| 3D Canvas | 3-D animation, modeling, rendering. | Freeware | 3D Graphics |
| 3DNA | Alternative Windows Shell in 3-D. I thought these were cool, well amusing so I listed a few. Here is a screenshot of 3dna in action. | Shareware | Shell |
| 7Zip | Zip utility with File Explorer support. | GPL | Utility |
| AB Commander Lite | File explorer replacement. | Freeware/Other | Utility |
| AVG | Anti-virus, free for non-commercial use. | Freeware/Other | Utility |
| AVI Maker | Makes avi video from images. | Freeware | Video |
| AbiWord | Word processor with all the bells and whistles! Highly recommended. | GPL | Office |
| Acid Express | Digital sequencer and loop based music production software, this is a Sony free download #B0( See Gungirl for a free alternative ;) | Freeware/other | Audio |
| ActiveGrid Studio | ActiveGrid Studio enables developers to rapidly build enterprise-level Web 2.0 applications with a minimum of training, time, and effort. Supports Java, PHP, Python. Database supports is the best I've seen in an open IDE. Has built in Python and Java environments plus a built in running Apache web server. Highly recommended. | APL | Programming |
| Adaware | Spyware removal tool. | Freeware/Other | Utility |
| AlienGuise | Theme engine like Windows Blinds, by the same guys, and brought to you from Alienware computer systems. | Freeware | Utility |
| Anim8or | 3-D animation, modeling, rendering. | Freeware | 3D Graphics |
| AntiVir | Anti-virus. I have been using this for awhile and it kicks ass. Beats the shit out of Norton and it's free! Highly recommended. | Freeware/Other | Utility |
| Apache Tomcat | Apache Tomcat is the servlet container that is used in the official Reference Implementation for the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages (jsp) technologies. | ASF/GPL/Other | Server |
| Apache Web Server | Web Server, the best imo. | ASF/GPL/Other | Server |
| Apache2Triad | Installs a developer preconfigured environment with Apache, PHP, mySQL with control panel/PHPMyAdmin, xMail, ftp, and a Apache Web based Control Panel, etc. Power packed with new cool things like Python/Pearl mods, ASP support, SSL and so much more. Highly recommended. | GPL/Various | Server |
| Aptana | Development environment geared towards web development, Ajax style! Autocomplete and assistance for HTML, CSS, Java Script. | EPL | Programming |
| Arbaro | Make 3-D trees. | GPL | 3D Graphics |
| ArtRage | Natural Painting Application, like Painter. and so worth the download! | Freeware | 2D Graphics |
| Audacity | Wav editor with VST support and can export to mp3. Highly recommended. | GPL | Audio |
| Avast | Anti-virus applcation. Free for personal use. I have not tried this software, but it works with Kerio so it can't be bad. | Freeware/Other | Utility |
| Avidemux | Video editor. | GPL | Video |
| BRL-CAD | The BRL-CAD package is a powerful Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) solid modeling system with over 20 years development and production use by the U.S. military. Visit the project page for downloads. | LGPL | 3D Graphics |
| Balthisar Cascade 2.0 | CSS level 2 editor available for the Windows platform. | Freeware | Programming |
| BartPE | Windows live cd. Now you can boot Windows from a CD-Rom and have full read/write access to NTFS volumes!. | Freeware | Utility |
| Bid O Magic | EBay bidding/selling utility. | GPL | Web |
| BitTorrent | Multipeer downloading! | GPL | Peer2Peer |
| BitTyrant | BitTorrent protocol compatible client. Faster than traditional BitTorrent, read more on their site. | GPL | Peer2Peer |
| Black Box | Alternative Windows Shell. I found this to be more stable than XOBlite2. http://www.bb4win.org/news.php | GPL | Shell |
| Black Box Lean | Alternative Windows Shell. | GPL | Shell |
| Blender 3-D | 3-D modeling, design\illustration, animation, game development. I like to call it the Free Maya 3-D! Highly recommended. | GPL | 3D Graphics |
| BlitzMax IDE | Basic programming IDE for use with the Blitz game development environment. | Public Domain | Programming |
| BlockCAD | BlockCAD is a freeware program for building virtual models with Lego-like bricks. | Freeware | 3D Graphics |
| Blueberry | Alternative Windows Shell in 3-D. | LGPL | Shell |
| Boa Constructor | A visual GUI designer and IDE for Python | GPL | Programming |
| Boot manager/partition manager | Partition magic like clone and boot manager. | GPL | Utility |
| Burn4Free | CD/DVD burner application, works oh so well! p.s. Run Adaware after installing to remove the spyware piece ;) | Freeware | Utility |
| Burst | A bittorrent creation and management tool! Highly recommended. | GPL | Peer2Peer |
| CD Image | ISO ripper. Like UltraISO, create convert disk images. Supports all the main images types. | GPL | Utility |
| CD burner XP | CD Burner. | Freeware | Utility |
| Cdexos | CDex a CD-Ripper, thus extracting digital audio data from an Audio CD. The application supports many Audio encoders, like MPEG (MP2,MP3), VQF, AAC encoders. Highly recommended. | GPL | Audio |
| Celtx | Celtx is a comprehensive software package designed for people who work in the film, TV, theatre, and new media industries. It combines full-feature scriptwriting with media rich pre-production support and enables online collaboration. | MPL | Office |
| Chronicle Lite | Blog client that works with xmlrpc - works with Drupal and any other blogapi supporting blog. | GPL | Web |
| Cinepaint | Image editor geared for video production. | GPL | 2D Graphics |
| Clam Win | Anti-virus program. | GPL | Utility |
| ClamAV | Anti-virus program. | GPL | Utility |
| Clockwise3d | Alternative Windows Shell in 3-D. | Freeware | Shell |
| ConText | Programmers text editor, supports most languages, shell scripts, plugin support. | Freeware | Text/Programming |
| Console | Terminal enhancement. Ever wanted a transparent background in the command prompt window like in Linux? | GPL | Utility |
| Cooktop | XML editor. | Freeware | Programming |
| Crap Cleaner | Cleans up Windows, internet cache, temp files, registry entries, etc. Also has a kick ass uninstaller that works and a startup editor. Highly recommended. | Freeware | Utility |
| Cream | A modern configuration of the powerful and famous Vim, with full GUI. | GPL | Programming |
| Creatoon | 2D cartoon animation application. | Freeware | Video |
| Crimson editor | Programmers text editor. Features tabbed interface, html, php, c, python syntax highlighting, code output window, and built in FTP! Highly recommended. | Freeware | Text/Programming |
| Cygwin | Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows. | GPL | Utility |
| Cygwin/x | Cygwin/x allows x11 (Linux apps) to run on Windows. | GPL | Utility |
| DAVIDLaserscanner | DAVIDLaserscanner is too cool not to mention! DAVID-Laserscanner is a freeware software for 3d laser range scanning. All you need to build a 3d scanner is a PC, a camera (e.g. a webcam), a background corner, and a laser that projects a line onto the object you want to scan. So everyone can use it to scan objects without high costs. | Freeware | 3D Graphics |
| DVDFlick | DVD Flick aims to be a simple but at the same time powerful DVD Authoring tool. It can take a number of video files stored on your computer and turn them into a DVD that will play back on your DVD player, Media Center or Home Cinema Set. You can add additional custom audio tracks as well as subtitles of your choice. Highly recommended. | GPL | Video |
| DVDShrink | DVD ripper (rips encripted discs) that compresses for burning to DVD-r/CD-r. The best DVD backup tool I could find. Highly recommended. | Freeware | Video |
| DVDStyler | DVDStyler is a cross-platform DVD authoring application that makes possible for video enthusiasts to create professional-looking DVDs. | GPL | Video |
| Daisy | Windows updater replacement that does not use IE settings. | GPL | Utility |
| Deep-Paint | Painting application similar to Painter. Man, I remember when this sold for $800.00! | Freeware/Other | 2D Graphics |
| Delineate | Raster to Vector coverter. Nice | GPL | 2D Graphics |
| Democracy Player | Best damned video player! Play virtually any video-- Quicktime, WMV, MPEG, AVI, XVID, and more. Video blog, YouTube, hell it does everything including BitTorrent. | GPL | Video |
| Dia | Basically Visio. | GPL | Office |
| DoISO | Create and burn ISO disk images. | GPL | Utility |
| Dogwaffle | Natural painting application similar to Open Canvas. It limited, but pretty full featured at the same time. | Freeware/Other | 2D Graphics |
| Dorgem | Video/webcam capture. | GPL | Video |
| Doubletype | Font creation application. | GPL | Font |
| Download Checker | The Update Checker will scan your computer for installed software, check the versions and then send this information to filehippo.com to see if there are any newer releases. These are then neatly displayed in your browser for you to download. | Freeware | Utility |
| Dr Divx | Officially the unofficial DivX encoding tool to create DivX media files for playback on DivX hardware and software players. | LGPL | Video |
| Dusty | Dusty is a nice realtime 3D Smoke Simulator. It allowes to simulate smoke and fire in realtime. | GPL | 3D Graphics |
| EMule | Peer2peer client for file sharing! | GPL | Peer2Peer |
| EMule Plus | Peer2peer client for file sharing with added features! | GPL | Peer2Peer |
| EZThumbs | Batch thumbnail creator. | Freeware | 2D Graphics |
| EasyPHP | Really nice Apache install with PHP and mySQL included and configured. If you need a heavy duty Apache web development environment look at Apache2Triad. | GPL/Various | Server |
| Eclipse | Eclipse java IDE for Windows. | EPL | Programming |
| Ekiga | Ekiga (formely known as GnomeMeeting) is an open source VoIP and video conferencing application for GNOME. Ekiga uses both the H.323 and SIP protocols. It supports many audio and video codecs, and is interoperable with other SIP compliant software and also with Microsoft NetMeeting. | GPL | Web |
| EmailXT | EmailXT is an open, patent-free protocol that replaces your current email with a more secure, full-featured system. EmailXT is a relationship-based email system where unauthorized bulk emailing is no longer possible. No more spam and mass mailing viruses. You don't need spam filters or service subscriptions any more. | GPL | Web |
| Envelop VBasic | Visual Basic clone; compiles to exe, gui designer! | GPL | Programming |
| Ephpod | Copy iPod music to your PC. | Freeware | Audio |
| Ethereal | Packet sniffer. | GPL | Network |
| Ewido | Blocks spyware/adware and trojans. | Freeware/Other | Security |
| Explore2fs | Let's you see and explore a Linux partition, and do file operations, from Windows. Highly recommended if you dual boot. | GPL | Utility |
| ExplorerXP | Windows File Explorer replacement. | Freeware/Other | Utility |
| FS-driver | Mount Linux Ext2/Ext3 file systems on Windows. | Freeware | Utility |
| FarPy | Awesome wxPython and .Net GUI designer. | GPL | Programming |
| Feedreader | News aggregator that supports RSS and ATOM formats. | GPL | Web |
| FileZilla | FTP Server and client. Highly recommended. | GPL | Server |
| Filseclab | Internet personal firewall - Nice | Freeware/Other | Security |
| FireFox Tune | This will automatically tune Firefox for speed. Damn, I tuned manually, but this thing sped it up three times as much. It worked wonders on verion 1.04 of Firefox. | Freeware | Web |
| Firebird database | Firebird is a relational database offering many ANSI SQL standard features that runs on Linux, Windows, and a variety of Unix platforms. Firebird offers excellent concurrency, high performance, and powerful language support for stored procedures and triggers. | GPL | Database |
| Flac | Lossless audio compression tool. Rips tracks without the quality loss like you find in mp3 format. | GPL | Audio |
| Flame | Fractal Flames are algorithmically generated images and animations. | GPL | 2D Graphics |
| Flashdevelop | Actionscript 2 IDE with seamless swfmill and MTASC integration. FlashDevelop is the first alternative opensource IDE to feature AS3 & MXML completion, including Flex2 compiler integration (the best compiler integration after Adobe FB) and AS3 syntax checking. Highly recommended. Requires .Net. | MIT/Other | Programming |
| Flock | Web browser based on Firefox with blogging utilities built in. | GPL | Web |
| Floola | Floola is a freeware application to efficiently manage your iPod or your Motorola mobile phone (any model supporting iTunes). Floola supports all common used iPod features including artwork, podcasts and smart playlists! It's also able to convert audio or video incompatible with the iPod so that you can copy almost any file to it. It even allows adding youtube and myspace videos just entering the page url! | Freeware | Utility |
| Fontforge | Font creation application. Requires Cygwin. | GPL | Font |
| Foobar2000 | Audio player. | Freeware | Audio |
| Foxit | PDF reader and Adobe PDF reader replacement. Very fast and lightweight. | Freeware/Other | Web |
| Fractal-Explorer | Fractal generator with landscape and script lib. | Freeware | 2D Graphics |
| Free commander | File Explorer replacement. This is one of the best file explorer replacements I have ever used. Highly Recommended. | Freeware | Utility |
| Free2Design | CAD. | Freeware | 2D Graphics |
| Freeguide-tv | FreeGuide is a TV guide. Download TV listings from the Internet, view them offline, create a personalised TV guide and choose favourites. It uses the XMLTV tools to grab listings for lots of different countries. | GPL | Misc |
| Freyja | Freyja 3d is a modeler and animator focusing on low polygon game content with wide range of model import/export plugins. Freyja has some unique features such as Lua macros, tools for reverse engineering, and use of GLSL shaders while editing. | GPL | 3D Graphics |
| Frhed | Hex editor. | GPL | Utility |
| Frostwire | Peer2Peer and BitTorrent client. | GPL | Peer2Peer |
| Fyre | Fyre is a tool for producing computational artwork based on histograms of iterated chaotic functions. If you wonder how those cool wispy blue OS X like backgrounds are made this will show you the way. I use this on Linux and it's excellent, but I haven't tested the Windows version. | GPL | 2D Graphics |
| G4U ghost utility | Ghost a drive. I have not used this, but it says it supports win2k. | BSD | Utility |
| GNUStep objective C | Objective C lib, compilers, etc. | GPL | Programming |
| GPG4Win | File, email encryption and other encryption utilites, like a file shredder. | GPL | Security |
| GSculpt | gSculpt is an open source, procedural subdivision modeller. It has a comprehensive set of polygon modelling tools, including most of those found in Wings 3D, and more. | GPL | 3D Graphics |
| Gaim | Chat client. It is compatible with AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, GroupWise Messenger, and Zephyr networks. | GPL | Chat |
| Gcad3D | 3-D CAD design. | Freeware | 3D Graphics |
| Gimpshop | Gimp restructured like Photoshop. Very nice and you only need install this one file as opposed to Gimp's GTK lib install. If your a Photoshop junky like me this will fit nie into your tools and may save you money down the road. Main page is here | GPL | 2D Graphics |
| Gizmoproject | Internet Phone. Gizmo Project uses your internet connection (broadband or dial-up) to make calls to other computers. | GPL | Web |
| GnuLedger | Open source financial solution. GnuLedger includes all of the functionality that home users need to manage their finances. | GPL | Finance |
| Google Picasa | Download your images directly from your digital camera, share and organize photos on and off line, edit and print, post on-line, or create a cd. You can chat about your photos through Picasa also with Hello and works with Google blogger, which can be found here. | Freeware | 2D Graphics |
| Gourmet | Recipe Manager is a simple but powerful recipe-managing application. | GPL | Misc |
| Griffith | Movie collection manager, which fetches movie info, supports cover art, etc. | GPL | Video |
| Grisbi | Personnal accounting application. | GPL | Finance |
| Groovy | Groovy is an agile, dynamic programming language for the Java Virtual Machine. Groovy includes features found in Python, Ruby, and Smalltalk, but uses syntax similar to the Java programming language. | APL | Programming |
| Gungirl Sequencer | Gungirl Sequencer is an easy to use Audiosequencer. It includes a simple Filemanager and uses Drag & Drop to arrange Audiosamples. | GPL | Audio |
| Haste | Haskell TurboEdit - is an IDE for the functional programming language Haskell, written in Haskell. | GPL/Other | Programming |
| Hitman Lite | Hitman Pro is a freeware tool that combines a number of powerful anti-spyware programs in one integrated solution. Hitman Pro combines Ad-Aware SE, SpyBot Search & Destroy, Spy Sweeper, Spyware Doctor, CWShredder, Spyware Blaster, NOD32, Sysclean package. Most of the included programs are freeware. | Freeware/Various | Security |
| Hugin - Panorama Tools | Make panoramic photos out of normal images. | GPL | 2D Graphics |
| Hydrogen | Drum and synth application like Fruityloops. | GPL | Audio |
| Hymn | The purpose of the Hymn Project is to allow you to exercise your fair-use rights under copyright law. The various software provided on this web site allows you to free your iTunes Music Store purchases (protected AAC / .m4p) from their DRM restrictions with no loss of sound quality. These songs can then be played outside of the iTunes environment, even on operating systems not supported by iTunes and on hardware not supported by Apple. | GPL | Audio |
| IE Password Uncover | Reveal web passwords in Internet Explorer. I haven't tried this one since I avoid IE like the plague. Maybe I will try it for Firefox or Opera. | Freeware | Utility |
| IM2 | Chat client. Works with Yahoo, MSN, AOL, ICQ, IRC. Features voice\video and encrypted chat. Skinnable :) | Freeware | Chat |
| ISOrecorder | ISO burn utility! Add an option to Explorer to burn .iso file to cd. HIghly Recommended. | Freeware | Utility |
| IZArc | Zip utility. Opens everything and has File Explorer support. | Freeware/Other | Utility |
| Infrarecorder | CD/CDR burner. | GPL | Utility |
| Inkscape | Illustration (vector) application, similar to Illustrator. The interface may be more friendly to an Adobe person than Sodipodi. Get the latest win32.exe installer here. Highly recommended. | GPL | 2D Graphics |
| Instantrails | Instant Rails is a one-stop Rails runtime solution containing Ruby, Rails, Apache, and MySQL, all preconfigured and ready to run. No installer, you simply drop it into the directory of your choice and run it. | GPL | Server |
| Irfanview | Photo manager with some editing and plugin ability. | Freeware/Other | 2D Graphics |
| IronPythonIDE | IronPython IDE is a GUI application written in C#. It is dedicated to the IronPython language which is a .NET implementation of the Python language. It is aimed at providing a nice, easy, full featured development environment for IronPython. Read up on or download IronPython. | Free | Programming |
| IronPythonStudio | IronPython Studio is a free full IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for the Python programming language. It is based on the existing IronPython example that is included in the VS SDK. IronPython Studio is based on the Visual Studio 2008 Shell runtime (royalty free) and can be installed without requiring any version of Visual Studio. Read up on or download IronPython. | Ms-PL | Programming |
| Ivy Generator | Creates realistic ivy, including leaves. | Freeware | 3D Graphics |
| JMoney | Personal banking and accounting app. | GPL | Finance |
| Jahshaka | Video editor for Windows. Very nice. | GPL | Video |
| Jap | Anonymous proxy. JAP makes it possible to surf the internet anonymously and unobservably. | GPL | Web |
| Jazzware | Midi sequencer | GPL | Audio |
| Jedi database | Database for Windows. I haven't played with this one. | GPL | Database |
| Jedit | Jedit is a mature and well-designed programmer's text editor with a big focus on Java. Has nice Jython support! | BSD/GPL | Text/Programming |
| Joost | What's Joost? It's video – more than 15,000 shows, with more added daily. It's online – all you need is a broadband internet connection. And it's free. Between this and VeohTV I hardly turn on the television anymore. | Freeware | Video |
| Juice | If you want to listen to podcasts, this program is for you. | GPL | Web |
| K-3D | 3-D animation, modeling, and rendering application. Uses multiple rendering engines including the renderman engine; Aqsis. Also see Yafray and Povray. | GPL | 3D Graphics |
| K-Lite Codec Pack | Just about every codex you will ever need in Windows XP (Vista?). Also provides DVD (encrypted) playback in Windows Media Player. Highly recommended! | Freeware | Video |
| Kerio Firewall | Internet personal firewall. Highly recommended. | Freeware/Other | Security |
| Kmelon | Web browser, very lightweight. | GPL | Web |
| Komodo Edit | Free, feature-rich editor for JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby and Tcl, on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. | Freeware | Programming |
| Konfabulator II | Desktop widgets and toys. Now owned by Yahoo. | Freeware | Utility |
| Kristal | Powerful multi-track recorder, audio sequencer and mixer - ideal for anyone wanting to get started with recording, mixing and mastering digital audio. KRISTAL Audio Engine is free for personal, educational and non-commercial use. | Freeware/Other | Audio |
| Launchy | Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager. Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes! Similar to Quicksilver on OS X and Katapult on Linux. | GPL | Utility |
| Lazarus | Delphi/Kylix like programming environment using Pascal, compiles to exe, gui designer.! | GPL | Programming |
| Limewire | Peer2peer software. The servers generally contain a lot of viruses so be sure to scan zips, jpg, exe, etc before using or opening. | Freeware/Other | Peer2Peer |
| Litestep | Alternative Windows Shell. | GPL | Shell |
| MPEG Streamclip | Video converter/editor. | Freeware | Video |
| Madotate | 3-D effects for Windows similar to those found in Project looking glass. This is a direct download link and is the english version. | Freeware | Shell Enhancement |
| Maxthon | Web browser, similar to Firefox, but uses the Internet Explorer backend and settings. | Freeware | Web |
| Media Player Classic | Media Player Classic looks like the original Windows Media Player, but with more codex support. Tons of other downloads can be found here also, audio and video... | GPL | Audio |
| Mediacoder | MediaCoder is an open source universal audio/video batch transcoder (converter), which puts together lots of excellent audio/video codecs and tools from the open source community into an all-in-one solution. | GPL | Video |
| MegaPOV | MegaPOV is a custom unofficial version of POV-Ray with a lot of additional features. | GPL | 3D Graphics |
| MegaTrack | MegaTrack is an application that tracks Atlantic and eastern Pacific tropical storms. It uses the HSQLDB engine and is updated from the tropical storm data repository from the Unisys weather center. | GPL | Web |
| Mixx | Dj software. | GPL | Audio |
| Moonlight/3D | 3-D illustration, modeling, etc. A little easier learning curve than Blender.. | GPL | 3D Graphics |
| Movica | Video editor. | GPL | Video |
| Mozilla | Web applications like Thunderbird mail client, Firefox web browser, and Sunbird Calendar. Highly recommended. | MPL | Web |
| Mucommander | File Explorer replacement. If you liked Norton Commander you will love this. | Freeware | Utility |
| MuteVJ | Mute is VJ software which aims to facilitate improvised, unique visuals. | GPL | Video |
| MySQL | SQL Database. | GPL/Other | Database |
| NVU | HTML wysiwyg editor, supports CSS, Javascript, etc. Highly recommended. | MPL/LGPL/GPL | Programming |
| Netstumbler | Network Stumbler is a neat little program that allows you to see all the available Wi-Fi access points and networks that are in range of you and your active Wi-Fi computer. Network Stumbler is for desktop and laptop machines, and Mini Stumbler is the equivalent for the Wi-Fi enabled PDA. | Freeware | Utility |
| Neuromixer | Neuromixer Innovative software solutions for visual artists and musicians for live video production. | Freeware/Other | Audio |
| Notepad-plus | Notepad replacement with tabs, plugins, no file size limit. Highlights many langauges included Python, Java, Html, etc. Highly Recommended. | GPL | Utility |
| Ogg Vorbis | Ogg is like an open source version of mp3. They list many ripping, playing, and utilities on their site also for use with this format. I like it better than mp3. | GPL | Audio |
| Open AntiVirus | Anti-virus framework. | GPL | Utility |
| Open SSH | SSH Remote administration. | GPL | Network |
| OpenFX | 3-D design, illustration, and modelling application. | GPL | 3D Graphics |
| OpenLaszlo | Flash creation, plus much more. Kind of like Macromedia Flex. For everything you need for this visit my Laszlo article. | CPL | Programming |
| OpenOffice.org | Office suite, like Microsoft Office and compatable with MS Office formats. Word processor, Spreadsheets, Publisher, Presentation, HTML, and Powerful database (like Access) products. Impress (Like Powerpoint) exports to many formats including SWF (Flash). All can be exported as PDF. Highly recommended. | GPL/LGPL/SISSL | Office |
| OpenVMS | Defrag and hard drive utility. | Freeware | Utility |
| Opera | Web browser. | Freeware | Web |
| Outpost | Firewall. | Freeware/Other | Security |
| PDF Creator | Create PDF documents. | GPL | Office |
| PDFCreator | Tool to create PDF files, like Adobe PDF Writer. | GPL | Office |
| PERL | Perl programming language. | ACL | Programming |
| PGP | A free encryption software program that is the de-facto global standard for E-mail and file privacy. Pretty Good Privacy (or PGP) offers full-strength, 128-bit encryption. PGP has constantly been upgraded over the years and now offers loads of useful features, including secure file wiping; advanced keyserver searching; and seamless integration with Qualcomm's popular Eudora E-mail client | Freeware/Other | Security |
| PHP | Web programming language used to make PHP server pages. | PHP | Programming |
| Paint.Net | Cool Photoshop like application. | Freeware/Other | 2D Graphics |
| Partition Utilities | Partition resize, delete, create, etc... | GPL | Utility |
| Password Gorilla | Password manager. | GPL | Security |
| PearPC | Run Mac OS X or Linux on Windows ! This works as I was running Mac OS X panther on my Windows XP laptop. My screenshots Mac on win 1 Mac on win 2 | GPL | Virtualization |
| Pegasus Mail | Email client, very mature and feature rich. | Freeware | Web |
| Photofiltre | Photo editing application similar to Paint Shop Pro. Nice app. | Freeware | 2D Graphics |
| Photoshop Plugins | Photoshop plugin listing | Freeware/Other | 2D Graphics |
| Pidgin | Multi-protocol Instant Messaging client that allows you to use all of your IM accounts at once, used to be Gaim. Supports all the major IMs | GPL | Chat |
| Pitaschio | Pitaschio is the essential tool to use windows efficiently. Adds some interesting features. | Freeware | Shell Enhancement |
| Pixia | Painting/Image editing application. This reminds me of Open Canvas. | Freeware | 2D Graphics |
| Planet Genesis | Terragen clone - creates 3-d landscapes, planets, etc. | BSD | 3D Graphics |
| PortableApps | Now you can carry your favorite computer programs along with all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more with you. Use them on any Windows computer via USB Flash device, iPod, or portable hard disk, and it works like a start menu. Includes Firefox, Open Office, VideoLan, to name a few. | GPL | Utility |
| PoseRay | So Nice! Poser like software, but much more with lots of 3-D file support. Also see DazStudio | GPL | 3D Graphics |
| Postgresql | SQL database. Heavy duty relational database. | BSD | Database |
| PovRay | 3-D illustration - code based. Moray Interface for modeling, etc - not free, but cheap. | GPL | 3D Graphics |
| Project Looking Glass | 3-d desktop. It reminds me of os x in three dimensions. Note: This is under development and requires lot's of Java setup. I would not use this unless you want to test and develop and arn't worried about your Windows installation. | GPL | Shell |
| Putty | Telnet/SSH application. | GPL | Network |
| PyScripter | A very powerful, full featured, professional Python IDE written in Delphi. Highly recommended. | GPL | Programming |
| Python Enthought edition | Scientific power packed Python install! This has wxWindows installed by default. | GPL | Programming |
| Python for Photoshop | Python Actions Plug-in for Adobe Photoshop | GPL | Programming |
| Python programming language! | So much power and easy to pick up! Has an included programming editor/IDE called PythonWin.exe | ACL | Programming |
| QCD | MP3/Ogg player and OGG encoder plugin Screw MP3 - rip to OGG!!! Better and free! Highly recommended. | Freeware/Other | Audio |
| QCad | Autocad application. | GPL | 3D Graphics |
| Quasar | Nice replacement for Quickbooks. | GPL | Finance |
| RRDTool | The industry standard data logging and graphing application. Use it to write your custom monitoring shell scripts or create whole applications using its Perl, Python or PHP bindings. RRD is the acronym for Round Robin Database. It is a system to store and display time-series data (i.e. network bandwidth, machine-room temperature, server load average). | GPL | Network |
| RSS Owl | RSS news reader. | CPL | Web |
| RSSBandit | News aggregator that supports RSS and ATOM formats. Requires .Net | GPL | Web |
| RUBY | Perl/Python like programming language. | GPL | Programming |
| RadRails | Ruby On Rails IDE. | EPL | Programming |
| Rainlendar | Very cool skinnable calendar for windows, will set events from Outlook/Exchange! | GPL | Utility |
| Razorlame | Audio to mp3 ripper. Uses Lame Encoder | GPL | Audio |
| Rec | Decompiler, breaks exe files into C/C++ code. | GPL | Programming |
| Registry Fix | Fixes the Windows registry. | Freeware/Other | Utility |
| Resolution AXS | AXS is a combination of an analog synthesizer, a sampler, two effect units and a sequencer. | Freeware | Audio |
| Resource Hacker | Utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files (*.res). It incorporates an internal resource script compiler and decompiler and works on Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT, Win2000 and WinXP operating systems. | Freeware | Utility |
| RocketDock | Rocket dock is a Mac OS X like launcher complete with fisheye effect, taskbar features, and even themes well with other engines. They also have a cool icon enhancer for your desktop and file explorer with cool effects, plug-in based. | Freeware | Shell Enhancement |
| RoughDraft | Really nice word processor geared towards authors created by an author. | Freeware | Office |
| SFLphone | The SFLphone project aims to provide a multi-platform, multi-protocol (SIP/IAX2), and multi-GUI desktop VoIP phone. | GPL | Web |
| SPE | If your a Python programmer working on Mac or Windows and your looking for a kick ass IDE Spe is for you! Highly recommended. | GPL | Programming |
| SQLCC | GUI Frontend for mySQL. | GPL | Database |
| Samurize | Another skinnable clock, system meters, weather, email, and trash indicators as well as music playback, but with so much more - like multiple machine support! Highly recommended. | Freeware | Utility |
| Scite | A free source code editor for Win32 and X. | GPL | Programming |
| Scribus | Desktop publishing application similar to Pagemaker. Look here if you have trouble finding the exe installer. | GPL | Office |
| Selenium | Web application test tool. Tests run directly in a browser, including Internet Explorer, Mozilla, and Firefox. Supported platforms Windows, Linux, and Macintosh. Languages include C#, Python, PHP, Ruby, etc. | GPL | Programming |
| Semagic | Blog clent for Live journal. Has the best features for Lj. | GPL | Web |
| Sepy | Flash Actionscript IDE. This is really nice! Has class list, auto complete, and compiler. Highly recommended. | GPL | Programming |
| Serif Software | Several FREE apps - Desktop Publishing, Graphic Design, Image and Photo Editing, 3D Animation, Web Publishing | Freeware/Other | 2D Graphics |
| Shapeshop | 3-D modeling application that is a sketch-based 3D modeling tool for creating procedural hierarchical implicit volume models, also known as "BlobTrees", basically metaballs. | GPL | 3D Graphics |
| SharpConstruct | 3D modeling program that paint depths on to polygon models in real-time. Like Z-Brush. Is being adding into Blender 3-D! | GPL | 3D Graphics |
| SharpDevelop | IDE for C# and VB.NET projects on Microsoft's .NET platform.. | GPL | Programming |
| SharpE | Alternative Windows Shell. More info and screen shots Here. | LGPL | Shell |
| SimpleCSS | CSS Editor. | Freeware | Programming |
| Skale | This is a Freeware Music Creation Program, This means you can create your own music with this software completely for free. All you need is your creativity and a big bunch of good sound samples to create all you want. | Freeware | Audio |
| Sketch It Up | 3-D design, illustration, and modelling brought to by Google. | Freeware/other | 3D Graphics |
| Sketchboard | CAD software. 3-D | GPL | 3D Graphics |
| Skin Calc | Cool skinnable calculator. | Freeware | Utility |
| Skype | Internet phone. Skype is a little program for making free calls over the internet to anyone else who also has Skype. Its free and easy to download and use, and works with most computers so your not limited to call friends using the same operating system. Skype also has other services that allow the calling of actual phone number and cells, plus video options for a small price. | Freeware | Web |
| Snarfer | RSS with very powerful features, like search, web broswer, sharing, and embedded video playback. Highly Recommended. | Freeware | Web |
| Sodipodi | Illustration (vector) application. | GPL | 2D Graphics |
| Songbird | Desktop Web player, digital jukebox and Web browser mash-up. Like Winamp, it supports extensions and skins feathers. Like Firefox®, it is built from Mozilla®, cross-platform and open source. Reminds me a bit of Amarok. Also runs on OS X and Linux. Very nice player indeed! | MPL/Other | Audio |
| Speak-freely | Voice over ip, Internet phone. | GPL | Web |
| Sphere | 3-D effects in Windows similar to Beryl, Compiz/Metisse. | Shareware | Shell |
| Spket | IDE for JavaScript, XUL/XBL and Yahoo! Widget development. It provides features like code completion, syntax highlighting and content outline that helps developers productively create efficient JavaScript code. Supports Laszlo and Silverlight. Requires Java. | Freeware/Other | Programming |
| Spybot | Spyware removal tool. | GPL | Utility |
| Spyware Blaster | Blocks spyware/adware. Highly recommended. | Freeware | Security |
| Stickies | Post it notes for your desktop. | Freeware | Utility |
| StickiesforWindows | Post it notes for your desktop. | APL | Utility |
| StopMojo | StopMojo is cross-platform stop-motion animation suite designed to aid in the creation of stop-motion animations. Currently it includes a capture program supporting capture of image files from various video capture devices, overlay of previous frames (onion skinning), and export to AVI and QUICKTIME video formats. | GPL | Video |
| Super | If you need a simple, yet very efficient tool to convert (encode) or play any Multimedia file SUPER © is all you need. I haven't used this, but it looks cool. | Freeware | Video |
| Synergy | Synergy is like dual monitors, a kvm switch, and vnc on speed! If you want to operate multiple machines with one keyboard and mouse, move files between them, and have both screens at your disposal this is for you. Works between platforms also! | GPL | Utility |
| Synfig | Cartoon animation - industrial-strength vector-based 2D animation software package, designed from the ground-up for producing feature-film quality animation with fewer people and resources. Highly Recommended. | GPL | Video |
| Sysmetrix | Very cool skinnable clock system meters with weather, email, and trash indicators as well as music playback. | Freeware | Utility |
| TSWebeditor | HTML/PHP IDE. Has FTP, projects, and css support built in. Very nice! Highly recommended. | Freeware | Programming |
| Task Scheduler | Task Schedule replacement. | Freeware/Other | Utility |
| TaskSwicthXP | Task switcher (alt+tab) replacement. | Freeware/Other | Shell Enhancement |
| TeraTerm | Terminal. | GPL | Network |
| Texture Processor | Create nice textures (seemless). | Freeware | 2D Graphics |
| The Gimp 2 | Very much like Photoshop, tons of great plugins including a Flame fractal generator! Highly recommended. | GPL | 2D Graphics |
| TightVNC | Remote desktop tool. | GPL | Network |
| TransCoder | Video\DVD ripping and conversion tools. | Freeware/Other | Video |
| Trillian | Chat client. Nice, Works with Yahoo, MSN, AOL, ICQ, IRC. Highly recommended. | Shareware | Chat |
| Truecrypt | Encryption software that locks down disks drives and storage devices on the fly. Best way to keep the bad guys out of your data. | GPL | Security |
| Truespace 3.1 | 3-D modeling, design\illustration, animation, game development. I've used this since version one, nicest 3-D app next to Cinema 4D. You must register for the free serial number. | Freeware/Other | 3D Graphics |
| Tugzip | Zip/archive application. Really nice and opens most everything including rar. | Freeware | Utility |
| TurboCash | Accounting personal finance software. | GPL | Finance |
| UBCD4Win | UBCD4Win is a bootable CD which contains software that allows you to repair/restore/diagnostic almost any computer problem. Also see Win/Linux Version. | Freeware | Utility |
| UTorrent | Bittorrent. Highly recommended. | Jabber | Peer2Peer |
| UVMapper | Map textures to 3-D objects. | Freeware/Other | 3D Graphics |
| UltraExplorer | File Explorer replacement. | Freeware | Utility |
| Uniformserver | The Uniform Server is a WAMP package that allows you to run a server on any MS Windows OS based computer. It is small and mobile to download or move around and can also be used or setup as a production/live server. Developers also use The Uniform Server to test their applications made with either PHP, MySQL, Perl, or the Apache HTTPd Server. | BSD/Various | Server |
| Unxutils | Linux/Unix command line tools, like grep, written natively for Windows. | GPL | Utility |
| VMWare | Run Windows, Linux, etc. in virtualization. Like Vitual PC, but 1000 times better! I am running Windows in Linux and it's absolutely flawless! | Freeware | Virtualization |
| VNC | Remote desktop tool. | GPL | Network |
| VSpeech | Voice command your Windows computer. | GPL | Utility |
| VeohTV | VeohTV is a free specialized video browser that turns online video into Internet Television. Watch video from thousands of web sites, in one easy-to-use full screen application. Watch streaming video from major television networks such as Fox and CBS, to independently-produced content available on sites such as YouTube, Google Video, Veoh.com and MySpace. Highly recommended. | Freeware | Video |
| Vex | Vex is an editor for XML documents. The "visual" part comes from the fact that Vex hides the raw XML tags from the user, providing instead a wordprocessor-like interface. Because of this, Vex is best suited for "document-style" XML documents such as XHTML and DocBook rather than "data-style" XML documents. | GPL | Programming |
| VideoLan | Movie player, plays most everything including DVD! | GPL | Video |
| Videora iPhone | Convert video to iPod/iPhone format. Cues to iTunes for easy syncing. Highly recommended. | Freeware | Video |
| Virtual Dimension | Multiple desktops in Windows. I love this app, it actually makes your desktop sessions separate and lots more cool features. Highly recommended. | GPL | Shell Enhancement |
| VirtualBox | VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware. Targeted at server, desktop and embedded use, it is now the only professional-quality virtualization solution that is also Open Source Software. | Freeware/Other | Virtualization |
| VirtualWin | Virtual desktops in Windows. | GPL | Shell Enhancement |
| Virtualdub | Video capture/processing utility for 32-bit Windows platforms. | GPL | Video |
| Visual Tooltips | Enhance the Windows taskbar with thumbs ans 3-d effects. Check out Yod'm while you're there for a 3-d cube virtual desktop. | Freeware | Shell Enhancement |
| W.Blogger | Blog client, the best ever imo. Supports Drupal, Word Press, Live Journal, and many other blog types and even FTPs files and tags them with either link or image. Too many features to list here, highly recommended application. Highly recommended. | Freeware | Web |
| WXWindows | BOA uses wxWindows backend | GPL | Programming |
| Wavosaur | Wavosaur is a free sound editor, audio editor, wav editor software for editing, processing and recording sounds, wav and mp3 files. Wavosaur has all the features to edit audio (cut, copy, paste, etc.) produce music loops, analyze, record, batch convert. Wavosaur supports VST plugins, ASIO driver, multichannel wav files, real time effect processing. | Freeware | Audio |
| Web-Dev. Server Suite | WAMP-based [Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP] web-server distribution for Windows that is fully configured and ready to run. This has every thing from a Web Application firewall to ASP.NET Host Interface. Security hardened and even includes some open source CMS software, like Joomla. | GPL/Various | Server |
| Webniac | HTML editor, CSS, ETC. | GPL | Programming |
| Whisper32 | Password Manager with encryption. | Freeware | Security |
| White_Dune | White_dune is a low level VRML97 tool. | GPL | Programming |
| WikidPad | wikidPad is a real-time wiki. wikidPad is not a web server, or application server, or groupware solution. wikidPad is a standalone notepad like application, albeit notepad on steroids. wikidPad is like an IDE for your thoughts. | BSD | Utility |
| WinMorph | Morphing app for video. Also look at Wax and Wink. | Freeware/Other | Video |
| WinPooch | Winpooch is a Windows watchdog, free and open source. Anti spyware and anti trojan, it gives a full protection against local or external attacks by scanning the activity of programs in real time. Associated with ClamWin antivirus, Winpooch keeps safe your computer against virus. | GPL | Security |
| WinRoll | Lets you shade your windows like in Linux. | GPL | Shell Enhancement |
| WinSCP | SCP for Windows. I have need for this on my Windows machine so I haven't used it, but I ran across it tonight and it looks good, plus it's open. | GPL | Network |
| Wings3d | Wings 3D is a 3-D subdivision modeler inspired by Nendo and Mirai from Izware. | GPL | 3D Graphics |
| Winplanner | Project management application. | GPL | Office |
| XAMPP | Apache, MySQL, PHP web development environment install. Takes care of most configs and setup issues so you don't have to. | APL | Server |
| XMM | MeD's Movie Manager is a simple to use, yet customizable, movie manager. Info is automatically retrieved from IMDb and tv.com. Technical info can also be retrieved from media files like AVI, OGM, MPEG and DVD (ifo). It's written in Java and should therefore run on most desktop systems supporting Java. | GPL | Video |
| XMPlay | Really nice music player with plugin support. Supports all the major formats. | Freeware | Audio |
| XOBLite | Alternative Windows Shell. Screenshot of my machine running XOBLite (blackbox) here | GPL | Shell |
| Xaos | Fractal generator. | GPL | 2D Graphics |
| Xerlin | XML editor. | GPL | Programming |
| Xinha | HTML editor also has a Firefox extension. | BSD/Other | Programming |
| Yamipod | YamiPod is a freeware application to efficiently manage your iPod under Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. It can be run directly from your iPod and needs no installation. Take a look at the feature list to find out what it can do and feel free to suggest anything that might be missing. | Freeware | Utility |
| Zinf | Mp3/Ogg player, skinnable. | GPL | Audio |
| Zipgenious | Zip utility that supports all the major archive types, zip, s7, gz, etc. Skinnable. | Freeware | Utility |
| Zone Alarm | Internet personal firewall. Highly recommended. | Freeware/Other | Security |
| Zoomify | Flash image gallery creation. | Freeware | Web |
