What would be my best option for free OCR software?

-Years ago when I bought my computer with Windows XP, ABBYY FineReader was already installed. I didn't even know this wasn't a standard program (the way some of the Microsoft programs are) until I bought my new computer with Windows 7 and found I could no longer scan documents as editable text the way I once could. I thought the problem was on my part; that my new Epson Stylus NX110 All-in-One was just more complicated to work than my old Lexmark 75 All-in-One. I emailed Epson and was told "Your unit does not come bundled with OCR software". I was livid that something my old computer had been able to do my new and supposedly better computer couldn't do as well. The email included a list of companies (including ABBYY FineReader) where I could purchase appropriate software, at prices ranging from $100 to over $400. But I find myself balking at paying extra for a program that was once part of my package. While it still may come to that (Grrr) I understand that there is OCR software that can be downloaded for free off of the internet such as CunieForm and Tesseract, among others. My knowledge of the pros and cons of the variety of software out there is nil and when I tried to do some basic research the technical aspects were over my head. For me operating a computer is like driving a car; I can drive a car without knowing how it works. Can someone help point me in the right direction? Thanks.