Rev up your system!

With the right utilities and add-on software, you can improve the performance of your Windows operating system, or make your Web browser hum as it downloads files and pages faster than you've ever experienced.

Rev up your system with the software listed below. Most of it is inexpensive - much of it is free or shareware you can try out for no cost - and useful.

Communications software ICQ 99A Movies featuring computers are always unrealistic in some crucial way. Think of all the movies you've seen where our hero types in the wrong password and the keyboard instantly starts fizzing, and then explodes with the force of 10 sticks of dynamite.

In the recent movie You've Got Mail, the Crime Against Authenticity was a crucial part of the plot: the meant-to-be couple, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, e-mailed each other for most of the movie without actually meeting.

In real life, our pen-paling protagonists would have eventually tired of the delay caused by sending and receiving e-mail and, instead of suggesting a face-to-face meeting, would have moved on to ICQ chat.

After all, more than 16 million people have chosen ICQ (pronounced I Seek You). The software lets you send quick text messages to any other user. And if you happen to be on the network at the same time, both of you can quickly switch over to real-time text chat.