Information

These are completely FREE programs for both the 32 bit and 64 bit Vista versions. I have tested all of these programs below without any problems. The list is in alphabetical order using the program's name. I will add more as I run across them, so be sure to check the list every so often.

AbiWord is a free multi-platform word processing program similar to Microsoft Word. It is suitable for a wide variety of word processing tasks.

Active ISO Burner is a application that will allow you to burn an ISO image file to CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R, CD-RW, DVD-RW, DL DVD+RW, HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

abcAVI Tag Editor is little stand alone utility for viewing/editing tags in AVI files. In short it allows you to get information on movie from Internet Movie Database or type it by yourself and save that info inside AVI file. Supports RIFF INFO tags, MovieID tags, IDivX tags. Allows editing more than 40 tags, not only "Title", "Subject" and "Copyright". Support of RIFF INFO tags ensures backward compatibility with standard Windows players like MS Media Player.

A great adware and spyware removal program.

A browser add-on that allows you to watch videos online in your web browser.

A PDF file viewer that also installs a add-on for your web browser.

NOTE: For more information on this, see the FAQ's page.

The Shockwave Player is a web browser add-on that allows you to view interactive web content like games, business presentations, entertainment, and advertisements from your web browser.

Agent Ransack is a free tool for finding files and information on your hard drive fast and efficiently. When searching the contents of files Agent Ransack displays the text found so you can quickly browse the results without having to separately open each file.

A replacement for the Windows 7 Task Manager that provides more detailed information about the processes running on your PC with an advanced startup manager.

Any Video Converter Free is an All-in-One video converting tool with easy-to-use graphical interface, fast converting speed and excellent video quality. It allows you to effortlessly convert video files between every format! This free version supports DVD NTSC, DVD PAL, MPEG-I, MPEG-II, MPEG-4 and Flash FLV video profiles.

To customize all versions of Windows Live Messenger. 71+ features.

This program helps to remove infections of Trojans, Spyware, Adware, Worms, Keyloggers, Rootkits, Dialers and other malicious programs.

NOTE: You have your choice of just a stand alone or installing program.

ASTRA32 (Advanced Sysinf Tool & Reporting Assistant) performs computer configuration analysis and provides detailed information on your computer hardware and its working modes. This is an alternative to Vista's System Information.

Attribute Changer is a power user tool to change all kind of file and folder attributes, date, time and even NTFS compression. Exif date and time information stored in digital images are easily altered with Attribute Changer. Basic features include changing file and folder attributes within en masse. More advanced features include relative and partial date/time stamp modifications. Realtime monitoring and reporting is also available. File and folder filters are available to include/exclude filesystem objects based on various criteria.

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder. You can use Audacity to:

• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
• And more! See the complete list of features.

Defrags your hard drive. It has a progress graph so you can see what is going on. Also gives you a full detail report with a percentage of performace increase.

WARNING: As with all registry cleaning programs, you should verify the scan results before just simply deleting them.

Auslogics Registry Cleaner will scan your computer for registry errors and problems, and fix the Registry, increasing PC performance and stability.

NOTE: You will need to right click on the autoruns.exe file and click Run as administrator for the program to run properly.

This utility shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. These programs include ones in your startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys. You can configure Autoruns to show other locations, including Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, and much more. Autoruns goes way beyond MSConfig.

AutoSizer automatically resizes programs for you, keeping them at a specific size or keeping them maximized. One popular use is to keep Internet Explorer maximized when you go on the web. It works with most software programs, and supports maximizing to specific monitors on multi-monitor computers. Use the handy Always On Top system tray menu to quickly position specific programs above all others.

NOTE: You must register this program even though it's free. The registration will be good for a year. After that, you must re-register. It is still completely free though. You can get free skins for Avast here: Free download - new skins for your avast! 4 antivirus program

Very good antivirus program that auto updates the definitions and optionally the program itself. Has a VRDB (Virus Recovery Database) that you set to help in recovering from a VIRUS if infected. Full of options.

Another good antivirus program.

NOTE: Do a custom install and do not install the email scanning option. Otherwise it can corrupt Windows Mail.

Another great antivirus program that auto updates.

A free open source file encryption program.

Batchrun is a nice little software to help making batch files easier.

Builds a very detailed profile of your hardware and software with serial numbers and product key numbers. Very informative.

BIMP Lite is a small and simple batch processor for image files, that allows you to perform various functions on multiple images. It can be used to create thumbnail images from your pictures, add a prefix/postfix (with meta variables), rename using a sequential number, change the case of filenames, replace/remove spaces & underscores, flip or rotate images and also apply anti-aliasing, inverse, greyscale and bevel effects. The thumbnail resizing allows you to force a specified width or height and keep the proportions, or define fixed image dimensions. Images can have text overlayed on them at any corner or side, as well as the center of the image. This text can include meta variables such as image height, width, number of colours etc. In addition, the program can also convert the file format to GIF, JPG, PNG, BMP, MIFF, TIFF, PCX or TGA. All of the actions can be performed individually, or combined. BIMP now also includes an FTP client, so you can automatically output images to a remote server via the File Transfer Protocol.

BitKinex is a handy network client supporting multiple transfer protocols (FTP, FTP(S), SFTP, HTTP(S) and WebDAV). In contrast to other clients BitKinex uses multiple connections not only for file transfers but for browsing remote directories as well.

BitPim is a program that allows you to view and manipulate data on many CDMA (Code division multiple access) phones from LG, Samsung, Sanyo and other manufacturers. This includes the PhoneBook, Calendar, WallPapers, RingTones (functionality varies by phone) and the Filesystem for most Qualcomm CDMA chipset based phones. To see when phones will be supported, which ones are already supported and which features are supported, see online help.

BitTorrent is a free torrent client program used for file sharing.

Blender is a free open source 3D content creation suite.

NOTE: See the tutorial on this also. The free version will not let you create your own bootskin, but instead only let you use a downloaded bootskin to use as your boot screen.

Stardock BootSkin Vista is a program that allows users to change their Windows Vista boot screens.

BlueScreenView scans all your minidump files created during 'blue screen of death' crashes, and displays the information about all crashes in one table. For each crash, BlueScreenView displays the minidump filename, the date/time of the crash, the basic crash information displayed in the blue screen (Bug Check Code and 4 parameters), and the details of the driver or module that possibly caused the crash (filename, product name, file description, and file version). For each crash displayed in the upper pane, you can view the details of the device drivers loaded during the crash in the lower pane. BlueScreenView also mark the drivers that their addresses found in the crash stack, so you can easily locate the suspected drivers that possibly caused the crash.

NOTE: Be sure to download the correct 32 bit or 64 bit version for your version of Vista. To see all the features, see: Features - Bulk Rename Utility

Bulk Rename Utility is a simple utility which allows you to rename multiple files and folders, based upon flexible criteria. For example, you can add a prefix or suffix to a file, or you can change three letters with four other letters in a filename. There are lots of ways to manipulate file and folder names.

Cleans junk and temp files for Vista and most other programs. It is also a registry cleaner, cookie manager, program uninstall manager, and a startup program manager. A all in one utility program basically.

ClipMagic is an information manager which provides extended clipboard capabilities to save all clips for later use. A major shortfall in Vista is that the clipboard can only store one item at a time, each new item deleting the last. This free clipboard program stores clips in a convenient categorized format with information; about the window the clip came from, the URL if it came from a web page and the time and type of clip.

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. FTP backup is also supported in both directions (download and upload).
Cobian Backup exists in two different versions: application and service. The program uses very few resources and can be running on the background on your system, checking your backup schedule and executing your backups when necessary. Cobian Backup is not an usual backup application: it only copies your files and folders in original or compressed mode to other destination, creating a security copy as a result. So Cobian Backup can be better described as a "Scheduler for security copies".
Cobian Backup supports several methods of compression and strong encryption.

NOTE: For more information about this program, see: release notes

Comodo Firewall and Comodo AntiVirus are bundled together in the Comodo Internet Security package. You can select to only install one or both of them. The firewall program is one of the best ones that you can use. The antivirus program is not as good as Avast, but may be just as good later.

Comodo Memory Firewall is a buffer overflow detection and prevention tool which provides a defence against one of the most serious and common attack types on the Internet - the buffer overflow attack.

A registry cleaner program that helps you repair and optimize the registry.

Core Temp is a compact, no fuss, small footprint program to monitor CPU temperature. It shows the temperature of each individual core in each processor in your system. You can see in real time how the CPU temperature varies when you load your CPU. It's also completely motherboard independent.

CPU Speed measures the REAL speed of your Intel or AMD central processing unit (CPU).

NOTE: Click on the version number towards the bottom to download. This is a standalone EXE program.

CPU-Z is a freeware that gathers and displays information for you on some of the main devices of your system. EX: CPU, Mainboard, Memory, and System. See the link for full details on what is does.

NOTE: This program was made for XP, but I have not experienced any problems with it yet.

D-Color allows you to change the appearance of the desktop icon text foreground and background colors. It also allows you to change the view of your desktop icons from Large, Small, and Tile view icons.

Piriform, the makers of CCleaner, Defraggler differs from other defrag tools on the market, by enabling you to quickly and simply defrag the files you want to, without having to only process the whole drive unless you want to. Simply run it, select the file defragment in seconds. You can also set Defraggler to run on a schedule.

In Windows, when screen resolution changes, the order of the desktop icons very often gets mixed up. With DeskSave you can easily recover a previously saved icon layout either manually or automatically.

NOTE: See this tutorial: How to Enhance Windows Vista DreamScene with Stardock DeskScapes

Stardock DeskScapes extends Windows DreamScene with the ability to run .Dream animated wallpapers. .Dream files can be looped video, or dynamically generated in 3D, or change based on a set of triggers. DeskScapes turns Windows DreamScene into something more. DeskScapes can only be used with Vista Ultimate.

Desktop.ini a text file that allows you to specify how a file system folder will be viewed (ex: icon). DesktopINIFix is a small utility that fixes the desktop.ini file for various shell folders in Windows Vista.

Save and restore the positions of icons for each screen resolution. Each user can then have their own arrangement.

Digsby is a multiprotocol IM client that lets you chat with all your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber with one simple to manage buddy list.

Disk2vhd is a "Windows Sysinternals" utility program that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft’s Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). The difference between Disk2vhd and other physical-to-virtual tools is that you can run Disk2vhd on a system that’s online. Disk2vhd uses Windows’ Volume Snapshot capability, introduced in Windows XP, to create consistent point-in-time snapshots of the volumes you want to include in a conversion. You can even have Disk2vhd create the VHDs on local volumes, even ones being converted (though performance is better when the VHD is on a disk different than ones being converted).

DisplayFusion will make your dual monitor (or triple monitor or more) experience smooth and painless advanced multi-monitor wallpaper support, Flickr integration for image searching, and fully customizable window management hotkeys are just a sample of the many things DisplayFusion can do.

Ditto is an extension to the standard windows clipboard. It saves each item placed on the clipboard allowing you access to any of those items at a later time. Ditto allows you to save any type of information that can be put on the clipboard, text, images, html, custom formats, .....

Stardock DreamMaker allows you to create your own animated .dream wallpapers for DreamScapes. DreamMaker is a free utility for Windows Vista Ultimate only.

This simple easy to use software backs up your hard drive when and where you tell it, and recovers whenever you need to.

Duplicate Picture Finder scans any given set of folders and attempts to locate duplicate images for you. But what makes this tool different from all the others out there, is that it does exactly what you would do - it uses visual comparison to determine whether images are the same, enabling it to locate images that different sizes but are visually identical.

DVD Flick is a multithreaded free GPL open-source DVD Authoring tool for making dvd's from avi, mpg, mkv etc. It can take a number of video files stored on your computer and turn them into a DVD that will play back on your DVD player, Media Center or Home Cinema Set. You can add additional custom audio tracks, subtitles as well as a menu for easier navigation.

NOTE: Only free for the 32-bit Vista.

EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition is a FREE disk partitioning utility for extending system partition, better disk space management, settling low disk space problem.

EasyBCD, by NeoSmart Technologies, is used to tweak the Windows Vista bootloader. You can use it to setup and configure Windows boot entries, and to quickly boot right into Linux, Mac OS X, or BSD straight from the Windows Vista bootloader. You can also add an entry to your old XP partition or create a duplicate for testing purposes, debug the Windows Kernel, or setup multi-booting to have mulitple operating systems.

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.

Everything is a search engine program used to locate files and folders by name instantly on your computer.

This is a multi purpose launcher and a more advanced and customizable version of Windows run.

NOTE: This program was written by one of our members Mr.Thunderbird.

This tool makes it very easy to manage extensions' icons, and even descriptions with a few clicks. It also has functions like changing drive icons, changing OEM logo and info, and registration information.

This handy utility allows you to manage context menus items of file objects displayed in a file manager like Windows Explorer or any other application that deals with shell's application programming interface. It's a very simple way to make your often used file actions quickly accessible.

FastStone Capture allows you to capture anything on the screen including windows, objects, full screen, rectangle regions, freehand-selected regions and scrolling windows/web-pages. It has features such as floating Capture Panel, hotkeys, text annotation, resizing, printing, cropping, emailing and many more.

FavIconizer will scan all links you have in your C:\Users\(user name)\Favorites folder and check if the website has a FavIcon. If it has one, FavIconizer will download that icon and adjust the link in the Favorites folder to use that Favicon.
After FavIconizer is finished, you have all the FavIcons back in your favorites instead of the standard web "e" icon.

Fences, by Stardock, is a program that helps you organize your desktop, and can hide your icons when they're not in use. It allows you to draw labeled shaded areas on your desktop, which become movable & resizable containers for your desktop icons. These groups can help bring organization and consistency to your computer's desktop, solving the "constant mess" problem that has plagued the desktop since its inception.

This program by LopeSoft lets you customize the right click context menu of Windows Explorer. It configures the following aspects:

• Add some build-in utilities in order to do operations over files and folders.
• Add customized commands which let run external applications, copy/move to a specific folder or delete specific file types.
• Configure the "Send to..." submenu.
• Enable/disable the commands which are added by other applications to the context menu.

FileNote is a little shell extension that will allow you to add textual descriptions to your files. It adds one command to the shell context menu of a file object. This command lets you easily edit or create a text file that has the same name as the initial file, but with the extension TXT.

NOTE: This is a standalone EXE file, and does not install. Be sure to download the correct version for your 32 bit or 64 bit Vista.

FileTypesMan is an alternative to the File Types tab in the Folder Options of Windows XP. It displays the list of all file extensions and types registered on your computer. For each file type, the following information is displayed: Type Name, Description, MIME Type, Perceived Type, In New Menu, Excluded, Flags, Browser Flags, Default Icon, and more. FileTypesMan also allows you to easily edit the properties and flags of each file type, as well as it allows you to add, edit, and remove actions in a file type.

FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface.

This is an alternative web browser other than Internet Explorer.

FlashGet is a download manager that uses a MHT (Multi-server Hyper-threading Transportation) technique, supports various protocols and has document management features.

Flash Movie Player is a free stand-alone player for ShockWave Flash (SWF) animations, based on the Macromedia Flash Player plugin. In addition to all Macromedia Flash Player abilities, it has some extended features, such as animation rewinding, advanced full screen mode, playlists, browser cache integration and exe projectors support.

Folder2Iso just creates an iso from any kind of folder (with the subfolders).

Format Factory is a multifunctional media converter. Provides functions below:

• All to MP4/3GP/MPG/AVI/WMV/FLV/SWF.
• All to MP3/WMA/AMR/OGG/AAC/WAV.
• All to JPG/BMP/PNG/TIF/ICO/GIF/TGA.
• Rip DVD to video file , Rip Music CD to audio file.
• MP4 files support iPod/iPhone/PSP/BlackBerry format.
• Supports RMVB.

A PDF file viewer and browser add-on like Adobe Reader.

Edit audio files visually; Record audio from a microphone or any other available input device; Apply various effects; Burn audio CDs from MP3, WMA, WAV, and OGG; All in one program, simple and intuitive - FAE (free audio editor).

Disk Usage Analyzer helps you organize your files and manage disk space by locating the largest files on your disk. You can quickly find where are your largest files, such as videos, photos and archives, and move them elsewhere, possibly to a backup drive. You may also decide to simply delete unneeded files. Disk Analyzer is fast and easy to use, summarizing your disk usage in a friendly format with visual graphs. Disk Analyzer is integrated with Windows so that you can view, open or delete files in the same way as in Windows Explorer.

Free Download Manager is a download accelerator and manager program. In addition, it allows you to: adjust traffic usage; to organize and schedule downloads; download video from video sites; download whole web sites with HTML Spider; operate the program remotely, via the internet, and more.

This is a program used to compact and defragment your registry by removing gaps and wasted space, to help improve the whole system performance.

Free video and audio conversion software. This supports a wide range of audio and video formats that you convert from one to another format or back.gaps and wasted space, thus helping to improve the whole system performance.