My software recommendations!

12/02/2009

 

Productivity (Office):

Microsoft Office

Simply the best out there. Word processing, spreadsheet, contact manager, database. It does not get better than this!

Open Office

Very good FREE! Office suite. Has most of the features of Microsoft Office and can open MS Office files.



CD Burning:

Ashampoo Burning Studio

Very good all around burning software. Can usually find a legally free version.

CDBurnerXP

Very good FREE program for most of your burning needs (NOT just for WinXP)



Photograph editor/viewer/cataloger/printer:

Corel Paint Shop Pro X2 (formerly JASC)

Excellent. For your digital darkroom needs this is one of the best around! Fix red-eye, touch-up, re-size, etc.

Faststone Image Viewer

Very nice and fast image viewer. FREE!!

Qimage

This outstanding program lets you print in all kinds of sizes, and will automatically lay them out to use as little paper as possible. EXCELLENT!

Jalbum

Very nice small program to create web albums for your photos.

Proshow

Excellent at making slide shows for your computer on CD and also for your DVD player.

 

Anti-Virus:

 Avast Antivirus

This is a very good and free (at least as of 11/08/200) antivirus program. This is the one I run right now.

 

Email:

Yahoo!

FREE! Very good. Offers instant email virus protection. Can be accessed from anywhere, any computer.

Gmail

Very good and free. Also as of this writing allows pop3 access with no $$$ (yahoo makes you pay for pop3 access. 

Thunderbird

This is a free email program. Works very well!



General:

Auslogics Disk Defrag

Free! Very good and very fast defrag tool for all versions of Windows.

SUPERantispyware

Very good and FREE spyware removal program, and about as fast as it gets.

CCleaner

Awesome program. Cleans crap out of your Windows registry and more! Run this once a month to keep your system running at top speed. FREE!

SyncBackSE

Excellent program that does all types of backups.

FileZilla

Very good small, fast FTP program. FREE! Updated pretty often!

Sunbird

Very good free stand-alone calendar. Very good for reminders and appointments.

 

DVD Copying

CloneDvd2

Great program to copy dvd’s

 AnyDvd

Works with other programs to take out the protection on dvd’s

 

Taxes

Taxact

Great program for doing your taxes. Do not be intimidated, even YOU can do your taxes. For $28 you will be walked through step-by-step and then you can e-file both your Federal and State return. The price is even cheaper if you mail your returns. GET THIS NOW!