Viewing

1. ACDSee32
... high recommended image viewer with fantastic features.

2. Thumbs Plus
... has some very nice contact sheet and cataloging functions.

3. XnView

4. IrfanView

Image Editing

1. Adobe Photoshop
... is the high end image editing application for pros.

2. Adobe Photoshop Elements
... the small brother of Photoshop for beginners and semi-professionals.

3. Corel Paint Shop Pro

4. Corel Photo-Paint

5. PhotoImpact

Painting

1. Corel Painter
... is a recommended tool for digital artists.

2. ArtRage

3. DeepPaint
... offers a very nice tool for digital painting.

Video Editing

1. Adobe Premiere
... is the classic video editing software, but still up to date.

2. Ulead MediaStudio Pro
... video editing in all its variations.

Compositing and Animation

1. Adobe After Effects
... is a professional animation and post production tool.

Gif Animation

1. Corel Animation Shop
... is a good addition to Gif Animator and Paint Shop Pro.

2. Ulead Gif Animator
... offers good gif compression and let's you import AVI files.

Web Graphics

1. Macromedia Fireworks
... has been programmed for creating web graphics.

2. Ulead PhotoImpact
... has tons of effects for web design.

Batch Conversion

Adobe Photoshop
... can be used for batch conversion in connection with self created actions. Very useful in some cases.

Debabelizer Pro

Thumbs Plus
... has a nice batch processing function.

Plugin Management

Plugin Commander
... the all-round talent for managing, converting and creating plugins. There's a freeware and commercial version available.