5. PowerDVD V7 Max

There's nothing like the holiday season to bring people and their families together, and to bring DVDs out of the woodwork, both during gift exchanges and as a way to provide quality viewing for the whole gang to share. This alone often leads PC owners to face Microsoft's failure to bundle DVD player software with Windows XP. (Note: if you're not sure if you've got a DVD decoder installed grab Microsoft's nice little Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility