For my own reference - it might be useful for ideas for you too.
Not all of these are free, but the majority are.
- Firefox and get:
- Office 2007 (from DVD) OR OpenOffice
- Notepad2 (and get auto-installer)
- Windows Mobile Device Center
- Skype
- Filezilla
- Putty
- Foxit PDF Reader
- Cute PDF Writer
- AV: Avira or Avast or NOD32 (the latter is not free, but is vying for position as my AV of choice*)
- WinRAR** or 7Zip
