Note: PC User provides these programs on an as is basis, and they should be used with extreme care. While they have all worked fine in testing, we cannot promise that they will work as expected on all systems. In rare cases they may even cause some damage.

Angela Booth finds shareware and freeware for Windows 95, 3.1 and DOS to suit all tastes.

Windows 95
Windows NT 4.0
Windows 3.1
DOS

NewBot
URL: www.hotfiles.com
Registered price: Freeware
Rating:

NewBot gives you complete control over your Web searches. You can set up the program to scan the Web and collect your news for you automatically, or you can search for news from your desktop. The program was developed by Excite, so it's efficient and it even includes a tutorial to get you started. The resources searched include HotBot, Wired News, and HotWired, and you can set it to search for a mention of your topic in the last 24 hours, 48 hours, four days etc.

Alert Bookmarks
URL: ftp://ftp.accessnv.com/viable/alert504.exe
Registered price: $40
Rating:

With most bookmark managers, you spend most of your time cutting and pasting, but Alert Bookmarks automatically scans Web pages for URLs. The program appears as a rotatable icon strip at the top of your screen and is compatible with all major browsers. You can organise your bookmarks as you surf. The icon strip slides out of the way when you're not using it -- reorganise your bookmarks by dragging and dropping. The program's best features are Speed Search to locate bookmarks and the export option, which allows you to save your bookmarks either as a Web page or a text file.

KeyText
URL: www.mjmsoft.com
Registered price: $35
Rating:

KeyText lets you retrieve text instantly with keyboard macros or from the system tray. Your text can contain variables, such as the date and time or macros that launch programs or access the Web. The retrieved text is automatically inserted at the current cursor location. You can also schedule programs, reminders or audible alarms.

Tracker
URL: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/xbeat/Download/Tracker.zip  
Registered price: $25
Rating:

Tracker is an enhanced Windows 95 File Find utility. It searches for files by date -- created, modified and accessed, as well as by content and other criteria. It helps you to rapidly clear your system of unwanted installations and lets you find files that haven't been accessed for months. You can print directories to a file, the clipboard or to your printer. It also displays detailed file versions and other information.

Thunderbyte 8.05
Registered price: $POA
From: Thunderbyte Australia (07) 3204 5000, http://www.thunderbyte.com
Rating:

From our experience, one of the most reliable virus scanners around. Thunderbyte will detect all known viruses, plus guard against new and unknown viruses. For full protection and virus cleaning capabilities you will need to register, but the shareware version will alert you to any virus you may have and offer several options to getting rid of it.

Another of the better Anti-Virus programs around. This 30-day EVALUATION copy of AntiViral Toolkit Pro by Eugene Kaspersky has a limited lifespan! and has been especially provided for PC User Readers

After expiry the program will work ONLY as a demonstration copy ... file cleaning, virus disinfection, internal scanning of archived and packed files, heuristic analysis, and some other features will be disabled.

To license AVP in Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific region, or South East Asia, see the textfiles ORDER.TXT and PRICE.LST files after installation

PaintShop Pro
Registered price: $110
From: Communique (02) 9622 5624, http://www.comm-unique.com.au/
Rating:

PaintShop Pro has always been our favourite graphic file viewer and converter, but in this latest version, this shareware program is now a comprehensive graphics package. As well as providing a Browse utility for managing graphics files, it lets you create and save graphics in the GIF and JPG formats common on the Web. It also provides image manipulation tools that'll let you grab an image and edit it to your heart's content.

WinZip 6.3
URL: http://www.winzip.com
Registered price: $US29
Rating:

This shareware utility is our perennial favourite for unzipping and zipping just about every type of compressed file, as well as for decoding Internet file formats, such as UUencode, BinHex and MIME.

This new version features an updated zip/unzip engine with automatic support for multi-disk ZIP files, plus a number of Windows Explorer menu enhancements. But perhaps the best new feature is the free WinZip Internet Browser Support Add-On. Using this free add-on, you can download and open archives from the Internet with one click via Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.

This free player from Apple allows PC users to play Quicktime .MOV files -- the standard movie file format for the Macintosh, and used by many cross-platform multimedia CD-ROMs.

Another of the better Anti-Virus programs around. This 30-day EVALUATION copy of AntiViral Toolkit Pro by Eugene Kaspersky has a limited lifespan! and has been especially provided for PC User Readers

After expiry the program will work ONLY as a demonstration copy ... file cleaning, virus disinfection, internal scanning of archived and packed files, heuristic analysis, and some other features will be disabled.

To license AVP in Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific region, or South East Asia, see the textfiles ORDER.TXT and PRICE.LST files after installation

Thunderbyte 8.05
Registered price: $POA
From: Thunderbyte Australia (07) 3204 5000, http://www.thunderbyte.com
Rating:

From our experience, one of the most reliable virus scanners around. Thunderbyte will detect all known viruses, plus guard against new and unknown viruses. For full protection and virus cleaning capabilities you will need to register, but the shareware version will alert you to any virus you may have and offer several options to getting rid of it.

Thunderbyte 8.05
Registered price: $POA
From: Thunderbyte Australia (07) 3204 5000, http://www.thunderbyte.com
Rating:

From our experience, one of the most reliable virus scanners around. Thunderbyte will detect all known viruses, plus guard against new and unknown viruses. For full protection and virus cleaning capabilities you will need to register, but the shareware version will alert you to any virus you may have and offer several options to getting rid of it.

Another of the better Anti-Virus programs around. This 30-day EVALUATION copy of AntiViral Toolkit Pro by Eugene Kaspersky has a limited lifespan! and has been especially provided for PC User Readers

After expiry the program will work ONLY as a demonstration copy ... file cleaning, virus disinfection, internal scanning of archived and packed files, heuristic analysis, and some other features will be disabled.

To license AVP in Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific region, or South East Asia, see the textfiles ORDER.TXT and PRICE.LST files after installation

PaintShop Pro
Registered price: $110
From: Communique (02) 9622 5624, http://www.comm-unique.com.au/
Rating:

PaintShop Pro has always been our favourite graphic file viewer and converter, but in this latest version, this shareware program is now a comprehensive graphics package. As well as providing a Browse utility for managing graphics files, it lets you create and save graphics in the GIF and JPG formats common on the Web. It also provides image manipulation tools that'll let you grab an image and edit it to your heart's content.

WinZip 6.3
URL: http://www.winzip.com
Registered price: $US29
Rating:

This shareware utility is our perennial favourite for unzipping and zipping just about every type of compressed file, as well as for decoding Internet file formats, such as UUencode, BinHex and MIME.

This new version features an updated zip/unzip engine with automatic support for multi-disk ZIP files, plus a number of Windows Explorer menu enhancements. But perhaps the best new feature is the free WinZip Internet Browser Support Add-On. Using this free add-on, you can download and open archives from the Internet with one click via Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.

This free player from Apple allows PC users to play Quicktime. MOV files -- the standard movie file format for the Macintosh, and used by many cross-platform multimedia CD-ROMs.