Does anyone know of a good and a free image(manipulator) program?

Answer 1

All of the below are free.
Some are pretty cool, too!!

I would start with links 1 and 5 below.
http://www.photobie.com/
http://picasa.google.com/index.html
http://www.plasticbugs.com/index.php?p=241
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/PhotoPlus/
http://www.photofiltre.com
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/PaintNET/1096481993/1
http://park18.wakwak.com/~pixia/
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/Project_Dogwaffle/dogwaffle.html

Answer 2

Here are a couple of good ones:

Paint.net: http://www.getpaint.net/index.html
and
The GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/

The GIMP has been around a lot longer, but I like Paint.net. Its interface is somewhat similar to Photoshop and is easy to understand.