Sometimes these sites, even the best of them, become studded with broken links, become overloaded by a zillion people all downloading the latest Starcraft patch, or whatever. You can often do better by visiting the software maker's own web site. But hey, we don't always know who the maker is, or even what program we want, do we? As usual, anything you obtain from these sites (or anywhere else) is done so strictly at your own risk -- I cannot be liable in any way for anything.

This page started as a listing of the bigger shareware sites as maintained by C|Net, ZDNet, and others, but has grown to include specific vendors who offer enough of a variety of utilities, and whose work has been recommended by someone I trust such as Chris Pirillo or Fred Langa. Don't forget to check the little guys out. Oftentimes you can find the best goodies at the smallest and most obscure sites. 

Allen's WinApps List
www.winappslist.com/

Alston Labs (source of robust, proprietory Windows programs, many of which are free for personal use)
www.alstonlabs.com/aslutils.htm

Amic Utilities (nice source of a number of free- and shareware utilities)
www.amicutilities.com/

Anfy Home Page (large source of proprietory Java applets)
www.anfyteam.com/indexen.html

ArcaneWood Products (small site which makes proprietory utilities available on a share- or freeware basis; not updated since 2002)
www.geocities.com/arcanewood/

ArsWare (lots of nice utilities and fun things here)
bcheck.arsware.org/

Best PC Freeware
www.bestpcfreeware.com/

Bill's Software Picks (good share- and freeware site)
www.billssoftwarepicks.com/

BlueChillies (nice download site for free- and shareware utilities)
bluefive.pair.com/

BlueFive software (in-house freeware)
www.bluechillies.com/home/W/

Camtech2000 (excellent site for small, useful utilities and programs of all kinds. A real treasure trove)
camtech2000.com/

Canadian Mind Products Utilities (a site offering a number of small but useful utilities, mostly for free)
mindprod.com/

Club Dr. DOS (unofficial site for DR-DOS, which features a lot of user-friendly and 32-bit features that MS-DOS never bothered to incorporate)
www.drdos.org/

Completely Free Software (excellent source of freeware; now in a members-only format)
www.completelyfreesoftware.com/index_all.html

Dazy Web Labs (lots of free audio utilities)
www.dazyweblabs.com/

Download.com
download.cnet.com/

Dynamic Drive (excellent source of DHTML, JavaScript, and other cut&paste goodies for your Web site)
www.dynamicdrive.com/

Favorites Search (freeware)
www.dzsoft.com/favseek.htm

File Basket
www.filebasket.com/

Freeware Arena
www.freewarearena.org/

Freeware Graveyard (good place to find long-lost freebies)
fwg.raum108.de/

Freeware Guide
www.freeware-guide.com/

Freeware Home
www.freewarehome.com/

Freeware Posse
www.freewareposse.com/

Freeware Revolution (site promoting freeware)
freewarearena.org/html/

Freeware World Team (lots of international software)
www.all4you.dk/FreewareWorld/links.php

FreewareWeb
www.freewareweb.com/

Galt Technology
www.galttech.com/

Games Domain
www.gamesdomain.com/

The Gazette-Downloads (lots of free utilities and games)
members.cox.net/scotterpops/downloads/downloads.html

Gimmefonts (lots of TrueType fonts here)
www.gimmefonts.com/

Happy Puppy Games
happypuppy.com/

HORST Utilities (home of 32 small, DOS-based utilities, many of which can't be found anywhere else)
home.mnet-online.de/horst.muc/horst.htm

Internet Web Archive (thousands of gone-but-not-forgotten Web sites are archived here, and many of the download links work; great source for older drivers, program versions, etc.)
www.archive.org/index.html

ITPro Downloads (formerly FileMine)
itprodownloads.com/

Jason Levine's Toolbox (frequent LangaList contributor with a raft of useful utilities, most of which are free)
www.jasons-toolbox.com/

Jumbo
www.jumbo.com/

Jungo.com (large site for USB, PCI and ISA driver development tools)
www.jungo.com/

KarenWare (VB-based utilities written by Karen Kenworthy)
www.karenware.com/

Major Geeks (fine source of share- and freeware)
www.majorgeeks.com/

Media Horizon Freeware
www.mediahorizon.net/

MediaBuilder
www.mediabuilder.com/

Microsoft Office Free Stuff
office.microsoft.com/default.aspx

MyHQ Free Software
myhq.com/public/f/r/freesoft/

NoBuck$ Freeware
www.nobucksfreeware.com/

Nonags (shareware guaranteed not to nag you into buying or deleting it)
www.nonags.com/

OnlyTheBestFreeware
www.onlythebestfreeware.com/

The Open CD (a ton of free and open-source software, provided in an ISO file that you download and burn to a CD for use)
theopencd.sunsite.dk/

PalmGear HQ (very comprehensive site for goodies for 3Com's PalmPilots)
www.palmgear.com/

Pawsoft (lots of proprietory share- and freeware offerings)
www.pawsoft.co.uk/

PC Magazine (ZDNet)
www.pcmag.com/

PCWin Resource Center
pcwin.com/index.html

r2 Studios (makers of a double fistful of useful utilities, all free)
www.r2.com.au/

Ray's Freeware
members.iinet.net.au/~raysfree/freeware/desktop/desktop.html

Real Estate Software (download free real estate management software)
www.webcontentsolutions.com/software.html

RocketDownload
www.rocketdownload.com/

Shareware.com
www.shareware.com/

Shareware Outlet
sharewareoutlet.com/

Shell Extension City
shellcity.net/

Simtel (huge source of free- and shareware)
www.simtel.net/

Skinnables (source for free- and shareware skins for many popular apps)
www.skinnables.org/

Slaughterhouse
www.slaughterhouse.com/

SoftCrawler (metasearch site for shareware, freeware, etc.; much of its content is in German)
www.www.softcrawler.com/

Softpile (small selection but easily navigable)
www.softpile.com/

Softseek
www.softseek.com/

SoftwareAnalysis (homegrown freeware, many of which are chat and desktop programs)
www.softwareanalysis.com/

ToniArts (distributors of lots of proprietory freebies and shareware)
www.toniarts.com/

Top Quality Freeware
www.topqualityfreeware.com/

Trialware Professional Organization (home to companies that wish to make their wares available to the public for trial)
www.trialware.org/

Tucows (The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software)
www.tucows.com/

Under 1MB (freeware programs under 1 MB in size)
www.under1mb.com/

Usefulprograms
www.usefulprograms.org/

Utility Geek (lots of tools and utilities)
www.utilitygeek.com/

WantDBest
wantdbest.com/

WebAttack (fine source of freeware, but unfortunately has gone to a subscription-based "premium" service that reduces its free services)
www.webattack.com/

WebGrid Freeware
www.webgrid.co.uk/

WinPatrol (free software for Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, NT and XP)
www.winpatrol.com/

Wounded Moon (offers free versions of older programs that went commercial)
woundedmoon.org/win32_freeware.html

Wugnet's Shareware Hall of Fame
www.wugnet.com/shareware/index.html

XTEQ (source of numerous freeware programs for Win 9x)
www.xteq.com/index.html

ZDNet Software Library (formerly HotFiles)
www.zdnet.com/downloads/

Be aware that there are plenty of pirated copies of software out there, not only from swap meets, magazine ads and online (or offline) auction sites, but in stores and online 'ware sites. "Gray market" software (produced legally but sold in violation of a distribution agreement) is also prevalent. Look for certificates of authenticity, and beware of CDs that come without the usual documentation. Especially beware of "too good to be true" prices. And remember -- you might be bilking Microsoft or Adobe out of a few dollars, but you may well be making a donation to La Cosa Nostra. Yup, the Mob has gone high-tech, and is making billions a year from pirated software. Be cool.