PC-Freebies

Choices of instant messenger applications have become plentiful over the past decade.  If you are looking for a clean UI and basic features including superb voice quality than look no further and try Google Talk.  This free software allows you to see real time availability and status of your friends and family online.  Send instant messages and voice chat with them with the click of the mouse.

Some stellar features of Google Talk included with this ap are:

• The ability to text chat with your friends from GMail.
• Free PC to PC voice chat.
• Send and receive voicemails.
• Unlimited file transfers with no restrictions on size.
• Email notifications directly on your desktop.

Google Talk is by far the cleanest IM application that can easily be understood by novices.  While this software isn’t the most feature complete, it does the job beautifully for rich PC voice calls and simple communications through text.

Current Version: 1.0          Installer Size: 1.53MB          DOWNLOAD LINK

The two dominant audio/video applications of Windows Media Player (WMP) and iTunes have much to gain from premium free software like VLC Media Player, especially when it comes to video playback.  VLC is capable of reading most audio and video formats on the market today, including optical media like DVD’s, VCD’s and Audio CD’s without the need of additional codecs, which can be a nightmare to find.

Some features of VideoLAN’s VLC Media Player are:

• Supports a huge array of video formats including proprietary ones.
• The ability to play incomplete videos and movies.
• Minimalistic user interface with only the features you need.
• Extensive hotkey support.
• Support for streaming protocols including networks.

While VLC doesn’t have the graphical appeal as WMP and other video playback applications, it does shine by supporting a myriad of file formats, and they simply just work in VLC, with impressive speed and performance.

Current Version: 0.9.9          Installer Size: 15.90MB          DOWNLOAD LINK

Transferring files from a local computer to a server in the cloud can be done quickly and easily using a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client like FileZilla.  This solution is cross-platform supporting FTP, FTPS and SFTP all with an intuitive graphical user interface.  FileZilla uses a file browser like you are accustom to in Windows, and has drag-n-drop functionality for speedy file and folder transfers back and forth.

Some of the many features of FileZilla are:

• Configurable transfer speed limits.
• Transfer and resume of large files over 4GB.
• Powerful site management and transfer queue.
• Easy to use network configuration wizard.
• Multi-language support.

FileZilla is so simple to use and feature-rich, it’s amazing this software package is free.  The ability to send files to a server effortlessly with the simplicity of right-clicking to set file permissions is amazing.

Current Version: 3.2.4          Installer Size: 3.74MB          DOWNLOAD LINK