I want to highly recommend the website
C World
www.pcworld.com/
I know it's a magazine for sale, and I think it offers online subscriptions, but it's also free online for so many services!
It has really helped me out - I can look up new and old software reviews so I have an idea of what is working and what may have gone wrong lately with something. (Like the Firefox 3.)Also can look up hardware like printers and cameras.
It's also a great and safe source of freeware to download. Example
penOffice
"Not happy with the idea of a Web-based office application? Then you want the downloadable OpenOffice.org, the free competitor to Microsoft Office. It's a full suite, with a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, database, and drawing program--and, for ubergeeks, a "mathematical function calculator" (if you have to ask what it is, you don't need it)."
-- It's been around for a couple of years in development, but is now in an operative stage that is recommended. I just downloaded it for a friend (she's in her 80s and just got Vista) who wanted to hava a word processing program, but not for $$$ for Office 2007. I LOVE free software for basic things. On PCWorld you can find AdAware, Spybot, Windows Defender, and more, like games. Browse through their Downloads list. The freeware, Shareware and trials are all marked, and if there's a review, it's got a symbol too.
Have fun!