Open source software

moonrakerz

Thunderbird
Sygate
Gadwin Print Screen
CCleaner
EZBackitup
Google Earth

superscaper

One of the best uses of Open Source and being free I can think of is TrueCrypt. Being open source means that there's no hidden back doors that commercial equivalents put into their encryption programs.

ZootHornRollo

GIMP as a replacement for photoshop/paintshop etc http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html

and Ubuntu Linux as a replacement for Windows http://www.ubuntu.com/

are my favourate free softwares.

chris667

This list is a good idea but I have a couple of suggestions:
1. We stick to Windows, and perhaps have another thread for Linux/Mac/whatever. Saves confusion.
2. We don't post direct links, as it provides an opportunity to deploy malicious code. People trust this forum, and we have to assume people reading this thread have no knowledge of computers and do not have their machine secured or understand the risks. The best way to find anything here is by searching for it.
I don't really do Windows anymore, my knowledge is probably out of date. But with this in mind, I like these:
There's an open source OS that's compatible with Windows! It's called ReactOS, and is promising, but sadly it's only got to alpha release so far. Still, from little acorns...
For spyware detection, try Spybot S&D, from Safer Networking. Whole computer repair businesses have been based around this!
I think Openoffice is excellent, but it has more features than most people need, and can be a bit ploddy on a slower computer. Try Abiword. It's open source, easier to learn, and a windows version is maintained from their website.
If you are plagued by spam, take a look at Pegasus email. It's been around a long time (I was using Pegasus Mail for DOS once upon a time!) and looks a bit dated now, but it still has brilliant mail filtering.