Even though there are millions of proprietary and commercial applications out there that you have to pay for to get them; there are tons of alternatives in the open source and freeware world that you can use free of charge.
In this post, I am going to recommend a few most have best free PC apps for your computer.
Office Suite
As we all know, Microsoft Office suite is the leading office application software that is actually not free, but there are free open source office suite that could do some of the same things that it does. Two of the most common free office suites are Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice. These two office suites contain a Word Processor, Spreadsheet and a Presentation application.
Photo Editing
Most of the photo editing or graphics applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign or CorelDraw are not free, but we can use free open source alternatives like Gimp. This app could do most of the things Photoshop can do. Another piece of application I would recommend for finishing touches when editing photos is PhotoScape. This app has so many pre-built features and effects that could make your final design look awesome.
Video Converters
If you work with videos a lot you would need a video converter to help you convert one format to another. Any video converter is one of the video converting application I have been using for a very long time and it has been my best converting app since.
The app can be used to convert videos to MP4, AVI, MKV, MPEG, 3GPP, FLV, MP3 etc. The app can also be used to download videos from YouTube.
Another awesome video converter is Handbrake which could also be used to convert videos to different formats and it’s totally free and open source.
Compression Programs
At some point, you might want to compress files or uncompress files within a zip folder, ISO or RAR files. The best free PC app for compressing and uncompressing files I’ll recommend is 7-zip.
7-zip is a light-weight piece of application that could uncompress different types of compressed files and also help you encrypt compressed files with a password.
Data Recovery
One of the best free PC apps for data recovery is Recuva. At some point, you may mistakenly delete or format files in a drive like a hard drive, memory card or flash drives. Recuva could be used to recover your photos, videos, audio or documents.
Multimedia
Almost all operating systems came with their own media player. For example, Windows OS comes with Windows Media Player and Mac OS comes with iTunes. These applications may not be able to play some video or audio file formats. But one of the best free and open source app called VLC could play almost all types of video and audio files. The app also has other interesting hidden features that are useful.
You may also check out other free and open source multimedia apps like Audacity and MPC-HC media players
Code Editors
Whether you’re a hard-core web developer or an app developer, a code editor is one of your tools to build great looking websites or turn ideas into something applications. In this section, I am going to recommend 3 best free code editors that I have been using.
Notepad ++
Sublime text
Brackets
These applications are easy to code with and they have colour coding to help developers quickly spot syntax errors and fix them.
Encryption software
Encrypting and protecting sensitive files on your computer is of importance. Most OS does not come with built-in encryption software, but you could use third-party applications like Anvi Folder locker to encrypt or hide your files and folders.
File Transfer
Do you need to transfer files to and from a server remotely? One the best free open source file transfer applications is called FileZilla. The app has a simple and easy to use interface. It’s an app I normally use to upload and manage website files remotely from a hosting server using FTP Protocol. The app is constantly updated to secure the connection between your computer and the remote server.
Network utilities
There are some light-weight but powerful network software that could just do amazing things. One of these is VirtualRouter, an application that you can be used to create a wireless hotspot. If you want to use your computer’s Wi-Fi and connect your phone or tablet you can simply use VirtualRouter.
Malware protection Programs
One of the best free anti-malware application is Malwarebytes. This anti-malware program helps you clean up different kinds of malicious threats from your computer and it also has some cybersecurity features. Actually, it has a premium version but the free version could be used as a one-time scan if your computer is infected malware.
Another useful virus protection software is SmaDav which is actually a USB drive protection program that scans removable drives immediately they are connected to your computer. It is also one of the best anti-virus programs for unhiding hidden files by viruses or other malware.
Virtualisation Software
If you want to run virtual machines on your computer, you can use an open source virtualisation software called VirtualBox. This application will help you run multiple operating systems on your computer if the hardware supports virtualisation. It could be a replacement for commercial VM software like VMWare and Microsoft’s Hyper-V.
I’ll keep updating this post if I think of a great free app. See you on the next post and don’t forget to subscribe.
Ousman Faal [Digital Vigilante] is a Tech Entrepreneur & Digital Skills Trainer who teaches both in the classroom and online. He has experience in various technologies and likes sharing it with others. Ousman has published 149 articles on this blog. He is the CEO of Faalen Technologies and Skills.gm.
