The TE Essential Freeware Thread !

Blade_Runner

Skilled
The best things in life are free ;) ! This goes same for softwares too :D
This the TE essential freeware thread! Fell free to add to it and recommend suitable *freeware* that deserve a place in this thread.
Antivirus:

AntiVir® PersonalEdition Classic: The AntiVir Personal Edition offers the effective protection against computer viruses for the individual and private use on a single PC-workstation. In order to make possible an easy operation, the AntiVir Personal Edition is developed to the essential points.
Download:http://www.free-av.com/antivirus/allinonen.html

avast! 4 Home Edition: Avast Home Edition is a free, complete ICSA certified antivirus software for home noncommercial use. Avast Home Edition includes the following components: On Demand Scanner--with skinnable simple interface--just select what do you want to scan in which way and press the ‘Play’ button; On Access Scanner--special providers to protect the most of available e-mail clients; Instant Messaging--ICQ, Miranda; Network traffic--intrusion detection--lightweight firewall; P2P protection for Kazza, BitTorrent; Web shield--monitors and filter all HTTPtraffic; NNTP Scanner--scans all Usenet Newsgroup traffic and all operations with files on PC; Boot Time Scanner--scans disks in the same way and in the same time as Windows CHKDSK does. True incremental updates are small and fast.
Download: http://www.avast.com/eng/down_home.html

AVG Antivirus Free Edition: AVG Free Edition is the well-known antivirus protection tool. AVG Free is available free of charge to home users for the life of the product. Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers.
Download: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

BitDefender Free Edition v7: Benefiting from previous experience, the new BitDefender Free Edition was designed with a centralized management console, which allows protection options configuration for all BitDefender modules. Features include System scanning, Scheduled scanning, Automatic and manual update, Skinable interface, Free Human Technical Support
Download: http://www.bitdefender.com/PRODUCT-14-en--BitDefender-Free-Edition-v7.html#
Audio Tools:

dBpowerAMP Music Converter: DBpowerAMP supports practically every audio type created: mp3, mp4, m4a, wma, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, Monkeys Audio, FLAC, the list goes on....fully compatible with Windows 95 / 98 / ME / NT4 / 2000, Windows XP. Rip digitally sound from Audio CDs and store in a multitude of formats, dMC is the Fastest CD Ripper and now AccurateRip Compatible It has Volume Normalize for audio files,
Windows Explorer Integration - right click Convert To & popup useful information on audio files (such as bitrate, length). It gives powerful ID tag editing [Power Pack Option],
Download: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

Exact Audio Copy: Exact Audio Copy is a CD audio grabber that supports SCSI as well as ATAPI CD-ROM drives. It features Jitter correction and 3 levels of extraction - Secure, Fast and Burst extraction methods. It uses the Windows Audio Compression Manager (ACM Codecs) for direct compression and offers additional support for the BladeEnc DLL. Additional features include Batch compression and decompression, detection of silence in pre-track gaps, filename editing with local and remote CDDB database and cdplayer.ini support as well as ID3 tagging. Exact Audio Copy also offers CD write support for some drives and can automatically detect drive features.
Download: http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

Audacity: Audacity is a free audio editor. You can record sounds, play sounds, import and export WAV, AIFF, and MP3 files, and more. Use it to edit your sounds using Cut, Copy and Paste (with unlimited Undo), mix tracks together, or apply effects to your recordings. It also has a built-in amplitude envelope editor, a customizable spectrogram mode and a frequency analysis window for audio analysis applications. Built-in effects include Bass Boost, Wahwah, and Noise Removal, and it also supports VST plug-in effects.
Download: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/
AVG is amongst the best freeware anitvirus with regular updates and good detection rate ! Use exact copy for the best Audio CD ripping results
 
Contd !

Benchmarking:

3dmark2005: 3DMark®05 is best suited for the latest generation of DirectX®9.0 graphics cards. It is the first benchmark to require a DirectX9.0 compliant hardware with support for Pixel Shaders 2.0 or higher! By combining high quality 3D tests, CPU tests, feature tests, image quality tools, and much more, 3DMark05 is a premium benchmark for evaluating the latest generation of gaming hardware. 3DMark05 is the answer to the continuously growing challenge in benchmarking!
Download: http://www.futuremark.com/download/?3dmark05.shtml

PC Mark 2005: PCMark®05 is everything you need to reliably and easily measure the performance of your PC and determine its strengths and weaknesses. With PCMark05, you will be able to select the optimal upgrades for your existing PC, or choose the right new PC that fits your specific needs. This easy-to-use product gives you the same tools and knowledge that virtually every professional tester in the industry uses.
Download:http://www.futuremark.com/download/?pcmark05.shtml

Aquamark: AquaMark3 is a powerful tool to determine reliable information about the gaming performance of a computer system.
Because the benchmark extensively utilizes DirectX9, DirectX8 and DirectX7 functionality, it represents the requirements of typical gaming applications in 2003 and 2004.
Download: http://www.aquamark3.com/am3-mirrors.htm

Fraps: See how many Frames Per Second (FPS) you are getting in a corner of your screen. Perform custom benchmarks and measure the frame rate between any two points. Save the statistics out to disk and use them for your own reviews and applications.
Download: http://www.fraps.com/download.php

SiSoftware Sandra: SiSoft Sandra 2005 Guru3D.com edition - SiSoft Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility.
Download: http://sisoftware.co.uk/index.html?dir=&location=downandbuy&langx=en&a=
Rightmark Audio Analyzer: RightMark Audio Analyzer is an independent audio measurements benchmark. The test suite performs various tests of electroacoustical performance of sound cards and other real-time audio devices. Testing is accomplished by playing the test signals and recording them after they pass through the testing chain.
Download: http://audio.rightmark.org/download.shtml
Browsers:

Firefox: This browser provides pop-up control and a tabbed navigation mode that lets you open several pages in a single window. You can then load links in the background without leaving the page you're on. There is an integrated Google search, and the find-as-you-type feature finds links and page text as you enter the information. Privacy controls let you cover your Internet tracks.
Download: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

Opera: The Opera browser has received international recognition from end-users and the industry press for being faster, smaller and more standards-compliant than other browsers, and it has gathered a cult following on the net. Opera has proved itself faster than the competition in magazine tests for home users. Opera is significantly faster on computers with lower modem speeds and weaker system resources.
Download: http://www.opera.com/download/

Maxthon: Maxthon is a multi-tabbed browser based on the IE core (IE5.x or above required). It can open multiple web pages within one browser window, and uses little system resources. Maxthon has a greatly integrated & customizable interface which supports Skins, Plug-Ins, IE Extensions, & specific toolbars. Maxthon also incorporates 2 POPUP blockers (Auto POPUP blocker & a POPUP blocker list filter) and a Content Filter. The Content filter can be used to filter offensive pictures on a web page,
if desired.
Download: http://www.maxthon.com/download.htm

Slim Browser: Slim Browser is a tabbed multiple-site browser. It incorporates a large collection of powerful features like built-in popup killer, skinned window frame, form filler, site group, quick-search, auto login, hidden sites, built-in commands and scripting, online translation, script error suppression, blacklist / whitelist filtering, URL Alias. It brings you convenient and comfortable browsing.
Download: http://www.flashpeak.com/sbrowser/dlpage.php

Netscape: Based on Firefox, the Netscape Browser options and interface are similar, but brought to a superior level of accessibilty by filling some of the Firefox gaps, such as tabbed browsing, context menus and menu bars. The file is a 298 Kb installer file, which will in turn initiate a download of approximately 12 Mb.
Download: http://browser.netscape.com/ns8/download/default.jsp

Benchamark your PC to your hearts content !
Firefox or Opera both are at the top as alternatives to IE and are doing a great job at snatching away the market share from IE.
 
Communication and Messaging:

Skype: Skype is a little program for making free calls over the internet to anyone else who also has Skype. It’s free and easy to download and use, and works with most computers. Skype is quick and easy to install. Just download it, register, and within minutes you can plug in your PC headset and call your friends on Skype. Skype calls have excellent sound quality and are highly secure with end-to-end encryption.
Download: http://skype.com/download/

Trillian Basic: Trillian is a fully featured, stand-alone, skinnable chat client that supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC. It provides capabilities not possible with original network clients, while supporting standard features such as audio chat, file transfers, group chats, chat rooms, buddy icons, multiple simultaneous connections to the same network, server-side contact importing, typing notification, direct connection (AIM), proxy support, encrypted messaging (AIM/ICQ), SMS support, and privacy settings.
Download: http://www.download.com/Trillian/3000-2150-10047473.html?part=dl-trillian&subj=dl&tag=button

Gaim: Gaim is a multi-protocol instant messaging client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows. It is compatible with AIM (Oscar and TOC protocols), ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, and Zephyr networks. Gaim users can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AOL Instant Messenger, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time.
Download: http://gaim.sourceforge.net/downloads.php

ICQ: ICQ (or 'I Seek You') instant messaging service is used by millions worldwide to make the complicated work of finding friends, colleagues and people with similar interests, as straightforward as calling across a room and starting a friendly conversation.
Download: http://www.icq.com/download/
CD/DVD Burning Softwares:

Deep Burner: DeepBurner is an advanced and extremely powerful CD and DVD burning package. It removes the hassle of making CDs, DVDs, and autoruns. It even makes it easy for you to create and print your own labels and booklets. DeepBurner supports a very wide range of internal and external (USB 2.0 and FireWire) CD and DVD writers. Burn any data, copy any disc, make backups, create astonishing photo CD albums, make ISO CDs and Video DVDs with this very easy to handle software!
Download: http://www.deepburner.com/?r=download

CDBurnerXP Pro: CDBurnerXP Pro is an easy to use CD/DVD burning software, that can write CD-R and CD-RW discs. The program can also write disks directly from an ISO image file, and save image as an ISO image file (*.iso). You can create data and audio CDs, and it supports Burn-Proof technology, multi-session disks, import of ISO images and more. In addition to CD burning, you can also rip audio CDs, normalize WAV files, encode MP3 files, erase disks, . CDBurnerXP Pro does not require ASPI when used under for NT/2000/XP
Download: http://www.cdburnerxp.se/download.php

Hehe and you thought Image burning softwares weren't free :p
 
Download Managers:

Leechget: LeechGet is a download manager, that uses a very nice, modern, Microsoft Outlook-like user interface and seamlessly integrates into Internet Explorer, allowing you to easily start and manage your downloads. It also includes a full-featured FTP client to download, delete and manage files on FTP servers In addition, LeechGet provides many features, such a automatic downloading, resume of broken downloads, download timer, automatic hang-up and shutdown and more. A built in web parser even lets you download complete website with all images and scripts in no time.
Download: http://www.leechget.net/en/

Fresh Downloader: Fresh Download is an easy-to-use and very fast download manager software that turbo charges downloading files from the Internet, such as your favorite mp3 files, software, picture collections, video, etc. Unlike any other similar utilities, this software is 100% free, no charges, no banners, no spyware
Download: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download632.html

Star Downloader: Star Downloader is a download manager that accelerates your downloads by splitting the files into several parts and downloading them simultaneously. Download speeds are increased further by choosing the fastest mirror sites. You may automatically resume broken downloads if your connection is lost or if your computer accidentally shuts down. Star Downloader also integrates with your antivirus program to automatically scan files upon completion of the download. Star Downloader supports FTP and HTTP. Proxy is also supported.
Download: http://www.stardownloader.com/downloads.php?PHPSESSID=cacfcc786a9a1510f58a74255e13a43b
DVD Back-up and ripping tools:

DVD Shrink: DVD Shrink is software to backup DVD discs. You can use this software in conjunction with DVD burning software of your choice, to make a backup copy of any DVD video disc.DVD Shrink will also burn your backup DVD, if you have installed the latest version of Nero. If you already possess alternative burning software and prefer to stick with it, then you can still use DVD Shrink. The output from DVD Shrink can be saved as files on your hard drive, which you can then burn with software of your choice.
Download: http://www.dvdshrink.org/where.html

DVDx: DVDx allows you to convert DVD to VCD2.0 or SCVD1.0 or DivX in one step (Including multiplexing, splitting). It produces good quality movies in MPEG1/2 format and you don't need to have 5GB or more free on your hard disk. DVDx has been designed especialy for unexperimented users, it is a simple and intuitive program. You only need Nero to write your VCD/SVCD.
Download: http://www.labdv.com/dvdx/download.php

DVD Decrypter: DVD Decrypter is a highly versatile VOB-ripping utility. The software takes advantage of both the DeCSS Plus and VobDec algorithms for looking up and decrypting the CSS encryption. DVD Decrypter is also multi-angle aware, and capable of removing the Macrovision scrambling key, as well as the region code during the ripping process.
Download:
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/dvd_rippers/dvd_decrypter.cfm

These three tools form the crux of my dvd suite ! convert dvds to avi, vcd etc . shrink them to dvd-r (4.3Gb) or just rip them on to your HDD. What else could one ask for with free tools :p
 
Firewalls:

Sygate Personal Firewall: FREE for personal use, Sygate Personal Firewall 5.x provides best of breed security in a user friendly interface, protecting your PC from hackers, trojans and DoS attacks. New features include full-ICS support, protocol driver level protection, enhanced logging, and more. Sygate Personal Firewall is the first FREE personal firewall to offer protection from malicious code intrusions, keeping the information on your PC safe and private.
Download: http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm

Zone alarm Free edition: ZoneAlarm is designed to protect your DSL- or cable-connected PC from hackers. This program includes four interlocking security services: a firewall, an application control, an Internet lock, and Zones. The firewall controls the door to your computer and allows only traffic you understand and initiate. The application control allows you to decide which applications can and cannot use the Internet. The Internet lock blocks Internet traffic while your computer is unattended or while you're not using the Internet, and it can be activated automatically with your computer's screensaver or after a set period of inactivity.
Download: http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp

Kerio Personal Firewall: is a software agent that builds a barrier between your personal computer and the Internet. KPF is designed to protect your PC against attacks from both the Internet, and other computers in the local network.
Download: http://www.kerio.com/us/kpf_download.html
FTP programs:

Core FTP LE: Includes the following features: SFTP (SSH), SSL, TLS, IDN, browser integration, site to site transfers, FTP transfer resume, drag and drop support, file viewing & editing, firewall support, custom commands, FTP URL parsing, command line transfers, filters, and much, much more! This secure FTP client gives you a fast, easy, reliable way to update and maintain your website via FTP. It also provides a secure method (via SSL, TLS, or SFTP) to upload / download files to and from FTP servers.
Download: http://www.coreftp.com/download.html

Coffee Cup Free FTP: CoffeeCup Free FTP is a fast no frills FTP program that makes it easy to drag and drop files to and from your Website. It supports multiple server profiles, resumes broken uploads and downloads, and can transfer files in binary, ASCII, or auto-mode. Free FTP works with any server and is so easy to setup. Just enter your username and password and click "Connect". Free FTP remembers your server info so connecting to your site again is a snap
Download: http://www.coffeecup.com/free-ftp/download.php

Personally i think Sygate is much better than ZA as it works good and consumes less resources !
 
Image editing:

GIMP: The Windows version of a popular Linux graphics editor and image manipulation software. It offers a ton of features, including advanced layer support, masks, filters, effects and many other features found in professional graphics programs. Beware however that the interface needs getting used to, it uses multiple component windows, rather than a uniform interface.
Download: http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html

Paint.net: Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows 2000, XP, or Server 2003. It started development at Washington State University as an undergraduate senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. It is meant to be a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with all Windows operating systems.
Download: http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/download.htm

PhotoFiltre: PhotoFiltre is a complete image editing and effects package, that will not only amaze you with features but also the fact that it is free (for personal use). PhotoFiltre offers all the standard editing features (selection, clone brush, paint brush etc.) as well as a large selection of image effects, photo masks, image adjustments, thumbnail browser and much more. The program also supports batch processing to apply filters, sizing, adjustments and transformations to a large number of images at once. PhotoFiltre comes with modern, well designed interface and is well suited for everything from simple resizing to advanced photo editing.
Download: http://photofiltre.free.fr/download_en.htm

These are some very good image manipulation tools here and will be handy in applying those effects to your images and thus save your money on spending on a pro image manipulation tool.

Image Viewers and Managers:

IrfanView: IrfanView, made by Irfan Skiljan, is a fast and simple freeware image viewer, editor and converter that supports all major graphic formats. In addition it features drag and drop support, directory viewing, TWAIN (Technology Without An Interesting Name) scan support, slide shows, batch conversion, multi language support, thumbnail option, preview option, print option, IPTC edit, capturing, extract icons from EXE/DLL/ICLs, lossless JPG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) rotation, EXE/SCR creating, many hotkeys, many command line options and modifications such as changing color depth, crop, blur and sharpen.
Download: http://www.irfanview.com/main_download_engl.htm
Picassa: Picasa is a powerful, yet easy to use and attractive tools suite to manage and organize your digital images and photos. It offers one simple place to organize, enjoy, and share your pictures. After installing, the software can automatically scan your drive(s) for images and intelligently sort them into photo albums, ready for you to customize and organize. It offers different interface layouts and ways to view your pictures, including slideshow and a unique timeline feature. Picasa supports import from twain devices, including digital cameras, photo emailing, printing and much more. A great, all-around imaging tool!
Download: http://picasa.google.com/download/index.html

Freshview: Fresh View is an easy-to-use image viewer and media browser that supports many popular image, audio and video formats. You can easily copy or move files, view them as a slideshow (with transition effects), set them as wallpaper or create a HTML image gallery. Additional features include import from scanner or camera and customizable interface layout.
Requires free email registration if you decide to keep it after 30 days.
Download: http://www.freshdevices.com/photo_album_software.html

Irfan View totally rules here.........
 
Media players:

Winamp: Nullsoft Winamp is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity music player for Windows. Winamp supports MP3, CD, Audiosoft, Audio Explosion, MOD, WAV and other audio formats, custom appearances called skins, plus audio visualization and audio effect plug-ins. The Lite version does not play Windows Media or M-Juice audio, nor contain Winamp Visualization Studio.
Download: http://www.winamp.com/player/free.php

VLC: VLC (initially VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.
Download: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Foobar: Foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include ReplayGain support, low memory footprint and native support for several popular audio formats.
Download: http://www.foobar2000.org/download.html

BSplayer: BSplayer is a Windows player that plays back all kinds of media files ( avi/mpg/asf/wmv/wav/mp3/OGM...) and specializes in video and Divx playback. It provides extensive support for subtitles, a resizable movie window, resolution changing, desktop mode playback, frame capture and more. In addition, it offers Pan-scan and custom pan-scan options, bookmarks, adjustable playback rate, Drag & drop support and many other features. The interface is skinnable and comes with several different design to choose from. BSPlayer can be associated with all (or selected) files types that are supported.
Download: http://www.bsplayer.org

Additionally you also check out real player, QuickTime alternatives!
p2p/ File sharing:
Ares: Ares is a free peer to peer file sharing program that enables users to share any digital file including images, audio, video, software, documents, etc.
You may now easily publish your files through the Ares decentralized network. As a member of the virtual community, you can search and download just about any file shared by other users.
With Ares you can also join chat rooms or host your channel and meet new friends.
Download: http://www.aresgalaxy.org/download.html

Bittorrent: BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer protocol designed to transfer files. Users connect directly to send and receive portions of a file, while a central tracker coordinates the action of all peers and manages connections without knowledge of the contents of the files being distributed. With BitTorrent, users upload at the same time they download, so network bandwidth is managed as efficiently as possible. BitTorrent is designed to work better than other file-transfer protocols as the number of people interested in a certain file increases.
Download: http://www.bittorrent.com/index.html

eDonkey: eDonkey is an application that allows you to share and download files with millions of other people across the globe. It is fast and easy to use with the most sophisticated file sharing technology available. With features like ed2k links, support for http and bit torrent protocol, private messaging, dynamic ports, continued downloads, easy to use, skins, automatic fake detection etc. this is one rocking p2p software.
Download: http://www.edonkey2000.com/downloads.php

Shareaza: Shareaza is the most luxurious and sophisticated file sharing system you'll find. It can harness the power of up to four separate peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, including EDonkey2000, Gnutella, BitTorrent and Shareaza's native network, Gnutella2 (G2).
Not only that, but Shareaza is completely FREE and won't show any annoying ads or pop-ups. It won't install any unwanted third party programs that can wreak havoc with your computer. No spyware, no registration, no "paid version". Just download and use. Simple.
Download: http://www.shareaza.com/?id=download

There exist a lot of clone of these clients and alternatives as well. MOst of them are free so try them out as well. Eg: Azureus, BIt comet, Emule, Morpheus, Kazaa Lite, Imesh Lite, Lime wire etc.
 
Spyware Detection and cleaning tools:

Ad-Aware SE: Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE is a free utility that scans your memory, registry, harddisks, removable and optical drives for known adware and spyware components and lets you remove them easily and safely. Ad-Aware SE is designed to provide continuous protection from known aggressive advertising, datamining, parasites, scumware, keyloggers, selected traditional trojans, dialers, malware (malicious software), browser hijackers and tracking components. Ad-Aware SE will provide the user with the confidence to surf the Internet knowing that their privacy will remain intact.
Download: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,7423,00.asp

Spybot S & D: SpyBot-S&D searches your hard drive for so-called spy- or adbots; little modules that are responsible for the ads many programs display. But many of these modules also transmit information about your surfing behaviour and more to the net.
If SpyBot-S&D finds such modules, it can remove them - or replace them with empty dummies in case their host software won't run with its bot removed. In most cases, the host still runs fine after removing the bot.
Download: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

MS Windows Anti-Spyware: Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) is a security technology that helps protect Windows users from spyware and other potentially unwanted software. Known spyware on your PC can be detected and removed. This helps reduce negative effects caused by spyware including slow PC performance, annoying pop-up ads, unwanted changes to Internet settings, and unauthorized use of your private information. Continuous protection improves Internet browsing safety by guarding over fifty (50) ways spyware can enter your PC.
Download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...a2-6a57-4c57-a8bd-dbf62eda9671&displaylang=en

Hijack this: HijackThis is a tool, that lists all installed browser add-on, buttons, startup items and allows you to inspect, and optionally remove selected items. The program can create a backup of your original settings and also ignore selected items. Additional features include a simple list of all startup items, default start page, online updates and more. Intended for advanced users.
Download: http://www.tomcoyote.org/hjt/

The best things in life are really free ! these spyware detection utilites give the paid ones a run for their money !

System Info:

Cpuz: CPU-Z is a freeware detection program base on the Panopsys hardware detection engine.It allows to get some information on your system, including : Processor name and vendor, Core stepping and process, Processor package, Processor current core voltage etc.
Download: http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php#download

Everest Home Edition: EVEREST Home Edition is a freeware1 hardware diagnostics and memory benchmarking solution for home PC users, based on the award-winning EVEREST Technology. It offers the world's most accurate hardware information and diagnostics capabilities, including online features, memory benchmarks, hardware monitoring, and low-level hardware information.
Download: http://www.lavalys.com/products/download.php?pid=1&lang=en

Fresh Diagnose: Fresh Diagnose is a utility designed to analyze and benchmark your computer system. It can analyze and benchmark many kinds of hardware, such as CPU or hard disk performance, video system or motherboard information, and much more. This software is 100% free, no ads, no spyware.
Download: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22444,tk,lg,00.asp
 
System Monitoring:

Serious Samurize: Serious Samurize is a fully customizable system monitor, that allows you to assemble and design your own system monitoring panels, including CPU Usage, Disk utilization, Network traffic, System temperatures, Top processes, Memory information and much more. You can choose between text displays, pie or graph charts, progress bars and other displays, and customize the appearance with colors and/or background images.
Download: http://www.samurize.com/modules/mydownloads/viewcat.php?cid=1

MBM: Motherboard Monitor (MBM) is a very detailed and powerful system monitoring utility that should enlighten the heart of any computer geek. It can monitor fan speeds, temperatures, voltages and more. In addition, it provides detailed system information about you chip and memory. It also includes an alarm features that can send e-mail alerts, initiate an FTP transfer or even send a pager message if conditions exceed the user defined condition. "Beep Beep, oops, gotta go, my motherboard is overheating."
Download: http://mbm.livewiredev.com/

Process Explorer: The Process Explorer top window always shows a list of the currently active processes, including the names of their owning accounts, whereas the information displayed in the bottom window depends on the mode that Process Explorer is in: if it is in handle mode you’ll see the handles that the process selected in the top window has opened; if Process Explorer is in DLL mode you’ll see the DLLs and memory-mapped files that the process has loaded. Process Explorer also has a powerful search capability that will quickly show you which processes have particular handles opened or DLLs loaded.
Download: http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html
System Tweaking:

TweakUI: With the Tweak UI 1.33 update, you can adjust your Windows User Interface, including menu speed, window animation, automatic logon, several privacy settings (Paranoia) and Microsoft Internet Explorer. TweakUI is available from the system Control Panel, just right click on the .INF file and select "install.
Download: http://www.microsoft.com/NTWorkstation/downloads/PowerToys/Networking/NTTweakUI.asp
TweakUI XP:This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more. You must unistall any previous PowerToys before installing the new ones.
Download: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Rivatuner: RivaTuner is the most powerful tweaking utility for NVIDIA and ATI display adapters running under Windows 98 / Windows 98 SE / Windows ME / Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The purpose of this utility is to give you access to all the undocumented features of Detonator and Catalyst drivers. Drivers have a lot of undocumented registry entries. Some of them don’t affect anything, but there are some that are very useful. In general, they cannot give you big performance boost but they can improve image quality and solve some compatibility problems. RivaTuner will help you to change all undocumented registry entries.
Download: http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner&menu=8

Powerstrip: PowerStrip provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest ATI X850 and NVidia SLI solutions. It is in fact the only program of its type to support multiple graphics cards from multiple chipset vendors, simultaneously, under every Windows operating system from Windows 95 to the x64-bit edition of XP. A simple menu that pops up from the system tray provides access to some 500 controls over your display hardware, including sophisticated color correction tools, period level adjustments over screen geometry, and driver independent clock controls.
Download: http://www.entechtaiwan.net/util/ps.shtm

The utilities posted here help you get the max performance out of your rig ! Tweak to your hearts content !

Wikipedia’s Open source Software List: List !

Phew that finishes the list ! if you guys have recommendations please post :)
 
I suggest BitComet for BT.Its the best one!

Azureus uses insane resources (~60MB RAM,80% CPU) on my system.Actually its not azereus but the javaw.exe it runs on.
 
Really nice compilation. Now if someone can review these apps and post screenies so that they can be linked just above the download link. No copy paste for that please.
 
@Ein

Thanks for repointing out this fantastic link which was earlier pointed out by NitnayLion

I really missed on this awesome piece of freeware.

Guys u have to check what this can do.

SUPER © Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer.
A GUI to ffmpeg, mencoder, mplayer, x264, ffmpeg2theora & the theora/vorbis RealProducer plugIn.

If you need a simple tool, easy to use yet very efficient to convert (encode) any Multimedia file or even play it for you, without reading manuals or spending 5 hours training, far from any sophistication and with 1 simple click, this is all what you need, SUPER ©. It is a Multimedia Encoder and a Multimedia Player.

Link:- http://fever.link.free.fr/-/SUPER.html
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Office alternatives:

Open Office: OpenOffice.org 1.0 is the completely free open source office suite based on code for StarOffice 5.2. The package includes word processor, spreadsheet, drawing
program, presentation program, equation writing program and more. A Mac version is planned, but not yet available. (Windows, Linux, Solaris)
Download: http://download.openoffice.org/index.html

602 PC suite: Software602 offers their MS Office compatible office suite for free. You do need to register, but registration is free. (Windows) Alternative to Microsoft® Office compatible with Word/Excel files! The suite is composed of four full-featured applications: a word processor, spreadsheet, graphics editor and digital photo organizer.
Download: http://www.software602.com/download/

Star Office is free for educational purposes ! Pay only for shipping and cost of media !
 
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