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DO NOT post links to sites that are just a big list of apps, it must be a link to a download page.
The application must be FREE and have ongoing development and/or support.
You must be using it now or have used it in the past, this way we can avoid "I heard this app was pretty good" type recommendations which are mostly worthless.
The type od application is not limited, anything from graphic editors to firewalls, anti virus to P2P apps - anything you consider "must have".
There are apps like firefox, thunderbird, adaware, spybot, acrobat and so on which most people should be using anyway. If you can be bothered I'll leave adding a link for those apps to the thread to you!
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I'll start:
- basic image editor; crop, resize, enhance, shift format and heaps more. Very easy to use. No where near as versatile as GIMP or PS or anything, but it will suit the vast majority of jobs you have for image editing.
- more codecs than you can shake a stick at. Includes media player classic and well as quick alternative and real alternative for playing quicktime and real media files without having to install those invasive shiteating applications.
- superb torrent client with tiny resource footprint. The only torrent client worth your time.
- sweet little ftp client
- see what's sitting in your inbox before you download it. Delete mail from the mailserver and bounce unwanted mail back to the source. Includes white and black lists.
- tweak the living hell out of your nVidia card!
- this will play pretty much ANY media file (audio, video and DVD) without having to install a codec pack. IMO not as high quality as K-Lite + MPC but very good stand alone media player.
- check the status of a torrent before loading it into your client. Very useful for seeing whether a torrent has any seeds before your client goes to work.
- very nice mp3 tag editor, includes freedb connectivity.
- change the gain of your mp3 files so they all play at the same volume. Yes, you have to do it manually (i.e. select files, analyse, make the change), but can do multiple files in one shot and you'll never have to worry about the volume control again.
Updated with apps from below.
The Gimp (Graphic Editor)
http://www.gimp.org/
windows installers -> http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/
Free graphic manipulation app. Very powerful, the only downside is UI.
GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.
SciTE (Text Editor / Syntax Highlighter)
Solid app. i use it for all my coding.
http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html
A lightweight free text editor/syntax highlighter. Very customizable syntax highlighting. Can also compile and run apps through the console.
NotePad++ (Text Editor / Syntax Highlighter)
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
Under 1MB in size, but one of the best text editors I've used. Has very good syntax highlighting and language support. Absolutely no bloat and very customisable. - Disgracian
7-Zip (File compression)
http://www.7-zip.org/
Command-line and Windows shell utility for manipulating ZIP archives.
Supported formats:
Packing / unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR
Unpacking only: RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS
OpenOffice
http://www.openoffice.org/
OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites. Alot of core work is done by Sun as the codebase is StarOffice.
PDFCreator
http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator
Virtual printer -> print files to PDF. Best ive found.
Virtual Dub: loads avis, tga sequences. Can crop, filter, compress/recompress, audio +/-.....and loads of other things. I use this a lot, very handy app indeed.
GSpot: Got an avi or mpeg that is broken or don't what the codec is? Open it with this...sometimes it can even fix broken avis. Excellent little tool.
Free CD-DA Extractor: It's what I use to rip cds and convert wav to mp3s and back again. Connects to cddb as well. Not bloated with useless shite and the guy who made it is Finnish
2xExplorer: Dual pane explorer to replace the Windows one. Straight forward, and doesn't try and preload files, so good for going through loads of large files, if you're organising your pr0n collection or something
Only problem I've ever had is it won't display my mobile phone memory 
Media Player Classic: Better than the Windows version, but with that old Win98 feel. I use it mainly for Xvid, because WindowsMP can do some funny things with gamma, but it's a good substitute for just general use.
Avast!: Free, straight forward, good quality anti-virus. Updates daily.
Super C: To get vids onto a mobile can be a pain in the ass, but this makes it very easy. Drag and drop avi/mov, select settings (audio, resolution, phone type, compression etc). Scroll down to the bottom for the mirrors.
Ultimate Zip: Never tried 7Zip, but have used this for years. Works well
Dr Delete: Windows as you know sometimes just won't let you delete something, even if it's not in use. Kill it with this.
Showman: Ever wonder why the hell your HDD is full, but you can't see what all the files are? Showman lets you see all the files on your drive, including all the horrid temps, recycling etc. Mate of mine found 60GB of hidden data on a 200GB drive. Gotta thank Baldy for this one...he posted it up a long time ago and he knew his software
Easy Cleaner: Invalid registry entries, duplicate files, temp files etc. Get rid of them. This works nicely.
