Top 25 free tools for Windows 7 and 8.1

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I’m not going to throw in the towel on Win7 and 8.1. Here’s my latest take on the best free tools for those of you who figure on stickin’ around for a
[See the full post at: Top 25 free tools for Windows 7 and 8.1]

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As much as I hate slide shows, and as much as I think you often use them to stretch a small article into a normal sized article, this one is probably the best use of slideshow that I have ever seen. Thank you.

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Hey Woody! Thanks for the list! I’m already using 9 of those tools, but I will need to check out a few more now.

I especially like hearing about the Free MS Office Online, as I was unaware of this. I have and use LibreOffice, but sometimes there is that stubborn Office doc that won’t easily translate to open format. Might come in handy!

Process Explorer and Autoruns are a couple of my favorites! Know what’s running on your PC! The VirusTotal integration for those two products gets you an instant malware analysis based on the hash for all of your processes, services, codecs, and more. Good stuff!

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One more thing. Since you included Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) in your list, I would like to recommend another free companion product from the same team. I have been testing Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit (MBAE) on Windows 7 and 8.1. It it very light on the system, set and forget. The free version will protect all of your browsers and browser plug-ins from exploit techniques that can bypass your signature based antivirus. This is a free totally behavior based, zero-day exploit protection (think ransomware). No signature files to update, ever.

I have read that many security experts think we are reaching the limits of what signature based defenses can do to proactively protect us from the growing number of malware variants.

This looks like a really good step towards the next generation of defense.

Well, that and keeping your Windows PC software updated and patched 🙂

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Great list. I’m going to download some of them.

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Happy to hear you say that. 🙂

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As for the anti-virus category, what’s your take on Avast woody?

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Wouldn’t touch Avast with a ten foot pole.

Microsoft Security Essentials is the only AV tool that’ll protect you and never ask for money. AV isn’t nearly as important as it used to be. Why waste your money?

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Great list, Woody. I’m comforted by the fact that I already use at least a half-dozen of the items on your list, but I would like to suggest some alternatives for backup software.

All of these have free versions available and none of them has let me down yet.

Macrium Reflect http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

AOMEI Backupper http://www.backup-utility.com/personal.html

EaseUS Todo Backup http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software.htm

Iperius BAckup http://www.iperiusbackup.com/software-backup-free.aspx

Fortunately, this is one category that has lots of legitimate contenders for users’ attention.

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I thought Malwarebytes had to be licensed for a fee of about $20 for one PC. I guess that is wrong but how do you find the free version and what is missing?

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Least it’s not Norton. Then again is Norton really as bad as people say it is?

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Sadly, as much as I respect you for your Microsoft knowledge Woody, I’m going to have to disagree with your choice of Microsoft Security Essentials. It’s bad enough they are sneaking nagware into updates, and trying to force people to upgrade to Win10, who knows how long it’ll be till they try that crud with Microsoft Security Essentials. For one, Microsoft doesn’t exactly have a clean track record in the ‘nothing suspicious’ department. Second, and this is personal opinion, but Microsoft is known for their windows os, they hardly seem knowledgeable in the ‘anti-virus’ department.

As for me personally, I use Avast with full Heuristics, haven’t had a problem, plus have windows defender

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I heartily concur… This is an excellent piece of software from a highly trusted source!

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Woody,
After this, I’d even watch your vacation slides!
Thank you!
Morty

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Won’t argue with your opinion on Avast, the amount of false positives it has is beyond ricockolous. In the latest free AV tests, Avira has come out on top. That being said, on the bottom of absolutely every test ever is Microsoft Security Essentials (Windows 7 version), finds zero threats, it’s equivalent to having no protection at all. You are right saying AV isn’t nearly as important as it used to be, still one needs something. Personally I use ESET version 8 because it’s light on resources, adblock plus (yes ads infect computers in 2016), adobe flash doesn’t exist on my computers, a huuuuge hosts list and a hefty chunk of paranoia. Someone mentioned Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit, I haven’t tried it yet but I hear good things about it so will give that one a shot too any day now. A pretty good list you put together, of course I don’t agree with everything on it and have a few more you could add but that would just be my own preferences and trying to feel all important. Nice that you mentioned the picture resizer tool, been using it forever and oddly enough it seems to be very obscure still. Very useful tool.

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Woody,
Me again.
If I’m running Microsoft Security Essentials can I also run Defender? Or are they both the same?
Thanks, Morty

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Second John W’s recommendation of MBAE.

Great tools that test the security of your systems, including your router, are available at Gibson Research Corp.

https://www.grc.com/default.htm

The site features free online tests such as ShieldsUp! (TCP port scanner), UPnP (universal plug and play internet exposure), password security, and more. There are also free utilites and SpinRite (not free, data recovery and drive maintenance for NTFS)

If your system has vulnerabilities (mostly related to hardware), GRC tests will find them. Technical explanations are plentiful.

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Avira used to be a very light antivirus and among those with very high rates of detection few years ago. Bugged with adware for their own product in the free version and occasionally for the paid one.
I noticed during the years that the so called enterprise grade antivirus software (McAfee, Symantec, Trend Micro) tends to have a lower detection rate for home user type of viruses because the focus is elsewhere. The only exception among enterprise grade antivirus products was Sophos with very good detection rate, which unfortunately was also heavy on resources.
In the last few years I have used only the Microsoft products in their various flavours which all use the same engine and while not rated as the best in the market, as Woody says, ‘AV isn’t nearly as important as it used to be’.
Keep patched and use a lot of common sense when browsing, reading email from unknown sources and installing downloaded software and you will be OK in most situations.

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Woody
You recommend Microsoft Security Essential for a PC. Do you have a recommendation for a Android tablet that is free?
You recommend VLC Media Player. Can I copy a music CD with that and make another copy. I am running my laptop with Windows 7 that does not have Microsofts MEDIA player on it. Somehow it got deleted and I can”t download a copy to my laptop.
Thanks
Sam
P S Thanks for all the info on the best free tools. That is great.
Sam

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I don’t use AV on my Android phones. It’s probably just a matter of time.

Copying a music CD is called “ripping.” If you need to rip a music CD, launch VLC player and insert the audio cd you want to rip into the computer’s disk drive. Click File, Convert/Stream, Open Media tab.

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Re 7-zip: you forgot to mention its use as a superfast simple file explorer version.

Just run it, click View > 2 Panels, and voilá!

Love it. It’s amazing. I hardly ever use explorer anymore on my win7 machine. 7-Zip copies and moves files at incredible speed. Try it, if you don’t know it yet.

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Where do you get a free permanent version? I can only find their 14-day free trial, after that it’s $24.95 per year.

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Hi Woody,

This is a nice feature you’ve put together which will helpful to almost everyone who uses Win 7 and 8!

[Even if I choose not to use most of them myself, due to privacy worries and other reasons, including just being an oddball who prefers IE browser, Yahoo email, updating programs manually, backing up files manually, never using the cloud…. 😉 ;-)]

In common with one of the previous commenters, I just do not like internet “slideshows”, BUT I must say that I have been reading your column for a year and I cannot remember ever seeing a slideshow by you, before this one.
Maybe I’ve been missing out on a portion of your publications? Oh, probably you’ve done slideshows for your *Windows 10* related articles, which I have not clicked on, since I’m staying with Windows 7.
Anyway, having to click through a well-organized, well-made slideshow (like this one) once in a while is absolutely fine, and the slideshow format suits this kind of list very well.

With the caveat that I don’t know much about computers/programs, so I may say something that is inaccurate and silly!, here are some thoughts I had when reading your article –

Image editor.
I don’t edit images much, but in the past I have used and quite liked the free FastStone Image Viewer.
Their site: http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

Re-sizer.
1. In terms of image re-sizing, Microsoft Office Picture Manager includes a re-sizer under the edit function. I am aware that it’s probably not “free” since it’s got the word “Office” in it (I’ve always had Office on my computers), so I am not suggesting it for your slideshow, but for people who do have Office and are looking for a re-sizer, I thought I’d mention it.
2. The above-mentioned FastStone Image Viewer is free, and it re-sizes images too. However, I found the re-sizing part of their program (as it was up to 2014, anyway) a bit complicated to get the hang of.

Ccleaner.
I was surprised not to see the free version of CCleaner in your list. I use it all the time, for several different things.
I expect that most of them could be done to one extent or the other by delving into my computer’s not-always-the-most-intuitive-or-easily-found settings areas (for example, seeing and adjusting the Startup programs, keeping an eye on what System Restore is doing and removing points that I no longer want to keep, looking at my browser plugins, seeing a list of installed programs and what version they are.) Ccleaner’s interface seems to make them easier to keep track of.
I do use the ordinary “cleaner” part of it (choosing about half of the options they provide, the ones that can’t do much inadvertent harm!), and I run that a LOT to get rid of cookies and stuff. I no longer use the specific “registry cleaner” part of it, just to be on the safe side.

TCPview.
When I was first getting to grips with using Peerblock and my firewall to block unwanted IP connections, I found the free Windows program TCPview to be helpful. I can see how it isn’t a program for mainstream use, though.
It can be downloaded from: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897437.aspx

Zipping.
I don’t know much about zipping programs, but your slide on the free zipping program made me realize that in the 2 or 3 years I’ve had my current Windows 7 computer, I haven’t run into a need for an external program to deal with zipping, and I’m not sure why.
With my former Vista computer, way back when, I think I did need to install an external zipping program.
Just now I clicked on some different types of documents and rightclicked and one of the options was “send to compressed (zipped) folder”, which appeared to zip them. Is this not a good way to zip documents? …Oh, maybe this also is built into Office, even though the right-click item’s description doesn’t refer to it as such?

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The 2-panel explorer is a nifty idea. (A friend of mine built one once.) I don’t like the one in 7Zip because it has a weird navigation interface, but FreeCommander does the dual panel, tabs, and a lot more.

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They’re both the same.

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MSE bobs up and down on the tests. Right now, they aren’t doing very well – but test results are just part of the picture. In fact, the threat from traditional viruses is declining. Good summary on Lifehacker, which found that its old recommended package is now too loaded with crapware to recommend any more. http://lifehacker.com/5865356/the-best-antivirus-app-for-windows

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Wait for the Win10 version – which features vacation slides! 🙂

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It used to be. I hear it’s better – but I still wouldn’t touch it.

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https://www.malwarebytes.org/mwb-download/

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I used to go to the GRC site years ago and I know those tools which you mentioned in your post which are from the Windows XP/2003 era. They were exceptional for that time. I know that everything written by Steve Gibson is written in assembler and as such is very efficient code executing almost instantly. Except for SpinRite which is not related to any OS, are those tools still useful today after so many changes over the years in the Windows platform?

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Woody, is FreeCommander similar to TotalCommander which is not free beyond a trial period? I fully trust Helge Klein in his assessment of Windows Explorer in which among other things he explains what is the difference between a Folder and a Directory in Windows. I bet very few people on the planet outside of Microsoft really understand this difference which is subtle but exists. See this post Why Every Self-Respecting Administrator Should Ditch Explorer For Good https://helgeklein.com/blog/2013/04/why-every-self-respecting-administrator-should-ditch-explorer-for-good/
Helge is the developer of the Citrix User Profile Management or the equivalent current name which keeps changing constantly, product which was acquired by Citrix and included with their latest flagship offerings.

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+1 for Macrium Reflect. I use both the free and paid versions on two computers. I came to Macrium Reflect about a year ago after wrestling for months with a bug in Acronis which interferes with shutdown of the computer and requires a forced shutdown–a bug which apparently has remained unfixed over several versions.

Reflect’s interface is a bit less user friendly than Acronis, but it has been a smooth experience.

I tried AOMEI, the interface and instructions for which are unfortunately poorly translated to English.

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Microsoft Office Picture Manager: I use it to crop because unlike some other programs it shows the vertical and lateral pixels you are cropping off and the image size that will result, as you are moving the little crop handles around.

One watchout: Anything edited in this program will come out 8-bit. So when I am working with 16-bit scans, I do all my Photoshop adjustments in 16-bit and save cropping until last.

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Not at all. At this time it’s a fairly decent AV, and if you’re a Comcast subscriber it’s free, with no nags to pay for it.

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The paid version offers real time monitoring similar to your AV app. The free version stays free, but you have to run scans and cleanup manually. In a nutshell, paid version tries to keep the junk out, free version only removes the junk after it gets in.

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Thanks for the link to the summary. Notice that Norton is not listed. A similar article several months ago stated that Norton refuses to participate in the tests, hence the ranking must be read with the asterisk that Norton is in there somewhere.

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Click on the free version on their website. It will install and ask if you want to run the trial, just uncheck that. Note: the free version only protects browsers & their plugins. That is good enough for drive-by attacks. The paid version also protects office apps and other apps that you can configure. I figure that being smart about opening file attachments makes the paid version unnecessary for me.

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I’ve used Norton for about 8 years (in most years, their rebate program allowed one to get a subscription for between “free” and about $15 — last year the rebates available weren’t so good, and the best offer I could find was paying about $20 for Norton Internet Security to cover 5 devices, which I was happy to pay.

I’ve been pleased with the performance and what it’s saved me from. One time when a program I installed (and paid for, grrr) started acting very suspiciously in a virus/malware sense and I needed real customer support on the phone, I actually got to talk to one of the Norton technical guys, who seemed quite sensible, very friendly, and respectful about the many holes in my computery knowledge, who had English as a first language (he was in California), for over an HOUR. Something like that, which maybe you’d think should be pretty much standard, is pretty impressive in this day and age.

I also use some of my 5 device slots on my and relatives’ phones — not sure such a program can do too much on phones (yet), but it doesn’t seem to slow the phones down.

Before Norton, I used other paid “internet security” programs, and much prefer Norton.

When Norton switched their model to being more of a cloud-based service last year, I didn’t like the idea of that, and looked widely into finding something else, but I didn’t like what I read in articles/reviews about the various other ones in the marketplace.

There’s an organization based in Switzerland or Austria, I think, that is apparently non-profit, and tests all the “internet security” programs constantly (like at least once a month) — they publish charts on various aspects of performance, and they generally rate Norton very highly. I forget the website/organization name but I could probably find it.

I am happy to pay $0 to $20 a year for this type of “set it up once a year and mainly leave it to do its thing, just checking on it once in a while” coverage for 5 devices.

I didn’t want to try to cobble together different vendors’ free programs to try to replicate a paid “internet security” program, because my impression was that I couldn’t quite get every type of “protection” that I wanted that way. I don’t remember the details now because once I made the decision, I gladly put the topic from my mind (until the landscape changes and I again have to figure out what I’m going to do for “internet security”, of course!)

Also, I think there is something to be said for not putting all your eggs into one basket (your trust in one company) to provide everything from soup to nuts
[can you tell that I’m hungry, ha]
– such as Microsoft for everything.

I’d rather have a bit of ‘coopetition’ with the products I use to fit various necessary slots, and let them act at a slight remove from each other, and keep an eye on each other — as far as they can, of course, which isn’t very far.

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One of the components of MSE is Windows Defender (in Windows 7), so not so much of a difference here.

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Kind of, see my other reply. In Windows 7 MSE includes Defender and stops the native one when installing. So MSE is Defender+

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I’m looking at FreeCommander and Total Commander (formerly WinCommander). Looks like they’re two completely different programs, from two different publishers. Anybody have a recommendation?

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Thank you so much! Sneaky, the way they are dealing with the free version. 😉 But, like you, I will be fully covered with the free version.

I used to use Malwarebytes when they were still in Beta, I think. Oh, time flies…

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You didn’t mention that most of his downloadable tools don’t even require installation. They just run straight off the exe. Remember that?

Or, easiest of all, online and free.

Yes, some is dated to the point of being demoted to archive. I do think scanning your hardware is valid, even though hardware holes haven’t been in the news lately.

Windows runs the ports. Yeah, this is Wiki, but check them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_TCP_and_UDP_port_numbers

Did you know that ports 1417-1420 are Timbuktu service ports 1-4 and are “official”? I didn’t. Full-duplex, bidirectional traffic through both TCP and UDP.

Point is, it’s easy to run the checks, costs nothing, and I just as easliy could have posted “why I don’t like Microsoft Security Essentials”.

In my experience, MSE failed at catching things (notably browser PUPs) that I thought it should. Many instances of “been around awhile” and documented problems. That’s when it was Malwarebytes to get the job done. It happened too many times for my liking.

Cannot wait for the first MSE/GWX promo. Send all the MSE users a “virus” (wupdate can do that) that gets through, bury it in the definition updates; the Windows 10 blimp pops out of its Redmond hangar after every 10 seconds of no user input; zooms around Lake Washington doing a barrel roll like Tex Johnson, dropping GWX leaflets looking like 5 1/4″ diskettes. KillBlimp becomes most downloaded since GWX-CP.

I use Panda.

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Kee Pass.

Creates as many passwords as you like, as long as you like, one per site, and they stay on your computer. Not in the cloud, where they can be hacked, or the service provider can go belly up. You only need to remember one master password (and never write it down).

Free. Donations encouraged. Often updated. Tons of options. Plug-ins for extended functionality. Classic interface, not kindergarden nonsense with colour tiles and whatnot. Portable and installable versions. The developer told me he had no plans to take the cloud route, thankfully.

Use it also to store all sorts of data you need to have handy and can’t remember : social security numbers, bank account numbers, hardware warranty numbers…

Couldn’t live without it.

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I’ve had a minute to look up the anti-virus-programs testing organization I mentioned in the prior comment.

I believe it’s this one:
http://www.av-comparatives.org/

From their Wikipedia entry at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AV-Comparatives:

“AV-Comparatives is an Austrian independent organization that tests and assesses antivirus software, regularly releasing charts and reports that are freely available to the public and the media….

It is also supported by the University of Innsbruck and other academic bodies from around the world, as well as by the Austrian Federal Government and the regional government of Tirol.”

I found their site useful last year when I was considering whether to go with Norton’s new cloud version for 2015 or move to another AV provider.

———-
Here is another European testing organization I had not seen before my search tonight, it’s based in Germany:

(this link is to their last test for Windows 7 — their tests on Windows 8 and 10 are more up to date)
https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/windows-7/

Not a whole lot on Wikipedia about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AV-TEST

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Excellent article, Woody. Bookmarked, shared, recommended to all my friends. Beyond excellent.

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Woody,

My family found this very informative. We are not very computer savvy, but try to get by, and three of us are trying to avoid Windows 10, at least for now.

We will investigate some of these programs and some your readers recommend.

We have three topic questions.

We are wondering if you have a favorite program for erasing files and empty disk space thoroughly with no recovery of anything there. In addition, what is your favorite program to totally clean a computer before disposing of it?

If any readers have any favorite Android cleanup programs we’d like to know that too.

Our second question has to do with security–and there are many opinions here. We have heard great reviews of Kaspersky. As a family of mainly Windows 7 users we would like to try it, but my daughter has a windows 10 computer. There is a long list of how it really doesn’t protect much of your Win 10 time spent on the internet, or there are many “exceptions” for windows 10. I don’t know if a 13 year-old could stick with the exceptions list regarding where she goes. With a young daughter I’d like to keep her as safe as possible on the internet. Can anyone give us feedback on Kaspersky total protection for use with Windows 10?

Have you any opinions regarding VPNs. We are leaning toward TunnelBear–mainly due to the Chrome extension and kid factor (ease of use)–we hope we could use it on Windows 7 and Windows 10, but we hear the customer support is limited to email submitted on their website, and TunnelBear rarely, if ever, replies to the submitted email questions. No VPN may work well on the two Win 7 computers with little RAM, but we would like to give it a try on the third Win 7 and on the Win 10 machines, and on a cell phone or two.

Thank you everyone for your comments and thoughts already posted, and those to come.

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