Excellent free software with easy to use features.

Pros: Tried it on a 1.6GHz computer and also on a 2.53GHz computer, both using Windows XP Home Edition. It worked well on both machines. The program was stable with no freezes or crashes, but it does take some time to import large video files (several hundred MegaBytes' worth), and more time when you click to complete or Save the finished video. Just go for coffee or tea and give it a few minutes. We recorded a general Christmas greeting then added a personal hello to each person along with Titles, snowflakes, sleighbell sounds and end credits. Even though we were complete beginners we managed to get it all done without too much effort. You can save the finished movie to your computer, or burn it onto a blank CD, or tell MovieMaker to shrink the file size for emailing.

Cons: MovieMaker in Windows XP won't burn anything onto DVD. However, our DVD burner came with its own software which conveniently burns your saved video movie onto a blank DVD.

Also, the finished video is limited to Windows Media Video format (.wmv), but almost every computer can play it, so no real problem there.

Posted: 22-Oct-2007 05:30:15 PM

Used with companion program SpywareGuard it's a great combo!

Pros: We used to run AdAware twice a week and it often found dozens of "critical" spyware objects to remove. So, we installed SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard (blocks browser hijack and drive-by downloads), both of which are free. Now, when we run run AdAware (plus the free online Ewido spyware remover) they find almost nothing to remove. Clearly, SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard are very effective.

Cons: You must manually click to Check for Updates. They do offer an auto-updater but that costs money.

Posted: 05-Jul-2007 12:34:23 PM