Which programs are safe to use on a work PC
Some programs labelled "free" are licensed the moment you use them at work. These are the ones that turn up in software audits.
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Contents
Why this happens
A good number of widely used free programs are "free for personal use, licensed for companies and public institutions". The problem is that the condition is not prominent during installation. People install at work what they use at home, and it surfaces later in a software asset audit — usually with a demand to buy retroactively.
This site records the licence scope for every program and badges the personal-use-only ones. Below are the entries, out of the 110 listed, that need a licence on a work PC.
Programs that need a licence at work
- ALZip
- Free for individuals · licensed for companies and public institutions. The single most common finding in Korea.
- ALYac
- Free for individuals · licensed for companies. Businesses need the separate enterprise product.
- ALPDF
- Free for individuals · licensed for companies and public institutions.
- ALCapture
- Free for individuals · licensed for companies and public institutions.
- V3 Lite
- Free for individuals · a company needs AhnLab’s business product.
- IrfanView
- Free for personal and educational use · licensed for business. Widely assumed to be simply free, so easily missed.
- AnyDesk
- Free for personal use · licensed for work. Sessions get cut once commercial use is detected.
- TeamViewer
- Free for personal use · licensed for work. Sessions end after a few minutes with a prompt to upgrade.
- oCam
- Free for personal use · companies, schools, public bodies, academies and internet cafés must buy. Widely described as a free recorder, which is how it slips through.
- Recuva
- Free for household use only · the EULA excludes businesses, public bodies and schools outright. It catches you when a file needs recovering on a work PC.
What to use instead
All of these are either free for companies as well or open source, so there is nothing to check before installing at work.
- Archiving
- 7-Zip (open source) or Bandizip — unusually, Bandizip is free for businesses too.
- Reading PDFs
- SumatraPDF (open source) or Acrobat Reader — reading and signing are free.
- Editing PDFs
- PDF24 (free for personal and business use) or ONLYOFFICE.
- Antivirus
- Microsoft Defender, included with Windows. No installation, no cost.
- Remote desktop
- RustDesk (AGPL open source) — no cost even for business use.
- Screen capture
- ShareX (GPL open source) — it does scrolling capture and screen recording, and it is free commercially. For light use the built-in Windows tool (Win+Shift+S) is enough.
- Screen recording
- OBS Studio (GPL open source) — no time limit, no watermark. For a short screen clip, ShareX also does it.
- File recovery
- PhotoRec / TestDisk (GPL open source) — free for business too. The interface is old-fashioned, but you just work through it in order.
- Image viewer
- Honeyview (free for personal and business use) or the built-in Photos app.
- Office suite
- ONLYOFFICE or LibreOffice — both open source, with no licence cost to deploy.
To get them all at once
The "Work PC" install template contains only programs whose licences permit business use. Personal-use-only programs are excluded entirely.
How to check for yourself
- On this site, look at the "Licence terms" row and the "Personal use only" badge on each program page. The basis for the judgement and the date it was checked are recorded alongside.
- On the vendor’s site, open the EULA or terms and search for "commercial", "business" or "enterprise" — the relevant clause is usually right there.
- When in doubt, ask your IT or information security team. The company may already hold a volume licence.
Common questions
Does this apply to my personal PC when working from home?
Usually yes. Licences typically turn on the purpose of use rather than who owns the machine. If the terms say "commercial purposes", using your home PC for work falls under that.
What about freelancers and sole traders?
Using it to earn income is generally treated as commercial use. Terms vary by product, and some do carve out an exception for very small operations — check the specific terms.
What about schools and research labs?
Some products have a separate free-for-education clause; IrfanView is one. Others group public institutions with businesses, which can catch state schools. It depends on the product.
It is already installed on a work PC — now what?
Removing it and moving to an alternative is the simplest route. If it is deployed across several machines, tell your IT team. Cleaning up in advance costs far less than being found in an audit.
Why is "free" this complicated?
The model is to build recognition through personal users and earn revenue from companies. The problem is that the boundary is barely visible during installation — which is why this site records the licence scope for every program separately.
Start from the Work PC set
It contains only programs whose licences permit business use.
Open the Work PC template