The best freeware
 

What's your favorite piece of freeware?

I gotta say SpyBot. I just DL'd the newest version and it found 88 new items over the old 1.2 version. I don't think there's another program out there that has the value of this one...at least since the original WinZip.

I think this is just too big of a category, "freeware", I mean.

I've got at least 15-20 and I wouldn't have them on my computer if I didn't like them. Some are sponsorware but in the way that they have an ad built in to the program, not that they have malware or spyware as part of them. Just off the top of my head, I have Firefox, Opera (sponsor), Eudora (sponsor), Sygate, AVG Antivirus, Trillian, ZipGenius, EditPad Lite, Smart FTP, Adaware, and Spybot.

SI

Process Explorer, Codestuff Starter. In my opinon, all windows users should have these two tools. I also like Eprompter (mail checker), Sygate Personal Firewall, and VNC (remote access).

"Process Explorer, Codestuff Starter"

What are these? Links?

www.snapfiles.com for great freeware. a search there will turn both of these up.

My favorites are Zone Alarm, for security; GB-PVR, to record and watch TV; and various NES Emulators, so I can play Nintendo games again.

I don't know if it's the best freeware, by thanks for letting me know about the new version of spybot. I installed it and it looks to have gotten rid of all my most annoying spyware issues. The worst being this spyware for "scourweb" that added about seven or eight folders to my "favorites." I couldn't get rid of them. I would delete, reboot, and there they were. Not anymore!!

If you guys want to see a whole list of freeware sites, check here:

Old Thread

IrfanView for me, with the trio of AdAware, Spybot, and HijackThis a close second, for their sheer usefulness...

FM

Firefox and Irfanview are the big ones that I probably use daily.

Thanks for the link to IrfanView. Very good program. Just downloaded it and was amazed by its features.

WinRAR (better than WinZip)
SpyBot
Ad-Aware
WinMX

stuff I use...

Winamp
Trillian
Spybot
AVG
WinRAR
DC++
BatchThumbs
SmartFTP
Firefox

No Problem. I've been using it for a long time.

Another one I forgot, and that I use on a daily basis, is my alternative to winzip, called ZipGenius.

FM

Firefox.

You're right, ZipGenius is awesome. Got rid of WinRar and WinZip (Evaluation Copy). Thanks again.

Started using Sharpreader in the last few days as a news aggregator and it's okay. The idea behind news aggregation is kickass, just not sure what other free options are out there.

forgot 2 of my favorites...

mp3 Gain and
mp3 tag & rename

The main ones I use now are:

CDex
Irfanview
Spybot S&D
AdAware
KeyNote
Tight VNC
MyIE2 or whatever it's called now
SpamBayes

I have been using IrfanView for about 8 years. That free program has more features than many commercial offering. Great little program.

Slight threadjack: Anyone know of a freeware program that will allow me to edit sound from a camcorder video. Bascially remove some of the static/hiss from the family videos?

While not exactly freeware, Gentoo Linux