The following tools are for Windows users (some can be used for Mac users as well, just check out the specifics on the websites before downloading).

HTML Editor

Crimson Editor is a professional source code editor for Windows. This software offers many powerful features for programming languages such as HTML, C/C++, Perl and Java. Other features include undo/redo, user tools, macros, spell checker and more.

FTP Program

File Zilla is a full featured, high quality FTP program. If you plan on uploading things to your website (like images, music, movies, wordpress, anything) you need a FTP client. Using your web-browser is not a good idea. This program works on all three platforms, and works very well.

Image Manipulation Programs

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.

For the Photoshop lovers, there is a Photoshop Mod at gimpshop.com.

Web Browser

If you are going to be doing anything on the web, you will need a good web browser. Something other than internet explorer. I highly recommend firefox, which you can get by clicking here www.GetFirefox.com.

Make sure your website looks good in all web browsers. The easiest way to do this is install several web browsers on your computer. If there is a browser you cannot use, just check out the following site when you are done: www.browsershots.org. The browser shots website will show you what your website looks like on multiple operating systems, with multiple browsers, and with different versions of those browsers.

AVG

Anti-virus & anti-spyware ( http://free.avg.com )

AVG is a completely free program that offers real-time protection, regular updates, and scheduled scans.

C Cleaner

System Optimization, Privacy and Cleaning Tool ( http://www.ccleaner.com )

C Cleaner removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner.

Wordpress

WordPress is a blog tool and publishing platform. Simple dashboard to add/edit/delete posts and pages.

Blogger

Blogger.com This is the best free blogging system available in my opinion. Blogs are hosted on blogspot.com or blogger.com free of charge.

Sweetcron

SweetCron is an automated lifestream blog software. Automatically posts feeds to your blog via external accounts such as Twitter.com, flickr.com, Hulu.com, Last.fm and many more social networking sites. Demo site is www.yongfook.com.

sNews

sNews is a completely free, standards compliant, PHP and MySQL driven Content Management System. sNews is extremely lightweight, simple and customizable. It’’s easy to install, and easy to use via a simple web interface. sNews consists of only one core engine file, one independent template file and its accompanying CSS stylesheet file, plus an .htaccess file that makes all URLs search engine friendly.

Microsoft Outlook Alternatives

Eudora and Mozilla Thunderbird are both great alternative software programs to Microsoft’s Outlook. Mozilla Thunderbird is my personal preference as users can increase Thunderbird’s functionality and appearance using hundreds of add-ons.

Digsby

Digsby is a multiprotocol IM client that lets you chat with all your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber with one simple to manage buddy list. Also features email notification tool and social networking tool that alerts you of events like new messages and gives you a live Newsfeed of what your friends are up to.