How To Download Free Software

The web has lots of great stuff on it and one of the best resources available is free software.

The free software I am going to cover today will help you maintain your computer and get some work done. Most of the best free software can be downloaded from FileHippo.com.

Here are five free software downloads that I recommend:

CCleaner
The most popular free software of all time is CCleaner, which can be used to clean up your computer by removing the temporary files that are saved after browsing the web. It can also be used to remove bad software and also remove registry keys that are no longer being used.
Paint.net
Paint.net is a graphic design program that offer some of the same tools as PhotoShop, but is much easier to use and of course free. The advanced designs that are capable in PhotoShop or InDesign will not be possible on Paint.net, but for all basic photo editing and graphic design, Paint.net works great.
FileZilla
FileZilla is a great FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software that helps to facilitate the moving of files into or out of a website. Although most websites today have a back-end area that can manage the site content, FTP is required for some installations and changes. Old school websites built from scratch will still need to be updated through an FTP like FileZilla.
Notepad++
Notepad++ is a text editor that is really clean and allows editing of many different types of code, like HTML, CSS, JavaScript and about 50 more languages. Site code can be saved in Notepad++ as the proper code file type, for example if you save a CSS file it will have the .css extension. Conversely if you do not use a text editor like Notepad++, and instead use Word or a plain Text Document it will just save as plain text and not CSS.
Open Office
Microsoft Office charges a monthly fee to use their suite of popular software, but Open Office is the entire Office sweet but completely free! Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. are all their and you can also save the files in the original Microsoft format. Just remember if you want to edit the files later, you will need the original Open Office extension.

The most important thing to remember when trying to download free software is to not click on the ads that say “Download Here” or “Download Now” see the image below that shows the ad with a red X over it and a green arrow pointing to the proper download button.

If you do click the wrong button to download, you may get malware on your computer. It is crucial to have good antivirus protection on your computer before you go and try to download free software.

Avast makes a great product that is affordable and will not bother you much like annoying antivirus software like Norton.

Written by: Jophiel Silvestrone

Jophiel Silvestrone has written 326 posts in the Tech Blog.

Jophiel grew up on a ranch in Paradise Valley, Montana near Chico Hot Springs. Working on the ranch instilled work ethic and self motivation. Filled with this drive, Jophiel started mowing the local school's yards twice a month throughout the summers, at the age of 12. He moved to Billings in 2004, where he has been deeply involved in the local business community ever since. A serial entrepreneur, Jophiel has ran multiple businesses in our local community. The first business, a janitorial and carpet cleaning company, founded in 2005, has employed over 50 locals. Moving on to the media industry, Jophiel and several partners founded Green Directory Montana in the spring of 2007. Green Directory's sustainability ranking software awarded points based on sustainable or "green" actions. These points counted towards a business's total "Green Score," which in turn ranked them against other businesses in their category and throughout the entire site. It also featured a limited edition print version distributed annually. A business acquisition allowed Jophiel to focus on new projects, and a few close business colleagues and Jophiel started Rocky Mountain Mr. & Ms. Magazine, a lifestyle publication for men and women in the Magic City. After a year and a half at the helm of RM3 Magazine, the business was purchased. He now runs a web development company SkyPoint Studios and fathers his son Jaoquin, who plays football, basketball, soccer, and is learning snowboarding from his dad. Recently, has expanded to locations in Havasu, Arizona & Vegas. SkyPoint Studios is a market leader in both Billings & Havasu and Jophiel is working on building that same level of market dominance in Vegas. Specialties: Extensive experience in online and offline business. Especially savvy at WordPress, and operate several sites, one example is the blog: skypointwebdesignbillingsmontana.com/tech-blog. Check out skypointwebdesignbillingsmontana.com for the latest projects from SkyPoint Studios.