Superb software doesn't have to cost a fortune - thanks to open source, shareware and ad-supported projects, you can equip your Windows PC with a complete set of essential everyday programs completely free. We've put the best free Windows software to the test and hand-picked the very best programs for your PC. These are the programs we use ourselves at home, and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do. Password Hacking Software Free Download Full Version there. Don't see your favorites listed? Share your recommendations in the comments below.

The Best Free Software for PC. Best Free Microsoft Downloads: Best Free Windows Driver. Best Free DVD Collection Software: 250 Best Free Online PC Games In. The Best Free Software for PC. Best Free Microsoft Downloads: Best Free Windows Driver. Best Free DVD Collection Software: 250 Best Free Online PC Games In.

Free antivirus: Incredibly easy to use, with excellent detection rates. Just set and forget Each time we update our guide to the, one security suite stands head and shoulders above the rest. This time it's BitDefender Antivirus Free Edition, which makes protecting your PC from viruses and other malware (including ransomware) as straightforward as possible. You can rely on it to detect and eliminate the latest threats as soon as they appear, with the minimum of fuss. Review and where to download: Free office software: There's no need to pay for Microsoft Office with this superb free suite WPS Office Free is a great looking free office suite containing powerful tools for word processing, presentations and spreadsheets. It's fully compatible with Microsoft Office file formats, and is packed with attractive templates.

Best of all, its components work just like the latest versions of Word, Powerpoint and Excel, so you'll be up and running immediately. Review and where to download: Web browser: Chrome is fast, flexible and almost infinitely extendable via extensions The browser wars are as fierce as ever, but Google Chrome takes our top spot thanks to its flexibility, stability and cross-platform support.

Its integration with your Google account makes it incredibly easy to carry your favorites and bookmarks between devices, and it supports a huge archive of extensions. Review and where to download: Free VPN: Friendly, fast, and with a great choice of servers, you can trust TunnelBear TunnelBear makes it easy to protect your identity online and access region-blocked content. Just flick the switch, select an international proxy, and all your online activity will be re-routed. Review and where to download: Free music player: The ideal player, streamer and organizer, with smart tagging and optimization Everything you need for managing a music collection of any size, MusicBee offers smart tagging and hardware optimization for the best possible playback quality. It's also a great choice for streaming internet radio stations and enjoying your favorite podcasts.

Review and where to download: Free photo editor: Make your photos look their best with the best free Photoshop alternative GIMP is packed with smart tools like a clone stamp, healing brush, transformations, smart selections and a host of filters – from the subtle to the creative. There are also dozens of superb user-created plugins to add even more features, and GIMP receives regular updates from its team of volunteer developers. Review and where to download: Free PDF reader: Foxit Reader reads, creates and converts PDFs, with great file compatibility View, edit and create PDFs, and convert Microsoft Office files and scanned documents.

Foxit Reader's superb feature set is rounded out with annotations, cloud-sharing and security options to protect you from potential security vulnerabilitites. Review and where to download: Free torrent client: A free client packed with all the tools music, TV and movie fans could want Fast and efficient, with a built-in search engine and media player, free torrent client qBittorrent has everything you need for quick, secure downloads.

There's automatic prioritization of torrents, torrent creation and IP filtering too, and it's easy to master. Review and where to download: Free YouTube downloader: Grab videos individually or in batches, and save them in your chosen format Freemake Video Downloader has over 93 million users worldwide, and it's easy to see why. Not only does it grab videos from all the most popular hosting sites, including YouTube and Vimeo, it also converts and saves them in the right format for your playback device – whether that's a PC, smartphone, tablet or games console. It's simple to use too, and one of the fastest tools around. Review and where to download: Free video editor: Professional video editing software that's within the reach of beginners Whether you want to make a quick adjustment to a clip recorded on your smartphone or compile high definition footage into a professional-looking movie ready to upload to Vimeo, Lightworks is the tool for you. It's very powerful, and has been used to produce real Hollywood films.

Review and where to download: Free email client: Manage multiple inboxes in one place and keep on top of your daily tasks If you have more than one email account – and most of us do – you probably have to juggle multiple browser tabs when you want to check your messages. A desktop email client helps avoid this hassle by putting all your mailboxes in one central location, and eM Client is the best one around. It's smart, easy to navigate, and supports your calendars as well to help you stay organized. Review and where to download.

TV shows, movies, and games are often distributed online, and a great download manager will slash the amount of time you spend waiting for them to appear on your hard drive. The best managers can speed up downloads by breaking files into manageable blocks, let you pause and resume whenever you want, and even compensate for flaky internet connections by picking up where they left off after it breaks unexpectedly. Some download managers will even convert media file formats automatically, saving you the hassle of re-encoding them yourself, and others will let you begin playing an audio or video file before it's finished downloading. Here's our pick of the very best free download managers for Windows. Once you've tried one, you'll wonder how you ever managed without it. Download scheduling is a relative newcomer to the downloading party, and it looks considerably more contemporary than its, er, contemporaries.

Its interface is simple and modern (if a little dark), and its accelerator can help you get your files 10 times faster. It does this by splitting each file into chunks, then downloading each one using a different server connection, making downloads not only faster, but also more reliable. If you're into music and movies you'll be delighted by its sequential setting, which lets you begin playing a file while it's still downloading. There's also a built-in video downloader with support for YouTube and Vimeo, and a video converter that changes the file format automatically once it's finished downloading. There are lots of fantastic options around, but if you love music, films and TV then Ninja Download Manager is the tool for you.

Note that the link to download the free version of Ninja Download Manager is at the very bottom of the developer's homepage. Web-based remote control aims to be all things to all people – and succeeds. It's a download accelerator, a BitTorrent client, an audio and video previewer and a traffic management tool, and because it's open source, it's completely free and receives regular updates from its community of developers. It includes powerful scheduling features and a very handy remote control that means you can leave your downloads running and check on their progress from any internet-connected device. It can spider sites to download specific kinds of files, and you can choose to download only the bits of a ZIP file you actually want. It's an exceptional program, and it was tough to choose between this and Ninja Internet Download Manager for the top spot.

No privacy protection The free version of is a pared-back version of the premium edition, but it's much more than just a demo and contains all the essential features you need for quick, reliable downloads. The free version lacks the DAP Premium's privacy protection, but it does include a link checker, video previewing, file conversion, safe downloading and multiple connections to boost the speed of your downloads. Download Accelerator Plus is clearly designed for media fans, and can help you avoid irritations such as slow servers and internet congestion. Installer contains adware is a free, open source download manager with a massive developer community, and it's available for Windows, Linux and Mac. It's really one for power users, with support for over 300 decryption plugins, automatic RAR extraction, password list searching and OCR to complete some of the captcha 'I'm not a robot' checks you encounter on download sites. You'll need the to run it, and you'll have to be careful when installing it: the installer contains adware, which will be bundled in with the download manager if you don't specifically deselect it. Bundled extra software is a smart, modern download manager that makes downloading all kinds of media files a piece of cake.

It boasts accelerated downloads, automatic malware checking, automatic and batch downloads, and lots more features besides. EagleGet's browser extension works with Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer, identifying downloadable content on pages and letting you grab it with a couple of clicks. Any open browser windows will be closed when you install EagleGet, so make sure you've saved any works in progress before you begin.