44 Essential Pieces Of Free (Open source ) Software for Windows-2018

A recent survey shows that each year, companies waste $34 billion on unused software licenses. Unfortunately, not only big corporations experience this kind of problem. We’re sure that many of you have spent money on software or apps and didn’t ending up using them or finding them useful. And to think that all this is happening when there are so many high-quality apps available for free!

At Bright Side,we’ve collected some of the best application software for all occasions that you’ll definitely want to use.

Navigation software





Great Software That’s Actually Available for Free




1. Google Maps


It’s almost impossible to replace this software, as it has an enormous number of useful features! Google Maps is available for free and there is even a possibility to download maps and use them offline. And with Google Street View you can take a closer look at your destinations.

2. Maps.me


Maps.me gives you the ability to search offline and provides you with worldwide support and traffic data. It can be considered Google Maps’ toughest competitor.

Education software










3. Wikipedia


Wikipedia is the largest and most popular free web-based encyclopedia that can be edited by any internet user.

4. Coursera


Coursera is an open web-based learning platform for educational courses available to people from every corner of the world.

5. Space Engine


Space Engine gives you the opportunity to explore the universe from your computer. It is a realistic model that represents the entire universe with the help of current astronomical data.

6. Duolingo


Duolingo is a language-learning platform that includes a website and app for both IOS and Android. It provides 68 language courses for 28 different languages.

7. Zotero


Zotero is an open-source software available for free designed to help you collect, organize, and share research data.

Media players










8. VLC


VLC Media Player is the most popular free media player that’s available for all wide-spread platforms. Millions of users choose this player as it supports a great number of file formats and audio and video compression methods.

9. PotPlayer


Recently, PotPlayer has earned a solid reputation. This player can provide users with a high performance, lightweight experience. Although PotPlayer is less wide-spread than VLC, it supports an even greater amount of file types.

10. Media Player Classic — Home Cinema


The Home Cinema version of Media Player Classic was developed by the community of the software’s fans. Its developers managed to improve the older version and make the software speedy and lightweight.

3D modeling software










11. Blender


Blender is an open source 3D creation tool. It supports a full range of 3D work from modeling and rendering to game design.

12. OpenSCAD


OpenSCAD is a highly targeted software for creating 3D CAD models. Unlike most free 3D modeling software, OpenSCAD is focused on the CAD aspects of 3D modeling, not on the artistic ones.

13. Fusion 360


Fusion 360 is a great professional software that is absolutely free for students, teachers, and educators. This software works on both Macs and PCs, and it has been called the ultimate solution for designing and engineering.

14. SketchUp


SketchUp is the best solution for those who’d rather jump right into drawing than digging into various settings and advanced features of the software. With this tool, you can make whatever you want in a quick and easy manner.

Utilities










15. The Windows Snipping Tool


The Windows Snipping Tool is a special utility app for making screenshots included in Windows OS. It allows you to take screenshots of a full screen or any of its parts. Your screenshot can then be edited, annotated, saved in different formats, or e-mailed.

16. Desmos


Desmos is a professional programmable graphing calculator that is available as both a web and mobile application.

17. Calibre


Calibre is a free software that is often referred to as “iTunes for electronic books” since it helps you to collect and organize your digital books and provides you with good support for converting books into different formats.

18. Notepad++


Notepad++ is a simple and elegant code editor for Windows OS.

19. KeePass Password Safe


KeePass Password Safe is an open-source solution to storing your logins, passwords and any data you want in an encrypted file.

Video and audio software










20. MuseScore


MuseScore is the most popular free software for writing music that is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

21. Audacity


Audacity is an open-source solution for audio editing and recording, and is free to install on Windows, Mac, Linux and other OS.

22. DaVinci Resolve15


DaVinci Resolve 15 is the first solution that includes this many features for professional video editing! It can be used for offline and online video-editing, color correction, audio correction, and even visual effects.

23. HandBrake


HandBrake is a tool designed for video conversion from any format.

Digital design










24. Krita


Krita is a free, open-source software for raster graphics editing developed for digital art and animation purposes.

25. Gimp


GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free tool for photo retouching, image composition, and authoring.

26. Paint.NET


Paint.NET is an image editing software available for free with a user-friendly interface and a wide feature set.

27. Inkscape


Inkscape is a free vector graphics editor with the same feature set as Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw.

File Management Software










28. 7-Zip


7-Zip is a very popular file archiver, a special tool that places groups of any files within “archives” for easier transportation or storage.

29. Everything


Everything is a search tool for Windows that helps users find their files by name quickly and easily.

30. FreeNAS


FreeNAS is an operating system for any hardware platform, designed to protect, store and share your data over a network.

31. Dropbox


Dropbox is a cloud storage service available for free that gives users an opportunity to share and store files of any type (photos, documents, videos, etc).

32. Recuva


Recuva is a special tool that can help you recover files from your Windows computer, recycle bin, SD card, or MP3 player.

Image and document editing software










33. LibreOffice


LibreOffice is the world’s most wide-spread free office suite. It includes several separate tools for different purposes such as text editing, spreadsheet processing, presentation creation, vector graphics development and formula editing.

34. LaTeX


LaTeX is a free software that allows users to prepare documents for high-quality typesetting and can be used for almost any type of publishing.

35. Google Apps


Google Apps allow users to create different documents, tables, presentations, store all their files on Google Drive and share those files with other users.

36. Irfanview


IrfanView is a free and open-source program for Microsoft Windows that allows users to view, edit, organize, and convert images.

Software for gamers










37. Steam


Steam is a unique platform for digital distribution that offers its users multiplayer gaming, streaming and communicating services.

38. OBS Studio


Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) is a popular streaming program that is free to install on Windows, Mac, Linux, and other OS.

39. Discord


Discord is a free and secure way for gamers to chat and it’s available on both desktops and phones.

40. Unity


Unity is a powerful game engine which was designed to develop both 3-dimensional and 2-dimensional video games and simulations for computers, consoles, and mobile devices.

OS and computer management software










41. Ubuntu


Ubuntu is a free-distributed up-to-date, stable operating system that runs from the desktop to the cloud and to any internet connected things.

42. TeamViewer


TeamViewer is a special tool for remote control desktop sharing and file transferring between computers.

43. Plex


Plex is a free software tool that can give you access to all of your media on all of your devices. With Plex, all images, videos and audio files from your folders or online services are organized and ready to stream.

44. Malwarebytes


Malwarebytes is a powerful antivirus software available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, and Android.

What free software do you use? Share your experience in the comments!

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