Here are my personal picks for the best free Windows software:

Web Browser

• Firefox, plus plug-ins:  Adblock Plus, Better Privacy, Download Statusbar, FireFTP, DownloadHelper.

Music

• iRATE radio, which you’ll find at http://irate.sourceforge.net/. Free Legal Music from around the world with rating system
• Audacity – Edit sound files

For Musicians

• AP Tuner – tune your guitar with your computer’s microphone.
• Weird Metronome – small and flexible tool.

Video

• VLC  media player – views most videos and plays most music without ads.

Security

• TrueCrypt – protect your data in case your laptop is stolen.
• PeerGuardian – block snoopers
• Outpost Firewall 2009 – free personal firewall
• Spybot Search and Destroy – remove spyware
• Avast Anti-virus

Utilities

• 7-zip – expand and compact files, put multiple files into one container for emailing.
• FoxIt Reader – read PDFs without all the Adobe spyware. Are they starting to charge? Is this a trial version? If so, I’ll look for some other free reader.