The best part of the Windows ecosystem is that it offers a lot of cool, useful free software for the operating system. Free software is the heart of Windows 11/10, and if you want to get the best out of your Windows PC, you need to take a look at this list. We have to admit that the list is not exhaustive and several others could have been included in the list. Take a look at the best free Windows software and let us know which of these you use or if you have any alternative suggestions to make.
Best free Software and Programs every Windows 11 PC should have
Here is our list of free programs every Windows 11/10 PC user should have on your laptop or computer:
- Kaspersky Security Cloud Free Antivirus
- VLC Media Player
- 7-Zip
- Audacity
- Ultimate Windows Tweaker
- CCleaner
- ProtonVPN Free
- EASEUS Todo Backup
- GIMP
- LibreOffice
- FixWin
Here is a brief introduction with key points. That will help you get a reason why you should use it.
Free programs every PC should have
1] Kaspersky Security Cloud Free Antivirus
Kaspersky is a lightweight free anti-virus that offers basic real-time anti-malware protection for Windows users like a file, email and web antivirus, automatic updates, self-defense, and quarantine. The best part is that it is very lightweight, and if you want an alternative to Windows Defender, pick this. Want something else? Take a look at these free antivirus software.
2] VLC Media Player
VLC doesn’t need any introduction. It can play most of the video and audio formats on the internet. The strength of the player is an exhaustive number of codecs, plugins & extensions, supports compression, and can even record screen.
3] 7-Zip Archiver
Even though Windows comes with built-in support for archive files, 7-Zip is the most versatile when it comes to features. High Compression and speed are its strengths and are better than others. It also supports a lot of formats, including WIM files, RAR5 archives, UEFI BIOS files, ext2/ ext3/ ext4 images, GPT, VMDK, VDI images, and single-file QCOW2.
4] Audacity (Audio Editor)
If there is something that doesn’t need an introduction after VLC, it’s Audacity. It’s both an audio editor and recorder. It can reduce or remove background noise, split and merge audio files, supports plugins, effects, and offers spectrogram view mode for visualizing and selecting frequencies. If you are heavily into audio editing, there is nothing that beats Audacity!
5] Ultimate Windows Tweaker
Ultimate Windows Tweaker is our in-house very popular freeware which allows you to tweak your system to suit your requirements. Make your system faster, stable, personal, and more secure with just a few mouse clicks. Using this you can skip using the complex Windows settings and access all these via the Windows Settings app, the Registry Editor or the Group Policy Editor.
6] CCleaner
Want to get rid of all Junk Files? CCleaner is the best Windows junk and temporary file cleaning and optimizing tool you can have on Windows. It comes with built-in disk cleaning utility, registry cleaner, option to uninstall programs, manage startups of Windows, browsers, context menu as well as scheduled tasks. Want something else? Take a look at these free Junk Cleaners.
7] ProtonVPN Free
Looking for a free VPN that just works? ProtonVPN is the only free VPN service with no data limit, no ads and no logs of user activity. It also integrates well with the Tor anonymity network. t will help keep your personal data private and secure.
8] EASEUS Todo Backup
Easus ToDo is free, and it offers excellent solutions for backup. That’s the strength of the software. It offers-
- System Backup and Recovery
- Schedule Backups
- Disk Tools
- Backup Files and Folders
- Incremental Backups
- Backup to the external hard drive, CD/DVD, FTP servers for double protection
That, with some excellent user interface, is not easy to find. It also offers two powerful features. One is Universal restore, while the other is Clone Feature. Both allow you to restore to a system with dissimilar hardware. You can migrate OS to SSD for Windows without re-installing anything. And it fast clones Windows to an SSD for free and transfers the OS from one SSD to another. Don’t like this one? There are other free backup software available.
9] GIMP (Image Editing)
If your job of editing images demands something more than MS Paint, then it is time to check out GIMP. It’s an excellent Photoshop alternative that comes with tons of tools, community extensions, support, and tools. It can even open Photoshop files.
Looking at the image, it’s clear you get almost the same interface. You can add layers to photographs, change them as you need and so on.
10] LibreOffice
If you do not have Microsoft Office, then you can use LibreOffice productivity suite, which is free! LibreOffice is a popular productivity software and free alternatives to the Microsoft Office suite. It is widely used to create professional documents like brochures, newsletters, graphs, charts, theses, technical drawings, budget reports, marketing reports, and many more.
11] FixWin (Troubleshooter)
FixWin is our 2nd popular in-house freeware which helps you troubleshoot Windows problems with a quick fix. While Windows comes with its own set of troubleshooters, we have excelled at it by bringing everything into one place. It offers fixes, and access to File Explorer, Internet & Connectivity, Windows Settings, System Tools, and Troubleshooters. You need to keep it handy as you never know when you may need this Windows Doctor!
While the list includes the best software we have experienced, I am sure there are more. They could be new, or they could be old we don’t know about. So if you use software that is worth it, let us know in the comments. Let’s make this list of free software for Windows 11/10, even better!
Which free apps should every PC have?
If you are on the search for some useful Microsoft Windows Store UWP apps for your Windows 11/10 PC, then this post lists multiple apps in most major categories. We have covered some of the best top apps here ranging over a wide range of categories, to make sure you get exactly what you are looking for. Notable among them is Adobe Photoshop Express.
Are you looking for more categories and options? Check out our curated list of Free Windows Software and Freeware that you can download.
