Free games, free personal-information managers, free spreadsheets, and free demos of commercial software. There are even free word processors nearly as powerful Microsoft Word. Unfortunately, it's not an easy quest. The Web is a labyrinth, filled with dead ends. First, though, I feel compelled as your tour guide to issue the standard warning about downloadable software.
Hobbyists write much of it.
They don't have the time or resources to thoroughly check their work for viruses and bugs. Not surprisingly, this type of software can be very buggy. And that, of course, can lead to computer crashes. So please, do yourself a favor, back up important files before downloading free software off the Net. That said, there's also downloadable software that is rock-solid.