Since I am not a fan of Microsoft, I am not usually impressed by anything they sell. We all know about the myriad of updates that are released all the time, to correct errors and openings for hackers that allow them to hijack a computer without the owner ever knowing about it. That is one of the main reasons I switched from Microsoft Internet Explorer to Firefox. The other reason was that I liked Firefox and I liked the idea of adding extensions to the browser that allowed me to get the browser to do so much more. One extension that I recently added is called Calling ID. This extension allows you to view all the info on a website that has to do with safety and ownership. The information appears to the right of the labels in the upper bar of the browser. You will see such things as the name and address of the owner of the site and the information can be expanded. You will also see if the site is located in one of the countries that is considered dangerous or not. The site will be examined for danger and a label will appear that indicates if the site is dangerous and the amount of risk you are taking by going there.

Despite what you hear, please don't think that Microsoft doesn't have any good products. I have to give credit where credit is due. The Microsoft Media Center is great. I have it on my computer and it is like have an enhanced TIVO. I receive tv, but I have had a tv card as far back as I can remember so to me this was no big deal, it was the fact that I could pause live programs or replay some scenes while the program was being broadcast that is really good. If you think that this is good, recording programs is incredibly ease. The Media Center come with a guide that contains several days of tv programming. You merely select the program from the guide that you want to record and then press the record button on the supplied remote and the program is scheduled to record. What could be easier? This is so good that people are beginning to hook up their Media Center computers to their main tvs to take advantage of these features. The Media Center is not only about tv. It allows you to get radio broadcasts, view dvds, view recorded programs and create slide shows out of your photos. Do you want to play your recorded music easily, Media Center will do it. On this item I must say Bravo Microsoft. If you are wondering how to get the Media Center, it comes as Windows XP Media Center edition which is really Windows XP Professional with the Media Center added.

Sometimes you can find some great freeware. I often need a specialized piece of software that will do a particular thing. If it does that thing I am very happy, it doesn't have to do a lot of other things that I don't need. A recent example of this type of program that I have downloaded for free is Restoration. This is a very simple program that allows you to attempt to restore a deleted file. I say attempt because if the area on the hard drive that contained the file was written over after the file was deleted then no program can restore the deleted file. Usually I would only use a program of this type about once a year, but when I need it, I REALLY need it. It is probably my fault since I don't like to use the trash can in Windows. When I delete something, it is deleted immediately and doesn't go to the trash can. This eliminates all that double work of having to delete everything in the trash.

I am constantly searching the internet for different things. I wonder how many of you out there realize that there is free software available that allows you to do a comprehensive search of not only many search engines at once, but also by topic? Oh yes, this type of software exists and is very good. One of my favorites is named Telescope and is completely free. The way it works is quite simple. It looks like a simple browser when open and all you have to do is type your query into the Query Line. There are icons above this line for the type of search that you desire. For example you can click on the web icon for a traditional search of the included search engines or you can click on different icons that serve other search purposes, such as picture search, reference search etc. All search result lists can be saved. All results can be searched by keywords. By the way, you can even search the news with this program.

Sometimes you have to pay to get the program you need and it may not be cheap. There are many unscrupulous people and companies out there selling copied programs or even programs with hidden viruses in them. Avoid buying from these types of companies and try and stick with stores and online resources that you trust. One such program that I purchased that wasn't cheap, but has fit the bill nicely and saved me much work was Macromedia Dreamweaver MX. I have been using it for awhile now and the coding it has saved me could fill a house. It is an excellent html editor and makes the chore of creating web pages really easy. Having said that, be ready to part with some big bucks if you want to buy it. I believe the commercial version is about $400.00.

The type of software that I am not crazy about is shareware. Hey if you want to sell something, call it commercial software, but that is only my opinion. I have purchased a few shareware programs in the past and have been sorely disappointed. They had so many bugs in them or just didn't work correctly that I ended up not using them at all. I tend to stay away from this type of software. The freeware is usually better.

So there you have it in a nutshell, if you need software for a particular project, it doesn't hurt to check the freeware first, but if you can't find what you want there, look for a good commercial program.