I highly recommend the following

Neat and Useful Software I have found over the years.  Depending on your interests you may or may not find any of this to you liking.  Some is available as Shareware/Freeware and some is commercial software.  If you like a piece of Shareware then think about contributing to the developer he/she spent a lot of time making it.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 ®

A suite of programs that redefine the way you design and develop web sites. This suite comes in various configurations depending on your needs and the type of work you do. The Web Premium suite contains:

  • Dreamweaver CS4 (create web sites and applications)
  • Flash CS4 Professional (create animations and interactive content)
  • Photoshop CS4 Extended (work with digital images including 3D)
  • Illustrator CS4 (create and work with vector graphics)
  • Fireworks CS4 (create and work with web graphics)
  • Acrobat 9 Pro (manage and create content in PDF)
  • Soundbooth CS4 (create and edit digital audio)
  • Contribute CS4 (enable non-web designers to edit website content)
  • Adobe Bridge CS4 (works with all these programs to organize assets)
  • Adobe Device Central (preview and test mobil device content)
  • Vision Cue CS4 (centrally manage project files)

Ad-Aware SE Personal

Developed by a company called Lava soft this is the best product for removing Gadabouts and Spy-ware from you personal computer.  It will safely find and remove those nasty and annoying pop-up ads, hijacked homepages and generally speed up you sluggish computer.  Run this program once a week and keep it updated.

Spybot Search & Destroy

Made in many languages this software detects and removes Spy ware from you personal computer.  Spy ware monitors what website's you visit and report back to a company doing market research.  If you have a new toolbar on you copy of Internet Explorer, or your home page has been hijacked, or you may not know that anything is going on.  Your computer is probably infected.  Run Payout S&D weekly and keep it updated to keep you computer cleaned out of these CPU cycle wasters that intrude on you privacy.

Malwarebytes' Anti-malware

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is considered to be the next step in the detection and removal of malware. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware can detect and remove malware that even the most well known anti-virus and anti-malware applications fail to detect. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware monitors every process and stops malicious processes before they even start. The Realtime Protection Module uses advanced heuristic scanning technology which monitors your system to keep it safe and secure. In addition.

Key Features

  • Support for Windows 2000, XP, and Vista (32-bit only).
  • Light speed quick scanning.
  • Ability to perform full scans for all drives.
  • Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Protection Module. (requires registration)
  • Database updates released daily.
  • Quarantine to hold threats and restore them at your convenience.
  • Ignore list for both the scanner and Protection Module.
  • Settings to enhance your Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware performance.
  • A small list of extra utilities to help remove malware manually.
  • Multi-lingual support.
  • Works together with other anti-malware utilities.
  • Command line support for quick scanning.
  • Context menu integration to scan files on demand.

Mazola Firefox and Thunderbird

Dump Ie7... get the safest, fastest, better web browser for your windows machine.  This is Free software developed by the Mazola Foundation as an open source software project. This software is free of many of the problems that other commercial software has.
There are two packages you should be interested in from Mazola.

  • Firefox is a web browser with tabbed pages and excellent system of add-ons. It has consistently lead the way in online security and features.  Fire fox make your browsing experience fun and productive.
  • Thunderbird is an email client with acclaimed security and privacy measure unparalleled in the industry.  It is customizable and allows multiple accounts and hundreds of add-ons that can enhance your emailing experience.  With robust privacy, span filters, Phasing protection and automatic updates this programs makes sending and receiving emails enjoyable again.

PKWARE

Yea I know the latest versions of Windows will unzip you downloaded packages... but if you want to make you own and send them out you need a software package that will do it.  PK Zip for Windows is a derivative of the original program made for DOS years ago. and is the most widely accepted and used package for compressing files in the world.
The newest version will also secure you data attachments while compressing them for transmission or storage.

Coral Paint Shop Pro® Photo

You know what you want — something that's going to let you create the image you have in mind. Whether it's a photo, graphic, or digital art, Coral Paint Shop Pro is going to help you get that vision out of your head and onto the screen.  All the graphics on this and any website I do are "paint Shopped".  This is the most comprehensive graphics/photo program I have found for the price.  Their website has plenty of tips on how to get the most out of Paint Shop Pro.

Colour to HTML

If you need to exactly duplicate a color this is the tool you need.  Co lour (British English spelling) to HTML is a small Windows utility to convert colors into a HTML or hex code for you use in HTML editors or photo editing programs.  Anything on the screen can be sampled and pasted into the code box of any program working with color codes {#75AF85 or rugby(117,175,133)} for a light shade of green for example.

Colorcache

This is a color toolkit for web designers and scrap bookers. It allows you to select color swatches that are compatible with most graphics programs. You can save your schemes for future use and develop new ones from a picture, or just base the entire scheme on one given color. Cost is $34.99 USD and it is well worth it for designers.

  • Pick the right color combinations every time for professional results
  • Automatically generate color schemes from a single color or photograph
  • Recreate existing web pages and designs in different color schemes
  • Preview your color schemes in your own pages and designs
  • Manage, store, import and export your color schemes
  • Compatible with most popular graphics programs

Shampoo Burning Studio

A simple to use CD/DVD/Blur-ay burning software package that is very powerful.  Create back-ups, CD, DVD, Bursas all from one simple control panel.  With an integrated CD ripper and a cool price this package can't be beat.

Family Tree Maker

I'll get a lot of argument about this one, but after using it for several years I think it's the best product for the job.  A very sophisticated data base software package tailored for keeping you Genealogy records intact and in order.  It's simple interface shows your family data at a glance or prints it out in pedigree charts or family group sheets. With the ability to import data from other genealogy programs it will do anything you need.