Below you will see that we have compiled a table which shows our rating given to each Anti-Virus package as well as other information such as the price.  Note - we are not in the business of selling software, so we provide links to the respective company sites.

To see our full review for each anti-virus software simply click the review link.

Best Anti-Virus Software for 2012

Desktop Publishing Software	Price	Full Review	Go To Site	Ease of Use	User Friendliness	Help/ Support	Overall Rating
Webroot Secure Anywhere AntiVirus	$39.95	Review	Order	5	5	5
BitDefender Antivirus Plus 2012	$49.95	Review	Order	5	5	4.5
Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012	$59.95	Review	Order	5	4.5	4.5
Norton AntiVirus 2012	$39.99	Review	Order	4.5	4.5	4.5
AVG Anti-Virus 2012	$39.95	Review	Order	4.5	5	4

Winner: Webroot Secure Anywhere Antivirus

The table below provides an overall rating given to each program. We have also included the price of each program and a short review along with a link to the manufacture’s website that can be accessed by clicking on the links provided below.

Best Privacy Software for 2012

Desktop Publishing Software	Price	Full Review	Go To Site	Ease of Use	User Friendliness	Help/ Support	Overall Rating
Webroot Window Washer	$29.99	Review	Order	5	5	5
CyberScrub Privacy Suite 5.1	$59.99	Review	Order	5	5	4.5
Evidence Eliminator	$99.95	Review	Order	4	4.5	5
Privacy Guardian	$29.99	Review	Order	5	5	4
ParetoLogic Privacy Controls	$39.95	Review	Order	4.5	4.5	4.5

Winner: Webroot Window Washer

Webroot Window Washer

http://www.webroot.com/En_US/consumer-products-windowwasher.html

$29.95

Ease of Installation: 5

User Friendliness: 5

Help/Support: 5

This privacy software program is Windows 7 compatible, provides you the ability to protect your private passwords and private data, improves your current system performance and comes with free U.S based support. It has everything to keep your PC or laptop files, images, videos etc completely a secret from everyone else out there. A solid product that is very cost effective.

CyberScrub Privacy Suite 5.1

http://www.cyberscrub.com/en/privacy-suite/

$59.95

Ease of Installation: 5

User Friendliness: 5

Help/Support: 4.5

This privacy software is able to support Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and also Firefox. All of your private data and internet information is protected; it is even compatible with Windows 7. It features a Risk Monitor which alerts you when you venture into anything that may compromise you personal data as well as automatically updating all of your plug-ins and helping you to finally delete all of those old deleted files you thought were gone; the fingerprint can be completely erased.

Evidence Eliminator

http://www.evidence-eliminator.com/

$99.95

Ease of Installation: 4

User Friendliness: 4.5

Help/Support: 5

The Evidence Eliminator 6 uses a very similar platform to that of which the police uses to recover files that have been previously deleted. These files are never truly deleted as a fingerprint of them is always left with the Evidence Eliminator everything you delete remains that way the fingerprint is removed. Medium priced this privacy software program is very affective and is very easy to use. Not only does it remove your previously deleted files it also protects current information by making it stay personal.

Privacy Guardian

$29.99

Ease of Installation: 5

User Friendliness: 5

Help/Support: 4

Compatible with all of the major named internet browsers the Privacy Guardian 4.5 is able to delete all of your private browsing history passwords and codes at the click of a button. This software is very reasonably priced, but it can still handle some of the more advanced features that you would expect from more expensive privacy software programs.

ParetoLogic Privacy controls

http://www.paretologic.com/downloads/

$39.95

Ease of Installation: 4.5

User Friendliness: 4.5

Help/Support: 4.5

This privacy software program has managed to ensure that removing any potential threats and spyware from your computer or laptop can be completed in a few easy steps which are so easy even a child could understand it. It quickly scans your computer but whilst it is quick it is completely thorough and will update your plug-ins on your internet browser as well as itself on a regular basis.

WinSweeper

http://www.solvusoft.com/software/

$39.95

Ease of Installation: 4

User Friendliness: 4

Help/Support: 4

WinSweeper is able to guarantee that all of your internet privacy is completely protected along with your activities you go about on your computer or laptop. It can permanently erase all files making them completely unrecoverable. WinSweeper also can help you to clear your hard drive up freeing up important space allowing your computer to run more efficiently.

Ghost Surf Platinum

http://www.tenebril.com/v2009/consumer/consumergsp.php?ClickID=c4iszzpwwkq4eifsep4efeeezslz4qaveeqz

$39.95 for 1 year

Ease of Installation: 4

User Friendliness: 4

Help/Support: 4

This promising privacy software program is able to protect all of your online information such as your address, card details and surfing habits along with sensitive passwords and also prevents all possible attempts of identity theft. It also removes all types of spyware currently on your machine and stops it from returning.

Best Animation Software for 2011

Animation Software	Price	Full Review	Go To Site	Ease of Use	Effectiveness	Help/ Support	Overall Rating
Toon Boom Studio 6	$329.99	Review	Order	5	5	5
Anime Studio Debute 8 and Pro 8	$49.99, $199.99	Review	Order	5	4.5	5
Claymation Studio 3.0 Deluxe	$59.99	Review	Order	4.5	5	5
Animation Workshop 4.0a	$29.99	Review	Order	4.5	5	4.5
Easy GIF Animator	$19.85	Review	Order	4.5	4	4

Toon Boom Studio 6

http://www.toonboom.com/products/toon-boom-studio/

$329.99

Ease of Installation: 5

User Friendliness: 5

Help/Support: 5

Toon Boom Studio is known for their 2D animation software products due to the fact that they are perfect for everyone at any level of experience from new users to pro users. It allows you to create animation content in a range of different ways which include paper drawings that you scan in, digital drawings, live image imports and also importation of other artworks. You can then publish your finished works in every way for HDTV, Facebook, the iPod and iPad range as well as the web and TV.

Anime Studio Debut 8 and Pro 8

http://anime.smithmicro.com/

$49.99 and $199.99

Ease of Installation: 5

User Friendliness: 4.5

Help/Support: 5

The Debut version is ideal for those who are new to animation and need to learn the basics. The Pro version is perfect for those who already have a background in animation or are a professional who are looking to take the next step in how to fully bring everything to life without having to suffer through hours of frame by frame animation. Fun, easy to use and with excellent support you will love this cheeky program that brings animation into 21^st Century fully without hesitation.

Claymation Studio 3.0 Deluxe

http://www.honestech.com/main/claymation-studio-30-standard.asp

$59.99

Ease of Installation: 4.5

User Friendliness: 5

Help/Support: 5

Cheaper than most animation software programs on the market the Claymation Studio 3.0 Deluxe is easy to use and a huge amount of fun to use. Designed ideally for children and teenagers it is the perfect place for adult beginners to learn the basic of how this type of product works without spending a large amount on an expensive software program. It also comes with a camera to save you even further money.

Animation Workshop 4.0a

http://www.mindworkshop.com/animwork.html

$29.99

Ease of Installation: 4.5

User Friendliness: 5

Help/Support: 4.5

This is not your usual 2D animation software program as it does not come with software that you can create cartoons etc what it does come with is everything you could ever need to create up-to-date and impressive commercial advertisements and banners. Perfectly devised and aimed at want to create their own advertisements without having to go through a massive learning program. This software program gives you a big head start and is very easy to use.

Easy GIF Animator

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/easygif.html

Free Trial or $19.85 to purchase

Ease of Installation: 4.5

User Friendliness: 4

Help/Support: 4

The free trial will give you a reasonable idea as to how the program helps you to create a GIF animated image. With the purchase version you will be then taught further how to layer on various effects and is a frame by frame interface program. For the price it is a very interesting and fun way to begin your journey into animation.

FotoMorph

http://www.diphso.no/FotoMorph.html

Free Download

Ease of Installation: 4.5

User Friendliness: 4

Help/Support: 4

This photo animation software can provide you some amazing results with several photos morphing into each other seamlessly. The sky is limit with this program but can for some seem very advanced and hard to understand so it is best used to its full potential by those who already have at least a basic understanding of how animation software works. Professionals can really go far with this product allowing them to create some hugely popular and impressive animations.

DigiCel FlipBook Pro 6

http://www.digicel.net/flipbook.htm

$598

Ease of Installation: 4

User Friendliness: 4

Help/Support: 4

This animation software is a cut above the rest as it allows you to draw right onto the computer using your mouse, scan a picture drawing in via your web cam and also scan them. There are a wide range of different tools and perfect for all ages as it can help beginners to learn the art of animation and also help those who have used other platforms to adapt and improve on their current skills by challenging them.

The table below provides an overall rating given to each program.  A short review of each program along with a link to the manufacturer’s web site can be accessed by clicking on the links provided.

Best Photo Editing Software for 2011

Desktop Publishing Software	Price	Full Review	Go To Site	Ease of Use	Effectiveness	Help/ Support	Overall Rating
Corel Paint Shop Photo Pro	$29.99	Review	Order	4	4	4
Adobe Photoshop Elements	$89.99	Review	Order	3.5	4	4
Xara Photo & Graphic Designer	$89.99	Review	Order	4	3	3
Serif PhotoPlus	$89.99	Review	Order	3.5	3	3.5
ACDSee Photo Editor	$34.99	Review	Order	3	3	3

Winner: Corel Paint Shop Photo Pro
http://www.corel.com
$29.99
Ease of installation: 4
User friendliness: 4
Help/Support: 4
Corel Paint Shop Photo Pro is a vector graphic and image editor that was unveiled by Microsoft Windows operating system in 2004 when Corel acquired JASP and branded Corel Paint Shop Photo Pro X. Right now Corel Paint Shop Photo Pro X3 is in the market released in 2010. The latest supports a digital camera, removable media operations like CD and smartcard and a scanner. Screen capture is enhanced.

Adobe Photoshop Elements
https://www.adobe.com
$89.99
Ease of installation: 3.5
User friendliness: 4
Help/Support: 4
This software is designed with a set of tools and features that have free video tutorials to enable every user to attain credible usage skills. Regardless of one’s experience, simple application tools like cropping, red eye remover, clone tool and the Quick Fix tool allow allows users to edit photos with relative ease. Effects can be applied combined with lighting and sensitive hue adjustments can be done with a simple click.

Xara Photo & Graphic Designer
http://www.xara.com/us/products/designer/whatsnew/
$89.99
Ease of installation: 4
User friendliness: 3
Help/Support: 3
Xara Extreme is the best version of the Xara Photo & Graphic Designer. Assorted tools make the product a respected brand in the market in terms of producing the best quality photo effects. Professional editors and amateurs can equally install the software in all Windows versions and Mac OS X. However, the software lacks live chat, telephone and email support that make the product lag behind Photo Plus in terms of user support. Equally, the organization of the product is quite confusing for a first user.

Serif PhotoPlus
http://www.serif.com/photoplus/
$89.9
Ease of installation: 3.5
User friendliness: 3
Help/Support: 3.5
Serif Photo Plus is software in the market with marvelous tools and operations that support all users. Nevertheless, the software lacks basics like importing and sharing processes that are quite challenging in terms of quality output. Lack of a Mobile phone camera input is a big blow to the product particularly among the mobile electronic users who need to upload still images from videos as well. Likewise, Photo Plus lacks an automatic edit option and a lens distortion correction mechanism unlike Corel Paint Shop, Adobe Photoshop Elements and Xara Extreme.

ACDSee Photo Editor
http://store.acdsee.com/store
$34.99
Ease of installation: 3
User friendliness: 3
Help/Support: 3
ACDSee Photo Editor is user friendly and easily installed with graphic guidelines. However, the software lacks essential importing tools like screen capture, still image from video and automatic edit options; therefore only photos within a digital camera, a scanner and a removable media can be used with the software. The lens distortion correction editing tool is missing, therefore you will need to have additional software to correct lens distortion. When editing, templates are useful, but this particular product neither has templates nor border designs or picture frames that create an aesthetic feature about the photo.

Photo Explosion
http://www.novadevelopment.com/software/photo-explosion-deluxe-129012
$49.95
Ease of installation: 3
User friendliness: 3
Help/Support: 3
This software allows you to directly import your pictures from a digital camera, scanner, mobile phone camera and online photo storage services. However, still images cannot be directly imported from an SD card. Photo Explosion comes with the ability to fix the most common problems with your photos such as red-eye. Other common features such as adjusting color, focus, brightness and contrast are also available. However, highlighting or shadow adjustment editing options are missing from the Photo Explosion platform.

Ulead Photo Impact
$29.99
http://www.ulead.com/pi/features.htm
Ease of installation: 3
User friendliness: 3
Help/Support: 3
Though user friendly and with excellent sharing options, Ulead Photo Impact lacks organization features that can support easy working. Adjustment layers are missing from the editing options provided in Ulead Photo Impact software. Mobile Phone captured images are not compatible with the resolution of Ulead Photo. Further, the interface of the software requires constant help from the tutorials in order to get familiar with the technical language in this application, making it difficult for beginners to use.

The table below provides an overall rating given to each program.  A short review of each program along with a link to the manufacturer’s web site can be accessed by clicking on the links provided.

Note: If you are looking for a high-end, professional-grade desktop publishing software tool,  this category is not evaluated here. Two candidates for the high end are Adobe InDesign CS4 and QuarkXpress. These packages offer professional capabilities.  Adobe InDesign CS4 ntegrates with Photoshop, Dreamweaver, but has a steep learning curve.

Best Desktop Publishing Software for 2011

Desktop Publishing Software	Price	Full Review	Go To Site	Ease of Use	Effectiveness	Help/ Support	Overall Rating
Page Plus X5	$74.99	Review	Order	5	5	5
Print Artist Platinum	$49.95	Review	Order	5	5	4.5
The Print Shop 2.0 Professional	$39.99	Review	Order	5	4.5	4.5
Microsoft Publisher 2010	$79.99	Review	Order	4.5	5	3.5
PrintMaster Platinum 18.1	$14.99	Review	Order	4	4	4.5

The table below provides an overall rating given to each program. We have also included the price of each program. A short review along with a link to the manufacturer’s web site can be accessed by clicking on the links provided below.

Best 2011 Disk Defragmenter Software

Disk Defragmenter Software	Price	Full Review	Go To Site	Ease of Use	Effectiveness	Help/ Support	Overall Rating
Diskeeper	$39.95	Review	Order	5	5	5
O&O Defrag	$29.95	Review	Order	5	5	4.5
PerfectDisk	$39.99	Review	Order	5	5	4.5
Norton Utilities	$49.99	Review	Order	4.5	4	4.5
Puran Defrag	$19.95	Review	Order	4.5	4	3.5
MST Defrag Professional Edition	$15.90	Review	Order	4	3.5	3.5
Ultimate Defrag3	$29.95	Review	Order	3	3	3

The table below provides an overall rating given to each program. We have also included the price of each program. A short review along with a link to the manufacturer’s web site can be accessed by clicking on the links provided below.

Best 2011 DVD Ripping Software

DVD Ripping Software	Price	Full Review	Go To Site	Ease of Use	Effectiveness	Help/ Support	Overall Rating
DVD Cloner	$59.99	Review	Order	5	5	5
CloneDVD	$44.99	Review	Order	5	4.5	4.5
Corel DVD Copy 6 Plus	$49.99	Review	Order	5	4	5
Power2Go	$49.95	Review	Order	4.5	4	3.5
ImTOO DVD Ripper	$49.95	Review	Order	4	4.5	4
Prism Video Converter	$34.99	Review	Order	4.5	4.5	3
DVD Fab DVD Ripper	$50.00	Review	Order	4	3.5	4.5

The table below provides an overall rating given to each program. We have also included the price of each program. A short review along with a link to the manufacturer’s web site can be accessed by clicking on the links provided below.

Best 2011 Illustrator Software

Illustrator by Adobe	$599	Review	Order	5	4.5	5
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5 by Corel	$449	Review	Order	4.5	4.5	5
Designer Pro by Xara	$299	Review	Order	4.5	4.5	4.5
Canvas 12 by ACD Systems	$599	Review	Order	3.5	4.5	4
Expression Design by Microsoft	$599	Review	Order	4	4	3.5
FreeHand MX by Adobe	$399	Review	Order	3.5	4.5	3.5

The table below provides an overall rating given to each program. We have also included the price of each program. A short review along with a link to the manufacturer’s web site can be accessed by clicking on the links provided.

Best 2011 Data Recovery Software

Digital Rescue Premium	$49.99	Review	Order	5	5	5
Advanced Disk Discovery	$39.95	Review	Order	5	4.5	4.5
Recover My Files	$69.95	Review	Order	5	4.5	4
Data Recovery Wizard	$69.95	Review	Order	5	4.5	4
Total Recall	$99.95	Review	Order	5	5	4
Handy Recovery	$49.00	Review	Order	4	4.5	4
Windows Data Discovery	$129.00	Review	Order	5	4	5

The table below provides an overall rating given to each program. As you can see, each program can be downloaded for free. A short review of each program along with a link to the manufacturer’s web site can be accessed by clicking on the links provided.

Best 2011 Linux Distributions

Ubuntu	FREE	Review	Download	5	5	5
PCLinuxOS	FREE	Review	Download	5	5	3.5
Gentoo	FREE	Review	Download	4	3	5
Mandriva	FREE	Review	Download	4.5	4.5	5
OpenSUSE	FREE	Review	Download	4.5	4.5	5
Debian GNU/Linux	FREE	Review	Download	4.5	4.5	4.5
FreeBSD	FREE	Review	Download	3.5	4.0	4.5