AVG Anti-virus: AVG (compared to Norton) is a real good alternative which is free and does not tax the system as much as Norton does. The latest version of AVG also comes with several new features such as Anti- spyware, Anti-rootkit and more.
CCleaner: A cleaning robot for the computer, which is smart enough to know which places to look for unwanted files (e.g. temporary files) and traces. CCleaner can also cleanup several applications along cleaning temporary and unwanted files created by Windows.
Recuva: To recover deleted files, Recuva is one of the best free and reliable alternative that is available today.
Miro: Allows to convert PC into a Internet TV and watch any Internet video channels. YouTube videos and almost any type of files including HD videos can also be played.
Audacity: One of the best free tools available for audio editing and recording for several operating systems. Live audio recording, tapes conversion into digital recordings, cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together and more can be done.
Notepad++: Not just a mere notepad replacement, but allows modification of several file types and supports additional features like auto complete.
Handbrake: A DVD Ripper that rips DVD files and convert them to MPEG-4 format for Mac OS, Linux and Windows.
Foxit PDF Reader: Best alternative to the Adobe PDF reader.
7Zip: Best open source software to manage several types of archives.
xPlorer2 Lite: Very handy utility when it comes to managing files in Windows. The tabbed interface saves you lot of times and hassles simplifying the task of managing files.
Launchy: Open Source software for Windows similar to QuickSilver.
Windows Live Writer: Offline Blog Writer. Manage multiple weblogs and post to them with ease, save drafts online and offline, edit images, etc.
