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20 Tools for Trouble-Free Computing

Want to make everyday tasks easier, safer--even more entertaining? These no-hassle utilities do the job right.

By Robert Luhn and Kirk Steers   

Complete Coverage

Annoying Utilities: Frustrating Features

Sometimes a great program is dragged down by the stuff that comes with it. Here are three utilities we'd like to install but find too frustrating to use.

RealOne Player once set the standard for streaming audio, then blew it by tracking our listening habits, loading on extraneous features, and putting us through an installation procedure that added icons everywhere and tried to make itself the default player for all our digital media. And why is it that every time we played something, we got an annoying pop-up ad that tried to sell us another version of the program?

Kazaa is a great peer-to-peer file-sharing program, but the sneaky spyware and advertising programs that it forced us to install pelted us with targeted ads and tracked our surfing habits. An enterprising hacker has created a Kazaa client without the spyware; see www.kazaalite.com.

Gator EWallet seems to fulfill a very useful function: It automatically remembers things like username, password, and credit card number for online forms. Less obviously, though, it tracks the Web sites users visit and pops up targeted ads. So if you happen to go to an online bookstore, for instance, you might receive an advertisement for a rival bookseller. Don't bother with Gator; give RoboForm a try instead.

--Robert Luhn

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