Utility

Avira AntiVir Personal – Free Quality Antivirus Software for Windows

Avira AntiVir Personal is a solid, reliable and free antivirus solution that constantly and rapidly scans your computer for malicious programs such as viruses, Trojans, backdoor programs, hoaxes, worms, dialers etc. Monitors every action executed by the user or the operating system and reacts promptly when a malicious program is detected. This is a free software for personal use only with other paid versions available for more advanced and business/commercial use. As just the free version, the software has been highly reviewed by CNET and Softpedia and has received many positive user reviews.

CDBurnerXP

CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn all kinds of CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs and bootable discs. It has a logical, multilanguage interface, so it is fairly easy to operate, even for beginner users. CDBurnerXP is available only for Windows systems as of now, but it runs on versions as old as Windows 2000. It's a truly free software - even if you need this application for your company, you can freely install it on all computers.

Cyberduck

I think Cyberduck is the most user-friendly FTP app out there (too bad it is only for Mac). I was introduced to it a few years ago when I was just barely grasping the concept of FTP and I could connect to different servers & upload files within minutes. Currently the software allows you to browse servers using the following protocols: FTP, FTP/TLS, sFTP, WebDav and browse & upload to Amazon and Mosso's Cloud Storage.

WinSCP

WinSCP is an open source free FTP & sFTP client for Windows. Beyond file transfer, WinSCP offers file management & file synchronization functionality. One of it's biggest advantages its simple user interface - which mimics Windows Explorer (there is one that mimics Norton Commander as well) in both looks and functionality - making a it extremely user-friendly for an avid Windows users. For me, drag-and-drop feature and the ability to see my folder structure is very handy. Even the tool icons look the same as in Windows Explorer, so you will never get lost, even without a manual or a geeky friend next to you.

ImageSizer

ImageSizer is one of the easiest photo tools I've used in a long time. It serves a simple purpose of batch resizing your pictures and then either saving them in a folder or compressing to a .zip file. So simple, yet so useful.

Jing

Jing is a very nifty and user friendly screen capture application from TechSmith. You can use it to snap a picture or even record a video of your computer screen and then share the media with whom every you might like over web, email or IM.

The Electric Sheep

Electric Sheep is a free & open source screensaver created by Scott Draves. It is by far the most beautiful and captivating screensaver I've ever came across. It not only generates amazing images, but it does it "on the fly". When the computer "falls asleep" it starts communicating and collaborating with thousands of computers around the world morphing computer animations known as "sheep". The result of this constant transformation is what some call a collective "android dream", an reference to Philip K. Dick's novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?".