So you got rid of that hectic Windows Vista and got yourself this new stunning looking Windows7 (7 because its the 7th operating system from Microsoft Windows). You liked it don’ you? What next? You must have been searching for some good “free” software . I, from my personal experience, found out the 7 must have free software for windows 7. Here is the list:

1.Antivirus: The first thing you need in this dirty cyber world is a good anti-virus that can protect your computer from possible virus attack. If you are a simple user that uses internet for surfing and occasionally downloading (in short, you are a home user) then a free home edition of any good anti-virus will do the work. There are a number of anti-virus available that provide free home edition. But out of them AVG, Avast and Avira (BTW Avast is my personal favourite) stands out because of their frequent auto-update of virus database keeps you safe from the new born viruses. Following are the links:

Avast:

AVG: http://free.avg.com/it-en/homepage

Avira: http://www.free-av.com/

2.A new Web Browser: You definitely do not want the traditional and slow Internet Explorer that comes along with any Windows operating system. No matter how much Microsoft tries to improve their web browser, it still lags behind. So it’s time to change it to a faster and better browser like Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.

Mozilla Firefox: Mozilla firefox comes with additional security features that makes it perfect for online transactions. Its faster, its better. And it comes with thousands of add-ons(like ad blocker and you tube downloader) that gives you a personalize web experience based on your needs. Private browsing option is also there. Firefox is rated no. 1 by a number of reviwers. You can get it from here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html

Google Chrome: Chrome is the web browser from internet giant Google. When the name Google is there, you obviously expect a high quality product. And Chrome doesn’t disappoint. In fact, its a good competitor to Firefox. Its faster and sleeker then Firefox. Top of the Chrome starts from tabs itself so it gives a bigger panel for viewing and doesn’t eat first 2 inches of your screen. Though it does not have many add-ons but seems Google is working on that. Private browsing is not an option in Chrome so you have to delete your browsing history if you are a frequent “Private Browser”. Here is the link:

3.Open Office: One of the most important thing which you need on your computer is Office. But Microsoft office is not free. It comes on a hefty price. You got two option for Office. First is, check your wallet and see if you can afford to buy MS Office at such a heavy price. Second is, well, get a pirated version available on net. But piracy is crime, isn’t it? If you cannot go for any of the above two options then I’ll suggest you the third option. Go for Open Office. Open Office is a good and most importantly a free alternative of Microsoft Office by Sun MicroSystem/ Oracle. It has all the features you get in MS Office. It provides you with customer support also. There are a number of add-ons available to enhance the software experience. And all this is free and legal. So what you thinking. Get it here: http://download.openoffice.org/index.html

4. File Compression Software: You will always need a software to uncompress the various downloads from internet. While most of the known Unzip softwares are not free(for eg: Win Zip and Win Rar) and you can only download the trial version. There is an equally efficient “free” alternative of it. . 7 Zip can unpack ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, DMG, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MSI, NSIS, RAR, RPM, UDF, WIM, XAR and Z. For ZIP and GZIP formats while it can pack in 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR fromats. Here is the link form CNET downloads:

5. Windows Cleaner: Do you realize how much space unwarranted temporary files can eat? Well don’t clean your PC for a month and it can be around 1 GB. Memory space is not the only problem, it also slows down your computer. The best available software for this purpose is undoubtly CCleaner. Here is the link to download it: http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

6. Video Player: By this you might have realized that Windows Media Player cannot play all video formats. WMP is good enough for music playing but when it comes to video, it lacks the required codecs to play the particular format. A superb video player that can play almost all the available video formats is VLC. Originally developed for video streaming, VLC has an additional benefit in terms of Audio enhancement. It can enhance the volume upto 4 times (This may harm your speakers though) so in case if you have a video with very low sound and you are not able to hear it properly even after using headsets, VLC is your saviour. Apart from this, there is very friendly option for explicitly adding subtitles, in case the subtitles are not loaded automatically. Get it here: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

7. Virtual CD Drive: To have a virtual cd drive help you in playing games and running big softwares. Daemon Tools Lite (Lite version is free) provide you to mount an image file in to the system and install or run the software/game form the image.  Here you go: http://www.daemon-tools.cc/eng/products/dtLite