Free Windows software you use and recommend

[TheBigEasy]

Open Office is sort of like Microsoft office but "free". It's also compatible with MS Office in case you have that at work but want to use the free open office version at home.

This was a life saver! Recently, my Dad called me with a request to 'borrow' an Office key from the net. Seems his script had run out, needs Excel for the hundreds of spreadsheets he's created for his vinyl collection, and was in serious panic mode. 'Borrowing' used to be the way to go but I've grown leary with how easy it is for a virus to find its way onto your 'puter.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Here are some tools I use pretty frequently.

• Stellarium: An open source planetarium software.
  
• 7Zip: Compression software that supports many compression and archiving algorithms.
• Notepad++ or Sublime: Awesome text editors with each having it's own strengths.
• Audacity: Audio editing software. It can be difficult to use, but it's quite powerful.
• Autoruns: An awesome tool for managing what runs / starts up on your PC.
• WinSCP: A file transfer utility that supports many protocols.
• InfanView: It's a media file viewer that supports formats that many others do not. (like FITS files, etc)
• Inkscape: GIMP was listed, but a very nice vector graphics tool is Inkscape. (there is Blender too, but I really don't do 3D rendering artist stuff)
• VirtualBox: Used to create virtual machines on your Windows desktop.
• HWiNFO: Crazy detailed views of your computer's hardware and status.
• ImgBurn: Burns CDs/DVDs etc. I do not burn near as much as I used too though.

I'm sure there are many more.

Listed in above posts is both LibreOffice and OpenOffice. LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice. I would recommend using LibreOffice over OpenOffice though OpenOffice I believe has finally been returned to the true open source. The reason for using LibreOffice is when Oracle bought Sun Microsystems. All the OpenOffice developers left and forked into LibreOffice. So the original developers are with LibreOffice, not OpenOffice.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

Here are some tools I use pretty frequently.

• Stellarium: An open source planetarium software.
  
• 7Zip: Compression software that supports many compression and archiving algorithms.
• Notepad++ or Sublime: Awesome text editors with each having it's own strengths.
• Audacity: Audio editing software. It can be difficult to use, but it's quite powerful.
• Autoruns: An awesome tool for managing what runs / starts up on your PC.
• WinSCP: A file transfer utility that supports many protocols.
• InfanView: It's a media file viewer that supports formats that many others do not. (like FITS files, etc)
• Inkscape: GIMP was listed, but a very nice vector graphics tool is Inkscape. (there is Blender too, but I really don't do 3D rendering artist stuff)
• VirtualBox: Used to create virtual machines on your Windows desktop.
• HWiNFO: Crazy detailed views of your computer's hardware and status.
• ImgBurn: Burns CDs/DVDs etc. I do not burn near as much as I used too though.

I'm sure there are many more.

Listed in above posts is both LibreOffice and OpenOffice. LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice. I would recommend using LibreOffice over OpenOffice though OpenOffice I believe has finally been returned to the true open source. The reason for using LibreOffice is when Oracle bought Sun Microsystems. All the OpenOffice developers left and forked into LibreOffice. So the original developers are with LibreOffice, not OpenOffice.

Another vote for Notepad++, Audacity, and VirtualBox. I run VirtualBox on my Linux Mint PC so that I can run Windows 7 and Mac OS X under Linux. That way I can run both Windows and Mac programs on my PC. You can also run VirtualBox under Windows so that if you need to run another operating system under your main system you can. For example, if you needed to run really old Windows software, you could VirtualBox and an old version of Windows like Windows 95 or Windows 2000 to get your old apps to run. Or you could run a distro of Linux under Windows if there's a certain Linux apps you want to run that have no Windows version.

 

[Ranching]

I got a free solitaire game!!!!

 

[nobody]

Here are some tools I use pretty frequently.

• Stellarium: An open source planetarium software.
  
• 7Zip: Compression software that supports many compression and archiving algorithms.
• Notepad++ or Sublime: Awesome text editors with each having it's own strengths.
• Audacity: Audio editing software. It can be difficult to use, but it's quite powerful.
• Autoruns: An awesome tool for managing what runs / starts up on your PC.
• WinSCP: A file transfer utility that supports many protocols.
• InfanView: It's a media file viewer that supports formats that many others do not. (like FITS files, etc)
• Inkscape: GIMP was listed, but a very nice vector graphics tool is Inkscape. (there is Blender too, but I really don't do 3D rendering artist stuff)
• VirtualBox: Used to create virtual machines on your Windows desktop.
• HWiNFO: Crazy detailed views of your computer's hardware and status.
• ImgBurn: Burns CDs/DVDs etc. I do not burn near as much as I used too though.

I'm sure there are many more.

Listed in above posts is both LibreOffice and OpenOffice. LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice. I would recommend using LibreOffice over OpenOffice though OpenOffice I believe has finally been returned to the true open source. The reason for using LibreOffice is when Oracle bought Sun Microsystems. All the OpenOffice developers left and forked into LibreOffice. So the original developers are with LibreOffice, not OpenOffice.

Thanks for the Stellarium suggestion! It's great! I sent a link to the website to my father-in-law.