What are some of your most used Windows programs that you would recommend?

Firefox, certainly. Because most viruses, trojans, and spyware are designed to stroll right on through Internet Explorer. And if sites have been built properly, layout and formatting looks better in Firefox too.

I can’t wait to see some answers here because I am about to rebuild my laptop.

I have XP right now.

VLC, definitely! And uTorrent if you guys torrent.

Windows Media Player

I like this list for stuff you don’t want to install.

But anyway…

Skype
VLC
Picasa
7-Zip
Audacity
Google Earth
Thunderbird
uTorrent
Trillian
iTunes
Chrome or Firefox. Both are awesome.

As far as basic functionality, make sure you get the latest updates for: Java, DivX, DirectX, iTunes (incl. Quicktime), Windows Media Player, and Adobe Reader. These types of things are important for running software and playing media both on and offline.

And turn OFF all the auto updates for everything, especially Java and iTunes. Those things will suck the life out of your computer, most noticeably at startup.

Oh yeah! Definately Google Earth!

-Open Office if you don’t already have microsoft office.
-Ultra Defrag – An open source defragger that works much better than the built-in version
-Utorrent if you do torrents as @wildpotato mentioned
-Sype for sure as @dverhey mentioned
-Black Viper ‘s website will tell you optimal configurations of windows services
-Hijack This and Spybot are popular anti-adware/spyware programs.
-VLC Media Player is an open source media player that I prefer over windows media player
-Noscript for firefox is invaluable for safer surfing.

Other than those I can’t think of a program I use very frequently that is a must have. There are TONS of programs that are “cool” out there .. but as far as frequency of use.. just the ones I listed for me.

Wubi

Anything I’m about to list is free. If you don’t find it free, someone’s trying to scam you
Winamp for your music listening needs. I’ve found it superior to Windows Media Player and iTunes.
Pidgin or Trillian for chat programs (You can utilize pretty much any chat protocol with it; aim, msn, icq, irc, etc.)
Firefox for web browsing
Paint.NET for a very powerful image editing program
OpenOffice for an office suite (Everything you’d get from Microsoft Office)
AVG for anti-virus

I’m out of ideas for now.

Don’t install unnecessary crap. Install stuff when you need it. But install VLC.

GENERAL
– Character Map (Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools)
– Ultramon (multiple monitor utility)
– Microsoft OneNote

UTILITY
– Launchy
– WinDirStat
– Microsoft Windows PowerShell

MULTI-PLATFORM
– 7-zip
– PuTTY
– WinSCP
– TightVNC

SOCIAL
– Tweetdeck
– Trillian

MEDIA
– Handbrake
– DVD43
– Picasa

TextPad
IrfanView
Arachnophilia
CDex
Process Explorer (www.sysinternals.com)

@all – this rocks!!!

Netscape and Yahoo messenger.

Netscape? lol

Yea… I knew I would get a response. lol

I am loyal to 7.2. I like that my e-mail and browser are together. Also, funny thing is it loads so much faster then Internet explorer. Always has.

Don’t know why they had to mess with that configuration.

Audacity.
Twhirl (for Twitter)
Ableton.
Traktor Pro.
Winamp.
uTorrent.
Digsby.
ROCKETDOCK aka love of my life.
O&O Defrag.
CCleaner <—best out there.
Firefox.
Sometimes I use Flock, it’s a social networking web browser. SO awesome.

Microsoft Office 2007 (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Publisher,...) for typing, calculations, presentations, etc.

Windows media player, vlc media player, gom player, windows media player classic (kodec), real player,...for media and entertainment

photoshop, paint for photo editing…
...