Windows-only free software

software platform developed by Microsoft

Notepad++ (sometimes npp or NPP) is a text and source code editor for use with Microsoft Windows. It supports tabbed editing, which allows working with multiple open files in one window. The program's name comes from the C postfix increment operator.

Cygwin ( ) is a free and open-source Unix-like environment and command-line interface (CLI) for Microsoft Windows. The project also provides a software repository containing open-source packages. Cygwin allows source code for Unix-like operating systems to be compiled and run on Windows. Cygwin provides native integration of Windows-based applications.

eMule is a free peer-to-peer file sharing application for Microsoft Windows. Started in May 2002 as an alternative to eDonkey2000, eMule connects to both the eDonkey network and the Kad network. The distinguishing features of eMule are the direct exchange of sources between client nodes, recovery of corrupted downloads, and the use of a credit system to reward frequent uploaders. eMule transmits data in zlib-compressed form to save bandwidth.

discontinued Ubuntu Linux installer for Windows

Dev-C++ is a free full-featured integrated development environment (IDE) distributed under the GNU General Public License for programming in C and C++. It was originally developed by Colin Laplace and was first released in 1998. It is written in Delphi.

K-Meleon is a free and open-source, lightweight web browser for Microsoft Windows. It uses the native Windows API to create its user interface. Early versions of K-Meleon rendered web pages with Gecko, Mozilla's browser layout engine, which Mozilla's browser Firefox and its email client Thunderbird also use. K-Meleon became a popular Windows browser and was available as an optional default browser in Europe via BrowserChoice.eu. K-Meleon continued to use Gecko for several years after Mozilla deprecated embedding it. Current versions of K-Meleon use the Goanna layout engine, a fork of Gecko cre

PDF reader, free software

AutoHotkey (AHK) is a free and open-source custom scripting language for Microsoft Windows, primarily designed to provide easy keyboard shortcuts (or 'hotkeys'), fast macro-creation, and software automation, to allow users of most computer skill levels to automate repetitive tasks in any Windows application. It can easily extend or modify user interfaces (for example, overriding the default Windows control key commands with their Emacs equivalents).

WinSCP (Windows Secure Copy) is a file manager, SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), WebDAV, Amazon S3, and secure copy protocol (SCP) client for Microsoft Windows. The WinSCP project has released its source code on GitHub under an open source license, while the program itself is distributed as proprietary freeware.

utility for format and create bootable USB flash drives

graphical subsystem

DC++ is a free and open-source, peer-to-peer file-sharing client that can be used for connecting to the Direct Connect network or to the ADC protocol. It is developed primarily by Jacek Sieka, nicknamed arnetheduck.

graphical user interface software library

multi-tabbed terminal emulator developed by Microsoft

TortoiseSVN is a Subversion client, implemented as a Microsoft Windows shell extension, that helps programmers manage different versions of the source code for their programs. It is free software released under the GNU General Public License.

programming language dialect and development environment

2001 free side-view multiplayer action game

Shareaza is a peer-to-peer file sharing client running under Microsoft Windows which supports the Gnutella, Gnutella2 (G2), eDonkey, BitTorrent, FTP, HTTP and HTTPS network protocols and handles magnet links, ed2k links, and the now deprecated gnutella and Piolet links. It is available in 30 languages.

SharpDevelop (also styled as #develop) is a discontinued free and open source integrated development environment (IDE) for the .NET Framework, Mono, Gtk# and Glade# platforms. It supports development in C#, Visual Basic .NET, Boo, F#, IronPython and IronRuby programming languages.

file manager bundled with Microsoft Windows in the 1990s, now open source and ported to modern Windows

VirtualDub is a free and open-source video capture and video processing utility for Microsoft Windows written by Avery Lee. It is designed to process linear video streams, including filtering and recompression. It uses AVI container format to store captured video. The first version of VirtualDub, written for Windows 95, to be released on SourceForge was uploaded on August 20, 2000.

Installer authoring tool

ADO.NET is a data access technology from the Microsoft .NET Framework and .NET that provides communication between relational and non-relational systems through a common set of components. ADO.NET is a set of computer software components that programmers can use to access data and data services from a database. It is a part of the base class library that is included with the Microsoft .NET Framework. It is commonly used by programmers to access and modify data stored in relational database systems, though it can also access data in non-relational data sources. ADO.NET is sometimes considered a

free and open-source antivirus tool for Windows

Software to run both Windows and Linux

HijackThis (also HiJackThis or HJT) is a free and open-source tool to detect malware and adware on Microsoft Windows. It was originally created by Merijn Bellekom, and later sold to Trend Micro. The program is notable for quickly scanning a user's computer to display the most common locations of malware, rather than relying on a database of known spyware. HijackThis is used primarily for diagnosis of malware, not to remove or detect spyware—as uninformed use of its removal facilities can cause significant software damage to a computer. Browser hijacking can cause malware to be installed on a c

InfraRecorder is an open-source CD and DVD writing program for Microsoft Windows. First started by Christian Kindahl in the Google Summer of Code 2006, InfraRecorder uses the cdrtools software library to perform the actual burning.

FOSS package manager for Windows 10

set of freeware system utilities developed by Microsoft

ffdshow is an open-source unmaintained codec library that is mainly used for decoding of video in the MPEG-4 ASP (e.g. encoded with DivX or Xvid) and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video formats, but it supports numerous other video and audio formats as well. It is free software released under GNU General Public License 2.0, runs on Windows, and is implemented as a Video for Windows (VFW) codec and a DirectShow filter.

Project64 is a free and open-source Nintendo 64 emulator written in the programming languages C and C++ for Microsoft Windows. This software uses a plug-in system allowing third-party groups to use their own plug-ins to implement specific components. Project64 can play Nintendo 64 games on a computer reading ROM images, either dumped from the read-only memory of a Nintendo 64 ROM cartridge or created directly on the computer as homebrew.

screen reader software for Windows

software application

OpenMPT is an open-source music tracker for Windows. Currently developed by a multitude of contributors, it is based on ModPlug Tracker by Olivier Lapicque, first released in September 1997. Although developed for Windows, OpenMPT can be run on Unix-like systems via Wine.

TortoiseGit is a Git revision control client, implemented as a Windows shell extension and based on TortoiseSVN. It is free software released under the GNU General Public License.

WinMerge is a free software tool for data comparison and merging of text-like files. It is useful for determining what has changed between versions, and then merging changes between versions.

thumb|MediaPortal using a Windows XP Media Center Edition|Windows XP MCE [[Windows Media Center-esque skin.]]

CrypTool is an open-source project that is a free e-learning software for illustrating cryptographic and cryptanalytic concepts.

ShareX is a free and open-source screenshot and screencast software for Windows. It is published under the GNU General Public License. The project's source code is hosted on GitHub. It is also available on the Microsoft Store and Steam.

C++ template library for Win32 development

CamStudio is an open-source screencasting program for Microsoft Windows released as free software. The software renders videos in an AVI format. It can also convert these AVIs into Flash Video format, embedded in SWF files. CamStudio is written in C++, but CamStudio 3 will be developed in C#. The program has distributed malware and harmful viruses via the installer.

UltraVNC (sometimes written uVNC) is an open-source remote-administration/remote-desktop-software utility.

open source .NET platform

WinCDEmu is an open-source utility for mounting disk image files in Microsoft Windows. It installs a Windows device driver which allows a user to access an image of a CD or DVD as if it were a physical drive. WinCDEmu supports ISO, CUE/BIN, CCD/IMG, NRG, MDS/MDF and RAW formats.

Chocolatey is a machine-level, command-line package manager and installer for software on Microsoft Windows. It uses the NuGet packaging infrastructure and PowerShell to simplify the process of downloading and installing software.

Windows Installer XML Toolset (WiX, pronounced "wicks") is a free software toolset that builds Windows Installer packages from XML. It consists of a command-line environment that developers may integrate into their build processes to build MSI and MSM packages. WiX was the first Microsoft project to be released under an open-source license, the Common Public License. It was also the first Microsoft project to be hosted on an external website.

web server

Rainmeter is a free and open-source desktop customization utility for Windows released under the GNU GPL v2 license. It allows users to create and display user-generated customizable desktop widgets or applets called "skins" that display information. Ready to use collections of skins can be downloaded and installed in packages known as "suites".

PeerBlock is a free and open-source personal firewall that blocks packets coming from, or going to, a maintained list of blacklisted hosts. PeerBlock is the Windows successor to the software PeerGuardian (which is currently maintained only for Linux). It blocks incoming and outgoing connections to IP addresses that are included on blacklists (made available on the Internet), and to addresses specified by the user. PeerBlock mainly uses blacklists provided by iblocklist.com.

HeidiSQL is a free and open-source administration tool for MariaDB, MySQL, as well as Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL and SQLite. Its codebase was originally taken from Ansgar Becker's own MySQL-Front 2.5 software. After selling the MySQL-Front branding to an unrelated party, Becker chose "HeidiSQL" as a replacement. The name was suggested by a friend as a tribute to Heidi Klum, and was further reinforced by Becker's own nostalgia for Heidi, Girl of the Alps.

Jscript engine software

Programming syntax for ASP.NET

hMailServer was a free email server for Windows created by Martin Knafve. It ran as a Windows service and includes administration tools for management and backup. It had support for IMAP, POP3, and SMTP email protocols. It could use external database engines such as MySQL, MS SQL or PostgreSQL, or an internal MS SQL Compact Edition engine to store configuration and index data. The actual email messages were stored on disk in a raw MIME format. As of January 15th, 2022, active support and development were officially halted, although version 5.6 will continue to receive updates for critical bugs

open source DVD authoring application for Windows

Cygwin/X is an implementation of the X Window System that runs under Microsoft Windows. It is part of the Cygwin project, and is installed using Cygwin's standard setup system. Cygwin/X is free software, licensed under the X11 License.

set of tools and libraries for developing device drivers under Microsoft Windows

movie making program by Microsoft

open-source, free, software implemented, terminal emulator program

SignalR is a free and open-source software library for Microsoft ASP.NET that allows server code to send asynchronous notifications to client-side web applications. The library includes server-side and client-side JavaScript components.