Good little audio/video player

VLC player

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Fast and Free Adobe Reader

Tired of Adobe reader taking a long time to start up or the constant push down of large updates just to read a file. Try Foxit Reader

Free FTP client

FileZilla FTP

Great Free Antivirus programs

Avast! Home Edition

AVG Free Edition

AntiVir Personal Addition

Get detailed information about your XP System: SIW

SIW gives detailed information about your computer properties and settings, detailed specs for: Software, Hardware, Network, Tools, and Real-time monitors. SIW is a standalone utility that does not require installation.

http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html

Another great free utility built into Windows for diagnosing whats starting up

Another great built in tool is to use the System Configuration Utility that comes with Windows XP. To get to it, go to the Start menu and select Run. In the Run box, type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) to start the utility.

Diagnostic tools to help decipher XP issues: Hijackthis

Hijackthis is a great utility I've used for years. It helps display what programs start up when you turn on your computer. You can download it by going to:

http://www.merijn.org/files/hijackthis.zip

Recently on the "Mike Tech Show - Podcast - #132 - 07-07-07", he provided two useful links that help analyze log files from hijackthis. Simply cut and paste the output of the log file into the site and it will give you helpful info about what it sees.

Link 1: http://hjt.networktechs.com/
Link 2: http://www.hijackthis.de/