Which free software did Computeractivereaders download the most in 2023? Robert Irvine reveals your 20 most popular programs and how to master them all
Over the course of a year, we recommend hundreds of free programs in Computeractive, across our features, workshops, tips pages and Best Free Software section. Although we test all this software to ensure it’s safe, works as promised and deserves your attention, some tools inevitably prove more popular than others.
We’re able to gauge this popularity through our Snipca service. Not only does this shorten long web addresses to make them easier for you to type (and save space on the page), but it also lets us see how many times a URL has been visited. We can then see which programs have received the most clicks – or taps, if you’re reading our digital edition – and devote more coverage to them and similar software in future. After all, there’s little point writing a workshop about a tool that readers clearly have no interest in.
In this feature – thanks to these Snipca links – we can exclusively reveal your favourite free software of 2023. Your top 20 most downloaded programs are an eclectic mix of tools for enhancing your Windows and web experience, which combine familiar names with others we’d never covered before last year.
Here, we present your most-loved software in order of popularity and provide expert tips to help you master each program in 2024.
BUY OUR 2023 BACK ISSUE CD AND USB STICK
You can read every feature, workshop and review referred to in this feature on our new 2023 Back Issue CD and USB Stick. These contain searchable PDFs of all 26 issues from 2023 to give you one-click access to all our recommendations and advice.
You’ll be able to order the Back Issues CD and the USB stick soon from www.snipca.com/48691.
YOUR FAVOURITE PROGRAM OF 2023…
1FixWin
www.snipca.com/47803
FixWin was your favourite program of 2023 by a considerable margin, after we made it the focus of our ‘Never pay for PC repairs’ Cover Feature in Issue 669 (pictured far right, get it from www. snipca.com/48456). Created by Anand Khanse, the webmaster of PC-help site The Windows Club (www. thewindowsclub.com), this powerful free system tool performs more than 100 complex commands and registry tweaks with one click. Although the latest version is called FixWin 11, it also works in Windows 10, or you can download Fix
