The best free software.

[mole973102]

http://www.openoffice.org/ - Microsoft compatible office suite
http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/ - Mail client
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/2313
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3366
http://www.primopdf.com/ - Make PDF files from Word.
http://www.getpaint.net/ - Paint program

http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/download.html - Rip audio.
http://jthz.com/~lame/ - add this DLL to the directory.

http://www.aoamedia.com/audioextractor.htm - Rip FLV audio.

http://beginwithsoftware.com/videoguide ... stool.html - Join VOB files.

http://mp3tag.de/en/index.html - Fix music tags in MP3 and iTunes. Excellent.

http://www.cfs-technologies.com/home/ - Make your PC speak. Rubbish, but fun.

http://www.imgburn.com/ - Burn images.

http://www.7-zip.org/ - Free zip & rar management.
(I tend to use WinRAR, but this is free!)

http://www.netdrive.net/ - This is superb for updating your website, makes mine so much easier.

http://www.eskiso.net/programs.htm - Excellent for adding Fonts. Windows is horrible.
http://www.ampsoft.net/utilities/FontViewer.php - See what Fonts look like.

http://www.scalabium.com/showpw.htm - Can get you out of a jam.

[mole973102]

http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ - Get the Flash player.
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html - Get Adobe Acrobat Reader.
http://www.ccleaner.com/ - Clean History etc.
http://www.7-zip.org/ - Zip and Rar management.
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm - Stop advertisements in your browser.
http://www.iobit.com/ - Defrag Windows.
http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp - Get Sun Java latest for IE.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=75078 - A nice theme for XP once you change the background to something else.

http://www.vuze.com/ - My favourite torrent downloader. Allows to just download a section rather than the whole lot, plus it has nice graphs to show speeds etc.

http://www.xp-antispy.org/ - Windows tweaks - don't use so much now.

[mole973102]

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
Upgrade IE 8 to allow for ten simultaneous downloads!
Copyright ©2009 The Mole

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]

"MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server"=dword:0000000a
"MaxConnectionsPerServer"=dword:0000000a
-----------
Allows for 10 connections.

[mole973102]

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
Restores a missing 'Microsoft Internet Explorer 8' desktop icon!
Copyright ©2009 The Mole

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\ClassicStartMenu]
"{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel]
"{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}"=dword:00000000
-----------
Adds the Internet Explorer 7/8 icon to the desktop in Vista and XP if it is missing.

[mole973102]

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
Disable Windows Messenger 4.7.3000, 4.7.3001, 5.1.0701
Copyright ©2009 The Mole

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Messenger\Client]
"PreventRun"=dword:00000001
------------
Disable Windows Messenger 4.7.3001 etc from loading. Ideal if using Windows Live Messenger.

[mole973102]

Useful shortcuts
-------------------
%windir%\system32\control.exe userpasswords2 - Allow XP to not ask for User.

%windir%\system32\shutdown.exe -f -s -t 0 - Windows XP will nearly always shutdown. Forces a shutdown.

[Glenny4]

I would say the best for all of us to have is ccleaner. On every restart it gets rid of the junk without you doing i thing...you can't beat that http://www.ccleaner.com/

[Dave the Dog]

http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

A program that shows the size of every folder in windows and is much easier to navigate. This is a nice way to find and delete files you don't use anymore, as well as duplicates.