All of the software on this list is either shareware or freeware.
Freeware is 100% free, forever, and never asks you to register or pay. Shareware is free, but may limit your features or nag you to register/pay in time.
If you find a peice of free software useful, register it or send the author a donation to help keep it free, and keep the new features/updates coming.

Credits go to SanitariuM's website for the contents and recommendations in this page.

Burning

Graphics

  • Irfanview This is a light-weight program for most of your photo viewing needs. Features : View, Optimize, Scan and Print, Create Slideshows, Batch Processing, and more. Set this as your default photo viewing application.
  • GIMP GIMP is a professional level image editing program, similar to Photoshop. Make sure you do not set it as default photo viewing application.
  • Blender

Internet

Multimedia

  • VLC Media Player This program plays ALL video file types without the need for codecs. Make this your default application for video files when installation asks you, but not for audio files. VLC is also capable of streaming audio and video on your home network.
  • Winamp "It really whips the llama's ass." - Winamp's slogan. Great library design, awesome visualizations, and thousands of free audio/video streams. Make this your default application for audio files, but not for video files.
  • TuxGuitar This program is truly a musician's best friend. It is essentially a free version/clone of an expensive program called GuitarPro. TuxGuitar will open .gp3 and .gp4 tablature as well as normal .tab and .txt tabs. Not only does it display the tablature and sheet music on your screen, but there is a PLAY button. Music is played through Java's midi soundbanks and the speed is adjustable for learning. Don't let the name fool you, this program is good for guitarists, bassists, drummers, and more.

Office

  • OpenOffice.org OpenOffice is the result of over 20 years of software engineering. It is easy to learn, and very similar to other programs you've used in the past. It is open-source, meaning it is free and will always be free. Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Graphics, Databases, Drawing, and more!
  • AbiWord AbiWord is a word processing application similar to MS Word. Use this if you do not want an entire office suite.
  • Rainlendar Lite Rainlendar is a small, yet extremely useful calendar program that sits on your desktop. It can keep track of all your important dates, events, and even a to-do list. This program is great... everyone should have it on their desktop (and laptop!)
  • Moffsoft FreeCalc FreeCalc is a replacement for your built-in calculator program.  It's best feature is a savable/printable tape to keep records of your calculations. With this there's no need to buy an adding machine!
  • FoxIt PDF Reader

Protection & Security

  • Avira AntiVir Personal This is, in my opinion, the best and most effective anti-virus program available. Not only is it the best, it's also FREE for personal use. Don't believe it? Have a look for yourself --> Independent Test Results. Many other anti-virus programs are bulky, and consume alot of your system's resources. Last I checked, Avira runs only 2 processes on your computer. I have seen protection suites that run as many as 17 processes! While I do recommend that you use the free version, if you like this program, and it does its' job well... register it it to help keep it the best, and free. Registration provides you with their great anti-spyware protection as well. Until then, make sure you check out the 3 anti-spyware programs below.
  • Avast Anti-Virus Home
  • AVG Anti-Virus Free
  • SpywareBlaster This program doesn't remove spyware, it prevents the spyware being installed in the first place. It works great, your spyware removal scans will come up clean aside from a few MRU lists (browsing history). As it's a free program, you do have to manually update it (very easy, 2 clicks). Register it for automatic updates. Make sure to update it about once a week, and 'enable all protections'.
  • Spybot - Search and Destroy
  • AdAware

Tools & Utilities

  • Crap Cleaner (CCleaner) CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!
  • Startup Control Panel
  • HijackThis
  • AutoRuns
  • Win XP TweakUI
  • UltraDefrag UltraDefrag is a powerful disk defragmentation tool for Windows. It is the first open source defragmenter with full support of system locked files defragmentation. Actually all files including registry hives and paging file can be processed by UltraDefrag during the Windows boot process. Also one of the primary goals of the UltraDefrag design is doing the job as fast as possible. UltraDefrag is fully compatible with Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and all of the 64-bit editions of Windows.
  • TeamViewer TeamViewer establishes connections to any PC or server all around the world within just a few seconds. You can remote control your partner's PC as if you were sitting right in front of it.