How to install spyware-free Windows apps using Ninite

Best Ninite applications

Ninite has more than 80 applications available, but you’ll only need a fraction of these for your PC. Below we’ve hand-picked our favourite free software so you won’t have to spend a penny.

Web browsers

The first program you’ll want when you get your new PC is a web browser to replace Internet Explorer. Ninite gives you the choice between Google Chrome, Opera and Mozilla Firefox. Chrome has its quirks, but its integration with Google’s products and services makes it hard to resist. Mozilla Firefox has improved a lot in recent years and is very speedy, and you get peace of mind that this not-for-profit foundation isn’t trying to sell you anything. If you don’t see what you want on the list, or want to try something different, check out our list of alternative browsers.

Documents

LibreOffice is an easy-to-use, open-source productivity suite. If you’re not an advanced user you’ll find all the features you could want from its Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math and Base applications. Even better, it supports the latest Microsoft Office formats so you won’t have to convert any files before you open them.

If you want to take quick notes or dabble in a bit of programming, Notepad++ is a sound addition to your list of Ninite downloads. It supports programming languages from C to HTML and pretty much everything in between, and you can easily test your creations by launching them straight from Notepad++ in a couple of clicks.

Adobe Reader has improved hugely in recent years and is now the best way to open, fill in and digitally sign PDF files without the need to print them. The only thing it now lacks is a conversion tool; but isn’t a huge problem because you can also install CutePDF, which installs itself as a printer on your system so you can can “print to PDF”,  turning any of your documents into PDF files in a couple of clicks.

Security

Avast Anti Virus has long been our favourite free security suite. This is thanks to its simple design, unintrusive behaviour and small system footprint. Even better, it mixes it with the best of the premium anti-virus suites in our quarterly security tests, making it the best way to secure your system on the cheap. Ninite doesn’t support paid-for security apps, but our best internet security software round-up will show you what’s best.

Cloud storage

You get a choice of six Cloud storage services on Ninite. Google Drive and OneDrive came out on top in our most recent Cloud storage group test (Shopper 319, September 2014) thanks to generous free storage options and their ease of use. You should also consider SugarSync, which is a paid-for service costing from £7 a month that lets you keep multiple folders across all your PCs in sync. Of course, there’s also the most popular service, Dropbox.

Photos and multimedia

VLC is great if you have an extensive collection of video files in all sorts of wacky formats, VLC is the one piece of software you need. With built-in codecs for many of the video files Windows Media Player can’t handle, it’s a must-have. To make sure you can play any file in any other app, we recommend the K-Lite Codecs.