The best free PC software

Need to get some new software for your computer? Don't pay for it! Follow these tips to get it for free...

If you (or your son/daughter) are off to university in a few weeks, or you’ve already started the term, you may be splashing out on a new PC or laptop. But students shouldn’t be spending loads of cash on software too.

Save that money for useful things – such as textbooks, and beer - with our handy guide to the best free and discount software.

Where to spend, where to save

Most geeks would advise you to buy the best screen you can afford, and save your pennies on software and fancy extra hardware features.

You’ll be surprised how much difference extra screen real-estate can make to your productivity. Indeed, if you’re using the computer a lot, it may well be worth investing in an extra screen. You can then write essays in one screen, and keep texts open for quick reference in the other.

The cost of monitors has plummeted in recent years, and you can buy a 20-inch flatscreen monitor on Amazon for under £100.

So if you’re going to splash out on one thing, my advice would be to make it a screen. As for how to save on software… read on.

Office alternatives

Whatever you do, if you’re a student, don’t pay full price for Microsoft Office. If you have an email address that ends .ac.uk, you can buy it heavily discounted direct from Microsoft. If you don’t, then try sites such as Software4Students.

Of course, it’s a moot point whether you need Office at all. The free Google Docs is perfectly good for all but the most advanced tasks, and will open Word or Excel files that other people send you.

And it has the advantage that all your documents are instantly backed up, searchable, and accessible anywhere with an internet connection.

If Google Docs isn’t quite powerful enough, the best-known open-source alternative to Microsoft Office is OpenOffice. This is essentially a carbon copy of Microsoft Office - including most of its bugs. So don’t expect perfection, but it’s fine for day-to-day work.

If I was writing my dissertation on either Office or OpenOffice, though, I’d most want to make sure it was backed up. Which leads us neatly on to the next section.

No more disasters

When I wrote about the best free software last year, my top recommendation was Dropbox. That hasn’t changed - nothing makes it easier to backup and share files. And since then, Dropbox has gained iPhone and a range of mobile apps.

Dropbox is particularly great for students, for two reasons. Firstly, with all your files backed up in the cloud, you need never worry about a lost dissertation again.

Secondly, it’s handy for sharing your music collection - if you put all your MP3s in Dropbox and give the link to your friends, it couldn’t be simpler to share your music online.

The same is true for videos, though with a 2GB limit, if you want to set up a film library you might need to start paying for Dropbox Pro.

Note-taking

When heading off to lectures, you’ll need to take notes. And a laptop is much cooler (and handier) than an A4 pad.

Evernote is an impressive app designed for just this. It comes with PC/Mac and mobile apps that integrate neatly into one account.

As well as typing notes on any of these devices, you can snap photographs or screenshots, and it will automagically convert the text. All your items then become searchable - so it’s easy to find references months later. You can even dictate voice notes if you’re feeling particularly 1980s.

Like Dropbox, it’s a ‘freemium’ model, so you get all the basic functions for nothing, but if you want extra space you can subscribe.

Handy extras

Here’s a rapid run-down of some of the other best free apps around.

• Video playing: Forget Windows Media Player bloatware. VLC is small and does exactly what you want in a video player: it opens quickly and handles almost anything, from DVD disks to obscure video formats. No ‘skins’, no fuss. One of my favourites.
• Video recording: Jing is a sweet and handy way to create and share videos. It’s something you think you’d never use, but end up using all the time.
• Music: if you’re a student, you probably know more about this than me - there’s the free version of Spotify for tracks you know, and Last.fm for tracks you don’t. While Spotify asks you to pay for mobile access, Songbird is a free music player that syncs music to almost any mobile device.
• Torrenting: If file-sharing is your thing, and your university network allows it, then uTorrent is a free, lightweight client.
• Gaming: Steam, as well as making some of the coolest games around, sells more than 200 games for under £4. They often run promotions, too.
• Image editing: Unless you need Photoshop for a heavyweight graphic design course, then there are plenty of free alternatives. GIMP is a classic alternative, or try Splashup for a seriously impressive, free online equivalent.
• Unzipping files: Not the most exciting topic, but you’ll need to handle compressed files. 7-Zip is free and can cope with almost anything you throw at it, including zip, tar and gz files.
• Anti-virus: Avast comes highly recommended. Just make sure it doesn’t clash with any other anti-virus software on your machine.
• Instant messaging: Free apps Meebo and Digsby let you chat in multiple places at once, showing you all your IM (and in Digsby’s case, social networking) friends together.

Getting help

Finally, if you need more advice on specialist free software, don’t be afraid to ask around. While the internet isn’t exactly short of software discussion forums, I particularly like collaborative Q&A site SuperUser.

SuperUser exists to create clear answers to software questions of all kinds - both how to use software, and the best software to install in the first place. And naturally, it’s free.

Just search the site to make sure that your question hasn’t been asked already, and phrase it clearly. For example, “What’s the best free software for editing audio files?” You should see other users pitch in with helpful suggestions inside a few hours.

What are your free software favourites? Join our Tech Shed debate thread or let us know below.

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