"Free" software

IownAmoneyPit · Mar 21, 2025

pseymour said:
@Stupsi It's been done to death, honestly. The linked thread below is not confined to free software, but it's an example. This topic comes up every few months.

What's your favourite productive app/program to install

As the title says, I wondered what everyone's most used/favourite/most helpful, productive program or app they always install on a computer. If you could pick one, not including Office and Adobe reader :-) Just thought I might pick up some tips re something I didn't know of. Edit: And not...

www.elevenforum.com

@pseymour Sometimes it doesn't matter how many related threads there are but the thread you are currently reading and find something new and useful. For example I stumbled across "FX Sound" in a completely off the rails unrelated thread just the other day.

glasskuter · Mar 21, 2025

My needs are relatively simple and I run a pretty tight Dell ship. I have never felt the need to have multiple programs installed that accomplish the same purpose nor do I keep anything installed that I will rarely, if ever use. I prefer portable apps whenever possible and have a usb stick full of free portable apps, many which are still really free to obtain and most still in development. The ones I use the most are Revo Uninstaller portable, Treesize Free, and HWMonitor.

"Way Back in the day" I had NO paid software of any kind. If it wasn't free, I didn't use it. The first one I ever bought was a lifetime license to MWB Premium for $25 in 2008. MWB is still honoring that license today though they haven't offered perpetual licenses since 2014. It has been moved between computers at least 7 or 8 times. It updates every single day. MWB is the only company I know of that when they said lifetime license, they meant it. (I wish now I had bought more licenses)

I also paid $7.97 for USB Safely Remove about 20 years ago and am still using it, too.

Your post made me wonder how many genuinely free ones I have installed today. There are 4... 7zip, Ccleaner, , X-Mouse Button control,and Minitool Free.

But on the other hand, the very few I have that I have since paid for are Macrium 8.1 and Ofc2021 perpetual. The only subscriptions I have are for Roboform and Anydesk, both paid annually. I'll go without food to pay for Roboform, but I 'm on the fence whether I will be renewing Anydesk when it expires. I have a few people left who look to me for help so I probably will but only if they haven't increased the price. :wink:

I use Nitro Pro perpetual too but it was moved from our old business so I didn't pay for it myself.

The one thing that drives me insane are popups trying to sell me the paid version. I can deal with it when I go to use the software,but if it starts to nagging me with random popups, that software is gone.

Scannerman · Mar 21, 2025

Edwin said:
Sounds like you bought a copy of Windows 11 !!!

Congratulations to our new winner! I honestly wondered if someone might actually grasp what I was saying.

Scannerman · Mar 21, 2025

IownAmoneyPit said:
@pseymour Sometimes it doesn't matter how many related threads there are but the thread you are currently reading and find something new and useful. For example I stumbled across "FX Sound" in a completely off the rails unrelated thread just the other day.

Some of those old links are gold!

pseymour · Mar 21, 2025

IownAmoneyPit said:
@pseymour Sometimes it doesn't matter how many related threads there are but the thread you are currently reading and find something new and useful. For example I stumbled across "FX Sound" in a completely off the rails unrelated thread just the other day.

Thanks for the life tip I guess?

XxXxX · Mar 21, 2025

if anybody is looking for 'older' software which is mostly freeware it might be worth having a look here.

Old versions of Windows, Mac and Linux Software, Apps & Abandonware Games - Download at OldVersion.com

best of luck, Steve ..

hdmi · Mar 21, 2025

cheaterslick said:
Things evolve beyond dictionary definitions.

The "free" in "free software" doesn't mean "free of charge" as in "free beer". Rather, it stands for freedom as in "free speech". Granted, there used to be a time when this was not the most commonly accepted point of view. But that all started to change almost 40 years ago, enough to conclude that this particular part of the definition hasn't changed for 3 whole decades at least. (This is still in spite of some ambiguity that persists even today.)

cheaterslick said:
'Free' means having no cost associated with it, but people out there who are savvy to this nonsense, know otherwise.

See above.

cheaterslick said:
There's always some kind of price to pay.

Not necessarily, no. That would be like arguing that information that is made accessible to the general public free of charge still costs money because reading that information takes time, and time is money.

cheaterslick said:
Anything else is semantics.

Wrong. There are legal consequences involved when it comes to things like the GNU General Public License v3.0, for example.

cheaterslick said:
We're just not going to agree on this, that's all. Have a good day.

If you feel that Wikipedia has it wrong, you could always decide to press Alt+Shift+t and discuss improvements to the content page. :smirk:

kelper · Mar 21, 2025

@antspants

Does Edge Blocker prevent if from downloading and installing, or does it just prevent it running?

Fabler2 · Mar 21, 2025

glasskuter said:
My needs are relatively simple and I run a pretty tight Dell ship. I have never felt the need to have multiple programs installed that accomplish the same purpose nor do I keep anything installed that I will rarely, if ever use. I prefer portable apps whenever possible and have a usb stick full of free portable apps, many which are still really free to obtain and most still in development. The ones I use the most are Revo Uninstaller portable, Treesize Free, and HWMonitor.

"Way Back in the day" I had NO paid software of any kind. If it wasn't free, I didn't use it. The first one I ever bought was a lifetime license to MWB Premium for $25 in 2008. MWB is still honoring that license today though they haven't offered perpetual licenses since 2014. It has been moved between computers at least 7 or 8 times. It updates every single day. MWB is the only company I know of that when they said lifetime license, they meant it. (I wish now I had bought more licenses)

I also paid $7.97 for USB Safely Remove about 20 years ago and am still using it, too.

Your post made me wonder how many genuinely free ones I have installed today. There are 4... 7zip, Ccleaner, , X-Mouse Button control,and Minitool Free.
Note: I noticed that Minitool seems to have shutdown the site for their free version, so guess they have gone solely paid too. It's free version is still on MajorGeeks. I usually use it from its boot disk anyway.

But on the other hand, the very few I have that I have since paid for are Macrium 8.1 and Ofc2021 perpetual. The only subscriptions I have are for Roboform and Anydesk, both paid annually. I'll go without food to pay for Roboform, but I 'm on the fence whether I will be renewing Anydesk when it expires. I have a few people left who look to me for help so I probably will but only if they haven't increased the price. I use Nitro Pro perpetual too but it was moved from our old business so I didn't pay for it myself.

The one thing that drives me insane are popups trying to sell me the paid version. I can deal with it when I go to use the software,but if it starts to nagging me with random popups, that software is gone.

Minitool free download still available

MiniTool Partition Wizard Free | The Best Partition Manager for Windows

As an all-in-one free partition manager and disk manager software, MiniTool Partition Wizard Free helps manage disk partitions safely on Windows 11/10/8/7.

www.minitool.com

The latest freebie I'm using is Simplewall.

GitHub - henrypp/simplewall: Simple tool to configure Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) which can configure network activity on your computer.

Simple tool to configure Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) which can configure network activity on your computer. - henrypp/simplewall

github.com

glasskuter · Mar 21, 2025

Fabler2 said:
Minitool free download still available

Thanks for that link and for correcting me. The links I had wouldn't take me anywhere. I will correct my post.

antspants · Mar 21, 2025

kelper said:
@antspants

Does Edge Blocker prevent if from downloading and installing, or does it just prevent it running?

I’ve only used a handful of the apps mate
I use this (Also Free):

Microsoft Edge Redirect. It prevents Edge from hijacking the default browser and search preferences, PDF’s and other scenarios/things.. Especially Edge Specific links.

Select “Active Mode” (I would reccomend)

Select your preferred link/browser preferences:

kelper · Mar 21, 2025

I don't have any issues at present because Edge is not installed, but I know it will install itself in a week or so. I don't want to stop Edge opening or redirecting, I want it not to install and waste 2GB.

suparoo · Mar 25, 2025

Classic and Extended Control Panel v1.0.0.7 - found in AskWoody Newsletter.

Microsoft is migrating applets out of the Windows 11 Control Panel and into the fancy Settings app in Windows 11, but not all of us are ready to give it up just yet.
Whether Control Panel is retired quickly or slowly, its days are numbered.
Peter Panisz created a program for Windows 10 and Windows 11 called Classic and Extended Control Panel, and it is just great. It retains the simple layout and feel of Windows Control Panel, launches the traditions applets, and does so much more.

https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/image/36453.html

P.S. I haven't tested it myself.

Kees · Mar 25, 2025

suparoo said:
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/image/36453.html

Clicking that link brings an error message, because in reality it links to http://majorgeeks/

The correct link is this one, but that link only brings you to some sort of image.

Possibly you wanted to route to this page:

Download Classic and Extended Control Panel - MajorGeeks

Classic and Extended Control Panel is designed to maintain the straightforwardness of the traditional Control Panel while incorporating a variety of new features. This approach ensures users can access familiar tools and settings quickly, benefiting from enhanced functionalities that improve the...

www.majorgeeks.com

pseymour · Mar 25, 2025

Call me nutty, but one could just link to the product’s actual home page.

Classic and Extended Control Panel

www.wintools.info

"Free" software

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