Recommended Shareware Products

[ScrewUpgrading]

Since it's harder to find shareware these days than freeware on the net, I was curious if you guys could recommend some stuff.

I tried Googling "shareware" but all it came up with was dead or abandonded webpages. Everything these days is free it's seems like. But ten years ago or more, all the good stuff wasn't free.

What software have you guys actually paid for? I'm assuming that since you paid for it, it must be good then, right?

Here's what I've bought:

(1) CompuPic Pro 6.3

This is the fastest, most elegant, high quality image VIEWING program I've ever used. It not photoshop, it's more like a XnView but nicer.

Pros:

-The thumbnail previews are interpolated and the highest quality, and they are also lightning quick, even on my slow computer

-decodes (loads) images super fast

-Similar tools for editing, correcting photos as IrfanView, Xnview, etc.

-Less buggy than Xnview

-Resizes big pictures (interpolates) to fit the screen faster, better quality than even IrfanView 4.30

-Worth the $49 to register. When it first came out, it cost like $100 bucks to register.

Cons:

-none that I know of

(2) Mihov Jpegar

Well, this thing was only 10 bucks, so I decided what the heck. It's really fast. No B.S. image viewer. Would probably be lightning quick even on Windows 95 and Pentium 1 or 486.

Pros:

-cheap

-fast

-easy to use, good quality for it's small size

Cons:

-no editing pictures

-very few options or features

-overall very plain

(3) Paul's Graphic Viewer

It's very similar to IrfanView, and has almost been around as long, if not longer, because I remember this thing way back on Windows 3.1!

Pros:

-the author still supports it, and is continuing development for newer versions of Windows

-intuitive interface, easy to learn

-lots of neat effects, filters, tools and stuff (more than IrfanView)

-loads pictures fast

Cons:

-none

Well, that's all I've been able to discover that I considered worth buying. If anybody has any cool software to recommend that would be cool. I'm always on the lookout to discover new things.

Edited September 7, 2011 by ScrewUpgrading

[Tripredacus]

The term "shareware" has gone by the wayside. Shareware was the idea that you could have a disk (or CD) and install the programs, then give it to a buddy to do the same.

The correct term to look for is "trial" software, although some software will have a "limited" or "lite" version.

[jaclaz]

The term "shareware" has gone by the wayside. Shareware was the idea that you could have a disk (or CD) and install the programs, then give it to a buddy to do the same.

The correct term to look for is "trial" software, although some software will have a "limited" or "lite" version.

Remember to notify Wikipedia that they should update their page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareware

and promote your note from "Criticism" (where it is already) to "main content".

jaclaz