You too huh, I did this a few times and it rapidly turned into a word of mouth thing.
I have a little "kit" I tend to mix and match for whatever I am doing, here is the dir printout. If I am not mistaken all I have here is freeware of one form or another. I am about to fall asleep so I apologise for the lack of links (they are all major or nicely named software as well)
7z442.exe (7zip, a perfectly suitable replacement for winrar save some nice features (winrars batch archive conversion for one)).
a2hijack free (useful for manually hunting junk down.)
avg75free_472a1024.exe (AVG, some decent free AV software).
burrrn_package.exe (audio CD making software, I have a custom version with the latest LAME and such)
CCCP-Insurgent-2006-01-01.exe (useful for audiovisual troubleshooting).
CFP_Setup_English_2.4.18.184.exe (comodo)
Combined-Community-Codec-Pack-2007-02-22.exe .(if you have to have a codec pack, make it this: it does all I would do seperately save quicktime and real (see below)).
daemon tool, remember to not let the adware install.
eac-0.95b4.zip (exact audio copy: audio CD copying)
Firefox Setup 2.0.0.4.exe adblock definitely, foxytunes and maybe fireftp on top of that. I might include a tweaker at some point but about:config works OK.
foxitreader_setup.exe (Adobe PDF stuff a piece of junk for you?, try this).
gimp-2.2.15-i586-setup-1.exe (the GIMP, these days I rate it with photoshop for what I want to do, not sure about those more into their images).
gtk+-2.10.11-setup.exe runtime for the GIMP and a bunch of other stuff.
ImgBurn-2.3.2.0.zip
quicktimealt181lite.exe
realalt152lite.exe
RegToy.7z
Sequoia1.3Install.zip (a really handy graph of data on a drive, has saved me loads of headaches in the past)
spybotsd14.exe
tweakxputility.exe
xp-AntiSpy_en.exe
This small kit I usually keep on a part of my DS cards, that way it is a half hour uninstall (properly), install, tweak thing.
Office, I have been using open office for a few weeks now. It works fairly well, not sure how it would go down with others though.
My personal stuff also includes much more multimedia: DVD decryption (DVD decrypter and ripit4me, DGdecode also), video editing (avisynth + numerous plugins: soundout, mipsmooth, DGbob and mvtools the main bunch, vdub (mod and MPEG2), MeGUI, MKVtoolnix, graphedit, avidemux, DVD tweaking authoring and encoding: FAVC, PCGEdit, muxman, vobblanker, vobedit, ifoedit, rejig, DVD shrink, HCenc, QuEnc, DVDauthor+gui, subrip, subtitle workshop,
mp3tag, audacity
notepad++ and avisynth definitions.
Hex workshop, xways forensics + emulation/rom hacking/flashcart tools (all standalone so that does not matter, would rapidly build this list up as well). Offline list as well.
grabit, quickpar and yenc power post (updated version), I do not use torrents for anything but mutorrent would be it.
for when I want to speak to people trillian works OK, I have a copy of GAIM here but I have not got around to setting it up.
coding wise, this changes daily depending on whose code I am messing with. HLA + MASM for x86 asm, autoit for GUI making and batchdpg, devkitpro for consoles. C? is not usally on the cards so I have nothing for that.
Most other things: diagnostic software, CAD stuff tends to come and go on a weekly basis. Ethereal/wireshark stays though.
One final thing I have a small program called eclipse, it looks like a light switch and turn the screen all one colour (really good for dual monitor laptops). It is in French (colour: couleur, exit: quitter etc) and I have had it for years (at least 7) but alas eclipse is also a linux app of some notoriety so if someone could point me to a page about the one I have I would be immensely grateful.
Last but not least I put a text file on the desktop explaining what I done and put a copy of my kit in their my documents or root or desktop....