Ah, the amazing world of computers and their software! I recently upgraded to a new computer. And as it turned out, my timing was excellent. For it was also time for me to review an upgraded version of Realtime Landscaping Pro software. The combination of the two upgrades significantly improved my experience in using the software.

Not that I hadn't been impressed with earlier versions of Realtime Landscaping Pro software. As I wrote in a review of their software over two years ago:

I had my doubts when I first sat down with Realtime. Programs I had used before never "wowed" me. Considering their mediocre visual quality, studying up on their tools just didn't seem to be worth the effort. Realtime changed my mind and brought me into the 21st century.

My latest experience with this product served only to reinforce my initial positive impression. Using the upgraded software on my upgraded computer magnified the "wow" factor. You can't appreciate this high-powered program to the fullest extent on an antiquated computer: on their download page, the Realtime folks list the following as system requirements:

• Windows XP or Vista
• CPU speed 1 GHz or faster
• 256 MB system memory
• video card with at least 128 MB RAM

Nor will you want to download this baby on a dial-up connection. The Realtime Web site warns, “You will need a fast Internet connection to download this product (1 Gigabyte)." Fortunately, as the Realtime folks point out, "Downloading is optional -- the boxed software will be shipped the next business day.”

Disk space is also an issue. Initially, I made the mistake of trying to download the software using my old computer. No go! Even after deleting several programs that I decided I could live without on my hard drive, I didn't have nearly enough disk space to download the Realtime Landscaping Pro software. This kind of performance comes at a price: it's a huge program!

Read full review: Realtime Landscaping Pro Software