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Antivirus
AVG Antivirus: Free program that protects against viruses and hackers. free.avg.com
Microsoft Security Essentials: MSE detected 98.44% of viruses, worms, backdoors, bots and Trojans, and detected 90.95% of adware and spyware, such as bank info stealers. microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/
Avast! Antivirus: Free antivirus protection just as good as the big boys. avast.com/free-antivirus-download
Office Productivity
Open Office: Can't afford hundreds of dollars for Microsoft Office (who can?), then try this full-featured competitor which has a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, database, and drawing application. You can even save to a Word .doc format. openoffice.org
Google Docs: Create and edit web-based documents, spreadsheets, and presentations for free. Store documents online and access them from any computer. docs.google.com
Conference Calls: Make unlimited conference calls with this service. freeconference.com
Microsoft Word Viewer: A free program for Windows to view/print Office .doc's if you do not have a program that can open Office files. microsoft.com/downloads
PDF Viewers
DoPDF: Want to turn a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, or Web page into a PDF? Install DoPDF and then in the Print command of whatever program you're using select the DoPDF "printer". www.dopdf.com
PDF-XchangeViewer: Unless you own Adobe's expensive Acrobat software you can't type or make changes to PDF's. This easy-to-use software lets you do just that. You can export in a number of different formats and save as a PDF. docu-track.com
Foxit Reader: Foxit’s NO BLOAT PDF Reader is a small download, fast, and gives you accurate rendering. foxitsoftware.com
Adobe Reader: Adobe Reader software is the global standard for electronic document sharing. Use it to view, search, digitally sign, verify, print, and collaborate on PDF files. adobe.com
Synchronize PC's
Sync: Want to keep files on multiple PCs (desktop, laptop, netbook, etc.) synchronized? Install this software on each computer, state which folders to synchronize, and the software does the rest. sync.live.com
Online Storage
SkyDrive: This free service from Microsoft lets you store and share 25GB of files that you can access from any Internet-connected computer. skydrive.live.com
Audio
Audacity: This versatile open-source program can record and edit all types of sound files and export them in .wav or .mp3 formats. audacity.sourceforge.net
AoA Audio Extractor: Easily extract audio tracks from AVI, MPEG, MPG, FLV (Flash Video), DAT, WMV, MOV, MP4, 3GP video files and save them as MP3, WAV and AC3 formats. It can also be used to save any portion of the audio of a video file. aoamedia.com/audioextractor
Video
Animoto: Turn your photos and videos into beautifully orchestrated, completely unique video pieces. Fast, free and shockingly easy. animoto.com
YouTube Video Editor: Edit your videos with YouTube’s free online video editor. youtube.com/editor
CamStudio: This open-source program for capturing videos of your screen turns what you do on your desktop, as well as the audio to go with it, into a movie, suitable for future demonstrations. camstudio.org
Screentoaster: Create a recording of your computer screen for making "how to" videos. Sign up at the ScreenToaster site, press Alt-S, and you're recording. You can also add captions, upload it to their servers, YouTube, or download it as an AVI file. screentoaster.com
Handbrake: An open-source, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder that can convert DVDs to a wide variety of computer and mobile formats. handbrake.fr
Graphics
GIMP: This image editor has many of the same tools you'd find in Photoshop, including filters, effects, masks, and layers. gimp.org
Paint.NET: Features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. getpaint.net
Picasa: Free photo editing software from Google that makes your pictures look great. Sharing your best photos with friends and family is as easy as pressing a button! picasa.google.com
AndreaMosaic: Photomosaic Software. With this freeware program you can create your own photographic mosaics made with your own pictures! andreaplanet.com/andreamosaic/ Want to see what can be done with AndreaMosaic? Check out: Starry Night
Disc Burning/Copying
Nero 9 Lite: Nero's world-renowned data disc burning and copying features absolutely FREE! nero.com
InfraRecorder: Free CD/DVD burning solution for Windows. It offers a wide range of powerful features; all through an easy to use application interface and Windows Explorer integration. infrarecorder.org
DVDShrink: Software for shrinking original DVDs onto recordable media, (Does not seem to be compatible with Vista or 7). dvdshrink.org
DVD Flick: Convert various PC video formats to a DVD that can be played on pretty much any standalone DVD player. It's main target audience is people who know at least the basics about DVDs and video and audio files. sourceforge.net/projects/dvdflick
House & Family
Home Inventory: Insurance companies ask you to inventory your possessions prior to signing up for a homeowner's or renter's policy. Create a home inventory of everything you own on this site, a service of the Insurance Information Institute, and throw in digital pictures or even scanned purchase receipts to make sure what's yours is yours. knowyourstuff.org
Geni: There's no easier place to plug in your family tree, and being a Web app makes it easy to share with the rest of the family so they can fill in the gaps. geni.com
IM & Social Networking
Digsby: The ultimate way to stay in real-time touch with friends. It incorporates multiple IM networks, social networks (including Twitter), and e-mail and Web-mail notifications. digsby.com
Meebo: When you can't install software (At work or on another computer) but still want to chat on all the major IM networks, Meebo is your site of choice. Sign up for an account to access multiple IM networks all online. meebo.com
Misc.
SUPER ©: Convert nearly any Multimedia file format into any other format! filehippo.com (click "Download latest version" link on the right)
Zamzar: Upload just about any file (under 100MB) and you can convert it to just about any format that makes sense. This tool even grabs online videos from YouTube and turns them into files you can use. zamzar.com
CCleaner: A great tool for cleaning up all traces of your Internet activities. CCleaner also clears Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Flash Player, Google Toolbar, Windows Media Player and Microsoft Office. ccleaner.com
Restoration: Scan your hard drive or USB drive and find files that have been deleted (Windows doesn't delete files it just marks the space as being available) and then recover them with a single mouse click. pcworld.com/downloads/
52 Incredibly Useful Sites: Not all of these are "free" but like the title says, they can be useful! pcworld.com
112 Sites & Services: Best Free Downloads, Sites and Services (Full List). pcworld.com
ARRFdesigns does not guarantee that you will receive anything free. You are downloading and installing programs at your own risk. Links to other sites are not always indications of any association or endorsement by ARRFdesigns.com