Software I use and recommend

(Updated 2012-07-09)

Internet software

Agent offline newsreader.  While it's keyboard interface takes a bit getting used to you can efficiently handle a large volume of newsgroup messages without using the mouse. Free Agent while not as powerful works quite nicely too.

Eudora email.   This first came with a Netscape browser, FTP, gopher and archie software on two or three 3.5" floppies from my ISP in 1995 or so.   I've never seen any reason to switch.

WS_FTP LE It works.

Microsoft FrontPage - I can keep my website up to date quite conveniently. 

Trillian Instant Messengering While I generally don't like IM as it is very inconvenient and a waste of my time while waiting for others to type Trillian consolidates multiple services into one and offers additional options.

Utilities

PowerToys - PowerToys are additional programs that developers work on after a product has been released to manufacturing. They add fun and functionality to the Windows experience.  Windows XP, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows 95; other versions of Windows

NetStumbler My laptop has a wireless network card.  Enough said.

. Memtest86 - A Stand-alone Memory Diagnostic.  It worked for me.  Among other things this test can be downloaded as an ISO image which results in a self booting CDR.

I was having weird problems with Microsoft Access.  Application Error "The instruction at "0x12345678" referenced memory at "0x90abcdef". The memory could not be "written" which decompile fixed.   Where the eight digit numbers were different each time I started up the MDB or at random times when working with the MDB.  Turns out this problem was caused by some bad RAM up around 891 Mb of a 1024 Mb RAM system.  <sigh> 

Nero The Emperor of Recording Software - CD burner software.  Works and is reliable. More than I can say for Adaptec/Roxio EZ CD Creator/Direct CD.  The Windows XP built in software is a bit too slow, awkward and troublesome to effectively use.

Winzip  And yes, I did purchase a license.

PartitionMagic and BootMagic (Which comes with PartitionMagic) On my laptop I have kept the original version of Windows XP Home which came with my laptop in it's own partition. Thus should I ever have a weird problem of some sort I can boot to it and see if the problem is duplicated in it.  Some vendors will tell you that a problem can only be fixed by wiping your current operating system and starting again. By having the original, virtually untouched OS in place this takes care of that problem.

VMWare I use this for beta testing software, for creating MS Access runtime install programs which require the oldest version of the OS on which to assemble the files and for testing those MS Access runtime installs on clean OS setups.  Thus I can ensure that all the DLLs I've included will work properly, etc, etc.   I can also duplicate customer problems with respect to specific OSs right on my own system.  One problem though is that it needs a lot of RAM.  Which is one reason why my laptop has 768 MB RAM.

Microsoft Virtual PC Same as for VMWare

PC Anywhere.  Used for client support.  Works great.  What really surprised me was having a client connect to their ISP, tell me their IP address, run the PC Anywhere client and I was able to tunnel through my other clients firewall and work on their system directly.

Misc

MS Streets & Trips  Very nice for figuring out routes and how far away something is.  Trouble is the Canadian map is absolutely terrible in a few places which I am personally acquainted with.   In some cases the data is as much as fifteen to twenty years old. 

Windows NT 4.0/2000/XP.   These operating systems are solid and work for me.   While I've occasionally had BSODs (Blue Screens of Death) these have almost always been caused by flaky device drivers of one sort or another. 

Microsoft Access Hey, I make my living using it.  Make sure you have the most recent SRs, SPs and Jet SPs.  For a list of such see the MS Fixes page at my business website.

  Visual Basic 6.0.   Several utilities I've made available for free are written in VB.  Some future shareware software I will be writing will likely be using VB as well.

Intellipoint 3.2. Yes, it's dated 2000.   However I require a much higher acceleration than is available on the currently available mouse drivers which come with Win 2000 and Win XP or the most recent versions of Intellipoint.  You try working with dual 19" monitors set to a combined resolution of 2384 x 960 (or so) with the acceleration set to the standard highest setting.  My arm developed an ache within a few hours.

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