Chess Engine

I was looking for an engine to buy for analyzing etc.  I have windows vista.  I read fritz 10 is too powerful for novices but I didn't want it for playing against computer anyway. Any suggestions?

I use Houdini (rated at 3000+ ELO) in combination with the "SCID vs PC" interface. Both are available freely online, just google it. 

I use Chessmaster, which is a powerful tool for players rated lower than 2000. It has also useful comments and many tips to learn. Oh, and its very cheap.

Fritz costs a bit more, but its worth it. Its a giant database of tips, puzzles and openings. You can even let personalized virtual characters analyse your game.

Houdini with more than 3000 rating isnt free. Only the old, lowrated version is free.

But you can buy Fritz and install other chess engines if you dont like the one built in. Suggestions:

Houdini (old version is free, new version world master)

Rybka (old version is free, got banned from contests because they copied some code from other engines)

Shredder (winner of 2011 software championsship, so my personal topsuggestion, also a blitz specialist)

HIARCS and JUNIOR (free version available, very fast on slow computers)

Stockfish (best free engine, open source)

In Chessmaster, you can build your own chess engines with no programming, but you may need to experiment a bit with them.

Oh, Chessmaster is very old. The engine has just rating ~2900 USCF.

I would suggest just downloading stockfish for free. The difference between it and Houdini is negligable.

Of course, stockfish is great too.