Those of us who like to work smarter, not harder, will appreciate the time and work-saving capabilities of xStarter. Designed to automate routine work with a PC, xStarter will perform sequences of tasks that would otherwise have been accomplished in separate steps. For instance, the boss needs to receive the previous day's inventory reports by 9:00 am the following day. One has to start the spreadsheet program, select the file, ZIP the file, close the program, start the e-mail manager, attach the file, dial up the Internet, send the e-mail, disconnect and close. xStarter will use a sophisticated scheduler to compile these tasks into one sequentially-executed function, all run from a single keystroke.

With the voluminous storage capacity of modern hard drives, it becomes difficult to keep track of every single thing written on it. We've all done this: downloaded or created a file, not making careful enough note of where it is being saved to, and then, unable to find it later, had to download or create it all over again. This is one of the ways our hard drives get mired down with duplicate or empty files and function less efficiently.

A well-designed tool that is easy to use and does the job you ask of it with a minimum of fuss and effort is a good thing, and these days, sadly, it is becoming a rare thing. The mark of well-engineered software is that users should be able to obtain reasonable results from it without having to have years of education or some guy from the IT department hovering nearby to bail them out. Simplicity, logic and results are what Effective File Search 3.5 is all about.