Free software to use on your computer (High quality and reliable software)

I use this software myself and have read a lot about them in various PC magazines as a hobby.

Zonealarm firewall- Rated number 1 in firewalls and yet its free.

AVG antivirus software- free for home use, rated very well

Copernic desktop search- ever have trouble finding files. Or want to find emails more quickly. This is an awesome utility. Much better then googles last I checked.

- use Firefox instead of internet explorer. Tends to have less security problems and has tabbed browsing. Along with having a drop down list of search engines to use. Add any you want.

Adobe acrobat reader

Office suite by openoffice.org- get the free microsoft like word/excel/powerpoint programs. No reason to buy office for most people.

Picasa photo software good picture software

Adobe photo shop album - Great software for viewing your photos and organizing them.

Textpad - King of text editors, with syntax highlighting for nearly any programming language (including Pascal and Eiffel) and advanced features such as a vertical copy/paste, search/replace entire directories of files, and macros.

Keyboard Express - Global keyboard automation tool for Windows.  Assign hotkeys to your repetitive keystrokes for speed.