I'd suggest you to pay a visit at
http://www.ninite.com
It contains all most common used programs that you might need after performing a clean installation (excluding drivers).
Windows Live Messenger
Opera
mIRC or xChat
Before installing any applications, I strongly recommend running updates first for your drivers and OS security.
This would include some of those which are not included in the standard service update i.e.
- DirectX
- Java SDK
- Adobe Flash web plugin
- Adobe AIR
- Adobe Shockwave
- Adobe PDF reader
- Your graphics card drivers
After that, I recommend JDownloader if you are a regular downloader.
These are the programs that I make sure to download after a clean install:
- Windows Live Messenger
- Skype
- Launchy
- LightScreen
- VLC Media Player
- iTunes
- Google Chrome
- Pale Moon
- jDownloader
- Winrar
- TuneUp Utilities
- VirtualCloneDrive
- Unlocker
- Speccy
- Picasa
- Everything
- FoxIt PDF Reader
- Revo Uninstaller
- .. and more!
What I use:
Chrome
WinRAR
Kaspersky PURE
BitTorrent
MSN
Eh, the first thing that I would download is
Rockmelt...
Amazing browser for Social networking.
Dropbox is good app if your going to be sharing a lot