This time of year most of your computer magazines start coming out with the best of the best awards such as best scanners, digital cameras, printers, monitors, PCs… well, you get the picture. For many years in the past I subscribed to several computer-related magazines to get my fix of technology information. Today I’m down to one magazine in hard print and most all my other techy-type reading material is now in the form of e-Mail dispatches, brought right to my desktop, free of charge (and if you know me you know I like free stuff).

One of my favorite sources for obtaining information on the Internet is ZDNet.com at http://www.zdnet.com/. My good friend Bruce Register turned me onto this several years ago, and I have been an avid user every since. ZDNet has been around for a long time, and they also publish many of your major computer magazines in print.

ZDNet gives you a whole host of information to have "pushed" to you on a regular basis. One of my favorites is ZDNet’s Software Express download picks of the day. Along with the Hot File of the day, they are also currently providing a links to a Free File, Game File, Screen Saver File, Utility File and Internet File, and many, many more. When you’re a file-hound like I am, this couldn’t get much better! I’ll admit that I don’t always have the time to follow all of the links but I do try to read the descriptions and if they sound interesting, I’ll click through.

One thing I do is read my email both at work and at home. I typically have more time at home than at work to digest what I am reading so by choosing to leave my email on the server when I read it at work I can also read it at home. But I have gotten a lot of good free utility programs from ZDNet that also come in handy at work. That’s why I try to read my email at both places.

My most recent push from ZDNet had a special link to a featured collection of their top 100 recent downloads, and finally, that’s what this article is about…

At the top of their list, with nearly 4 million downloads, and probably at the top of every other software site like C|Net’s http://download.cnet.com/ or http://www.tucows.com/ is WinZip (32-bit) version 8. Although I don’t use it personally, WinZip has been the most widely used compression tool since Windows based compression began. (I use a program that I reviewed and beta-tested for the software’s author many years ago. Some other larger software maker purchased the rights to the program I use and discontinued it - I guess that’s how they wipe out the competition in this business - but it does what I need so I continue to use it. Hey, why fix it if it ain’t broken?) WinZip has built-in support for .zip, .tar, gzip, UUencode, XXencode, BinHex, and MIME formats (plus support for .arj, .lzh, and .arc files through external programs). The new Zip and Email feature compresses documents and folders and attaches the zip file to an email message without leaving Explorer. The program I use doesn’t handle all this but I have other utilities that do. Maybe it’s time I looked into changing to one program that can handle it all. For $29 it’s well worth the price and it’s free to try!

Rated number two and one of my all time favorite programs ever is Paint Shop Pro version 7. I was surprised to see it had nearly 2.2 million downloads because PSP7 has only just recently been released. I guess that shows the popularity of this fine graphics program. If you want most of the capabilities of a high-end program like Adobe’s PhotoShop without the high cost (free to try, $99 to keep) and without the long learning curve, then you should try the shareware version of PSP7. With version 7 all of the old stuff was left intact but a lot of new features were added like additional and improved photo-enhancement capabilities, along with Web, vector/drawing, and productivity tools. There are way too many new features to list here but if you’ll download the readme file at the download site you can read all about the many other features and effects like Aged Newspaper, Sunburst, and Soft Plastic. There are also new tools for getting rid of red-eye and removing scratches too. Version 3.0 of Animation Shop is included as well. Like PSP7, it offers several additional features and improvements, including integration of the Paint Shop Pro browser and the ability to open MPEG files now.

Next on ZDNet’s list at third is SolSuite 2000 version 5.6, which is a collection of 250 solitaire games like Diplomat, Easthaven, Equinox, Fifteens, Four Seasons, Fourteen Out, FreeCell, Golf, Klondike, Pyramid, and 235 more. I play Klondike solitaire all of the time and I’m not sure what most of the other games are but at over 1.2 million downloads I must be in the minority. It’s free to try and $29 to keep.

Following SolSuite at fourth was StayOn Pro version 3.24 with nearly 1.1 million downloads. I used StayOn Pro for quite some time before going to broadband Internet connection at both home and at the office. It keeps your Internet connection alive by simulating activity when you're away from your computer and keeps your ISP from kicking you off-line. It’s free to try and only $19.95 to keep. And it really does work.

Now, I’m not going to go down all one hundred of the top downloads. I just wanted to make you aware that the list is there at http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/hotfiles/shareware100.html. I haven’t gone through all 100 yet myself, but so far all the ones I’ve looked at or tried have been shareware, meaning they are free to try and you pay only if you decide to keep them. As far as I’m concerned there is no better deal on the planet. Stop by and check them out. And while you’re at ZDNet check out all the other neat stuff they have to offer. It’s well worth your time. Happy downloading! u