Freeware alternative list

[sanctified Veteran]

Updated by ultima 10/2/2005

Originally compiled by [sanctified], thanks to the Neowin members.

Items marked in red are new additions.

3D Graphics:

3Delight Free - http://www.3delight.com/index.htm

Anim8or - http://www.anim8or.com/

Aqsis - http://www.aqsis.com/

Blender - http://www.blender3d.org/

gmax - http://www.discreet.com/products/gmax/

Houdini (Free Edition) - http://www.sidefx.com/apprentice/index.html

Maya Personal Learning Ed. - http://www.alias.com/eng/products-services..._maya_ple.shtml

Now3D - http://digilander.libero.it/giulios/Eng/homepage.htm

OpenFX - http://www.openfx.org

SOFTIMAGE|XSI EXP - http://www.softimage.com/products/exp/v3/

Terragen - http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/

Toxic - http://www.toxicengine.org/

Wings 3D - http://www.wings3d.com/

Anti-Virus:

AntiVir - http://www.free-av.com/

Avast - http://www.avast.com/i_idt_1018.html

AVG - http://www.grisoft.com/

ClamWin - http://www.clamwin.com/

Anti Spyware:

Ad-aware - http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

Bazooka - http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/index.html

Diet K - http://www.dietk.com/

SpyBot Search & Destroy - http://spybot.safer-networking.de/

SpywareBlaster - http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

SpywareGuard - http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareguard.html

WinPatrol - http://www.winpatrol.com/

IRC Clients:

BersIRC - http://www.bersirc.com/

BitchX - http://bitchx.org/download.php

HydraIRC - http://www.hydrairc.com/

TinyIRC - http://www.tinyirc.net/

XChat - http://www.silverex.org/news/

Audio Players:

1by1 - http://www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/~pesch

Billy - http://www.sheepfriends.com/?page=billy

CoolPlayer - http://coolplayer.sourceforge.net/

DeliPlayer. http://www.deliplayer.com/

Foobar 2000 - http://www.foobar2000.org/

iTunes - http://www.apple.com/itunes/

Jet Audio Basic - http://www.jetaudio.com/

Musik - http://musik.berlios.de/

QCD Player - http://www.quinnware.com/

Sonique - http://sonique.lycos.com/

Winamp - http://www.winamp.com/

XMPlay - http://www.un4seen.com/xmplay.html

Audio Tools:

Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

CDex - http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

dBpowerAMP Music Converter - http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

EAC - http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

Encounter 2003 - http://www.waschbusch.com/

GermaniXEncoder - http://www.germanixsoft.de/

K-MP3 - http://www.katarncorp.com/

KraMixer - http://www.kramware.com/

MP3 Book Helper - http://mp3bookhelper.sourceforge.net/

MP3 Tag - http://www.mp3tag.de/

mp3DirectCut - http://www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/~pesch/

MP3Gain - http://www.geocities.com/mp3gain/

mp3Trim - http://www.logiccell.com/~mp3trim/

MusicBrainz - http://musicbrainz.org/

Rarewares - http://rarewares.hydrogenaudio.org/

SoundEngine Free - http://www.cycleof5th.com/en/index.htm

TagScanner - http://xdev.narod.ru/tagscan_e.htm

The GodFather - http://users.otenet.gr/~jtcliper/tgf/

CD/DVD Burning:

Burn4Free - http://www.burn4free.com/

Burnatonce - http://www.burnatonce.com/

CDBurnerXP - http://hem.bredband.net/cdburnerxp/

CDRDAO - http://cdrdao.sourceforge.net/

CDR Tools Frontend - http://demosten.com/cdrfe/

Deepburner - http://www.deepburner.com/

DVD Decrypter: http://www.dvddecrypter.com/

Easy Burning, DropCD & Audio CD - http://www.paehl.de/cdr

Compression / Decompression:

7-zip - http://www.7-zip.org/

bzip2 - http://sources.redhat.com/bzip2/index.html

ExtractNow - http://www.extractnow.com/

FilZip - http://www.filzip.com/

IZArc - http://www.florida.plus.com/izarc/

QuickZip - http://www.quickzip.org/

TUGZip - http://www.tugzip.com/

UPX - http://upx.sourceforge.net/

Zip&Go - http://www.handybits.com/zipngo.htm

Zipgenius - http://www.zipgenius.it/

Defrag Software:

DIRMS & Buzzsaw - http://www.dirms.com/

OpenVMS - http://www.execsoft.com/freeware/freeware.asp

Desktop Enhancements:

AveDesk - http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/showthread.php?t=17372

CursorXP - http://www.stardock.com/products/cursorxp/download.html

Kapsules - http://kapsules.shellscape.org/

MobyDock - http://www.mobydock.com/

Panorama - http://www.ivory.org/panorama.html

Rainlendar - http://www.ipi.fi/~rainy/index.php?pn=proj...ject=rainlendar

Samurize - http://www.samurize.com/

tclock2 - http://home.inreach.com/2tone/tclock2/tclock2.htm

Weather Watcher - http://www.singerscreations.com/

Download managers:

Free Download Manager - http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/

Fresh Download - http://www.freshdevices.com/freshdown.html

Star Downloader - http://www.stardownloader.com/downloads.php

wackget - http://millweed.com/projects/wackget/

wget - http://xoomer.virgilio.it/hherold/

Encryption and data security:

Axcrypt - http://axcrypt.sourceforge.net/

Blowfish Advanced CS- http://web.bsn.ch/lasse/bfacs.htm

Eraser - http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/default.php

File Shredder - http://www.sys-shield.com/fileshredder.htm

KeePass - http://keepass.sourceforge.net/

GnuPG - http://www.gnupg.org/

PGP Freeware - http://www.pgp.com/products/freeware.html

WindowsCleaner - http://www.winnowsoft.com/internet-eraser.htm

File Managers:

2xExplorer - http://netez.com/2xExplorer/

A43 - http://www.shawneelink.net/~bgmiller/

ExplorerXP - http://www.explorerxp.com

Gyula's Navigator - http://www.wanari.com/

JExplorer - http://home.megapass.co.kr/~woosjung/

MeeSoft Commander - http://meesoft.logicnet.dk/

File repair and recovery:

PC Inspector File Recovery - http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

Firewalls:

Kerio (Kerio Personal Firewall is FREE for home and personal use) - http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html

Outpost Firewall (version 1 is free) - http://www.agnitum.com/download/outpost1.html

Sygate (FREE for personal use) - http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm

Zonealarm Basic firewall - http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/comp...reeDownload.jsp

FTP Clients:

CoreFTP - http://www.coreftp.com/

Filezilla - http://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla

miFiles - http://www.simdata.com.au/mifiles.html

SmartFTP - http://www.smartftp.com/

FTP Servers:

FileZilla - http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/

Golden FTP Server - http://www.goldenftpserver.com

GuildFTPD - http://www.totalshareware.com/asp/detail_v...pplication=8334

Quick 'n Easy FTP Server - http://www.pablovandermeer.nl/ftp_server.html

SlimFTPd - http://www.whitsoftdev.com/slimftpd

WarFTPD - http://www.jgaa.com/

HTML Editors:

1st page 2000 - http://www.evrsoft.com/download.shtml

AceHTML - http://freeware.acehtml.com/download.html

Aracnophilia - http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/

HTML-Kit - http://www.chami.com/html-kit/

NVU - http://www.nvu.com/index.html

Selida - http://www.amaryllis.8m.com/

Trellian webPAGE - http://webpage.vendercom.com/

TSW WebCoder - http://www.tsware.net/

Image viewers:

Ahaview - http://www.aha-soft.com/ahaview/ahaviewfree.exe

Irfanview - http://www.irfanview.com/

Picasa - http://www.picasa.com/content/download.php

SlowView - http://www.slowview.at/

XNView - http://www.xnview.com/

Instant Messenger:

Gaim - http://gaim.sourceforge.net/

IM2: http://www.im2.com

Miranda IM - http://www.miranda-im.org/

Pandion - http://www.pandion.be/

PSI - http://psi.affinix.com/

SIM - http://sim-icq.sourceforge.net/

Trillian Basic - http://trillian.cc/downloads

Internet Explorer Front-Ends:

Avantbrowser - http://www.avantbrowser.com/

Maxthon - http://www.maxthon.com/

SlimBrowser - http://www.flashpeak.com/sbrowser/sbrowser.htm

Mail programs:

Foxmail - http://fox.foxmail.com.cn/english/

i.Scribe - http://www.memecode.com/

Mahogany Mail - http://mahogany.sourceforge.net/

Pegasus Mail - http://www.pmail.com/

PopTray - http://www.poptray.org/

Thunderbird - http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/

Anti-spam programs:

K9 - http://www.keir.net/k9.html

MailWasher- http://www.mailwasher.net/

POPFile - http://popfile.sourceforge.net/

SpamBayes - http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/

Network Tools:

CMDTime NTP Utility - http://www.softshape.com/download/

Ethereal Protocol Analyzer - http://www.ethereal.com/

NetMeter - http://readerror.gmxhome.de/

NetProfiles - http://netprofiles.danielmilner.com/

NMap - http://www.insecure.org/nmap/

Ntop - http://www.ntop.org

PingPlotter - http://www.pingplotter.com

PuTTY - http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty

RAS Graph & Stats - http://forum.flashfxp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2400

RealVNC - http://www.realvnc.com/

TightVNC - http://www.tightvnc.org/

UltraVNC - http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net/

WinSCP - http://www.winscp.com/

Office Suite:

602PC Suite free edition - http://www.software602.com/products/pcs/download.html

AbiWord - http://www.abiword.com/

OpenOffice.org - http://www.openoffice.org/

Partition Managers:

Partition Resizer - http://zeleps.com/

Ranish Partition Manager - http://www.ranish.com/part/

TestDisk - http://www.cgsecurity.org/index.html?testdisk.html

PDF Utilities:

Free PDF - http://www.webxd.com/zipguy/frpdfdl.htm

Ghostscript/GSView - http://www.ghostscript.com/

PDF 995 - http://www.pdf995.com/

PDFCreator - http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

PrimoPDF - http://www.primopdf.com/

Photo manipulation and image design:

ColorPic - http://www.iconico.com/colorpic/

Paint .NET - http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/

Pixia - http://www.ab.wakwak.com/~knight/

Pixie - http://www.nattyware.com/pixie.html

PhotoFiltre - http://www.photofiltre.com/

Sodiodi - http://www.sodipodi.com/

The Gimp - http://www.gimp.org/

Tuxpaint - http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxpaint

Programming:

ActivePerl - http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl

Crimson Editor - http://www.crimsoneditor.com/

Context - http://www.context.cx/

Dev C++ - http://www.bloodshed.net/

Dev Pascal - http://www.bloodshed.net/

Digital Mars C++ - http://www.digitalmars.com/download/freecompiler.html

Eclipse - http://www.eclipse.org/

ExamDiff - http://www.prestosoft.com/ps.asp?page=edp_examdiff

Freepascal - http://www.freepascal.org/

JCreator LE - http://www.jcreator.com/download.htm

jEdit - http://www.jedit.org/

Notepad++ - http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

Notepad2 - http://www.flos-freeware.ch/

Pelles C - http://www.smorgasbordet.com/pellesc/index.htm

PHP Hypertext Parser - http://www.php.net/

PSPad - http://www.pspad.com/

Python - http://www.python.org/

Ruby - http://www.dm4lab.to/~usa/ruby/index_en.html

SharpDevelop - http://www.icsharpcode.net/opensource/sd/

Pop-up Blockers:

Google Toolbar - http://www.google.com/

NoAds - http://www.southbaypc.com/NoAds/

PopUp Stopper - http://www.panicware.com/product_psfree.html

Privoxy - http://www.privoxy.org/

Proxomitron - http://www.proxomitron.info/

RSS Readers:

Ablion - http://www.fileheaven.com/Abilon/download/14059.htm

RSSOwl - http://www.rssowl.org/

System Information and monitoring:

CPU-Z - http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Everest - http://www.lavalys.com/products/overview.p...ang=en&pageid=1

Gkrellm - http://bill.nalens.com/

Motherboard monitor - http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=311

SpeedFan - http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Sysmetrix - http://www.xymantix.com

WCPUID - http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA002374/src/download.html

Video codecs :

DivX Codec - http://www.divx.com/divx/?src=toptab_divx_from_/index.php

FFDSHOW - http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow

XviD - http://www.xvid.org/

Video players :

BsPlayer - http://www.bsplayer.org/

Crystal Player - http://www.crystalplayer.com/index.php?page=downloads

Cygwin MPlayer - http://armory.nicewarrior.org/projects/cygmp/

DivX Player - http://www.divx.com/

MaximusDVD - http://www.maximusdvd.com/

Media Player Classic - http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303

VideoLan - http://www.videolan.org/

Video tools:

DVD Shrink - http://www.dvdshrink.org/

DScaler - http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net/

FlasKMPEG - http://www.flaskmpeg.net

GSpot - http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

VirtualDub - http://www.virtualdub.org/

VirtualDubMod - http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=65889

Zwei-Stein Video Editor - http://www.thugsatbay.com/software/index.html

Web browsers:

Firefox - http://www.getfirefox.com

K-Meleon - http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/

Mozilla - http://www.mozilla.org/

Netscape - http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/default.jsp

Web servers:

Abyss - http://abyss.sourceforge.net/

Apache - http://httpd.apache.org/

Sambar - http://www.sambar.com/

Savant - http://savant.sourceforge.net/

SimpleServer:WWW - http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/sswww.htm

TinyWeb - http://www.ritlabs.com/tinyweb/index.html

Webcam Software:

booruWebCam - http://www.booru.net/

Pryme - http://www.hilo.dk/pryme/

Checksum Utilities:

fsum - http://www.slavasoft.com/fsum/

hksfv - http://www.big-o-software.com/products/hksfv/

md5sum - http://www.etree.org/md5com.html

md5summer - http://www.md5summer.org/

General Utilities And Other Applications:

AnalogX - http://www.analogx.com/

AppRocket - http://www.candylabs.com/approcket/

Celestia - http://www.shatters.net/celestia

CCleaner - http://www.ccleaner.com

Cygwin - http://www.cygwin.com

Dirkey - http://www.protonfx.com/dirkey/

EditPad Lite - http://www.editpadpro.com/editpadlite.html

HTTrack - http://www.httrack.com/

Inno Setup - http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

Memtest-86 - http://www.memtest86.com

MWSnap - http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html

NetTime - http://nettime.sourceforge.net

Nullsoft Installer - http://www.nullsoft.com/free/nsis

Peerguardian - http://xs.tech.nu/

QuickSFV - http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Mouse/4668/

png2ico - http://winterdrache.de/freeware/png2ico

Stickies - http://finiteloop.org/~btaylor/software/stickies/

Sysinternals - http://www.sysinternals.com/

Toolbox - http://www.sil.org/computing/toolbox/

TuneXP - http://www.driverheaven.net/dforce/showdoc.php?doc=txp_about

Turbo Pad - http://turbopad.sourceforge.net/

Vim - http://vim.sourceforge.net

Edited February 10, 2005 by ultima

[jargonize]

it's a pretty complete list.

[Slimy]

My freeware list: http://www.synergymx.com/links.asp

585315652[/snapback]

Windows Secuity - Security

i'd add a lot more if I were you, just my two cents

[RPCR]

AVG Free Edition

[RPCR]

How many of these "free" programs have spyware bundled with them?

[Slimy]

AVG Free Edition

585383017[/snapback]

u could have at least checked if it was on the list :sleep:

ultima, or some other mod, can u plz update the list? thx

[Dark Reaper]

Can someone update the list please? It's pretty rough going through 10 pages to find alternatives. And maybe once the list is updated, maybe the rest of the posts gets deleted?

[redhatter]

Thanks, dude. This list is awesome!!!! :yes:

[xKratosx]

Very nice list, thanks!

Just wondering if any of the anti-virus' are better than AVG?

[Slimy]

Very nice list, thanks!

Just wondering if any of the anti-virus' are better than AVG?

585396304[/snapback]

imo avast is better, but that's just me

[Joey992]

Nice to see Billy on the list. That has to be the fastest audio player around.

[Si Veteran]

List updated, thanks guys (Y)

[Slimy]

thank you ultima, appreciate it

[demon19]

Spyware / Keyboard logger / Anti spyware

Spyware keyboard logger

Games Archives / Games news

Games news. Games downloads

[Kamael]

Audio Players:

MusikCube - http://www.musikcube.com/

(related to musik but a different project now)

[jnr]

Great free image viewer: FastStone Viewer

http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

Great free image viewer/cataloger: Picajet

http://www.picajet.com/en/index.php

Free rich text note taking software:

-Keynote

http://www.tranglos.com/free/keynote.html

-MyInfo3beta2

http://www.milenix.com/beta.php

[Tokar]

Wouldnt opera be considered a freeware browser?

its ad supported, i know....but its not like anything is removed from it for being the ad-supported version (as in features and such) and there is no timebomb like a non-activated Windows XP.

AntiSpyware:

Microsoft Antispyware of course...well until it comes out of beta... http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/s...re/default.mspx

FTP Clients:

LeechFTP (development stopped in 1999 and Jan Debis now makes the non-free Bit Beamer off the code...BUT the site still exists and has the download on site) http://stud.fh-heilbronn.de/~jdebis/leechftp/

Internet Explorer Front_ends:

AOL Browser http://beta.aol.com/aolbrowser/ (free to users who have an AIM or AOL account, AIM accounts of course being free)

Anti-Spam programs:

SpamPal http://www.spampal.org/

File Integrity Checker:

QuickPar http://www.quickpar.org.uk/

SmartPar http://ice.prohosting.com/smartpar/

Usenet Clients:

BNR2 http://www.bnr2.org

GrabIt http://www.shemes.com

Maybe you should add the Real/Quicktime alternative codecs, since they are in essence free video codecs...

Here are some other tools i use...

D-Color XP 1.0 http://dliboon.freeshell.org/files/products/dcolorxp10.zip

Its a dekstop modification software that sits in your system tray and it lets you modify a LOT of things related to the icons on the desktop...

RAD Video Tools - Bink and Smacker http://www.radgametools.com/default.htm

AM DeadLink - http://www.aignes.com/products.htm

it checks your internet Explorer favorites to see if they are dead or for any other types of errors. Other free software they make is available at that site

Game Server Query Software (Alternatives to the crapware GameSpy):

All-Seeing Eye (its free but there is a pay upgrade if you want for some dumb features no one uses) http://www.udpsoft.com/eye2/index.html

HLSW - http://www.hlsw.net/index.php?url=hlsw_info

Kquery - http://www.kquery.com/

Qtracker http://www.qtracker.com/

[LOC Veteran]

Maybe you should add the Real/Quicktime alternative codecs, since they are in essence free video codecs...

585474899[/snapback]

This has been discussed many times previously. We do not allow posting of these two packs (or others that include such things as real or divx pro etc). So nope on those :)

[metallithrax]

I think you should add Picture Timeclock by Guia Scheduling software. It is a free timeclock/punch clock/attendance recording software with many features. I emailed them with a bug this morning 9.00am GMT, and got a phone call from them at 3.30 pm GMT to tell me they had looked at the problem and sorted it out and it was ready for download.

This is for a FREE software product, which I though was quite amazing.

the web site is here

[Tokar]

About CDBurner XP in the original post:

the link listed is old and is a redirect for the new address:

http://www.cdburnerxp.se/

[Slimy]

registry section would be good

585276610[/snapback]

can a mod add this?

[Vykranth]

System utility

Alt-Tab Replacement: TaskSwitch XP http://taskswitchxp.sourceforge.net/

[Hekx]

Foxit PDF Reader

[Chode]

I agree with similar thoughts along the lines of Opera been on this list. It can be used for an unlimited time for free without installing any malware, after all...

[Aaron Veteran]

RSS Readers:

RSS Bandit

http://www.rssbandit.org/

RSS Reader

http://www.rssreader.com/

Sharp Reader

http://www.sharpreader.net/

[nexess]

SmartFTP is no longer freeware looks like. Free to try; $36.95 to buy. 30-day trial