http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
I mean, holy crap people, you still use pop up blockers?!
The best part is after you get it and install, go to Tools > Add-Ons > Get Extensions. It should be listed in the "popular extensions" area at the bottom, but if not, search. It's called Adblock Plus. Never see an ad again! Most flash & java will have a little "adblock" tab next to it, and clicking it lets you remove it. Replace everything except the domain name with "*" and it will block everything from the site (BE CAREFUL...)!
MaxMem doesn't actually do anything, and in the long run will make things slower. In the short run it's great though.
Nobody mentioned AVG or Spybot or Adaware or openoffice or.... ....
PIDGIN!
http://pidgin.im/pidgin/home/
Multiprotocol IM. Very very VERY good.
Also zsnes &
http://vimm.net
Great SNES emulator & great site with legal (I think) ROMs. Whatever, they have chronotrigger!
Check out
http://freshmeat.net too sometime. It's mostly Linux stuff (obviously this is a windows forum) but all the good stuff gets ported to windows (like pidgin). M$ stole from open source, so can you!
Right now the best compression comes from 7-zip (look it up), even though I find the UI a bit too clunky.
The GIMP of course deserves a mention. It's *almost* as good as photoshop, it's missing CMYK support though.
Audacity is a multi-track sound editor that is just now turning into a great program.
Also, screw pcanywhere. WarFTP will let you set up a ftp server, dyndns.org will let you point a domain to your computer; tightvnc will do the whole remote desktop thing with *extreme* speed. Sure it's three tools to replace one, but having your own domain & ftp server is quite nice in and of itself. TightVNC is also multiplatform and comes with a java applet & miniwebserver so you can connect from *anywhere* on *any* machine. I've used a friend's Treo to VNC before...
One helluva first post, eh?
I guess someone has to bash the windows n00bz into shape though. If anyone in the class has any questions, you can hit me up at mngrif###gmail.com