Stocking-Stuffer Software

PC Magazine  - Matthew Murray
Dec 16, 2009
Link to article

Holiday Gift Guide

Family and friends can make the holidays the most joyful time of the year, in all ways but one: shopping. No matter how intimately you know everyone on your gift-giving list, finding the perfect present can sometimes be more maddening than finding the single tiny dead bulb that's preventing the rest of the string from lighting.

Luckily, if the people you care most about are computer owners, or are about to become computer owners, the task is a lot easier. Some excellent software was released in 2009, and finding the ideal app for that special someone in your life is just a matter of matching it to his or her personality.

Whether you're shopping for a devoted Mac or Windows fan, someone who always keeps an iron grip on the nearest digital camera or camcorder, or is it just determined to keep all the household PCs safe and secure, you can find them the proper program. Best of all, none of the ones we've rounded up here cost more than $100—but they all deliver functionality that will remain priceless all through 2010.

For the Windows XP Addict:

Laplink PCmover
[Editors' Choice Award]
$19.95 - $59.95 list

Your loved one needs help. Yes, we all adored Windows XP for a long time, but its time is past. It just is. Windows 7 has been out for two months now and proven itself as solid and speedy, and it's time your friend or family member dumped the 2001 OS for a dash of computing modernity. PCmover transfers settings, accounts, documents, and even applications, so leaving XP won't feel like that much of a loss.
 
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