EditPad: text editor (makes Notepad look like rubbish) http://www.editpadlite.com/
Firefox: browser http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
Thunderbird: email program http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/
Irfanview: graphics (excellent to use for quick photo viewing) http://www.irfanview.com/
Namexif: photography (batch rename photos) http://www.digicamsoft.com/softnamexif.html
Gimp: graphics editor http://www.gimp.org/
OpenOffice: free MS Office replacement (works great, too) http://www.openoffice.org/
Audacity: sound editor http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
ImgBurn: CD/DVD/iso burner http://www.imgburn.com/
Quintessential Player (QCD): sound/mp3/CD player/ripper http://www.quinnware.com/
SuperC: excellent video/sound converter, does all formats http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html
VideoLAN (VLC): replacement for Windows Media Player http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
FileZilla: ftp client (also server available) http://filezilla-project.org/
Networx: bandwidth usage/speed monitor http://www.softperfect.com/products/networx/
Universal Extractor: extracts files from zips, rars, isos even installer exe files http://legroom.net/software/uniextract
Process Explorer: excellent tool shows (and kills) any process within windows, dll threads, etc http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 96653.aspx
TCPView: tells you what active network connections are on your machine http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 97437.aspx
Autoruns: tells you (and lets you stop) things that start up when the computer boots http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 63902.aspx
CDCheck: recovers data from damaged CDs/DVDs http://www.kvipu.com/CDCheck/
ADRC Data Recovery Tools: recovers data from bad drives, USB & flash cards http://www.adrc.com/software/data_recovery_tools/
Avast: anti-virus software, html blocking & auto update, http://www.avast.com/
Paint.net - http://www.getpaint.net/ - The only times I use GIMP is to extract mask layers from templates and to plug finished skins back into them, partly because I find GIMP's controls to be very clunky in comparison to P.net.
CamStudio (2.0) - http://camstudio.org/ - Quite a simple program for what it does... Captures what's on the screen and records it flawlessly... Gotta keep the FPS above 55 or you may experience audio desync (dunno if the 2.6b software helps or not)
Unlocker: http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/ When you get the message that this file is being used by another application (mainly when you want to delete it).
FLV Player: http://martijndevisser.com/blog/flv-player/ Does what it says.
MediaInfo: http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en Gives technical and tag information on video and audio files.
Revo Uninstaller: http://www.revouninstaller.com/ Uninstalls programs as well as searches the registry and files system for left over files. < I use this one a lot.
Malwarebytes: http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php A great secondary virus scan tool. I use this one as a passive compliment to Avast!