Freeware (Windows) - Everyone loves Free Software!

PCVGS

In The Making

PCVGS

Antivirus

To start off, I highly recommend checking out this reddit post on the list of paid and free antivirus and security software:

https://old.reddit.com/r/antivirus/wiki/index#wiki_anti-virus_.28aka_anti-malware.29_developers

Anything Marked with "!" at end indicates it is not real time protection but is a manual scan program. Powerful and still useful.

If you want a good channel to watch a channel that actively goes through cybersecurity, check out PC Security Channel:

Recommendations:

Windows Defender

This one is built into Windows 10 and 11, and considered one of the best Antivirus' software out there. Some contest this but plenty within IT will actually state this is the most ideal for average person.

Was recommended to give DefenderUI a look at as it "unlocks" hidden settings within Defender that gives you much more control and settings to play around with.

https://www.defenderui.com/

Emsisoft Emergency Kit !
link: https://www.emsisoft.com/en/home/emergency-kit/

I quite like this one. Free to use and portable. If you have an infected machine and you are weary of having it connected to the internet in that it could affect other machines on the same network, you can run this offline as its portable. Download from another machine (or if your infected machine is still somewhat use-able and online), and run. Let it do its full scan and your virus/malware issues should be resolved.

Malwarebytes Free !
https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download
https://downloads.malwarebytes.com/file/mb5_offline - Version 5 Offline Installer

Like Emsisoft Emergency Kit, this one isn't an active antivirus/antimalware system for the free edition. But this is a very powerful and good antivirus/antimalware program to run in safe mode.

Bitdefender Free
https://www.bitdefender.com/en-ca/consumer/free-antivirus

Bitdefender is considered one of the best free antivirus there is. High detection and protection rating (outdoing even Microsoft Defender) while also being lightweight compared to it. High recommended.

Avast or AVG
Avast: https://www.avast.com/en-ca/free-antivirus-download#pc
AVG: https://www.avg.com/en-ca/homepage#pc

Why lump these two together? Because they both use the exact same engine as they are owned by the same company. Has a firewall also included in the software. Now some people contest that these two aren't good or are heavy in resources but in general tends to have high detection and protection rates so it is recommended.

PCVGS

Firewalls

We would normally recommend using a network based firewall setup like pfSense or OPNsense which are routing operating systems that you can set up a network wide firewall and routing (much better than what the ISP provides) but that requires a lot of work, extra hardware and knowledge on this stuff. This is more aimed at the day to day Windows user who needs something without going far into the rabbit hole.

Firewall software is a security application installed directly on a computer, server, or virtual machine to monitor and control incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predefined security rules. Unlike hardware firewalls that protect an entire network, software firewalls provide endpoint-level protection, filtering data packets to block unauthorized access, malware, and suspicious activity specific to that individual device.

Recommendations:

Windows Built-in Firewall

If you are on Windows 10/11, the built in Windows Firewall serves its purpose just fine. Very basic in use but it works. Mind you, it wont block outbound information that Windows allows for data collection. Watch this video for more information (he is using portmaster which I highly recommend):

You can enhance the performance of Windows Firewall with more control with WFC by Malwarebytes:

https://www.binisoft.org/wfc

Portmaster
https://safing.io/

Portmaster is a free and open-source application firewall. Monitor every network connection on your computer and set per-application rules for what to block. I Highly recommend this one for ease of use while giving you lot more information and control. The free version works just fine but the paid version will of course give you a lot more features. But features that aren't necessarily useful for day-to-day user.

See video above under Windows Built in Firewall to get info on Portmaster.

Simplewall
https://github.com/henrypp/simplewall

Description:
Simple tool to configure Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) which can configure network activity on your computer.

The lightweight application is less than a megabyte, and it is compatible with Windows 7 SP1 and higher operating systems. You can download either the installer or portable version. For correct working you are require administrator rights.

Keep in mind, simplewall is not a control UI over Windows Firewall, and does not interact in any level with Windows Firewall. It works over Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) which is a set of internal API and system services that provide a platform for creating network filtering applications. Windows Filtering Platform is a development technology and not a firewall itself, but simplewall is the tool that uses this technology.

TinyWall
https://tinywall.pados.hu/

This one requires a little bit of work. It has come recommended, it is on github and its free, which is important! If need assistance on setting up, check out techradars article on it: https://www.techradar.com/reviews/tinywall

Features

Non-intrusive operation
TinyWall lets you work while protecting you. No annoying popups and simple configuration.

Lightweight
TinyWall's performance impact is neglible. It barely uses any resources on your computer.

More than your average
Tampering protection, blocklists, temporary firewall rules, UWP-support, boot-time filtering, and many-many more features.

Safe operation
No drivers or kernel-components are installed, which keeps your system stable.

Convenient
Lots of convenience features make TinyWall very easy to use for almost anybody.

No cost
100% free, no ads, no artifical limitations, no upgrades. Also no data-collection and no telemetry behind your back.

PCVGS

Office Suites

Times are changing. In the past you needed to "buy" MS Office to really get anything done. It wasn't bad suite either as it worked very well. But it was expensive. Alternatives existed but they weren't very good. Now though? lots of options and some do not even require to download anything at all and is on "the cloud".

Recommendations:

Microsoft 360 Free
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/free-office-online-for-the-web
Cloud

Get free access to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint using Microsoft 365 for the web (formerly Office).

Google Workspace
https://workspace.google.com/intl/en_ca/?hl=en_ca
Cloud

If you have a gmail account (who doesn't these days?) and frequently on youtube and have a login? Well, that means you have access to Google's Workspace! Workspaces has a very impressive list of applications, all web based, that makes it extremely useful for both personal and even business use. There are premium features locked behind a paywall, but for average user? That isn't required.