Somebody asked me recently about the software I use myself, since I never seemed to be using the same things they were using.   For example who else has Office 95 and 97, but still uses 4.3 with it's older Word 6 and Excel 5 versions, or would hang onto an outdated Ami Pro 3.0 word processor just for the calendar template?   Or to be extreme, still runs Quickbooks 2.0 for DOS and Quicken 6.0 for DOS?   It may seem strange, but those DOS versions are better equipped for Y2K than the Windows versions.

I doubt my tastes are the same as many others, but I did promise to post a list of that.  Since I recently went through the painful upgrading from one computer to another and reinstalling software, I have had some time to think about the software that mattered to me.

It will take a while to complete this page, so if you are interested, you'll have to check back later too.   Not sure how often or when this will get updated, but things will be added sometime.

All opinions are strictly my own.
 

IE-OFF (also called IE4 Toggle) from Windows 98 annoyances.  To quote from their web page on disabling Internet Explorer Integration, "The internet integration feature of Windows 98, really nothing more than a series of otherwise unrelated "features" that Microsoft is using to make Windows seem more like a web page, can be one of the most irritating aspects of Windows 98. Certainly, not everyone will agree. If you personally don't want to take out the internet integration, don't use this program.".  I suggest you go to their page to download IE-OFF, I wouldn't be without it on any Win 98 machine I managed.  (Freeware)

All  DOS user should love DOSEXP which lets you drop into DOS in any directory from Windows 95/98 Explorer from the right click menu.  Search the internet for DOSEXP11.ZIP.  (Freeware)

My favorite and most used browser is Opera.  Not free like Netscape and IE, but smaller and faster.  For the impatient browser who likes to start up a number of windows at once so that many are downloading while one is being read it is the only browser.   It does have problems with some pages, so for those I keep Netscape and IE on hand. . Since first writing this, Opera has come out with versions 4 and 5. Version 5 now has a freeware instead of a trial version, but the freeware version has ads, so there is no way to test what the screen real estate will look like until you register it. I'll probably hang onto 3.6 without upgrading for a number of reasons, but you might want to try version 5 which many users seem to find more stable than previous versions.

For email and usenet newsreader I use Forte Agent, a great shareware program.  Their free version, Free Agent, is only good as a newsreader.  The downside is that after releasing version 1.5/35.452 the company and/or product was sold, and there have been no upgrades since.  There are still promises, but even without upgrades, I have no desire to switch, and will still use it for some time.  Since first writing this there have been other releases of Agent and they are up to about version 1.8, I think. However, crumudgeon that I am, I don't think I'll get around to installing the upgrades.

For very quick email when my windows computers are turned off I use Goin' Postal on my HP200LX -- see my MSDOS page for more information. While you're at it you can see my comments on LIST.COM which has been one of my most used programs on desktop, laptop, HP200LX, and other people's computer for over a decade.  Or at least I think it's over a decade though the oldest version I still have is 1991. Since first writing this page, Goin Postal has gone freeware because there were few new sales and the author himself quit using his 200lx! Version 5.01 of GP requires no registration, and will be the final version, It is available at S.U.P.E.R.

Since I have logical drives C through J on my desktop and two on my laptop I find that using a disk cataloger a great help to keep track of files.  With a program like that I can tell from either comptuer what programs or items are where, or what my zip drives have on them.  The shareware program  Advanced Disk Catalog (ADC) is the one I picked and continue to use after trying a bunch of them.

The best image viewer I've found is the shareware ACDSee.  Here are comments about it from the TuCows shareware site: High-performance image viewer. Supports BMP, GIF, JPG, TGA, TIF and more. Now it can display very fast thumbnails for each directory, as well as animated GIFs and almost every imageformat available, and very fast! Our personal favorite!

Another great viewer and biggest bargain is the freeware Irfan Viewer.  Simply great!  It's more than a viewer, you can crop, resample, modify contrast, convert to other formats, etc. Here are comments from the TuCows shareware site: Fast image viewer/converter for Win95/98. Supported file formats: JPEG, GIF, BMP, DIB, RLE, PCX, PNG, TIFF, TGA,RAS/SUN, ICO, AVI, WAV, MID, RMI, WMF, EMF, PBM, PGM, PPM, IFF/LBM and Photo-CD (Overview Photo-CD support). Features include preview option, Logochanger, Drag&Drop support, fast directory view. slideshow, printoption and many more. The first graphic viewer WORLDWIDE with animated-GIF,Multiple-ICO, and Multipage-TIFF support.

It would be nice if one graphics program would do it all, but they don't.  Here are a few of my shareware choices.  If your interest is saving money in printing mutliple pictures on that expensive glossy paper, then get Polyview.  It does many other things as well, but the reason I purchased it was for the print options which are without equal.   If your interest is in maintaining a high quality database of thumbnails that handles off line CDs and diskettes well, then I suggest Thumbs Up.  My personal choice for editing pictures is Picture Window 2.5 though it may seem a somewhat strange interface for people used to other editors.  For years I used  mostly, and still often use, Paint Shop Pro   Each of these has a trial, evaluation, or shareware version, though you cannot test the printing options of Polyview with the trial version.

Socket watch from Locutus Codeware keeps your computer clock set from the internet, everytime you connect, and periodically while you are connected.  I've been running this for years in the background, even forgot it was something that got used so much.

Xenu's Link Sleuth is great freeware for checking for broken and redirected links on web pages.  Very fast and efficient.

More software, an incomplete page mostly just for 2 people, so please ignore this link.