My ultimate free software list

Lately I've been on this big kick about finding the best free software on the Internet, and I've been pleasantly surprised. I found a lot of great programs out there that are totally free. Below is my grand list of what I've found up 'til now, for each item I tried to put a short description. There are too many in the list for me to put longer descriptions. I've broken the list down into software category types.

Multimedia

1. Audacity - Powerful and useful audio editor that supports all the major audio formats.
   
2. Avidemux - A good video editor. Does everything VirtualDub does and then some.
   
3. CamStudio - Capture your desktop as a video. Great for recording product demos, youtube how-to videos, etc.
   
4. FLAC - The audio encoding tools for FLAC, the free lossless audio codec.
   
5. Gimp - An extremely powerful image editor (think Photoshop). The only downside is it has a steep learning curve.
   
6. Greenfish Icon Editor Pro - Editor for Windows icon files. Not as powerful as Gimp, but smaller and has some nice features.
   
7. HuluDesktop - Watch all the content of Hulu on your computer but without requiring a web browser.
   
8. IrfanView - Powerful and yet simple image viewer program that includes some lightweight image editing tools.
   
9. Lame - Audio encoding tools for MP3 audio files.
   
10. Media Player Classic Home Cinema - A very good video and audio player. Has very simple UI and controls, like a program should.
    
11. OGG - The audio encoding tools for the OGG audio format.
    
12. VLC - Another simple video and audio player. Not as good as MPC-HC in my opinion, but has some unique features such as the ability to play internet streams.
    
13. VirtualDub - A simple video editor. Can't do complex tasks, but can do simple tasks like rotate, adjust colors, adds subtitles, etc.
    
14. WaveStudio - A free audio editor similar to Audacity, although not as good.
    
15. Winamp - Audio player for pretty much any audio format.
    

Disc Utilities

1. CDCopy - Utility for ripping audio CDs to WAV files for encoding to MP3, OGG, and/or FLAC.
   
2. DISCInfo - Simple utility that displays info about your optical drives such as types of discs read/written, speeds, and firmware versions.
   
3. DVD Decrypter - Allows you to backup/copy DVDs.
   
4. DVD Shrink - Create copies of DVDs, remove unwanted material to save space.
   
5. ImgBurn - Great utility for burning CDs. Burns either files to the CD, or burn from an ISO image.
   
6. oscdimg.exe - Command line tool from Microsoft for creating ISO images. No download link for just this program, you'll find the file inside the Windows Automated Installation Kit download (1 GB in size).
   
7. WinCDEmu - Mounts ISO files as virtual drives. I prefer version 3.4 which offers a "portable" version of the program.
   

Compression

1. 7Zip - Awesome encryption that can be twice as much as the venerable PKZip.
   
2. PKZip - Good old PKZip, where would the world be without you!?!
   
3. Rar - Another good compression tool.
   

Security

1. KeePass - Centrally store and manage all your passwords in one secure file.
   
2. Microsoft Security Essentials - My favorite free anti-virus program.
   
3. TrueCrypt - Create encrypted containers to store files, encrypt USB thumb drives, even encrypt entire disk partitions.
   
4. Spybot - Scan for all the other types of malicious software that virus scanners don't check for.
   

Communications

1. DNSBenchmark - Test the speed of your DNS servers against public DNS servers to find the best DNS servers for you to use.
   
2. Google Chrome - Second best browser in my opinion. Has very good adherence to web standards.
   
3. Firefox - Everyone should be using Firefox, the best browser as far as I'm concerned. Don't forget to add the plugins AdBlock Plus and Flashblock.
   
4. FileZilla Server - FTP server for your computer.
   
5. LeechFTP - A very good FTP client.
   
6. Putty - A telnet and secure shell program.
   
7. Thunderbird - The best email client, from the makers of Firefox.
   
8. TightVNC - TightVNC is a remote desktop program. The built-in program with Windows is better, but if you can't use that for some reason try TightVNC. Other good options include RealVNC and TigerVNC.
   
9. WinSCP - FTP and secure FTP client.
   

File Utilities

1. Locate32 - Find files on your machine faster than Windows ever could.
   
2. NTFSDelete - Recover previously deleted files. I personally prefer the look and feel of version 0.93 of this program.
   
3. WinMerge - View the differences between two files and folders graphically.
   

System Information and Utilities

1. AquaKeyTest - Program to test keyboards, helps you determine how many simultaneous keystrokes your keyboard can detect.
   
2. CCleaner - Clean your system so it runs faster. Has an option to run as a portable application.
   
3. CPU-Z - Shows you everything about your CPU, motherboard, chipset, and RAM.
   
4. Defraggler - Defrag your hard drive. I think one is better than what comes with Windows. Has an option to run as a portable application.
   
5. GPU-Z - Similar to CPU-Z but focuses on your graphics card.
   
6. HWMonitor - Real-time display of all the hardware sensors inside your computer such as temperature, fan speed, and voltage.
   
7. PCITree - View info about all the PCI devices in your computer.
   
8. RegShot - Take snapshots of your computers registry and difference them to show you exactly what changed.
   
9. SharpKeys - This program is used to map keys on the keyboard to other values.
   

Tool Suites

1. AnalogX - Lots of good utilities here.
   
2. Freezerware - Utilities written by yours truly.
   
3. NirSoft - Tons of programs and all very useful. Most are available in 64-bit as well. Most, if not all, are portable.
   
4. SysInternals - Now owned by Microsoft. Easily the best suite of tools on the Internet. Every Windows power user/developer needs these tools.
   

Games

1. DoomLegacy - Play the original Doom and Doom 2 using new enhanced graphics such as lighting effects. Requires the original Doom WAD files.
   
2. FCEUX - Emulator for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
   
3. Kega Fusion - Emulator for the Sega Master System, Genesis/Mega Drive, Game Gear, 32X, and Sega CD.
   
4. MAME - Emulator for arcade machines.
   
5. NagaSkaki - A really good chess program.
   
6. Snes9x - Emulator for the Super Nintendo (SNES).
   
7. Streets of Rage Remix v5 - An AWESOME fan remake of the Streets of Rage series on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. Download no longer available, but if you search the web you can find it.
   

Applications

1. Adobe Flash - I personally hate Flash, but you can't get by without it these days.
   
2. Adobe Reader - Not the best PDF reader in my opinion, but it is from the original creators of the PDF format which carries some weight.
   
3. Adobe Shockwave - Again, I hate Shockwave, but you kind of need it.
   
4. Hallo Northern Sky - Free planetarium software. Great for locating planets and constellations in the sky.
   
5. LibreOffice - Free office software like Microsoft Office, only without all the bloat. LibreOffice is a branch of the more commonly known OpenOffice.
   
6. Microsoft Mathematics - Free math software. Think of it as a graphing calculator on your computer - it even looks like a graphing calculator.
   
7. Microsoft Office Viewers - If you just want to view Microsoft Office files not create them, then you need to download these Office Viewers.
   
8. SumatraPDF - Small, simple PDF viewer. Way better than Adobe Reader. Includes a plug-in for browsers like Firefox.
   
9. Sunbird - Calendar and organizer from the makers of Firefox.
   

Editors

1. HxD - Very powerful hex editor. Edit files and disk sectors in hexadecimal.
   
2. Notepad++ - Very powerful text editor. Blows the doors off of Notepad included with Windows, and pretty much every other text editor out there.
   

Development

1. Application Verifier - Force bugs in code to cause exceptions which makes them much easier to find and fix.
   
2. Interactive Disassembler (IDA) - Disassemble binary files, great for reverse-engineering.
   
3. Microsoft Orca - Tool for creating and editing Windows Installer files (MSI). Included in the Windows SDK download.
   
4. Microsoft Visual Studio Express - Free versions of the Microsoft flagship compilers. Has some features removed.
   
5. VerySleepy - Profile applications to improve speed. Not as good as the Profiler including with Visual Studio, but that version requires the highest level of Visual Studio which many developers don't have.
   
6. WinDbg - Very powerful and useful debugger. Included along with the Debugging Tools for Windows in the Windows SDK.
   
7. Wireshark - The best packet sniffer available, period.
   
8. WMIExplorer - Browse the WMI namespace on your computer.
   

Databases

1. Microsoft SQL Server Express Edition - Free version of Microsoft's SQL server with a 4GB size limit.
   
2. Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express - GUI editor for Microsoft SQL databases. This is a great companion to the free SQL Server Express.
   

Virtual Machines

1. Virtual PC 2007 - Really good VM program, my personal favorite. Has good integration with the OS, both the host and client OS.
   
2. VirtualBox - A VM program from Oracle. Has some cool features like USB pass-through. I believe it's also available for Linux.
   
3. VMWare Player - VM program from VMWare, the biggest player in this market segment. Has lots of bells and whistles.
   

Operating Systems

1. Ubuntu - Best version of Linux for the average person. Surprisingly user-friendly and easy to setup. If you want/need an operating system and you don't want Windows, this is your best choice.
   
2. Windows PE - Yes, a free version of Windows. But not too useful for most people. Best used as a bootable CD to run diagnostics, backup, etc. Included in the Windows Automated Installation Kit download.
   

Bootable Utilities

1. DiskCopy - Copy, clone, backup, and restore disk partitions.
   
2. Memtest86 - Test your system memory for problems.
   
3. Partition Wizard Home Edition - Move, resize, create, delete, etc. disk partitions.