I’m a huge fan of open source software because it’s free and often functions similarly to a commercial app! One downside of open source software is the lack of support, but that’s often the case with active forums and community threads started by avid followers.
There are many freeware applications that you can download for office productivity, Internet, multimedia, drawing, Windows utilities, etc., but if you are not familiar with open source software, you can I don’t know which program is the best among the multitude of choices. That’s the only other downside to free software: some contain junk like bundled apps or annoying toolbars.
In this article, I will cover some websites that I visit quite often when looking for clean and safe freeware applications to download.
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Gizmo Free Software Review
Gizmo Free Software Review the site has to be the best site out there to find great freeware apps. There are a bunch of websites that have huge lists of freeware programs with little overviews of each, but Gizmo’s is hugely popular because they take the time to write detailed reviews. and test each program they review to make sure it works as intended.
You can navigate directly to a category on top such as Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone/iPad, etc. Previously, they used to only include Windows and Mac, but recently they have expanded to include all the most popular operating systems. .
You can also scroll down and click on the tables: Best Freeware List, Freeware Category, and Security Wizard. I highly recommend going through the security wizard as it provides you with a list of security software that matches your operating system, your level of expertise with computers, and your exposure to threats. risky online activities. The wizard will also show you how to make sure your PC is not infected and will give you suggestions on how to protect yourself in the future from malware, spyware, and viruses.
In addition to all that, the site has a blog with a large number of articles on all sorts of useful technical topics. A lot of the articles they link to come from their review sites and it gives you a very in-depth understanding of the topic.
Ninite
Ninite is another very popular service that I use a lot with friends and family when setting up a new computer or when I have to reformat and reinstall the operating system on my computer. It is basically a program that allows you to download multiple freeware applications at once and install them without having to click Next, Next, Next!
Just select the apps you want to install and click Download the installer button.
In addition to the ease of installing freeware applications, it has a few other key benefits. Firstly, all software is super safe and clean. Even if an application has a built-in toolbar like Java, Ninite will prevent it from installing the toolbar. It also downloads the latest versions of the program directly from the official websites and checks the hashes for integrity.
Second, you should keep the installer somewhere on your computer instead of deleting it because running it again will automatically check for all freeware applications and download newer versions if any are available. . If you have the latest version installed, it will just ignore that program. So using the installer is like having a free program that will automatically update all your apps!
What I like best is that it will install the 64-bit version of the software if I am running the installer on a 64-bit operating system. This program is simply amazing and will save you a lot of time.
NirSoft
If you have read a large number of my previous posts, you will know that I simply love the people here. NirSoft. It’s basically a website with a bunch of little widgets designed for very specific tasks.
Want to copy browser cached video files? Only one utility for that. Want to control your computer’s volume from the mouse wheel? Only one utility for that. Want to see all the passwords stored in your browser? Only one utility for that. You get the picture! There are over a hundred of these really useful utilities that work extremely well. They also don’t contain bundled crapware or anything else.
PortableApps
Do you have a USB stick? So why not installed PortableApps up there! It’s all your freeware applications stored on a USB stick that you can use anywhere on any machine. They have up to 300 retrofitted versions of legitimate apps for portable running on USB sticks.
The apps are updated regularly and have no ads, no spyware, no adware, no time limits, etc. It’s completely free and it can come in very handy if you go. travel to many places. What’s really cool is that you can throw the whole thing into a Dropbox folder and run everything right from there! You don’t even have to worry about carrying your flash drive with you.
FileHippo
FileHippo It’s been around for a long time and it’s still one of the better sites to find good freeware programs. What I ended up using FileHippo over anything else was downloading older versions of the program. It’s infrequent, but sometimes you don’t want the latest version of a program. Maybe because it can’t run on an older system or because it has a bug that causes problems on your system so the only option is to download an older version.
The only problem I’ve had with the site lately is that some, but not all, programs now come with FileHippo’s proprietary downloader instead of downloading the program directly. This package attempts to install adware on your system, so you must carefully uncheck it when installing the program. I’ve only been able to find this with a few programs, so most still link directly to the program files, but due to this new behavior and too many ads on the site, I can’t recommend the site. overwhelmingly web.
Sites that are accessible
In addition to these, there are a few other sites that I visit, but they tend to contain shorter overviews without real reviews or anything else. However, you won’t find spyware or malware on these sites.
MajorGeeks – It looks like it was designed in the 90s and has probably been around ever since, but is a great site for a lot of tech stuff. Lots and lots of tech gadgets hard to find anywhere else.
SnapFiles – A good clean site with minimal ads and clear categories for freeware, shareware, etc. I often turn to ratings and user comments to determine how worthy it is. of freeware applications.
FileForum BetaNews – You can usually find the latest freeware apps here before they reach other download sites. Not sure how they do it, but you’ll find the latest software here.
Sites to avoid
You may be wondering why I didn’t mention freeware sites like SourceForge and CNET? That’s because I don’t recommend those sites anymore. They went the monetization route and didn’t link to the actual official downloads, but instead made you download their own proprietary installer.
CNET is the worst because it makes you go through several screens trying to install junkware before you can install the actual app you want to download. For me, it’s easy to avoid all that rubbish, but a lot of people will end up with adware on their computer and not know why. Unfortunately, sites like Download.com, like CNET, show up high in search results, which makes it harder to avoid. Almost everything on CNET you should be able to find on one of the sites I mentioned above. Interesting!
