Must Have Must Have
Not Necessary, but Nice. This page lists programs that, while not required to make your computer run well, they are very good applications and I recommend them highly. The average XP user should have these programs, enough said.
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Flash
Macromedia Flash Plugin Flash Browser Plugin Freeware by Macromedia
Flash is becoming more and more commonplace on today's Internet. Not always used well, but it is sometimes necessary to make your web browsing experience better. I also recommend getting FlashBlock if you use firefox so you can pick and choose which flash applets you want to play.

Java
Java runtime Java Runtime Plugin Freeware by Sun Microsystems
Java is both a popular web browser plugin and is used as a foundation for cross platform applications. I use several java applications, including the one I'm making this web page on right now.

Open Office
Open Source Office OpenOffice.org Freeware sponsored by Sun Microsystems
Open Office began as StarOffice way back when and has evolved into a free office suite that is on par with Microsoft Office or Lotus Smartsuite. It can read MS Word and Excel files too, so even though it's a big download it's worth it as a replacement for the expensive MS Office.

Opera
Opera Web Browser Opera Free Version by Opera Software
I first discovered Opera back when I was still using Windows 3.1. Since then it has grown into the power users web browser with tons of neat little features and things to customize. I use Opera to test web pages that I have created, making sure the display properly in all browsers.

Thunderbird
Thunderbird email client Thunderbird Freeware by Mozilla
Thunderbird is a full featured email client which works as a companion to Mozilla's Firefox. It's more secure than Outlook or Outlook express when it comes to email viruses and has a built in customizable spam filter.

WinAMP
WinAMP MP3 Player Winamp Free Version by Nullsoft
If you play music files on your Windows system, I can't recommend WinAMP enough. Windows Media Player is a very bloated and sluggish program, I have literaly seen it make 3ghz Pentium 4s with 512 RAM slow down and stutter. WinAMP is much less of a resource hog and it now plays video as well, so you can stop using Windows Media Player entirely

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