My long list...
Some suggestions for useful utilities are as follows (some are repeats, some not - am just running down a selection of files in my utilities folder):
* 7-Zip
* Audacity
* Bitvise SSH Server (if you want to do SSH-tunneled RDP securely later on - I remote administer a bunch of PCs this way, it's very handy and very easy to install / configure / use - Bitvise SSH Client being the connection tool of course - supports terminal, SFTP, RDP, etc.)
* CCleaner, Defraggler and Recuva (all Piriform)
* CDBurnerXP or ImgBurn (the latter I like better these days)
* Passmark Disk Checkup (or some other free SMART monitor, in case a drive starts to fail - only annoying thing is it sometimes locks USB keys such that Windows will refuse to eject them)
* DNSCrypt Windows Service Manager Package (makes DNSCrypt / OpenDNS setup that much easier - see http://simonclausen.dk/projects/dnscrypt-winservicemgr/)
* DoPDF (nice free print-to-PDF driver)
* Exact Audio Copy + LAME (+ RazorLAME if you want a nice frontend) + MP3Tag (if they'll be into CD ripping)
* GIMP + InkScape (though I may have to check out Paint.net given the posts here)
* LibreOffice
* Locate32 (a million times better than any Microsoft search utility - turn off indexing / disable and use this instead)
* VLC Player or Media Player Classic Home Cinema + CCCP (I prefer the latter, YMMV)
* Notepad++ *or* Metapad (I like both - the latter seems faster / lighter weight to me actually, even if - or maybe because - it's rather old)
* PDF-XChange Viewer (I like it because it's the only free viewer I found with an equivalent of Acrobat's typewrite function, which for me is critical)
* Pidgin + Skype (if you're in to that sort of thing)
* Process Explorer, Process Monitor, TCPView, WireShark and RegSeeker (more for you than users though)
* PuTTY, or even better, KiTTY, and WinSCP (again, a bit advanced / redundant with Bitvise SSH client to some extent, but if you want)
* Traffic Shaper XP (excellent for, well, traffic shaping :) - seems potentially useful in a bandwidth-limited environment)
* XMedia Recode (*awesome* transcoder, tons of easy to understand presets) and maybe VirtualDub
* VirusTotal Uploader (always a nice thing to have, especially since it hashes the file first to confirm whether upload is necessary - good with limited bandwidth)
* VMWare Player (in case they want to eventually try out Linux without the commitment of nuking their Windows install in the process or the trouble of setting up dual boot after the fact - superior to VirtualBox in terms of compatibility as far as I've seen, I love that I can run a 64-bit Ubuntu guest in a 32-bit Windows host :)
* Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics (if you have any WD drives installed, anyway - simple utility for SMART / disk testing)
* WinDirStat (excellent for answering that nagging question of "where did all my space go?")
* XnView (very nice picture viewer, also handles simple resizing / batch conversion, can play some media files as well)
Now, if we're talking web browsers, for security it's Comodo Dragon or IceDragon I would say, but if you want speed and like a FireFox type environment, I currently favor Pale Moon. Between that and Thunderbird, recommendations for plugins are as follows:
Firefox / related:
* AdBlock Plus
* BetterPrivacy (good / unobtrusive)
* Calomel SSL Validation (not essential but handy)
* DoNotTrackMe (pretty friendly in that it explains itself)
* DownThemAll! (nice downloader that I can see as being particularly useful in a bandwidth-limited environment, between throttling and restart capabilities)
* Flashblock (*highly* recommended - will save on bandwidth and improve security too)
* Forecastfox (who doesn't like to talk about the weather...)
* Ghostery (also pretty user-friendly)
* HTTPS-Everywhere (good / highly unobtrusive)
* NoScript (less sure about this - maybe too intrusive?)
Thunderbird related:
* Awesome Auto Archive (OMG, how did I live without this - really *is* awesome)
* Extra Folder Columns (minor improvement but handy for tracking message count / size)
* Mail Summaries (not essential but cool)
* Manually Sort Folders (not essential but might relieve some user frustration?)
* MinimizeToTray Revived (well, *I* think it's essential :) - works for FF too)
* Simple HT Jumper (very handy for occasionally switching to HTML messages if you need to)
* SortPref (as above, not essential but might relieve some user frustration?)
PS - In addition to my faves above, I've picked up some new and useful tools to try, so thanks to everyone for the posts!
Enjoy,
Arc_Light