9 Free Applications Every Windows User Should Have

From time to time, you need to clean up your computer. Over the last year or so, I'd accumulated a lot of unnecessary applications, probably some malware, and just some general junk on my desktop. The solution? Re-install Windows.

Not always for the faint of heart, but this is an annual or semi-annual ritual for me, where I clean off everything I've installed and start from scratch. I moved my User folders (Documents, Music, Pictures, etc) to an external hard drive, re-installed Windows 7, restored my User folder, and then set about re-installing the applications I really use.

With the exception of Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite, everything else that I installed was an indispensable but free piece of software. Here's a quick list of what I installed and why.

Google Chrome - Web Browser Since Chrome was released, I loved it. Internet Explorer has always had issues that I don't like, and Firefox was nice, but Chrome just seems to me to be clean, efficient, and effective. I did install the other major browsers so that I could test web design projects in them, but for day to day use it's always Google Chrome.

AVG Anti-Virus Second up, an anti-virus program. I don't remember exactly when I discovered that I could get free virus protection, but since then I have never spent a dime on Norton or McAfee. Not only do those other programs tend to bog your computer down, but they're so damn expensive. AVG is effective and free, and you don't have to install all kinds of extra toolbars and gadgets that hamper your computers performance. You can find it at avg.free.com.

7-Zip - File Archive Tool Long ago, WinZip was my go-to archive tool. Problem was, it didn't open .rar files, and it seems like these have become more popular over time. WinRAR, the program I found to open rar archives, wasn't free. No good. But, thankfully, 7-Zip is free, open source, and can handle all kinds of archives - including zip files, rar files, and tar.gz files. It's a lightweight program, and it pays to have it around just in case you download something and it comes in an unexpected, compressed archive format. You can find it at 7-zip.org.

WinAmp - Music Player It's funny, I used to use WinAmp back in the '90's, but I eventually migrated to iTunes. Since I picked up an Android phone last year, though, I'm back to being a devoted WinAmp user. I use the WinAmp android app to play music on my phone, and the computer software can handle file transfers between my PC and my phone. Better yet? I can wirelessly transfer and sync files. Take that, iPod and iPhone users. Since I don't have an iPod or an iPhone, I don't see any reason to keep iTunes around, and for the first time in a long time I didn't install it. You can get WinAmp at winamp.com.

Notepad++ - The Good, Better, Best Text Editor Notepad is crap. There's no formatting, and it's impossible to read large text files, especially if they happen to be code of any kind. Notepad++ on the other hand, is an awesome plain text editor. It has all kinds of cool features, like line numbers and highlighting tbe current line/paragraph you're reading. Better yet, it supports syntax highlighting for dozens of coding languages. I use it to edit php and css files for web development, and I also use it to type up articles for Associated Content. Available at notepad-plus-plus.org.

Adobe Reader - PDF Reader You gotta be able to read PDF files. What I used to hate about Adobe Reader was that the cool features - like highlighting and commenting - were restricted to the upgraded and costly pro version. Grr. For several years, I used a third party PDF reader that allowed me to mark-up and comment on PDF files. A recent update to Adobe Reader changed this, though, and you can now highlight text and add comments with the free version, so I'm back to Adobe.

Windows Live Mesh - File Syncing Tool There are a lot of cool programs in the Windows Live Essential kit, but my favorite is Windows Live Mesh. This is a file syncing tool that gives you 5 gb of online storage and lets you connect multiple computers. I the documents folder on my home desktop, my laptop, and my work desktop in my classroom at school. Now I don't have to worry about carrying a flash drive around with all my lesson plans and random documents - they're immediately synced and available on all three of my main computers. If I happen to be on a different computer, I can log into the remote server and access the files that way. Definitely a great solution for someone that has multiple computers that they use on the regular.

SyncBack - Backup Tool Hard drives crash, unfortunately. SyncBack is one of many back-up tools, but it's the one I chose. I set up a few different back-up profiles to take important clusters of documents from my desktop and store them on an external hard drive. Available at 2brighsparks.com.

FileZilla - FTP Client This app is perhaps more specialized for web developers and designers, but I need an FTP client. FileZilla is free and it's great, and I've used it for years. Definitely a must-have for people that need FTP capabilities. Available at filezilla-project.org.

Make a List, and Clean Up Your PC Maybe it's time to clean up your PC and start with a fresh installation of Windows. If so, make up your own list of important apps. Nothing feels better than working with a clean slate and only installing the stuff that you really use.