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1. Windows Media Player: Also shipped as part of the Windows Me operating system, this media player comes loaded with great entertainment options. The Media Guide section highlights preset and featured Internet radio stations across all genres. You can play videos and listen to CDs and MP3 files, as well as organize your music the way you want. If you're looking for information on a particular artist, check out the Artist Profile section where you'll find biographical information, and music downloads for a fee. What I like most about the player is that it makes it relatively easy to copy CD tracks to the Media Library. All it took was a couple of points and clicks and I was on my way. The playback quality of the music was great. I suggest that you put this free program at the top of your download list.

2. Time & Chaos: This easy to use time management utility is great for scheduling appointments, creating to-do lists, and keeping track of contact information. You can add notes to any type of entry you make and organize your entries by assigning them a key word, called an Overlay, that helps you identify data. I found this feature to be really helpful because it helped me organize my contact information into specific categories (business, personal, social, and so on). A color-coding option is also available for use in your address book to help you organize and differentiate important numbers. Drag-and-drop features let you transfer items from your to-do list to your calendar. An audible alert and a pop-up screen let you know when you have an appointment. You can also hit the snooze button to buy yourself some more time. A trail version of this program is worth checking out, but you'll have to shell out $45 to register it.

3. MightyFax: Sending faxes via your computer is as simple as clicking the print icon in Word with this shareware program. When you download the program, a printer driver is installed on your PC so you can fax directly from Windows. A cover sheet contains all of the relevant fields you need, or you can pick from one of four templates that come with the program. Flag a message as urgent, for review, or for additional comments. Faxes can also be archived for later reference. An address book icon is part of the interface, so you can add names and numbers to a fax by simply clicking on a contact's name. The program has a friendly wizard, and because I hate getting those annoying retry messages, I used it to set the send mode to 90 seconds. It also walked me through the configuration process, helping me set up my modem and fax settings. The only drawback is that a transfer rate of no higher than 9600 is recommended for sending faxes, instead of the 19200 that the protocol will allow.

4. Internet Explorer 5.5: The big difference in this version of the browser is that it's more compatible with most of the tools, such as DHTML, Cascading Style Sheets, and Java, that are used to build Web pages. A new Print Preview feature lets you view pages before printing, and you can now edit Web pages in Netscape as well. Another worthy fix is the browser's management of cookies. You can now find out where cookies are coming from and select options for accepting or rejecting them. The AutoComplete feature is what impressed me the most. This feature suggests possible matches for information that you begin to type in, and it actually worked, almost to the point of annoyance. Another good feature is the AutoSearch, which allows you to display results by date, most visited, and the order visited. Although this program is a free download, you'll pay a hefty price in used disk space.

5. Xteq X-Setup: Now is your chance to tweak some of your programs to make them work they way you want. This free program allows you to change the appearance of your desktop or browser, modify some of your memory settings, or make adjustments to your folder structure. The program operates in two modes: Wizard and Plug-in. Wizard mode is the route I choose because it helped me change the settings in a step-by-step process. For example, I wanted to change the default path for my Word files, so they would go to folder on my desktop. The wizard walked me though the process in less than one minute. Plug-in mode lets you work with files in an Explorer-like mode, making your changes in the right-hand window--good if you know what types of changes you want to make.

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