My fav freeware-ish programs:
Gimp 2.x - photoshop-like program
ImageResizer Powertoy - microsoft tool for mass/quick picture resizing (great for creating thumbnails)
Bulk Renaming Utility - rename multiple files quickly (also great for thumbnails)
Zone Labs Zone Alarm Personal Edition - firewall
AVG Personal Edition - antivirus
Crimson Editor - fast & free text editor
VirtualDub - video editing, coversion
Ad-Aware Personal Edition - adware removal
OpenOffice - microsoft office clone
SmartFTP - good ftp client (free for personal use)
Individual Microsoft Visual Studios (free for 1 year)
UltraVNC


Not free, but good programs anyways:
UltraEdit32 - full featured text editor
WebCopier Pro - download an entire website to browse offline

Some Of My Fav Music Artists (Unordered): Flaw All Star United Radiohead Marcy Playground Skillet Weezer Ben Folds (Five) Coldplay Incubus Audio Adrenaline Goldfinger Cake Dido The Cranberries Oasis Slipknot (unfortunately) Stellastar Smashing Pumpkins Maroon 5 Linkin Park Breaking Benjamin Three Days Grace Smile Empty Soul Brand New Newsboys Our Lady Peace Korn 311 System Of A Down Starsailor Trapt Hoobastank Phil Keagy Seether Switchfoot Revis Third Eye Blind Silverchair Oleander Enya Nirvana Filter Blue Man Group (seriously) Everclear Bush Eve 6 Saliva Alien Ant Farm Grammatrain Good Charlotte Supertones Taproot Fuel P.O.D. U2 Kids In The Way Thousand Foot Krutch Similar Artists <-- try (Unfinished):   All Star United       Satellite Soul     Switchfoot Audio Adrenaline         Kosmos Express               Newsboys Kids In The Way, Newsboys Newsboys Thousand Foot Krutch (very close, compare OLP's "Innocent" to Krutch's "This is a Call") Stavesacre (somewhat), Circle Of Dust (somewhat)   P.O.D. The Waiting, Satellite Soul   All Star United     Switchfoot           Skillet     Big Tent Revival   Plankeye, Thousand Foot Krutch     Grammatrain   Supertones     P.O.D.   Kids In The Way Thousand Foot Krutch Other Artists: Blues Traveler Evanescence Yellowcard Nickelback Creed Satellite Soul BarlowGirl (Never Alone, etc) Kids In The Way Kutless Kutless

Current Fav. Songs:
Fray - Over My Head
Cold Hands (Warm Heart) - Brendan Benson
Switchfoot - Happy Is A Yuppie Word
Kutless - Perspectives
Bush - Inflatable
Breaking Benjamin - Forget It

Previous Fav. Songs:
Fall Out Boy - Sugar We're Going Down
Kutless - Let You In
You're Worthy Of My Praise - Jeremy Camp
Audioslave - Doesn't Remind Me
Same - Snow Patrol
Barlow Girl - Never Alone
Staind - Right Here
Green Day - September
Last Word - Thousand Foot Krutch
Holiday - Green Day
Weezer - Beverly Hills
Run - Snow Patrol
Spitting Games - Snow Patrol
Float On - Modest Mouse
He Reigns - Newsboys
Ancient Words - Michael W. Smith
Look at What You've Done - Jet
Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day
Ppr:Kut - Linkin Park
Stay In Shadow - Finger Eleven