Here is a almost complete list of programs I use on my systems. Most of these are free but be careful installing because some may have bundled junk. Watch the install screens carefully.
Operating system: Win7 64bit on an Acer desktop.
Backup:
ERUNT - http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/ - makes a backup of my registraion database on computer startup -
Macrium Reflect - http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx - I make a full system image at least once a month. Plus I also use Windows 7 built in back program - Start>Control Panel>Backup and Restore. Otherwise I'm still just burning off other stuff on CD/DVDs.
Browser/Email:
Opera - my main one - http://www.opera.com/
Firefox - my secondary one - https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
Seamonkey - for email - http://www.seamonkey-project.org/
Sometimes I need a little bit more privacy online so then there is Tor - https://www.torproject.org/
Seamonkey use to be called Mozilla Suite and then the Mozilla foundation gave it up and it became Seamonkey. It includes both a browser and email client. Mozilla Suite was my main for awhile until it was changed over to Seamonkey. Wasn't sure what to expect. So I switched to Opera and Seamonkey became my secondary browser until a recent update rendered all my extensions worthless. For some reason the people who produced these extensions have chosen not to update them for Seamonkey. That's when I switched to firefox as my secondary browser. I've been temped to give up Opera completely more than once because they keep changing their interface way to many times. You go online to find out how to set the thing just the way you want and then it upgrades and everything is undone. In some cases options disappear altogether. Annoying.
Media:
Any Video Converter - http://www.any-video-converter.com/
Audacity - music sound editing/recording - http://www.audacityteam.org/
Burnaware - burning software - http://www.burnaware.com/ - I also use Nero at times but Nero is not free and came with my burner. http://www.nero.com
Foxit Reader and PDF printer - http://foxitsoftware.com/
Next DVD Ripper - http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-Tools/CD-DVD-Rip-Other-Tools/Next-DVD-Ripper.shtml
Open Office - letters and some desktop publishing - http://www.openoffice.org/
Photofiltre - basic photo editing - http://photofiltre.free.fr/download_en.htm
Wallpaper Randomizer - changing wallpapers/backgrounds with a little more control - http://sector-seven.net/software/wallpaper
VLC - media palyer - https://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Xnview - photo viewer - http://www.xnview.com/
for editing videos and creating DVDs - Windows Movie Maker and DVD Maker. It serves my basic needs.
For downloading videos: At one time I would just use the Opera browser (during the version 12.xx years) and dig any videos I wanted to save out of the cache. Then Change came along. The simple cache system became an unnavigatable jungle. So I started using extensions.
In Opera it's Download YouTube Videos as MP4 and SaveFrom.net helper. My favourite non-Opera extension is VideoDownload Helper. It stopped working in Seamonkey but still works in Firefox. It's one of the best ones for non-youtube sites. Sometimes I use a program. I use to have YTD Video Downloader but then it started making my anti-virus cranky so I switched to UmmyvideoDownloader - http://videodownloader.ummy.net/.
Misc:
7zip - http://www.7-zip.org/ - This was my main compression program but I removed the context menu items and couldn't get them back so I switched to PeaZip
DriveGLEAM - http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/drivegleam.html - my computer doesn't have any hard drive indicator lights but I like to know when it's busy
Everything serach - http://www.voidtools.com/
iobit uninstaller - http://www.iobit.com/en/advanceduninstaller.php
Mouse without borders - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35460 - my software KVM switch. At least for the keyboard and mouse.
PeaZip - http://www.peazip.org/
SpeedFan - keeping track of my computer temps. - http://almico.com/speedfan.php
I was concerned at first because my fan was getting a bit noisy. But now I have a bigger concern, it stops completely. I one day noticed the temperature was rather high even when I wasn't doing anything and opened Speedfan and noticed my CPU fan had completely stopped. I can see the fan through the vents of my desktop and was able to confirm it. It happened about 4 times since, that I've noticed.
As long as I don't do anything to intensive to push the heat high, I'm good to go. Got to order some on ebay. It's only one of theses tiny fans.
unlocker - http://www.emptyloop.com/unlocker/
Security:
Autoruns - https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx
Avira (Free) - http://www.avira.com/en/avira-free-antivirus
Ccleaner and Process Explorer - more for controlling background processes - http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner - https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/
Eraser - http://eraser.heidi.ie/
Free versions of Malwarebytes and Superantispyware - http://www.malwarebytes.org/ - http://www.superantispyware.com/index.html
KeyScrabbler - https://www.qfxsoftware.com/ - to help protect yourself from keyloggers.
Sandboxie - http://www.sandboxie.com/ - it isolates programs in a virtual environment so programs running from it cannot make unwanted changes to your system. -
Winpatrol - http://www.winpatrol.com/ - like UAC in Windows but doesn't annoy you everytime you move your mouse. :-) This joke probably works better with Vista.
So, my more complete list of my main programs.