[marko]

As 2010 comes to a close (yep, I know, I can hardly believe it too!) I'm wondering what freeware you found this year that really impressed you, was it an upgrade of an old classic, a brand new release with that WOW factor, or just simply a nifty little app that has made your life a little easier?!.

Personally, I've seen a handful of freeware this year that I've used and loved, most of which have been around for some time now and has proved really popular with everyone from Firefox, Chrome, Opera to Malwarebytes, OpenOffice, SUPERAntiSpyware, Secunia PSI and more!.

Whatever your favourite is, we'd love to know about it

Cheers
Marko

[DaComboMan]

Actually, Firefox4 9b has been just marvelous!
With a few extensions that are compatible like Adblock Plus, Firegestures, Stumbleupon, Xmarks, Shareaholic and Nuvola theme which also works with latest Thunderbird (created by a Meebo user) i am quite content!

Opera 11 is another to have made some breakthroughs this year (especially with recent addition of extensions) and i like it alot!
But...! the fact that i still have problems with viewing or working with certain pages makes me go back to Firefox which has no problems in that regards.

Evernote has made some immense progress. Fast and sleak, i now prefer it to Onenote!
Online speed, desktop speed, fast to open or load (web of desktop) and the fact you can view via iPod Touch makes it another default program.

Programs i like and keep a watch over: Cintanotes and EssentialPIM (both have improved considerably over last year).

FindandRunRobot (DonationCoder) and Notezilla are programs i used on a daily basis but they have shown little progress or change for some time now.

[UrbanBlues]

Hello

Opera 11.0 opens up the list ... Also utilities that I use in my developments as NotePad++, SLQLite and SQLitePro, IrfanView, ... TeamViewer is also a must for family and friends support !!!

Thierry
Developper of Isanaki Sudoku 2.6b and KillProcess 3.0
Web Site: www.tgmdev.be

[mizdoc]

the best freeware I found this year is Soluto....the antifrustration software. It lets me know when my computer has completely booted up and is ready to use. When I open it, it tells me what is safe to remove from startup, what is necessary and cannot be removed; so I can choose what to have start on bootup, start after bootup, or start when I want to use it. (I no longer have to use MSCONFIG and decide what is safe to uncheck.) Really cuts down on time it takes to boot up my computer.

[FrancisV]

Hi,

There's a lot of good stuff around, but I'll single out Free Studio (5.0.2), a real jack of all trades and it keeps getting better!

Happy New Year, keep up the good works...
Francis

[marko]

Some great mentions guys, and I've been thinking a little about this myself and would agree with UrbanBlues in that Teamviewer has probably been the single most useful freeware app this year for me, it's saved me a shed load of awkward config of friends/family routers as it works out the box for 99% of home routers - great app, and a bonus it's 100% free

[FreeWareFan]

In 2009 year I've really imagined by EASEUS freeware tools, such as Todo Backus, Partition Master, Data Recovery.

[jjj]

Media Cope - very useful and simple to use audio and video converter ( although listed as a player )
Twisted Brush-open studio , - able to make animations not available in other such programs (add sound with DubIt )
many others, even had fish swimming around for a while , thanks for 2010.

[MerleOne]

Auslogic Disk Defrag is one of my freeware favs. I like the unique setting that allows to handle only fragments below a certain size, contrarily to most recent defrag software that exclude files based on file size, not on fragment size. I can thus reduce fragmentation of big fragmented size without spending too long a time.

[James (Jim) Hillier]

Yep, some really great and useful products among those mentioned to date. Here's my 2 pence worth:

No.1) For me goes to Microsoft Security Essentials. It's been quite a while since new AV freeware has made such an impact. The fact that a new AV product has universally garnered very favourable editorial and user reviews is a rarity too.

No.2) Revo Uninstaller places here, simply because it continues to be the absolute standout in the free uninstaller stakes for the average user and really has no peers.

No.3) Sandboxie, because the developer continues to keep it simple yet very effective. There may be more versatile virtual environment freeware around but nothing to compare to Sandboxie's ease of use, and none any more effective.

No.4) Got to agree with MerleOne here. With the addition of features to Optimize the hard drive plus consolidate free space, Auslogics Disk Defrag is (IMO) the most improved freeware for 2010.

Special Mentions: For both Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and SUPERAntiSpyware which continue to set the standard for scanner/remover freeware.

All the best for 2011 to everyone,
Cheers.....Jim