My current computer has built in slots for variouls memory, or flash cards. I just pull out my camera's flash card and plug it in to my computer. My system offers various ways to upload the images, but I just use Windows explorer to drag and drop the files into my hard drive. I have created folders in my "My Pictures" directory for this purpose.
Once the files are transfered, I check to make sure the images loaded properly, then I can just delete the files in the card and I can put it back in my camera, clean and empty.
If your computer does not have built in card reader slots, you can find many card readers, most of them able to read various formats, pretty cheap at most computer, office supply stores and even at many department and drug store racks. I have seen them, on sale, for as little as five dollars. You just plug these into a convenient USB slot. You don't need any additional software to upload these files. In most cases, you don't need any special software to "read" or see the pictures on your monitor.
You DO need some kind of software to "edit" them. Photoshop is a popular example, but there are many others available.