I know there are tons of software pages out there and you are probably wondering what makes me think this one is better than the others, right? Well, the answer is: Nothing. I simply wanted to add my 2 bits and, quite honestly, give myself a place to check after I wipe my computer to make sure I did not miss any of the more obscure things I happen to install.

Antivirus/Spyware/Security/Utils: Ok, so maybe I handle my computer's protection a little differently, but I feel it is better to be safe that sorry. I have a small collection of freeware that I use and recommend that I run.

• Microsoft Security Essentials: Dropped AVG after a long time of use for this one.
• SpyBot S & D: Another happy spyware remover I use.
• CCleaner: "PC Optimization tool" ie, it cleans up useless crap and does some fixes to the registry.

Internet Programs: Three of my four most used programs fall under this category: Opera, Trillian, and PuTTY. Most of my time at the computer is spent on the net, and all the programs I use to play around on the net are free.

• Opera: My web browser of choice. I don't think I glorify this program enough.
• FireFox and Chrome: Both great browsers, and part of my typical install.
• FileZilla: Filezilla is a multithreaded ftp and scp client. It is easy to use and lets you know just what it is doing.
• uTorrent: Bittorrent is one of the cooler advances in filesharing, and this is a really good client for it.
• PuTTY: This is a very tiny ssh client. All the editing and toying I do to the code on this site is done with it.
• Bandwidth Test: Ok, not something you install, but I hate having to look for these to test my connection when it is acting flacky.
• Tor: Tor is anonymity software. I started using it hardcore at work to bypass the firewalls so I could look up infor about products for customers, and have been using it on and off ever since.

Sound/Video: I like noise. When I am working I think it helps me concentrate when I have music or a familiar movie going. Oddly, I am big on Windows Media Player, which comes free with Windows for watching movies, so I won't bother with a link. But since it can't do everything, I have some other stuff as well. If you only get one of these though, get the KLite Codec Pack. It lets Windows Media Player play damn near anything. I am also tossing in some ripping and converting software for the first time.

• foobar2k: I love the simplicity and small footprint of foobar.
• Audacity: This is a nice, functional audio editor. There are a number of plugins and encoders that can go along with it (I use the LAME mp3 encoder). I normally use this program to chop up mp3s to make ringtones.
• Handbreak: Used for Ripping DVDs and converting video types. Much like my thoughts on audio CDs, I would rather rip my DVDs to a digital format that walk in the other room and grab the disk.
• Quick Media Conveter: I don't use this often, but on occasion I need to go from one format something else won't read to something my other programs will read. Also a nice one step from going from Flash video to mp3.
• Media Browser: This is an addon for Windows Media Center, but it makes a sweet little guide for all the media on your computer.
• Codecs
  • KLite Codec Pack: This is a collection of codes for both audio and video that will allow you to play all kinds of media files on your computer. It has nearly all the popular formats used today and some fairly obscure ones that are much older.
  • Quicktime Alternative: Quicktime is everywhere, and it should be. Quicktime is one of the few proprietary formats that I respect, but I hate the player. The player reminds me of the stereotypical saleclerk at a huge shopping center. Sure with a little prodding you can get it to do its job, but you feel some level of contempt towards you when you do.
  • Real Alternative: I hate Real player, and while it is getting better (slowly), I still prefer not to use it. But everyonce in awhile I find something in a format only it handles so I keep this around to play them.

Image viewing/creating/editing: This is an area where I struggle. I love Adobe Photoshop. It is one of the first programs I install when I reformat my computer, and there are times when I spend 6-7 hour behind it without thinking about food/drink/wife/etc. There are some free alternatives that I have installed, and I will list them here, but damnit, I need Photoshop. With any luck I will have the CS suite early next year.

• FastStone Image Viewer: This is one of the two best image viewers I have ever used. The other being ACDSee classic. But this one if free, which makes it cooler. Damien introduced me to this one.
• Paint.net: I hate to call this an MS Paint replacement, even though that is where it got its roots. I don't have this installed anymore. I have Photoshop and that is all I need. However, this program does in fact rock, it is free, and it is easy to use.
• ArtRage: This is the closest thing to actual painting I have seen on the computer. I also find it works better as a drawing program with my Wacom than any other program I have used.

Misc Stuff: Ok, these don't really fall into a classification so I am tossing them in here. And as programs are added/removed from my lineup, this section will probably change the most.

• Notepad++: I always wondered why people use replacements for Notepad. I mean, it is the one program Microsoft just nailed...of course, how could you mess up a text editor? My only issue would come in when I was viewing/editing something that had unix carriage returns. Every place a new line should have began there was this little box and it would continue on the same line...and I would get annoyed at the amount of time I would fix the file before getting to what I wanted to do. This led me to go looking. Of all I have tried, I am most comfortable with this one, but I am still looking. This one is tabbed, and I don't know if I like that.
• 7-zip: This is a compression utility...one of thousands out there. It handels all the standard formats and tons more I had not heard of and will probably never see. Normally I use IzArc, but I am giving this one a try.
• CDisplay: Most of the time when people scan in comics, they put it one of two formats: pdf and cbr. This reads the cbr format.
• Foxot PDF Reader: PDF files are everywhere...nothing really needs to be said about this.
• FreeMind: This is a thought mapper, or as I like to say, a flowchart for your brainstorms. This is really kind of a hard one to explain...so I won't.
• OpenOffice: We write a lot here. For the majority of stuff we do here, OpenOffice is more than adequate for what we do...and it is free.

RETIRED: AVG Free, iTunes, IzArc