Software Reviews

With the summer holiday season in full swing, many of us are snapping photos with our digital cameras to remember those special moments. Unfortunately, most software packages that come standard with our beloved cameras make it difficult to organize ... photos into meaningful presentations, let alone share them with friends and family. Introducing InAlbum: a feature-packed photo organizer InAlbum is an easy-to-use picture organizer that turns ordinairy digital photos into stunning theme-based photo albums, chalk-full of animations, clipart, and sound. Presentations can be shared online the web, ... (view more)

Last Friday's article touched upon the importance of backing up an entire computer system (including Windows itself). As you may recall, disk imaging is mentioned frequently in this newsletter, as it is an important part of 'disaster recovery' ... planning. Over the weekend, I received a number of comments and questions from Readers: many of which referenced the fundamentals of disk imaging. Since the questions were similar in nature -- and because disk imaging is such an essential topic -- I have decided to repost an article which illustrates the basics of disk imaging versus 'regular file ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Bill C. writes: " Dear Dennis, After reading your review, I downloaded and installed WinOptimizer Platinum Suite . So far, it freed up almost 1.5 gig of space on my system. I was impressed. I also happened to come across another ... program called PowerUp XP Platinum, and was wondering if you would consider writing a review? It looks equally as good. Thanks in advance! PS: I have been enjoying your newsletters for quite some time. They're always informative and to the point. Please keep up the good work! " My response: Thanks for the kind words. I did a bit of ... (view more)

Recall -- Last week, Infopackets Reader Jenny C. asked if I knew of a freeware greeting card program. She wrote: " I am wondering if you could help me: I have been trying to find a small (and hopefully free) software program to create ordinary ... greeting cards -- one that I can put my own pictures or clipart on, write my own verse, and mail it (via snail mail) to friends. I used to use a greeting card program that came pre-packaged with my computer, but the program has expired and I can no longer use it. I would love to make my own greeting cards and I am sure other subscribers would too. ... (view more)

Email newsletters, like infopackets.com, are historically the method I use to keep up with technology information. Once my email address is subscribed, the newsletter publishers deliver their information to me on a predefined delivery schedule. In ... addition to email newsletters, I'm finding myself reading more content from news feed channels, called RSS. What is RSS? RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication (depending on who you ask), and is a markup language similar to HTML code used to construct a web page. RSS works by organizing text information in a way which makes ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jenny C. writes: " Hi! I just read my first newsletter -- it was great and I am looking forward to more issues! I am wondering if you could help me: I have been trying to find a small (and hopefully free) software program to ... create ordinary greeting cards -- one that I can put my own pictures or clipart on, write my own verse, and mail it (via snail mail) to friends. I used to use a greeting card program that came pre-packaged with my computer, but the program has expired and I can no longer use it. I would love to make my own greeting cards and I am sure other ... (view more)

Recall -- Earlier this month Infopackets Reader Joan L. asked if I knew of a freeware envelope printing program. She wrote: " Hi Dennis! I really do enjoy reading all of your letters and find your newsletter very informative -- I have learnt a great ... deal. I usually type out the address in MS Word and then print out the envelope, but this is done using trial an error and I often waste a few envelopes along the way. I know you have many questions to answer, but I am sure other Readers are in the same boat as I am. Many thanks if you could point me in the right direction! " In my ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Joan L. writes: " Hi Dennis! I really do enjoy reading all of your letters and find your newsletter very informative -- I have learnt a great deal. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember seeing anything in your newsletter ... about printing envelopes on the PC? I usually type out the address in MS Word and then print out the envelope, but this is done using trial an error and I often waste a few envelopes along the way. I know you have many questions to answer, but I am sure other Readers are in the same boat as I am. Many thanks if you could point me in the right ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Joel K. writes: " Dear Dennis, As a frequent sampler of all kinds of software offerings, I try them and if I like them, I keep them. If I don't like them, I delete them. The problem is that, a lot of the time, programs I remove ... from my system end up remaining in my Start Menu or as part of a right-click menu [I.E.: the Windows shell]. My question is: how do I remove these items? As far as I understand, the program has been removed from my system, so why do these objects remain on my system? " My Response: Excellent question. The answer is that (unfortunately) the ... (view more)

Throughout the day, hand-written reminders pile up on my desk and in my pocket. All too often, I misplace a phone number before getting a chance to enter it into my Outlook contacts, or one ends up going through the wash -- never to be recovered. ... Luckily, I recently discovered a solution to my paper management problem when I came across a program called StickyNote for Windows. What is StickyNote? StickyNote creates beautiful 3D virtual reminders on Windows desktop, making it easy to keep track of important notes and reminders. In addition to stationing notes on the desktop, StickyNote also ... (view more)