certain phrases and then springs into action, saving you serious time and helping you avoid burdensome busy work. [Download (+Portable)]
Notepad++ - If you just want to write, save, and edit text, it's hard to go wrong with Notepad++. This freebie offers tabbed file views, syntax coloring for those working in HTML or other code, and, as the name implies, does a whole lot of what most people wish Notepad did. If you want a free office suite that offers most of what Microsoft's Office suite does, try OpenOffice.org. If you love working in the constantly-backed-up cloud, try the Zoho or Google Docs suites. [Download] [Portable]
Foxit Reader - Opens, save, and prints PDFs much faster and lighter than Adobe's official reader, whether on your desktop or through your browser, and it won't nag you every two hours to update it or its "components." There are some down-sides, like how it asks to install a browser toolbar during installation, and some reported difficulties with multiple monitors. But if a document absolutely won't work with anything but Adobe-sanctioned Reader, try Adobe Reader Lite, which cuts out all the "Maybe You'll Also Like" add-ons and extras out of Adobe's product and leaves just its basic rendering intact. [Download]
A full-featured Internet browser, Opera includes pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, integrated searches, and advanced functions like Opera's groundbreaking E-mail program, RSS Newsfeeds and IRC chat. And because we know that our users have different needs, you can customize the look and content of your Opera browser with a few clicks of the mouse.
Maxthon Internet Browser software is a powerful tabbed browser with a highly customizable interface. It is based on the Internet Explorer browser engine (your most likely current web browser) which means that what works in the IE browser will work the same in Maxthon tabbed browser but with many additional efficient features:
The Ultimate Out-of-box Experience
Maxthon Works the Way You Want It To
Security.
Adobe Flash Player is the high performance, lightweight, highly expressive client runtime that delivers powerful and consistent user experiences across major operating systems, browsers, mobile phones and devices.
Installed on over 750 million Internet-connected desktops and mobile devices, Flash Player enables organizations and individuals to build and deliver great digital experiences to their end users.
Internet Explorer is the world's most popular Web browser. Security, ease of use, and improvements in RSS, CSS, and Ajax support are Microsoft's priorities for Internet Explorer. This version of IE runs on Windows XP.
The latest version of the browser includes support for:
Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier. Google Chrome combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.
One box for everything
Type in the address bar and get suggestions for both search and web pages.
Thumbnails of your top sites
Access your favorite pages instantly with lightning speed from any new tab.
Incognito mode
Don't want pages you visit to show up in your web history? Choose incognito mode for private browsing.
Safe browsing
Google Chrome warns you if you're about to visit a suspected phishing, malware or otherwise unsafe website.
The Web is all about innovation, and Firefox sets the pace with dozens of new features to deliver a faster, more secure and customizable Web browsing experience for all.
User Experience. The enhancements to Firefox provide the best possible browsing experience on the Web. The new Firefox smart location bar, affectionately known as the "Awesome Bar," learns as people use it, adapting to user preferences and offering better fitting matches over time.
Performance. Firefox is built on top of the powerful new Gecko platform, resulting in a safer, easier to use and more personal product.
Security. Firefox raises the bar for security. The new malware and phishing protection helps protect from viruses, worms, trojans and spyware to keep people safe on the Web.
Customization. Everyone uses the Web differently, and Firefox lets users customize their browser with more than 5,000 add-ons.
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