Free Software List for Vista

USB Disk Ejector.

Nothing clever, just a handy icon for the desktop, click twice to "safely remove hardware" as Windows puts it for pendrives, MP3 players, etc, plugged into a USB port. Saves a few seconds, various switches.

A really impressive list! Nice work!

If you haven't taken to the new Backup software in Windows Vista and want something more traditional where you can actually choose the specific files and folders you want to backup then this piece of software is perfect ... and free

AceBackup: The free Backup Software

I especially like the backup approach where it copies (compresses and encrypts) the files you want backed up and can be set to only refresh the files in the backup that have changed.

Edit - 10th June, 2008 - started having a few problems with this program. For some reason it started to ignore files and give some strange errors. I think things got corrupted. I now use Cobian Backup 9.

CutePDF Writer
My old JawsPDF Creator has been playing up in Vista, tried the free Cute one and it worked out of the tin. Claimed Vista 32/64 compat, I can only speak for 32.

Staying with PDF I also believe that this site is worth a look:

Foxit Software

Certainly does not take up as much space as Adobe Reader and, in my mind, is a lot faster.

I'm the new guy in the community and I am surprized that no one has mentioned the still incredible Proxomitron

Some really important omissions here, as I think some of these are possibly the best freeware in their field(s).

Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic - freeware antivirus, better then AVG and Avast (not knocking them, but they're "good for being free" which isn't quite as good as the paid ones), but the catch is, once per day it'll display a nag screen as it updates itself. Well worth it for better protection, imo. Using it right now on Vista x64 Ultimate.

CDBurnerXP - CD / DVD burning software. One of the rare free programs that looks and feels as richly made as the better paid ones. I dropped Nero for this a couple of years ago, and it works great in Vista x64 (runs on .Net framework which you must install first, if you don't already have it).

xplorer2 - file manager / windows explorer replacement - two-pane FTP-style file management.

FastStone Image Viewer - Remember the old ACDSee before it became huge and bloated, and when you still loved it? This is just like that.

FileZilla - The most well-rounded (free) FTP client for Vista that I know of. There's a 64-bit one in the works, I hear, but this works fine as-is on Vista x64.

Gadwin PrintScreen - if SnagIt was free also, I'd still like Gadwin's better. A very elegant program that will make people actually use the Print Screen button again!

Recuva - undelete software from the same folks as CCleaner. I've used it and it works nicely.

Exact Audio Copy - the mother of all CD-rippers works great in Vista x64 (you'll have to download the LAME encoder to plug into it, also, if it's not already on your drive somewhere).

Trillian Basic - Multi-client instant messanger that connects to AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC. Skinnable too.

VideoLAN (or VLC) - Lots of people swear by this so I included it, but it's only 2ed favorite video player. See...

Combined Community Codec Pack (or CCCP) - imo the best video player (media player classic) + codec pack available, but that's just me. Try them both.

That's pretty much it for now.

VideoSpin - I'm a noob at video editing, but basically, from what I understand, this is the "easy one" and VirtualDub is the more advanced one. Again, this is not my area of knowledge...I do simple edits of .avi files from our digital camera and that's it. Maybe a real video editing geek can add something to this and correct me if needed.

Enjoy.

The Faststone Capture program is worth having as it can capture images larger than the screen;
version 5.3 linked is free for non-commercial use but the latest version 6 is $20 shareware.

For FTP I've found WinSCP very good. Although designed for high security it can be set to plain FTP for hosts not supporting the default SFTP. I like the way I can right-click on a file and 'Send To' my webspace.

I'll try CDBurnerXP, I'm getting cheesed off with Nero 7's insistence on installing stuff that tries to run at start-up (Scout) plus I'm not paying for a vast suite of second-rate bloat in Nero 8.

Shawn,

Fantastic list. Have already downloaded and installed several tools. Many thanks

Returnil Virtual System 2008 Personal Edition v2.0

This is one program that i consider a must have on my systems.
A re-boot and all changes made to the OS are gone