
Fortunately, there are still programs today that do not require subscriptions, advertising or other annoying things. We’ll show you the user favorites here.
The software world has changed massively in the last 20 years. While in the golden age there were still an incredible number of programs that…
- are completely free
- have no advertising installed
- without any subscription fees
- do not track or analyze the user
- just do what they are supposed to do
This only applies to a few tools today. But they still exist, these gold pieces on the Internet. The Users on Reddit votedand we’ll show you a few of these top downloads.

Blender is a real classic. With the 3D program you can not only create your own models, but also upload and animate finished objects and figures. It is a professional level tool!
One user on Reddit even writes: “In my opinion, it’s probably one of the best applications ever written.” Just try it out yourself:
Piece of gold #2: VLC media player

The VLC media player is simply iconic, and not only that because of the funny logo. The team behind the program has repeatedly resisted advertising and purchase offers – and so this media player remains one of the most popular programs that many users install first on a new PC.
The player is based on another ingenious free tool: FFMPEG. This gives you an open source collection of audio and video codecs that you can use to convert multimedia files to other formats.
The catch: The tool only runs in the command line and does not have a graphical interface itself. Therefore it is not suitable for every user.
Gold piece #3: DaVinci Resolve

Another creative program used by professionals: DaVinci Resolve is a comprehensive video editor that has also been used to edit real Hollywood films such as Avatar, Jason Bourne and Pirates of the Caribbean.
So instead of subscribing to Adobe Premiere and After Effects, you can use this suite completely free. So if you want to delve a little deeper into the topic, you should click here:

Notepad++ is a small but effective program that allows you to open text files. It offers much more features than the editor that comes pre-installed in Windows. The program has been developed by a single person since 2003.
The color highlighting of the individual elements is a real blessing, especially for anyone who works with program code. Who Notepad++ If you don’t have one yet, you should do it quickly, there is also a portable version:
Gold Piece #6: Everything

Windows search is frustrating, even in the latest version of the operating system. Many users have the feeling that they simply cannot find the right content with it.
A user on Reddit said the free alternative Everything as a real lifesaver. The program doesn’t search, it also finds. And much faster than the system’s on-board resources can.
More gold pieces to download

But that’s not all: Internet users are celebrating a whole range of other programs with which a Windows PC can, in principle, be equipped completely free of charge:
- OBS Studio: A reliable screen recorder with streaming function for YouTube and Co.
- LibreOffice: Probably the best free alternative to Microsoft Office.
- GIMP: Powerful Photoshop-style photo editor, but without the modern AI features.
- 7-zip: The undisputed king among archive tools.
- Greenshot: High-performance screenshot program with a wide range of functions.