download.com is a good place

FireFox is the browser I use, OpenOffice is my office suite (handles everything from MS but Access files, but your probably don't work in databases that much). Googling either will find them in a heartbeat. AVG is a good antivirus, ZoneAlarm has nice free version of their firewall, and SpyBot takes care of spyware. Stinger is good if you think your computer is sick and need to find the reason why, if something slips through your defenses, but make sure you download the newest one each time you need it. All of these just take a few minutes to find, then the only thing you pay for is the cost of your download time. And all of these were designed so you don't need a hundred credits in computer science to install them- they aren't as slick as the Microsoft installs, but that just means you have to click the mouse every so often. The difference between being the driver, and being the guy stuffed in the trunk- both get to where they are going, but one's going to have a bad day.