Waist of time!

TRASH!!!!!

You get what u pay for!

Microsoft MapPoint 2009 seems like overkill when it comes to personal use. I know you can get directions using it, but you can just as easily do that with MapQuest, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, etc. I know you can use it as a GPS program with the proper GPS hardware, but that’s a fairly expensive solution when there are much more user-friendly, less expensive (and often more up-to-date) solutions readily available at any store that sells electronics.

I’m not sure what I was expecting from Corel Painter Essentials 5, but while this is a fun little program, it seems a bit limited and hampered. I was hoping it was a bit more like Photoshop for photo editing, never having used it before, but that’s not really its primary aim (there are some functions there, but there are better products). This is more like a souped of version of Paint where you can take photos and apply different textures and filters to it, as well as touch it up with an abundant selection of different brushes and effects.

I’m using Win7Pro x64. When it works, it works. However, incompatibility issues can make this version of Windows a nightmare if you have legacy USB and audio gear from previous editions – including Vista. Unlike previous editions, what I’m seeing with Win7 x64 is a very slow adoption rate by OEM manufacturers. In the past, they were all in a hurry to jump on the bandwagon. I guess this time, everyone it tired of the game and holding off for as long as possible before supporting this new version of Windows.

I’ve been using Acronis for years. Upgraded from 2014 to 2015. Backups were fine. However, the 2015 recovery disk I created with the program would not boot. Same for the backup.

I’ve been using Pinnacle software for years and upgraded to Avid Studio after Avid purchased Pinnacle. Now Corel owns Pinnacle and this product is an upgraded version of Avid Studio. However, if you have a problem, you’ll run into is a maze of technical incompetence. Corel promotion pages that say something will work and it does not. This is misrepresentation. Plus the PDF help files that come with the Corel Studio 16 Ultimate install point to dead end broken links.

If you are a full time, professional graphics artist you’re mostly likely using Adobe products which cost many times the price of this graphics suite. If this is how you make your living, spending a few thousand dollars for software is a no-brainer. But what about the rest of us?nnThis is what I love about CorelDraw. It gives you 90% of the power of Adobe at 10% of the price. The interface is more intuitive and Corel does a brilliant job of making the deep feature set of this product as accessible to those of us who do graphics work on a part time basis.

I used Tune-Up for years and loved it. AVG got it and they use it to for a cheesy marketing scam to force you to buy their paid anti-virus program. Every day you get an upgrade popup and when I called their support department for instructions on how to turn that off, they LIED to me.