ESET Security Suite

I am quite pleased with the ESET security suite. This builds on the NOD32 anti-virus program and supplies the firewall and malware protection through one interface. Recommended

EverNote

I am currently using EverNote to record the little titbits of information contained in e-mail, websites and the little notations I need to make from time to time such as the name of a musician or album I want to get or something for a Christmas present. So far Evernote has been an excellent application to do all of this. It also makes it easy to grab a web page or Internet article and save it, along with the page’s URL.

Skitch (from EverNote)

This is a handy piece of software for annotating images. I use it primarily to label images used in the help files that are part of the software I develop. It seems, as of August 2018, that EverNote has discontinued support for the Windows desktop application.

MS Visual Studio

For programming I use Microsoft Visual C++. I know many people like BASIC and Visual Basic in particular. I have used Visual Basic for Applications to create enhancements for my Excel spreadsheets. However, for the stand-alone programs, I haven't seen anything better than C++ within Visual Studio. C++ isn't a novice language. It is versatile and powerful. I also occasionally use Visual Studio for HTML editing (see below). Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition is the implementation I am currently using.

Visual Assist (Whole Tomato Software)

This Visual Studio add-in by Whole Tomato Software is superb. It improves and streamlines the process of writing code dramatically. The Personal License for $99 (US) has limited (six months) support and no option to renew the maintenance service. The Standard Licence is $249 and provides 1 year of software updates and the option to renew the maintenance agreement. My personal license expired a year ago and I’m considering investing in another Personal License as the tool is so valuable.

MS Office 2010 and MS Office 2013

I have been using a version of MS Word since I began using Windows back in 1995 with Windows 95. I think my first Office Suite was Office 2000 and it has been a staple ever since. Word is simply a solid Swiss army knife word processor. There are very few writing and subsequent formatting tasks it cannot perform. Excel is a superb spreadsheet with far more functionality than I’ll ever be able to tap. I no longer have to do presentations, but PowerPoint is the standard against which all other presentation software is compared. Finally, Outlook combines email, calendar and contact information in a way that is sensible and efficient. Each iteration of Office has offered improvements, sometimes with an accompanying learning curve and I now really like MS Office 2013.

Roboform

There are now a number of password managers available, but after trying some others, I continue to prefer Roboform. It now provides cloud storage for passwords, so I have all my passwords, properly protected, available to me regardless of the computer or tablet I may be using. In fact, Roboform compatibility is a browser prerequisite and I won’t use a browser, regardless of any other advantages, that won’t support it.

Working with Pictures

I have used a number of tools to work with my pictures, primarily my underwater one that benefit from various corrections. These other tools include Adobe Photoshop Elements 10, Google’s Picassa 3, Ashampoo Photo Commander, Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 4 and PixBuilder Studio. Adobe Photoshop Elements 13: This is my current primary picture editing software. However, it does not optimize my underwater pictures as well as Picassa. Picassa 3: I turn to this software next and it`s often a toss-up between Picassa and Photoshop Elements. The general picture adjustments work very well on most of my underwater pictures. 

SnapCrab (for Windows)

For screen capture I have been using SnapCrab from Fenir software. All the screen shots in the help files with the software I have developed were obtained using SnapCrab.

Revo Uninstaller Pro

Although the normal uninstall procedures work reasonably well, I like to keep my system as free of unwanted and lingering detritus as possible. Revo Uninstaller Pro provides a thorough garbage collection process removing the Registry entries and spurious files left after a program`s normal uninstall routine has completed.

Mozy Home

I have been using Mozy Home for cloud backup for a few years now and I’m extremely pleased with it. There have been far too many time when I would have lost important files if I had not had them backed up to the Mozy cloud. The program works seamlessly in the background. Highly recommended.

Xara Web Designer 11

I have recently begun using Xara Web Designer 9 to develop the content for my website. The program is powerful and provides most of the flexibility required to build my pages. Although I’ve encountered a few limitations trying to include a Google search element and a “last modified” indication, all other tasks are handled very effectively. Web Designer is not a good HTML editor and my one concern is that it introduces a great deal of code to web pages. Of course, that additional code provides considerable functionality to a website.

Ipswitch WS_FTP 12

I use this FTP program for virtually all the direct maintenance on my website. Posting new versions of my software is handled very smoothly.

Dropbox

I use Dropbox as one of the two primary cloud storage locations.

OneDrive

From Microsoft, this cloud storage option provides a lot of space for free.

Programs and Utilities I like, use and recommend:

The following software are programs I use. These programs accomplish their designated task in an effective, efficient and aesthetic manner. Where possible I have included a link to the author's website. I am currently running Windows 10 and I like the new OS. My new system, also one I put together is: Intel i7-8700, 16 GB DDR4 Ram, 512 GB SSD, 256 GB SSD, 2 TB HD, ASUS Rx 560. I also use the software I have written, but since those programs are listed in the "BruntonSoft Software" page, I won't repeat them here.