Last updated: 23.3.19
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On this page there is the complete list of the top 100 and most programs for Windows, with download links.
They are programs, to be installed or portable, considered, unanimously, indispensable and absolute best for each kind and type of software
All the programs in the list can be downloaded for free and have no use limitations.
For each of them a blog article has been written and just use the search on the right to find more information.
On another page, there are the best free programs and applications for Mac .
If you want to express appreciation for the Navigaweb.net blog, become a fan on Facebook
On this page there is the complete list of the top 100 and most programs for Windows, with download links.
They are programs, to be installed or portable, considered, unanimously, indispensable and absolute best for each kind and type of software
All the programs in the list can be downloaded for free and have no use limitations.
For each of them a blog article has been written and just use the search on the right to find more information.
On another page, there are the best free programs and applications for Mac .
| Antivirus | Anti-Malware | Firewall | Defragment |
| File recovery | Uninstallers | Backup | Maintenance |
| Browser | Email client | Chat | Photos / Pictures |
| Audio programs | Video | Documents | Productivity |
| File archiving | CD / DVD | Download | File management |
| Others |
Antivirus
| avast! Free Antivirus Total protection against viruses and Trojans. | Avira Antivirus Free Edition The light and solid antivirus, silent and safe. | AVG Antivirus Free Edition Less good than Avast or Avira is still the most downloaded. |
| Microsoft SecurityEssentials From Microsoft the lightest protection for your computer. | Convenient Internet Security Complete security suite with antivirus, antimalware and firewall. | Lavasoft Ad-Aware + Free Excellent combination of antivirus and malware scanner |
| Panda Cloud Antivirus Free Edition Antivirus with light and always updated online protection. Excellent combination of antivirus and malware scanner | BitDefender Antivirus free Free all the power of the famous BitDefender antivirus, also optimized for Windows 10 | Kaspersky Antivirus The best antivirus ever. |
Anti-Malware
| Spybot S&D Find and remove spyware of all kinds. | Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Scanner to use when you have virus problems. | IObit Malware Fighter Removes spyware, malware and adware. |
| Reason Core to enhance the antivirus with an extra scan | Superantispyware Scanner to find and remove malware, adware, trojans, and other infections. | Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool Useful in removing spyware, malware and adware with the power of Kaspersky. |
| Dr.Web CureIt! Virus and malware scanner with anti-virus operation. | ADWCleaner To remove toolbar and adware and advertisements from web browsers | Should i Remove it To remove unnecessary programs from the PC. |
Firewall
| Glasswire Excellent protection against external intrusions. | Convenient Firewall Always considered the best free firewall ever. | ZoneAlarm Free Firewall The most powerful firewall for advanced users |
| TinyWall It is used to control all the settings of the Windows firewall | PeerBlock Check that your computer is not communicating with dangerous servers in peer to peer. |
defragmentation
| Auslogics Disk Defrag Quick and easy is considered the number one program for defragmenting the disk. | Defraggler Excellent tool for defragmentation by Ccleaner developers. | IObit Smart Defrag Easy to use, it works constantly in the background. |
File recovery
| Recuva Easy to use, it recovers deleted files | FreeUndelete Program to recover deleted and lost files | ADRC Data Recovery Powerful data recovery software. |
| Pandora Recovery Easy, powerful and light file recovery program | PhotoRec Specialized in photo recovery, also excellent for other files |
Uninstallers
| Revo Uninstaller Free Quick to uninstall all programs. | IObit Uninstaller A few more features to remove software from the computer. | Absolute Uninstaller Less popular but the easiest to use. |
| Geek Uninstaller Easy and completely free program to uninstall programs | Advanced Uninstaller Pro Free and uninstaller ready for Windows 10 |
Backup
| Mozy Fast and safe, it makes online backups. | FBackup For backup of programs, settings, documents and preferences. | EAseus Todo Backup Make full backup of the entire operating system. |
| Clonezilla Live CD to clone the disk if Windows no longer starts. | AOMEI Backupper Excellent and new backup program for Windows PC with advanced functions | FreeFileSync Windows program to compare and synchronize files and folders. |
| DriveImage XML Direct backup to another drive of an entire disk | Cobian Backup Full backup program to plan and make copies over the network. |
Maintenance and optimization
| Glary Utilities Includes over 15 tools to optimize your computer. | CCleaner Erase obsolete files and junk from the hard drive. | Windows System Control Center Scan your computer to find and update programs |
| IObit-Advanced SystemCare Free One click program to repair and clean Windows from errors and obsolete files. | Convenient System Cleaner System maintenance with pc cleaning and repair tools | CPU-Z Simple tool to get information about the PC hardware and its components. |
| GPU-Z Free tool to get detailed information about the graphics card. | Process Explorer Advanced version of the Windows Task Manager for a more detailed view of what is running on the PC. | WinDirStat A free tool to view disk space usage. |
| Speccy Tool to know everything about computer hardware | OutdateFighter Program to keep the pc updated, programs and system |
Browser
| Google Chrome The fastest browser to surf the internet with many extensions. | Firefox With 6000 addons, it becomes the browser with multiple customizations. | Vivaldi From the ashes of the old Opera, very particular and innovative. |
| Opera The least popular browser but full of options | Maxthon The fastest and most advanced browser today. |
Email client
| Thunderbird One of the best email clients for Windows. | MailStore Program to save and download emails from any site. | Google Notifier Send notification when a message is received in Gmail. |
Chat
| Skype Microsoft's most popular VOIP application. | Pidgin Easy to use, it allows you to chat on Facebook, Whatsapp and all the others. | Viber Windows client to call and send messages for free to mobile phones |
| Facebook Messenger Official Facebook chat program to keep on the desktop. | Skype Translator Official real-time translator for Skype calls | Franz To chat on PC on Whatsapp and Messenger. |
| RamBox To combine all chats into one program | Telegram PC program for the famous chat application |
Pictures and photos
| Paint.NET True candidate to be free Photoshop for non-expert users. | FastStone Image Viewer One of the best image viewers. | IrfanView Best program to view images, browse them and do file operations. |
| Google Picasa Personal photo manager and image galleries. | GIMP Powerful as Photoshop but not simple to use. | PhotoScape Good photo editing program that combines images for printing. |
| Inkscape Best free program to create vector images. | RIOT It allows you to resize images without loss of quality | XNView Small utility to view and convert images from more than 400 formats. |
| XN Convert Program to edit groups of photos on your computer with automatic effects. | Zoner Photo Studio Free Windows program to correct, modify and share images and images. | Luminance HDR Program to apply filters and light effects on photos. |
| Photo Story Program to create photo slideshows with music |
Audio and Music Programs
| foobar2000 Player to listen to minimal music for PC. | Songbird Powerful music player with many functions. | Audacity Best free program to edit and edit music and audio. |
| iTunes Essential (almost) to manage iPod, iPhone and iPad. | MediaMonkey To organize music and listen to playlists. | Winamp Famous and light media player. |
| CopyTrans Manager Program to manage an iPod or iPhone better and easier than iTunes | Tag scanner Program to manage music collections on your computer with tags. | MusicBee A great program to listen and discover new music. |
| Spotify Program to listen to streaming music for free | AIMP Lightweight, feature-rich Music Player expandable with plugins | jangle Music player complete with auto dj and many useful functions. |
Video programs
| VLC Media Player To watch any type of video on the computer. | Handbrake Conversion program between video formats. | OpenShot The only free software for video editing and video montages. |
| Media Player Classic Lightweight replication of Windows Media Player. | Freemake Video Converter Best and easiest video converting program. | Format Factory Video Converter for all formats: MP4, AVI, WMV, FLV, SWF, RMVB and many others. |
| KLite codec Full codecs to watch any video on Windows. | Pot Player The best to watch videos and movies of all kinds on the computer. | UMPlayer Excellent alternative to VLC to watch videos on the Windows computer. |
| Plex Great solution to turn your computer into a media center | Kodi The best and most customizable PC media center | CamStudio Best free program to record the Windows desktop |
| SMRecorder Best video recorder for PC. | X-Split To record and broadcast live games to video games |
File management
| FileMenu Tools To change the menu keys right mouse button. | freeCommander To keep files online and synchronize them between different computers. | TeraCopy Indispensable tool for programmers and code developers. |
| TreeSize Free Lightweight pdf viewer. | DropIt To create PDF from any document. | EASEUS Partition Master Create, unify and resize disk partitions. |
| Unlocker Delete files in use and kill blocked processes. | AxCrypt To protect files by encrypting them with passwords | SyncToy Microsoft program to synchronize folders and files |
| FileZilla Best lightweight FTP client for Windows. | BitTorrent Sync Program to synchronize files between different PCs without limits for free. | MultiCommander Alternative to Explorer with dual layout resources. |
| Google Drive Google cloud client. | Dropbox Famous program to synchronize files online. | OneDrive Client for Microsoft's cloud storage service. |
| PCloud Free 15GB cloud storage client. | Free Opener The program that reads and opens any file of any format. |
Office
| LibreOffice Best free alternative to Microsoft Office. | nanocad To create 3D CAD and DWG drawings, the best alternative to Autocad. | Notepad ++ Indispensable tool for programmers and code developers. |
| FoxIt Reader Lightweight pdf viewer. | OpenOffice Popular and historical free alternative to Microsoft Office. | doPDF To create PDF from any document. |
| PDF XChange Viewer Lightweight pdf viewer for editing documents and filling in fields. | Nitro PDF Program to create and read PDFs with editing function. | PDFTK Builder Program to join, split, sign and protect PDF. |
| VIM Text Editor Lightweight customizable program to edit text files. | pdfsam Program to split and merge PDF documents. | Open Live Writer Best program to write on your blog Blogger, Wordpress and other platforms. |
| Adobe Acrobat DC Latest version of the popular Adobe PDF reader |
Windows and Desktop improvement
| Fences Organize your desktop and icons! | Rainlendar Desktop calendar. | ClipX Clipboard manager for copy and paste |
| VirtuaWin Enable virtual desktops on Windows. | Dexpot To create 4 virtual desktops and separate open windows and programs. | Launchy To start programs faster. |
| SendTo Toys Tool to add items to the Send To menu | QDir Portable file manager. | SendToSendTo To add links to the Send To menu that appears by pressing the right button on a file. |
| Ditto Clipboard management program, to manage files and copied writings to be pasted. |
File compression
| 7-zip Extract archives and compress folders like Winrar or Winzip. | Universal Extractor Extraction support for any type of archive file. | IZArc Similar to 7-zip, it supports all types of file compression. |
| Peazip Free, simple and open source archive manager. |
CD / DVD
| ImgBurn Burn CD / DVD / HD-DVD / Blu-ray and create CD and DVD image files. | CDBurnerXP Most popular and easiest alternative to Nero Burning Rom for burning CDs and DVDs. | bitRipper To backup DVDs on your computer as AVI or Mpeg files. |
| CDex It is used to save audio CDs as mp3 on the computer. | DuBaron CD2ISO Extracting images from CDs and DVDs. | Virtual CloneDrive Mount a virtual hard disk to open the ISO files. |
| DVDShrink Program to convert and save DVD on computer. | DVD Flick Easy suite for creating DVDs. | WinCDEmu Mount ISO, CUE, NRG, IMG images by simply clicking on them. |
| DVDFab To burn CDs and DVDs and Bluray also protected | Daemon Tools The most popular program for mounting ISO images in a virtual DVD CD player. |
Download
| uTorrent The most famous torrent downloader. | Deluge Excellent Bittorrent client. | Free Download Manager Best internet download manager. |
| FlashGet Best program to download from the internet | JDownloader Excellent program to manage simultaneous downloads from the internet. | Mipony Download manager to facilitate file downloads from file sharing sites |
Other useful programs for Windows PC
| LastPass Plugin for browsers to keep your login and password safe. | TeamViewer To connect and control other Windows computers from a PC or iPhone on a remote desktop. | KeePass To keep passwords securely on the PC. |
| veracrypt Best free program for Windows to password protect files and hide sensitive files. | iPrint Program to print multiple pages on one sheet and save paper. | Antirun It protects your PC by blocking viruses and malware from infected USB sticks. |
| PortableApps Suite Best collection of portable programs to copy to USB stick. | LiberKey Collection of the best portable programs that do not require installation | Hiren's BootCD Computer startup CD to troubleshoot Windows problems and errors. |
| Eraser Erase files from your computer irretrievably and forever | Everything Quick search for files on your PC and hard disk to replace the Windows file finder. | Game Booster 3 Free program to increase the speed and frame rate of games |
| Listary Quick search for files in Windows folders. | SlimDrivers Automatic Windows driver update program | xampp To install an Apache server with MySQL, PHP and Perl easily and automatically. |
| Caliber Free program to organize and read EBooks on Windows. | VirtualBox Best program to start a virtual computer on Windows. | TunnelBear Connect to a US or UK virtual private network. |
| F. Lux Adjust the PC screen light according to the sun and time. | Connectify Create a wireless hotspot with Windows 7 to connect PCs and mobile phones to the Internet | Evernote To save notes online |
| Wunderlist Organize things to do with alerts and notifications. | FreeMind Program to create mind maps. | Rufus Program to copy ISO on bootable USB sticks |
