>>RealPlayer? Really? I find that an annoying little pest of a program and usually uninstall it.

I turn off all the options I don't want and use the bits I do. I quite like the ease of downloading videos from YouTube if I want them with it. I know thee are lots of options on that but just find it easy. Having said that I do rather prefer YouTubeHack which is a nice way to download the best quality video available from YouTube - can't remember where I came across that one though.

>>On the others, some are obvious, but not all are clear in their function. Could you expand your list a bit and tell us why you prefer those over other software?

Which ones? In some cases they are things that I use, but also use others. I may well use them alongside rather than preferring. I have a copy of PhotoShop and Fireworks on this machine but rarely use them - much of the time I use an old legal (and free as it was on a magazine) copy of Paint Shop Pro because it's less hassle (or even an even more ancient copy of Adobe Photo Deluxe only because I taught myself to use it quite well and didn't need to know more than that)

Quite like CamStudio
too which is an open source Free Streaming Video Desktop Recording Software. I've used that at work as well though I can get access to Camtasia if I an be bothered to teach myself how to use it properly.

I'm not sure if it's technically free or not but I'm a huge fan of notepad.