We installed this software on my daughter’s PC, which is running Windows 8.1. She has a 16:9 monitor, and the PowerDVD software allows her to watch DVDs and Blu-Ray discs on the machine. At first, playback was really choppy. I figured out that the software wasn’t syncing with the monitor’s 60hz refresh rate and located a setting that allowed me to change that. Overall, this software is quite functional and allows you to view video in a number of formats, including several HD formats.

Corel tried for a light office suite that would be appropriate for netbooks and machines without much in the way of resources. They created a suite that has the basic functionality and flexibility that consumers have come to expect. It’s nowhere nearly as polished as Microsoft Office, but that is, in part, the point. However, Corel has to contend with competitors like OpenOffice, which is free. I can’t figure out why someone would pay for this suite when she could get OpenOffice and its equivalent functionality for free.

I’ve used Adobe Acrobat and PDFDocs. Corel’s PDF Fusion is easier to use than either of those programs and, while not as powerful as Acrobat, can do quite a bit in terms of manipulating and creating .pdf files. The interface is fairly simple. You can drag and drop files, change their order, and publish them to .pdf files. You can split .pdf files apart, stitch multiple files together, etc., all in a fairly intuitive graphical interface.

My daughter is learning to type, so we thought we’d try this Mavis Beacon product. Mavis Beacon is a name I’ve been familiar with for years. However, I had never had firsthand experience with any of the software bearing her name. This product was a bit rougher around the edges than I’d expect from a longstanding player in the industry. The interface was a bit stodgy. That said, the basic functionality is OK.

I received a review copy of this software. I was excited because my wife wanted to learn some Italian. Unfortunately, this product isn’t going to be the method that gets her there. The software doesn’t install on the computer. With the cost of storage being so low these days, and with effective compression algorithims for audio (.mp3) and video (.mpg) that reduce file size, there’s no reason to create a software product that runs from optical disc alone.

I installed this Windows 8 64-bit Upgrade on a machine I built several years ago around an Asus AMD 790X chipset motherboard and Phenom II 965BE processor. The machine had been running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. First, the upgrade was relatively straightforward. After inserting the disc and selecting the relevant menu options, it was off to the races. Although it is an upgrade package that will upgrade the existing operating system, it was not able to preserve the programs I had installed on Windows 7.

I’ve used various Norton products since the 1990s and have used their utilities/tools packages before. However, their software became increasingly demanding on system resources and sometimes caused problems for other programs. So I started trying other products, like Registry Mechanic and iolo lab’s System Mechanic. I was interested in trying this latest version of Norton out after using competing products for the last several years. It didn’t win me back over.

Before installing this anti-viruse my computer was runnning fine, it was really fast and performed excellent. Unfortunately I ran accross this Norton 360 and all changed.nMy system, overall, is significantly slower, especially when Norton is updating. The protection is fine but it does slow down my machine. I switched to Kasperski and that problem was solved completely, no more performance issues.

It has a lot of conflicts with Apple products to the point that I had to uninstall it. Then I installed it in my Android and it works OK. I am not satisfied because Kaspersky offers a FREE anti-virus (through the Android Market) that does exactly the same as McAfee All Access.

There are other programs out there with superior capability to this product. My recommendation: it’s not worth the money, go with Adobe.