These are all programs/utilities that help me get the job done! Plain and simple, they make a computer be more useful and help you be more efficient. It's all stuff that I use (or have used at one time or another) and like. Yes, there are TONS of good things on the Internet but there is lots of crap as well. I have compiled this list to let you benefit from my experience so hopefully you won't have to waste as much time as I have finding the good programs that actually work, are not bundled with loads of spy and adware, cause conflicts with other programs, cause conflicts with Windows, make you swear like a sailor with Turrets, make you stay up all night reinstalling your OS and apps from scratch, etc.

• Email - Tired of notifying all your friends of your new email address every time you switch ISPs and don't want to hassle with registering your own domain? Ever wanted to be able to send/receive email from anywhere in the world and have access to your contacts and a calendar too? This is what most web-based email providers will give you. As long as you have internet access, you're good to go. And shoot, everyone needs email; no two ways around that. Even if you prefer to use your account with your ISP, having an additional email address for shopping, dating and signing up for lists is a huge asset as it preserves your anonymity and prevents your primary inbox from filling up with spam. All these services occasionally upgrade what you get in terms of storage limits and attachment size so it's best to choose your service based on features and ease of usability instead of some (temporary) statistic. Here are some tips for what to do/how to do it when you sign up. And here are the services I recommend:
  • Windows Live Hotmail - Getting a Windows Live account will give you access to all the other Live Services like Messenger, Spaces, etc. It will also let you sign into web sites and services that require a .NET Passport.
  • Yahoo! - Once you have a Yahoo username, you can then also use Yahoo! Instant Messenger and sign up for Flickr (which is owned by Yahoo).
  • Google email - If you like Google, you will probably love Gmail. Tons of storage, features that resemble the search engine, get your email on your phone, use your storage space to hold files, use it send and receive domain name email, the list goes on and on. It also gives you access to a host of services that Google offers like Picasa.
  • Gmail Tips - Got Gmail? Then you'll love all these tips.
• Gmail Drive shell extension - Sure, Gmail is great but for many people who already have a primary email account and probably already save their messages on their hard drive, all that extra storage space is wasted. But with this shell extension you can mount your Gmail account just like any hard drive and have a place on the web to store files. Remember all those free storage providers that went out of business? Well Goggle probably won't. But they also don't officially endorse this and Gmail is [still] in beta so don't count on your files being safe here for ever...
• Eudora - Don't like Outlook or Outlook Express and need a first-rate email client? This is it, look no further.
• FreePOPs - This is the best! It installs a virtual SMTP server on your computer and you can use it to receive your Hotmail/Yahoo/Gmail/AOL/you name it email using your favorite email client. And it works on about every OS and with about every email client under the sun. AND you can send email using any of your web-based accounts from any email client. AND it's easy to configure. It's so damn good I decided to take Hotmail Popper and Yahoo POPs off this list. 'Nuf said.
• Outlook Attachment Options - If you use Microsoft Outlook, you may have noticed that certain types of attachments are not visible or you can't open them if you see them in the Preview Pane (and also not when you open the message)... The issue is that Microsoft has classified attachments into types and certain types that can contain malicious code are getting blocked. This Outlook plug-in allows YOU to dictate what attachments you can see/open. I use it. "Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!"

• Mozilla Firefox - Everyone needs a web browser, what fun is the Internet if you can't see it? Not much. [that was rhetorical] Firefox is fast, has tabbed browsing, a built-in popup blocker and has not been susceptible to as many vulnerabilities as Internet Explorer. Plus, you can get all sorts of add-ons for Firefox here. NOTE - If you have the problem of Firefox trying to save itself (or a "link browser") to your hard drive whenever you click on a link in another application (like Outlook), try this fix. Oh yeah, it will also import all your IE/Netscape/Mozilla favorites/cookies/history so you lose nothing by switching. Sweet.
• mboverloadPAK - Can't decide what extensions to install now that you have Firefox? This is an INCLUSIVE bundle that includes many of the best and most popular. And really, IMHO extensions are what makes Firefox so freakin' cool.
• Opera - Another super browser. And as of the middle of September, 2005, the add-free version is no charge.

• 
  If you love Internet Explorer, the Google Toolbar lets you search from any page, includes a configurable pop-up blocker and loads of other features. THE best IE add-on for sure.
• Google Desktop - Search your computer using Google! Tired of waiting for WinFS? Wait no more, use Google instead and search your hard drive for email, files, web history and chats instantly. Just around the corner, "Google Life" will allow you to search your past and figure out how you screwed up that last relationship so badly or where you finally let yourself go and gained all that weight...
• Copernic Desktop Search - Less bloated than the Google Desktop and unlike Google, it does not send any info across the internet. I guess that's why the Google Desktop is still in beta...
• Windows Search - Hey, everyone else has a desktop search utility or something similar and so does Microsoft. You can now search your email, documents and more.

• Notepad2 - A super text editor; it's a small, fast and free with syntax highlighting for HTML and other common languages.
• HTML-Kit - The best free HTML editor I have ever seen. There are loads of plug-ins available. It's what I use.
• OpenOffice - Do you need to be able to open and edit all the Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) files but can't afford to buy a copy of Office? This will handle them all. You can even create files from scratch and then save them in the Microsoft formats.

• FileZilla - An excellent, fast open source FTP and SFTP client and server. Much more configurable and many more options than WS_FTP LE but correspondingly slightly more suited to the computer geek...
• WS_FTP LE - At one point this was probably most popular FTP client out there. Very configurable. There used to be a version 5 that was free. Then there was a version 6 that was only free if you worked at an educational institution and could jump through all the required hoops to legally install it; the latest version is called 'home' and is NOT free. Luckily, you can still get version 5 (which works just great) here. You're welcome.
• PuTTY - A free Telnet and SSH client for Windows. What's that you say? You can't FTP to some host because it only allows secure FTP? Have no fear, this is a SFTP client too. Problem solved.

• FreeRAM XP Pro - If you are using Windows 95/98/2000/XP, this utility will free up memory that has been hogged by an application and not freed when it is closed. It can also free memory on the schedule that you specify.
• PDFCreator - "PDFCreator easily creates PDFs from any Windows program. Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application." And it don't cost nuthin'.
• FeedReader - Got any blogs or sites that have an RSS feed that you visit on a regular basis? This program will allow you to add all these pages to one reader that will alert you when each page is updated. Very configurable. Very cool. It's what I use.
• Ever copied a hefty URL into an email and had it wrap and your friend writes back complaining how the link didn't work? Well, here is the answer to your prayers:

  Enter a long URL to make it tiny:

  You can even add TinyURL to your browser's toolbar. I did.
• HoverSnap - Take a snapshot of your active window, your desktop, cascading windows or a selected area of your desktop. Then save the image as a JPG, BMP, PNG or GIF. Very similar to the super popular SnagIt but this is free.
• YouSendIt - Ever needed to send a LARGE file to someone and couldn't? Maybe you or the recipient is on a dial-up connection, maybe the file is so gigantic that even though the recipient could in theory receive it, your outgoing email server refuses to send it, whatever; this solves the problem. Files are uploaded to a server and the recipient is sent an email with a HTTPS link to retrieve it. Done.
• FlashGet - This is specifically designed to address two of the biggest problems when downloading files: speed and management. Even with Cable or DSL.
• Microsoft Calculator Plus - "This application includes mathematical and conversion functions."