Scid
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I'm using Scid, but don't ask me--I'm just starting. I'm reading it's tutorial at scid.sourceforge.net/tutorial/index.html. I also downloaded a Large Database of chess games (5 million games) from icofy.net, which you'll surely use. ChessMaster 10 has only half million. Good luck. 
well i might aswell ask because u might know!
i was wondering is it possible to insert your own games and save them so that u have a database of your own games like a scorebook etc...???
Yes, it's possible to insert your games in Scid. I hope the following helps...
First you have to make your own database file. Click File -> New (or Ctrl-N). A dialog window appears: choose a file name (maybe fred07 as an example [no file extension]) and the directory (for me I made a directory named chess in my root user account). Now you have a database file of your own (the file is opened automatically).
Go to My Game Archive - Online Chess (or any other source of PGN files). Download one or all those PGN files (there is a button at the bottom: Download PGN). Put them is a local folder (chess folder in my case). Then go back to Scid.
Click Tools -> Import File of PGN Games... Click your PGN file (the one you downloaded) and Open it. There! Your game is in your database (if there are many games already, it'll be appended).
Another (more exciting for me) method is the following...
Click Windows -> Database Switcher (Ctrl-D) to open a Window showing all open databases. Now to open a PGN file (remember you downloaded it earlier): Click File -> Open (Ctrl-O) to open the PGN. Observe the Database Switcher Window, the file appears. Now to add your PGN file to your Database file (remember your Database file name--fred07): Drag the other PGN file (shown as a box) and Drop it on your Database file... There, it's appended!
Some PGN files contain only one game, some have many. The one I mentioned above has 5 million! (See that tutorial--time invested there is not wasted.)
Good luck! 
i tryed to use icofy but there was no initial program to open it with - any help????
Fredster, do you use Windows? I don't know if an Archive manager is installed by default, but if not I'll give you a url on a free utility for Windows... In the meantime, you can save that file to your computer (don't choose the Open With, but the one below--save in computer). Also, there are different kinds of databases. Scid uses the first one; other programs use some other files.
I hope ChessMaster experts at Chess.com give an advise; when I installed ChessMaster, there was some other configuration I did and I don't know if it's used in all cases (now I don't have to put the CD every now and then). And it runs perfectly (just using up a lot of memory).
fredster50 wrote: i tryed to use icofy but there was no initial program to open it with - any help????
Have you tried SCID ?
You can find it here: http://scid.sourceforge.net/download.html#Install
ok thanx Charlie canyou give me the Url for Archive Manager then?>>>
no cus the problem with chessbase light is that you can not save games on it!
For a free Windows Archive manager, go to www.tugzip.com/downloads.html. If you're downloading an archive file (zip, e.g.) use this to open it. If the file is big (like the database being referred to), it's better to use a Download manager because if the download is interrupted, it can be restarted later without wasting the partially downloaded file. I use Flashget; download it at www.flashget.com/index_en.htm. Again, it would be good to invest some time learning the programs. These are just two of many free programs out there... (Just a digression here: if you get fed up with programs that you pay for, why not start using free software--I'm using Linux; I use Windows because it's already installed previously in another partition in my hard disk, and because some programs only run on Windows.)
does anyone use the chess database: 'Scid' here?? if so I have got some questions about it!!