Today's article is going to be a little different. Many people have wanted to know what kind of software and hardware that I use on the main computer that I write my articles on. Some of you may not find this very interesting, but let me tell you this before I continue, I have found some very good software over the years and you might just be interested in knowing what it is, so that you can put it on your computer. Some of the software that I use is actually free and I have found it to be as good or better than the commercial equivalent, so before you turn away think about glancing over this article first.

Before I get to the software, here is the info on the current computer that I am using - COMPUTER INFO

Now let's get ready to talk about some software, here is what is on my computer:

Windows XP Professional Multimedia Edition - this is nothing to brag about, what they really isn't much choice if you want to be 100% compatible with the software that is out there. I could have gotten Vista, but it was slower.

Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 - this is the program that I use to edit all my web pages before I upload them. It is commercial software and not cheap, but I have been using it for years and find that it is one of the best web editing programs available.

Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 - you may be surprised to hear what I am going to tell you next, that I have switched to Dragon Naturally Speaking, because it eliminates much of the typing that I used to do. For the last couple of weeks, all of the web pages that have been put up on my site including the last interview, have been dictated instead of being typed. This software actually types the words you are saying into the program of your choice. Oh there is a little typing involved because the program is not 100% perfect. It will miss understand a few words and has a hard time with things like 2, to, too and two. All in all though, it saved me quite a bit of work and is a miracle of technology. Again, this is a commercial program and lists at over $200.

Open Office - I actually took a copy of Microsoft Office off of my computer because it was 7 years old and demanding an update. I then switched to Open Office which is every bit as good, and guess what? It is free and it is compatible. It contains just about the same type of programs as the Microsoft package and can load all applications created with Microsoft. It will also save your work in a Microsoft format if you want. What more could you ask for?

Total Copy - Here is a little known free gem. I copied 4.5 gigs of data with it and it took me about 4 or 5 minutes the first time and if you continuously copy updated data to the same place, the time drops to about 25 seconds. Consider this, the copy command built into windows takes about 22 - 24 minutes to do the same thing. I would be lost without this software.

InfanView - Another free program is an incredible multimedia viewer. It has been around for years and just gets better and better. It now can show just about any type of video including flash, it allows you to create vistas from photos and has a facility for drawing and editing photos. There is just so much more to this program. You have to see it to believe it.

Photo Shop Elements - This is a commercial program. I use it when I have real heavy photo editing to do. It will cost you about $100.

Free Download Manager - Yep it is free. This download manager is one of the best there is. Why spend money for one of these things when this is available. It will allow lou to download in so many different ways and has previews, among other things.

xplorer2 - A great free directory program. It allows you to show two columns next to each other where you can put different directories and do anything and more that you would do in explorer. It is transparent to other software such as Total Copy and thus they work in it just like they do on the desktop.

Clipboard Magic - A free program that allows you to store many items in the clipboard and then pick them from a list and paste them. As you know, the clipboard in Windows XP only allows for one clip as does the other operating systems before it.

Telescope - A free program that allows you to search with multiple search engines using many different methods. It is very flexible and really comes in handy sometimes.

Atomic Clock Sync - A free program that keeps your clock accurate. It doesn't do much, but what it does, it does well.

Startup Cop - I got this when it was free. I think that it is shareware now, but you might be able to find an older freeware version on the web. This is a very useful program. You can set what programs you want to prevent from starting when the computer boots.

IconEd - A free program that allows you to create new icons. It is very basic, but it is all that I need and I have created all the icons that are downloadable from my website using it.

Audacty - A free audio editor and converter. This is probably the only program of this type that most people would ever need. It has one slight fault, it does not load wmv (Windows Media Video or Audio Files) files. You need another program to convert them. Aside from this, it is the finest audio editor available for free.

Super - This is a free audio and video converter. It is very good. I use it to convert the wmv files that I spoke of above.

Acronis - A great backup program. This is a commercial program, but it is one of the best backup programs available and can take snapshots of your drives even with Windows running. I think the cost is about $90.

RollbackRx - Another good commercial program. If you have ever been frustrated when your tried to use the roll back feature in your operating system, you are not alone. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. RollbackRx - is also a roll back program, but with a difference. It operates before Windows loads and is almost bullet proof. It rolls back everything, not just certain programs. Got a virus? Rollback RX will roll back to the last snapshot, before you got the virus hopefully or will go back further if needed.

Mozilla Firefox - A free web browser and its great and customizable.

Mozilla Thunderbird - A free email program that I find better than Outlook.

Internet Explorer - Yes I still use this too, since it is still the most used browser. I test my web pages in it, but use Firefox for browsing the net.

FTP Navigator - An inexpensive file transfer program. I use it to upload my files to my website. I also find that the extension to Firefox called FireFTP works very well and it is free.

Lotus Approach - A commercial program that I use as my database. It serves my purpose, but there are many free databases available. I don't know the cost, I got it on a disk from a British computer magazine for free.

Lotus Organizer - I have been using this commercial program for years to keep track of things. It was part of Lotus Smart Suite. I don't remember the price.

Open Expert - A nice free context menu program. The context menu is the menu the opens up when you press the right mouse button. This program inserts the option of "open with" when you go to load a program, meaning you can open it with any program you want. This is very handy.

Ultra Screen Saver Maker - An inexpensive piece of software that is simple to use. Create screen savers in seconds.

Adobe Reader - A very good free program for reading pdf files.

AVG Professional - A commercial virus checker. There is a free edition available.

Spy Sweeper - A commercial program for detecting spyware programs on your computer.

Yes I have a few games on the computer:

Hoyle Card Games - A commercial program that I think cost about $20.00

Galaxy of Mahjongg 2 - The game where you eliminate matching tiles. It is a commercial version and also cost about $20.00

Reversi - Yes I bought the commercial version for $10. It allows you to roll back moves, replay games and gives tips.

Last, but not least, I have software to back up my dvds and create Divx files for my mobile PDA (Personal Digital Assistant)., it is all commercial.

AnyDVD - This is a decoding program that resides in memory and allows any copy program to backup a dvd.

CloneDVDmobile - This program creates movies for almost any device format from your dvd. I use it to create Divx movies for my PDA.

CloneDVD2 - I use this program to back up my dvds. You have to load AnyDVD into memory first.

I have a few other programs that are specifically for my website that I didn't list, but this is basically my setup. I hope that you have seen some software that interests you. If you did, just put the name into a Google search box and you will find where you can download it.