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As the owner of a freeware site, it’s often the case that we’re asked for our recommendations on certain applications and we often give them. It may not always be the case that the most downloaded file would automatically be our choice, but there’s no getting away from the fact that the majority rules. It’s great to be asked for a recommendation and it shows people trust you to make that decision. However, whereas I take pleasure in making a recommendation when asked, I always find it a bit odd when people take it upon themselves to compile the “Top 1 Million freeware apps to have”. The thing that worries me the most about this is that it is often purely based on their own feelings towards a particular freeware application and not necessarily the feelings of others.

So, in contrast to this what I’ve done is to compile a list of freeware software based on our own stats of the most popular freeware downloaded by thousands of people all across the world.

We realise not everyone is into video editing or web development so we’ve created our list based on software most people would or could use in their everyday computing life together with software which everyone should (but not always does) have on their machine. We hope you find this list of use.

AUDIO/CD PLAYERS
Winamp Full 5.541
Nullsoft Winamp is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity music player for Windows. Winamp supports MP3, CD, WMA, Audiosoft, Mjuice, MOD, WAV and other audio formats, custom appearances called skins and audio visualization and audio effect plug-ins. Download and enjoy it free of charge, free of guilt.

CODECS
K-Lite Codec Pack Full 4.1.7
K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codec’s and related tools. Codec is short for Compressor-Decompressor. Codec’s are needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video. The K-Lite Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your movie files. With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play all the popular movie formats and even some rare formats.

CD RECORDING
CDBurnerXP Pro 4.2.1.864
CDBurnerXP Pro is a freeware burning solution with many features. It can burn any Data on CD-R / CD-RW / DVD+R / DVD-R / DVD+RW / DVD-RW, including double layer mediums, Blu-Ray discs and HD-DVDs. It can also burn and create ISO files and burn audio discs.

TV & RADIO APPS
anyTV 2.20
Watch local TV, world Tv, Live TV, satellite TV from countries of all world in different languages on your PC with anyTV not just at home, but at the OFFICE , work or wireless. Watch 2630 Online TV channels, 6910 Video clips. Listen to 4750 Online Radio stations. Using anyTV means you can watch numerous of international TVs without a television, TV Tuner Card or a satellite receiver.

VIDEO RIPPERS
Free DVD Ripper 2.25
Free DVD Ripper is a very useful tool, which allows you to rip DVD movies, convert DVD VOB-files to one VCD, SVCD, DivX, MPEG1, MPEG 2, MPEG4, AVI file. Easy to use, friendly interface, useful features!

VIDEO PLAYERS
MPlayer for Windows
This package contains the latest builds of MPlayer for the Windows platform as well as SMPlayer and MPUI.. Thanks to the award-winning MPlayer engine, more than 192 Video- und 85 Audiocodecs are supported natively!
For maximum performance the package includes optimized MPlayer binaries for various CPU types. Furthermore the Full-Package includes the Binary Codec Package to enable even more audio/video formats.

OFFICE APPS
SSuite Office - The Fifth Element 1.2
This office suite runs on all Windows platforms and all hardware systems. With its full 32-bit architecture and stability, it can improve your productivity and document format compatibility. This office suite introduces some new innovative concepts in interface design and user-friendly application interaction. You get instant system access, top class application design and a cleaner desktop to name a few and includes Personal Productivity Software, Communications, Graphical Software, Multi-Media, General Utilities, Security, Desktop Enhancements

ANTIVIRUS, SPYWARE, FIREWALLS & SECURITY
Ad-Aware 2008 7.1.0.10
Ad-Aware 2008 Free is a popular anti-spyware product for computer users around the world, with nearly one million downloads every week. This free anti-spyware version provides you with advanced protection against spyware that secretly attaches and takes control of your computer, resulting in aggressive advertising pop-ups, sluggish computer activity, even identity theft through stolen bank details, passwords, and credit card account numbers.

avast! 4 Home Edition 4.8.1229
avast! 4 Home Edition is a free complete ICSA certified antivirus software for home non-commercial use. avast! obtained VB100% awards in 2002/4 Virus Bulletin comparative reviews under Windows.

ZoneAlarm 7.0.473.000
Keep hackers and data thieves out of your computer with ZoneAlarm, the PC firewall that protects against Internet-borne threats like worms, Trojan horses, and spyware. ZoneAlarm provides the basic protection individuals need to secure their PC and keep their valuable information private. ZoneAlarm barricades your PC with immediate and complete port blocking. And, then runs in Stealth Mode to make your PC invisible on the Internet - if you can´t be seen, you can´t be attacked.

Hotspot Shield 1.01
Sure, public Wi-Fi hotspots are great. After all, what would life be without checking your email each morning at your favorite café? But while you're enjoying your latte and a bagel, some hacker might be accessing your passwords, credit card numbers, sensitive company data and much more. And standard antivirus software won't protect you. That's why AnchorFree is pleased to offer Hotspot Shield. This free security software keeps your Internet connection secure at public hotspots, home or work.

CHAT & INSTANT MESSENGERS
ClicksAndWhistles 1.9.7
ClicksAndWhistles is a freeware Windows IRC client.

DOWNLOAD MANAGERS & ACCELERATORS
FlashGot 1.0.5
FlashGot is a free Mozilla/Firefox/Thunderbird extension, meant to handle single and massive ("all" and "selection") downloads with several external Download Managers.
FlashGot turns every supported download manager in a download manager for Firefox!

EMAIL & SPAM TOOLS
POP Peeper 3.3.1.0
POP Peeper is an email notifier that runs in your Windows task bar and alerts you when you have new email on any of your POP3, Hotmail, MSN, Yahoo, Mail.com, MyWay, Excite, Lycos.com, or RediffMail accounts.

Spamihilator 0.9.9.41
Spamihilator works between your E-Mail client and the Internet and examines every incoming E-Mail. Useless spam mails (Junk) will be filtered out. This process runs completely in the background.
The new Learning Filter (Bayesian Filter) uses the rules of Thomas Bayes (English mathematician, 18th century) and calculates a certain Spam-Probability for every E-Mail. You can train this filter! So it will know your messages even better than you. Hence the recognition rate will continuously increase.

FILE SHARING & FTP
StrongDC++ 2.21
StrongDC++ is a client for sharing files in Direct Connect network. It is modification of program DC++ and it brings many news and features from other modification. Since DC++ is developed under GNU/GPL, you can download source and modify it.

INTERNET BROWSERS
Mozilla Firefox (Gran Paradiso) 3.0.1
Mozilla Firefox is a fast, full-featured browser for Windows that makes browsing more efficient than ever before. Firefox includes pop-up blocking; a tab-browsing mode that lets you open several pages in a single window; integrated Google searching; simplified privacy controls that let you cover your tracks more effectively; a streamlined browser window that shows you more of the page than any other browser; and a number of additional features that work with you to help you get the most out of your time online.

INTERNET SEARCH/DOWNLOAD
VDownloader 0.7
VDownloader can download and convert videos from Youtube, Google Video, Metacafe, MySpace, DailyMotion, Yuvutu, and many other similar sites, saving them in AVI or MPG format. VDownloader can save videos in many formats, including AVI, MPG, iPOD, PSP, 3GP, VCD, SVCD, DVD, FLV and MP3 (audio only). Search and find videos in many sites with just one click. It's integrated search engine can searc for videos in several sites at the same time.

RSS READERS
RSS Xpress 2.7.46
RSS Xpress will read RSS feeds versions 0.90, 0.91, 0.92, 2.0.1 and atoms. The application includes the essential functionalities for using RSS feeds and even more.

VOIP
Ventrilo 3.0.1
Ventrilo is the next evolutionary step of Voice over IP (VoIP) group communications software. Ventrilo is also the industry standard by which all others measure them selves as they attempt to imitate it´s features.

WEBCAM UTILS
WebCam Viewer 4.2005
WebCam Viewer is a small tool that allows you to monitor web cams from all over the world. The program can automatically refesh and cycle through the list of web cams. It can also run in fullscreen mode. WebCam Viewer comes pre-loaded with several web cam locations, and you can edit existing cams or easily add your own.

GRAPHICS & PHOTO
Visualizer Photo Resize 6.1
Visualizer Photo Resize is a complete package for digital photographers and webmasters who wants to resize, improve and share photos fast and easy. With Visualizer Photo Resize you can achieve the results you want without any graphic or web experience, all you have to do is select an image folder and enter the resize ratio for your images and click Resize - it´s that easy.

Paint.NET 3.35
Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows XP or 2000. Paint.NET is jointly developed at Washington State University with additional help from Microsoft, and is meant to be a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with all Windows operating systems.

Twins Visions 0.3.5.1196 Beta
Visions is an innovative 3D image management system (3DIMS) which allows you to navigate through your photos in a 3D (three dimensional) world. This way you can view your folders as a collection of boards spread on your screen, allowing you to easily perform cross folder actions such as moving photos from one folder to another, comparing two folders or simply viewing photos from several folders at the same time.

HP Photosmart Essential v2.5
HP Photosmart Essential makes it fast, fun and easy to organize, edit, print, share, and enjoy your photos - all in one place. Create and print beautiful photo books in your own home using HP Photosmart Essential 2.5 and HP Photo Book kits!

SCREEN CAPTURE
Gamescreen 1.0
Gamescreen is a new software developed by StageSoft (www.stagesoft.co.cc) that can capture screenshots of your in game action without even having to pause your game! Gamescreen is very user friendly, and does not hog up your system resources, so it is the perfect solution to taking screenshots of your games, whether your a developer, gamer, whatever. Gamescreen is for everyone who plays games, whether you´re computer-literate or not.

BACKUP & RECOVERY
CloneGenius 2008
Why should you backup and restore your system partition?
Because you will need to restore your disk to ensure that even if a user does, or infects a computer with a virus, the computer will be restored to a clean, working state. The restore process is the safest approach to resolve problems, when a computer shows signs of malfunctioning, or every time a user logs off. Creating a full and complete disk image is the best way to create a backup of a system disk.

COMPRESSION
7-Zip 4.60 Beta
7-Zip is a file archiver with a high compression ratio offering the highest compression ratio in new 7z format with LZMA compression. Supported formats: 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB. For ZIP and GZIP formats 7-Zip provides compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip

DESKTOP ENHANCEMENTS
Vista Transformation Pack 8.0.1
Vista Transformation Pack will replace many of the resources in Windows XP/Windows Server 2003. It can change such things as Boot screen, Welcome Screen / Logon Screen, New msstyles files (visual styles), New desktop and file icons, New toolbar icons, Progress Dialogs, Sounds scheme, System Tray icons, New Wallpapers
Windows Media Player Skins, And much more

FILE & DISK MANAGEMENT
HDD Low Level Format Tool 2.36 Build 1181
HDD Low Level Format Tool is a freeware utility for low-level hard disk drive formatting. Supported interfaces: S-ATA (SATA), IDE (E-IDE), SCSI, USB, FIREWIRE. Big drives (LBA-48) are supported. Supported Manufacturers: Maxtor, Hitachi, Seagate, Samsung, Toshiba, Fujitsu, IBM, Quantum, Western Digital.

Defraggler 1.02.085
From everyone here at Piriform, the company that brought you CCleaner and Recuva... we now bring you a file defragmentation tool... Defraggler!. It differs from other defrag tools on the market, by enabling you to quickly and simply defrag the files you want to, without having to process the whole drive. Simply run it, select the file and defragment in seconds. No more struggling with the Windows defragmentation tool!

PASSWORD MANAGERS
ALPass 2.7.4
Free for home users, ALPass is the best and easiest way to securely store logins and passwords for all your online memberships and subscriptions.

REGISTRY TOOLS
Argente - Registry Cleaner 1.4.3.3
With Argente - Registry Cleaner you can safely clean and repair problems in the Windows registry ® with just a few clicks of the mouse. Problems with the Windows Registry ® are one of the common causes of failures of the system and error messages from Windows. By using a registry cleaner regularly and repair your registry, your system will not only be more stable but it will also help Windows ® and its software to run more quickly.

SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION
Advanced WindowsCare Personal 3.0 Beta 2.8.5
Slow down, freeze, crash and security threats are over. Advanced WindowsCare Personal is a comprehensive PC care utility that takes an one-click approach to help protect, repair and optimize your computer. Scanning and finding what other utilities miss, it can keep your PC error-free and smooth than ever.

AutoMZ Ultimate Tweaker 4.1
With a specially designed algorithm, scans your hardware (CPU, RAM, Graphic Card, Hard Disk, CD/DVD, Modem ect.) and your software. Then applies the best values for over 50 powerful tweaks!

TEXT/DOCUMENT EDITORS
Notepad 3 1.0
The original Notepad shipped with Windows is probably the handiest program of all times, small, fast, without frills! Notepad2 tries to follow this principle, it´s a small, fast and free text editor with syntax highlighting for HTML and other common languages.

UNINSTALLERS
Revo Uninstaller 1.71
With its advanced and fast algorithm to scan before and after uninstall of an application you can remove unnecessary files, folders and registry keys left over in your computer. Even if you have a broken installation Revo Uninstaller scans for application´s data on your hard disk drives, Windows registry and shows all found files, folders and registry items so you can delete them.