The most annoying thing about software is spending many hours writing it only to discover that someone has already done it and sometimes even done it better. I am a great believer in buy before build as long as what you are buying does what you need and you enjoy using it. In my time, I have come across a lot of good software and a lot of good sites listing a lot of good software (most but not all of it free), so without further ado here are the links:
File Hippo – just about the best software site in the world in my opinion – there is no crap here.
winAddons Top 300 Freeware software – a very comprehensive list of great software.
PC World 101 Fabulous Freebies – nice list of cool free software complete with descriptions.
Scott Hanselman’s 2006 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows – if you are a software developer you need some of this software and if you are not there is still much of interest here. Don’t miss the opportunity to read Scott’s blog and subscribe to his podcast called Hanselminutes.
Scott’s List of Ultimate Visual Studio.NET AddIns – if you develop software in Visual Studio, take a look here for some great add-ins.
The Road to Know Where Ultimate List of Free Windows Software from Microsoft – the one and only list of virtually every piece of free software available from Microsoft.
The Road to Know Where Ultimate List of Free Office Software from Microsoft – software, add-ins and templates for Microsoft Office by Microsoft.
If you are into USB thumb drives and love the idea of carrying all your software around with you and using it on any machine without having to install it on those machines then you need to be looking at portable applications. Top sites are:
PortableApps.com – This if the first and arguably the best essential collection of applications you should install on your thumb drive.
The Portable Freeware Collection – If it is free and either is or can easily be made portable then you will probably find it here.
Daily Cup Of Tech PC Repair System – the blog author challenged his readers to come up with suggestions for perfect collections of freeware (fitting within a single category) that would fit in a 32Mb USB thumb drive. This is the first one released and has been so successful that the author has had major issues with availability, so if you cannot get through on first attempt, keep trying.
I’m always keen to here about new lists and new software, so feel free to tell me about them.
Mystical Leanings 
Thanks so much for the links to my articles — and good luck on starting your own blog! (^_^)
Blake Handler
"The Road to Know Where"