for emails:
I reccomend eprompter, it is a free email text reader.
a description from the eprompter website;

ePrompter automatically and simultaneously checks and retrieves your email messages from up to sixteen password protected email accounts AND lets you read, delete and respond to any of your messages with a simple click on the account of your choice - without ever having to launch your email program or go to your webmail's site. Importantly, when ePrompter retrieves messages, it leaves the original messages on your various email accounts' servers and/or webmail sites.

ePrompter works with AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, POP3, Earthlink, Excite, iName, Juno, Lycos, Mail.com, Mindspring, MSN, MyWay, Netscape, OneBox, Rediffmail, SBC Yahoo, Switchboard, USA.net and hundreds of other email domains.

ePrompter notifies you which accounts have new messages and how many new messages you have in each account, once new messages have been retrieved.

ePrompter lets you forward and reply back through the account that your messages were retrieved from. You can also send original messages through any account that you have working on your ePrompter without ever having to launch your email program or go to your webmail's site. It also features an address book.

ePrompter let's you delete unwanted spam or suspicious looking mail - the kind that might contain viruses - again without having to launch your email program or go to your webmail's site.

ePrompter notification features include a unique rotating tray icon, the main ePrompter screen, audio alerts for new messages, and a choice of five unique screensavers that let you know at a glance the number of new messages in each account.

ePrompter is so easy to set up and use, you'll have it up and running in minutes. One of our loyal ePrompter users, Sam McCord, put together this demo that shows just how easy it is to set up and use ePrompter. (This may take a minute or so to load). http://www.eprompter.com/eprompter-demo/eprompter.html

you can download ePrompter here http://www.eprompter.com/download.htm (click on the red Cnet icon)

Best Free Browser Protection Utility  
There's a scumware  plague at the moment. All it takes is a visit to a pushy web site or a loaded shareware install and next minute your Internet Explorer homepage has been changed, your default search setting altered, unwanted ads pop up on your screen and worse.  You can help protect Internet Explorer against these attacks by using SpywareBlaster [1].  It's is not a system scanner rather it is monitor that's designed to prevent an initial infection. It provides active protection for Internet Explorer users against thousands of malevolent products that use ActiveX based exploits and offers defenses against hostile sites and unwanted cookies as well. SpywareBlaster can be used with Firefox but there's not much point as Firefox doesn't need to be protected against ActiveX exploits. SpywareBlaster is free but the automatic update service costs $9.95 annually. A companion program to SpywareBlaster is SpywareGuard [2]. It is also a protective program that checks programs before they are run for malware behavior and also does some signature checking as well. However of late SpywareGuard seems to have been rather neglected with no new updates for more than a year so I can only give it a qualified recommendation. SpywareBlaster though, is a terrific product and a must-have for Internet Explorer users who also use the free version of Ad-Aware. If you are using Microsoft Antispyware, Ad-Aware Pro or other anti-spyware utility with a real-time monitor, you don't really need it.
[1] http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html (2.2MB)
[2] http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html  (1.96MB)
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Best Free Trojan Scanner/Trojan Remover  
Ewido is the best of a new crop of anti-Trojan programs. On my recent tests over at www.anti-trojan-software-reviews.com it emerged as was one of the few products that could reliably detect polymorphic and process injecting Trojans that were totally missed by anti-virus products like Norton and AVG. Unfortunately the free version of Ewido doesn’t have a memory monitor and this omission significantly  reduces the level of active protection provided. However the on-demand scanner is excellent. I recommend that all average PC users who don't have an anti-trojan scanner download Ewido and scan their PCs weekly. I suspect you may be surprised at what you will find. Ewido is also pretty good at removing some spyware infections so bear that in mind next time you encounter a spyware product you can't remove with normal anti-spyware products like Ad-Aware. Note that Ewido only works with Windows 2000 and later so Win 9X users should consider the free version of a2 (a-squared) anti-trojan as an alternative. It's not quite as effective as Ewido but is still an excellent product.  High risk PC users such as P2P file sharers and frequenters of hack sites, should however consider the industrial strength protection of Trojan Hunter or the full version of Ewido both of which offer the active protection they need. Note: The free version of Ewido is actually the same as the paid version but after 14 days the active protection (i.e. memory monitor) becomes non-functional.
http://www.ewido.net/en/  (2.2MB)
http://www.anti-trojan-software-reviews.com/review-ewido.htm <= review of Ewido
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Best Free Rootkit Scanner/Remover
Rootkits are a special kind of software tool used to hide trojans, viruses and other malware from your anti-virus scanner and other security products. Unfortunately, they are extremely effective which means that some of you reading this will be infected even though you believe your PC to be totally clean. Thankfully there is a new class of  security product now available called rootkit detectors that use specialized techniques to detect these dangerous intruders.  

Most of these detectors require quite a bit of technical skill to interpret the results but one of the simplest to use and most effective is also free. It's called BlackLight [1] and is currently available as a free beta from F-Secure until the 1st of May, 2006. I suggest everyone download this product and scan their PC. The chances of you being infected are small but for five minutes work it's not worth taking the risk.

A good second choice for experienced users is SysInternals RootkitRevealer [2]. It's a bit prone to false positives so take care before deleting items.

BlackLight and RootkitRevealer will detect most rootkits missed by AV scanners but can still be fooled by state-of-the-art rootkits like some of the custom versions of Hacker Defender.  

To detect this and a few other insidious rootkits, you need heavier artillery. Currently the biggest gun in the rootkit detection war is a free Chinese product called IceSword. It's not really a  detector like the other products rather it offers a set tools that will reveal the presence of a rootkit. These tools include a special process viewer, startup manager, port enumerator  that are not fooled by rootkits. It's left to the user though, to interpret the results. In the hands of an skilled user, its an amazing tool but not much use to beginners.  The Chinese download site [3] is very slow but David Wasson has provided a local mirror [4]. The reality is that at the present time full protection against rootkits may require the use of multiple products.
[1] http://www.f-secure.com/blacklight/cure.shtml  (911KB)
[2]  http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/RootkitRevealer.html (210KB)
[3] http://www.xfocus.net/tools/200509/IceSword_en1.12.rar <= slow Chinese site, 565KB
[4] http://tinyurl.com/ckqsn <= Local mirror for IceSword
[5] http://www.techsupportalert.com/rootkits.htm <= How to deal with the threat of rootkits

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Best Free Anonymous Surfing Service
There are lots of reasons folks have for wanting to surf anonymously, ranging from simple paranoia to possibly being murdered by a malevolent foreign government. Whatever the reasons, commercial services that offer anonymity are doing real well. However one of the best services JAP, is totally free. In fact JAP is perhaps a little too good. That's why the German Police insisted in 2004 that a backdoor be put into the product to allow interception of child pornographers. This was done but subsequently removed as a result of court action by JAP. An alternative to JAP is another system called Tor. It not only allows anonymous browsing but anonymous email, IM, and IRC chat as well. Given the US Navy origin of Tor, the suspicion arises that this system may indeed have a permanent backdoor. However the source code is now publicly available so that suspicion can be set aside. Whatever, both JAP and Tor offer a level of secrecy that is better than many commercial systems. However expect your surfing to slow down as you'll be relayed through a chain of servers. You'll also need to change your browser settings to work through a proxy. Note: the latest V5 release of JAP now allows Tor users to use JAP as a software access point.
http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html
http://tor.eff.org/
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Best Free Software Suite
The Open CD site [1] offers for free a wonderful collection of just about every application software product you need to run a PC including the latest version of OpenOffice. Many of these freebies substitute admirably for expensive commercial products. There is Abi Word as an alternative for MS Word, OpenOffice for MS Office XP, Thunderbird for Outlook, The Gimp for Adobe Photoshop, 7-zip for WinZip and many more. If you then add to this collection some of the other utilities from my lists, you will have all the software you'll ever need without spending a cent. Note: All of the Open CD utilities can be downloaded for free as a CD ISO image. If you have a slow connection you can purchase the CD for a as little as $1.99. In addition to the Windows versions,  the CD also contains the same collection of programs implemented under a  version of Linux called Ubuntu that can be booted and run directly from the CD. That way you not only get to try all these great programs you can try Linux as well, without interfering in any way with your current Windows installation. Update: the folks at Ubuntu [2] are now giving away free CDs containing the latest version of Ubuntu Linux together with most of the programs on the Open CD. They will send you the full Ubuntu installation CDs plus a live CD where you can run Ubuntu directly from the CD. You can order as many CDs as you want and you don't even have to pay the mailing costs! When you get your CDs read this this simple introduction to Linux [3] before starting.
[1] http://theopencd.org
[2] http://www.ubuntu.com/download/support/documentation/faq/shipit/
[3] http://www.paulstamatiou.com/2005/10/24/how-to-ubuntu-linux-for-novices/
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Best Free Screen Capture Utility  
Two recommendations here: The first is PrintScreen. It does exactly what I want, in the way I want and furthermore avoids the trap of providing lots of useless and confusing features. It's the little things that count like making the hot key PrtSc so I don't have to remember it, and automatically sequentially naming the output files for multiple screen shots. A second recommendation is Screen Hunter. It's a commercial product but the "lite" free version is excellent, offering more features than Gadwin at the cost of a little added complexity. Both products work with Win 98 and later.
http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/?prnscr   (976KB)
http://www.wisdom-soft.com/products/screenhunter.htm  (381KB)
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Sweeping form filler;
RoboForm http://www.roboform.com/ (has a free and a paid version on the website...the only differance between the two is the limits that the free version puts on how many passcards, saved passwords, custom forms that you can save)
Roboform is the top-rated Password Manager and Web Form Filler that completely automates password entering and form filling.
RoboForm was named PC Magazine Editor's Choice, and CNET Download.com's Software of the Year.    RoboForm:
 Memorizes your passwords and Logs You In automatically.
 Fills long registration and checkout forms with one click.
 Encrypts your passwords to achieve complete security.  
 Generates random passwords that hackers cannot guess.
 Fights Phishing by filling passwords only on matching web sites.
 Defeats Keyloggers by not using keyboard to type passwords.
 Backs up your passwords, Copies them between computers.  
 Synchronizes passwords between computers using GoodSync.
 Searches for keywords in your passwords, notes and Internet.
 Portable: Pass2Go RF runs from USB key, no install needed.
 PDA-friendly: sync your passwords to Pocket PC and Palm.
 Neutral: works with Internet Explorer, AOL/MSN, Firefox.

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Spell Check;
http://www.iespell.com/
ieSpell is a free Internet Explorer browser extension that spell checks text input boxes on a webpage. It should come in particularly handy for users who do a lot of web-based text entry (e.g. web mails, forums, blogs, diaries). Even if your web application already includes spell checking functionality, you might still want to install this utility because it is definitely much faster than a server-side solution. Plus you get to store and use your personal word list across all your applications, instead of maintaining separate ones on each application.

The program installs as a new button in the IE toolbar (as well as a new menu item under "Tools") - after filling in a form, just hit the ieSpell button and it pops up a dialog, similar to the MS Word spell check. ieSpell also works (right-click menu only) on other IE based browsers such as SlimBrowser, CrazyBrowser, MSN, MyIE, etc.

ieSpell is not spyware or adware. It's free for personal use only

Completely standalone spell checker for your web browser. Does not require Microsoft Office or any other third party components.
Integrates flawlessly with Internet Explorer and other IE based browsers.
Three ways to start the spell check; via the right click context menu, the toolbar or the menu bar.
Supports a wide range of web applications including simple text forms, rich text editors, forums, blogs, webmail (including Outlook Web Access and Lotus iNotes) and more!
Spell check in any of the 3 variants (US, UK and Canadian) of the English Language!
Suggestions are sorted by the degree of closeness with the misspelled word.
Intelligent suggesting for misspelled words using typographic “looks like” matching.
Easily add/remove your personal words in ieSpell via an intuitive user interface!
Organise your personal words in individual custom dictionaries! Share them with your friends and co-workers over the network!
Integrates with Microsoft Office's proofing tools. Have ieSpell share the same copy of the custom dictionary so that when you add/remove your personal words in ieSpell, the same is reflected in Microsoft Office and vice versa!
ieSpell suggested a word that you are not familiar with? Look up its meaning in an online dictionary!
Powerful API for web application developers.
Force users to spell check the document before submission.
Ignore certain text fields.
Refuse a form submission if the user cancels the spell check!
 
Download here; http://www.iespell.com/download.php

Me again!
What am I doing wrong?
I went to imageshack.
The upload button is checked, if I uncheck it then I don't get the browse button.   So I left it checked, I clicked on browse found a picture, clicked open but then when I click on upload the url disappears.
am I supposed to sign up for imageschack or load it?

you are doing everything right...
BUT I left out a step!!
LOL after you selected the picture you want to upload from your computer, at the bottom of of the imageshack page is a button that says "host it", by clicking this button (and waiting) imageshack will open up the page with all the html coding you will need to copy

I think the registering thing may be an AOL thing...
I have a registered account, but do not always use that link to upload a picture (as they give you a personal Link to upload to your own folder if you register)

RoboForm help!


OK, look in your toolbar (under back, next, stop, refresh, home buttons) for a button that says "identity editor" (if you can't find it there, look down by the clock and look for the green computer icon, right click on it and scroll up to "show toolbar" and it will put Roboform on your toolbar),
now click it and it will open up into a pop up box.
in the pop up box you will see several tabs ( and a tiny scroll bar)
fill out the section called "person" with all your information.
scroll right to "address" and fill that out.
scroll right again, until you get to the tab that says "authentication", click it
and you can fill out your favorite password (that you use for all your sweeping sites).
if you keep going right, you will find "custom";
In this section if you want Robo to answer "no" for do you want newsletters, offers etc put this in
in the "Field Name" box put in "oi offer", in the "Field Value" fill out "no" and in "Other Match Strings" put in "oi"
to say thank you in any comment box on a sweep, out this in
"Field Name" put in "comments", in the "Field Value" fill out "Thank you, for holding such a wonderful giveaway, I truly appreciate it!", and in "Other Match Strings" put in "comment"
to have the check mark for "I have read the rules" to be filled for you..
in the "Field Name" box put in "i have read the rules and regulations", in the "Field Value" fill out "yes", and in "Other Match Strings" put in "i have read the terms"
to fill out "how did you hear about this sweep...in the "Field Name" box put in "how did you hear about the contest", in the "Field Value" fill out "a friend", and in "Other Match Strings" put in "how did you hear about us"

don't forget that when you are done, to click the button that says "save and close" (left side, just under the word "identity"

Now when ever you get to a page with a form on it (other than flash sites...robo doesn't work on those) all you have to do is look up in your tool bar for your name and click your name, and Robo will fill out the form for you!
If you come across a form, that Robo doesn't fill in correctly, make any changes as needed to the form, then look up in your toolbar for the button thats says "save" click it and it will save the form with all the changes in it, so the next time you come back to that page, you will click the name of the page (between logins and your name) and it will fill the form exactly as you saved it!!

I'll add a couple of snail mail hints

 Size Does Matter.
When a Sweep asks you to send a 3.5 X 5 paper, you must do just that. Any old size is not acceptable. This is, in part, to keep a level playing field. So don't take the chance on wasting your stamp...send the right size.

 Card vs. Postcard.
If I sweep asks for a card, you send cardstock weighted paper in an envelope. If a sweep asks for a postcard, send a postcard (ie: like the kind you send on vacation or buy at the post office). Postcards do not go in envelopes.

 Handwriting is key.
Write your entries so that someone who doesn't know anything about you can read your entry without straining or guesswork. This is a huge factor is being disqualified.

postcards from the post office I fill out like this;

How Do I Handle Taxes When I Win a Prize?

Paying the taxes on winnings isn't too complicated, but we always advise that you consult with your accountant when you win a large prize.

Taxes on prize winnings are due at the end of the year, just like winnings from gambling or the lottery. You claim the amount you won, and you pay taxes on them as earned income. In most states, the minimum amount of a claim is $600. That means that if you win a prize or something of value over $600, you must claim it as earnings. Also, many sponsors will send you a 1099 Form at the end of the year with the amount of the prize you won. This can sometimes be under $600, but you would need to claim it anyway. If you decide to sell one of your prizes, keep the receipt! It's the amount on the receipt that you would claim (along with other supporting information).

You can use your supplies as deductions against those winnings, but you must keep good records of how many entries you sent in over the course of the year, and provide receipts for all of the supplies. For example, everyone buys stamps to mail their bills. For you to claim your stamps as a deduction, you have to keep records of how many sweepstakes you enter in a particular time period, and attach your receipts for the stamps (that's one great use for our worksheets...). The same holds true for your envelopes, 3x5s, postcards, and so forth.

If you have specific questions, the Arent Fox Sweepstakes Law Web site is an excellent resource. They have a message board to which you can post questions, or you can send someone there an e-mail message directly. Again, though, you can always consult with your accountant for a particular question about any local or state laws for your area.

If you use TurboTax to do your taxes with, it has a section where you can add your 1099's as well as a place to adjust the ARV of the 1099 forms (you must have, and hold on too, the proof that your adjusted ARV is correct...in other words the sponsor says the ARV is $3000, but after researching on the web, the airline tickets, hotel etc only adds up to $1800, this is what you post as the ARV and save the documents showing this is what it is worth! or the TV they said is $2000 and you found the exact same TV on sale at Best Buy for $999....save the flyer!)

http://www.google.com/alerts
and on that page have it set to look for "news and web" and "as-it-happens"
hints for google alerts...
put your name in quotation marks
like this "Jane Doe"
add +winner and +your state for best results...
will look like this "Jane Doe"+winner+WI
and you should get more accurate (and faster) results!
for best results get a googl