Encarta seems, more than ever, to have adopted an 'if you can't beat them, join them' approach. Upon loading the program for the first time, we were prompted that updates were available for download. Smashing, we thought, and we clicked the relevant buttons, to be told that we had to join Club Encarta to be able to receive them.

To be fair, this allows you to keep content up to date until October 2006, but why should we be asked about our address, whether we teach kids, whether we're parents and suchlike? Okay, this isn't compulsory, but that's not clear at all from the sign up page; it's only when you click Submit and the form accepts your answers that you find that out.

But then that's all part of the Encarta package. For your purchase price, Microsoft will keep it up to date for a year with regular new content (broadband clearly helps here), and the developers do allow you to access Encarta Premium online for a short while. Yet that's the point at which you naturally ask questions about whether it's best simply to subscribe to a constantly-updated Web resource rather than stump up for a DVD-ROM. You do get the impression that Microsoft would prefer a regular monthly payment over a one-off fee for selling the software in the first place.

Still, once you're into the guts of the Encarta disc, it's as easy as ever to get engrossed. Microsoft continues its policy of sourcing third-party content from partners who have more expertise than itself (The Times and the Discovery Channel, for instance), and it pays off. You get the impression that much of it has been carefully selected too, which is a further bonus.

It's also prominently badged as the UK and Ireland edition, which is backed up with fully localised content in both the main and Children's Encarta that you get with the pack. It passes the football test with ease. What's more, the Children's Encarta is directly tied into Key Stages 2 and 3, something that will reassure parents.

The slick interface has had a bit of work done to it since last year, and it's still as straightforward as ever to find what you're looking for. Interestingly, Microsoft has also pushed the Web angle further: there are umpteen Web content recommendations that sit alongside the articles themselves. Online safety is something that both Encarta and Britannica use as selling points.

Yet that all hints at what Encarta is increasingly becoming. Instead of it being the ultimate resource that it was once regarded as, it's now coming across as a reference work that's chosen its content. It's as if the developers appreciate that it can't compete with the Web head-for-head, so instead choose the battles carefully and win them with ease. The achievement, therefore, is that in a market where the multimedia encyclopaedia threatens to become less relevant than ever before, Encarta has never been more so.