Pity the makers of Quicken, the best personal finance package on the planet. When your product is already that good, it’s hard to think up nifty new features each year. Such is the case with Quicken Premier 2006, an excellent program that, aside from a few nips and tucks, isn’t a big step up from …
Category Archive: Cool Software
Permanent link to this article: http://windowwalk.com/quicken-premier-home-and-business/
IrfanView
This image viewer and editor is a longtime favorite and with good reason. IrfanView is simple, fast, and free for individual use. Upon installation, the program attempts to install two Google programs, but if you don’t want them, you can choose to opt out. The program lets you open and edit images, as well as …
Permanent link to this article: http://windowwalk.com/irfanview/
Adobe Photoshop Elements
Rarely do I encounter a piece of software so well designed that words fail me (at least until my editor pointed out that she wouldn’t pay me for a “words failed me” review). So, I’ll say this: if you need a phenomenal image editor and organizer package, buy Adobe Photoshop Elements 4. And if you’re …
Permanent link to this article: http://windowwalk.com/adobe-photoshop-elements/
QuickBooks
In a world of overhyped software upgrades, Intuit QuickBooks Premier 2006 is the real deal. More than a step up over its predecessor, QuickBooks Premier 2006 is an extreme makeover, with a revamped home page that newcomers will find easier to master and a shorter setup interview with far fewer screens to navigate. Personal relationships …
Permanent link to this article: http://windowwalk.com/quickbooks/
Zone Alarm Internet Security
ZoneAlarm’s Internet Security 5.5 is one of the best security suites we’ve seen. Its interface is far easier to use and understand than the competition’s, and its feature set, which includes a personal information vault and instant-messenging encryption, puts the comparably priced Norton Internet Security 2005 and McAfee Internet Security 2005 to shame. The latest …
Permanent link to this article: http://windowwalk.com/zone-alarm-internet-security/
AVG Anti-Virus
AVG Anti-Virus is a comprehensive virus scanner that serves as a shield against viruses. It scans your system and e-mail for viruses and offers free updates, so you’re guarded against the newest threats. Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high-level of detection capability that millions of …
Permanent link to this article: http://windowwalk.com/avg-anti-virus-2/
OmniPage Pro
In the leapfrog game of professional optical character recognition (OCR) packages, ScanSoft jumps ahead of the competition with OmniPage Pro 14.0 Office. Recognition accuracy and page-format retention are incrementally improved over its predecessor, but OmniPage Pro 14.0 Office’s support features show the largest improvement. Anyone with batch and repetitive scanning tasks will appreciate OmniPage’s Batch …
Permanent link to this article: http://windowwalk.com/omnipage-pro/
Corel Paint Shop Pro
From its inception, Paint Shop Pro was designed to be a feature-rich image-editing program at a price that Adobe Photoshop users would envy. We’ve always liked the program – it has features not found in Photoshop and is easier to use. With version X, Corel morphed it into an even friendlier app aimed squarely at …
Permanent link to this article: http://windowwalk.com/corel-paint-shop-pro/
Railroad Tycoon
As much play as “tycoon” has had in PC game titles over the last few years, it can be easy to forget that the term had another life before defining a game genre led by mass-market bestsellers like RollerCoaster Tycoon and Zoo Tycoon. Railroad Tycoon 3 can claim an older and more authentic tycoon heritage …
Permanent link to this article: http://windowwalk.com/railroad-tycoon/
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox 1.0 is the dream Internet browser you’ve been looking for. Featuring a host of small technical improvements, including tabbed browsing, built-in and customizable search bars, and a built-in RSS reader, Mozilla’s Firefox browser is the one that should finally put a dent in Microsoft Internet Explorer’s unrivaled market dominance. While its lack of …
Permanent link to this article: http://windowwalk.com/mozilla-firefox/