Because most hot rodder's take pictures at shows and events,   and many have now changed over to the world of digital photos, we have assembled some great software for dealing with the digital world that will make your life a little easier.
All the software noted here is used by Hotrods & Classics and is highly recommended.         Some of the software has a
higher learning curve that others, but for the most part is easy to use and highly recommended.

We have also included some recommend software titles both free and commercial to give your computer an oil change and keep it firing on all cylinders. Spyware is so prevalent on the internet now and in some ways as bad as viruses. We want
you to be able to come back a visit with us frequently and you can't do that is your computer is virus and spyware laden
and all but disabled.

Most of what you find here is FREE, but of very high caliber, so don't let the word 'free' scare you away.

If you feel the software you download from the different sites listed here is beneficial, a small donation on your part to the individual designers is always appreciated by them and makes the cost of ongoing development a little easier to swallow.

"MIR.net" We use this great piece of software all the time and find it most excellent. What we especially like, is that it leaves your original photos un-scathed and make a new folder (selectable) for your resized photos. Re-sizing of hundreds of photos is just a few clicks away. Read the Help files !

Jim Willshers "Bulk Rename Utility" This is a new find for us and we like what we see. Many digital cameras attach far too much useless data to the names they assign to the photos. Jim's program allow you to batch rename your photos to simpler names (eg: BVM00001 to 001) You can change the prefix or suffix names if you like, you can start numbering at any digit and you can choose padding (eg: 01 or 001 or 0001 ) Very Flexible and Very Cool. Jim also offers a great little conversion calculator you may also be interested in. While you are on Jims site, check out his great photos of Scotland's diverse landscapes. If you like Jims software, lay some on him.

LEARNING CURVE: Moderate - Installs at "C:\Program Files\Jim Willsher\Bulk Rename Utility"
QUALITY: Excellent
PRICE: Freebie !
GET IT

"SpyBot" This great little piece of software removes tons of spyware that may be lurking on your computer and currently looks for over 5000 known spyware nasties. Spyware is bad stuff and causes your computers performance to suffer and tracks your movements on the internet. Make sure you upload any updates after you install the program and when you have scanned your computer for "Spyware" you can then use the "Immunize Feature" to keep the nasties off of your computer. If you like it, belly up and make a donation to Patrick.

"Spyware Blaster" Once installed and set up, this software does not have to been run again, other then doing the occasional updates of its database. This software does not look for Spyware already on your computer, but instead prevents it from being installed on your computer at all ... very good preventative medicine and work in conjunction with spyware removing tools such as SpyBot or Ad-Aware.

"Ad-Aware" Another great spyware removal tool offered up from Lava-Soft. We find that using this application along with SpyBot covers just about all of the major known spyware programs and sends them packing. Do we have a preference ? No, not really, they are both fine products and we have used them both.

"Virus Protection" For those who cannot afford virus protection software or just wish to do a test drive,
Grisoft offer a very good FREE virus protection program.

"Firewalls" Firewalls are designed to keep 'Hackers' and unscrupulous companies from gaining access to your computer while you are surfing the net and gleaning private information etc. Zone Alarm makes a VERY GOOD Free firewall for those who cannot afford a commercial product or just wish to do a test drive. It does not have all the bells and whistles of the version that they sell, but it does an really effective job of keeping the intruders at bay. The link will take you directly to their download file with the usual security warnings.

We downloaded a trial version of a product called Spy Sweeper and had finished testing it and we are so impressed we subscribed to this great product. We like it.... Don't get us wrong, Ad-Aware and Spybot are both great free spyware removers, but with over 100,000 spyware finger print definitions at last count, Spy Sweeper is definitely at the top of the hill and received a 4 star rating from PC Magazine in removing Spyware.

We want to make sure our computers stay Spyware free after a recent plague we suffered and this product does it for us and has removed spyware the free ones did not find and we believe this to be mostly because of the constant updates that Webroot keeps on top of to combat the tons of new spyware, which, like viruses are being generated every week it seems. Spy Sweeper also warns you and stops new spyware from ever being installed on your computer.... cool!

We opted to pay for their full blown service and got the annual subscription ($29.95 US) and went for the two year subscription offer because the second year was only $10.00 more and we felt a good deal !

You can try Webroot's 'Spy Sweeper' for free and you get to download one update to bring Spy Sweeper up to date with fingerprint definitions. If you like it after you try it, you can purchase the full subscription version and keep updated with the newest spyware definitions that a subscription provides, and they seem to be issued at least once a week.

We are currently using Zone Alarm on our computers and find the pro version extremely good and trouble free. You can
try it for free for a 15 days trial. You can also get their free version above (a lot less features) but it works. Give it a try.

Commercial Anti-Virus

We have finished testing Nod32 anti virus software, and it more than met our expectations. Nod 32 has out performed just about all of its competition including Norton. Don't get us wrong, Norton makes a good product but with all the recent problems being published about Norton and it having trouble functioning with Window XP especially when service pack #2
is installed and Nortons track record with keeping definitions up to date, we feel it is time to have a second look at other products.... Norton is one of the biggest.. at least for now.

This is our favorite .. basically it starts out by allowing everyone on your mailing list to send you emails. Every thing else is tossed into a quarantine folder which you can review. Anyone you want to add to your approved list you simply check their name and click o.k. - all the other email will be sent a form letter requesting them to help you fight spam by returning the form to you for approval. Email address that are fictitious and are bounced back to you are permanently added to the garbage can. Take it for a test run, you will really like it.

Formerly called Qurb, this software recently beat both Norton Antispam and McAfee SpamKiller Home in a comparison test of ten antispam software products.

Click Here to try a free test run

Qurb received PC Magazine's Editors' Choice Award three years running (2003-2005), and also won their Best of 2003 award.