What is a good free one that I could use for either?

I recently learned some C++, html, and am learning some Java coding. I was curious as to what which program would work good for the c++ and java, since I know that html doesn't need one.

Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm) is a really nice editor that recognizes many languages. The only bad thing about Notepad++ is that it's only an editor, so there's no built-in compiling environment. As Valay said, you could always just edit your code in any editor you like, and then just use a command prompt to execute the compilation process.

Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/) and NetBeans (http://www.netbeans.org/) are really good IDEs (Integrated Development Environments). They're both decent editors and have the ability to support Java and C++ as well as running the compiler.
I use Eclipse at work ... but I actually still prefer to compile at the command line. But Eclipse is definitely my preferred environment.

Honestly, I haven't used Eclipse too much. Too many windows for me to deal with.

I just like writing the code and that's all without being bothered.

And, all of the programs are basically similar. They all compile the code, it's just a matter of how you want to go about things, and how simple you want the process to be.

I'm probably late but I used NetBeans for Java.  It's a good IDE.  I hate Java though. ;_;

The work I've done with C was in XCode.