These are in no particular order:

(updated 8/29/07)

[url=http://www.irfanview.com/]Irfanview[/url] – Almost forgot this handy, well implemented image viewer application. We find more uses for this software every day. It’s got great batch processing features, will open almost any file type (download the plugins) and is ultra-customizable. Go get it now!

[url=http://www.lopesoft.com/en/fmtools/info.html]FileMenu Tools[/url] – This is another “can’t live without it anymore” piece of software. The “synchronize folders” and “advanced renamer” tools are a fantastic addition to the standard Windows functionality. Try it out…now!

[url=http://www.editplus.com/]EditPlus[/url] – I use this every day for work and for play and have for years. There are other text editors that purport to do more but EditPlus doesn’t everwhelm the user by trying to do [i]too much[/i]. It’s also fairly extensible, so you can play around with the ini files and add your own tweaks. It supports some scripting and keystroke recording and has good regex support for file search/replace. I don’t often spend money on software, but this is one effort that I’ve gladly supported!

[url=http://www.imgburn.com/]ImgBurn[/url] – Burn a CD or DVD? This will do it…FREE! It will also write ISO images and make you an omelette. There is a bit of a learning curve on this one, but I’ve never made a coaster with this ImgBurn.

[url=http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/]InfraRecorder[/url] – Get rid of Nero’s bloatware and don’t pay a dime! You can use ImgBurn to do almost everything that this does, but Infrarecorder is much more user-friendly.

[url=http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelwin/]Adobe Photoshop Elements[/url] – Adobe has been getting a bad rap lately, but I love their line of Elements apps. I know, “Picasa is free!” you scream. But, PS Elements has everything that the average to expert user needs to fix and catalog their digital photos and express themselves through the creation of new works. My major complaints are that it’s a little slow (at least on my PC) and that it doesn’t seem to support the moving of existing files from one directory to another without causing problems.

[url=http://www.opera.com/]Opera Browser[/url] – It does it all and it did it before Firefox!

[url=http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm]Real Alternative[/url] – A nice free replacement for Real Player.