Software guide.

Difficulty: 2/5

Here is a list of some of the better programs out there.

Internet
Web browser: Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Iron
Mail client: Thunderbird, web-based (such as hotmail or gmail)
Chat client: Pidgin, Skype, Trillian
IRC client: XChat, Chatzilla, mIRC
Torrent client: uTorrent, Deluge, bitlord
FTP client: Filezilla
Router firmware: DD-WRT, Tomato

System Maintenance
Anti-Virus: commonsense, Avira, Avast, Nod32
Firewall: Comodo, your router
De-fragmenting: Defraggler, jkDefrag
Misc: CCleaner, Recuva

Multimedia
Video player: MPC-HC, VLC
Audio player: foobar2000, winamp
Codec pack: CCCP, K-lite
Graphics editor: Photoshop, GIMP, Paint.net

Documents and Text
Word processing: MS Office, OpenOffice.org
PDF viewer: Foxit, Sumatra
Test editor: Notepad++, Vim

Disc Management
ISO mounting: daemon tools, powerISO
Disc authoring: Imgburn, alcohol 120%

Misc

File archiver: 7-zip, winrar
Virtual machine: VMWare, Virtualbox
Desktop rice: Rainmeter, Rocketdock, Litestep

*note* All highlighted programs are ones I use.