trade MONSTER recently announced Detachable Windows, a nifty feature that is especially useful for stock traders who use multiple displays. Click a window during a trading session and detach it by dragging it to another monitor, and you're watching more real-time market data. trade MONSTER also recently implemented Spectral Analysis as part of the tradeLAB tool set for active options traders.

Something that hasn't changed with tradeMONSTER.com: $7.50 flat fee whether you transact 100 or 5,000 shares.

I recently heard about someone who was having trouble downloading an update for his personal finance software.

Tech support for the software told him to temporarily turn off his firewall and antivirus software because it was probably blocking the patch download.  The person using the software wisely refused to do so.

Never turn off your security software as long as you are connected to the Internet, and broadband connections are always on unless you turn off the connection.

Mary Landesman from About.com AntiVirus told me, "Any machine connected to the Internet, regardless of whether anything (software)  is open or not, can be infected by Internet worms".  Other computing technology colleagues spoke up to support this opinion from About.comWindows, iPod, Javascript and Macs.

The software developer should work it out with the antivirus or firewall software that is blocking the patch, or make a patch available that isn't blocked.  Don't turn off your security software.

Early next year, Mint.com and Quicken Online will be combined into one online personal finance application called Mint.com from Quicken. Here's what current Quicken Online users can expect:

• Investment tracking
• Better budgeting tool
• Mint.com personalized savings tool ("Ways to Save" tab)

Current Mint.com users will benefit from these features in the new Mint.com from Quicken Online:

• Enter cash purchases and uncleared checks
• Support for 6,000 more financial institutions
• Upgraded iPhone app with ATM finder

You can get all the details from the Quicken Announcements Blog.

Most accounting software is much easier to use than it once was, and much of the small business accounting software out there has been designed for ease of use by a person with no accounting background at all. Get tips for how to choose small business accounting software to find an accounting package that works for your small business.

The handy, dandy  TurboTax ItsDeductible  browser toolbar provides quick access to ItsDeductible Online, keeps track of the amount of the total value of your charitable donations, and has a feature for setting up reminders for making donations.  This sounds great, but it's missing something:  it doesn't work with Firefox, only Internet Explorer.  According to ARS Technica, Firefox has a significant 25% share of browser market share, and I think that this market share will keep growing as more and more people experience the speed and huge variety of plug-ins for Firefox.

Come on,  TurboTax, create an ItsDeductible plug in or toolbar for Firefox.

• Software for Valuing and Tracking Donations

You pack the trunk of your car with books you have read, still-functional-but-replaced kitchen gadgets and the clothes the kids have grown out of.  Then, you drive to a drop off station for a charitable organization and donate your stuff.  Chances are good that you didn't bother to write up a list of  donated items so you could deduct their value as charitable contributions from your income taxes.  Even if you did create a list, how do you go about attaching a value to non-cash donations that is acceptable to the IRS?

There's software that will help you value your charitable donations using IRS-approved data.  Check out your options in Get Higher Tax Deductions with Deduction Tracking Software.

Mint.com wanted to check the pulse of Black Friday, the biggest retail shopping day of the year in the U.S., to try to determine if the economy is picking up. Three of the biggest consumer spending categories along with a selection of retailers that appear to be on the rebound were analyzed using data from over one million Mint.com personal finance software users.

Mint.com isn't claiming that this analysis is entirely conclusive, but the data does look promising. Get the details from Mint.com Black Friday sales study.

Mint.com was recently acquired by Intuit.

I haven't had a chance to really take Quicken 2010 for a test drive, but I like its less cluttered appearance and pop up window option. I'll report more later after I familiarize myself with the latest Quicken tweaks and features. Until then, I've published my annual Quicken Features, Versions and Prices info.

• Two versions, Quicken Online and Quicken Starter Edition, won't import data from other Quicken versions.
• Intuit has come up with a better Microsoft Money to Quicken conversion tool, which is good news now that Money has been discontinued.

More about Quicken 2010

As of November 16, 2009, Microsoft Office Accounting Express will no longer be distributed in North America or the UK.  Microsoft announced the discontinuation of the simple accounting software for small business and home business with the reason, "we have determined that existing free templates within Office used with Excel was a better option for small businesses...". Hmmmmm, it doesn't say much for accounting software when it can be replaced by spreadsheet templates.

So, what's an Office Accounting Express user to do? You're going to have to switch to another accounting software, eventually. Microsoft will support the software for 5 more years, and customer invoices can still be paid through PayPal. eBay and Equifax features are gone as of December 15, 2009.

Intuit is offering a free tool to convert data for use with QuickBooks software and QuickBooks Simple Start 2010.  If you want to make the move to the convenience of online accounting software,  NolaPro has documentation showing how to convert and import Office Accounting data into NolaPro.

Bnet Business Hacks has some good suggestions for replacing Microsoft Office Accounting, and one of the choices from this list of small business accounting software would work as a replacement as well.

• Read the Microsoft Accounting Discontinuation FAQ's for more details.
• 6 Tips for Choosing Small Business Accounting Software

Specs and information have been updated for my GnuCash profile.  GnuCash - which is free -  looks like a decent alternative for small business accounting software, and works well for a dedicated group of users who manage personal finances with the software.  GnuCash is being actively developed and tested, so it keeps improving, and supports many languages, multiple currencies and has good how-to documentation.

GnuCash is worth a try-- after all it is free.  The download site lists unstable test versions before the stable version which is confusing, so pay attention to what you download.

• Learn more about GnuCash