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Be Vista ready

The launch date of Microsoft Windows Vista is right around the corner, and we want to help you get ready for this new and highly anticipated operating system. In a joint effort between CNET and System Requirement Labs, we've put together a tool to help you test your computer's ability to run Vista. If it turns out your computer is not yet Vista ready, check out these desktops and notebooks that are, so you can use the famous OS as soon as it is launched.

Acid Pro

ACID Pro 6 isn't for the casual musician. It's full-featured for those who know their way around a mixing console, but can be overwhelming for newbies.

The latest update features full multitrack and MIDI support, two long-standing strikes against earlier versions. It's hard to understate the usefulness of the clean interface, given the overwhelming number of options available. The hot keys for accessing the major option windows have been coded as ALT plus an ascending number, making them easy to remember.

More than 1,000 loops are included so you don't have to record your own … Read more

Total or partial video converter?

Though perhaps not a total video solution, Total Video Converter does support a wealth of audio and video formats, including 3GP, PSP, AVI, MOV, and SWF. On top of that, it can rip DVDs and cut movies into smaller, more manageable fragments. In our testing, we appreciated the program's conversion speed and quality. Total Video Converter is well-suited for batch conversion. We found the interface straightforward, with one minor exception: the cumbersome Select Format dialog. Unfortunately, none of these features come for free: in addition to the 15-day restriction, the trial version stamps movies with a registration reminder. The $… Read more

Help for observant Muslims

A modern aid for an ancient tradition, Athan Basic helps Muslims perform daily prayers anywhere in the world. On first start-up, you choose your location from a pull-down list of cities and towns. From there, Athan Basic runs in the background, automatically issuing the call to prayer at the appropriate times each day.

You can choose an Athan from Makkah, Madina, or Al-Aqsa (the for-pay version includes several more); the program supports the Standard and Hanafi juristic methods and a variety of ways to calculate sunrise and sunset. The neatly organized application window displays your latitude and longitude and a … Read more

Burn for free, but with toolbar bundle

This CD and DVD burner works as advertised, but the bundled toolbar it installs reduces its appeal. Burn4Free CD & DVD lets you burn audio discs or write data to CDs and DVDs by dropping audio or data files into the main window.

The button-heavy main window has a somewhat awkward look, but it's easy enough to understand. If you find yourself overwhelmed by the multitude of controls, you can switch to the more streamlined Easy mode. Be aware that the app attempts to install the NavExcel toolbar, which changes the way IE behaves when you mistype a URL … Read more

ZIP Reader

This freeware ZIP-file extractor doesn't have much to offer most users, but you'll need it to open archives encrypted with PKWare products such as PKZIP or SecureZIP. ZIP Reader's interface couldn't be more laconic; you simply select which file to extract and where. You can also access the program by right-clicking an archive in Windows Explorer. ZIP Reader supports popular archive formats besides ZIP, including RAR, TAR, and GZIP. In our tests, however, it scrambled the names of files written in Cyrillic letters. If you need ZIP Reader, you probably already know it, and don't … Read more