• Use FireFox or Opera, which are both more secure than I.E.
• Know what you are downloading, especially from torrent sites, and programs like Limewire.
• Know what sites you are visiting, and Know if they are trust worthy. ( there are Firefox  add-ons to help you with this)
• Do not open email attachments that are not from a trusted source. In fact do not open anything that is not from a trusted source
• Scan Emails with a antivirus program.
• Scan files you download with an antivirus program.
• Basically just use common sense.

Which Programs Should you Use?

I will show you two programs which I think will enhance the security on your computer. (Note: that these are what I believe the be the best programs, there are some alternatives that other people firmly believe in)

The first is the Antivirus program.

My pick is. . .

Avast! Home Edition

Avast has several key features, which make it and extremely useful and powerful tool. These features include On-Access protection which is always scanning for a problem in the mail or file system, and antivirus program which can do a thorough scan of your drives, and a bootscan(that you can schedule) that scans for viruses during the boot process of your system. Avast is simple, easy to use, and free. (Click Here for Download)

Now for the Firewall Program

I use and suggest COMODO Firewall Pro.

This firewall is really great.  It has too many features for me to cover. But it’s key features are network defense,  defense from harmful applications, File protection (deny all access or modification to certain files), parental controls, there are many more features to it. This is a well known, and highly praised firewall. It’s free, so it is definitely worth a try. (Click Here For Download)

So, if you follow those general tips, and use these two programs your computer should stay virus free.

Here are a few more free software programs which could be useful to you:

Photoshop

I haven't actually tried this one yet (only because I haven't had time) but Paint.NET looks very promising.

Antivirus

There are quite a few anti virus programs around try one of these ClamAV, Avast, AntiVir or AVG. Well you could simply try all 4 of them since it doesn't cost you anything.

Sound Recording Editing

There are probably better once out there but they will charge you for their software. So try Audacity. It certainly has some nice features and I am sure you will get used to it.

Winzip

There is a complete free software called 7-zip. Can extract from many different formats but sadly can not compress into the same. But hey, it's free.

Sage

Fed up with paying loads of money for sage but then not even use all its features that you pay for. Maybe Turbocashuk can help you to save a little bit of cash. Not sure how good it is since I don't need them.