Useful Free Software
Free software is abundant online, but some programs are better than others. Here are my recommendations based on what I use:Desktop:
WebShots – desktop wallpaper program and tons of free images. Can eat up processor speed.
Lunabar – a program that displays the current moon phase in your taskbar, and contains information about the cycles of the moon, sun, and seasons.
WordWeb – a good simple dictionary program. Integrates with Word.
Audio
Winamp – best free player, lots of skins.
Audacity – free audio editor. Works with .wavs and .mp3s.
Communication
JBMail – lets you view your mailbox messages before you download them. Useful if there's a huge file that's stuck in your mailbox and you can't download it because you're on a modem and you need to just delete it.
ICQ – instant message program, which is pretty good if you disable all the silly bells and whistles (literally).
Spam Interceptor – great free service that will create an intermediate account between your server and your home computer, with many types of spam filtering options. Works with SpamAssassin.
General
Google Toolbar – integrates a Google search box into your browser, and has many other nifty features like a pop-up blocker and a form fill-in agent.
AVG Free – free virus detector software with free updates.
Web Design
Xenu's Link Sleuth – off-line dead link checker
The Gimp – free open source graphics program (Linux/Windows/Mac)
PhotoPlus – free graphics program (Windows)
PHPTriad – a bundle of Apache, PHP, and MySQL for Windows—a little buggy, but great if you
want to work on your database-driven website offline