Software

Unless your already using a 3rd party defrag utility or your using a Mac this app will do you wonders.  Now Windows 7 did improve heavily on the defragmenter program, but it is still not going to do as good of a job as this program.  Piriform's Defraggler is one hell of a defrag app.  You can only choose certain files, drives, or exclude certain files and/or folders.  For a free program this one packs the punch.  I used to use Auslogic's Defrag, but this one is quicker and stronger.

Defreggler site

Using Windows Media Player?  Still have to use alternative players for DVDs, and other files like AAC ,MOV, APE, OGG, and others?  Then the XP Codec Pack is the perfect fix to make Windows Media Player really work excellent and in one program.

XP Codec site

Now this program has been around awhile, but it surely worth mentioning.  GIMP is a raster based graphics program which is very feature packed and easy to learn and use.  Whether tweaking photos, designing web page images, icon design, or just for messing around...it rocks!  This is a must have and beats many graphics programs.

Now that Blogs and Social Networking sites are so common place quick and efficient photo editing and uploading is necessary.  This utility lets you do minor photo tweaks, such as crop, rotate, desaturate, rename, and/or remove the images and then you can either save the finished results or upload them from there to your repository of choice.  If you do this kind of a thing often, this is a GREAT tool.

SnapEase site

This is a very simple, but incredibly useful program.  It is designed to do one very helpful thing...keep two drives in sync, basically backup a drive.  It's very easy and is quick.

PathSync site

Now if you're using Windows 7 you may find the new Aero Snap very handy, but imagine it was more powerful.  Introducing WinSplit Revolution...a utility that allows the use of drag and go or simple key commands (my favorite) to position windows quickly in a bunch of helpful places.  Now you can position 4 windows in their own space quickly.  This is a must.  This program can also run portably to allow you to always have it with you on your flash drive.  It works on Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 (x86 or x64 versions).

WinSplit Revolution site

Still using Microsoft Office for Word, Excel, etc.?  Well, there's a better way than shelling out $150 or more for each upgrade.  Open Office, which is made by Sun Systems, allows opening and saving of ALL MS Office formats, + they also use more universal formats like ODF (which may someday be the new standard).  This suite has a lot to offer and it also does more.  One thing I love is it's ability to export PDFs, try that MS.

Open Office site

Are you still using Win Zip to compress/zip files?  And if you are, you're probably like many people using the evaluation, which means NAG screen of annoyance.  Well, you can buy Win Zip, or you can download 7-Zip.  7-Zip allows compression and decompression in 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR and unpacking.only in ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, DMG, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MSI, NSIS, RAR, RPM, UDF, WIM, XAR and Z.  This is the last compression utility you'll ever need again.  Oh, and it is very efficient in compressing things, which translates to smaller files.

7-Zip site

This is an excellent and easy utility for amateurs or even pros.  This program lets you convert almost anything- WAV to AIFF, MP3 to ACC, whatever your need.  The best thing of all, well aside from being free, is that this program has all of these features in one app.  Very small installation for geeks like me.

Quick Media Converter site

CutePDF Writer is one very hand application, and it works much different than any other application too.  It does what it says- Writes PDFs, but instead of taking a file already created and exported it to PDF it prints the file to PDF.  CutePDF even shows up with your typical Ink Jet and Laser printers.  You say print and it lets you choose the name and location.  It's that easy, oh and it's FREE!

CutePDF site