Free and useful software that I recommend:
Notepad++ I find a better replacement to windows notepad for creating and editing text files.

Keepass is a great free password manager, you can also get apps for phones that can use the same database format.

Irfanview is a great basic image editing program, it's nothing like photoshop but quick and easy to resize images, rotate etc.

Libre office is free and can create/edit documents and spreadsheets. It is a good alternative to Microsoft Office.

Thunderbird is an email client made by the Mozilla team.