Scott Spanbauer, Steve Bass

--Steve Bass

Note: This review addresses v2008.10.28.0 of the software.

Feeling out of touch with your PC? You can ask the SIW tool anything about your PC--it'll give you a list of regional settings or scheduled tasks, or which DLLs are loaded and which are shared. How about which video and audio codecs you have installed, or details about your network or open ports? SIW has everything, offering lists that you can easily access from toolbar shortcuts or from a panel with a hierarchy list.

Note: This review addresses v11.5 of the software.

Back when Internet Explorer was languishing without a major update, a few enterprising developers figured out how to build a tabbed interface and other missing amenties around IE's basic web-page engine. One of those products, Avant Browser, was a boon to IE 6 users, adding much-needed tabbed browsing and newsfeed support.

Note: This review covers v1.1 of the software.

Back in the day, an Internet suite called Netscape Communicator ruled the Web with its handily integrated browser, e-mail, and HTML authoring tools.

Microsoft's flagship product is feature-rich, friendly, expensive, and it doesn't run natively under Linux. Though Microsoft doesn't sell a Linux version of Office, most Linux distributions come with a variety of free office suites, and individual productivity applications including KOffice's KWrite word processor and Gnumeric spreadsheet. But nothing comes closer to matching Microsoft's suite than OpenOffice.org 2.3, which includes the Write wordprocessor, Calc spreadsheet, Impress presentation software, Base database designer, Draw vector-graphics program, and Math formula editor. All can import and export files in native Microsoft office formats, or be configured to use them by default. Windows and Mac OS X versions also available.

Note: This link takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the correct version of the software.

Microsoft's quick-and-easy desktop publisher meets its open-source match in Scribus, which makes it easy to design newsletters, brochures, and presentation slides from scratch, or using included templates. In addition to the usual grid, hyphenation, and typography tools, Scribus lets you export your document as a PDF file, making it a good stand-in for Adobe Acrobat, too. Scribus can't import your existing Quark or InDesign projects, however.

Note: This link takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

--Steve Bass

Download and install K-Lite Codec Pack, which has almost every codec known to humankind (13 gazillion at least); this freebie comes with a handy video viewer, too.

--Steve Bass

Taskbar Shuffle lets you rearrange the order of applications on your Windows Taskbar. Drag an item to another spot on the Taskbar and drop it. I use it to keep items in the exact order I want. If you feel like living on the edge, let it shuffle the system tray icons. Way cool.

Note: This software comes in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. This is the 64-bit version, which is for 64-bit PCs running a 64-bit OS. If your PC is running a different supported OS, please download the 32-bit version instead. This program is donationware. It is free to try, but the author accepts and encourages donations towards further development.

The program lets you rearrange the order of applications on your Windows Taskbar. Drag an item to another spot on the Taskbar and drop it. I use it to keep items in the exact order I want. If you feel like living on the edge, let it shuffle the system tray icons. Way cool.

Note: This software comes in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. This is the 32-bit version. If your 64-bit PC is running a 64-bit OS, please download the 64-bit version instead. This program is donationware. It is free to try, but the author accepts and encourages donations towards further development.

Sandboxie is a free, but complicated, tool that holds downloads and their installations in a sandbox until you decide they're not harmful.

Note: The price is 26 Euros. The price given here reflects the exchange rate on the date this file was posted.

SpywareBlaster protects you by adding the URLs of risky sites to your browser's Restricted Zone, preventing malware from installing. The program doesn't scan or work in the background, but for a $10 registration, it will automatically download Restricted Zone lists.

The only downside, and it doesn't happen often, is that the tool may lock out a site you visit. Just remove the site from SpywareBlaster's list.