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The free programs that you should have on your PC yes or yes

If you need to improve your productivity with your computer, but you don't want to drop a patch of software that you don't even know if you're going to take advantage of it, this list of free programs for Windows can be the first contact with what could be your next favorite applications .

For this list of free programs for Windows we have considered as a main factor that its official version is free of monetary cost. Then, each of them can be more or less useful depending on the utility that you are going to give it, because for example there will be someone who handles many compressed files, but does not need complete data management.

VLC, play almost any video

This is perhaps one of the best known, but we never tire of recommending this free program for Windows. Before it was even more necessary, since VLC has always had the ability to read any video container file that we come across.

Today the formats are standardized because we do not usually find files of strange formats other than .mp4 and avi. But many of us continue to use them because it is efficient and effective. Simply, set it as the default player and you will hardly find problems when playing videos, and with additions such as the possibility of picking up a video where you left off, ideal for watching series or movies.

7zip, the best of the file compression programs, simple, direct, free and free

Many of us continue with jokes about the licenses of Winrar and WinZip programs and their eternal free trials, but 7zip is like them, but better and free, without a doubt. This totally free and free program allows us to have perhaps one of the best file compressors ever.

Capable of handling both .rar and .zip, 7zip also manages all kinds of compression extensions, plus .7z is a much higher compression format, something that will allow you to share more files with people who use this program. Many of us have been using it for years, and weighing not even 2MB it is perhaps one of the programs that we download first in any clean installation we do. Of course, you have to remember to set it as the default program with compressed files.

One Commander, file explorer

If you need to be able to search all the files on your computer, One Commander is a free program for Windows that has little to envy the most expensive ones. This explorer allows us to open columns in a staggered way to have visual information on the path of the files, as well as some metadata.

For example, it can help us to quickly compare if an image is of a size or resolution without having to open the properties. This program is ideal for those who need an exhaustive search and organization and those who handle dozens of files at the same time.

LightShot, full and easy screenshots

Once you install Lightshot, you will not see the screenshots as before. After installing this application, you will simply have to press a hotkey on your keyboard or mouse to be able to capture an area of ​​your computer. But in addition to that you can add drawing, lines, text, arrows and squares (without filling, so you will not be able to censor content without going through another program or passing several lines and boxes on top of the content you want to hide).

It is true that some of these functions are already standard in Windows 10, but some of us still find the fact that it is so quick to use very useful for our day to day. In addition, you will have a service to upload the captures with a single keyboard shortcut, something that can help us share in some services that do not allow images.

Scribus, free layout program

If you want to layout a small publication, book, comic, or pamphlet, but don't want to give Adobe money, Scribus is a free layout program. What it has in simplicity helps you layout from a stapled booklet to your own thesis.

It is perhaps somewhat more complicated to handle than InDesign, but we can't help but think that a free alternative to more expensive programs is always a good idea. You just have to learn a little and we can send our book or magazine project to the printer without complications.

WinAmp, the classic music player

Yes, we are going to recommend a program that is long overdue and is no longer supported. But he still has a community that still loves this show. WinAmp was very popular in the 2000s and even when it was abandoned it continues to bring joy to its users.

Mostly, we have one of the most effective and simple music players with a great playlist manager, since the one that comes standard in Windows leaves everything one could want. In addition, we can use equalization in a very simple way and adapted to what we listen to as soon as we want to enter the world of audiophiles. In addition, you have the possibility of installing skins that we can find on compilation websites such as this museum of WinAmp skins.

Tixati, download torrents without distractions

If you need a torrent program to download some of these free programs for Windows 10, Tixati may be the best choice for this function. It is true that almost all torrent managers are free, but many have adware installed or functions that make it more cumbersome. This client dispenses with all this, at the cost of a somewhat more dated but highly functional style.

If we need a more intelligent management, this program can be adapted by developers for its installation in servers in a relatively simple way. This makes it ideal for small home media servers or simply for home use, up to semi-professional uses.

X360c, make any controller compatible to play games

If you are a PC gamer and want to use a non-Xbox controller, you will need this program. Games that accept a controller often only accept Xinput and not all of them are compatible with other formats. If you want to trick them, this application can collect the inputs of any controller that you can connect and turn them into an Xbox 360 controller so that it works more easily.

We advise that it is not very simple and you may have to follow a tutorial, but if you have, for example, a Nintendo Switch Pro controller or a PlayStation 4 controller that you want to use on PC, this program will allow you to use it in any controller compatible game. We warn you that in some games, having this program in the background can cause problems. It is the best of the free programs for your generic controller to work on PC.

Fontser, font previewer

This free program for Windows is perhaps simple for laymen in graphic design. But it can be very useful to know the text fonts you use and determine if you should expand the budget of a project.

It is very simple because it simply looks at the fonts installed in the operating system and gives a quick preview. That's it, he doesn't have any more. But if you simply want to see if you have the desired style for that project and you should buy an extra license, it is effective and fast without having to open heavier programs.

Ninite, the website to go to with a clean installation to install free programs

We break our rules in pursuit of a website, but it can help us in case we need to quickly put a formatted computer to use. This website gives us access to a series of free applications, some of them on this list.

We simply select the free programs we want and it will give us an installer to use them on our computer. Its biggest problem is that it usually takes the most generic and well-known applications, but if we want to install them for a family member who does not want anything unknown, it may be the best way to ensure that they have what they need to get the most out of a PC.

WinDirStat, to know how much each folder and file occupies

This free program is ideal for when you want to do a quick and effective cleaning of your computer. WinDirStat scans all your media and creates a recursive tree with the sizes of each of the folders and files together with a display of the relative size of all the files on the hard drive.

This way we will see the folders that are the heaviest and the largest files, so we can make space on our hard drive. Depending on how we use it, we can free up up to 10 GB of space simply by deleting temporary files. It's a great way to free up space if your executable drive is low on storage capacity.

AlwaysOnTop, to have a program always in the foreground

Let's say you need to always have a document, image or video. AlwaysOnTop is a free program that does what it promises: to always have you in the foreground. More we can not say beyond that sometimes it will not be very useful, and that it is free.

Freedom, to help you work without distractions

Now that more and more people work from home, distractions from using your regular computer are common. Who does not happen that at the end of an important point of the workload, they go to watch a YouTube video and then end up listening to an entire pdocast?

Freedom is a program that we can download for free from its website, and will cause the applications or websites that we send to you to be blocked for a time. We simply open it before starting work and we can work without distractions or temptations.

GIMP, the best free replacement for Photoshop

Image editing is immediately associated with Photoshop. But GIMP is the best free alternative to the Adobe program, with some limitations. It is true that it is much lighter and has some functionality that we find it hard to believe that Photoshop does not have how to create a layer after pasting an image.

But GIMP does not share keyboard shortcuts with Photoshop and if we alternate we will have to adapt, and it does not have so many powerful functions. If we are not professionals, GIMP is the best and most similar thing that we can download for free if we want the basic functions of Photoshop.

Audacity, free program to edit audio

Do you want to trim the silence of a song? Do you want to modify your voice? Do you want to ride your podcast? Audacity is the free program you need for everything related to sound editing. It has all the functionalities you can ask for, so with this simple download you will have all your audio management needs covered.

CDisplayEx, to read books and comics without problems

If we are very readers, this free program will easily solve all our problems when reading books or comics in the western and eastern sense. It has many configuration options to read as we want. It is even able to remember the It is compatible with files in PDF and in the .cbr format. Of course, in some PDFs it can give problems and does not get along with .epub, so you still have to download another program like Caliber.

Caliber, to organize your ebooks

If CDisplay doesn't work for us, Caliber is the other best free program to read epubs from any source. It allows us to organize them to our liking and has its own reader that in the lower right corner tells us how long we have read the book.

Clipboard Fusion to organize your clipboard

This program is going to be one of the ones you end up using the most. Generate a history of texts, HTML, files and images that have passed through your clipboard for future use. It has the option of calling the program with a combination of keys that you want and it allows you to permanently save the copied elements that you are going to use the most and edit them.

LibreOffice, the best alternative to paying for the Office suite

If you are a student, or a home user who is going to use office programs from time to time, and not extensively, you most likely will not want to pay for the Microsoft Office key. Now that they are focusing on cloud services with Office 365, interest in having the programs locally increases. Therefore, you cannot use Office without registering and paying a fee, which many times will not be worth it for the alternatives that exist, because you are not going to use it enough or because you did not trust it to run in the cloud.

Libre Office is a free and open source office suite. You will most likely be more interested in the first, since it is compatible with a wide number of formats, although if a very complicated Word file is handled, it can cause problems. You can download it for free from its official website, and you will no longer have to pay for the Microsoft Office license, since there is an equivalent for each program popularized by Microsoft, and with the possibility of saving, exporting and modifying these formats. You can even use it on a fleet of computers in an office, if everyone coordinates to use it.

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Benjamin Rosa

Madrileño whose publishing career began in 2009. I love investigating curiosities that I later bring to you, readers, in articles. I studied photography, a skill that I use to create humorous photomontages.

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