[windows] preferred program/suite for editing and organising/viewing

It depends upon what you are trying to accomplish. I realized that, after taking the time to extensively edit one photo, that most of the editing I am likely to do is comprehensive to the whole photo as opposed to one specific part. Adjusting the color temperature as opposed to removing marks on someone's face. So, for me, Lightroom was a better choice than Photoshop Elements. The big Photoshop (CS5) was too intimidating for just a few photo corrections. Also, the Organizer in Elements is not very useful. For a while, I was using ACDSee as it has a better organizer. Though Lightroom is not always intuitive because it uses a database concept with tagging, etc., it is a better system and worth the effort to learn how to use. It is definately an industry standard software with a lot of outside entities providing tutorials and the like such as Kelby, Shoe, Bampton and Evening.