We’re taking and sharing more photos than ever, but even the most skilled photographer is likely to produce a dud or two, and even the best shot straight out of your phone camera could stand to be better. So a photo editing software is a must have. 

There’s no doubt that Adobe Photoshop remains, hands down, the best photo-editing software on the market. But unless you’ve undergone formal training, Photoshop proves a difficult program to master, and is expensive to use. Today I will introduce several free useful photo editing software.

GIMP

GIMP is a fully loaded image editing software. Whether it’s basic editing or advanced functionality, GIMP can handle everything. It has a customizable interface, and the functions are separated into multiple modules that can be shown/hidden individually shown/hidden as per need.

Paint.NET

Paint.NET‘s simplicity is one of its key features; it leaves it a fast, easy to operate free photo editor that’s perfect for those little tasks that don’t need the sheer power of GIMP.

PhotoScape

PhotoScape might look like a rather simple free photo editor, but take a look at its main menu and you’ll find a wealth of features: raw conversion, photo splitting and merging, animated GIF creation, and even a rather odd function with which you can print lined, graph or sheet music paper.

FastStone Image Viewer

FastStone Image Viewer can fully handle everything from basic editing to semi-advanced operations. Not only that, FastStone Image Viewer also comes with image management features, such as tags, and drag-and-drop copy/moves support. You can create slideshows with over 150 transition effects, and even acquire images from scanners. 

Fotor

Fotor is a photo enhancer first and foremost, more than it is a photo editor; if there’s specific area of retouching you need doing with, say, the clone brush or healing tool, you’re out of luck. But it includes a stack of high-end filters that really do shine.

 

Antivirus protection

Antivirus software is critical for all PCs. Without it, you risk losing your personal information, your files, and even the cash from your bank account. So you should install an efficient antivirus program. It can help your computer work better. There are some efficient free antivirus programs, like Avast, Avira, Malware Hunter, and so on.

Backup

Nothing can save your computer and data from almost any disaster like a proper and recent back up. Backups are necessary because data has value. Whether this is sentimental, commercial, or legal value, a backup is a way of securing valuable information. The worst loss would be files of which we own the only copy in existence, such as personal documents or photos.

• Install an image backup program such as Macrium Reflect.
• Discard backups older than two months. This can often be done automatically.
• Install a data-sharing program, such as Dropbox or OneDrive or similar, and store your data files in folders managed by the program for automatic off-site and cloud backup of the files you work on every day.

Browsers

Although Microsoft Internet Explorer comes pre-installed on Windows computers. There are several excellent free alternatives that everyone should try. These free alternatives can often be faster, have more options, and in many cases be more secure than Internet Explorer.

Internet Browser: Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox

Compression utility

When downloading files on the Internet you’ll eventually encounter a .zip, .rar, or other compressed file. Dealing with these files can be easy with the free file compression utility, WinRAR, 7-Zip.

E-mail

E-mail is yet another service that can be done freely. Most users today use online e-mail solutions. However, for those still using an e-mail client such as Microsoft Outlook we strongly suggest Mozilla Thunderbird.

FTP, SFTP, and SSH Utility

Users who maintain their own web page or need to upload or download files to or from a server have to use an FTP utility or an SSH client.

FTP client: Filezilla 

SSH client: Putty

Image editor and paint program

There are many great free solutions for editing and creating your images on your computer.

Image editor: GIMP

Paint program: Paint.net

Multimedia

There are dozens of different multimedia programs with different capabilities and limitations. Below are our top free multimedia programs for watching video files and recording audio.

Audio editing and creating tool: Audacity

Video and DVD Player: VLC and MPC-HC

Office Suite

An Office suite such as Microsoft Office is often one of the most expensive programs that a user can install on their computer. Why install these expensive programs when there are free solutions that are just as good.

Office suite: WPS Office

Notepad and Source code editor: Notepad++