1. Music

a. Audacity - Download
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows
A free Sound Recorder and Editor. Record live audio convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs, edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files. Cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together. Change the speed or pitch of a recording and more.

b. TagScanner - Download
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/TagScanner/981935153/1
A free Powerful MP3 Tag Scanner and Editor. It can edit tags of several progressive audio formats, rename files based on the tag information, generate tag information from filenames. Supports ID3v1, ID3v2, Vorbis comments and APEv2 tags. TagScanner Features:

- Advanced TAG editor with batch functions
- Supports MP3, OGG, Musepack, Monkeys Audio, FLAC, AAC, OptimFROG, SPEEX, Wave Pack files
- Supports ID3 1.0 / 1.1 / 2.2 / 2.3 / 2.4 tags, APE v1 and v2 tags, Vorbis Comments
- Supports for ID3v2 Lyrics and Attached pictures
- Import tag information from an online database (freedb)
- Powerful playlists editor
- Write extended playlists like Winamp or Sonique
- Playlists export to HTML, Excel and CSV (for MySQL)

c. Winamp - Download
http://www.winamp.com/player/free.php
A free Streamlined Music and Video Player that is simple to use. Besides high-quality sound, it sports a smart playlist editor, 10-band graphic equalizer with user-definable presets that can automatically load specific files and a mini-browser for tuning into web radio and TV (be warned: certain channels are for adults only). Its four resizeable sections give you control over how the player looks, while you can customize it further using the thousands of available skins, color schemes and visualization plug-ins.


2.CD/DVD

a. CDBurnerXP Pro - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Nero]
http://www.cdburnerxp.se/download.php
A free CD/DVD-Writer program. The program can write CD-R, CD-RW DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW discs. CDBurnerXP Pro Features:

- Write CD-R, CD-RW DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW discs (as Data, Video and Audio)
- Burn audio-CDs with and without gaps between tracks - Burn on the fly / Burn-proof
- Supports most IDE, USB, Firewire and SCSI drives
- Rip Audio-CDs to harddrive, obtain track-information (ID3-tags) from Internet
- Burn and create ISO-files
- Convert WAV to MP3 and vice versa
- Create Bootable Discs and more.

Notes - Double-layer DVD is not currently supported. Burning video-DVDs is limited.

b. VLC Media Player - Download - Nightly Builds - Home Page - [Equivalent = PowerDVD, WinDVD]
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html
A free Multimedia DVD Player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, MP3, OGG, ...) as well as VCDs and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. Supports Full Region Free DVD playback with a RPC1 compatible DVD drive.


3.File Utilities

a. FileZilla - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Cute FTP]
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=21558
A free, fast FTP and SFTP Client with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface. Used to send or retrieve files from an FTP server.

b. Flexible Renamer - Download - Home Page
http://my.vector.co.jp/servlet/System.FileDownload/download/http/0/131133/pack/win95/util/file/name/FlexRena730.zip
A free powerful file/folder renaming utility. It offers a Window Explorer style interface and a variety of renaming options, including options to remove numbers or strings, replace strings, insert numbers, translate letters and much more.

c. IZArc - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = WinZip]
http://www.izarc.org/download.html
A free archive utility that supports many archive formats like: 7-ZIP, A, ACE, ARC, ARJ, B64, BH, BIN, BZ2, BZA, C2D, CAB, CDI, CPIO, DEB, ENC, GCA, GZ, GZA, HA, IMG, ISO, JAR, LHA, LIB, LZH, MDF, MBF, MIM, NRG, PAK, PDI, PK3, RAR, RPM, TAR, TAZ, TBZ, TGZ, TZ, UUE, WAR, XXE, YZ1, Z, ZIP, ZOO. With a modern easy-to-use interface, IZArc provides support for most compressed and encoded files, as well as access to many powerful features and tools. It allows you to drag and drop files from and to Windows Explorer, create and extract archives directly in Windows Explorer, create multiple archives spanning disks, creating self-extracting archives, repair damaged zip archives, converting from one archive type to another, view and write comments and many more.

d. Notepad++ - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Notepad, EditPlus]
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/download.php
A free source code editor (and Notepad replacement), which supports several programming languages, running under the MS Windows environment.

e. WinMerge - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = ExamDiff]
http://winmerge.org/downloads.php
A free visual text file differencing and merging tool for Win32 platforms. It is highly useful for determining what has changed between project versions, and then merging changes between versions.


4.Games

XP Games - This guide covers the better Freeware games from Independent Developers and Commercial Publishers. The games are free full games, not Demos or Shareware. None have any Adware or Spyware. It is not intended to be an all inclusive Guide but a reference to target the better freeware titles. Get over 100 quality games without having to spend a dimension

5.Graphic

a. Blender - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = 3DS Max]
http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/
A free fully integrated 3D graphics creation suite allowing modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, real-time interactive 3D, and game creation and playback with cross-platform compatibility.

b. BRL-CAD - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = AutoCAD]
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=105292
A free powerful Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) solid modeling computer-aided design (CAD) system with over 20 years development and production use by the U.S. military. It includes an interactive geometry editor, parallel ray-tracing support for rendering and geometric analysis, path-tracing for realistic image synthesis, network distributed framebuffer support, image-processing and signal-processing tools.

c. GIMP - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Adobe Photoshop]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gimp-win/
A free Image Manipulation Program for Photo Retouching, Image Composition and Image Authoring. It is not a replacement for Adobe Photoshop but currently is the best free alternative.

d. Inkscape - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw]
http://www.inkscape.org/download/?lang=en
A free vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inkscape also supports meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, direct XML editing, and more. It imports formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and others and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats.

e. IrfanView - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = LView Pro]
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/967963863/1
A free Simple Image Viewer, Editor and Converter that supports all major graphic formats, including BMP, DIB, JPEG, GIF, animated GIF, PNG, PCX, multi-page TIFF, TGA, and more. In addition, it features drag-and-drop support, directory viewing, TWAIN support, slide shows, batch conversion, and modifications such as, resize, color depth, crop, blur, and sharpen. Includes support for Adobe Photoshop Filters. Warning - Do not install Google Desktop Search during setup.

f. Paint.NET - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop]
http://www.getpaint.net/download.html
A free image editing and photo manipulation software. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. Originally intended as a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple tool for photo and image editing.

g. Picasa 2 - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = ACDSee]
http://picasa.google.com/download/index.html
A free Picture organizer and editor that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you will recognize. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organized. Picasa also makes advanced editing simple by putting one-click fixes and powerful effects at your fingertips.


6.Internet

a. AM-DeadLink - Download - Home Page
http://www.aignes.com/deadlink.htm
A free tool that detects dead links and duplicates in your Browser Bookmarks. If a Bookmark has become unavailable you can verify it in the internal preview and delete it from your Browser. Additionally you can download Favicon for all your Favorites and Bookmarks. AM-Deadlink works with Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla and Firefox.

Freeware Browsers - This is a freeware graphical web browser guide for Windows. It compares the most popular features between each browser. All of the following web browsers are 100% free, not Shareware. None have any Adware or Spyware. All have been installed and tested for basic compatibility with Windows XP. Most should work with other versions of Windows, just check the requirements. However, Internet Explorer 7 will only work in Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista.

b. Gaim - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Trillian]
http://gaim.sourceforge.net/downloads.php
A free multi-protocol Instant Messaging Client. Users can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AOL Instant Messenger, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time. Gaim supports many features of the various networks, such as file transfer, away messages, typing notification, and adds tabbed conversations. It is compatible with the following protocols:

- AIM
- ICQ
- MSN Messenger
- Yahoo!
- IRC
- Other (Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, GroupWise Messenger and Zephyr networks)

c. GMail Drive - Download - Home Page
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/GMail_Drive/1097807577/1
A free internet based file storage system. GMail Drive creates a virtual file system on top of your Google GMail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer. GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to. Utilize the 2.5GB+ of GMail storage like an attached drive. A GMail account is required.

Notes - If you are using the ZoneAlarm Security Suite (Not just the Standard or Pro versions of the Firewall), Web Filtering (Parental Control) has to be disabled for Windows Explorer or the drive will not be accessible. There are some limitations since this interacts with Google's GMail system, such as the total filename size must be less than 40 characters and the maximum file size that can be transferred is 10 MB. Changes in the GMail system may break the tool's ability to function. Make sure you are using the latest version, otherwise be patient and wait for a new version to be released. This usually only takes a few days.

d. PuTTY - Download - Home Page
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html
A free SSH, Telnet, rlogin, and raw TCP client.

e. Thunderbird - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Microsoft Outlook]
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
A free e-mail client. Thunderbird makes e-mailing safer, faster, and easier than ever before with the industry's best implementations of features such as intelligent spam filters, built-in RSS reader, quick search, and much more.

f. TightVNC - Download - Home Page - VNC Guide - [Equivalent = Remote Desktop]
http://www.tightvnc.com/download.html
A free remote control software package derived from the popular VNC software. With TightVNC, you can see the desktop of a remote machine and control it with your local mouse and keyboard, just like you would do it sitting in the front of that computer.

Notes - Windows Defender will detect TightVNC as "Remote Control Software". After you install TightVNC, run a Windows Defender scan and when it is finished make sure to select "Review items detected by scanning". Under "Scan Results", "Action", select "Always allow".


7.Office

a. OpenOffice - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Microsoft Office]
http://download.openoffice.org/index.html
A free Office Suite, compatible with all other major Office Suites, including Microsoft Office.

Writer is a powerful word processor. - [Equivalent = Microsoft Word]
Use it for creating professional documents, reports, newsletters, and brochures. You can easily integrate images and charts in documents, create everything from business letters to complete books with professional layouts, as well as create and publish Web content.

Calc is a powerful spreadsheet program. - [Equivalent = Microsoft Excel]
It can turn boring numbers into eye-catching information. Calculate, analyze, and visually communicate your data quickly and easily. Use advanced spreadsheet functions and decision-making tools to perform sophisticated data analysis. Use built-in charting tools to generate impressive 2D and 3D charts.

Impress is a powerful presentation graphics program. - [Equivalent = Microsoft PowerPoint]
A truly outstanding tool for creating effective multimedia presentations. Your presentations will truly stand out with special effects, animation and high-impact drawing tools.

Draw is a powerful drawing program. - [Equivalent = Microsoft Paint]
Use it to produce everything from simple diagrams to dynamic 3D illustrations and special effects.

Base is a powerful database program. - [Equivalent = Microsoft Access]
Create and modify tables, forms, queries, and reports, either using your own database or Base's own built-in HSQL database engine.


b. Convert - Download - Home Page
http://joshmadison.com/software/convert/download.php
A free unit conversion program that will convert the most popular units of distance, temperature, volume, time, speed, mass, power, density, pressure, energy and many others, including the ability to create custom conversions.

c. FreeCalc - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Windows Calculator]
http://www.download.com/Moffsoft-FreeCalc/3000-2057_4-10313547.html?tag=lst-0-1
A free replacement for the existing Windows Calculator. Adds a printable/savable transaction tape, sizable display, tray icon, digit groupings, color schemes, double and triple zero keys, visible memory value, and an always-on-top setting.

d. PDF Creator - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Adobe Acrobat]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
A free tool to create PDFs easily from nearly any application by simply printing to the PDFCreator printer driver.

e. Power Calculator - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Windows Calculator]
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/PowerCalcPowertoySetup.exe
A free Graphing Calculator that allows you to evaluate functions as well as perform many different types of conversions.

f. jGnash - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Quicken]
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=27240&package_id=18970
A free personal finance application written in Java. The purpose is to make tracking your personal finances easy, but provide the features required by the advanced user. jGnash supports several account types, including investment accounts. jGnash has support for split transactions, nested accounts, scheduled transactions, commodities, and currencies. jGnash can import QIF files, excluding investment accounts and transactions. Data is stored in an XML format so it is easy to manipulate and read the data external to the program. jGnash also has scripting support to add custom reports and functionality.

g. Mozilla Sunbird - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Outlook Calendar]
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/download.html
A free stand alone calendar application that allows you to assign events and tasks.

e. Scribus - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Microsoft Publisher, QuarkXPress]
http://www.scribus.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index
A free desktop publishing (DTP) application. As a DTP tool it supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation. Scribus also has additional features not normally found in a DTP tool such as vector drawing tools with SVG support and it even has support for OpenType Fonts.

f. TypeFaster Typing Tutor - Download - Home Page
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=99968
A free typing tutor that teaches you how to touch-type. Once you can touch-type you will not need to look at the keyboard to find the letters you want to type.


8.Scientific

a. Celestia - Download - Home Page
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/download.html
A free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy.

b.Stellarium - Download - Home Page
http://www.stellarium.org/
A free planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.


9.Video

a. GSpot - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = MediaInfo]
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/GSpot/1088774248/1
A free utility that let's you see what codecs a video file is using and can tell you if you have the codec needed to play it. Features include the ability to establish what video codecs (audio and video) are required to play an AVI file, determine whether these codecs are installed on your system, and isolate problems associated with these codecs.

b. Jahshaka - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Adobe After Effects]
http://www.jahshaka.org/component/option,com_docman/Itemid,49/
A free video editing, effects, and compositing suite supporting real-time effects rendering.

c. K-Lite Codec Pack - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Codec Pack All in 1]
http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm
A free Collection of Codecs and Related Tools. Codec is short for Compressor-Decompressor. Codecs 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 in Windows Media Player. The K-Lite Codec Pack Features:

- It it always very up-to-date with the latest versions of the Codecs
- It is very user-friendly and the installation is fully customizable
- It has been very well tested, so that the package doesn't contain any conflicting Codecs
- It is a very complete package, containing everything you need to play your movies

d. MediaPortal - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Windows Media Center Edition]
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/download.html
A free application ideal for turning your PC / TV into a very advanced Media Center. MediaPortal allows you to listen to your favorite music & radio, watch and store your videos and DVDs, view, schedule and record live TV as a digital video recorder and much much more.

e. VirtualDub - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Adobe Premiere]
http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/
A free video capture/processing utility. It lacks the editing power of a general-purpose editor such as Adobe Premiere, but is streamlined for fast linear operations over video. It has batch-processing capabilities for processing large numbers of files and can be extended with third-party video filters. VirtualDub is mainly geared toward processing AVI files, although it can read (not write) MPEG-1 and also handle sets of BMP images.

f. Windows Movie Maker - Download - Home Page - [Equivalent = Adobe Premiere]
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx
A free video editor included with Windows XP (Windows Update will include the latest version). It gives you the tools to create, edit, and share home movies. Compile and edit a movie from video clips with drag-and-drop functionality. Add special effects, transitions, title options, music, and narration with ease. Share your movie over the Web or master it to DVD media. You can also save your movie back to the DV tape in your camera.