Welcome to
FreeSoftwareLinks.info

This site contains a list of links to the best free and or open source software that I have came across in my 25+ years of working with computers. I link to the official site of the software so you can have all the information about the software to help you determine if the software is safe and right for you and your needs.

The goal of this site is to help you save money by showing you free alternatives to paid for software.

Open Source Software is free software that can be used for both personal and commercial use and the source code that the software is written in is available for all to see.

Free Software is software that is free to use but sometimes not for commercial use and the source code that the software is written is not available.

Open Source Software

7-Zip is a file archive supporting .zip, .rar, .ace etc.

Audacity is multi platform software for recording and editing sounds.

BleachBit is a free and open-source disk space cleaner, privacy manager, and computer system optimizer for Windows and Linux.

Blender is multi platform software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback.

calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books.

CDex is a CD-Ripper, extracting digital audio data from an Audio CD. The application supports many Audio encoders, like MP3, Ogg, WMA and AAC encoders.

CHIRP is a free, open-source tool for programming your amateur radio. It supports a large number of manufacturers and models, as well as provides a way to interface with multiple data sources and formats.

Classic Shell is a collection of usability enhancements for Windows. The main features are: Highly customizable start menu with multiple styles and skins, Start button for Windows 7 and Windows 8, Toolbar and status bar for Windows Explorer, Caption and status bar for Internet Explorer

Cyberduck is an open source file transfer client for Windows and MacOS that supports FTP, FTPS, SFTP, WebDAV, Google Drive, S3, Dropbox and more.

Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot disk that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers.
Note: DO NOT USE DBAN ON SSDs or Solid State Drives.

DD-WRT is a third party developed firmware released for many 802.11 wireless routers.

DVD Flick aims to be a simple but at the same time powerful DVD Authoring tool.

DVDStyler is a cross-platform free DVD authoring application for the creation of professional-looking DVDs. It allows not only burning of video files on DVD that can be played practically on any standalone DVD player, but also creation of individually designed DVD menus. It is Open Source Software and is completely free.

Eraser is an advanced security tool for Windows which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. Works with Windows.

FileZilla is a fast and reliable FTP client and server with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface.

GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems.

GParded (Gnome Partition Editor) is an industrial-strength package for creating, destroying, resizing, moving, checking and copying partitions, and the file systems on them.

HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 converter, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows.

Inkscape is n Open Source cross-platform vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.

KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way.

KODI Formally XBMC (XBOX Media Center) is an open source multi-platform extendable media-player and entertainment hub for all your digital media.
Note: Boxee is based upon XBMC

LibreOffice is a open source, cross-platform productivity suite that is compatible with other major office suites
Note: LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice.org and is 100% compatible with OpenOffice.

MediaCoder is a universal audio/video batch transcoder capable of transcoding among different audio/video formats.

MediaPortal is an Open Source application ideal for turning your PC in a very advanced Multi-Media Center / HTPC. MediaPortal allows you to listen to your favorite music & radio, watch your video's and DVD's, view, schedule and record live TV and much more. NOTE: Requires .NET

Memtest86+ is software designed to stress test an x86-compatible computer's random access memory (RAM) for errors. It tries to verify that the RAM will accept and correctly retain arbitrary patterns of data written to it.
Note: Corsair recomends this software for RAM testing.

Miro is a open source, cross platform app that lets you watch Internet videos like you watch TV. Download and watch all the best internet TV shows and videos in one powerful application.

Mozilla FireFox is a open source, cross-platform web browser that includes a popup blocker, tabbed browsing, a smarter search, hassle free downloading, and improved privacy and security. Note: With Sync you can synchronize your history, bookmarks, tabs and passwords between all your computers and mobile devices. Firefox for Android

Firefox Add-Ons
Adblock Plus annoying ads and banners blocking extension.
NoScript allows JavaScript, Java, Flash and other plugins to be executed only by trusted web sites of your choice.
uBlock Origin is an efficient blocker: easy on memory and CPU footprint, and yet can load and enforce thousands more filters than other popular blockers out there.

Mozilla Thunderbird is a open source, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation, that allows the addition of features through the installation of add-ons. See the Thunderbird Ad-Ons Page

Natron is an open-source, cross-platform nodal compositing software.

Nmap is a utility for network exploration, administration, and security auditing. It uses IP packets in novel ways to determine which hosts are available online, which TCP/UDP ports are open, and what applications and services are listening on each port. It can also identify remote host OS and device types via TCP/IP fingerprinting. Nmap offers flexible target and port specifications, decoy/stealth scanning for firewall and IDS evasion, and highly optimized timing algorithms for fast scanning.

OBS Studio is open source cross platform software designed for capturing, compositing, encoding, recording, and streaming video content, efficiently.

OpenShot Video Editor is an award-winning free and open-source video editor for Linux, Mac, and Windows, and is dedicated to delivering high quality easy to use video editing and animation solutions to the world.

Paint.NET free image and photo editing software for Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.
NOTE: Requires .NET

PeerBlock is an IP Filtering program that blocks "known bad" computers from accessing yours, and vice versa.
NOTE Peerblock is based on PeerGuardian

Pidgin is a multi-protocol Instant Messaging client that allows you to use all of your IM accounts at once. Pidgins functionality can be expanded via the use of plug-ins. See the Pidgin Plug-ins Page

qBittorrent is a cross-platform open-source BitTorrent client.

Rufus is a utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives, such as USB keys/pendrives, memory sticks, etc.

Shotcut is a free, open source, cross-platform video editor.

Sigil is a multi-platform WYSIWYG ebook editor. It is designed to edit books in ePub format.

TightVNC is a cross-platform remote control software package derived from the popular VNC software.

UltraDefrag is powerful Open Source defragmentation tool for Windows.

UltraVNC is an application for the Microsoft Windows operating system that uses the VNC protocol to control another computer remotely.

UNetbootin allows you to create bootable Live USB drives for a variety of Linux distributions from Windows or Linux, without requiring you to burn a CD.

VeraCrypt is a free disk encryption software brought to you by IDRIX and that is based on TrueCrypt.

VirtualDub is a desktop video processing and capture application.

VLC Media Player (VideoLAN) is a multi-platform multimedia player. It can read DVD's, VCD's and just about everything else out there. See Also VLC for Amazon Fire and VLC for Android

WinSCP is an open source free SFTP client, FTP client, WebDAV client and SCP client for Windows. Its main function is file transfer between a local and a remote computer. Beyond this, WinSCP offers scripting and basic file manager functionality.

Wireshark is a powerful network protocol analyzer developed by an international team of networking experts. It runs on UNIX, OS X and Windows.

Free Software

Cobian Backup is a multi-threaded program that can be used to schedule and backup your files and directories from their original location to other directories/drives in the same computer or other computer in your network.

CPUID CPU-Z is a diagnostic tool that provides information on your CPU. CPU-Z for Amazon Fire CPU-Z for Android
Note: ASUS recomends this software for checking RAM and CPU configurations.

CPUID HWMonitor is a hardware monitoring program that reads PC systems main health sensors : voltages, temperatures, fans speed.

CPUID HWMonitor Pro is our extended version of the hardware monitoring program HWMonitor. HWMonitor Pro adds the following features: Remote Monitoring, Graph Generator and Fan PWM control (for ESA compliant devices).

CPUID PC WIZARD is a powerful utility designed especially for detection of hardware, but also some more analysis.

Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier. It has one box for everything: Type in the address bar and get suggestions for both search and web pages. Will give you thumbnails of your top sites; Access your favorite pages instantly with lightning speed from any new tab. Google Chrome for Android

Google Drive is a synchronization tool for Google's online storage service. If you are a Mac or PC user this is a dedicated synchronization tool that enables you to keep a local folder in sync with your online storage - add or remove a file in either location and the changes will be reflected in the other. Google Drive for Android

Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips. Fly from space to your neighborhood. Type in an address and zoom right in. Search for schools, parks, restaurants, and hotels. Get driving directions. Tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings. Save and share your searches and favorites. Even add your own annotations. Google Earth for Android

Google Web Designer is a WYSIWYG editor for making rich HTML5 pages and ads intended to run on multiple devices.

GPU-Z is a lightweight utility designed to give you all information about your video card and GPU.

HWiNFO™ and HWiNFO32™ are professional hardware information and diagnostic tools supporting latest components, industry technologies and standards.

IZArc is a free archiving tool that supports many archive formats.

Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.

Microsoft Visual Studio Community is A free, fully-featured, and extensible IDE for creating modern applications for Windows, Android, and iOS, as well as web applications and cloud services.

Microsoft Windows 10 Media Creation Tool If you need to install or reinstall Windows 10, you can use this tool to create your own installation media using either a USB flash drive or a DVD.

Mp3tag is a powerful and yet easy-to-use tool to edit metadata (ID3, Vorbis Comments and APE) of common audio formats.

Plex is a powerful media-sharing and streaming server solution that works across your local network and the wider internet too. Plex bridges the gap between your computer and your home theater, doing so with a visually appealing user interface that provides instant access to your media. It can play a wide range of video, audio and photo formats without having to install any third party video plugins and can stream online audio and video content served by Plex Media Server. Plex for Android Plex Roku Channel

PuTTY is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator.

Spybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware.

Tor is a toolset for organizations and people that want to improve their safety and security on the Internet. Using Tor can help you anonymize Web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and other applications that use the TCP protocol. Tor also provides a platform on which software developers can build new applications with built-in anonymity, safety, and privacy features.

Ultimate Boot CD Assembles over 100 PC hardware diagnosis tools into one bootable CD to analyze and repair PCs.

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.

Virtual CloneDrive is a disk image emulator. It is specially designed to mount images created by the SlySoft program CloneCD, although it can also mount ISO and BIN formats as well.

WinToFlash is software to transfer your Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7 setup from CD or DVD to USB. This is so you can install your Windows from flash drive, USB pen, HDD, etc on your computer or netbook.

Free Software that includes toolbars
When you install the following software the installer will to install a toolbar just opt out of the toolbar.

CCleaner is system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history.
Note: CCEnhancer is a small tool which adds support for over 1,000 new programs into CCleaner. CCleaner for Amazon Fire CCleaner for Android

CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray. It is a Free alternative to Nero Burning Rom. Note: Requires .NET

Defraggler is a free file defragmentation tool It differs from other defrag tools on the market, by enabling you to quickly and simply defrag the files you want to, without having to process the whole drive. Simply run it, select the file and defragment in seconds. No more struggling with the Windows defragmentation tool.

Discord is a free multi pltform VoIP application designed for gaming communities. See also Discord for Android.

ImgBurn is a free tool that enables you to burn CD/DVD images with ease.

IrfanView is a fast, simple freeware image viewer and editor that supports all major graphic formats.

K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs and related tools used to play all the popular movie formats and even some rare formats.

Recuva is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses.

TeamViewer is a simple and fast solution for remote control, desktop sharing and file transfer that works behind any firewall and NAT proxy. See also TeamViewer for Android.