Multi Reminders

Gone are the days of keeping track of bills, birthdays, and appointments with pencil and a datebook -- or at least, gone are the days when that was your only option. Multi Reminders is one of many options for maintaining your schedule on your computer. It's not the most sophisticated program we've ever seen, but it does have some interesting features that make it appealing.

Multi Reminders has a straightforward interface for creating new events. You enter the event's name, date, frequency, and number of days in advance they want to be reminded of it. We liked that Multi Reminders also lets you enter a URL, file name, or e-mail address that can be included in the reminder; there's really no excuse not to e-mail your mom on her birthday when the program launches an empty e-mail addressed to her on her that day. We also liked the way that Multi Reminders handles bills; enter the dollar amount in the title of each bill to be paid, and you can run a monthly report that totals all of your expenditures. Perhaps the biggest drawback that we saw to Multi Reminders is the fact that it can't be minimized to the system tray; you have to either keep it running in the task bar all the time or remember to launch it daily, or you won't get your reminders. The program can be set to launch automatically with startup, so if you typically shut down your computer at the end of every day, this isn't much of an issue. But for those of us who only restart when absolutely necessary, it could be a hassle to remember to check the program for upcoming events every day. Multi Reminders has an online Help file that provides a brief but adequate overview of its features. Overall, we think that Multi Reminders is an interesting option for keeping track of important events, as long as you remember to check it.

Multi Reminders installs a desktop icon without asking and leaves a Start menu icon behind upon removal.