Paint

Microsoft Paint, often called "MSPaint" as a reference to its executable's filename, is an application supplied with Windows installations. Considered to be the most simple application for artwork, it is perfectly suited for first time sprite creation and simple sprite sheet manipulation. Due to its ease of use and simplistic nature, there is a very common misconception among artists around the web that Paint is somehow inferior to other graphics editors as far as spritework goes. That is simply untrue. Though Paint allows for an easy entry into the worlds of graphics editing and pixel art, it is by no means inferior to other programs from a creation standpoint.

Versions

While later version of Windows supply more complex and feature-rich editions of Paint, it's advised to use to the version released with Windows XP due to its ease of use, portability, and ability to work natively across all Windows OSes prior to XP. (I haven't tested whether or not XP Paint will work with Windows 2000 or 9x releases [I doubt it's run on 9x due to XP being NT architecture but I'll test this out and post an update. ~Vipershark)