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Best Free Windows 64-bit Software
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Introduction
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Here are the top freeware picks for 64-bit Windows in their various categories. This list will continue to grow as we add new categories and new products. Go to the page index for the category you are interested in or read more about 64-bit Windows by following the links in the related articles. Where a product has a review in another category I will usually provide an excerpt from that review. Other comments will usually relate to 64-bit compatibility and operation. My primary goal is to find the best native 64-bit applications ( The secondary focus of this article is to identify 32-bit applications that are compatible with 64-bit Windows ( Although we do mention Windows XP Pro 64, all testing has been under 64-bit versions of WIndows Vista, 7 and 8. Let me know if you have an idea for an application or category I could cover. Anyone can leave a comment at the bottom of this page, Registered users (free to anyone) can contact me in the forum under Contact Info or may post in the 64-bit Freeware forum. |
) in each category. Where a 64-bit application is recommended the Quick Selection Guide will only include details related to the 64-bit version and not the 32-bit version, if any.
). These 32-bit applications will usually run slower (due to emulation of the 32-bit environment) but are either the best in their class or have features that will be particularly useful to many 64-bit Windows users.|
Best Free Windows 64-bit Software - Page Index
(or click here to view as one huge page)
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This list of the best software for 64-bit Windows has 48 categories with 91 products consisting of 51 native 64-bit applications and 40 compatible 32-bit applications. To read brief descriptions of the items, click a page number.
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What's New: Currently testing applications on Windows 8. Items added or updated: |
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Related Articles, Reviews and Useful Links
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Related Articles
Related ReviewsUseful Links |
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Editor
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This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Remah.
If you have had a similar experience then you should consider becoming a reviewer too. |
| Date | Change | Editor |
|---|---|---|
| November 2011 | Major update completed: convert to a multipage article, reformat product reviews, add categories, remove screenshots, and start adding new products. | Remah |
| October 2011 |
No change to content. Quick Selection Guide converted to the new format. Add change log. |
Remah |
| April 2011 | Latest update | Rik |
| June 2009 | Article created. | Rik |
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Tags
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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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Comments
AVAST-64 BIT TOO!
Despite being largely redeveloped Avast 5 is still a 32 bit application. As ever only the lowest level device drivers are 64 bit, as required to be loaded into the kernel.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
buy a mac :P
Or use one of a mass of Linux distros for free!
This one has more choices included than Microsoft can even think of.
http://ultimateedition.info/ultimate-edition-2-4/
I like your article, but not that I can't print it out to give to my father to read. Please fix this ASAP. Thanks.
Your ability, or otherwise, to print this article is solely dependant on the facilities provided by your browser and version of Windows. Normally a simple File, Print, from the browser will suffice. You can of course be rather more exotic and use one of the on-line convert to PDF sites.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Just wondering if it was possible to add a review of Panda Cloud Anti-Virus to this discussion. It is a powerful tool with high detection rate and low requirements of system resources. However it has a slow scanning speed. Anyone else have anything to say about it?
In our review Best Free Antivirus Software Panda Cloud doesn't even rate a mention, presumably for good reason. If you'd like to see this product get a mention then that is the best place to follow this up.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
what about a 64 bit image mounting program?
I'm afraid that I'm not aware of one. Gizmo Central works fine for me, I've yet to find anything it can't handle.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
You imply I'm a newbie or worse but your slip is showing. This is true because file/print is the first thing anyone would try, and all that and print preview produce are one page of content and one blank page, which was hardly the objective. Apparently you guys are using frames or some more exotic way to lay out the page content which is not compatible with normal browser printing functions. I also tried print selection, by the way, which did not work either. Needless to say, these methods normally work just fine for me. Fortunately, I do have a fallback named FastStone Capture, last freeware version, which was able to take an image of the scrolling window that contains your article's content, so I was able to print that. However, my complaint still stands that you should have some printer-friendly way for your users to preserve the content of especially such an important article as this one. Thanks. P.S. Next time you might want to try it out for yourself to see if it works before suggesting an obvious "solution."
You seem to have found a solution so that's fine. File, Print will work quite happily from Firefox, perhaps I should have mentioned that.
You seem to think that there is some sort of problem with being a new comer to computers, a 'newbie.' We all had to start somewhere and helping people is what Gizmo's is all about. You're never too old, or young, to learn.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Hi Rik,
Do you or any visitors here know of a good free 64 bit CD/DVD burning package? InfraRecorder is, frankly, a bug-ridden horror story on my system. ImgBurn is rock steady and reliable, but it is 32 bit and doesn't handle music compilations.
Alternatively, does the lack of this category here indicate that everyone is happy with the built-in Windows facility? I suppose this might have moved on since XP, where I last used it.
Regards,
Alan
Useful;
http://beingpc.com/2010/02/fix-all-your-important-file-association-with-...
I'd really appreciate your recommendation for a 64-bit win7 disk defragger. I imagine you're too busy to test, but you could give us your preliminary best guess with the usual caveats.
I feel forced to turn to commercial sware, but I only want to run it once a month.
In the article I recommend MyDefrag as top pick.
The mathematics of disk file placement are beyond the scope of this article but remember that 'big iron' systems, MVS, VMS as was, commercial Unix, don't seem to need to defragment disks. Obviously they know something that we don't.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
That's not true! :)
If you want some precise and conprehensive info on it;
http://www.diskeeper.com/fragbook/contents.htm
Fragmentation occurs on every system which uses disc storage. Obviously the VAX and other analsysis and remedial programs will not run on Windows PC's but there are analogs to these programs. for PC's. The majority of PC defragmentation programs are sufficient for most users to maintain reasonable performance. Network and server management teams often require much more specific strategies of file placement and defragmentation techniques. For some specific PC applications more specific strategies are also required.
They are not generally of much use to an average user, but system managers need this knowledge.
Most users on "Big Iron" will never come into contact with anything like this, and don't need to know anything about it. PC users who maintain and service their own machines should learn at least a little about it, as it is one of the major causes of system performance degragadation.
Also worth pointing out here that optimisation is not the same thing as defragmenting, although these are "lumped together" a lot on PC's.
This chapter explains the differences, explains much the same "Red Herrings" as are often used to refer to PC's and gives some background on the matter Although not always precisely analog it is of considerable use in explaining some things clearly;
http://www.diskeeper.com/fragbook/chapter6.htm#ch6f
Just a point here which may be of interest to you, it doesn't make any difference to the results whether you use a 32 BIT or a 64 BIT, or indeed any other processor in conjuncton with a defragger. The file fragmentation is removed by physically moving files on the disc, and it is irrelevant which processor happens to be involved in this process. The same applies to various optimisation techniques.
Of course, a fast 64 BIT processor may allow you to accomplish such operations a little faster, simply because it is intrinsicaly faster, but the main limitations here are dependent on the disc itself and its mechanical components.
If you want to avoid this, then you need to go for an SSD ( Solid State Disc), it has no moving conponents, and does not require defragmentation.
I imagine it wont be long before SSD's take over more or less completely anyway, as they also provide other massive performance advantages, and are being produced in larger capacities and ever cheaper., This will make defragging and optimisation software as it is presently known obsolete.
Disk defragmentation and perhaps more important, optimal file placement, is a subject we could discuss for hours. I've given this some thought and I'm not entirely sure whether this could be considered an np hard / np complete problem? I doubt it matters really as long as you're happy using whatever you happen to use.
Further discussion on this matter should be carried out in the forum.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Useful if you want to just restore the main file associations. There are other utilities that allow you to be more flexible.
Useful find. Thank you.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
I use CDBurnerXP, a 32 bit application, which gives me everything I need. The built in Windows facilities work fine but I find them less than intuitive. I am on the look out for a native 64 bit application but nothing seems to be on the horizon at present.
Rik
The API used is common to both 32 and 64 bit applications although 32 bit calls carry the translation overhead. In real terms a 64 bit application will always run faster. Without testing I couldn't say by how much.
The problem with SSD is that the drive will eventually die, something that isn't a problem with standard disk drives. The limited life expectancy and high cost do little to sell this to me. Further, if you were to model the impact of SSD on an end user PC I doubt you would see much benefit as you are the slave of the somewhat jaded Windows virtual memory model and some 'well intentioned' Vista and later 'performance enhancements.'
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
On MVS, I think I'd be looking at CICS and DB2 before I started reaching for my PL80 manual :)
If trying to improve the performance of a Windows PC, disk fragmentation would be at the end of a very long list.
Rik Mayell - Category Editor
Hmm...I don't think the application of computational complexity theory as such is really all that relevant to actually solving the problems involved. The usual approach is strictly practical, in that one finds a bottleneck and attempts to remove it. Whatever, I agree that it probably doesn't matter a great deal as long as whatever you use works.
I haven't yet found a defrag program that didn't work, but some are very slow and cumbersome. With further regard to optimal data placement, it is well nigh impossible to even define the problem, much less find a pure mathematical solution involving polynomial time calculations, hard or otherwise, or indeed anything else either, because nobody agrees on the various theories with regard to the actual optimal placement, so most simply fly by the seat of their pants.
As you obviously don't want any further discussion on the matter here, I will refrain from any further references.
At some point in the discussion, Gizmo used to finally say something like "I personally use product X".
What does Rik use on 64-bit Win7?
Or isn't it worth doing anymore?
Or just use the MS-provided one?
All true, but the actual enhancements are still quite massive. Boot time as low as 7 seconds, load times massively reduced. Other problems either removed or severely reduced. No defragging, no NOISE!!! etc.
May be of interest; http://ssd-reviews.com/
Also, the first disc drives had lousy MTBF values. In the meantime PC's and various components can be fairly considered consumable throwaways, and the average "life" ( not the expectancy, the average actual life in operation) is often much less than three years. If an SSD is guaranteed for three years, many wont care if it dies after that.
I am very happy indeed with an SSD as a system "disc" in one of my machines, and will certainly go for it again when I buy any new machines. Indeed, I may upgrade a couple of the others in the meantime.
My solution is only OK, since an image is not as sharp and clear as the printed text would be. I wish I could get you to actually try your "solution" so you'd see it only gives you one page of text out of the dozen or more you should get in order to have the whole article, not including comments. I have run into this on other websites, so you are not alone, but many others have recognized the problem and instituted a printer-friendly version of such scrolling window "pages" for the simple reason that they do not print out properly using the normal browser printing methods. I guess my function here today is to wake you up to these facts that are obvious to anyone who has actually tried to print this article out. BTW, I am using Firefox 3.6 with Windows XP Pro sp3, with no other problems printing, so I doubt that it is the problem, but if yours does print it all out, I'd like to know why--i.e. is there an add-on?
Well I can't speak for Gizmo but personally I don't bother. Most if not all desktop applications are CPU bound or, if you're into design and stuff, bound by the graphics card. If on the other hand you're into Exchange / SQL Server then you'd know the answer anyway :)
Rik Mayell - Category Editor