There are two simple programs that I can’t live without: Mailwasher and Password Plus. Mailwasher is Windows only, but Password Plus also works on a Mac. These applications are very simple and inexpensive, yet absolutely vital to my computer life.

Mailwasher is a spam filtering tool that works in a very different way than most. It allows you to view and filter e-mail BEFORE downloading it from the mail server. I don’t want to download spam, virus attachments, and garbage to my local machine. It’s especially useful on a slow connection, like my At&t mobile card. There is a free version and a “Pro” version for $37. I find Mailwasher to be very simple and powerful; a must have weapon in the battle against spam.

Password Plus ($30) by DataViz is a is a database to keep passwords and account numbers organized and protected. It’s one of the simplest programs imaginable, but it’s so useful. The information is encrypted and can be exported in a as a comma delimited file for import into other programs like Excel. Password Plus also comes in a version for the Palm OS if you need to take all those logins with you.

I’ve used both of these programs for many years. Trust me you can’t go wrong with Mailwasher and Password Plus.