Web Browsers 

Internet Explorer isn't the only game in town

Mozilla Firefox

The award-winning Web browser is better than ever. Browse the Web with confidence - Firefox protects you from viruses, spyware and pop-ups. Enjoy improvements to performance, ease of use and privacy.

Opera

Opera includes pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, integrated searches, and advanced functions like Opera's groundbreaking E-mail program, RSS Newsfeeds and IRC chat.

K-Meleon

K-Meleon is a fast and customizable lightweight web browser for Windows, based on the rendering engine of Mozilla.

Compression Utilities 

Deal with ZIP/RAR/7Z/ACE/etc. files

TUGZip

TUGZip is a powerful award-winning freeware archiving utility for Windows that provides support for a wide range of compressed archives.

7-Zip

7-Zip uses a Windows Explorer-like interface to allow you to access compressed files in many formats, including its own .7z format based off the LZMA compression algorithm.

FilZip

If you've been using WinZip, you'll find a lot of similarities with FilZip... except the price tag.

Word Processing 

Because MS-Office is *expensive*

OpenOffice.org: The Open Office Suite

A free office suite that includes the key desktop applications, such as a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program.

AbiWord

AbiWord is a free word processing program similar to Word, but much smaller and faster. It may not have all the advanced features, but it is more than robust enough for the average person's needs.

Text Editors 

Meet Notepad's big brothers

Crimson Editor

Crimson Editor is a powerful editor with syntax highlighting, multiple document interface, internal FTP client, all sorts of text manipulation shortcuts, and pretty small application size to boot!

SciTE

SciTE is a SCIntilla based Text Editor. Originally built to demonstrate Scintilla, it has grown to be a generally useful editor with facilities for building and running programs.

Notepad2

Notepad2 is a small, fast and free text editor with syntax highlighting for HTML and other common languages.

Media Players 

Play music, movies, and more

K-Lite Codec Pack

K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of media codecs and related tools. The K-Lite Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your music and movie files. In addition, it comes with Media Player Classic, which is one of the best all-around media players you can get for free.

Billy Music Player

Billy is a lightweight, no-nonsense audio player that allows you to quickly play an entire directory of MP3, OGG, and WAV files.

Fusion

Fusion is a small media player that plays DVD, DIVX, XVID, MPEG, WMV, MP3, WMA, WAV or MID, with skin and visualization plugin support. It also supports recording of streaming content directly to the harddisk.

Image Editors 

Not everyone can afford Photoshop

Paint.NET

Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or Server 2003. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

Pixia

Pixia is a painting and retouch software for full-color graphics. It supports mask, layer, and many other editing functions. Its user-friendly interface is suitable for beginners as well as experts.

The GIMP

The GIMP offers a ton of features, including advanced layer support, masks, filters, effects, and many other features found in professional graphics programs.

FTP Clients 

Upload and download files

FileZilla

FileZilla is a fast and reliable FTP client and server with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface.

i.FTP

i.FTP is a little graphical FTP/SFTP client, which does everything you need from an FTP client without the size and fuss.

LeechFTP

LeechFTP is a freeware, multi-threaded FTP client for Windows.

Web Page Builders 

Join the revolution and build your own site!

Thingamablog

If you want to join the blogging craze, but don't have a host that allows scripting, or you just don't want to deal with the hassle of setting up scripts and databases, Thingamablog may be the solution.

Nvu

Nvu is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and WYSIWYG editing. Nvu is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-geek computer users who want to create a site without having to know HTML or web coding. Think of it as a free version of FrontPage, only better.

HTML-Kit

If, however, you know HTML and like to get down-and-dirty with the code, you'll find HTML-Kit a great software to speed up your programming. Code generation wizards and shortcuts make web development much faster.

Security Tools 

Because too many jerks have too much free time

AntiVir Personal Edition Classic

Free download of a leading anti-virus software package. Well-suited for Windows XP, 2000, NT, 98, and ME. It detects over 250,000 viruses, and includes a resident monitor, desktop program, and an automatic update program.

Spybot - Search & Destroy

Keep adware and spyware from hogging your system resources and violating your privacy by running Spybot S&D 2-3 times a week. Its aggressive nature gets all the potentially harmful programs off your system.

ClamWin Free Anti-Virus

ClamWin is a free, open-source anti-virus for Windows. It provides a graphical user interface to the Clam Anti-Virus scanning engine.

New Freeware 

Announcements on new and updated freeware

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Great Stuff on Amazon 

Freeware Encryption and Security Programs: Protecting Your Computer and Your Privacy

by: Michael Chesbro

Amazon Price: $20.00 (as of 11/22/2008)

Web Wizard's Guide to Freeware and Shareware

by: Wendy Lehnert

Amazon Price: $31.60 (as of 11/22/2008)

A User's Guide: Shareware, Freeware, and Public Domain Software

by: Bruce Jackson

Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)

Programas Freeware/The Bet Freeware

by: Fabian Argento

Amazon Price: $6.95 (as of 11/22/2008)

Unix Shareware and Freeware

by: Kevin Reichard

Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)