Calculator

Calculator is -- wait for it! -- a calculator. A desktop calculator. But we'll tell you that Calculator by Willy's Freeware isn't just a free desktop calculator, it's quite a nice one. Like the built-in Windows Calculator and most of the rest of the competition, it's designed to look and function like an old-style desktop calculator, the kind that sat on top of your desk and had real buttons you could push. Calculator has a few interesting twists, such as a new History Pane that functions like a tally roll on an adding machine, except you can copy and paste the data into a word processor or similar app. You can also paste strings of numbers into Calculator and it will recognize them as if you'd entered them the usual way. Calculator has a separate, permanent memory display that records all changes. It handles both rounded and floating decimals automatically. You can set and change a Constant independently of Calculator's main memory, too, and use it to calculate currency exchanges and other calculations requiring a particular value.

Calculator's user interface looks like a handheld calculator, only with a slightly larger display for its memory window; otherwise it's the usual layout of number pad and function keys. The main entry field is highlighted in yellow to distinguish it from the much more prominent memory field, with the Clear All button in red. Calculator has keys for square roots and percentages, but it's not a scientific calculator. As an everyday calculator, we found no fault with the program, although some users of 64-bit versions of Windows might have trouble opening the Help file because of an unrelated (but correctable) issue. But we had little difficulty in figuring things out on our own; for instance, clicking SC let us set a constant, and clicking RC recalled it.

The PC basically drove the handheld calculator off the desktop and onto the hips of engineering students, but it wasn't long before the calculator was back, only in virtual form on the Windows desktop. If you want or need a better one than Windows packs, we definitely recommend Calculator.