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Your Top Favorite Windows Apps
Iconomaker http://www.iconempire.com/free-icon-editor/ (freeware)
Allows 32 bit icons.
Everything else has been hit on?
Although I must put my 5 cents in for IconDrop even though it is an AveDesk Desklet it is in my opinion a great app.
Edit:
PodXP by Lefool. I'm liking this very much. http://www.podxp.com
Opera - the best webbrowser ever with so much Features and finally FREEWARE.
IncrediMail - Email Client. May look a little bit overloaded at the first look, but is very useful (skinnable, notifier and many more). Addware/Shareware.
Spybot-S&D - very good spyware removal tool. Freeware.
Other great tools, such as iTunes, Object Dock or DVD Shrink are already posted. Take a look. :cool:
I'd have to say VirtualDub (transform/extract/mux/demux/encode avi files), EditPlus (love the ease of importing syntax libraries), Copernic Desktop Search. ZoneAlarm/SpybotS&D/PeerGuardian2 and Az'reus.
Give-ins are daily uses - iTunes, Trillian Pro3.1, Firefox (Deer Park's pretty good), ObjectDock and of course - AveDesk 
Gaim/PGP Encryption plugin (a good chatting program) http://gaim.sourceforge.net/
Photoshop CS http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html
WinRAR (the best for .RAR and .ZIP files) http://www.rarlab.com/
Firefox (common now you cant ask for a better browser) http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
Thunderbird (best email client imo) http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/
iTunes (mandatory if you own an iPod like me) http://www.apple.com/itunes/
SmartFTP (pretty self-explanatory) http://www.smartftp.com/
eMule http://www.emule-project.net/home/perl/general.cgi?l=1
Azeures (best torrent client)
Virtual Daemon http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/portal/download.php
AVG Anti-Virus (best free anti-virus program) http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1
Sygate Personal Firewall (one of the best firewalls available) http://www.sygate.com/
DVD decrypter http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_so...d_decrypter.cfm
VLC player (best video player EVER) http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Media Player Classic (just incase theres something VLC cant play) http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/
Alcohol 120% (for burning DVD's CD's etc) http://www.alcohol-soft.com/
IfranView (does more then just view your images) http://www.irfanview.com/
FreshDownload (my favorite download manager) http://www.freshdevices.com/
Audacity (best if you like to make custom tracks and editing audio) http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
NERO http://www.nero.com/
MagicISO (like ISObuster) http://www.magiciso.com/
Limewire (best P2P program imo no spyware or adware unlike Kazaa) http://www.limewire.com/
and a whole lot more but i dont feel like typing them all down.
For my windows customization i use these programs. Im sure you can find the websites here on aqua-soft.org.
Konfabulator
Avedesk w/Avetunes
Samurize
Styler (dont like WB)
RK Launcher/Y'z Dock
Rainlender
Multi-Plugin for iTunes (if it werent for this i would be using Foobar or Winamp instead)
for images editing and stuff : Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2, CorelDraw 12
for making my website : Dreamweaver 8, the traditional Notepad
for burning process : Nero Burning ROM 6
for file sharing : Limewire Pro, BitTornado
for anti-virus : Norton SystemWorks 2005
for chatting with you peeps : Trillian Pro 3.1
for modding : Iconpackager Enhanced, WB Enhanced 4.6, AveDesk 1.3, ObjectBar Enhanced, WindowFX Enhanced, RKLauncher
for my music needs : iTunes + Multi-Plugin
for browsing the WWW : Mozilla Firefox Beta 1 (codename: Deer Park)
for games : Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 4, Counter-Strike 1.3, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
for file compression : WInRAR 3.50
for system maintenance : System Mechanic Pro 5
for videos/movie stuff : AVI MPEG WMV Joiner, Easy Video Splitter, PowerDVD
The Ave suite of Mac look-alike applications is very cool and useful, especially ForceQuit, if you know what I mean
Just a few lifesavers that haven't been mentioned yet:
TrayIt - a wonderful little, and extremely resource efficient app that allows you to send any window/application to to the system tray.
www.teamcti.com/trayit/trayit.htm
WinRoll - low memory stamp rolling up windows.
PopOpen - I never seem to tire from watching that effect.
www.pcreview.co.uk/startup/popopen.exe/Popopen.php
Autosizer - Manage size-wise how certain windows appear.
iColorFolder - fabulous little app that lets you change the appearance of any folder via a right-click. Used in conjunction with cmenuextender the sky is the limit.
www.icolorfolder.sourceforge.net/
www.monctoncomputerservice.com/revenger_inc/cmext.html
dBpowerAMP Music Converter - could music conversion be any easier? I think not. Convert all your music files to any format via the right-click menu.
Orbit Dock - get a whiff of the future
From what i have in my dock:
~Mozilla Firefox - Web Browser - Tabbed webrowsing and extensions made easy, also skinnable and self updating, chosen over Opera and Netscape because of light wieght and extension possibilities
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
~Apple iTunes - Audio Media Player - At first i used to gripe about being bound to the software with my ipod but i have grown the love the external scripting interface and stylish interface, chosen over Winamp because i have an ipod and becuase if its popularity to projects like Konfabulator and AveDesk
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
~VLC - Video Media Player - I fairly recent addition to my favorite app collection, i have been using it on macs for about 3 years, oblivious to its existance on Windows, until yesterday when i finished downloading Ghost in the Shell only to find out it had a russian codec stuck to it, but never fear, VLC to the rescue, plays every type of movie file i've encountered for 3 years, chosen over WMP (Windows Media Player), Winamp and iTunes 5 for its file support and its well programmed..ness
~Trillian 3 - Multi-Protocol IM Client - I used trillian for a long time also, its the closest thing i could find to the phantasmal Adium for OSX, allows me to connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ and IRC all at the same time, although i would gripe that the free version doesn't support Google's Talk Protocol (actually a version of Jabber), chosen over Miranda and Gaim for configurability and themeability, i found it to be alot more stable than Miranda also
http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/downloads/
~Azureus - BitTorrent Peer to Peer Client - Self updating, cross platform, java based application offering very unique tabbed interface i have fallen in love with, it also sports a handy feature called the "Download Bar" wich will display a torrent's progress in a little bar that stays on the desktop even while the main Azureus window is minimized, quite stable wich mean its great for leaving on over night, chosen over... haven't ever used anything else for bittorrent
http://azureus.sourceforge.net/
~Continuum - Free Massive Multi-Player Online Game - Remember the good old days? this is nice little game with a great community element to it, huge international audience and customizable, player-side graphics, chosen for acceptance of dialup speed connection (xD) and price
http://www.subspacedownloads.com/index.php?act=what_is
From what is running in my tray:
~Konfabulator - Desktop Widget Runtime Enviroment - Im always happy to support a cross-platform effort and its drop in price ($30 to free) and popularity to widget developers (http://www.widgetgallery.com/) make it a worthwhile applictaion for both Windows and OSX, chosen over AveDesk, Rainlender, Rainmeter and Samurize for price, variety in widget tasks and easy to browse widget gallery
~WindowBlinds 4.5 - Visual Theme/Style Application - If Styler is the best of the simpler visual style application programs than WindowBlinds is the best of the complicated ones, i find its theme format to be more comprehensive and more thought dependable than .MSStyles, it offeres easy installation of new themes and neat management of theme files (i hated the knitty gritty of having to do that myself with .MSStyles, although it is a sacrifice of system resources to have it in the tray all the time, it still does the job well, chosen over StyleXP and Styler for management of files and ease of theme changing
http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/
~Spybot S&D - Anti-SpyWare and Registry Protection - Ever have those applications that NEED to have a registry item instlled? you find out later that you actually don't need that registry item and its slowing down your startup? fix that problem before it starts, when your instlling the program with Spybot, it will stop and ask you for any and all registry changes which prooves to be very handy in maintaining a healthy registry, my only complaint is that its not self updating, chosen over Ad-Aware and Microsoft Antispyware for its very handy registry protection
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/
**not proof read or spellchecked**
IconMaker 3.0 for creating and editing icons. It is a good software to create small and standard sized icons.
NOt find -KKMenu. If your own file,pls. I cannot download from Wincustomize.grr
www.morpheus.com free- good p2p program. fast and gives many search results
www.microsoft.com has many free usefull programs such as Anti-spyware
www.Sonic.com - paid- has some good burning cd programs. if you register your product then you get a free program.
www.dell.com- free- has some good programs. For some of them you do not need to have their computer. You just download it.
www.yahoo.com free has a good browser if you have a yahoo account. You get to be notified if you have a new email in your inbox.
www.verizon.com offers a free Verizon Yahoo! Online Protection if you have verizon DSL
Image Editor//PURCHASE: Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 2 - http://www.adobe.com
Audio Converter//PURCHASE: Xilisoft Audio Converter - http://www.xilisoft.com
Audio Editor//PURCHASE: ExpStudio Audio Editor - http://www.expstudio.com/
Media Player//FREE: VLC Media Player - http://www.videolan.org/
Web Browser//FREE: Mozilla FireFox - http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
Media Player//FREE: iTunes - http://www.apple.com/itunes/
-------With Multi-Plugin//FREE (if I can ever get it to work with version 6.0.3.5) -
http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/showthread....ht=Multi-Plugin
Instant Messengers//FREE: AIM - http://www.aim.com
-------With DeadAIM//PURCHASE - http://www.jdennis.net/
Instant Messenger//FREE: MSN - http://messenger.msn.com
Instant Messenger//FREE: X-Fire - http://www.xfire.com
Internet Voice Program//FREE: Ventrilo - http://www.ventrilo.com
Burning Software//FREE: Nero - http://www.nero.com
Shell Editor//PURCHASE: Style XP - http://www.tgtsoft.com/
Windows Logon Editor//FREE: Logon Studio - http://www.logonstudio.com/
Anti-Virus//PURCHASE: Symantec Anti-Virus - http://www.symantec.com
P2P Downloader//FREE: Shareaza - http://www.shareaza.com
Other Widgets//FREE: allSnap [Allows you to snap windows like with Trillian] - http://ca.geocities.com/ivanheckman@rogers.com/
Other Widgets//FREE: Tray It! [Allows you to put any program into your systemtray] - http://www.teamcti.com/trayit/trayit.htm
Other Widgets//PURCHASE: TweakXP Utilitiy [Like MS's TweakUI allows you to change up things] - http://www.tweakxp.com
Uhm...
Objectbar: www.stardock.com
-For Mac osx simulation
WB5: www.stardock.com
-For quick changing, and to use Astyanax, Kavin, and duyvan's skins
TClock: http://homepage1.nifty.com/kazubon/tclock/
-Substitute for the standard ugly clock in taskbar
Avedesk: www.avedesk.org
-Uhm....Read unbe's description
Firefox: www.mozilla.com
-Browser
Miranda: www.miranda-im.org
-Chat program
Steam (Gaming!): www.steampowered.com
-Gaming
Adobe Photoshop CS2: www.adobe.com
-Designing
Winamp: www.winamp.com
-Music
TrueLaunchBar: www.truelaunchbar.com
-For your taskbar!
Ventrilo: www.ventrilo.com
-Chat program where you mainly use your microphone
Unlocker: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System.../Unlocker.shtml
-Unlocks things, ex: "This action may not be processed....." Unlocks so you can delete/move..etc.
Bearshare: www.bearshare.com
-Download things, p2p.
Cute FTP Pro: http://www.cuteftp.com/
-for your FTP site.
RK Launcher: http://home.cogeco.ca/~rklauncher/
-A Dock
Nod32: www.nod32.com
-Antivirius
Spyware doctor: http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/
-Anti-Spyware program
and more.. if i can think of em. 
RKLauncher - Most people swear by object dock, but RK doesn't need to be installed and uses a lot less memory.
http://home.cogeco.ca/~rklauncher/
PQ DVD to iPod Converter - After searching forever to find a decent DVD (or basically any kind of video file) to mpeg4 converter, this is by far the best one I've found. well worth 35 bucks.
http://www.pqdvd.com/dvd-to-ipod-video-converter.html
Flyakite OSX 3.5. Chris Kyte's shellpack is the greatest thing to hit windows modding.
http://osx.portraitofakite.com/
Trillian Multi-Chat - Ever since I got my first virus from AIM I have used trillian, and it's amazing
http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/
Photoshop CS2 - There is no getting past how great photoshop is.
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html
AVG free edition - protects your computer without popping up every thirty seconds, and its free!
Firefox - Anything that provides an alternative to microsoft software is alright with me
Worms Armageddon - I don't play many PC games, but this one is just amazing. It never gets old.
-Firefox (rather obvious)
-RKLauncher (again, duh)
-skins, themes, docklets, and pluggins for both.
I have other good ones, but those are just the best.
Winrar - zip programme
Winamp5 - best mp3 player
Flashget - Best download programme
Strokeit
Object Dock
Icon Packager
Apache2Triad - All programs included about PHP Web Programming www.apache2triad.net
Icq
Msn
BitComet - Torrent Downloader
Photoshop CS2
Miranda IM - Instant Messaging
RKlauncher - Dock
Firefox - Does this need explaining?
Photoshop CS2 - Photo Editing
Adobe Illustrator - Hand Drawn images to Vector Lines
FileZilla - FTP Program
Notepad++ - Amazing text editor
Macromedia Dreamweaver - WYSIWYG Editor
Alcohol 120% - Burning/CD Emulation Software
Videora iPod Video Converter - Converts Movie files into iPod format
BitComet - Torrent Applaction
- µTorrent -- Extremely lightweight yet very powerful torrent client. 1 file, 100ish KB, no install. Free
- Hamachi -- Virtual LAN over Internet. For games w/o online support. Free
- Diskeeper -- Disk Defragger. Trial then pay
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
- Speedfan -- Temperatur monitor and fan speed adjustor. Free
http://bb4win.sourceforge.net/bblean/
- BBLean -- My shell replacement of choice. Minimalism and flexibility indeed. Free
Others have been mentioned tons of times already.
iTunes - music/video (free)
Trillian Pro 3 - Chatting (free/shareware)
ObjectDock and Y'z Dock - Docks, I have one on both sides (free)
NextStart - Popup menu. It's like a mobile configurible start menu (free/shareware)
Yahoo! Widget Engine - Useful widgets (free)
Firefox - Once fully configured, by far the best browser I have ever used! (free)
Can't think of any others right now...
Firefox
iTunes and Windows Media Player 11
Thunderbird
AveDesk
WinRAR
Among other things...
-Ertai
MIranda IM (latest build and plugins)
foobar2000 9.2
RKlauncher with kkmenu
Notepad ++
Website watcher
Firefox (Cpu optimized build http://www.vector64.com/WindowsBuilds.html)
VLC 0.8.6
Flashget
Ad Muncher
TuneUp 2006
Nlite
RadioFree
Links would, indeed, be nice. Since I can try some of the stuff you guys use 
.
Anyway; my list (all free):
RK Launcher - Dock - Easiest, lightest and fastest dock I've seen to date. Be sure to always link to the nightly build, since the other release has a nasty anti-firefox glitch which brings us to:
Mozilla Firefox - Webbrowser - Best thing to hit a windows system. It's tabbed, and has support for skins and extensions, which turn this browser into a perfect browser.
Mozilla Thunderbird - e-mail - Same as above, except it's for e-mail!
Skype - Internet phone calls - Everybody should have this installed. It's basicly free calling!
UberIcon - Icon effects - Very nice effects on your icons. Zooming, turining... etc.