Free Antivirus Software:

1. Avira AntiVir - one of the best free antivirus programs.
2. AVG Free - solid antivirus program. I use it on my PC.
3. Avast - recommended antivirus program. Home version is free.

Antispyware programs:

1. Spybot Search & Destroy - slow, but detailed scanner.
2. Ad-Aware - a well-known and decent spyware remover.
3. Spyware Doctor - recommended by PC Magazine and PC World.
4. Spyware Terminator - one of my favorite antispyware programs.
5. Super AntiSpyware - many PC users swear this is the best antispyware program.

Media players:

1. VLC Player - This media player will play anything.
2. Divx for Windows - for all your divx videos.
3. BS Player - very nice player with some useful features.
4. Winamp - I use this for music, but it plays videos too.

File Sharing programs:

1. Emule - great p2p program but beware of copyright infringement.
2. Limewire - good replacement for Napster and Kazaa.
3. Bittorrent - for torrent files.

Other software

1. Winrar - for all zipped files.
2. Firefox browser - a great browser, just es good as Explorer.
3. Adobe Reader - for all your pdf files.
4. OpenOffice - free office software suite.
5. CCleaner - useful software to remove unnecessary stuff from your PC and clean the registry.