I didn’t realize how heavy Kaspersky was running until I got Norton. I was using McAfee before that. Fan of McAfee that I am, I might daresay that Norton runs more smoothly than McAfee. It’s so light on resources, I don’t even know it’s there. I installed Norton onto my Android phone. The biggest problem is accessing the anti-theft feature via the web. The Norton site is slow. I was only able to access it today.

I just updated to Vista from Windows XP. I find XP easier to navigate, but perhaps its because Ive had years of experience with XP and have only recently been introduced to Vista. I am sure I will get more comfortable with Vista in time. Vista does run very smoothly and I love the desktop sidebar, to which we can add numerous little gadgets, like a clock, calendar, weather reports. So handy.

Turbo Tax is starting to get lazy, they make it harder to research your tax situations now. It once was, before that all of your questions were answered on the CD, not anymore, now you need to go to a hypertext link, and sometimes the link is a no-go!nnI have been using TurboTax for over 14 years now, & I have actually found that I was able to overide some calcs, & the program would not correct my error.

This years Turbotax had to have been my worst experience ever!nnEvery year they change the layout, but this was extreme! Can’t find import prior data, & I had the file, it wouldn’t import it & I had to hand import it all, it sucked!nnI have been using this program since 1991 when it was on 3.5 inch floppy discs & it was cheap back the, like $19.95. I am now hitting almost $100.

I’m new to the the whole genealogy search game, but I’ve been intrigued by the Ancestry.com ads for quite a while - just unwilling to plunk down the cash for a membership. So it was a real pleasure to get my mitts on this software. The software itself is fairly easy to use; enter information about yourself and your immediate relations and you’re off and running. The included 6 month subscription to the website obviously makes searching for information far easier that contacting every known relative, but it’s by no means a magical and automated process.

I tried MS Streets & Trips on my Asus Netbook with 2 GB of ram during a recent road trip. Installation of the software on the notebook went well, and I plugged the small GPS unit into a free USB port on my Asus put the netbook on the passenger seat and headed out. The software interface feels dated; I wasn’t entirely impressed with either the design or functionality. Many functions weren’t very intuitive, with multiple panes opening and closing providing different data.

It’s a strange world. Despite being what most lay-people would think is the also-ran to Adobe products, Corel has apparently decided that doing the right thing by customers is simply not important. I’m speaking, of course, about the Protexis Licensing service that they install, without user knowledge, that runs as a service in the background. This is the service they use to prevent piracy, and without it you cannot run the program.

I’ve used Movie Studio before and found it effective and rock steady - version 13 is no different, though the learning curve can be a bit steep. Installation was a breeze and went quickly. Startup is relatively fast, and once in the program you’re presented with multiple ways to get started, tutorials, etc. Help bubbles are on by default, which is helpful. As far as functionality, the program just works. Once you get your head around how to use it (there are plenty of tutorials out there to help) the workflow makes sense and things move along quickly.

There may be some people out there that don’t like QuickBooks, but I’m not one of them. Perhaps because my needs aren’t as robust, but I don’t experience any of the problems I’ve read about. One thing off the bat: the QB methodology is way more intuitive to non-accounts than any other program I’ve used, which for me is a good thing: I’m not an accountant. Invoices, purchase orders, credits, payments etc are all easily entered and, more importantly, modified if need-be.

I’ve had issues with Corel products in the past: I’ve aways WANTED to like them, but they’ve always somehow missed the mark. VideoStudio Pro, though, I like quite a bit. It walks a fine line quite well, packing in a ton of prosumer-level features like excellent stop-motion, motion tracking, variable speed controls and HTML5 support while staying fairly straightforward and easy to learn. So beginners can jump right in and make movies without fear of outgrowing the package too quickly.