To give you answer in one place, here is software which I use daily in my own business.

I should point out that much of my own activity is now to do with selling digital information via eBay and from websites i.e. ebooks and software, which is why some of software programs I use are concerned with this activity.

General productivity

Shortkeys This is lovely utility which saves me hours of time each week. It is perfect for those occasions when you are required to key in information to websites. For example, how often do you key in your name and address, or a username and password, or an email address?

With Shortkeys, you associate 3 or 4 unique keystrokes with a string of frequently used information. Let's suppose I want to have a shortkey for my email address, and I set this as ##z1 in Shortkeys. Whenever I am required to key in my email address, in Outlook, on web forms, in Word documents etc, I just type in ##z1 and Shortkeys instantly replaces that with my email address.

There is an uncharged version called Shortkeys Lite which has a limit of 30 items. The full version of Shortkeys allows you an unlimited number of items.

You can get it here: http://www.workwinners.com/nlrshortkeys.htm

Download Accelerator

If you regularly download ebooks or software, and it seems to take forever, you will find Download Accelerator is a useful addition to your portfolio. Download Accelerator increases download speeds by up to 300%, regardless of speed of your internet connection. I don't know how it does it, but I guess 89 million users can't be wrong!

You can get Download Accelerator on 14 day test here: http://www.workwinners.com/nlraccelerator.htm

Ebook Production

Acrobat Adobe I create all my ebooks in pdf format as this file can be read by anyone with Acrobat Reader, and this includes Mac users too. The way I create an ebook is to write it in Microsoft Word first. Once I'm happy that Word version is exactly how I want it, I use an integrated converter which takes Word file and converts it automatically into a pdf file. This conversion preserves everything which appeared in Word document, including headers/footers, page numbers and web links.

You can read all about Adobe Acrobat here: http://www.workwinners.com/nlracrobat.htm

If you are considering developing your own ebooks using Acrobat, most cost effective way of purchasing it is to buy online from Adobe's US site, and select download option. To buy download version this is place to start: http://www.workwinners.com/nlracrobat_dl.htm

At 167 Mb, Acrobat is quite a large software product. If you would therefore prefer to buy boxed CD version, cheapest way in UK is to get it from Amazon. http://www.workwinners.com/nlramacrobat.htm

It is estimated that 9 out of 10 computers are infected with spyware, also known as, adware, scumware, malware and many others.

Here’s top 10. •PurtyScan – popup ads that trick users into installing by claiming to find and delete pornographic images.

•n-CASE - adware program that delivers targeted popup adds. This program is usually bundled with freeware.

•Gator - adware program that displays banner ads based on your Web surfing habits. This program is usually bundled with Kazaa file-sharing program, as well as other free software programs.

•CoolWebSearch – hijacks home page, Internet Explorer settings, and Web searches.

•Transponder - monitors sites visited and any data entered into online forms, and then delivers targeted ads.

•ISTbar/AUpdate – spyware posing as a toolbar. Has been reported to display porn, pop-ups, and to hijack homepage and Internet searches.

•KeenValue – an adware program that collects personal information and delivers advertisements.