FREE Great Programs for Windows 7

[valtonray]

Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. avaible at Stellarium

 

[swarfega]

ShadowExplorer: ShadowExplorer.com - About
ShadowExplorer allows you to browse the shadow copies created by the Windows Vista/7 Volume Shadow Copy Service. It's especially thought for users of the home editions, who don't have access to the shadow copies by default, but it's also useful for users of the other editions.

 

[Brink]

Thank you Nick. I thought that I already had ShadowExplorer added.

 

[D3ftOn3Z]

Picasa - Picasa 3: Free download from Google

Picasa is 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!

Photoscape - Photoscape : Free Photo Editing Software (Photo Editor) Download

Key Features

• Viewer: View photos in your folder, create a slideshow
• Editor: resizing, brightness and color adjustment, white balance, backlight correction, frames, balloons, mosaic mode, adding text, drawing pictures, cropping, filters, red eye removal, blooming
• Batch editor: Batch edit multiple photos
• Page: Merge multiple photos on the page frame to create one final photo
• Combine: Attach multiple photos vertically or horizontally to create one final photo
• Animated GIF: Use multiple photos to create a final animated photo
• Print: Print portrait shots, carte de visites(CDV), passport photos
• Splitter: Slice a photo into several pieces
• Screen Capture: Capture your screenshot and save it
• Color Picker: Zoom in on images, search and pick a color
• Rename: Change photo file names in batch mode
• Raw Converter: Convert RAW to JPG
• Paper Print: Print lined, graph, music and calendar paper
• Face Search: Find similar faces on the Internet

Panda UsbVaccine - http://research.pandasecurity.com/panda-usb-and-autorun-vaccine/

Features:
The free Panda USB Vaccine can be used on individual USB drives to disable its AUTORUN.INF file in order to prevent malware infections from spreading automatically. When applied on a USB drive, the vaccine permanently blocks an innocuous AUTORUN.INF file, preventing it from being read, created, deleted or modified. Once applied it effectivelly disables Windows from automatically executing any malicious file that might be stored in that particular USB drive. The drive can otherwise be used normally and files (even malware) copied to/from it, but they will be prevented from opening automatically. Panda USB Vaccine currently only works on FAT & FAT32 USB drives. Also keep in mind that USB drives that have been vaccinated cannot be reversed except with a format.

 

[tenbear]

Scribus - An powerful open source desktop publisher. scribus.net | Scribus Open Source Desktop Publishing
Unreal Commander - A Windows Explorer replacement. File manager Unreal Commander − Main page

 

[MikeBravo]

ieSpell

Yet another one which I completely forgot about...

IESpell - Spellchecker for Internet Explorer - spellcheck your online forms and forum posts
ieSpell - Spell Checker add-on for Internet Explorer

Users should note that while 64 bit Win 7 comes with 32 and 64 bit versions of Internet Explorer, ieSpell works only with the 32 bit IE. Check me on this but I think the same can be said of Acrobat Reader. Jan2010

 

[Charles Kane]

"7capture automatically handles complicated transparency problems such as rounded corners and Aero semi-transparent windows backgrounds.

No matter what Windows version you are using, 7capture will do its magic: clean rounded corners on Windows XP, alpha transparency in Windows Vista and Windows 7. 7capture will even capture your theme's color for even better looking screenshots. Unattractive screenshots are part of history."

For what it does it's fine BUT its entirely a one trick pony and will only capture open windows, I can't find any options to select rectangular areas, scrolling windows, full screen or freeform captures.
I still think the last freeware FastStone Capture is the best, tho admittedly in - like most capture tools doesn't handle rounded corners as transparent areas.

 

[spokes]

Avast 5 Free now available, installed it over the top of v4.8 no problems with W7x32. Only issue so far is that it has it's own SSL email checker so I had to set my email account servers to non-SSL/TLS otherwise I either got a warning message when sending, or unable to access mail.

 

[Loki]

Sun VirtualBox

I use VirtualBox to run Guest of Windows 7. I've found that Virtual PC 2007 runs a guest of Win 7 but not very well and not supported. Sure if you have a processor that will support Virtual PC 7 you don't need VirtualBox, but I don't and I can't afford a new PC

Works on Windows 7 x86 and x64.

 

[BAZ]

It's a very beneficial thread. Thanks for putting this all up.

 

[Zirro]

I'm also using Virtualbox to test MS Office 2010 and Norton 360 V4.
I cant do too much in the virtual machine before it maxes out my 2 CPU's and hangs the system.
I'm sure it would run better on a new Core i7 machine and a better graphics card, but like Loki I can't afford that yet.

 

[NoN]

I found this!

RichCopy 4.0.211:
RichCopy is a free utility that was first developed in 2001 and has been updated regularly to keep pace with evolving needs. What users will find most striking the first time they take Microsoft RichCopy out for a spin is that it's a multithreaded copying tool.
That means that rather than copying one file at a time in serial order, RichCopy can open multiple threads simultaneously, allowing many files to be copied in parallel and cutting the total time required to complete the operation several times over.
You can also pause and resume file copy operations, so if you lose network connectivity at any point, you can just pick up where you left off.
RichCopy is designed to help people who copy huge number of files between storage devices directly or indirectly over the network by accelerating copy performance and shorten the time people has to spend for file copy operation. This acceleration has been realized by improving network and storage device utilization with technology used for server services.

Download at:
|MG| RichCopy 4.0.211 Download

 

[MilesAhead]

Half Shell

Here's another one of mine. It's just a hotkey handler called Half Shell for 64 bit Windows Seven and Vista. Select folders in the 64 bit Explorer and hit Shift-Enter to open the folders in the 32 bit Explorer. This way many 32 bit Windows Shell Extensions will work. It's freeware. It got a nice write-up here:

Open 32-Bit Windows Explorer Folder In Windows 7 64-Bit

You can always download the latest version from my site on this page:
Hotkeys

Just scroll about half way down and you'll see the link for Half Shell

 

[KevinC]

JetAudio COWON Media Center
JetAudio

I know what you're thinking, just what I need, another friggin media player! Loaded with features.

I was using Winamp and when I switch exclusively to Win 7 I lost the media controls on my Logitech keyboard, getting them back with this piece of software was reason enough for me to switch. The more I use it, the more I like it !!

 

[Extensa]

Awesome list!! Have to say that VLC media player is a great program, especially for HTPC users who watch DVDs. Works with disks that WMP won't open.

UltraVNC is also a great program. Much easier to set up and use than Remote Desktop. And it works across platform x64 7 -> x86 XP/Vista

 

[an4rew]

KMplayer is better than VLC imo.

 

[Dark Angel]

WoW
It's just the greatest Program collection ever.

 

[polycue]

WinAlarm is a freeware reminder and alarm program. You can use it to remind you of specific forthcoming events, or of events that recur on a regular basis. It provides a customizable pop-up color-coded window bearing whatever text you enter, plus a customizable sound (if you want one). It can also provide advance warnings, and after-the-event reminder warnings.

WinAlarm - Download your free reminder and alarm program!​

 

[Brink]

Thank you Pat. Added.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

Take a look at this one Brink,

Super Finder XT (Standard version)

If you are like me and just don't like the new Windows 7 search feature, you can try a free search tool that's works more like the old XP search tool.

" Info:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Powerful replacement for Windows XP™ built-in search.
Search files, folders and other data efficiently and easily.

Are you frustrated by the standard search utility? Try Super Finder!

An example: Windows XP search utility won't search the source codes for html file, but Super Finder does, and that's very useful for web designers. Right-click on the results, and you get the usual context menu, letting you open the html files with notepad or our preferred editor. (this is just one of many cases that Super Finder can solve) "
[/FONT]
A complete features list and download can be found here: FSL - Super Finder XT

Works with 32 and 64 bit systems.

Comes in this newer XT version and they also offer an older Classic version.

If you want to donate to the company, you can get a special version for people who donate which has the ability for manipulating multiple files.

Warning. Comodo Anti Virus reports this as a virus. There is no virus, it is seeing a false positive.

I went looking for a replacement and found this.. But there may be better search replacements - this is the first one I have tried and it works well, is fast and feature rich.