i suggest Game Maker 8, from YoYoGames.com, its free, fun and you can make games for other people, but cant upload them to many sites cause its not flash, but you can still upload them to YoYoGames.com
To clarify, the link I provided is Ninite, a service which installs useful programs for you. Despite that fact that it can't handle more of the advance install features, it does let a newbie know of some of the better programs you can get for your system.
Yeah, I already have that. I took one of those 5 day classes and got better from there. Haven't been doing a whole lot with it lately, because I have school and you can't upload them to AG :P