22 Best Free Software for Windows 10 PCs [Security & Utility]
Check out all the software you will ever need for your Windows 10 PC
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Key notes
- If you recently bought a new Windows PC, whether a desktop or laptop, it’s time to think about what programs you’ll install on it.
- Some of the most important pieces of software you need to consider are a browser, an antivirus, and some tools to tweak your PC.
- If you plan on using your new PC as a multimedia center, you should install only the best multimedia software so you could enjoy high-quality content.
If you reset Windows 10 to factory settings or if you perform a clean install, all your files and applications will be removed. This means that you have to install all your applications all over again.
Choosing the most suitable applications isn’t always easy, and today we’re going to show you some of the best free software for a new Windows 10.
Can I download Windows 10 for free?
Funny you should ask that, as we were just about to touch on this very subject. Now that you did, know that Microsoft actually allows users to download Windows 10 for free and install it even without a product key as it usually works.
And rest assured that this will definitely keep working for the foreseeable future, with only a few small cosmetic restrictions.
Furthermore, you can also even pay to upgrade to a licensed copy of Windows 10 after you install it, if you choose to do so.
What is the best must-have free software for a new Windows 10 PC?
- Browsers
- Opera One
- UR Browser
- Security
- Eset
- Private Internet Access VPN
- LastPass
- Optimization
- CCleaner
- HWMonitor
- Screensavers
- Lake Tree 3D Screensaver
- Sunny Pation 3D Screensaver
- Multimedia
- VLC Player
- Image viewer
- Paint.net
- MusicBee
- Utilities
- Mailbird
- WinZip
- Acrobat PDF Reader & Viewer
- Download Manager
- LibreOffice
- Comfort Clipboard Manager
- Gaming
- Steam
- Discord
Browsers
A web browser is unquestionably one of the first software that should be installed on a Windows 10 computer. Opera One is a redesigned and secure browser with built-in VPN and AI language tools.
Opera One is lightning-fast with the Turbo function and dependable with a tracker-blocker when it comes to features that improve navigation and protect your data. If you want to ensure that your privacy is protected, the Incognito mode is a great option.
It instantly builds a search engine with the website’s name using the built-in Chromium engine for safe navigation and a malware-free experience.
These are the key features of Opera One:
- Licensed for use in set-top boxes, the Wii and DS, and on smart TVs
- Integration with AI tools like Chat GPT or ChatSonic
- Syncs with your mobile devices through Opera Mini
- Data compression technology to avoid crashes and freezes when the Internet connection is slow
- Integrated ad blocker
- Embedded email client and newsreader
- Modular design – tab islands for saving RAM space
When you pick Opera One, you chose high-speed performance with few data resources for uploading and downloading traffic.
Opera One
VPN and built-in ad-blocker will provide quick and safe browsing, plus fluid navigation on the web.
If you are looking for a free web browser for Windows 10 that has a built-in Chromium engine and offers you different levels of privacy when navigating, UR Browser is your call.
UR Browser is dedicated to keeping your personal information and search history secret. When you visit dangerous websites, the built-in virus scanner notifies you and sends you to a secure zone.
Besides, after installation, with the Import feature, you can add your Chrome extensions to it. If you want to change your search engine, there is UR Secure Search so you can have all the privacy you need.
Here are the most notable features of this browser:
- 2048-bit RSA encryption for extra security
- Automatic blocking of third-party cookies and trackers
- Uses privacy-based search engines by default
- Built-in adblocker
- Built-in VPN for enhanced privacy
- Faster download thanks to the parallel downloading technology
Furthermore, whenever you visit a website, UR Browser scrambles your digital fingerprint to ensure that you are not identified in the eyes of unwanted trackers.
UR Browser
With the integrated Chromium engine, you get faster browsing and the best privacy and security.Security
When it comes to security, ESET NOD32 is one of the finest software for a Windows 10 laptop or desktop.
ESET provides everything you need for cybersecurity, whether you need it for your personal PC or for your business.
This antivirus works in the background to improve the performance of your PC as you browse, work, download, or play games, thanks to its advanced technology. It requires much less power, so you may use the battery-saving mode to keep your laptop unplugged for longer.
Here are the key features of the software:
- Spyware, worms and ransomware protection
- Safeguards attacks from web browsers and third-party apps
- Scans while downloading, even when the PC is in sleep mode
- Advanced machine learning to detect any malware
- Blocks any copying to an external device without permission
- Scans for corrupted files
- Automatically runs scripts to constantly prevent any damage
All in all, ESET NOD32 Antivirus is a perfect match for a new Windows 10 PC, and the AI-enabled technology ensures that you have antivirus protection 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
ESET NOD32 Antivirus
No more slowdowns during gaming, presentations, or movie viewing, thanks to security that has been fine-tuned to preserve resources for your most pressing demands.
It is critical to have a VPN installed on your new Windows 10 PC when browsing and spending time on the internet.
The VPN software protects your data and uses a random IP generator to keep you anonymous as you browse the web secretly.
Furthermore, be assured that your financial information is safe with PIA while you shop.
These are the key characteristics of Private Internet Access VPN:
- Open-source transparency for PIA client code
- OpenVPN and WireGuard encryption protocols
- Split tunneling and kill switch to avoid unwanted traffic to access your PC
- Email branch scanner to keep your email safe
- Browser extensions to block unwanted trackers and advertisers
- 24/7 customer support
- 30-day money-back guarantee
With all of this protection provided by Private Internet Access VPN, you are one step closer to protecting your privacy and navigation. But don’t just take our word for it; try it for yourself!
Private Internet Access
Discover PIA’s cutting-edge features for extra security, uncompromising anonymity, and breach of internet restrictions.
A password manager such as LastPass is a must-have software for Windows 10 since your accounts can be easily hacked if you’re using a weak password.
To avoid keystrokes theft or payment information leaks, save and manage your passwords together in one safe place.
Here are a few notable features of LastPass:
- Ability to generate strong, hard-to-hack passwords
- Stores all your passwords in a single place
- An auto-fill feature that makes signing up for services faster
- Ability to store secure notes
- Available on all major platforms
- Multi-factor authentication
- AES-256 encryption
- All data is encrypted on your device
- Available browser extensions
Because there are numerous threats on the internet, LastPass applies a range of techniques to protect your private information in a secure location that you can trust.
Optimization
Your PC will get filled with various junk files over time, and this is why CCleaner is one of the best apps to download on the computer. This software will remove unwanted files from your PC and speed it up.
Regarding the features, here are a few notable ones:
- Ability to clean temporary files, cookies, and history from all your web browsers
- Can clean Recycle Bin, temporary files, log files, clipboard, DNS cache, and more
- Built-in registry cleaner feature that removes old or unsaved registry entries
- Ability to remove temporary and recent files for many third-party applications
When the PC starts, CCleaner will operate in the background and monitor the computer without user intervention.
CCleaner
Using this effective cleaning program, you can eliminate all unnecessary temporary files and keep your PC healthy.
HWMonitor is a free hardware monitoring program for Windows 10 that allows you to easily read your computer’s health. CPUID’s system utility application notifies you about your computer’s voltages, temperatures, and fan speed.
It is backward compatible with the vast majority of common sensor chips and modern CPUs on the market.
This application, on the other hand, is simply for monitoring PC data and cannot solve any problems, such as if a component is overheating.
These are the key features of HWMonitor:
- Hardware crash prevention
- Readouts for temperature, voltage, fan speed, and power
- Shows information about CPU, battery, hard drive, monitor, and video card
- Easy UI and simple navigation
- Compatible with ITE® IT87 series and Winbond® ICs
HWMonitor also has a portable version, which means you don’t have to install it and can simply run it from the executable.
Screensavers
One of the best free software to have on a new Windows 10 PC is definitely a screen saver.
Screen-saver apps were created to assist avoid these effects by altering the graphics on the screen during times of inactivity.
Leave your work at the office and prepare to leave the dusty, loud metropolis. On a beautiful summer day, Lake Tree 3D Screensaver will allow you to experience the wind blowing and the sun beaming on the sparkling lake surface.
⇒ Get Lake Tree 3D Screensaver
Is there anything better than a trip to the beach in the summer? A journey that will transport you back in time to the ancient and small alleys that will bring you to the patio right by the seaside where you will be able to appreciate the breathtaking sea view in front of your eyes.
⇒ Get Sunny Patio 3D Screensaver
Multimedia
VLC is another must-have software for Windows 10, especially if you play multimedia files frequently. Regarding the features, here’s what VLC has to offer:
- Ability to play multimedia from sources such as files, webcams, devices, streams, etc.
- Plays almost all file formats without the need to install additional codecs
- Available on all major desktop and mobile platforms
- Advanced control for video, subtitle synchronization, audio, and video filters
- Support for skins and extensions
Windows 10 comes with a Photos app that works as a default image viewer. Even though the Photos app is decent, some users prefer applications that provide more features.
Many third-party apps allow you to edit your images and organize them by assigning tags to them.
In addition, some third-party applications are faster than the Photos apps, so be sure to try them out.
If you edit images frequently, then you should know that Paint.NET is one of the must-have software for Windows 10.
With its friendly tabbed UI, you can easily navigate it and smoothly draw or edit anything you want.
As for available features, here are a few notable ones:
- Low resource usage
- Layer support
- Ability to enhance the application with plugins
- Various effects such as blurring, sharpening, red-eye removal, etc.
- Ability to adjust contrast, brightness, hue, saturation, curves, and levels
- Standard photo editing tools
- Unlimited undo steps
MusicBee
In order to play and organize music, you’ll need specific software for that, and this is where MusicBee or AIMP might come in handy.
MusicBee most notable features:
- Amazing and simple to use interface
- Auto-tagging feature for your music library
- 10 and 15-band sound equalizer
- DPI effects
- WASAPI and ASIO support for maximum sound quality
- Gapless playback
- Ability to Upmix stereo to 5.1 surround sound or resample the track to lower bitrate
- Support for logarithmic volume scaling and normalizing volume streaming
- Support for Winamp plugins
- Synchronization with Android devices
- Support for Groove Music
- Low RAM usage
Utilities
Email client might not be a must-have software for Windows 10, but many users prefer having a dedicated email client for their email needs.
If you’re looking for a free email client with a sleek and friendly user interface, Mailbird is what you need. Here’s what Mailbird has to offer:
- Unified client for all your contacts and email accounts
- Extensive customization with dozens of color themes
- Friendly user interface
- Integration with popular services such as Dropbox, Evernote, Wunderlist, Google Calendar, and many more
- Snooze option for emails
- Speed reader
- Attachment search
Mailbird
Secure email client with features for managing productivity, collaboration, and communication, even offline.
With the world’s number 1 zip tool, you can compress, protect, share, and manage all of your files quickly and effortlessly. All main file types must be unzipped.
These are the main features of WinZip:
- Zip files are used to decrease the size of email attachments.
- Encrypt your data using banking-level encryption.
- Access and manage files on your computer, network, and on the cloud.
- Connect to Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and other storage services
Overall, WinZIP is your assistant for compressing all types of files and even applications.
The free Adobe Acrobat Reader DC software for Windows 10 is the industry standard for viewing, printing, signing, sharing, and annotating PDF documents.
It’s the only PDF reader that can open and interact with any PDF file, including forms and multimedia.
It’s now it’s linked to Adobe Document Cloud services, allowing you to work with PDFs from any device, anywhere.
⇒ Get Adobe PDF Reader & Viewer
Download manager is a useful tool especially if you don’t have a fast or reliable Internet connection. Sometimes it can occur that your Internet connection drops, and that can make your downloaded file corrupted.
To prevent these types of problems, many people use download managers. These tools will often speed up your download, and they will allow you to resume it at any time.
Another useful feature of download managers is the ability to limit download speed.
By using this feature, you can ensure that you have enough bandwidth for other needs such as music or video streaming.
LibreOffice
Microsoft Office is the most used office suite in the world, but it’s not available for free. If you don’t want to purchase Microsoft Office, you might want to consider a free alternative such as LibreOffice.
Both suites come with basic apps such as Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base, and Math that should replace popular Microsoft applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.
Both suites are completely free and they can be installed on different computers without any limitations.
The last entry on our list is clipboard managers. We use copy and paste functions on a daily basis, but by default, you can only copy and paste one entry. By using Clipboard Manager you can see all your copied data.
This data includes text, images, or even files.
By using clipboard manager you can quickly search for any copied data and paste it again with just a few clicks.
If you copy data frequently and you need to keep it organized and easily accessible, these types of programs are irreplaceable.
⇒ Get Comfort Clipboard Manager
Gaming
Steam is a gaming platform with a large library of popular games such as Counter-Strike, so it is highly recommendable to have it installed on your new Windows 10 PC to have access to all new games on the market.
Steam is the finest online platform for discovering new games that you could come across.
The Steam Library can store any Steam game and give you all of your game stats as well as connections to the game’s community hub, shop page, manual, and support page.
You may also build custom game categories and switch between detail, game list, and tile views. You may also create a shortcut to any non-Steam game/program and display it in your library, however, you won’t be able to view Steam-related information such as hours played or links.
Discord, a free social network and communication software, allows you to interact with your peers while playing online video games. In a nutshell, it’s the game chat equivalent of Skype or Slack and fits perfectly with Windows 10.
The software is a joy for all gamers since the dependable voice chat function is absolutely free and has strict restrictions on the number of users in a group chat.
Discord allows you to join themed servers that may be created by anybody who is logged in to the program.
You can join the same servers as long as you are granted an invite or a participation link.
The admin of the group can host text, voice, or video channels that members can utilize to talk about a certain topic related to the game.
Discord is a messaging software designed for the ease of 21st-century gamers. It combines all of the functions into a single program and includes various customization options to fit your preferences, and it goes very well with the Steam gaming platform.
Where can I download Windows 10 apps for free?
You are, of course, going to find various software developer websites out there, where you can download your choice of Windows 10-specific apps.
With that being said, however, we strongly recommend that you get all these software solutions from the Microsoft Store, or on the official Microsoft website.
These are some of the best free applications that you should install on a fresh installation of Windows 10. Keep in mind that it’s not necessary to install all of these applications.
In our opinion, the most important applications are antivirus tools, web browsers, and multimedia players, so be sure to install them as soon as you can.
On the other hand, if you need a specific software solution, simply use the search bar available on WindowsReport.
We reviewed hundreds of products and we’re sure you’ll find useful information on this website.
On the other hand, if you need more information about a specific tool, let us know in the comments below. We’ll do the heavy lifting for you and do in-depth research.
Just remember that, when dealing with this operating system, you will need free antivirus software for Windows 10.
Free backup software for windows 10 is also something we recommend, so keep that in mind as well.
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