I want to provide a list of the main software tools that I use. This is not an exhaustive list, it is simply those programs that I recommend for others to use.

SmartFTP - I have used this program for years, it is the best client that I have found. One of the features I really enjoy is the fact that you can build a queue then execute it with x threads. This means that I can download/upload x files at the same time. I have mine set to 30, but I suppose you could go much higher. It drastically speeds up the process of updating sites.

WinRAR - The best tool I have found for dealing with archives. It accepts a large variety of formats and handles the compression/decompression quickly. It also adds a nice option from the explorer context menu to extract here.

UltraEdit-32 - Great text editor. I use it for opening just about everything, I even use it for coding with. It is perfect if you need to make a quick change to a source file because you don't have to wait for studio to load. It also has a decent set of highlighting so that it is easier to read a file than in notepad. The other feature that I really enjoy is the hex view, this is ultra important if you need to parse through files and want to understand what the white space is.

OneNote - It is a convenient way to save your thoughts.

MediaMonkey - This is by far the best media player on the planet, especially if you have a large collection. Believe me, I have used them all, but this is the best. Aside from all of the standard features like searching, visualizer, and the sort it offers many more advanced features. It has a very good auto-tagging feature, and allows you too use aliases to organize your folder structure. So I have <artist>\<album>\<artist> - <song>, and you can burn CDs using this syntax. So you could burn a CD with folders for <genre>\<year>\<artist> - <song>. In addition, it also separates the songs that are missing standard information for you to edit. The auto sorting into standard categories is also very nice. The best part is that it is much lighter on your system resources than other media players.

Foxit Reader - Perfect for reading PDF files. I like it mainly because it loads and is less of a burden on my system than Adobe Reader.

ColorPic - If you do web development you will love this tool. It does exactly what it says, it allows you to use an eye dropper tool anywhere on your screen. The feature I like is that it saves your colors on a palettes. I use these palettes to store the colors for sites or projects that I am working on. You should also check out the other tools by Iconico, they are very good.

MODIv2 - The DOM explorer and inspector in the Firefox and Explorer developer toolbars do not even compare to the usefulness of this tool. The best part is that it is free and works with IE, FF, Opera, Safari, and so on. Simply click on the following link and you will get it immediately. In addition, if you want to use it like me then add it to your bookmarks and simply click on it when you want to inspect a page. And don't worry, it will work on web pages that you run locally.

FireFox - Everyone knows about FireFox, therefore I will provide you with the list of extensions that I use and my default theme.
-- minifoxFlat - Best theme, it simplifies FF and compacts everything.
-- DownThemAll! - Best download manager. I just use a one click download and it splits my files so that they download faster. Perfect!
-- UI Tweaker - Great for removing clutter. It has some very cool features, like combining the stop refresh buttons, removing wasted space and many more.
-- Session Manager - I don't know why FireFox doesn't do this, but oh well because this extension does. It saves your tabs and resumes them. It is a perfect solution for whenever you were in the middle of something or someone kills your browser. You just start up FireFox and it is like nothing happened, it even saves your scroll positions.
-- View Source Chart - It makes looking through all of those divs more pleasant. Drastically improves finding code on a page, especially whenever you combine it with MODIv2.

BlogDesk -- This is my first post using BlogDesk, but from what I can tell it seems very nice. Much more light weight than Qumana and it appears to do more than BlogJet. I think I will keep using it if all goes well, and I recommend it as a free blog client.

Alcohol 120% -- I have been using this tool for years, it does a great job of backing up my and mounting my CD/DVD software so that I don't have to insert them later. It also has a powerful burning capability.

Reflector -- Perfect for viewing the source of your references when doing .NET development. I practically keep this up all of the time. I can be faster at finding a solution for a coding question that I am with google.

Watir/Ruby/TestDriven.Net/NUnit/NCover/ccNet -- For testing your code

For a few more links checkout http://del.icio.us/wpreul