If you are still using Internet Explorer then you are missing out. Firefox is free, extremely secure, displays web pages correctly (unlike IE!), updated frequently, has 100's of additional modules for anything you can think of. I could go on and on, just try it out and you will never go back to IE :) It is made by mozilla who invented browsers in the first place...

Get Firefox from Mozilla

Fantastic collection of vsti's especially for dub type stuff. Analogic is a great delay which I use extensively, it feedbacks in a very analog way.

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I have seriously reduced the amount of VST plugins I use nowadays. This is one of my favourites though, built to emulate a Robert Fripp style tape loop system, you can hear it in action on 'Shining' and 'Whirlpool. There are some other great plugins on this page as well:

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The best mp3 codec in my opinion, its also one of the oldest but using the high quality setting is much better to my ears than lame although it takes a bit longer.

Visit Radium Codec page

In my opinion the best AV software and completely free:

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GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.

Get the Gimp

This is a full blown open source MS Office type suite, completely free. Includes all the usual word processor, database, spreadsheet, etc...

Open Office

A useful Utility for checking out your hard disks, does some thorough testing and reporting based on SMART, but can give you some bad news :( It also does lots of other stuff like report temperatures, change fan speeds etc...

Speedfan

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