Best Free Windows 7 / Vista 64 bit Software
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In a Hurry?
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Introduction
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You have no doubt invested time, trouble and possibly money, in your "must have" software. This investment is largely protected when you move to Windows 7 / Vista 64 and, if not, there are many excellent freeware alternatives. (In addition, Windows 7 / Vista 64 continue the tradition of offering Here are the top freeware picks for Windows 7 / Vista 64 in their various sections. Where a native 64 bit application is currently unavailable, a suitable 32 bit alternative is provided. |
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Discussion
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BROWSER Although Windows 7 / Vista 64 include both the 32 and 64 bit versions of Internet Explorer, version 8 in the case of Windows 7, many prefer more secure products. The 32 bit versions of Firefox, Google Chrome,and Opera all work without a hitch under both operating systems. Apart from 64 bit Internet Explorer, the only other 64 bit browser currently available, and still under development, is Firefox. Various preview versions can be found here. I've found version 3.5.3 to be as stable as the 32 bit version. This version will import all of your bookmarks and history from 32 bit Firefox 3.0.14 or 3.5.3. All currently installed addons are checked for compatibility when 64 bit Firefox is started, and those that are known to work are loaded automatically. Active development is starting but these applications are not yet ready for daily use:
If you find these restrictions unacceptable, stick with a 32 bit browser. See:
EMAIL CLIENT Currently, the only released 64 bit email client is Windows Mail, included with Vista 64. Windows 7 does not include an email client. There is a development project for 64 bit Thunderbird 3, the latest build, 3.0 beta 2, codenamed Shredder, is available here. Unfortunately, moving from your existing email client to 64 bit Thunderbird 3 can be quite a challenge. Users moving from Thunderbird 2 under Windows 7 / Vista 64 will need to use two third party freeware products, MozBackup and MailStore Home. Migration from Outlook is relatively simple under Vista 64 using the Thunderbird 3 import function. This approach doesn't work under Windows 7 due to changes in the registration of MAPI entries which no one appears to want to acknowledge or address. Thunderbird 2 users who are considering the switch should be aware that the popular Lightning addon is not supported. For the time being I would recommend that you stick with a 32 bit email client. For details refer to our review:
FTP CLIENT Following a comment from a reader I have been searching for free 64 bit FTP clients. So far, I have only managed to find one, Null FTP from Vision Works. The free version of Null FTP, a cut down version of the paid product, has the following limitations:
Whether or not you can live with the first two limitations depends largely on how much you rely on FTP in your day to day activities. The third restriction has no impact on the speed of Internet or local network FTP transfers so I am surprised that they even bother to mention it.
Overall, the product fails to match the top 32 bit selections in our review Best Free FTP Client. Unless you feel that a 64 bit FTP client is essential I suggest that you look there for the solution best suited to your needs.
FIREWALL Remember that you should never run two or more firewall products side-by-side. If you plan to switch to one of the products below, ensure that you disable Windows Firewall and any other firewall you have installed first. If all you need is a simple interface to the built-in Windows firewall, and aren't too fussy about appearance or features, the free version of Vista Firewall Control is perhaps the answer. Be warned that access has to be defined for each application using one of four modes; out only, in only, enable all, or disable all. I suspect for many this will not offer a fine enough degree of control. If you are looking for a free firewall with extra peace of mind in the form of a Host-Based Intrusion Pevention System (HIPS - see our article HIPS Explained for further information), Comodo Internet Security (CIS), is an excellent choice. CIS can be rather intrusive at first, but things do settle down as the program learns more about the system. It's necessary to change mode when installing new software and when dealing with reports, but this is a small price to pay since CIS includes one of the most effective firewalls on the market, free. Full instructions are available in the "Miscellaneous" tab, or from the Comodo website. When installing CIS, deselect the Install Antivirus option if you already have a suitable antivirus solution installed. If you are using an old version of the CFP or CIS you should upgrade to the latest version as this will increase stability and reduce memory footprint. Windows 7 users should ensure they install version 3.9.x or later.
ANTIVIRUS With its ease of use, fast scanning, and excellent detection rates, my first choice is Avira Antivir Personal Edition. Although it lacks an email scanning feature, it compensates by the speed in which the Real-time protection leaps to your defence when any threats, including infected email attachments, are detected. As of version 9, Avira protects against Viruses, Worms, Trojans, Rootkits, Dialers, Spyware and Adware. I have no information, as yet, regarding the effectiveness of the anti-spyware and anti-adware components added in version 9. Version 9 of Avira also adds the facility to review suspect items at the end of a scan, rather than dealing with each item when detected. This leaves the user free to run a scan unattended at any time and simply deal with the results when appropriate. My main criticism is the large advert for the paid version which accompanies the updates, but it only takes a click to make it go away. You also need to periodically reregister. If you need an antivirus with extra features, such as email scanning and antispyware, Avast 4 may be the answer. The detection rates are good and scanning speed has been greatly improved in recent releases. Unfortunately, the default appearance isn't to everyone's liking although Avast does support alternative skins. Many of the protection mechanisms used by Avast rely on interactive Windows services. Support in Windows 7 / Vista 64 for interactive services is intended for use by legacy applications. This places restrictions on the information that can be sent to the user. Both Avira and Avast are hybrid 64 bit applications. Only the low level kernel mode drivers that interface with operating system are written in 64 bit code. You can have more than one AV product installed, but only one should be enabled for real-time scanning. The same applies to email scanning. If you are interested in alternatives to Avira and Avast, such as AVG Free or a-squared Free, then refer to our review:
ANTISPYWARE There are some very good on-demand scanners which don't conflict with real-time protection. Perhaps the best of these is SUPERAntiSpyware (SAS). Only available as a 32 bit application, it can still detect malware that other products miss, remove rogue applications, and also repair some malware damage. If you check the Windows event log, don't be concerned by entries relating to SASDIFSV.SYS and SASKUTIL.SYS following a reboot. These are 32 bit device drivers used by the full version of SAS and do not affect operation of the free version. The 64 bit version of SAS is currently undergoing beta testing. It is unclear if there will be a free version. Malwarebytes is also worth considering because of its fast scanning and general ease of use. Effective at detecting and removing trojans, results are less impressive for other types of malware. The newly released Ad-Aware Anniversary Edition represents a major overhaul. Heuristic detection and integrated real-time protection have been added, although the latter is only for rogue processes in the free version. Resource efficiency has been targeted, particularly processor and memory usage, scanning speed has been improved, and a more extensive detection database is now used. Ad-Aware AE is certainly more resource efficient than previous versions and scanning times compare favourably with SuperAntiSpyware when tested on a system with over 200 Gb of software and data. Real-time protection is implemented by a combination of an interactive Windows service and a 64 bit kernel mode device driver making Ad-Aware AE a hybrid 32/64 bit application. Support in Windows 7 / Vista 64 for interactive services is intended for use by legacy applications. This places restrictions on the information that can be sent to the user. As to real world effectiveness, Ad-Aware continues to maintain a reasonable detection rate but many threats go undetected. For full details of the testing carried out on these and other products in this category refer to our review: Best Free Adware/Spyware/Scumware Remover
SYSTEM TOOLS Although Windows 7 / Vista 64 have their own housekeeping tools for defragmenting the hard disk, removing junk files and various other tasks, there are 3rd party alternatives which perform better and offer additional features. There are few 64 bit tools but the ones available, added to the 32 bit versions that work under Windows 7 / Vista 64, are very good at what they do. Before you dig too deeply into this section you might want to read the great article: "How to make Vista run faster" The information contained in the article applies equally well to Windows 7.
ALL IN ONE If you prefer to use a single tool for the upkeep of your PC, you need look no further than the latest version of the excellent Glary Utilities. As this is a 32 bit program that runs in a 64 bit environment, you will notice that one or two of the modules are not fully working, the Uninstall Manager for example, doesn't recognise 64 bit applications, and therefore cannot uninstall them. This is a step in the right direction though, and perhaps there is a native 64 bit version of Glary Utilities on the horizon.
DISK DEFRAGMENTER JKDefrag, available as a native 64 bit application, finds many fragmented files, even if used immediately after the Windows defragmentation tool. After defragmenting files it optimizes file placement and, being Volume Shadow Copy aware, doesn’t destroy your valuable Restore Points. JKDefrag can be run on demand from the desktop or USB stick. There are also command line and screen saver versions. MyDefrag, by the author of JKDefrag, available in 32 and 64 bit versions, is novel in that it is a merely a defragmentation and file placement engine. The actions carried out by my MyDefrag are script driven, with a number of useful example scripts being included in the installation. The simple scripting language is well documented allowing scripts to be developed to suit any defragmentation/optimisation requirement. The scripting language includes a command that allows the files identified in the Windows Prefetch cache to be optimised. A script can be executed by double clicking on it in Explorer, passing it as a parameter to MyDefrag invoked via a shortcut or the appropriate task scheduler. MyDefrag requires administrator privilege and, if running from the Task Scheduler under Windows 7 or Vista, it is recommended that the SYSTEM account is used. If the MyDefrag GUI interface is set to be visible during script execution, the default, the rather poor disk map, familiar to JK Defrag users, is displayed. You can switch from this to a text based statistics/progress view, but presentation is equally unimpressive. All physical directory/file operations carried out by MyDefrag use the Windows Defragmentation API and can therefore be considered safe. The process can be interrupted at any time without risk of data loss or corruption. For those with unusual defragmentation and/or optimisation requirements MyDefrag offers unparalleled flexibility. Readers who merely want to defragment their disk(s) on a regularly basis should use one of the standard scripts provided with MyDefrag, I use FastOptimize, to achieve excellent results. MyDefrag definitely deserves to replace JKDefrag as Gizmo's Top Pick. Readers who dislike the minimal JK Defrag/MyDefrag GUI should consider 32 bit products such as IOBit Smart Defrag and Defraggler, covered in our review: Keep in mind that 32 bit disk defragmentation tools will incur a performance hit by having to use the WOW64 (32 bit compatibility mode) interface. If you decide to use a third party disk defragmenter, don't be tempted to disable the built in Windows 7 / Vista 64 disk defragmenter. If you do, you will greatly reduce the effectiveness of ReadyBoot (sic), the mechanism that monitors files accessed during the last 5 boots and creates a boot plan to reduce startup time. This boot plan is passed to the Windows disk defragmenter to allow the placement of files used during the boot process to be optimized.
DISK CLEANER CCleaner, recently rewritten in c++ , scans for both junk files and registry errors. The registry cleaning component only handles that part of the registry visible to 32 bit applications and is quite mild. Additional features include cookie management, program removal, and secure file erasing. Existing users who upgrade will notice a significant reduction in scanning times. This is one of the first tools I recommend people install on a Windows PC, and regular use will go a long way to preventing the hard drive from becoming bogged down with unwanted junk. CCleaner has never dealt with purging Windows Restore Points, a major source of accumulated junk. The Disk Cleanup tool available in 32 bit Windows 7 / Vista allows you to do this but, under Windows 7 / Vista 64, although the option to perform this task still exists, it does not work correctly. My thanks go to Kristan Kenny for providing the solution to this problem. If you want to correct the Disk Cleanup shortcut in the Start menu, follow these steps:
If you've automated Disk Cleanup, the correct path to use in your script is: %WINDIR%\sysnative\cleanmgr.exe If you launch Disk Cleanup from another location in Windows, for instance by clicking the “Disk Cleanup” button in the properties window of a drive, the correct 64 bit version of Disk Cleanup is launched.
REGISTRY CLEANER I am not a fan of Registry cleaners. They have a nasty habit of removing things that are vital to the correct operation of commercial software.
Firstly, it allows you to backup the Registry before you start and there is also a restore option. Secondly, by default, it doesn't check Class Security Identifiers (CLSIDs) or other areas where most Registry tricks are played, although these can be included if required. Finally it divides redundant/invalid entries into two groups, 1) those you can remove safely, and 2) the rest which require closer examination before removing. I think it is fair to say that you are reasonably safe removing the entries in the first group although I would caution against removing those in the second group unless you have a good understanding of the Registry and how applications use it.
REGISTRY DEFRAGMENTER While a PC is in use there is a constant stream of data being added to and removed from the registry and over time this can cause the registry to become fragmented, there is also the problem of registry cleaners and program uninstalls producing gaps in the registry file. When this occurs, it does nothing to enhance the performance or reliability of the system, therefore, the occasional use of a registry defragmenter / optimiser is seen by some as a necessary part of the maintenance regime. Free Registry Defrag is a fast, reliable and free tool which is capable of compacting and defragmenting the registry and from version 2.4 onwards includes both 32 and 64 bit versions. If used when the level of fragmentation is in excess of 10% the results are noticeable. Be aware though that the software does not include a Registry backup option so exercise caution and create a Restore Point before using.
SYSINTERNALS SUITE No list of system tools would be complete without mentioning the excellent SysInternals Suite which is used to trouble shoot PCs worldwide. Although SysInternals is now part of Microsoft, the tools remain free and are regularly updated. Most of the SysInternals tools work correctly under Windows 7 / Vista 64. In particular, the three most widely used tools, Process Explorer, Process Monitor and Autoruns, extract and run 64 bit code. At present, Autologon doesn't work, but a suitable alternative can be found here. If you are looking for a utility that will create shortcuts to the most commonly used SysInternals tools, check out SysInternals Toolbox in our review :
SYSTEM INFORMATION UTILITY The 32 bit SIW utility still manages to display a host of detailed information relating to your PC hardware, operating system, installed programs, processes, services, serial numbers (CD keys), users, open files, system uptime, network, network shares, as well as real-time monitors for CPU, memory, page file usage and network traffic when running under Windows 7 / Vista 64. It also displays currently active network connections, passwords hidden behind asterisks, installed codecs, and more. SIW doesn't require installation so it can be run from a USB flash drive without problem. For a full guide to System Information Utilities: Best Free System Information Utility.
SYSTEM TOOLS/UTILITIES INCLUDED IN WINDOWS 7
To try out Resource Monitor, click on Start, type resource monitor into the search box, and then click on the Resource Monitor entry that appears under Programs. For an in depth look at Resource Monitor refer to our article: Windows 7 Resource Monitor: New & Improved My favourite new feature in Windows 7 is the Problem Steps Recorder. If you've ever tried to help a friend or family member over the phone, or via email, with a PC problem I'm sure you know how difficult and frustrating it can be. With the best will in the world things tend to get lost in translation. They miss out a piece of information relating to the problem, or you do regarding the solution. PSR overcomes this problem by allowing the steps needed to reproduce a problem, or to implement a fix, to be recorded and saved to a file. To start PSR, click on Start, type psr.exe into the search box, and then either click on the psr.exe entry that appears under Programs, or right click and choose Run as a administrator. Note you need to choose Run as administrator if any of the screens you wish to capture are running with administrator privilege.
The ZIP contains a MHT, mime encoded HTML, format document that includes the screen shots, any comments that were added, and a text based description of the actions that were carried out. This can be opened and edited in any version of Word from 2002 upwards. Alternatively, the file can be viewed using the free Word Viewer, Internet Explorer version 5 or higher, Firefox with the UnMHT extension installed and Opera version 9.0 or higher. PSR is not a ground breaking application, but it will help me to assist others much more quickly and efficiently.
TWEAKING TOOLS The majority of tools in this category are covered in: Best Free Vista Tweaks which includes details of compatibility with Vista 64. With the exception of Vista Logon Studio all the applications that work under Vista 64 will also work under Windows 7. An alternative to Vista Logon Studio for Windows 7 users is given below. In order to use Iconoid to change the colour of text you must first turn off drop shadows for icon text. This must be done via Control Panel, System, Advanced System Settings, and then click on the Settings button under Performance. Right clicking on Computer, and then choosing Properties, will only change settings until you logoff or the PC is rebooted.
Windows 7 imposes a 256 Kb limit on the size of the JPEG image that can be used for the logon screen. If your image is larger than this, Logon Changer will give you the option to automatically resize and/or compress the image. Note that the original image is left untouched.
DATA/FILE/FOLDER TOOLS DATA RECOVERY / UNDELETE No matter how careful we try to be, there's a chance that an important file, picture, track etc will get deleted by accident. Hours of work and valuable photos can all be lost with a click of the mouse, or by selecting the wrong option on a digital camera. There aren't many data recovery apps that support Windows 7 / Vista 64, but the good news is that the 32 bit application Recuva, from the makers of CCleaner, is one that does. Recuva is simple to use, effective, and can be used to recover lost items from the following:
FILE ARCHIVER/ZIP UTILITY 7-Zip and PeaZip are available as native 64 bit applications and contain all of the functionality of their 32 bit counterparts. Readers interested in a comparison of these products should refer to our review: Best Free File Archiver/Zip Utility
FOLDER SYNCHRONIZATION UTILITY Microsoft's SyncToy, available as a native 64 bit application, can copy, move, rename, and delete files between any number of folders and even computers. Operations are carried out on local and/or remote pre-defined folder pairs. Remote folders can be specified by drive letter or UNC name. You define and name these pairs, files can be included or excluded based on wildcards and/or file attributes, and then when you want to perform a task, you recall one of these pairs and carry out the operation. Syncing can be in either direction and covers all options from complete sync to updating newer files only. SyncToy can also keep track of files you rename and rename those in the sync destination. Overwritten files in the destination can be saved in the recycle bin, in case you need the older version. SyncToy also allows you to preview a sync, that is, view what would happen if the sync operation was executed. This ensures the operation will do exactly what you want before you use it. In addition to the easy to use GUI, SyncToy can also be run from the command line to sync a chosen folder pair or, all folder pairs. SyncToy is a versatile utility that will satisfy all but the most demanding of users. It also runs very quickly despite being based on the .NET framework. The only major things it lacks are the ability to select files from a folder via a standard tree view, direct support for ftp, and a portable version.
SECURE ERASE UTILITY The 64 bit version of Eraser will securely overwrite selected files and folders, or even whole disks (it works with any drive, including IDE, SCSI, RAID, and CD-RWs). It addition to handling normal data areas, Eraser can also wipe data in the paging file, Internet cache, temporary files, Internet cookies, unused disk space, and a number of other places where data can secretly lurk. It can handle FAT, FAT32, and NTFS partitions. Erasing files with a high level of security, involving user selected data patterns and multiple passes, will always be a time consuming task, and 100% security cannot be guaranteed. However, Eraser makes the task about as easy as it can be, at a security level that exceeds most conceivable requirements. If Eraser goes beyond what you need, then refer to our review Best Free Secure Erase Utility for details of simpler, 32 bit alternatives, that work quite happily under Windows 7 / Vista 64.
DESKTOP/OFFICE TOOLS DIGITAL IMAGE EDITOR This is not a field in which I can claim to have any expertise. I have tested the products identified to confirm that they work under Windows 7 / Vista 64. Readers who are interested in comparing product features should refer to our review: Best Free Digital Image Editor Paint.Net is available as a native 64 bit application. In addition to the products built in features there are a huge number of user contributed plugins that add further capabilities. Despite requiring version 2 or higher of the .NET Framework, 3.5 SP1 is recommended, Paint.NET isn't too resource intensive and during testing I didn't notice slow downs at any point. An experimental 64 bit version of The GIMP is available although the installation routine stresses the fact that this version isn't suitable for day to day work.
DIGITAL IMAGE VIEWER A reader has brought to my attention FastPictureViewer, a native 64 bit application for viewing JPEG images.This claims to be (and probably is) the fastest viewer ever. It uses hardware to speed things up and requires a lot of system resources and graphic capabilities. It has a nice interface as well. Anyway, the program offers no other functions and is limited to just viewing.For readers who require greater functionality, the top picks in our review Best Free Digital Image Viewer, XnView and IrfanView, both 32 bit applications that include 64 bit shell extensions, run flawlessly under Windows 7 / Vista 64. I suggest that you refer to the review for an expert comparison of these products.
OFFICE SUITE Open Office covers just about all the bases, everything from a document writer to databases and spreadsheets, it handles files produced with Excel. Word and Powerpoint, and also there are numerous extensions available. All in all this is one of the best examples of freeware to be found! For those of you who need to be able to handle Office 2007 documents I suggest that you check out How do I open Microsoft Office 2007 files?
PDF READER
In use, the 64 bit version is quick and memory usage is on a par with Adobe Reader 9. Image quality, although not quite as good as Adobe's product, is still excellent. In fact, for documents that originally contained rasterised images, reproduction is actually far better. The portable 32 bit version is worthy of mention. It naturally lacks some features available in the full product but still produces high quality images making it ideal for a personal PC toolkit. If you want a feature rich 64 bit PDF viewer and are not prepared to wait for Adobe to play catch up, then I recommend you take a look at this product.
PDF WRITER BullZip, CuteWriter and doPDF all have 64 bit versions although BullZip and CuteWriter rely on the 32 bit version of GhostScript Lite. I have successfully tested all of these applications under Windows 7 / Vista 64 and suggest that interested readers refer to our review : to assist them in choosing the best product for their needs.
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Useful Links
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| Start64! | Comprehensive list of commercial 64 bit applications and latest device drivers |
| Vista Forums | Forum post, found by Foundation Editor Peter, listing free software for 32/64 bit Vista and Windows 7 |
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Have Your Say
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To make this category a success feedback from readers is essential. I cannot possibly cover everything, but if you have an idea for an area of software that should be covered, or if I have left out one of your favourites, then post a comment. There are five ways to send feedback: registered users can contact me directly here or in the forum under Contact Info. Registered users may also post in the forum. Anyone can post a comment at the bottom of this page. Finally, please help us by rating this review |
This category is maintained by volunteer editor Rik Mayell, a self confessed computer nut, who loves PCs, desktop or server, and thinks the Mac is cool, although doesn't own one. Also plays around with Linux in his spare time.
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Freeware for 64 bit Windows 7, Freeware for 64 bit Windows Vista, 64 bit Windows freeware, Freeware for 64 bit Windows, 64 bit freeware |
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Adobe CS4 also includes a 64 bit version of Photoshop.
I can confirm that I've been using Firefox 3.5.2 on Vista Ultimate 64 without a single issue. It updated automatically yesterday to the new version, checked the extensions for compatibility, and again no issues.
Dear all,
I suggest Media player Classic Home cinema 64 bits as a good media player
Thanks, I'll take a look.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
What's with the non-native apps listed? Just because there's no native 64-bit app in a given category doesn't mean 32-bit apps that run under a 64-bit OS/CPU -- only due to compatibility layers -- should be listed. The rest of the web is available for that. Tighten the list up, please.
Anyway, Comodo System Cleaner is native 64-bit and trumps those weak 32-bit versions listed for Disk Cleaning and Registry Cleaning.
The review specifically states that where a native application(s) isn't currently available then details of a 32 bit alternative will be provided. Frankly, we don't want our readers to have to look elsewhere for information unless they wish to do so. As you aren't interested in this part of the review can I suggest that you ignore it?
Comodo System Cleaner doesn't appear to have caused much of a stir when compared to well established, albeit 32 bit, alternatives. As you recommend it so highly I'm happy to give it another look.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Have you tried Q-Dir?
They have a native x64 explorer replacement/enhancement. Open 4 explorer windows within a frame. It makes it a breeze to transfer back and forth with one window. Things like transferring between hdd's or dragging and dropping music to my Rockboxed player is a breeze.
Yes, I have briefly tried Q-Dir and feel that it deserves a mention in the review. While it may not have many of the (necessary??) features of commercial / shareware products used by many editors, myself included, it is definitely a step in the right direction.
So Mr Anonymous, could you put together one paragraph that shows what Q-DIR is about and why it's soo good. If you can, post here or send to me via one of the other contact mechanisms. Please include a name of some sort, even if it's just a first name. This is your find, your writeup, so you get the credit :)
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
IOBit Software also provide good free utilities that work with Win 7
I personally use the defragger and 360 protection
IOBit Software produce very popular utilities.
Unfortunately their defragmentation tool is 32 bit and I have encountered two trivial false positives with 360 that frankly should have been addressed a long time ago.
Still, I think they are one to watch.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Filezilla is my favorite FTP client.
jeux grattage
Simulation rachat de crédits
Filezilla is a popular favourite. It's unfortunate there doesn't seem to be any sign of a 64 bit Windows version although the only thing you miss out on is shell integration. Personally, I never found that to be too much of a problem.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
The x64 port of Iconoid did have the occasional problem of not being able to restore the desktop on Win7 Ultimate x64 (both Beta & RTM).
/* Sometimes it took 2-3 consecutive "restore"s to get everything restored, but there were times even that did not work, not without restarting explorer.exe */
May I suggest: Desktop Icon Save and Restore
Copyright 2001-2008 by Jamie O’Connell
http://www.midiox.com/html/desktop.htm
x64 support was added on Jan 2008 with Vista, works flawless with Windows 7 too.
Tunc Degirmencioglu, CISSP, OPST, MCSE:S
Iconoid is included in the review mainly for its ability to change icon text colour although I've found that I don't need it under Windows 7. I wasn't aware of the utility you mention. I will have a look.
Thanks for the information.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Hi Ric,
PC Tools firewall, Threatfire and Microsoft security Essentials are all well worth a look for Win7 64...
Thanks, I'll take a look.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
MyDefrag also supports defrag of SSD disks which is very important since SSD wears out.
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MyDefrag will handle any drive that can be mounted locally using the standard Windows file system drivers. This explains why it doesn't deal with network drives as they are mounted via the workstation service. Not that you would want to defragment a drive over a network connection.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Are there anymore 64bit apps out there? Does anyone have a decent list?
Thanks.
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It is difficult to list what simply isn't available.
Beyond what I've listed, Start64! covers commercial software and device drivers and the listing at Vista Forums gives details of numerous utilities.
Developments in the web field, browser, email client are being hampered by the points that I've identified. Further, the lack of free 64 bit development tools is holding back many from migrating their applications. Finally, some developers have decided simply not to bother to migrate to 64 bit, Infranview being a classic example.
I always on the look out for new or updated software and would be more than happy to include any suggestions.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
ccleaner, their website says that they now support Win7 x64
Thanks. They actually state that they've improved 64 bit support, although granted Windows 7 is also mentioned separately. I will be looking into this claim of 'improved support' and will report back.
Thanks again.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Thanks for your info, i will take a look about it
petites annonces
Thank you for this feedback !
Black Hattitude
I like windows 7 :)
super cul
Yes, so do I:)
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Wow thanks a lot, really useful !
But Null FTP is not my favourite FTP client. I love Filezilla, really better in my opinion. vente privee
Thank you.
I can't say Null FTP is my favourite FTP client either but it is the only freeware 64 bit client I've been able to find.
32 bit Core FTP Lite and FileZilla are superior in many ways but no 64 bit versions seem to be on the horizon.
The main thing you lose by using a 32 bit client is shell integration, although personally I've never missed this.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
MyDefrag also supports defrag of SSD disks which is very important since SSD wears out.
In terms of results MyDefrag is definitely the product to beat.
Many though, prefer faster, less optimum results, coupled with a better user interface, so 32 bit disk defragmentation tools will suffice.
All of these tools use the Windows defragmentation API so can process any device that can be mounted locally using the normal file system drivers. This will include SSD, memory sticks, and so on, but exclude network drives that are available, but not mounted, locally.
If you have any further information or references on maintaining SSD I would appreciate it if you would pass them on.
Thanks,
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Rik,
No mention of AVG Free? Not recommended anymore? Many associates I know still use this app as their Anti-Virus app of choice.
Doug
Doug,
AVG Free is covered in our main review of anti-virus freeware. I will add a mention and also a link to the review so that people are aware that there are other alternatives.
Thanks for pointing this out.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Dear RikMayell,
I am so glad that you are a contributor here. I have learned so much from your comments and explainations of different products.
Please keep up the great work!
Sincerely,
Dennis S. Primm
Dennis,
Thank you for the positive feedback, and for taking the time to read my contributions.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Nice to see 7-Zip and PeaZip! Both are also available as PortableApps' portable applications (PeaZip has also a natively portable package) in order to bring those applications on a thumbdrive and similar.
I just come accross this site, I belive that I will get solution to my problem.
Im using Vista with sony laptop and I want window 7 or XP on the system, how do I do this?
1.where can I download the sofware "turn vista to window 7"?
2. How do I pertition my hard disk?
Thanks for your assistance,
Kay
It's not wise to publicly list your email address, you could end up receiving all sorts of things!
Kay,
Questions like this are best posted in the forum, you need to register but that only takes a minute or two.
In answer,
1. To move from Vista to Windows 7 you will need to purchase the appropriate upgrade license for the Vista that you have. The product is already Released To Manufacturing (RTM), and is due to be made available to the general public on the 22nd October. I'm fairly sure it's available to preorder from many of the on-line sites.
2. To create a new partition on your existing C drive proceed as follows:
(a) Open the Control Panel, double click Administrative Tools, Computer Management, and select Disk Management from the left hand pane of the Computer Management dialog box.
(b) Right click on the partition you want to shrink in order to free up space and select Shrink Volume from the context menu.
(c) Windows will tell by how much the partition can be shrunk, adjust this as a appropriate and then click on OK. Note that if the value reported by Windows is very low it's likely your existing partition is nearly full or is badly fragmented. If this the case refer to:
Best Free Disk De-fragmenter
and/or
Best Free Disk Space Analyzer
(d) Once the shrink operation has completed you can use the Disk Manager to create new partitions or, if installing an additional OS allow the installation routine to do it.
Hope that helps.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
I use Firefox with Windows and I never have any problems. I'm sure I will upgrade to this when it's ready and the bugs are worked out. My experience with this combination (Firefox and Windows) has gone so well that I trust whatever they are working on will continue to do the job. The upgrade will provide user friendly enhancements that will be practical. I look forward to this improvement and will get at it as soon as possible. casino en ligne
Firstly, let me apologise for not replying earlier, I have been preoccupied for the last couple of days.
The 32 bit versions of Firefox 3.5.x and 3.0.y work extremely well under the 64 bit versions of both Windows 7 (RC and RTM) and Vista. Some, myself included, experienced stability problems with version 3.5.2, but these have somehow disappeared so I suspect Firefox rather than Windows.
The development of the 64 bit version of Firefox, although not an official Mozilla project, is keeping step with the 32 bit version. Unfortunately, nobody appears to be pushing for the adoption of 64 bit browsers. Also these major hurdles remain:
1. Adobe still hasn't produced a 64 bit Flash plug-in for Windows, although there is one for Linux!
2. Many sites don't support the combination of 64 bit browser/64 bit Java Runtime Environment.
3. You're unlikely to be able to carry out financial transactions using a 64 bit browser.
For 64 bit browsers to take off I believe that the delivery of the 64 bit Flash plug-in for Windows is critical.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
I can confirm that I've been using Firefox 3.5.2 on Vista Ultimate 64 without a single issue. It updated automatically yesterday to the new version, checked the extensions for compatibility, and again no issues.
Also upgraded to 32 bit Firefox 3.5.3 today without any issues.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
re: Firewalls
I am quite satisfied using Privatefirewall 6 from PrivacyWare,Inc; both in Win Vista and Win 7, since OnlineArmor Firewall does not work in Win 7. It's worth a look:
http://www.privacyware.com/personal_firewall.html
The overall response in this forum thread
http://www.techsupportalert.com/freeware-forum/security/1504-privatefire...
suggests Comodo Internet Security is a better bet. I am more than happy with CIS and will continue to recommended it as top pick for Windows 7 / Vista 64.
Remember though that it's what works for you that really counts.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
I agree having had difficulties with OnLine Armor but being very pleased with Comodo even though you have to work a bit harder for a while.
Agreed. I ran CIS (full suite) extensively on Vista Ultimate x64 and it was faultless. I recently changed to Bullguard so I could be running this during the site offer period and day by day now issues began to arise. I'm not blaming Bullguard because I have been in contact with their tech guys and we've narrowed it down to a software conflict. Unfortunately I need this PC fully functional for my site work here and just don't have the time to nail this down. Consequently Bullguard went yesterday and CIS came back on. I wasn't too impressed with the additional 100mb+ required to reload the AV database but all in all my PC is exactly back to how it was before. You could not have said this about CIS even a few months ago on any system which just demonstrates how far this software has progressed.
I second CIS which unbelievably for me has so far given less issues on Ultimate 64 than it did on XP! I was previously a great fan of Privatefirewall but something appears to have been "lost" during the upgrade process. The real key with CIS is not to wind it up too tightly unless you can't possibly live outside of a maximum security environment. This will reduce the chances of hitting any instability a lot. I do activate the Protocol Analysis but otherwise I don't ask it to do any more than I really need.
Auslogics freeware should be mentioned.
Auslogics main business is shareware although they do, as you point out, offer cut down freeware versions of some of their products. All Auslogics software is 32 bit and, in my opinion, none of their products offer any benefit over others identified in the review.
If you feel a particular product has been unfairly left out then post the details and I'll be happy to check it out.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Comodo Internet Security (CIS)
Fails to install on Windows 7 RTM, ive tried every possible install method, i dont have UAC or driver signing mode enabled so this shouldnt cause an issue.
Win 7 RTM 64bit
Just so other folks know.
Two Questions.
1. Is your PC in good condition prior to installation of CIS or any other security program be it antivirus or firewall?
2. Where did you downloaded it from?
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