a few programs:
1. Dvd shrink
2.windows media player 10
3. msn messenger
3. nero
4. internet explorer
5. real player
6. Quicktime Player
7. Firefox
8. divx
9. bearschare
10. flashfxp

1. coppernic desktop search
2. picasso 2
3. zone alarm personal edition
4. AVG antivirus
5. msn/yahoo/skype
6. firefox
7. thunderbird
8. MS anti spy ware (if using xp)
9. open office
10. GIMP
11. image forge
12. winamp
13. winzip (though its a shareware but unlimited use)
14. fresh download
15. httrack website copier (offline browser)
16. windows media player!!
17. Ewisoft Web Builder
18. Direct x9 !!
19. desktop calendar
20. ranish partition manager

for hosting in windows system
Apache
mysql
php
and many more.....

Well, if you bought a new computer, and don't want to buy software, I would recommend the following

1.) AVG Free Antivirus (http://www.grisoft.com)
2.) Lavasoft Ad-Adware Spyware Scanner (http://www.lavasoft.com)
3.) Star Office or Open Office (equivilent to MS Office)
4.) Winzip or Stuffit

And that's all the things I can think of that's very important!

Huh.... Free software.... lolz...
As for me my standard setup for usual PC needs is:

Outpost Firewall Pro (shareware 30 days trial http://www.agnitum.com)

DrWeb Antivirus (1st 30 days free trial http://www.drweb.com)

Total Commander (works like free with one startup window
http://www.ghisler.com)

The Bat! (email agent instead Microsoft Outlook, shareware 30 days trial http://www.ritlabs.com)

Opera 7.xx Browser (it works fine together with Internet Explorer http://www.opera.com)

WinAmp 5.09 for music needs

Nero Burning Rom for CD Burning needs (shareware, free trial http://www.nero.com)

Miranda Instant Messenger (absolutly free http://www.miranda-im.org)

BSPlayer for movies (absolutly free http://www.bsplayer.org)

ACDSee 5.0 (6.0 version sucks.... free trial http://www.acdsee.com)

AI Roboform (it's simple tool for filling webforms with your usual info http://www.roboform.com it's free with limited functions but it's ok for home use )

Dunno how i can live without Adobe Photoshop 7.0 and Adobe Acrobat Reader (not free but useful http://www.adobe.com)

What else?

Options:
1. WinMx for Mp3 searching (free: http://www.winmx.com)
2. Roger Wilco, TeamSpeak client for voice communication via Internet (http://rogerwilco.gamespy.com http://www.goteamspeak.com)
3. Some games like CounterStrike 1.6, Half Life 2 with CounterStrike Source, Unreal Tournament and 100% hit is Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries
4. Some programmers tools like MS Visual Studio .NET and Borland C++ Builder
5. Personal WebServer: I like Apache and Tomcat servers for php and jsp needs

Dunno maybe i forgot somethk but it was my usual setup and i can't live without it

____________________________________________
Keeper, Sons of the Dragon http://mercenaries.net.ru

The free programs you should get that are free are:
1. Lavasoft Ad-Aware
2. Spybot S&B
3. DirectX 9.0c
4. WinXP SP2 (if that didn't come with your copy of WinXP)

The free programs you might want are:
1. ZoneAlarm for a better firewall (I use Windows Firewall )
2. Google Toolbar
3. Windows Media Player 10
4. QuickTime (if you want to play those streaming videos)
5. Real Player
6. HTML-Kit (if you want to make web pages and don't have anything else)
7. Sun Java (not included with WinXP)
8. DivX (if you want to play DivX video files)
9. Instant Messenger (if you want to chat with other people)
10. Adobe Acrobat Reader
11. Anything else you want for free (search free programs on Google or with that Google Toolbar you probably installed )

I agree ad-aware is by far the best for anti-spy ware and is sufficient but if what you have on your computer is very important I recommend paying for it so you can get adwatch and have more options like doing a smart scan in the background on strartup and having it automatically checking the bugs you want to delete for you. I was running ad-aware regularly to keep my computer clean and when I got the special addition that had adwatch my system has satayed clean without me doing anything. Spybot search and destroy and Microsoft anti-spy where are also good to have. AVG free is good for blocking trogen downloads from downloading trogins on you but with the latest upgrade of nortin I got rid of the trogen downloader’s on my computer. So you as a minimum get the free programs to take care of spyware but given the price you pay for your computer or to have it fixed I think paying for better protection is well worth the money.

On other programs, thanks for telling me about GIMP. Did anyone post the link or will I have to go look for it. There is also good free mathematical software like octave and maxima but I don’t know if anyone is into that here. Since this is a web development site you might want to download apache for testing web scripts.

I was only wondering ... if we are talking about freeware and my microsoft ... lets just move the entire thing onto LINUX The Ultimate In Freeware.

And Everything Listed On This Topic is Available For Linux Also.

Think About It.

Cheers

DirectX, Some anti-virus dunno what i recommend is Kaspeyski... find it free there are millions of copies... Quick Time is important, if you want to watch movies on the internet.... tbh there are millions of free programs u can use for free... just go to www.download.com & search for a program & download whatever it says freeware probably not cool.. programs but wuteva

well, when you ask "Free" software pleasse tell us what type of "Free" do you mean. There's free as in no charge or free as in freedom.

Some softwares you might consider are: GIMP over Photoshop, OpenOffice versus Microsoft Office or even better, Linux or BSD over Windows.

xboxrulz