What software do you use?

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Summary: I get lots of questions about what's the best software for various situations. I can't answer them all, but I can tell you what I'm using.

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Those are just some of the variations of a question I get fairly regularly. People frequently look to me for recommendations before spending the money or time to install a particular piece of software.

Looking for recommendations and others experiences is a smart thing to do.

And, in fact, you'll see I have an entire class of article categorized as Recommendations. But because I take actual recommendations fairly seriously, I don't do them as often as I'd like.

So, how about I just tell you what software's installed on my machine - the stuff that I actually use - without inferring any kind of "recommendation"?

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This article will be a little different than most. Most notably, it'll be incomplete from the begining, but will be updated periodically in the coming weeks and months. In many ways, this article will always remain a work in progress. Over time I'll add more descriptions, links, and entries for software that I've forgotten at the start, as well as entries for new software that I find and begin using.

I do want to clarify a couple of points that are also on my Terms and conditions page:

• I don't give a recommendation - or for that matter, even a mention - in exchange for money. That's called an "ad", and while I do take money for ads, when it happens it's clearly identified as such on the site and in my newsletter.

• I do use "affiliate links" when they're available. That means that when I mention a product, if you click on a link to that product and eventually purchase it, I may get a small percentage of the purchase price in exchange for referring you to the seller. That doesn't affect your eventual purchase price, and more importantly, I do not allow it to affect my mention or recommendation. I pick the product first and then see if they have an affiliate program (many do not, but they'll still get the mention, or recommendation if I think they're worth it). Naturally you're always welcome to visit the product manufacturer directly, avoiding any affiliate link, should you wish.

Items that include a "[Recommended]" link will take you to the Ask Leo! article that has the full recommendation.

For lack of any other "best" approach, the list is presented in alphabetical order.

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• 7-Zip - free command line and GUI compression utility, roughly equivalent to WinZip. [Recommended]

• ARWizard3 - records anything you can play through audio out

• Adobe Reader - in various forms, actually, including Adobe reader for my Palm-based Treo cell phone

• Advanced Web Ranking - tracks search engine ranking over time

• Asheron's Call - my on-line game of choice for 5+ years

• Audacity - free, open-source, audio recording and editing software

• CA eTrust Anti-Virus - eTrust was the corporate Anti-Virus solution at Microsoft when I left there in 2001, and I've been using it ever since. It's since morphed into CA Anti-Virus 2007.

• Hamachi - free and easy to set up VPN or Virtual Private Network. I use this to securely access all my machines across the internet, regardless of where they, or I, might be. [Recommended]

• RoboForm - password manager. [Recommended]

• TightVNC - similar to remote desktop, this free open source program works with Windows XP Home, and allows the console to remain active while the machine is being controlled remotely. [Recommended]

• TopStyle Pro - the HTML editor I spend much of my time in. It's not a WYSIWYG editor, like FrontPage, but rather a direct HTML editor with syntax coloring, contextual tool-tips and auto complete, and many other tools to assist writing HTML. [Recommended]

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(Rest of list still under construction. These are all on my machine and used regularly or semi-regularly, I just haven't added the links and description yet.)

• Belarc Advisor

• Camtasia Studio 3

• CCleaner

• Corel DRAW

• Cygwin

• FeedDemon

• Foxit Reader

• GNU Privacy Guard

• Gmail Notifier

• ImageMagick

• iTunes

• Jasc Software

• JV16 PowerTools

• Microsoft Money

• Microsoft Office

• Microsoft Streets & Trips

• Microsoft Visio

• Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0

• Mindjet MindManager Pro 6

• Mozilla Firefox

• Mozilla Thunderbird

• NewsBin Pro

• PDFCreator

• PE Builder

• Parallels

• Paros

• Picasa

• Process Explorer

• PuTTY

• QuickTime

• Real Alternative

• Roxio CD Creator Classic

• Roxio Easy Media Creator

• Second Life

• Skype

• SnagIt 8

• Snood

• Sony Vegas Movie Studio

• SpeedUpMyPC

• Trillian

• TrueCrypt

• Turbine

• Vim 6.4

• WebDrive

• WinMerge

• WinSCP3

• Winamp

• Windows Defender

• XNote Stopwatch

List Updated: 16-Jan-2007

Article C2838 - November 13, 2006