Note from PC Pitstop: We recently asked our TechTalk contributors to recommend a favorite FREE application or tool that they currently use. This post is the response from our friend Dave Taylor.

Our Favorite Freeware Apps

By Dave Taylor

It’s no secret that we at AskDaveTaylor are a bit biased towards Apple products and the Macintosh, though we have a variety of PC gear too, running Windows Vista (yup, really), Windows 7 and even preview releases of Windows 8. There’s a lot to like about Windows 7 in particular — not quite as enamored of Win8 as of yet — if you’re coming from the Mac world, including a rich and impressive developer ecosystem that’s produced a wealth of great applications, utilities and freeware programs from both big corporations and developers working out of dorm rooms, basements and apartments throughout the world.

Problem is, since we don’t use the PC on a daily basis, we’re not as familiar with the best of class freeware apps out there, so when a query came in about the best and most popular freeware applications for Microsoft Windows, well, we were a bit stumped.

Fortunately, there’s social media…

To get a pulse of the Windows community, I posted the following query on Google Plus:

“Hey Windows users, what’s your favorite freeware application or utility? Doesn’t matter if it’s from Microsoft or someone else, just want to know some of your faves…”

The result was an outpouring of freeware apps from almost thirty different people.

Without further ado, then, here’s what people suggested:

teejay:
PortableApps. I have it installed in Dropbox with some of my fave applications (portable Chrome, 7zip, SFTP, KeePass, etc.). Then I can run (and keep synced) on any Windows computer I sync with Dropbox. 

Adam:
Notepad++, Chrome, VLC.

Tim:
BgInfo. Essential in the Lab environment

Randall:
Ubuntu Installer

Tom:
GroupMail — http://group-mail.com 

Jason:
jZip, and I’ll also add filezilla and putty…

Article Continued Here

About Ask Dave Taylor

PC Pitstop is proud to welcome Dave Taylor as a guest contributor. Dave splits time between free tech support on AskDaveTaylor, film reviews on the popular DaveOnFilm.com site, parenting discussions on Go Fatherhood and business, marketing and industry analysis at The Business Blog@ Intuitive.com. Along with a zillion other things.

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