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OpenOffice.org Office Suite - 100% Free - Need to write documents, create spreadsheets, or create slideshow presentations? You don't need to spend a fortune on Microsoft Office. Sun has created the OpenOffice.org Office Suite to provide you with all that and more. You can also open existing Microsoft Office documents and create ones that can be opened by other Microsoft Office users. This is a great alternative, especially for students that are required to turn in "Word" documents for their school work. It provides the equivalent of Word (Writer), Excel (Calc), Powerpoint (Impress), Publisher (Draw), Access (Base) and its own unique program for doing mathmatical work (Math).
OpenOffice by default uses the Open Document Format (ODF) to save its files. While you can save your files in standard MS Office formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt), it's advised that that you only do so to send the files to people that need that format. Be aware, though, that there is no cost for your friends & colleagues to obtain OpenOffice so they can freely view & edit your documents in their native formats without being required to purchase software. Saving your files in the ODF formats also ensures they will always be able to be opened far into the future, no matter what program you're using. ODF is designed to be future-proof. MS Office offers no guarantee of forward compatibility, and if you've been a long time Word user, you've no doubt run into that very issue when trying to open old documents you created years ago.

CDBurnerXP Pro - 100% Free - Reloaded your computer and realized you didn't get a disk to reinstall your CD burning software with your computers? Windows has some CD burning capability built in, but it's very limited and you'll be lucky if anyone else (or you in the future) will be able to read that disk. Good, free CD burning software is very hard to come by, so we're very grateful to these developers for doing such a great job and just giving it away. Here is a list of compatible disk burners with this software. If you can't find yours, try it anyway. It costs less than a penny (one bad disk) to find out!

VLC Media Player - 100% Free - A great alternative to Windows Media Player that allows you to play MANY different video formats (including standard DVD movies) that Windows cannot do by default.

GnuCash Financial Software - 100% Free - This program can be compared to Quicken in terms of functionality, but that is where its similarities end. While not as user-friendly as its commercial counterpart, if you take the time to learn how to use it, GnuCash can provide the same or higher level of financial management as Quicken. For those that know accounting, it provides a true, double-entry system so you always know where your money is coming and going. I've been using it for my own personal finances for years and will never go back to paying for Quicken again.
Download the Stable Windows Installer here

Pidgin Instant Messenger - 100% Free - No, that's not a misspelling. It's actually a fairly creative and appropriate name for this software (Wikipedia: Pidgin). This program lets you connect to multiple IM Networks (AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, and even more!) all at once and without all the advertising clutter than some of the official clients come with.

The GIMP Photo/Picture Editor - 100% Free - This oddly named software package is the free software community's response to Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop is still a better piece of software, and if you need professional graphic design capability, Photoshop will probably suit you better. But, if you don't have the money and need something to do a little more than just basic graphic design work, The GIMP is a great alternative.
Download the latest version for Windows here

Audacity Sound/Music Editor - 100% Free - I've had several people asking me if there's any kind of free audio editors out there for editing music and converting to different formats. There is! If you've never done sound editing before, it may seem daunting at first, but for people that have done it before, I've been told this program is very easy to get the hang of. It can: Record live audio; Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs; Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files; Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together; Change the speed or pitch of a recording; and much more!