Just to start the ball roling here, a few of the freeware programs i find useful and have reccomended to people. Feel free to add your own.

Any commercial or malware (adware/spyware etc) links will be removed.


Anti-Virus
Grisoft AVG Antivirus
http://free.grisoft.com/
150% better than that certain very well known commercial Antivirus progs.

Graphics program
Irfanview
http://www.irfanview.com/
Great little program, well-regarded, made by a Bosnian student, great for the basics even if you have photoshop.

Media Player
VLC Media Player
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Can play almost any type of video file. Period.

Photo Editor
Paint.NET
http://www.getpaint.net/index2.html
A very capable program offering layers and it costs nowt.

The Gimp
http://www.gimp.org/
Adobe Photoshop replacement that gets better every release.

Office Suite
Open Office
http://www.openoffice.org/
Sun decided to release the source code to Star Office which resulted in Open Office being created. Can open, view and save Microsoft formats for a good few hundred quid less.

Email Client
Mozilla Thunderbird
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
I'm not a fan of Firefox (as you have probably seen!) but Thunderbird is a different thing entirely. Excellent Email client that blows Outlook Express away.

Audio Editor
Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Record, edit and mix your tunes. Surprisingly capable.

Software KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse)
Synergy
http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/
Lets you share a keyboard and mouse between several computers. Works exceptionally well. (if you need that kinda thing!)

Explorer Enhancement/Replacement
WinDirStat
http://windirstat.info/
Gives you a visual representation of the files on your hard drive. Makes it very easy to see where your hard disk space has disappeared.

CD/DVD/Blu-Ray Burner
CDBurnerXP Pro
http://www.cdburnerxp.se/
free utility to burn CD's and DVD's. I prefer this to Nero Pro.

Windows Cleanup
Ccleaner
http://www.ccleaner.com
To safely clean out temporary files, histories and optimise your registry.

Edited by forum moderator spinner, at 21:34 Thu 7/06/07 (BST)

PDF Tools
Foxit Reader
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php
Allows you to view Adobe PDF files without bogging down your system with the slow Adobe Reader.

PDF Creator
PrimoPDF
http://www.primopdf.com/
Lets you create PDF's from pretty much any document.

Useful and Free defragmentor for Vista and XP:

Auslogics Defragmentor:
http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag/

Edited by forum moderator spinner, at 21:37 Mon 3/09/07 (BST)

OpenOffice

http://www.openoffice.org/

multiplatform office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download.

Already there

Nice...

AVG, what a godsend..had 11 threats on my computer, all cleared up now.

3D Graphics Program

http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/3dPlus/key_features.asp

This easy to use software allows you to produce stunning logos, dramatic headlines, and awsome web animations. Packed full of resources and handy templates and wizards, 3DPlus 2 enables anyone to create fantastic 3D scenes and effects in seconds

(I created my User Pic using this software)

Edited at 11:56 Tue 5/06/07 (BST)

This thread has been capped for tidyness.

Feel free to post links and info for any useful software on the forum, when it is verified to be clean and free it will be added to this list.

SpiNNeR...

Google Sketch-up

http://sketchup.google.com/

Nice program with the ability to make 3-D designs. Used for models in Google Earth.

http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/index.html
A vast catalogue of nice little programs that can reduce the complications!

Remote Desktop
----
VNC / TightVNC / RealVNC / other alternatives
-
VNC lets you access your computer from anywhere else, provided it is setup properly.
VNC is really useful because you don't need client software - you can use the built-in Java app from any java-enabled browser accessible via http://{IP}:5600 (I think that's the default port.. I don't remember)


http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=vnc

----
LogMeIn (Free)
-
This program is much more simple - you use the installer to install the program and control the computer via the logmein website, the difference being that there is next to no setup tasks other than running the installer and setting up port forwarding on your router (if applicable).
You can also control who else has access to your machine (they need to signup to log me in first) and they will also need to know your machine's username/password ..

https://secure.logmein.com/product_comparison.asp


Compression
7-zip
7-Zip is open source software
You can use 7-Zip on any computer, including a computer in a commercial organization.
7-Zip is a file archiver with a high compression ratio.
Compression ratio results are very dependent upon the data used for the tests. Usually, 7-Zip compresses to 7z format 30-70% better than to zip format. And 7-Zip compresses to zip format 2-10% better than most of other zip compatible programs.

http://www.7-zip.org/

Firewall
----
COMODO
-
CNET Download.com 5 Star Editor's Rating
"The program provides a smorgasbord of information and options for advanced users, but it's simple enough for beginners, and runs smoothly and silently in the background. The most obvious new features include support for Windows Vista"

Very simple to use
Virtually no performance impact

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/


WAMP
I'm not sure what it stands for, but you basically get an apache server that allows you to run PHP, MySQL etc etc on your own Windows localhost (your own computer)
This saves you bandwidth etc etc and is good for someone just wanting to test stuff on their own machine before going live.

http://www.en.wampserver.com/


Spybot SD
Excellent freeware - a must have for anybody..
Seriously - I strongly urge all to use
http://www.safer-networking.org/

Source: kwah
http://www.funkypool.com/viewTopic.do?topicid=13241

Edited at 11:04 Wed 4/06/08 (BST)