Gee? I didn't see a few other freewares that could easily be added into the sticky here.
Jetico and comodo also see free firewalls and a definite improvement over the free version of Zone Alarm already listed. For Jetico Personal the latest seeing support for Vista is listed at
Jetico - Jetico Personal Firewall v.2
For Comodo in addition to the free version of their firewall they also have other utilities like antivirus and internet security seen at
SSL Free Firewall Two Factor Authentication Products from Comodo
Looking for a good antispyware program not found in the list.
Free spyware removal and spyware protection - Spyware Terminator Spyware Terminator places an active shield much like a firewall around the system registry.
Two freeware registry cleaners seem to work quite well. Eusing is strictly freeware at
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner: Safely scan and repair registry problems - Spyware FREE.
The second is actually the free version of a retail software called Wise found at
Free Registry Cleaner, Disk Cleaner
A strictly freeware guide seeing regular monthly updates is the site seen at
FREEWARE GUIDE - Your Guide to the Best Free Software and Freeware Sites! That also sees quite a roll up in just about all catagories.
Have you reinstalled Windows lately and forgot ... Java runtime?
java.com: Java + You