Software Reviews
These are organized based upon a category of computer software. The Items I recommend I currently use and recommend to my clients. These reviews are based upon my experience with each item, cost, and brand. Please note: All reviews are the opinions of the author. In many cases this website provides opinions of various software and hardware vendors. We accept no responsibility or liability for anything contained in such reviews.
Accounting - I personally use QuickBooks as my accounting and financial tracking software. I just upgraded to the 2009 version from the 2005 version and it has worked well enough for me. The transition was smooth and went fine. Even though QuickBooks comes out with a version every year, I recommend upgrading every 3 years or so, unless you're an accountant. Quicken was an option for me as well, but I found that I could not customize my invoices the way I wanted to send to my clients the way QuickBooks lets me. Tech support has lagged, but when I have called generally, they have the answer I need. I never email out my invoices from QuickBooks directly. I always print them into a PDF writer like CutePDF, then send them out in an email as a PDF file. The reason for this is that I suspect that QuickBooks can track how many invoices you send from your computer because when you send an invoice from QuickBooks, it goes through their servers before it hits your recipient. I suspected this because when I started email out a lot on invoices from QuickBooks, I suddenly started getting a lot of QuickBooks junk mail, such as invoicing services, payroll services, and others. QuickBooks is the best selling brand out there and there are other such as Peachtree, but Intuit seems to have cornered the market.
Anti Spyware - There are several brands of software out there that claim to remove spyware off your computer, you may have even had a pop up ad say that you computer is infected with spyware and click here to remove it. Some "anti spyware" software is actually tracking spyware that you install thinking that it will help, and it may temporary, until it gets all the information off your computer that it needs. I will mention several real anti spyware removal softwares that I either have installed and use on a regular basis or have tested and work well. My favorite is Malwarebytes http://www.malwarebytes.org/ I have good experiences with the software removing some of the worst nasties.
Here is a great website to look and see if the anti spyware software on your computer is fake: http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm
Antivirus - One of the questions I get asked most often is what is the best antivirus software out there. This question generally proceeds them writing me a check for spending hours cleaning out a virus that crippled their computer. I respond most often with: YOU ARE ! The best antivirus protection for your computer is you. Simply, don't open any suspicious email from people you don't know that has an attachment, from people that you do know that sent you an attachment that you aren't expecting, don't open any email that does not have a subject or does have a subject of RE: _______ and, I can't say this often enough, remove the preview screen on your Outlook and Outlook Express! However, for those who absolutely need an antivirus software, I recommend and use Microsoft Security Essentials http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/ It is free with free updates. I know you want to hear what I think of Norton's and MacAfee Antivirus. I tell all my clients to steer away from it, even though several computer publications always rank it the best, I will never recommend it because of the overhead it takes on a system and I have seen it miss viruses, even when fully updated.
Internet Browsers - If you are 80% of the population. you are probably using Internet Explorer to view this page. I use Firefox almost exclusively.
( http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ ) It is a free download. The reasons are: It is very customizable. I have a popup blocker, weather report, a browser hijacker preventer, and most important, tabbed browsing. Tabbed browsing is where I can Have 10 websites open, in only 1 windows and I can switch between them. In Internet Explorer, I would have 10 Windows open on my taskbar. The other reason I like it is because one of the reason Internet Explorer has so many security issues is because it has Active X controls enabled. This allows your browser to be hijacked by a virus, or hacker, and redirected to some porn site. Firefox does not come with Active X controls, so it is more secure.
CD / DVD Burning - One word - Nero! Best I have every used, simple, and works every time
Software Firewall - I recommend Zone Alarm
( http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp ) I use the professional version which is a paid product and it works very well. They also have a free product that works as a firewall just as well as the paid product, just not as customizable. As far as firewalls are concerned. I highly recommend a hardware firewall as well as a software firewall. I say this because hardware firewalls are great about keeping things from coming into your computer, but Zone Alarm, also keeps things from leaving your computer. I good example of this would be spyware on your computer. Most spyware tracks surfing habits and can even find personal information like backing number, Social Security Info, Etc. It then send that information back to the company or person who created the spyware. A hardware firewall will not stop the transmission of your info from leaving your computer, Zone Alarm would because spyware is a program, and Zone Alarm stops any program that wants access to the internet and asks you if you want to give it permission. If it is program you do not recognize, then you can say no and Zone Alarms stops the transmission of info. That is the value of having a double firewall.
Office Suite - Microsoft Office is the best HANDS DOWN! Another option include Open Office ( which is free http://www.openoffice.org/ ).
Operating Systems - In the interest to not having to create a several hundred page document on the variety of Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems, I will just say that I run Windows 7 on all my computers, and recommend to all my clients to upgrade to Windows 7 and not to go with Vista.
PDF Creators - There are several out there. Adobe Acrobat is probably the most well known, but the priciest. I use CutePDF (www.cutepdf.com). It will put a PDF printer in your printers folder and enable you to print to it to create a PDF. The program is free.
Spam filtering - I use two programs. Outlook 2007 comes with a great spam filter.
Email - I personally use Outlook 2007 and I love it. I have also installed the Business Contact Manager with it. Another great alternative, that also free is Thunderbird from Mozilla. http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/