Need-to-have software:

[Padma]

Lightfang: I don't think I would suggest that a lawyer, studying for becoming a judge, use "unscrupulous means" to acquire software.

Even if Brazilian law isn't as draconian as US law....

 

[earthguido]

Trillian (msn + yahoo + irc + etc etc)
Mozilla (Firefox & Thunderbird)
7-zip file manager
GIMP 2 or Picasa depending on your needs
Winamp
CutePDF writer to save files in pdf
Foxit reader pro to read pdf files (faster, lighter, better!)

all of the above are freeware!

 

[WerBackIII]

Free Games, mostly, also, free music from MySpace (there're awesome artists out there)

Try also this: http://www.abandonia.com. It's even legal!

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Ya noobs. You didn't mention Civ3.

 

[Sir_Lancelot]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=163346


For security I'd suggest as follows. All are free, but some offer extra functionality if you pay a small amount.

Antivirus: anything with a good reputation
Firewall: same as above. (Note that the XP firewall does not have a good rep)

Spybot - offers realtime protection without consuming cpu power. Also used to scan the hard drive.
Ad-aware - used to scan the HD. A hit.
ie-spyad - not a program that runs on you computer. Instead it loads thousands of websites into the browser's restricted zone. Spybot also does this, but ie-spyad's database is bigger.
WinPatrol - monitors critical parts of the system. Also offers loads of information, and control of many things.
No Flash - Wonderful little program that can freeze animated pictures and block flash content. Easy to turn it off if you some time need to allow all content.

I use more than this, but this is the most important ones.

Some links:

Spybot's forum and info: http://forums.spybot.info/
Ad-aware forum and info: http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/

Download site: http://www.castlecops.com/downloads-cats-14-0-10.html
Download site: http://www.majorgeeks.com/
Download site: http://www.merijn.org/programs.php

ie-spyad: http://www.spywarewarrior.com/uiuc/resource.htm
No Flash: http://www.bbshare.com/
Spybot: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html and http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html
Ad-aware: www.lavasoft.de/support/download
WinPatrol: www.winpatrol.com/download.html

Do NOT trust programs on this list: http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm