25 Best Free Software to Install on a New Windows Laptop (2026)

A new Windows laptop arrives with a browser, a media player nobody uses and a folder of trial software that starts asking for money in a fortnight. The gap between that and a genuinely useful machine is smaller than most people think, because the best free software for Windows in 2026 covers almost everything an ordinary user needs, and a fair amount of what a professional needs too. This list is 25 programs, grouped by the job they do, with one honest line each.

Everything here is either open source, free for personal use, or a free tier that is genuinely usable rather than a nag screen. Where a free version has a real limitation, it is stated. The team at TechLein has kept the list to tools with a long track record, because a utility that vanishes in a year is worse than no utility at all.

Key takeaways

• Twenty five programs cover browsing, security, office work, PDFs, media, images, backup, notes and system maintenance at zero cost.
• Always download from the developer’s own website. Search advertisements for popular free tools are a known route for lookalike installers.
• Read every installer screen. Bundled toolbars and adware are the price some free downloads try to charge you.
• Windows already includes several of these functions, so install only what you will actually use rather than everything on the list.

Install these the safe way

The single biggest risk with free software is not the software, it is where you get it. Attackers buy search advertisements for the names of popular free tools, build a page that looks like the official one, and serve an installer with an extra payload. The download works, the program even runs, and something else has arrived with it. Free download portals that wrap the real installer in their own downloader are a milder version of the same problem, and are how most people end up with a browser toolbar they never asked for.

1. Search for the tool, then ignore the sponsored results at the top of the page entirely and look for the project’s own domain.
2. Check the address bar carefully before downloading. Lookalike domains use hyphens, extra words or a different top level domain.
3. Prefer the Microsoft Store or the built in winget package manager where the tool is published there, since both pull from verified publishers.
4. Choose Custom or Advanced during installation rather than Express, and untick every additional offer.
5. Decline any prompt that offers to change your default browser or search engine unless that is exactly what you wanted.
6. Scan the downloaded installer with Microsoft Defender before running it if the source was anything other than the official site.

This matters more than the specific tools you pick. Our guide to protecting your privacy online covers the same instincts applied to accounts and browsers.

Browser and security

• Mozilla Firefox — an independent browser with strong tracking protection on by default and a genuine sync service across devices.
• Brave — Chromium based, so sites behave the same as in Chrome, but with ad and tracker blocking built in rather than bolted on.
• Microsoft Defender — already installed, already running, and good enough that most home users do not need a paid antivirus at all. Just leave it on.
• Malwarebytes Free — a second opinion scanner for when something feels wrong. The free version scans on demand only; real time protection is part of the paid tier after the trial lapses.

Office, documents and PDFs

• LibreOffice — a full office suite with word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tools that opens and saves Microsoft formats. Complex Excel macros are its weak point.
• Microsoft Office on the web — the free browser versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint with a Microsoft account, useful when you need perfect formatting compatibility for a document someone else will open.
• Sumatra PDF — an extremely light PDF, ePub and comic reader that opens instantly and stays out of the way, unlike the heavyweight readers most people install by habit.
• PDFsam Basic — splits, merges, rotates and extracts pages from PDFs offline, which means your documents never leave the machine. Editing text inside a PDF is a paid feature elsewhere.

Media, archives and images

• VLC media player — plays essentially any video or audio file without hunting for codecs, and handles damaged files better than anything else.
• 7-Zip — opens and creates ZIP, 7z, RAR and almost every other archive format, with strong AES encryption for archives you need to send.
• GIMP — a full raster image editor with layers, masks and filters. The learning curve is real, but so is the capability.
• Paint.NET — the middle ground between Paint and Photoshop, and much faster to learn than GIMP. Free from the developer’s own site; the Microsoft Store listing is a paid convenience version that funds development.

Screenshots, recording and communication

• ShareX — the best screenshot tool on Windows, with scrolling capture, annotation, OCR and automatic upload workflows.
• OBS Studio — records the screen and streams it, with scenes and multiple sources. It is what most tutorial videos and live streams are made with.
• Telegram Desktop — a proper native desktop client rather than a phone mirror, which makes it genuinely useful for moving files between your own devices.
• Signal Desktop — end to end encrypted messaging on the desktop, linked to your phone, for conversations you would rather not have sitting on someone’s server in readable form.

Backup, sync and note-taking

• FreeFileSync — compares two folders and mirrors changes between them, which is the simplest reliable backup to an external drive that most people will actually keep doing.
• Syncthing — syncs folders directly between your own devices with no cloud in the middle and no storage limit, because the storage is yours.
• Obsidian — notes stored as plain Markdown files in a folder you control, so your writing outlives the app. Free to use; sync and publish are optional paid add ons.
• Joplin — open source notes and to-do lists with end to end encrypted sync to a cloud service of your choosing, and a straightforward import path from Evernote.

Sync is not backup. If you delete a file, sync faithfully deletes it everywhere. Keep at least one copy that is not connected, and read our guide on recovering deleted files on Windows before you need it rather than after.

Developer basics and system utilities

• Visual Studio Code — the default code editor for most of the industry, with extensions for every language. VSCodium is the same editor built without Microsoft’s telemetry if that matters to you.
• Git for Windows — version control plus a usable Bash shell, which is worth installing even if you never write code, purely for the command line tools it brings.
• Microsoft PowerToys — Microsoft’s own collection of power user add ons, including a fast launcher, window layout manager, bulk file renamer and colour picker.
• Everything — instant filename search across every drive, and it finds things in the time Windows Search takes to think about it.
• CrystalDiskInfo — reads the health data your SSD or hard drive already reports, so you find out a drive is failing before it takes your files with it.

If the machine is already sluggish, install fewer things rather than more. Our notes on how to speed up Windows 11 and how to free up storage space will help more than another utility. For AI assistants, which are a separate category with their own trade offs, see our roundup of the best AI tools in India.

Free replacements for the paid software people assume they need

Frequently asked questions

Do I still need a paid antivirus in 2026?

For most home users, no. Microsoft Defender is competent, updates automatically and does not slow the machine down. Keeping Windows updated and being careful about what you download matters far more than the brand of scanner.

Is free software safe to use for office work?

Open source tools such as LibreOffice, 7-Zip and VLC are used across businesses worldwide. The risk is in where you download from, not in the licence. Check your employer’s policy before installing anything on a company laptop.

What is winget and should I use it?

It is the package manager built into recent Windows versions. Running a single command in Terminal installs a tool from a verified source, which sidesteps the fake installer problem entirely for anything published there.

Why does a free program ask for a payment on the Microsoft Store?

Some developers, Paint.NET among them, keep the download free on their own site and charge a small amount on the Store as a way for users to support the work. Both are the same software.

How many of these should I actually install?

Probably eight to ten. Pick one browser, leave Defender alone, add an office suite, a PDF reader, VLC, 7-Zip, a screenshot tool and a backup method. Add the rest only when you hit a need.

The bottom line

Free does not mean second rate on Windows. VLC, 7-Zip, Firefox and Visual Studio Code are the default choice in their categories for people who could easily afford alternatives, and the gap in the remaining categories is narrower every year. The genuine cost of this list is attention: attention at the download page, and attention during the installer.

Set the machine up once, carefully, and it will serve you for years. Our new laptop setup checklist covers the first hour in order, and if you are still deciding what to do about the operating system licence itself, our comparison of genuine and pirated Windows 11 explains why the free software on this page is a very different proposition from a free copy of Windows.