Best free software for Windows

I haven't done this in a while, but I just thought it would be nice to share with you a list of what I consider to be some of the best free Windows software out there right now (in no particular order):

Irfanview - a great image viewer program that can change picture formats, resize, do basic image effects and colour correction. I use it to format the images I use on this blog.

Firefox - just try it.

Filezilla - the perfect utilitarian free FTP program.

Autoruns - I know some versions of Windows allow you to change what starts up at every boot with msconfig, but Autoruns does it on all versions with no sass. Disable and re-enable stuff with ease.

AVG Antivirus - forget Norton and McAfee. This is free and it works. No - it's not perfect (there's no such thing), but if you are practicing safe computing, this anti-virus program is lean and will never (in my experience) cause any problems on your computer.

Paint.net - an amazingly sophisticated digital image editor from computer science students at WSU. It's not quite as powerful as some other programs but a lot easier to use and install. It is only for Windows 2000 and later and you'll need Microsoft's bulky .NET framework (you can get it all in one package if need be).

EasyCleaner - a registry cleaner that is a good, reliable and conservative. It will fix all major problems with a low risk of creating problems of its own. It will also detect duplicate files and help you clean up temp files to make more disk space. But its best feature is a regularly updated "blacklist" of registry values that should not be cleaned, contributing to its record of causing few problems.

SyncToy - this is a free synchronization utility from Microsoft (Windows Genuine Advantage required). It only works on XP - SP2. This program can copy, move, rename, and delete files between any number of folders and computers. The program operates on the principal of pre-defined folder pairs. You define and name these pairs and then when you want to perform a sync or other task, you recall one of these pairs and carry out the operation. Syncing can be in either direction and covers all options from complete sync to updating newer files only. SyncToy requires the .NET framework.

SIW - a great, free system information utility. It gives detailed information about your computer properties and settings, detailed specs for CPU, motherboard, chipset, BIOS, CPU, PCI/AGP, USB and ISA/PnP devices, memory, monitor, video card, disk drives, CD/DVD devices, SCSI devices, S.M.A.R.T., ports, network cards, printers, operating system, installed programs and hotfixes, processes, services, serial numbers (CD keys), users, open files, system
uptime, network, network shares, as well as real-time monitors for CPU, memory, page file usage and network traffic. It displays currently active network connections, passwords hidden behind asterisks, installed codecs, and more. Best of all - it's stand-alone, meaning you don't have to install it.