Missing and presumed extinct, given the fact that most people leave their route planning to Sat Navs and online services these days, Microsoft has - out of nowhere - resurrected its Autoroute product. Autoroute 2010 is the first new release since Autoroute 2007 was let loose in August 2006, and so it was not unreasonable to conclude that it had gone the same way as Encarta, Cinemania et al. Yet here it is, in a slap-bang-up-to-date guise.

That's not to say it's going to easily find a place in the world. But Microsoft still throws as much as possible at the wall to try to keep it as relevant as possible.

Firstly, it's broadened the scope of Autoroute enormously. The package now covers 37 countries across Western and Eastern Europe, down to street level detail. This is very much the software's main advantage. Earlier iterations of the product had made a token stab at this, but had faltered when you dug down too much outside of major conurbations. Not so here, as there's detail covering the continent, all brought together using the familiar and friendly Autoroute interface.

Furthermore, there are new little things. One-way streets are spottable now, while you can determine a default position for the program to kick off at every time you start it. Lots more points of interest have been added in, and the program integrates with the likes of Bing (unsurprisingly). Plus you can also buy a version of the software with a GPS locator if you want to turn it into a pseudo-Sat Nav device.

Microsoft has polished and buffed this software to the hilt, and many of the useful features that it was renowned for are still firmly on board (such as finding nearby points of attraction, and allowing you to calculate the cost of journeys). But, in spite of the GPS option, there's still the same problem facing the program that existed several years ago. And it's this: the world has moved on.

Autoroute used to be the first place you went to in order to get directions, and yet if you're not heading off to the continent, it's hard to conclude that you wouldn't be as well using one of the many online route planning tools. Even if you are driving abroad, there's the small matter of not wanting to cart a laptop around, which means that a Sat Nav may actually be a more prudent choice in the long run.

It's a tricky one for Microsoft. Its software here is good, and nicely tuned over the last edition. But there's a feeling that, no matter how hard it's buffed Autoroute up, Microsoft has lost a place for it in the world. We would probably recommend the program, if we could work out who we're supposed to recommend it to.

Verdict
A premium route planning application, as it always was, but one that's not easy to place in the modern world.

Company: Microsoft

Tags: microsoft eastern europe encarta global navigation satellite system bing global positioning system gps united states