I  had to re-install my laptop as it was running really slow... (although it is getting on a bit too) and thought I would short list my essential apps. 

My Essential list includes:

1. Virus Scanner
2. Microsoft Office
3. PDF Creator
4. Adobe Acrobat Reader
5. Adobe Flash Player
6. MSN Live Messenger
7. Firefox Browser
8. Filezilla FTP Client
9. 7 Zip
10. .NET Framework

Also I couldnt work without:

1. Microsoft Visual Studio 2005
   
2. Macromedia Studio