[size=5]Web-Related[/size]
[size=3]Browsers[/size]
Avant Browser - freeware browser with an enormous amount of features, skinnable and supports plugins.
Note: This browser is based on IE so you must have IE installed. It also renders websites exactly like IE and suffers from some of IE's inherent problems.
Mozilla Firefox - a freeware browser which claims to adhere completely to the W3C's web standards. Has few features but hundreds of plugins are available to increase functionality.
Opera - an old browser that recently went freeware. Opera is extremely feature-rich and skinnable, as well as being the most lightweight and fast browser. Its main down side is that it has semi-adherence to standard, which stops most sites that aren't made with it in mind from displaying correctly.
[size=3]Download Managers[/size]
NetTransport - a download manager with extensive functionality, similar to FlashGet or GetRight.
Note: Technically it is shareware, but the version you can download from the official site seems to have full functionality and no buy requests of any kind.
Note 2: Non-Unicode, which can be a problem for non-English users.
[size=3]eMail[/size]
Mozilla Thunderbird - a freeware e-mail client with comparable functionality to Microsoft Outlook.
[size=3]FTP Clients[/size]
SmartFTP - a highly functional FTP client, with a Windows Explorer-like interface for familiarity.
Note: Free for personal use. The program reminds you of this every time you run it, which can be an annoyance.
CoreFTP Lite Edition - simple FTP client with basic functionality.
Note: Free for personal use. The program reminds you of this every time you run it, which can be an annoyance.
[size=3]Peer to Peer (P2P)[/size]
Warning: These applications are often used to download illegal software. This activity is not endorsed by Gameworld Network and you will not get help about it here. P2P can be used for legal purposes. For example, many Gameworld Network game demos can be downloaded via BitTorrent.
Azureus - one of the best and most popular BitTorrent clients. It offers a superior amount of features and high speeds compared to many clients. Highly recommended.
Note: Requires Java runtime components.
Yet Another BitTorrent Client (ABC) - a lightweight BitTorrent client which gives limited functionality but impressive speeds. Highly recommended for those who have a problem with Java or don't like Azureus for other reasons.
Shareaza - a muti-network peer to peer client supporting the Gnutella, Gnutella2, eDonkey and BitTorrent betworks. Its main advantage is that if a BT tracker goes down, the download can be resumed on Gnutella2. Can also download the same file from multiple networks simultaneously (an almost unique feature in p2p).
DC++ - DC++ is a client for the DirectConnect p2p network. The network's main strength is that it contains many rare, non-copyrighted files. DC++ is practically bug-free at the time of this writing.
Note: May be difficult to use for newcomers.
[size=3]Voice and Instant Messaging[/size]
Skype - freeware application that allows users to chat using a microphone between computers. Highly recommended.
Note: Skype has certain features which cost money, but they are not included in the client, and aren't required for functionality.
Messenger Plus - free add-on to the popular MSN Messenger which adds features like tabbed conversations and sound messages (better than MSN's voice clips). Also allows the farther installation of plugins.
Note: Has opt-out adware.
Make sure not to install it, unless you want to support MSG Plus.
[size=3]Security[/size]
Zone Alarm Firewall - one of the few free firewalls, it can also block individual components which many firewalls still don't do (but after an embarrassing test that showed the vulnerability of this, most implemented it). Unfortunately it seems to be memory-heavy and sometimes also CPU-heavy.
Note: Free for individual use only.
Sygate Personal Firewall - another firewall, if you didn't like ZoneAlarm. It's highly recommended by its users.
Note: Free for personal use only.
NetLimiter - a net traffic monitoring program which also allows you to limit the bandwidth allocated to web applications or block them. It isn't a firewall however, and does not protect against intrusions.
Note: Shareware with a trial, but works forever with a 'please buy' notice.
Note 2: The official site was at netlimiter.com, but seems to have disappeared (from the web and search engines alike).
Supertrick XG - blocks many ads and popups by editing the HOSTS file in the Windows\system32\drivers\etc directory. It can also do a few other things such as blocking the ad URLs from IE itself, and monitor browser hijackings. Also comes with CWShredder (tool to remove the infamous CoolWebSearch spyware).
[size=3]Spyware/Malware Removal[/size]
(actually an extension of the previous section)
Ad-Aware SE - Ad-Aware is the most popular spyware removal tool. It's clean, fast and easy to use. Detects most common spyware, but cannot fully remove some, such as CoolWebSearch.
Spybot Search and Destroy - a more thorough spyware removal tool than Ad-Aware, it compliments AAW well by removing a lot of spyware that the first can't. Unfortunately, it is buggy and random crashes are often experienced by users.
Spyware Blaster - monitoring tool that can detect spyware and prevent it from installing, thus stopping it at the source.
Note: Free for personal and educational use.
HijackThis - a freeware tool to list the components of apps such as IE, which helps detect spyware and other unwanted add-ons.
Warning: DO NOT use if you are unsure of what you're doing. You can delete essential components with this.
Rootkit Revealer - a freeware tool that finds rootkits - registry entries and such, which are essentially hidden from regular Windows applications. Recommended for advanced users only.
[size=5]Audio/Video[/size]
[size=3]Codecs[/size]
(codec =
coder/
decoder, it's a component that lets you encode videos to a certain format, such as DivX, or read files of this format)
K-Lite Codec Pack - freeware codec pack, which includes all the basic codecs, plus more in the more bloated versions. Comes with
Media Player Classic and
GSpot. Highly recommended.
Quick Time Alternative
Real Alternative
Brought by the same guys that made K-Lite Codec Pack, these two codecs allow users to play Quick Time and Real Media files respectively, without having to install the official clients.
[size=3]Playback[/size]
Winamp 5.x - an audio and video player known for its light weight and skin support. Unfortunately, it's not very quick to load like one of its predecessors, Winamp 2.
Winamp 2.x - an audio player known for its light weight and quick load. It's outdated and doesn't support some newer audio formats, but overall it's still a solid audio player.
Note:
Audio only.
Foobar2000 - a freeware audio player which has minimal functionality, that can be increased with plugins.
Note:
Audio-only.
BSPlayer - an AV player mostly intended for video, thus it doesn't have the functionality of most audio players. For video however, it's highly functional, allowing things such as subtitles, which many players still don't support.
VideoLAN/VLC Media Player - a video player which has built-in codecs and supports many formats. It's not very functional, but practically essential to videophiles, since it bypasses corruption and thus allows you to play damaged DVDs, etc.
AVIPreview - a freeware application which allows the preview of incomplete/corrupted video files. Originally made to view incomplete video files on Kazaa, it has many more uses than that. For instance, VideoLan often crashes on highly corrupted chunks, while AVIPreview does not (but it likely won't detect the part after the corruption).
Note: The official website is down at the time of this writing and redirects to some non-English blog site after giving a technical difficulties message.
Important Note: PCGW does not endorse the use of this program for previews of illegal downloads.
RAD Video Tools (can only go under the Game Tools section) - a freeware video player for the Smacker (.smk) and Bink (.bik) formats found in many PC games (mostly older ones).
[size=3]AV Utils[/size]
WMP Script Fixer (Direct Download) - free utility which disables the scripting in Microsoft video files (ASF, WMV), so malicious scripts can't do damage to your system.
[size=3]Audio Editing[/size]
Audacity - freeware audio editing tool. It's not as functional as commercial competitors such as Adobe Audition, but has all the basic features.
[size=3]Video Editing[/size]
VirtualDub - freeware video editing application which lets you join, split and encode video files. It is not meant for touching up videos however, and thus has no filters and such. Highly recommended.
), please add those apps to this list (but make sure to review them first and remove those which don't belong in the list, according to the rules in that topic). Oh yeah, don't add iTunes 
I've discovered some more bad things about it recently, and before it was already bad enough.
Linear Mode
