Still Awesome After All These Years: Eight Excellent Free Downloads

Wine gets better with age. Men get more distinguished looking (aroun my married woman tells me). Even some cars seem to amend as time passes (I'm looking you, 1965 Mustang). But there's nothing glamorous about old software apps, which just get less and less useful the older they get–aright?

Not e'er. Both programs are like garden perennials, returning apiece year with fresh blooms and stronger stems. Recall of some of the world's best productiveness tools and system utilities, and I'll wager that or s of them were "planted" leastwise five years ago–decades in figurer years.

Rent out's look at eight of these blossoming apps, all of which are more awesome than ever so, and all of which are, amazingly, free. (For a convenient list of all octad downloads, with links, see our Downloads Ingathering.)

CCleaner

Possibly none political platform has evolved more over the old age than Piriform's CCleaner, which began life in 2003 as "Crap Cleaner." True to its identify, the tool scours your PC for unwanted filth that accumulates in Windows' arteries: temp files, Registry fragments, log files, web browser cookies, and so on. Then, with one click, it clears altogether that lug away. No wonder CCleaner remains one of the well-nig popular arrangement-optimization tools ever.

OpenOffice.org

Speaking of popular, who doesn't have mad love for OpenOffice.org? This hospitable-source office entourage gives Microsoft Office a run the money–but it doesn't cost you a dime. Stocked with a word processor, a spreadsheet, a database, a presentation manager, and a drawing political program, OpenOffice has matured nicely over the years, spiffing up its interface while adding full data file compatibility with its Microsoft Office counterparts. Sometimes I even so think it's too good to be true.

Stickies

OpenOffice is a big program. Zhorn Software's Stickies is tiny aside comparison, but No little valuable. This to-do list coach takes the form of sticky notes, which you "library paste" to your desktop instead of to your actual desk. And unlike the Sticky Notes program built into Windows 7, Stickies is actually useful (distressing, Microsoft). You can designate timers, add checkboxes to your lists, and even set prepared recurring notes that pop up at designated intervals (much as every three months). Author Uncle Tom Revell is now on adaptation 7 of Stickies, and the program just keeps getting wagerer.

RoboForm

Same goes for Siber Systems' RoboForm, unmatchable of the oldest apps in the group. Debuting in 1999, RoboForm stores your passwords and login IDs, making it easier for you to augury into respective websites. IT too keeps track of your personal information (name, accost, phone number, and more), pasting everything into Web forms with unmatchable pawl. You can usage RoboForm to store secure notes, generate secure passwords, and make your entire online experience more than secure. The gratuitous version, available only for personal and non-profit-making use of goods and services, stores your information for capable 10 World Wide Web sites. On the far side that, you'll need a RoboForm subscription ($20 per year).

WinPatrol

Another longtime security champ, WinPatrol from BillP Studios, tackles the other side of online rubber: IT monitors your system for unauthorized changes– the kinds ready-made by malware and browser hijackers–and so lets you delete some offenders. It can also disable or holdup startup programs so that your organization boots faster. For users who neediness to know more about the programs running on their PC (including unseeable and cryptic ones), WinPatrol Plus ($30) includes a database of tens of thousands of them. Amazingly, this program is now on adaptation 20.

AVG Anti-Computer virus Free Edition

AVG Anti-Virus Unrestrained Edition turned in an excellent detection rate when exposed to multitudes of malware.

Alas, WinPatrol can't defend your PC against viruses and the likes of. For that you want something like AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition, ace of the most robust free security tools ever. (In a recent mental testing, it noticed 98.5 percent of known malware.) And this is nary mere scanner; AVG offers real-prison term protective cover against malware infections, addition a LinkScanner component that thwarts Web attacks spell you surf. Why pay for antivirus software when this ever-improving gem does the job gratis?

IrfanView

Irfan Skiljan's IrfanView has long been my go-to tool for cropping, resizing, and differently manipulating images. It's not an editor in chief much as a tweaker, sanctionative you to construct simple changes to a screenshot or exposure, and to ADHD a few special effects when the occasion warrants. IrfanView oodles within a second afterwards you click its icon, and it occupies just 1.5MB of space along your disk drive. The program hasn't seen many another major changes in recent years, simply that's a good thing.

Wildebeest Image Manipulation Programme

The free Wildebeest Image Manipulation Computer program delivers Photoshop-like advanced image-editing capabilities.

Course, IrfanView doesn't backup Photoshop-level image editing. For that, address the GNU Image Manipulation Program, affectionately known Eastern Samoa GIMP. It replicates many of Photoshop's best features, offering filters, special effects, masks, layers, and everything else you need to make up digital works of art (or works of member art).