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Free Windows Software Without Spyware/Adware

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the because-those-things-suck dept.

Jem Berkes writes "This week I launched CleanSoftware.org, a resource site with a unique goal: listing free, daily-use software that is free from spyware, adware, and other malicious/intrusive components. With Windows users increasingly believing that free software invariably means adware or spyware, I set out to promote good, clean, free software. Perhaps geeks helping family and friends set up their new computers this holiday can make use of this resource; sticking to clean software is much easier than struggling with never-ending cleanups. To expand my listing, I am also looking for input from the Slashdot readership: what other free, clean desktop software do you regularly use that Windows users should know about?"

14 of 636 comments (clear)

  1. so what's wrong with by belbo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    www.pricelessware.org ?

    --

    --
    "Just believe everything I tell you, and it will all be very, very simple."

  2. Waaaaait a minute there, pal... by SamMichaels · · Score: 5, Funny

    A clean design? Valid HTML? Valid CSS? Useful info? No ads?

    What's the catch?

  3. the obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Foobar2000 (audio player)
    Miranda (instant messenger)
    PuTTY (telnet/ssh client. but if you didn't know _that_, then you really have no business being here.) :P

  4. IrfanView by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I use IrfanView. The lighest and quickest image viewer for Windows that I've ever used.

  5. thank you and darn by wcitechnologies · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nice.

    From the benevolent computer geek in me: thank you.

    From the computer repair business owner in me: ouch.

    --
    Electrons are free; it is moving them that becomes expensive.
  6. Real Player alternative by cy_a253 · · Score: 5, Informative
    I really hate RealPlayer, so this is a godsend:

    http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternati ve.htm

    Although less annoying, there's a Quicktime alternative too:

    http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alte rnative.htm

  7. Free Windows Software... by b374 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... i tried lately includes:
    W32.Envid@mm
    Trojan.Vundo
    W32.Bofra@mm
    Backdoor.Agent.B
    W32.Evaman.C
    W32.Erkez.B@mm

  8. And the less obvious by Osty · · Score: 5, Informative

    For power users, mostly (because they'll confuse your grandma)

    • Startup Monitor. Priceless for dealing with crap like Real or Quicktime that always want to setup stubs to run at boot. The popup warning is pretty non-descriptive, though.
    • Startup Control Panel, also from Mike Lin (the Startup Monitor guy). Similar to msconfig's Startup tab, but more powerful.
    • Pretty much anything from Sysinternals. And they provide source!

    I'm sure there are many others, but those are the ones that immediately came to mind.
  9. Re:Good, Clean, and Free by Gopal.V · · Score: 5, Informative
    GNU/Windows ... I carry one of these :)

    Seriously speaking my desktop right now looks like a Full screen X0rg-cygwin + Fluxbox running - like this. With lots of Xterms and ssh logins :)

    --
    Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
  10. FileZilla by kcomplex · · Score: 5, Informative

    FileZilla is a nice FTP/SFTP client and apparently a server too, but I've never tried using it for that.

  11. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition by cove209 · · Score: 5, Informative

    AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/

  12. Other Media Software by vikramrn · · Score: 5, Informative


    Zoom Player http://www.inmatrix.com/
    VideoLAN http://www.videolan.org/
    VirtualDub http://www.virtualdub.org/

  13. Re:Asking /. about Windows software? by gad_zuki! · · Score: 5, Informative

    > You've got to be kidding.

    Ask the slashdot admins to reveal what % actually uses desktop linux, its in the logs. The windows userbase is huge, even here. Almost all of my unix use is server side. That being said:

    Winamp - disable anon statistics at setup
    Firefox/Mozilla
    Media Player Classic - best videoplayer out there OSS
    Music Brainz - indentifies mp3 files my their sound signature
    Abiword - word processor OSS
    eMule - like kazaa only better
    TightVNC - A nice VNC derivative
    Cygwin - unix on windows. sexy.
    Winzip - it now does 256 ARS encryption
    PGP - the free version, crippled but useful
    Textpad - great text editor
    Thunderbird - email client OSS
    7-zip - free zip/rar/everything opener
    Trillian - best IM client, does encryption
    Gaim - okay IM client OSS
    CoreFTP - better than filezilla
    atomic time sychronizer - for PCs/users that cant do NTP
    Tweak UI - Users will want this eventually
    AGP - free virus scanner
    Ad Aware - spybot not needed really. AA catches just about everything now

    What NOT to recommend:

    Google toolbar - the full version is spyware. Warn users if they are going to use this.

  14. Re:Good, clean, free. by Squalish · · Score: 5, Informative

    On the other hand, the question is about windows. Here's the best freeware list I've found, taken off of the neowin.net forums. These are not guaranteed Clean, but most of them are. Also, you might want to check tinyapps.org, which specializes in SMALL apps (usually not enough space for ad/spyware).
    Category 3D Graphics: ----JunkCharactersToDefeatLameness/CharacterCountF ilterForAValidList----
    3Delight Free - http://www.3delight.com/index.htm
    Anim8or - http://www.anim8or.com/
    Aqsis - http://www.aqsis.com/
    Blender - http://www.blender3d.org/
    gmax - http://www.discreet.com/products/gmax/
    Houdini (Free Edition) - http://www.sidefx.com/apprentice/index.html
    Maya Personal Learning Ed. - http://www.alias.com/eng/products-services...ple/i ndex.shtml
    Now3D - http://digilander.libero.it/giulios/Eng/homepage.h tm
    OpenFX - http://www.openfx.org
    SOFTIMAGE|XSI EXP - http://www.softimage.com/products/exp/v3/
    Toxic - http://www.toxicengine.org/
    Wings 3D - http://www.wings3d.com/
    Category Anti-Virus:----JunkCharactersToDefeatLameness/Char acterCountFilterForAValidList----
    AntiVir - http://www.free-av.com/
    Avast - http://www.avast.com/i_idt_1018.html
    AVG - http://www.grisoft.com/
    ClamWin - http://www.clamwin.com/
    Category Anti Spyware:----JunkCharactersToDefeatLameness/Charact erCountFilterForAValidList----
    Ad-aware - http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/
    Bazooka - http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/index.html
    Diet K - http://www.dietk.com/
    SpyBot Search & Destroy - http://spybot.safer-networking.de/
    SpywareBlaster - http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.htm l
    SpywareGuard - http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareguard.html
    Category IRC Clients:----JunkCharactersToDefeatLameness/Charact erCountFilterForAValidList----
    BersIRC - http://www.bersirc.com/
    BitchX - http://bitchx.org/download.php
    HydraIRC - http://www.hydrairc.com/
    TinyIRC - http://www.tinyirc.net/
    XChat - http://www.silverex.org/news/
    Category Audio Players:----JunkCharactersToDefeatLameness/Charact erCountFilterForAValidList----
    1by1 - http://www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/~pesch
    Billy - http://www.sheepfriends.com/?page=billy
    CoolPlayer - http://coolplayer.sourceforge.net/
    DeliPlayer. http://www.deliplayer.com/
    Foobar 2

    --
    People in Soviet Russia, however, appear to be afflicted with amusing juxtapositions of the aforementioned situation