As a Windows lover, I have always tried to make it more secure, convenient and easy to use. This is my must-have list of 25 Free Softwares and Utilities that I use as an installation checklist on every fresh Windows installation. After these are installed, Windows is much more stable and powerful.

These apps and utilities are my top picks as most essential to install on every Windows PC. These programs allow Windows to operate more securely, making the system more reliable, which helps me complete my work easily and effectively. I have listed them in alphabetical order.

Avira AntiVir Personal Edition

Consistently at or near the top of independent efficacy testers, Avira’s AntiVir remains one of the best freeware security solutions around. Its scans are flexible, allowing the user to fully scan both internal and external hard drives, run a preloaded scan–for rootkits, for example–or customize a scan.

CCleaner

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner.

Comodo Firewall

Comodo has merged its antivirus program with Firewall Pro, creating a free security program that aims to be more to more people. Although this may frustrate some users who want only one program or the other, the installer does let you opt out of either of the components.

Digsby

Digsby helps you manage all your IM, e-mail, and social network accounts from one easy-to-use application. Digsby lets you chat with all your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, Facebook Chat, and Jabber with one simple to manage buddy list. It provides notifications when new e-mails arrive.

DAEMON Tools Lite

DAEMON Tools is an advanced application for Microsoft Windows which provides one of the best optical media emulation in the industry. With DAEMON Tools you can back up your physical CD/DVD/HD DVD/Blu-ray discs into “virtual discs” or so called “disc image” files, which run directly on your hard drive. You can also work with images created by other burning programs! DAEMON Tools supports variety of image types.

Everything search engine

This small software application bypasses Windows search with a lightning quick interface and real-time results for all of the files and folders in your local hard drive or any subsection of it. The software doesn’t do much more than search, but its efficiency, effectiveness, stability, and low system resource usage make it a keeper utility.

Firefox

The Firefox Web Browser is the faster, more secure, and fully customizable way to surf the web. Mozilla Firefox is a fast, full-featured Web browser. Firefox includes pop-up blocking, tab-browsing, integrated Google search, simplified privacy controls, a streamlined browser window that shows you more of the page than any other browser and a number of additional features that work with you to help you get the most out of your time online.

FileZilla

Rich in Web content, short on cash? This free, open-source FTP application is handy if you’re looking for a solid tool to handle FTP transfers and don’t want to part with your bucks.

Flash Player (Adobe)

Adobe Flash Player software is a cross-platform browser plug-in that delivers breakthrough web experiences and is installed on more than 98% of Internet-connected desktops. Flash Player 10 introduces 3D effects, custom filters and effects, advanced text support, and more.

Flashget

FlashGet is specifically designed to address two of the biggest problems when downloading files: Speed and management of downloaded files.

Foxit Reader

To put it gently, Adobe Reader is a real pain in the hindquarters. It’s monstrously large, slow to load, and includes many features most users will hardly ever need. Foxit PDF Reader 3.0 kills the bloat and throws in some useful features, such as multimedia support and content-sharing options, while still allowing you to quickly access your PDFs.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the Web faster, safer, and easier. Use one box for everything–type in the address bar and get suggestions for both search and Web pages.

ImgBurn

ImgBurn is a lightweight CD/DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-ray burning application that has several modes, each for performing a different task: Read; Build; Write; Verify; and Discovery. ‘Advanced’ input mode to build mode where you have total control over the layout of the disc and can add new folders, change names etc. and Optional logging when hidden or system files/folders are skipped in Build mode due to the current settings.

K-Lite Mega Codec Pack

With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play all the popular movie formats and even some rare formats. This package is mainly for power users and people who do their own encodings.

Notepad++

Notepad is a Notepad replacement with an eye toward programmers, although it should also appeal to the casual user who wants a cross between Notepad and WordPad. Notepad has some noticeable differences from WordPad. Support for tabs is key, letting users manage different documents simultaneously.

OpenOffice.org

A credible rival to MS Office, OpenOffice.org includes powerful applications for making text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, diagrams, and databases, as well as HTML and XML documents. Not only does it let you edit basic documents, such as letters and faxes, it also handles equations and complex and multipart documents with bibliographies, reference tables, and indexes.

Process Explorer

If you’ve ever tried tracking down a process in Windows Task Manager, you know it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. Process Explorer makes the job a lot easier. This freeware utility displays running processes in an intuitive tree format that includes not only process names, but also program icons and other data, such as description, image, and processor time.

Revo Uninstaller

Revo Uninstaller is a freeware innovative uninstall utility much faster than Windows Add/Remove applet. With its advanced and fast algorithm, Revo Uninstaller scans before and after you uninstall an application. After the program’s regular uninstaller runs, you can remove additional unnecessary files, folders and registry keys that are usually left over on your computer.

Sub Menu Pack

Do you get bored of having to open file options everytime you wanna show hidden files or show file extensions. Now you can do it and many many option by one click from your mouse by this small tiny tool SubMenu Pack.

ThumbView Lite

ThumbView enables image thumbnails and tooltips in MS-Windows Explorer for filetypes that are not natively supported. It started with PCX, TGA, DDS and PNG images, but now ThumbView supports an amazing 19 image types – directly inside any Explorer window!

Universal Extractor

Universal Extractor is a program do to exactly what it says: extract files from any type of archive, whether it’s a simple zip/rar file, an installation program, or even a Windows Installer (.msi) package.

Unlocker

Ever had such an annoying message given by Windows: Cannot delete file: Access is denied. There has been a sharing violation. The source or destination file may be in use or the file is in use by another program or user. Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use. Unlocker is the solution.

VB Runtimes Pack

Most of my older software requires this pack to be installed to function.

VideoLAN VLC media player

VLC is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats, including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, MP3, and OGG, as well as for DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It also can be used as a server for unicast or multicast streams in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.

Vuze (Formerly called Azureus)

Vuze is the easiest way to find, download,and play HD movies, TV and videos. Download and stream using the most powerful p2p bittorrent app in the world.

If we are missing something, please feel free to add that in to this list.