Welcome!
CleanSoftware.org is a resource to help Windows users find the best free daily-use software, free from nasties: adware, spyware, harmful/intrusive components, and threats to privacy. You might want to bookmark our What‘s New page, updated during changes.
Computers do not have to become slow, unreliable and infested with unwelcome software during the natural course of computing. Simply being careful about what software you install on your computer will have a dramatic impact on the quality of your computing experience.
There is a lot of excellent free software available today. Unfortunately, over the past couple years the Internet has become littered with deceptive and borderline dangerous software. Many "free" programs threaten your privacy; others clutter your computer with intrusive components.
Don‘t settle for software riddled with irritating advertising or harmful spyware. Browse our categories to discover excellent free, clean, software.
This site provides links to excellent daily-use free software that are believed to be free from spyware, adware, or other malicious or intrusive components. As a long time computer user, software developer, and student of Engineering and Computer Science I would not hesistate to use any of these programs myself.
The "clean" software listed in the categories is, to the best of the admin‘s knowledge, free from:
- Adware - aggressive, unwelcome advertising
- Spyware - components that track, record, report your actions
- Data mining - analysis of personal data for marketing purposes
- Parasites - unwelcome, hidden, unexpected components
- Misleading or tricky license agreements
- Threats to personal privacy
- Threats to user/data security
The software must also be free to be listed. From the FAQ:
For the purposes of this site, "free software" is any software that a home/non-commercial user can legitimately use without a time limit and without an obligation to pay or compensate via other commercial means (including advertising, subscriptions, etc). This rules out shareware and leaves most freeware, open source (e.g. licensed under the GNU GPL or BSD license), and some trial/demo software.
