Win 7 for Linux users

I just got my new laptop ---I broke the screen of the old one by falling while walking with it on my hands. As it is a tablet (Lenovo x220t), I'm keeping Windows 7 due to the beautiful MS Office One Note. Now, I haven't used Windows in more than 10 years, so I thought that there might be someone there in a similar situation that could benefit from my current experience. 

Really important things to do once you get your fresh Windows 7 install, 

1. Be paranoid! The first thing to install is an antivirus. Go to Microsoft Security Essentials, download and run it. Follow the instructions.
2. Be hip! Go to Start (The Windows icon in the bottom-left corner), search for Windows Update, click on it and relax while your system gets updated. You may have to restart once and run it again.
3. Be prepared! Go to Start, search for Backup and Restore, click on it  and follow the instructions to create a backup of your fresh install.

Hereby, it is all about what you need. I'm going to start with all those things that most people use and need everyday---for free!

1. Summon the Intertubes! Go to Google Chrome webpage, download the installer and run it. Follow the instructions.
2. Secure the Intertubes! If you are a little bit paranoid, like yours truly, you may want to set Google Chrome to use Secure Socket Layer (SSL)---nowadays most of use do internet banking. Click on the wrench at the right of the address bar, select options, under the bonnet, verify that the SSL options are checked on.
3. Say Cheese! Lets keep on with Google. Go to Google Picasa webpage, download the installer and run it. Follow the instructions. You can even import your online folders to your fresh system.
4. And do something funny! Pictures are usually not enough, so lets install a very nice media player that usually has no problems at all with codecs. Go to Videolan webpage, download VLC and run it. Follow the instructions, and you will have THE media player. 
5. Do not close your eyes! Nowadays, everything is Flash. Go to Adobe Flash Player webpage. Download the installer and run it. Follow the instructions.
6. Just feel the vibe! There's a very nice audio player, that usually has no problems with codecs. Go to Foobar webpage, do not get confused with all the adds asking for a click to download something that is not the latest version of foobar, download the installer and run it. Follow the instructions.
7. Get your coffee cup ready! Java is sometimes needed for those fancy webpages with proprietary controllers. Go to Java webpage, download the installer and run it. Follow the instructions and don't forget to verify your version at the end.
8. And prepare to work! Now, here it is about your choosing of buying a MS Office license for some $150 USD or go to Open Office webpage. Download the installer and run it. Follow the instructions and you will have a free functional productivity suite that can do most of what MS Office does.

Now, my line of work requires some fidgeting with figures and a special formatting system called Latex. What follows are those programs related to my work.

1. MiKTeX is a very complete distribution of latex for windows. Go to MiKTeX webpage, look for the latest release, as of today v2.9. I recommend you downloading the Basic MiKTeX 32 bit Installer as I got troubles with the 64 bit version---the on-the-fly installer of styles and classes never worked.
2. TexMaker is a free and very solid latex editor. It may not win a beauty pageant but it gets the work done. You can download the latest version at TexMaker webpage,  run it and follow the instructions.
3. The Gimp is a free image manipulation program that competes with Photoshop---actually, in my standard, The Gimp wins as it is for free. There's a working Windows installer here or you can get the source files at The Gimp homepage. Whatever you choose, just follow the instructions.
4. Inkscape is a scalable vector graphics editor; you may be interested in this if you use Illustrator often. Go to Inkscape webpage, download the windows installer and you know the drill.
5. Python, iPython, wxPython, NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, and Python Toolkit are a great combination for producing quick numerical routines for your everyday physics problems. Just follow the links in the order presented here and make sure that you choose the adequate version of each one. iPython is a nice IDE for quick scripts and running proper scripts. Python Toolkit looks and feels like Matlab a few years ago, which is very good for a free product.

And I think that is it for now. I hope you find this helpful.

Update 12/25/2011:

Lately, I found myself using more and more the following free software:

1. Magic ISO is an almost free ISO burner and mounter, for some reason Windows 7 didn't come with a mount app and this is a nice supplement to the file manager. In order to mount ISO files it will ask you to install Magic Disc, it is just a matter of following the instructions and, then, mounting a ISO file is just a right click away.
2. Adobe Digital Editions is the free library manager and DMR enforcer from Adobe. It allows you to download the epubs associated to those acm files you get whenever you buy an ebook. It has a nice interface and it basically works with almost any epub ereader. 
3. Raw Therapee is a free RAW image file developer, it has very useful basic preset and a nice batch processing utility. I have developed all of my latest photos with this software and I'm very happy with the result.