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By Eric Griffith Eric Griffith Features Editor My Experience I've been writing about computers, the internet, and technology professionally for 30 years, more than half of that time with . I run several special projects including the Readers' Choice and Business Choice surveys, and yearly coverage of the Fastest ISPs and Best Gaming ISPs. I work from my home, and did it long before pandemics made it cool. Read Full Bio
It's a mobile world, but we have not fully abandoned thedesktop PC. Real computing work (and a lot of the play) requires a full personal computing system. And to get the most out of it, you need software.
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Software can be expensive, but free programs have been a mainstay of the desktop experience for decades, and today's offerings are powerful. You can find a great variety of free audio and video editors, office suites, file utilities, organizers, photo converters, and more. To keep things free, software developers can adopt an ad-based model, create donation-ware, or use a shareware/freemium model that charges for extra features.
To be included in this roundup, software must be available directly from the developer/creator/original publisher. It should (typically) have a Windows-based download—we're not including browser extensions, because we're not all using the same browser. But we've included web-based apps that are as good as—or even better than—most downloadable programs.
More requirements for inclusion here: If the software is on a tiered sales model, the free version cannot be trial-ware; it must offer at least a free-for-life option. Preferably, the program has had an update in the last year or two, and the program should have little or no advertising to support it. Finally, this list is about software for productivity; there are plenty of other places to find free PC games.
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Always be on the lookout for crapware installers: To make ends meet, many creators of otherwise great free software, or the services that offer free programs for download, bundle in things youdon'twant—i.e., crapware. Worse, the installation steps are often obfuscated, so you might unintentionally provide the unwanted program with permission to be installed. For more about how to spot and avoid this problem, seeHow to Rid a New PC of Crapware.
A related pro tip: Download desktop software only from the maker of the software directly. It's not foolproof—after all, developers want to eat, too—but it helps.
Open-source Audacity(Opens in a new window) can record and edit audio files on more tracks than you can imagine. It then outputs exactly what you need. It is perfect for noobs and pros alike, on any desktop OS.
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No one would call HandBrake(Opens in a new window) simple, but it's hard for any other video transcoder to compete in power and comprehensiveness.
Means to convert; Handbrake will turn almost any video format into another video format. It's free, it's open-source, and it has years of practice.
While it lacks the slick interface found in most other video editors, Shotcut(Opens in a new window) 's got lots of other powers, and you don't have to pay anything for them—you have nothing to lose but time in trying it out. You can undock panels as you work, customizing the editing on screen, which is great on multi-monitor setups.
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Stream your video gaming with Logitech's Streamlabs Open Broadcasting System(Opens in a new window) (aka SLOBS) directly to YouTube, Twitch, or Facebook. You can even switch between gameplay and your webcam to make some commentary. There may be a learning curve because of the power it wields, but you can find plenty of help online.
The premier way to watch just about any video, no matter the video's weird codec, VLC media player(Opens in a new window) has features including auto-rotating smartphone videos taken at the wrong orientation and resuming playback from where you stopped. Seriously, VLC plays back
Millions of people worldwide useDiscordfor text, voice chatting, and video chatting—mainly while kicking one another's arses in online games or watching gameplay streams on Twitch or Caffeine. Even Microsoft wanted to buy it. You can spend a monthly ($9.99) or annual ($99.99) fee to go premium for better video/audio quality and to upload larger files.
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's top pick for software that can control of other computers is TeamViewer(Opens in a new window) . Almost everything you need is free for personal use: desktop sharing, file transfers, and chatting with remote users. The setup couldn't be easier. Take control of a remote PC over an internet connection with the app, or use a browser (including Chrome OS) with theTeamViewer(Opens in a new window) extension. A caveat: Remote-access tools can be abused, so don't turn one on unless you're on the phone with the person you're allowing access to. And make sure to turn it off after you're done.
Want to host an online meeting for you and 100 of your closest friends? Zoom Meetings can let them all in for free, for up to 40 minutes from any device, even a smartphone.Competitively priced premium plans with additional features are also available. Zoom is a Editors' Choice award winner, and it made our list of the Best Tech Products of 2021, too. (Also check out our top zoom tips.)
Scribus(Opens in a new window) is the open-source equivalent ofAdobe InDesignfor desktop publishing, or as close as you can get. It has built-in color separation and management and a lot more, all free.
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Do you fancy yourself a budding screenwriter but lack the funds for high-end tools such asFinal Draft? Trelby(Opens in a new window) does a fine job of helping you format correctly, remember character names, and import and export to formats used in Hollywood.
The highly structured interface of yWriter can help a budding or experienced novelist get a real handle on their story and the characters who may be trying to overtake it. The program is full of stats on what you have written, giving you a data-driven writing experience. This program doesn't have the depth ofScrivener, but it does have a much lower price—it's free, or you can make a donation.
Pronounced how you’d probably guess, Shaxpir(Opens in a new window) is like a simplistic version of our top-rated Scribner, with an “everyone” free tier that is very useful, although pros may consider the $7.99 a month subscription with extra features. For no charge, you get the full manuscript builder, world-building notebook, progress tracker, offline use, and cloud backup.
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As if high-end software that lets you virtually fly across the globe isn't cool enough—especially as it has all the same features as its online/mobile sibling, Google Maps—Google Earth Pro(Opens in a new window) for the desktop is totally free. It includes advanced features such as high-resolution printing, distance measuring, and global guided tours. Although it also comes in web and mobile versions, the desktop version is the only one that lets you view satellite images of the moon and Mars. It also has star maps.
If you don't know or care what a media server is, but you just want to stream your videos and music collection around the house, Plex could work well for you. Install it on all your devices, point it at some media, and those audio and video files become available on everything—even remotely. (For more, read How to Set Up a Plex Server, How to Share Your Plex Libraries, How to Organize Your Plex Media Library, andThe Expert's Guide to Managing Your Plex Server.)
You probably think of TikTok as a mobile-only phenomenon. But not only can you access the video wonderland on the desktop at TikTok.com(Opens in a new window) to see your For You page, there's also a well-done app for it right in the Windows Store. TikTokWindows won't work with your webcam, but you can use it to upload video you edit to perfection with desktop video tools. It's all free but has ads for support—just like on the mobile versions, they show up looking like videos you might want to see.
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View, manage, and compare your images with this fast and intuitive freebie. FastStone Image Viewer(Opens in a new window) supports a slew of image formats, including RAW image formats from specific digital camera manufacturers. It has companion apps for screenshots and photo resizing.
Adobe Illustrator is the high bar of vector image editing, but it has a premium price to match. You can still get cross-platform Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) image creation with the free Inkscape. You'll have to work a little harder to learn it, but it may be exactly what a talented (but cash-strapped or subscription-shy) artist needs.
Is Paint.net(Opens in a new window) a perfect replacement for Photoshop? Nothing is as powerful as Adobe's program, but at this price—free—Paint.net comes close. For any minor (and even some major) picture manipulation, it's fast, comprehensive, and easy to use.
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Just about any browser can read a PDF. But Foxit PDF Reader(Opens in a new window) is free not just for reading but also for annotation collaboration on files (at least with the Windows version; other versions
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