I hardly ever use freeware, since the few (but very important of course) things I do with my computer generally are best done with fully developed programs that offer "real" support.

I do frequently get rave reports about freeware that might be of interest to others.

Although I didn't find anything of interest to me, the latest "Best of" report I got a notice on was at PC Magazine: Best Free Software of 2011.

The source, PC Magazine, has a good reputation, and anything listed has been reviewed by professionals at one or another of their affiliate technical magazines, so you should be able to trust their choices if they look like they'll do something useful to you.

For UK and/or AUS people, a magazine called "PC Advisor" offers a "eurocentric view" that may be more appropriate, but I haven't received any newsletters from them recently that included advice on freeware.

At almost any site for either of the above publishers, one can find places to sign up to receive "email news" that can be informative; but caution is advised since they can flood your inbox with advertising if you sign up for too many things. They both are pretty good at stopping the flow if you let them know they've become annoying.

Probably the most common "free" programs that nearly everyone has are Flash and PDF Reader. These are so ubiquitous that we often forget that they are "freeware."

Flash for some time had a rather poor reputation for failure to issue prompt or effective patches for vulnerabilities that were discovered, and although it's improved some since Adobe bought Macromedia they remain the subject of some "disrepute" in AV circles. Adobe has also been somewhat slow in patching Reader vulnerabilities as they appear, sometimes allowing them to circulate for months before doing anything.

BOTH FLASH AND ADOBE READER have issued CRITICAL updates within the past week. (The Adobe Reader release began Tuesday 19 APR.) If you have automatic updates turned on for them, you might have received one or both of them without noticing, since neither appears to require a reboot; but if you rely on manual updates YOU NEED TO GET these two.

There are indications that the bigger vulnerability for the PDF Reader has as much to do with the PDF document specification as with the program, so it's not clear whether other (especially freeware?) "readers" may need similar patches. If you use another pdf reader program, it might be well to check for updates/new versions soon, and possibly again in a couple of weeks.

John