Software Recommendations:

I have used these free programs for years and find them to be very valuable, useful and in all ways worth recommending.

Belarc Advisor:
This program helps you view and print a fairly exaustive list, essentially giving an audit of the setup and programs on your computer.  (http://www.belarc.com/ba5.html?B)

Filezilla:
A free, high quality FTP program for accessing file servers over the internet.  (http://filezilla-project.org)

Firefox:
You've probably heard of, or may even use, the internet browser, Mozilla Firefox, but did you know that some of the best things about Firefox (FF) are the add-ons?  Mozilla has taken a huge step in usefulness by opening the source code of their programs to allow users to write additional programs to use with it.  One of my favorite add-ons is an ad-blocker that allows me to turn off the advertisements on most websites I use.  This is a huge help in simplifying my internet browsing!  There are additional add-ons or plugins like the Dictionary plug-in that lets you look up a word by typing it into the browser search bar.  If you click on the links below, you can install the programs into your Firefox program.  (http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/central/ )
    Add-ons:
        Adblock Plus 1.1.1  - Let's you block ads and inappropriate content on many websites you view
        Fission 1.0.9  - Uses your address bar to show your page download status.
        FoxTab 1.2 - Visually appealing way to switch between open tabs
        Hyperwords 5.6.1 - Allows user to look up/highlight/translate text just by highlighting and selecting the right languages
        Password Exporter 1.2 - Great tool for backing up stored passwords
        Verizon Minutes Used 2.0 - Helpful tool for keeping tabs on your Verizon minutes used
        Webster's Dictionary Search Engine - Lets you look up words without navigating away from your page to do it.

Font Explorer:
Graphic designers and desktop publishers alike will appreciate this program that lets you type in your own phrase to be previewed in any font installed on your computer.  (http://www.moonsoftware.com/?ref=fxfull)

The Gimp:
The Gimp is similar to Adobe Photoshop, a high quality image production, editing and manipulation program.  This is useful to combine with inkscape as needed and it can even incorporate Adobe Photoshop brushes to make it an even more powerful tool.  (http://www.gimp.org/)

Inkscape:
This program is similar to Adobe Illustrator and is useful for high quality vector art, photo re-tracing, font tricks and quick sketching.  Basically, this is about 5000x better than MS Paint.  (http://www.inkscape.org)

TreeSize Free:
If you're anything like me, your computer gets filled with files in all sorts of places.  This tool helps you know the state of your hard drive: how much free space you have, where large files are placed, etc.  I've found this very helpful on the rare occasion that I remember to clean up my computer.  (http://www.jam-software.com/)

VLC Media Player
A great alternative to Windows Media Player (especially for those of us who lost our DVD-playing capabilities with an upgrade to Vista).  This little program plays your music, video files, DVDs and will even convert between various filetypes for greater utility and versatility.  (http://www.videolan.org/)