Tennessee software developer Bitsum has released Process Lasso 6.5 and Process Lasso 6.5 (64-bit), a major update of its performance tool for keeping PCs running smoothly by intelligently managing system processes.

Version 6.5 represents a major overhaul for the software, with Bitsum promising that it’s been "considerably optimized, profiled, tested and polished". The latest build also features a smattering of new features and improvements.

The overhauled code has resulted in Process Lasso reducing its memory footprint and process utilization even further than before, with the promise of improved performance as a result. Another performance tweak sees logging performance optimized thanks to the introduction of a new "flat file" log format.

This change has been accompanied by new log file rotation, which allows old log files to be archived, improves the “pruning” of existing log files and results in a reduction of the current log’s file size, resulting in faster loading when accessed via the program’s graphical front end.

One minor GUI tweaks sees a new option added to the View menu allowing users manage the columns shown under the Active Processes tab (users can also right-click the tab itself to select these). The GUI also now shows hard page faults by default, and reports these in the Page Faults column, which now ignores soft page faults.

The update also includes numerous minor tweaks, fixes and changes to the program core as well as the GUI -- a full list can be found in the program’s release notes, which also reveal that compatibility with Windows 2000 and XP pre-SP2 machines has been restored in the 32-bit build thanks to a shift to the VC9 platform toolset.

Process Lasso 6.5 and Process Lasso 6.5 (64-bit) are both available as free downloads for PCs running Windows 2000 or later. The program functions in trial version mode for the fully featured Pro version before reverting to a cut-down Free build for personal and non-commercial use.

Microsoft’s decision to drop the Start menu in Windows 8 has caused plenty of controversy, but fortunately it’s made little difference to the end user. Developers quickly realized that many people really don’t like the new interface at all, and they’ve produced a host of free tools to help make Windows 8 look and feel as much like Windows 7 as possible.

Start Menu Reviver, though, has a different aim. Instead of ignoring Microsoft’s Modern UI, it adapts it, with configurable tiles rather than text links. There’s good integration with Windows 8, including the ability to launch Start Screen apps from your desktop. But at the same time, it’s not tied to Windows 8 systems: if you like the look, you can install and run the program on Windows 7, too.

After a straightforward setup, Start Menu Reviver displays a link to a demo video where you can learn more about how this works. But although this is useful, you’ll figure out most of the details for yourself, so it’s safe to dismiss that for now and jump right in.

Just as you’d expect, Start Menu Reviver pops up whenever you click the Start orb or press the Windows key. (It’s not made any drastic low-level changes to achieve this, though, so if you have any problems with the program then it can easily be dismissed: just right-click the Start orb and select Exit.)

The opening menu looks good, and works well. Left-hand buttons give you one-click access to common destinations: the Search window, Run box, Recent Documents list, Network and Sharing Centre and more.

Right-hand tiles initially give you access to various folders (My Computer, Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos), applications and system areas (Control Panel, Task Manager), as well as switching you to the Start Screen in Windows 8 (you can launch Windows 8 apps from the menu, too).

Elsewhere, a Search box helps you find what you need, and a Power button displays all the usual options: Log Off, Switch User, Lock, Sleep, Hibernate, Restart, Shutdown.

You’ll also want to customize these tiles, of course, and there are multiple ways to do this. Move the mouse cursor to the right of the menu, for instance, and a view of your Program Files folder appears; find an executable, drag and drop it onto a tile and it’ll be added immediately.

Alternatively, right-clicking any of the right-hand tiles provides an option to customize it with a shortcut of your own. This can point to a program, document or website, and can optionally be set to run as an Administrator, if necessary. And if there’s not enough space, the larger tiles can optionally be used to hold four individual shortcuts, giving you up to 32 in total.

There are some annoyances here. If you type the name of a program in the regular Start Menu search, for instance, you can immediately use the up and down cursor keys and press Enter to select and launch whatever you need. With Start Menu Reviver, though, the keyboard focus remains on the Search box, so you can’t do any of this. To select and launch a program you must double-click it with the mouse (or tap it on a touch screen).

Start Menu Reviver also isn’t quite as configurable as we’d like (the left-hand buttons appear to be fixed). It uses a notable amount of RAM (50MB or so on our test PC), and requires a "helper" service to be installed.

The program looks great, is free (for personal use) and has plenty of features, though, so if you need a Start Menu alternative then it’s well worth considering.

Not everyone is a web-coding whizz, or wants to learn the intricacies of HTML, CSS, PHP or other web-based programming languages. Xara Web Designer 9 is aimed squarely at those who prefer to design websites using desktop publishing tools, where what you see on-screen is what you expect to see with the finished design. Over recent years, Web Designer has built into a powerful, user-friendly tool that -- a few quirks aside -- makes designing websites as simple as putting together magazines, newsletters or brochures.

At first glance it looks beginner-friendly: pick a template, import your text and graphics, and build your site page-by-page at a time. But that does Web Designer a disservice, because if you delve deeper, you’ll find it has all the tools you need to design more complex sites that are attractive to look at, easy to navigate and bursting with support for all the latest technologies, from Flash-based animations to interactive widgets.

First steps

Fire up Web Designer and you’re presented with the option of creating a page from scratch or using one of the design templates. While it’s tempting to opt for the latter, doing so creates a set of web pages based on the different page designs available within that template -- up to 15 are provided with each template. A better option is to create a new, blank site, open the Designs Gallery, pick a template and then drag in individual pages to get started with.

There are dozens of templates provided -- over 20 have been added to version 9 -- covering general, and web-presentation themes, all of which can be customized to your own tastes should -- for example -- you like the design, but detest the color scheme. You’ll also find a new Business-specific templates section, but sadly these don’t come free, costing $15 a pop, although by upgrading to Web Designer 9 Premium you’re given a voucher that lets you download one for free.

From here, everything is drag and drop and anyone with experience with desktop publishing packages will soon discover just how powerful and versatile the tool is. You can simply replace existing page elements with your own text and graphics, or start crafting pages to your own more demanding specifications.

It’s when you venture beyond the basics of taking a template and populating it with your own content that you start to appreciate just how clever Web Designer is. Drop in page elements from the various galleries (Web Designer is smart enough to match these to the overall design of the site -- if you want it too, of course), then fine-tune them without ever having to type in any HTML or CSS code. This really is a designer’s web-building tool.

And you’re not restricted to basic building blocks, either. Web Designer makes it easy to add all kinds of whizz-bang-pop elements like YouTube video, PayPal options and social-networking buttons to your site. There are tools for fine-tuning any images you import, plus all manner of shapes, shadows and other clever effects that can be applied to your pages, and all with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Frustrations

Web Designer is so good -- on the whole -- at making page design so straightforward that when it fails to support seemingly logical behavior, the frustration is acute. Why can’t you resize a photo within a frame, for example, or alternatively crop a photo and then apply a simple photo frame border to the cropped image?

Then there are your attempts to duplicate existing objects in order to extend a page with new content using the existing layout. However we tried duplicating those objects -- copy and paste, clone or duplicate, the end result was the same: an exact replica of the original objects, content and all. Change the images or text in one object, and the duplicate’s content changed to match. That’s fine for generating content that repeats over several pages, but where’s the simple option to just duplicate the basic frame, allowing you to change its content independently of the original? Alternatively, how about letting you create your own custom widgets and page elements for dragging and dropping into place?

And that leads on to another issue: Xara Web Designer is very much a tool for building page-by-page websites, where the content on each page is individually put together. These days, more and more people are discovering the benefits of using Content Management Systems to separate design and content -- if only Xara had such capabilities built-in, it would become irresistible. As it is, sadly, its appeal is limited to those whose demands don’t involve populating lots of similar content across a basic set of design templates.

What’s new?

If you’re a happy Web Designer MX 8 user, you may be wondering if upgrading is worth your time and money: the simple answer is yes, particularly if your PC has more than 4GB RAM and is running a 64-bit version of Windows. Xara Web Designer 9 Premium is the first build to ship with a dedicated 64-bit version that will take full advantage of any extra memory you can throw at it, helping boost performance.

You’ll also want to upgrade if you’re looking to provide a site that looks gorgeous on Retina displays. Web Designer 9 automatically generates the high-resolution graphics required to make your sites shine on Apple’s high-res displays -- helped immeasurably by its vastly improved compatibility with all the latest HTML5 standards. This ensures graphics load more quickly and scale better when required -- your site even knows when to load Retina-friendly graphics and when to stick with the standard-resolution versions to boost page-loading times.

Web Authoring improvements include direct support for Google Fonts -- including a Google Font picker, which can be embedded in your site should the web standard options not appeal. A new "pull" option extends the automatic sizing of pages (and subsequent positioning of page elements) upwards as well as down, while we also love support for drag-and-drop navbar replacement.

Creating web presentations is also more intuitive and quicker thanks to improvements that are overdue in hindsight: steps aren’t automatically deleted until the site is saved or exported, the current step is shown in the presentation bar (all steps above it are now hidden by default) and adding a new step automatically makes it the current one. Still, better late than never.

Other new features include a new Google Analytics tab under the Web Properties screen, plus handy new widgets making it easy to embed Google Ads, Google+ buttons and basic tables into your site. Then there are minor -- but notable improvements -- the fly-out toolbar is less frustrating to navigate now it doesn’t disappear so readily, while JPEG and PNG images are handled just that little bit better too.

There’s also compatibility with Windows 8 touch, but this will only benefit users with all-in-one PCs or multi-touch monitors as the version of Windows 8 (Windows RT) shipped with tablets can’t actually run any desktop applications, which includes Web Designer 9.

Verdict

It’s hard not to like Xara Web Designer 9 Premium. If you’re looking for a DTP-friendly approach to building page-driven websites then it’s got pretty much everything you need to design attractive, yet easy-to-navigate and quick-to-load websites. There are some niggles you may have to circumvent, and the lack of CMS-friendly tools will make it an impractical solution for more content-driven sites, but if your needs match its capabilities then this latest build is well worth taking for a spin.

If you’ve created a website and want to test it properly, then you could get some web space, upload all your files and see how everything looks. But that’s not always too convenient, especially if you have to make several changes, as you’ll need to upload the tweaked files each time.

The whole development process can be much faster if you run a web server on your own PC, then. And while this can be complicated -- especially if you try to download and install each component individually -- it doesn’t have to be that way. Especially if you grab a copy of Uniform Server.

The package includes all the core components you need, with the latest versions of Apache2, MySQL5, Perl5, PHP5, phpMyAdmin and more. Yet it’s a surprisingly compact download at 15MB. And it’s a self-extracting archive, too, so all you have to do is run it, specify a folder and everything will be unpacked there.

If you’re a server novice then you might be worried about what’s coming next. But it’s all very straightforward. Browse to the UniServer folder and you’ll find three further executables:"“help.exe", "Start_as_program.exe" and "Start_as_service.exe". Launching either of the executables will fire up everything you need, along with some explanations of what to do next, while Help.exe provides even more details.

Whatever you do, there’s no complex installation here, so you’re not left on your own trying to figure out some MySQL issue, for instance. Simple alerts explain the basic server essentials, and within a few seconds you’ll be looking at the main Uniform Server console. You can start Apache with a click, and immediately you’ll be able to try out PHP or HTML pages just by copying them to your UniServer\www folder.

This all works very well as a development server. You don’t have to run it all the time, it doesn’t add a bunch of extra components to your PC, you could even run it from a USB key on any convenient Windows system.

But Uniform Server also includes everything you need to run a live web server, host your own sites and make them available online. This does require a lot more thought and configuration time, but again the package does a good job of helping you through the setup process. It really is a great way to get started with Apache, PHP, MySQL and more.

Photo Credit: sheelamohanachandran2010/Shutterstock

If you’re worried about your PC’s RAM or CPU usage, then installing a system monitor can sometimes be useful. This will usually give you an on-screen display indicating when there’s a high demand for your system’s resources, so alerting you to potential problems as soon as they happen, and perhaps helping you to figure out the cause.

Having this extra on-screen display can be a problem, though. Usually you either have to free up a little space for a desktop gadget, or you’re left to peer at some tiny system tray indicator. So it’s good to see RAM CPU Taskbar take a different route, by using your entire taskbar as a CPU and memory meter.

Download and run the program and it’ll add an icon to your system tray, and a couple of bars to the right of your taskbar. The top one highlights CPU usage, starts green, turns amber and then red as the figure approaches 100 percent; the lower bar alerts you to RAM use and works in much the same way.

We wondered if this would be intrusive or annoying, but our tests didn’t show any problems. The bars are visible below your taskbar buttons, but they don’t obscure them or otherwise get in your way. And the default refresh rates -- once every 10 seconds for RAM, every second for CPU usage -- mean that the bars aren’t constantly moving around, so distractions are kept to a minimum.

If you are unhappy with some aspect of the display, though, you can probably tweak in in the program’s comprehensive Settings dialog. There are options to disable either of the bars, for instance; set them to be left or right-aligned; set their positioning, refresh rate, colours and more.

We’re still not entirely sure that we would use RAM CPU Taskbar for long. If a PC has resource issues then we’d rather launch a copy of Process Hacker and figure out the cause right away.

But, if you are looking for a simple memory and processor meter, then the program’s ability to display system information without requiring any extra screen real estate is a major plus. Take a look.

Photo Credit: NinaMalyna/Shutterstock

Open-source FTP client FileZilla 3.7.0 and FileZilla Portable 3.7.0 have both been released. The new build now allows users to view the total transfer speed as a tooltip over the transfer indicators, and replaces the depreciated term SSL with TLS. The update also promises better performance over secure FTP connections and subtle tweaks to the user interface to make the program easier to use.

Users can now view the total transfer speed by hovering the mouse over the transfer indicators in the bottom right-hand corner of the FileZilla window. Similarly, hovering the mouse over the Host box in the Quickconnect bar now reveals a list of supported protocols: FTP, FTP over SSH, FTP over TLS (implicit), and FTP over TLS (explicit).

This tooltip also reveals that FileZilla has dropped the use of the depreciated term SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) in favor of the correct TLS (Transport Layer Security) term -- TLS is an upgraded form of SSL.

The user interface has also been improved with this release -- users selecting Updates from the Settings dialog box will now see a drop-down menu allowing them to specifically search for stable versions only or include beta versions too. Users do, however, lose flexibility when choosing how often to search for updates -- previous versions allowed a specific number of days to be entered between each check, but version 3.7.0 merely offers weekly, every two weeks or once a month checks in addition to the “Never” option.

Other more subtle tweaks include reworded text when the saving of passwords has been disabled to avoid referring to “kiosk mode”, while navigation has been made simpler by highlighting the former child directory when moving back to the parent folder.

When users edit files from directly within FileZilla, the new build now uses high priority for transferring the changes back to the server. Version 3.7.0 is also smarter in ignoring attempts to drag and drop files where the source and target are identical.

A new “Ignore” item has been added to the context menu that appears when right-clicking multiple items, while the program now displays TLS version and key exchange algorithm in both certificate and encryption details dialogs when connecting via FTP over TLS. Version 3.7.0 also fixes a number of bugs, including a memory leak that occurred in the host key verification dialog for SFTP as well as improving handling of legacy DDE file associations.

FileZilla 3.7.0 is available now as a free, open-source download for Windows, Mac and Linux. Windows users can also download the free FileZilla Portable 3.7.0.

Photo Credit: Annkozar/Shutterstock

Acronis International has added a new, cut-down backup tool to its roster with the release of True Image Lite 2013 by Acronis. Roughly six months after debuting the beta version, True Image Lite 2013 gets a final release, providing users with a simple tool for protecting specified folders through regular “non-stop” backups.

True Image Lite 2013 offers users two locations for backing up: a local storage device, such as external or network hard drive, and online through the Acronis Cloud, an optional add-on providing 250GB of internet storage for an additional outlay.

The software has been specifically targeted at novices, designed to make backing up documents and other key files as simple as possible: users simply select which folders they wish to back up, choose a backup destination and then leave the program to continuously update backups as files are added, changed and deleted.

By adopting an incremental approach to backing up, True Image Lite 2013 stores multiple versions of the same file, allowing users to roll back changes to earlier versions of a file or restore accidentally deleted files from the backup archive quickly and easily should the need arise.

Should users upgrade by adding the 250GB cloud storage option, they not only get additional peace of mind with having a backup stored in a remote location, but are also able to access their files from anywhere via a web browser or free mobile app for iOS and Android.

True Image Lite 2013 by Acronis is available now as a free trial download for PCs running Windows XP SP3 or later, and the full version is available in 1-PC and 3-PC licenses with MSRPs of $29.99 and $54.99 respectively. 250GB Cloud Storage is available as a bolt-on for $4.95 a month or $49.99 a year -- one month’s free trial is provided with the program itself.

Also available is True Image 2013 by Acronis, a more fully featured imaging and backup tool, which can be purchased for the bargain price of $24.99 from the Downloadcrew Software Store, a saving of 50 per cent on the MSRP.

Photo Credit: Balandina G/Shutterstock

Launch a program, collect an email, visit a website -- just about everything you do on a PC results in some kind of change to the files on your PC. And normally the low-level details of this won’t interest you in the slightest, but there will be occasional exceptions.

Maybe you think you’ve been infected by malware, for instance. Perhaps you’re wondering what an installation program is adding to your system. Or you might just want to know why your hard drive activity light is flashing, all the time. But whatever the reason,Check5 can help, by monitoring any folders of interest and showing you, in real time, exactly how their contents are changing.

To try this out you must first point the program at the folders you’d like to track. Click Folder Monitor > Add Folder to Monitor, and repeat the process for everything you’d like to watch. (Or just specify a root folder -- C:\ , say – to monitor a full drive.)

Now just launch any program which creates, amends, deletes or renames files in any of those folders, and you’ll see its actions displayed in the main File List Grid: the file name, path, size, attributes, and created, modified and last access dates.

If your applications are generating a lot of activity then this can become hard to follow, but there are ways to improve the situation. Monitoring somewhere lower down the folder tree can help, for instance. And an Event Logging menu allows you to record only the event types which interest you: file creations, say.

Just in case this isn’t enough, Check5 also includes various batch file management tools which you can apply to the logged events. So if, say, you’ve recorded 500 files being created in a particular folder, then the program can rename all of those according to the rules you specify, in a single operation.

Well, that’s the theory, anyway. In practice we found this aspect of the program to be confusing and rather impractical, but if you need this kind of feature then it might (just about) come in useful.

We suspect that most people, though, will use Check5 solely for its file monitoring features. And that’s just fine, because these are good enough to justify installing the program, all on their own.

Photo Credit: S.john/Shutterstock

Your PC is packed with applications, and you need to be able to launch them at speed. So of course you might start by creating a few shortcuts, and either dropping them on your desktop, and pinning them to the taskbar. It’s simple, and straightforward – but of course it can also quickly become very messy.

If you’d prefer a clean desktop, then, you might be interested in DeskIntegrator’s approach. This compact free tool adds applications to the desktop context menu, and launching them becomes as easy as right-clicking the desktop, and choosing whatever you need from the list.

The program is convenient to use. It’s portable, so there’s no installation: just download, unzip and launch it (as an Administrator), and you’re ready to go. The core process is very similar to creating a shortcut. You’ll enter a title (the name that will appear in the menu), a path (browse to its executable), optionally provide a custom icon. You can choose approximately where your entry will appear in the menu, too -- the top, middle or bottom -- which could be useful if you want to group similar applications together.

When you’re ready, click “Add/Modify” to insert your chosen program. You can then enter the details of another program, or just right-click the desktop to see how your custom context menu is looking.

And if you discover you’ve made a mistake, no problem -- clicking the “Remove Menu” tab displays a list of all your menu customisations (as well as the standard Windows options, and anything added by third-party tools), and allows you to delete whatever you like. This is useful, but you do need to be careful here: there’s no “Are you sure?” prompt after you’ve clicked “Remove”, and if you accidentally delete the standard Windows “Screen resolution” entry, say, there’s no way to bring it back.

DeskIntegrator does have one notable problem. The program absolutely must have administrative rights, and if that doesn’t happen, it handles the situation very poorly. On our PC it displayed a misleading alert about “Registry permissions” before crashing with a .NET error message; not too impressive.

Still, while this is sloppy, it’s easy to avoid: just manually run the program as an administrator when necessary (right-click, select “Run as Administrator”), or configure it to run this way all the time (right-click DeskIntegrator.exe, select Properties > Compatibility and check “Run this program as an Administrator”).

With the rights issue out of the way, though, DeskIntegrator works very well. We’d still try to keep its use to a minimum, just to avoid cluttering the desktop context menu and making it harder to access other entries. But, if you prefer your desktop to have the minimum of visible and pinned shortcuts, then DeskIntegrator just might be able to help.

Photo Credit: ARENA Creative/Shutterstock

When testing your PC, you might sometimes want to see what happens over a period of time. Will your backup start when it should, for instance? Is your antivirus launcher working correctly? Will your alarm pop up? When will that trial version expire, and what happens when it does?

If you’re only looking to test just one of these actions, then manually resetting your system’s clock will probably be enough. But when your testing becomes more involved -- you want to check out a program which adjusts screen brightness depending on the time of day, for instance -- then you’ll benefit from a more automated approach. And there’s no simpler way to get this than with Accelerify.

The program is a tiny (7.26KB download) console-based tool which increments your PC clock at regular intervals -- by default, moving it on an hour every 10 seconds -- so making time seem to pass more quickly while you just monitor what’s happening; a very straightforward approach.

It’s easy to use, too. Launch the program from Explorer as an Administrator (right-click, select Run as Administrator) and it’ll pop up in a console window, and immediately begin incrementing your clock. You can return to your desktop, launch a program or otherwise monitor your system. And when you’re done, return to Accelerify, press a key, and the program will stop its work, restore your original time and close down.

If the default interval and increment don’t suit your needs, then that can be adjusted via command line switches. And so you could choose to step forward 30 minutes every 2 seconds, 3 hours every 15 seconds, or whatever you like (accelerify_Readme.txt has the details).

Be careful, though. We found that if we incremented the clock too rapidly -- an hour every second, for instance -- then some scheduled applications missed their cue, and didn’t pop up when we expected.

And you also need to be sure that you close the program via the approved, “press any key” route. If you just close the window then your clock will be left at its new setting, and you’ll have to restore the correct time yourself (in Windows 7, right-click the clock, select “Adjust date/time” > Internet Time > Change Settings > Update now).

Accelerify isn’t exactly a tool you’ll use every day, then, but if you’re testing anything based on time then it could be very useful. Take a look.

Photo Credit: Sukharevskyy Dmytro (nevodka)/Shutterstock

There are many ways to share files between the computers on your network -- simple folder sharing, or cloud-based file syncing are just two ideas that come to mind. But when Apple introduced AirDrop in OS X Lion, it added another way – an elegant, simple means of simply dragging and dropping files to quickly distribute them to other Macs on your network.

The only problem with AirDrop is that you require other Macs, running OS X Lion or later no less, for it to work. Thankfully, third parties have finally come around to developing cross-platform alternatives to AirDrop, and another promising example has just poked its head above the parapet in the form of Filedrop.

It’s still early days for Filedrop, as its version number (0.3.214) attests. At the present time there are just two clients available, for Windows and Mac, with the promise of Android and iOS apps to follow. But even at this early stage in its development, Filedrop is already delivering on its promise.

Like AirDrop, Filedrop works across your local network only. Once installed, fire it up on each of your computers and it’ll immediately display a floating box with all other available desktops (and computer names) shown. Transferring a file from one to the other is as simple as dragging it on to the desktop you wish the file to be copied to.

When someone attempts to send a file via Filedrop, a pop-up dialog will alert the target user, giving them the opportunity to decline or accept the file transfer. By default, all files are copied into the target computer’s Downloads directory, but this can be changed for the specified file transfer by clicking the Downloads link that appears in the confirmation pop-up.

There’s a Downloads button at the bottom of the main window too -- this works in a similar way to the downloads button in Firefox, allowing you to open files or their parent folder directly from Filedrop. You can also set a different default folder for all file transfers from here, too, say your desktop or a specific Filedrop folder.

And that’s basically it: Filedrop works with multiple PCs and Macs to give you a simple, fuss-free way of quickly sharing files across your local network. There are some glitches of course, despite opening with modest memory requirements for example (under 30MB in Windows), Filedrop slowly increases its demands as time goes on without appearing to release memory back, certainly not in the short term, so that’s something that will hopefully be rectified in a future release.

But there’s more to come too with the iOS and Android apps currently in development. These will allow you to transfer files to and from your mobile, enabling it to be used as a “wi-fi USB stick”, plus there will be options for streaming photos and music from your mobile to other Filedrop-enabled devices too. The apps should hopefully be appearing sometime this month.

In the meantime, Filedrop 0.3.214 is available as a freeware download for PCs running Windows XP or later, and Macs running OS X 10.6.8 or later.

Photo Credit: mojito.mak[dog]gmail[dot]com/Shutterstock

Four weeks ago, Microsoft flicked the switch and officially merged Windows Live Messenger with Skype. Users of the popular IM tool were greeted with a message stating "A newer version is available. You must install the newer version in order to continue.  Would you like to do this now?"

Although Skype is a great tool, many fans of Messenger were up in arms about the forced change, and I know people who still pine for the old chat application. Fortunately, there’s a very simple way to get it back.

Messenger Reviver 2 automatically installs, repairs and/or modifies Windows Live Messenger 2012, 2011, 2009, and 2008 (as well as Windows Messenger) so you can continue using and signing in to the old service.

Run the program and it will detect installed versions of Messenger and let you revive them. It will also offer links so you can download and install a fresh copy of the chat tool.

You’ll then be able to sign in and use Messenger as if Skype never happened.

Messenger is set to be fully discontinued at some point (March 2014 is the current estimate), so this isn’t a permanent fix, but it will buy you at least ten months of respite, and give you the chance to say your goodbyes properly.

Avast Software has released avast! Free Antivirus 8.0.1488 and avast! Internet Security 8.0.1488 for PCs running Windows XP or later. Version 8.0.1488 is the first notable update since version 8 was released at the end of February.

Version 8.0.1488 adds one major new feature to the security tool’s roster: a SecureLine component, which provides protection for users browsing over Wi-Fi via VPN. The feature isn’t provided free, but comes with a free 24-hour trial that can be activated at any time. Thereafter, access costs from $7.99 a month.

VPN is used to encrypt data prior to it being transmitted over the internet -- although primarily used by businesses, it’s also increasingly used by security conscious users who wish to use "open" Wi-Fi networks -- often public -- where data can be easily intercepted by other network users. VPNs also allow users to surf anonymously and fake their location to bypass web services limited to specific geographic locations.

The new SecureLine feature is installed by default with the main avast! Package, but isn’t switched on. Once installed, users should double-click the avast! Notification area icon and choose SecureLine under the Security tab. From here, clicking the Activate link opens a window where users can start the free 24-hour trial or purchase a SecureLine license for $7.99 a month or $59.99 for a full year.

After activating, users can manually connect to the VPN at any time, choosing the location closest to them or picking an alternative location -- at time of writing, nine locations are provided: Dallas, Miami, New York and Seattle in the US, London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Prague in Europe, and Singapore. Users can also instruct SecureLine to automatically start whenever users attempt to connect to an insecure Wi-Fi network.

Version 8.0.1488 also comes with the promised of improved compatibility with Screen readers, and improvements to the Software Updater component. It also fixes several unspecified user-interface glitches and comes with the usual promise of improved stability and performance.

avast! Free Antivirus 8.0.1488 is available now as a freeware download for PCs running Windows 2000 or later. Users can upgrade to the Pro version with additional sandboxing and online shopping protection for as little as $19.99 for a one-user, one-year license through the Downloadcrew Software Store, a saving of 50 per cent on the MSRP -- a two-year, single-PC license is also available. Three-PC licenses for one year and two years are also available.

avast! Internet Security 8.0.1488 is also available as a free trial download for PCs running Windows 2000 or later. This version adds firewall and anti-spam protection to the features found in avast! Pro Antivirus, and a one-year, single-license version costs just $29.99 at the Downloadcrew Software Store, a saving of 40 per cent on the MSRP. A three-PC license is also available for $41.99, again saving 40 per cent off the MSRP.

While the ability to capture and share an image of your screen is extremely useful, it’s not exactly an area where Windows has excelled. Under DOS pressing PrtSc sent an image of your screen to the printer; under Windows 3.x the grab was copied to the clipboard; after more than 20 years, Windows 8 added the ability to save an image by pressing Win+PrtSc; and that’s about it.

If you’d like something a little more capable, then, it’s probably best to forget Microsoft and look for a third-party solution. And if you’re particularly interested in sharing screengrabs then PostImage could make an excellent choice.

After a simple and adware-free installation, PostImage runs in the background, consuming a reasonable 10MB RAM. Press PrtSc at any point and you’re able to choose a rectangular area of the screen which you’d like to capture, or you can press Alt+PrtSc to capture the currently active window.

While this sounds fairly standard, the area capture is at least very well implemented. Once you’ve defined a rectangle, PostImage displays its dimensions in pixels, for instance. And you can freely resize and reposition this until it matches whatever you need.

After grabbing something, you’re able to work on it with the PostImage editor. The program can crop or rotate the image; annotate it with shapes, arrows or captions, or add a shadow, outline, even a watermark (text or image-based).

When you’re finished (or if you don’t need to edit the screengrab at all), PostImage provides many different ways to share it with others. You can upload it to the PostImage server (postimg.org) and receive a direct link. There are options to share the link via Twitter, Facebook or Reddit, while an Email tool opens your default New Message dialog, with the image link already inserted.

And there are a few other options, too, ranging from the simple (Save, Print) to the more surprising, in particular a tool which uses Google to find images which resemble your capture. We grabbed our Start menu on a Windows 7 test PC, for instance, and PostImage opened a web page with the search results for "Windows 7 start menu", and links to similar images.

PostImage clearly isn’t going to appeal to everyone. The program doesn’t have the extended capture types you’ll sometimes see elsewhere (freehand, say). You can’t configure the hotkey. And the program is short on automation options. You might want to always save an image, maybe print or upload it, but there’s no way to set a default action -- you must select it manually, each and every time.

If you just need a more convenient way to take and share simple grabs of your desktop, though, PostImage works very well. It’s free, compact and easy to use, with a capable editor and plenty of image sharing options. So even if you need a little more power, this is a program to watch: it’s not even at version 1.0 yet, and we’ve no doubt that there’s plenty more to come.

Photo Credit: Iaroslav Neliubov/Shutterstock

Using your laptop on the move can mean having to dart from one power source to another. Whether you have a new laptop with a brand new battery, or an aging system with a battery that has seen better days, the amount of time you can use your computer without plugging in is of paramount importance. There are steps you can take to maximize the life of your battery, and it is also something that FatBatt can help you with.

There are several facets to the app. Firstly, it aims to give you an accurate estimate of how long your battery is going to last before you need to charge it up. This enables you to make informed decisions about how to use the time available to you, and how to manage your next charging session.

But more than this, FatBatt provides you with tools that can be used to help maximize the life of your battery. If there are any applications that are draining resources, you will be alerted to them so you can close them down. One of the easiest ways to increase battery life is to reduce screen brightness and processor speed.

With FatBatt this is reduced to a single click process so you can switch between home and away modes very quickly. It is also possible to adjust these settings based on where you are. This is achieved by network identity. When you are at home or in the office, for example, you’re probably going to be able to plug your laptop in whenever you need to, so there is no need for aggressive powersaving. But when you’re out and about, perhaps connected to a network in a particular coffee shop. more hardcore settings can be put in place so you can go for longer between charges.

FatBatt is available for laptops running Windows 7 and Windows 8. The software costs $14.99, but you can download a free trial from the review page to see how you get on with it first.

There are plenty of ways you can spruce up your Windows desktop, but if you’d like to inject some useful functionality into it with the help of customisable information panes and interactive widgets, then you shouldn’t look much further than Rainmeter 2.5. The open-source skinning tool isn’t for novices, but spend a bit of time with it and you’ll soon find your desktop is as functional as it’s attractive to look at.

One of Rainmeter’s weaknesses is the quality of the text displayed, particularly at smaller sizes. That’s about to be rectified however, and you can see how they’re getting on by installing the latest pre-release in the form of Rainmeter 3.0 Beta.

For the release of version 3.0, the main focus so far has been to ditch the ageing GDI+ rendering system for both text and graphics in favour of a more powerful Direct2D system used in Windows 7 and 8. So far, development has focussed on implementing improved text rendering on string-based meters, particularly where the text is smaller than normal.

Initial results look promising -- we immediately noticed a vast improvement in the legibility and quality of small text on display, but there are a number of issues requiring attention, including slight differences in wrapping and relative positioning behaviour.

As a result, the feature is currently disabled by default -- users must add UseD2D=1 to the [Rainmeter] section of the Rainmeter.ini configuration file to enable it. The quickest way to do this is from within Rainmeter’s own Manage section: click Edit settings to open the file in Notepad, insert the line, save your changes and then restart Rainmeter to see the effect.

The nature of the beta means other features may come and go before final release: an early 3.0 beta introduced icons for the Unload Skin and Exit options in the Rainmeter context menus, but these were removed just a week later after style issues with XP were discovered, for example.

Other minor changes implemented so far, and still present, include a new OnDismissAction command for the InputText plugin, reduced resource usage when using the OnChangeAction command and a new OnWakeAction command that takes effect when Windows resumes from sleep or hibernation. With beta updates appearing on a weekly basis, expect further refinement of these features.

Rainmeter 3.0 Beta Build 1906 is available now as a free, open-source download for Windows XP or later. Also available is the latest stable build, Rainmeter 2.5.

The first public beta of WinRAR 5.0 is now available. And it’s an interesting release with quite a few new features, although most are based around the addition of a new archiving format -- RAR 5.0.

This first aims to improve compression performance by increasing the maximum and default dictionary sizes. Some older and less efficient compression algorithms have been ditched, while RAR 5.0 decompression can make use of multiple CPU cores.

A new Reed-Solomon-based recovery record improves your chances of reconstructing a corrupted archive.

Security enhancements see AES-256 encryption now used in CBC mode. A new file checksum scheme makes it harder for attackers to find file contents. And smart password verification means the program can usually detect a wrong password without first having to unpack the full archive.

RAR 5.0 also sees several smaller enhancements in various areas. File times are now always stored in UTC, for instance, simplifying archive exchange between different timezones. And NTFS symbolic and hard links can now be saved simply as links, without having to archive their contents.

More general improvements include a maximum path length of 2048 characters for regular RAR and ZIP archives, while there’s now extraction-only support for the XZ archive format.

And one or two features have been dropped, including support for file comments, although archive comments remain as before.

If you need the full details then they’re available on the WinRAR What’s new page. Otherwise, WinRAR 5.0 Beta 1 for Windows, OS X and Linux is available now.

Photo Credit: Arkady/Shutterstock

One way to gain loads of free online storage space is to mix and match storage providers, taking advantage of each to quickly build up tens of gigabytes of cloud-based storage for backup, sync and sharing purposes. The downside of such an approach is the fact you need to manage each provider using its own dedicated app.

Nowhere is this frustration more evident than when using a tablet or phone to access your data, as you have to switch between apps to try and locate where you’ve stored a particular file. But help may be hand in the form of an app for Windows 8, iPad and Android calledRainbowDrive 2.0.0 that attempts to bring multiple providers together under one roof.

The premise is simple: RainbowDrive aims to bring together all your SkyDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive and -- Windows 8 only at present -- Box.net storage accounts into a single, centralised app. Fire it up, log into your various accounts and you’re good to go.

RainbowDrive even supports multiple accounts from the same provider, although the free version of the iPad and Android versions both restrict you to just three accounts in total -- you can gain a fourth by sharing the app on Facebook via its Settings screen. No such limitation currently applies to the Windows 8 version.

One logged in, the app should quickly synchronise with each account in turn -- we say “should” because we found it took ages to sync with our 25GB SkyDrive account on the iPad, and then got stuck at 100 percent, although it worked fine in Windows 8.

Once synchronised, you can browse your data one of two ways: RainbowDrive defaults to a “by type” view, so all your data across all your accounts is amalgamated together, but you can also browse by individual storage account if you prefer.

From here, you can easily download and upload data to your accounts, play back media and open files in compatible apps. It’s also possible to share file links too -- by email and any other supported networks (such as Twitter or Facebook). You should also be able to search across all your cloud storage too.

As we’ve already said, there appear to be some glitches with the app, but it’s still worth investigating if you have accounts with the current list of cloud providers. We expect Box.net support to be rolled out to iPad and Android owners in due course, but whether wider provider support is on the way is not yet clear.

RainbowDrive 2.0.0 is available now as a free app for Windows 8, iPad and Android. Version 2.0.0 has just been released for Windows 8, adding support for Box.net accounts, promising faster loading of the file list and implementing French and German translations.

Photo Credit: Dan Collier/Shutterstock

If you’d like to keep an eye on your kids’ PC activities then you could pay big money for a full-strength parental controls package, with comprehensive monitoring tools, detailed reports and a whole lot more.

If your needs are more basic, though, you could just download AutoScreenShot, a tiny free tool which will save regular screenshots which you can review later.

The program is easy to configure. Options start with choosing the capture interval, for instance (once every 120 seconds, by default), and the folder where your images will be stored.

You can tell the program to keep only the most recent images, too -- the last 200, say -- which helps to keep drive space requirements in check.

When you’re done, click the OK button, and that’s it -- the captures will begin. There’s no immediately obvious sign of the program’s presence, and it tied up only minimal resources (under 6MB of RAM on our test PC, even with the configuration dialog open). Add it to your startup folder and you’ll have a very simple monitoring system.

We say "simple" because AutoScreenShot isn’t exactly difficult to bypass. If anyone checks your startup programs, or Task Manager, they’ll find AutoScreenShot.exe, and browsing your screenshot folder will reveal exactly what it’s doing.

There are some technical irritations, too. If the program is running without a system tray icon, for instance, then you can’t access the Options dialog any more. To tweak any settings you have to manually edit its Options.ini file, or delete this and restart the process. This isn’t a critical issue -- there aren’t that many settings and you may never need to change any of them -- but it’s still annoying.

AutoScreenShot is also free and easy to use, though, and if you just want to monitor novice or non-technical users, or would like the screen grabs for some other reason, then the program may still be useful. Take a look.

Piriform has released CCleaner 4.01 and CCleaner Portable 4.01, a minor update to its popular Windows freeware system cleaning tool. Version 4.01 is the first release since version 4.0 split users into free and paid-for camps by restricting product features to Pro license holders only.

Most of version 4.01’s tweaks are available to both free and paid-for users, and revolve around improving existing tools and adding cleaning support to several new applications.

Improvements in CCleaner 4.01 revolve around better support for existing browsers: there’s improved cleaning for Google Chrome’s History along with better compatibility with Internet Explorer 10 and later builds of Firefox (version 19 and upward).

Windows 8 users should benefit from improved Registry cleaning thanks to an optimized cleaning algorithm, while both new tools introduced in version 4.0 – the Duplicate File Finder and Pro-only System and Browser Monitoring feature -- also gain unspecified enhancements and optimizations.

Application-specific cleaning has been further developed too: added in version 4.01 are support for Adobe Acrobat XI, VSO Blu-ray and DVD Converter Ultimate, Oxygen XML Editor 1.4 and Connectify Hotspot, while two tools already supported -- Mailwasher Pro and Google Earth -- both gain improved cleaning.

The update is rounded off with the usual minor tweaks and bug fixes. CCleaner 4.01.4093 and CCleaner Portable 4.01.4093 are both available as free-for-personal-use downloads for PCs running Windows XP or later. Pro licenses are currently available for $24.95, a saving of $8 on the MSRP.

Photo Credit: Liv friis-larsen/Shutterstock

Stardock Software has released ModernMix 1.05, the first major update to its paid-for Windows 8 tool for running full-screen apps in their own window within the confines of the Windows 8 desktop.

Version 1.05 adds background sound support for apps such as Netflix that don’t explicitly support it, meaning users don’t need to focus on the window in order to hear that app’s audio output. The new feature is joined by a preference that allows this support to be switched off if it’s not wanted.

Other changes include making it easier to configure individual app behavior via ModernMix’s own configuration screen. Users can now double-click or right-click an app’s entry under App settings to configure its default behaviour, from whether it opens full-screen (a new setting in version 1.05), minimised or windowed to creating a convenient shortcut to the app on the desktop itself.

Version 1.05 now initiates a “force create” action to ensure the desktop shortcut is created, even if the app has never previously been run. Sadly, on our test machine the desktop shortcuts failed to work, launching the ModernMix configuration screen rather than the app itself -- however, apps worked flawlessly using the App shortcuts found on our favoured Start button replacement tool, Classic Shell.

In addition, the App settings page now lists all installed Modern apps, while ModernMix now alerts users when first running the program to the top-right corner overlay, which allows users to switch between full-screen and windowed mode.

Bug fixes for version 1.05 include one that ignored ModernMix’s “Return to the Windows 8 menu” setting when apps were dragged to close them. Another resolution ensures all apps, not those that have been run at least once, are named up correctly in the App settings screen too.

A fix has also been implemented for Netflix playback when the windows is inactive on a secondary display, while the main code has been tweaked to detect if the app launch has been made from the Windows 8 menu or elsewhere to ensure ModernMix correctly implements whatever user-defined options have been set.

ModernMix 1.05 is available now as a free 30-day trial download for PCs running Windows 8 (an email address is required for activating the trial). The full version can be purchased for $4.99.

Burnaware Technologies has released BurnAware 6.2 Free and BurnAware 6.2 Premium, the latest builds of its free and paid-for disc burning products for Windows.

BurnAware 6.2 adds two new features to its roster: the first allows users to set individual priorities for any file or folder in the Compilation window -- simply right-click the item in question and select Properties. The default setting is Very Low, but can be cranked incrementally all the way up to Very High via the Priority dropdown menu.

The second new feature is the inclusion of a new dual-paned file manager into the main window, simplifying the task of browsing for and adding new content to the disc compilation.

Improvements include non-specified enhancements to the burning and copying process -- presumably linked in with the new priority setting. By default, the original date and time of files is preserved during the import process too -- users can change this setting to the compilation date or a custom file date via the Dates tab of the File > Options screen.

The method for adding and processing data has been modified, again with no specific details provided, while “Browse for Folder” dialog boxes have also been updated along with tweaks to the user interface and language translations.

A number of specific bugs have been fixed with this release too: the program should no longer lock while erasing rewritable discs, and compatibility issues with emulation software including Daemon Tools have also been resolved. The sector size of ISO files should also be correctly detected from version 6.2, and fixes for the incorrect timestamp of UDF compilation directories and problems detecting the source drive while direct copying have also been implemented.

BurnAware 6.2 Free is a freeware download for PCs running Windows XP or later. It supports disc burning, image creation and burning plus disc copying to images. Users wanting direct disc-to-disc copying, audio track extraction and file recovery capabilities should look at BurnAware 6.2 Premiuminstead, which costs $29.95. Also available is BurnAware 6.2 Professional, which costs $39.95 and also offers multi-burn support from ISO images.

 Photo Credit: Anneka/Shutterstock

The time has come to move on to a new PC, but before jettisoning your old computer, you need to make sure you’re ready for the big move. That means two key things: getting your data, programs and settings migrated across to your new computer, and making sure there’s nothing sensitive or incriminating left on your old PC before you dispose of it.

Thankfully, both tasks can be made simple with the help of two or three superb tools, all of which are heavily discounted in the Downloadcrew Software Store this month. Step forward Laplink PCmover Professional 8, O&O SafeErase Professional 6 and for those looking to migrate to Windows 8, O&O Migration Kit for Windows 8.

The first thing to worry about is getting everything across from your old PC to new. You might be thinking that Windows’ own Easy Transfer Tool is the best choice here, but it’s lacking in key areas, including the ability to migrate entire programs and settings across to your new computer.

This is where Laplink PCmover Professional 8 comes in. Whether you want it standalone or as part of the O&O Migration Kit, this is the go-to app for ensuring your migration is smooth, simple and comprehensive, so you don’t have to waste time digging out program installers and CDs, product keys and praying your settings get transferred across. Instead, simply choose what to migrate, and let Laplink PCmover do the rest.

If you’re simply upgrading your computer to Windows 8 -- or purchasing a new computer with Windows 8 installed -- then the O&O Migration Kit for Windows 8 is worth considering. In addition to Laplink PCmover you also get O&O DiskImage 6.8, which allows you to take a fail-safe drive image of your old setup before migrating to Windows 8. If you forget anything, or want to roll back, DiskImage makes it easy to do so.

Protect your data

Once you’ve successfully migrated, checked everything’s in place and settled into your new environment, it’s time to take steps to make sure any sensitive data -- whether state secrets, private financial information or a letter you never meant to send -- is thoroughly removed from your old PC before you pass it on. Even if you’re simply upgrading Windows on an existing PC it still pays to have the tools to hand to ensure personal and private data is securely wiped from your computer.

This is where O&O SafeErase Professional 6 comes in: not only can you use it to wipe entire hard drives and partitions -- perfect when disposing of old hard drives or PCs -- you can also use it to securely delete individual files and folders and wipe all your free drive space too, so previously deleted files get scrubbed from existence too. Everything’s handled from a friendly wizard -- you don’t need to create bootable media even when scrubbing entire computers -- and is an essential step in your migration process.

You’ll find all three tools available on sale for generous discounts at our Downloadcrew Software Store. There’s a generous 67 percent off a single-migration version of Laplink PCmover Professional 8, which now costs just $19.99, or you can purchase a three-migration license of the program for just $29.99, saving you 65 percent.

The O&O Migration Kit for Windows 8, which includes a single-migration license for Laplink PCmover Pro 8 as well as O&O DiskImage 6.8, is even better value at $19.95: an amazing saving of 67 percent on the MSRP. If you need to move more than one PC, then you can pick up the 3-migration license version of the O&O Migration Kit for just $24.95, saving you 50 percent on the MSRP.

Last, but not least, you can pick up a single-PC license for O&O SafeErase 6 Professional for just $12.95, a massive saving of 57 percent on its MSRP.

If you’re about to migrate to a new version of Windows or upgrade to a new PC, you owe it to yourself to at least check out these great deals: function-limited trial versions of Laplink PC Mover 8 Professional, O&O DiskImage 6.8.1 and O&O SafeErase 6 Professional are all available for you to try out before you purchase.

Photo credit: dny3d/Shutterstock

IObit has released Advanced SystemCare Free 6.2.0, a minor update to its freeware system optimization and maintenance tool. The program, which can be upgraded to a Pro version with enhanced malware protection, deeper cleansing and automatic optimization, offers PC users a wide range of tools for maintaining, cleaning, optimizing and securing their computer.

Version 6.2 is a minor maintenance release that promises improvements across many of the program’s individual components. It also promises better compatibility with Windows 8.

Version 6.2 offers better protection from online threats through improved Malware Removal and Surfing Protection tools. Also improved is the Pro-only Internet Boost tool, which can accelerate downloading, surfing, online gaming and video by up to 300 percent.

The Registry Fix and Toolbox tools have also been worked on with the promise of better stability as well as performance. Similarly improved is the AutoClean tool, which now promises smarter cleaning.

The final improvement is to the IObit Uninstaller component, which IObit claims is no more effective at removing unwanted components from the user’s PC, particularly browser toolbars.

The update builds on more radical changes introduced in version 6.1, which added the Action Center to alert users to specific issues, plus extended the cleaning tools to new versions of popular applications.

Advanced SystemCare Free 6.2.0.254 is available now as a freeware download for PCs running Windows XP or later, although not all available tools are Windows 8-compatible. Users can upgrade from the Free version to IObit Advanced SystemCare Pro by purchasing a license key. This single-PC, one-year license real-time malware protection, deeper cleansing and automatic optimization tools, and can be picked up for the bargain price of just $9,95 from the DownloadCrew Software Store, a saving of 50 percent on its MSRP.

Photo Credit: Alberto Zornetta/Shutterstock

Even when they appear idle, PCs are forever buzzing with background activity, as Windows and application processes save data to log files, tweak Registry keys and carry out assorted other updates. Normally this can be safely ignored, but sometimes -- if you think you’ve just installed malware, say, and would like to check what it’s done -- then you might wonder what’s changed on your system in the past few minutes.

And that’s where DiffView comes in. If you want to find out more about recent activities on your PC, then you’ll first need to tell DiffView where you’d like it to scan. Clicking the Files tab reveals an Explorer-type view where you can select particular folders – \Windows, say, or \Program Files – while the Registry tab allows you to select a particular area of the Registry.

Next, you’ll have to define how “recent” these changes might have been. Enter “5″ in the “Diff time” box, say, and the program will only look for items which have been created or modified in the last 5 minutes. (You can enter much higher figures here, but remember that there are legitimate background changes going on all the time, and the further back you go, the more these will clutter your finished report.)

With the configuration done, all you have to do is click “Scan files” or “Scan reg”, depending what you’re doing, and wait for the results. This can take a while if you’re scanning the entire Registry -- so you might want to tag an extra 5 minutes onto your “Diff time” figure to make up for that -- but be patient, it will finish eventually.

Once the process is complete, DiffView displays a tree view report of your system, instantly highlighting any recent additions changes in the areas you’ve specified.

And a Report button (scroll down in the “Common” box if you don’t see it) can even create a text report for reference later.

DiffView has its limitations. In particular, the program will only highlight new or modified files and Registry keys; it can’t warn you if something is deleted. And so if you want comprehensive real-time system monitoring, then you’ll still need to use something like Sysinternals Process Monitor.

DiffView can be very useful when you just need a quick ad-hoc check, though. And it’s also free, no adware annoyances, and a ridiculously small 71KB download, which works for us. On balance, the program will make an excellent addition to anyone’s troubleshooting toolkit, and you should go grab a copy immediately.

Photo Credit: Lighthunter/Shutterstock

If you regularly try out freeware tools then you’ll know many come bundled with annoying adware. This can use all kinds of dubious tactics to install itself on your PC, and getting rid of these irritations later can be a problem (even if you remove the core code, remnants usually remain to clutter your system).

Fortunately there are plenty of tools around to help clean up your PC -- and Junkware Removal Tool is just about the simplest we’ve ever seen.

The program arrives as a tiny (538KB) executable, no installation required, so it’s ready to go immediately. On launch it opens in a console window -- there’s no GUI here, no options or settings to consider -- and with the tap of a key it’ll start scanning your system.

This isn’t a particularly quick process, but then Junkware Removal Tool does do quite a thorough job, checking running processes, loaded modules, browsers, the Registry and more.

And it supports removing a reasonable number of products, too, at least for a product managed by a single developer. The Junkware Removal Tool names the following, as examples: Ask Toolbar; Babylon; Browser Manager; Claro / iSearch; Conduit; Coupon Printer for Windows; Crossrider; DealPly; Facemoods / Funmoods; iLivid; Iminent; IncrediBar; MyWebSearch; Searchqu; Web Assistant. (The program change log reveals support for several others, too.)

One issue we noticed is that the scanning process is rather more intrusive than you might expect from this kind of tool. It will close any open Explorer or browser windows, for instance, which can be annoying: to avoid problems, it’s best if you close these yourself before launching a scan.

You also get precisely no control at all over its final actions. Forget ideas of reviewing a final report, deciding to keep this, or remove that: Junkware Removal Tool simply deletes any remnants of its target products, and displays a text file showing you precisely what actions it’s taken.

This does make the program exceptionally easy to use, though. Just tap a single key to launch its scan, and there’s nothing else to do.

And in our tests Junkware Removal Tool also proved very effective, safely removing active adware from one system, and cleaning up the remnants still remaining on another.

The program still wouldn’t be our first choice for an adware remover; it just doesn’t support enough products, and we like to have more control over the removal process. But it’s capable enough that you should probably keep a copy around, just in case your first line tools fail and you need a little extra assistance.

Photo Credit: Stephen Finn/Shutterstock

Piriform has released Defraggler 2.14.705 and Defraggler Portable 2.14.705, a minor, but noteworthy, update of its freeware defragging tool that allows users to both defrag entire drives and individual files.

Version 2.14 adds support for UDF file systems, plus allows users to defrag their drive’s free space on a schedule while also improving its search tools and navigation.

Users can now schedule the Defraggler 2.14 to defrag a drive’s free space at set intervals: simply select Settings > Schedule, then enable a schedule for the selected drive and choose Freespace or Freespace (allow fragmentation) from the ‘Defrag type:’ dropdown menu.

Multiple drives can now be analysed with a single click too: simply select the drives from the top pane using the [Ctrl] or [Shift] keys, then click the Analyze button to perform an analysis on each drive in turn. The results for each drive can then browsed as normal by clicking the drive’s entry.

Defraggler 2.14 extends its file-system support to UDF, which is commonly found on rewritable CDs and DVDs – this complements existing support for FAT/FAT32, NTFS and exFAT file systems.

Defraggler’s Search tool allows users to target specific files for defragmenting -- the tool now implements better searching using wildcards. 64-bit Windows users should also find the shell extension options are improved too.

The GUI has been tweaked to provide better navigation, while a minor bug has been fixed in the monthly scheduler along with other non-specified minor improvements and bug fixes. Defraggler 2.14.705 and Defraggler Portable 2.14.705 are both available as freeware downloads for PCs running Windows XP or later.

Photo Credit: Sergey Mironov/Shutterstock

Every time you create, modify or access a folder on your PC, Windows records these details in the Registry. There’s nothing shady about this -- the action is a key part of recording your folder view settings, and maintaining a list of your favorite folders -- but it does introduce a privacy risk, as snoopers can use the data to track some of your PC activities.

Exactly how much information is exposed here will vary, but if you’re not already familiar with the issue then it makes sense to check your PC with the free ShellBag AnalyZer & Cleaner. There’s no adware, no installation required, just download and launch the program and in a few seconds you’ll have the full picture.

The initial report presents you with a simple table, listing each opened folder, its name, path, and last visit date. You can click any column header to sort by that field, too, so for instance clicking "Last visit" will show you the folders you’ve browsed in time order.

It’s surprising how much data can be available here. On one test PC, ShellBag AnalyZer & Cleaner found traces of over 5,000 folders opened, stretching back for years (although you can filter the report in various ways if you’d like to make it more manageable).

What’s more, this list also includes deleted folders. And so while you might think you’ve removed any trace of something sensitive by deleting the folder where it was stored, that’s not necessarily the case: dates and times when you opened that folder may still be visible here.

If you’re worried about any of this, though, clicking Clean will provide some possible solutions. The program can delete references to particular folder types, scramble dates and times, even securely overwriting this information so there’s no way it can be recovered later. (Which seems like overkill to us, but it’s good to have the option.)

It’s important to be careful about the options you select, however. If you delete the references to folders which still exist then you’ll lose their Explorer view settings, for instance -- perhaps not what you want. And ShellBag AnalyZer & Cleaner can also delete references to system folders, but says that’s "not recommended".

Neither of these options is selected by default, so don’t let that put you off using the program -- just be sure to pay attention when you’re exploring what it can do.

Photo Credit: Brian A Jackson

Piriform, Inc has released CCleaner for Mac 1.07.233, a minor refresh of its Mac freeware cleaning tool. Modelled closely on CCleaner 4.0 for Windows, version 1.07 sports the same refreshed program icons and interface tweaks as found in the latest Windows build, but also sports a number of new and improved features.

Notable improvements in this new release include better compatibility with OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and better cleaning speeds when running in the latest version of OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion).

CCleaner for Mac 1.07.233 also promises improved cleaning of Safari items -- currently the program supports cleaning the cache, history, cookies and download history. Cookie management has also been improved -- users can individually select which cookies to delete and keep via the Options > Cookies section of the program.

The update is rounded off with minor GUI improvements and a number of unspecified bug fixes, and adds an in-app upgrade path for those wishing to purchase the Pro version -- select CCleaner > About CCleaner to do so.

CCleaner 1.07 builds on improvements from the last release, which included faster cleaning of the Google Chrome cache, improved memory management in OS X 10.8 and the addition of a check for updates tool.

CCleaner for Mac 1.07.233 is available now as a freeware download for Macs running OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or later. Also available are CCleaner 4.0 and CCleaner Portable 4.0 for Windows, along with third-party tool CCEnhancer 3.7, which extends the Windows tool’s cleaning capabilities to over 900 programs.

Photo Credit: Goydenko Tatiana/Shutterstock

Anonymous proxies can be a very useful privacy tool, hiding your IP address from websites, and perhaps allowing you to bypass local restrictions on the websites and pages you can visit.

The technology can also be complicated, interfering with your regular network settings, and drastically cutting your online performance, of course. But Freegate proves that it doesn’t have to be that way.

The program is a compact 2.75MB download, for example, with no installation required, no extra network layers to cause other issues: close Freegate down and your system will be back to normal.

It’s simple to use, too. After a one-time opening screen, where it asks whether you’d like to use its own servers or restricted Chinese offerings (it’s developed for use in China, though works well elsewhere, too), Freegate quickly finds a few servers and redirects your web traffic through them.

Once its working, the program will then open a browser window at a Chinese-language site, but otherwise there’s no adware or ads to worry about (and even that initial browser launch can be turned off in the settings).

And there are one or two configuration options which might be handy, too, like the ability to delete your IE history when Freegate closes (there’s no support for other browsers, though, unfortunately).

Performance during our tests wasn’t bad. Inevitably, there are some issues; pages might take longer to load than expected, and a few would freeze occasionally. But overall it worked well.

If you want an easy way to bypass some IP-related restriction on your general browsing, then, Freegate is ideal. It’s small, simple and won’t get in your way.

But as with most similar free tools, there’s no way to tell how secure your traffic really is. And so if you want to do anything sensitive -- shopping, online banking and so on -- then we’d recommend you close it down to restore your normal network settings, first.

Photo Credit: Slavoljub Pantelic/Shutterstock

The PC world is packed with supposed performance-boosting suites, most of which are almost exactly the same. You’ll have a program to list your Startup programs, another one to delete your temporary internet files, a few system tweaking options – all very predictable (and, usually, not even that effective).

The news that Synei are introducing a very similar range of free tools -- a disk cleaner, services optimiser, startup manager and more -- probably won’t fill you with excitement, then. But wait: while the tools are far from perfect, there’s more than enough functionality here to make them very interesting.

Take Synei Service Manager, for instance. Optimizing your PC services is a complex business, and even the most experienced user will need a little help occasionally. Just launch Synei Service Manager and the program will quickly recommend which services you should tweak, either to improve performance or restore your default settings.

And it’s a similar story with Synei’s Startup Manager. The program doesn’t just list your startup programs and leave you to decide what to do next; it can compare them with a database of 16,000 items, immediately highlighting anything it believes is unnecessary.

The Disk Cleaner is even better, helping you scan your hard drive for all the usual leftovers (browser histories, redundant system and application files). We’ve seen this many times before, but Disk Cleaner is unusual in that it actually freed up more space than CCleaner on our test system. And that’s before we ran its Deep Cleaner, an extra tool which searches for leftover files by extension (*.TMP, *.OLD and so on).

And Synei System Utilities makes each of these tools available from a single interface, as well as adding some extras (a simple backup module, a documentation-free Windows tweaker, and graphical front ends for Windows defrag and chkdsk). It’s nothing too special, but the program does include a scheduler which allows you to run any of its tools unattended, and that could be useful.

Synei’s tools do have a few problems. The startup program and service suggestions they make aren’t always good, for instance, and that means the utilities really aren’t for beginners. You’ll need to review the recommendations they make very carefully before accepting any changes.

If you just take any advice as a starting point, though, tools like Service Manager and Startup Manager could be very helpful. The Disk Cleaner is a particular highlight. And, best of all, Synei’s programs are particularly convenient to use: they’re tiny (the entire suite is under 5MB in size), adware free, portable, and run happily on anything from Windows XP through to 8.

We would still treat the programs with extreme caution. They’re new, and will have bugs -- don’t run them anywhere that doesn’t have a full system backup to hand.

But, if you’re looking for some small and simple maintenance tools then Synei’s collection shows promise, and we’ll be interested to see where the company takes them next.

Photo Credit:  Denis Davydov/Shutterstock

If you find Finder frustratingly limited, then you’ll be in the market for a replacement/enhancement tool. There are plenty of paid-for Finder enhancements out there, but over the past year or so they’ve been increasingly put to the shade by a fabulous, and rapidly developing, free tool called XtraFinder 0.16.1.

We’ve been checking back occasionally to see how XtraFinder is developing, and with version 0.16.1 now out, there have been a staggering 20 updates since we last looked at it back in September, so we thought it was the perfect time to bring you up to speed.

At its heart, XtraFinder adds two key tools to Finder windows to instantly make them more appealing: tabs and dual-panel windows. This makes it easy to browse multiple folders without opening a chaotic mess of separate windows, while dual-paned windows simplify the task of moving or copying files between two locations.

Since version 0.8.4 was released, the app has continued to add features and improve stability at a frightening pace – we use it daily on our Mac in preference to Finder itself, and have rarely run into problems with it. If you’ve held off installing XtraFinder since our last report, here are some of the new features that may tempt you to finally give it a whirl.

The tabs feature has improved significantly – not only is dragging the tab’s actual icon now supported, but you can also drop files on a tab to move them to its location. When in dual-panel mode, you can opt to show just one Sidebar to free up screen real-estate, plus middle-clicking on a Sidebar shortcut opens that location in its own tab. It’s also now possible to reopen closed tabs and even the Finder window itself.

You can also customise the tabs themselves: a new Opera option sits alongside the default Google Chrome look, while a narrow tabs option displays the tabs alongside the close/maximise/hide buttons rather than beneath them.

A number of new shortcuts have been added to the Finder menus: open a new Terminal (or iTerm/XTerm) window to the current location, hide the desktop and create a symbolic link. Another option allows users to customise the New File templates, while the Refresh option for refreshing a window’s contents can now be evoked from the context menu.

Other options include being able to have the Name column adjust automatically depending on contents, plus you can opt to add XtraFinder’s own functions to the toolbar and restore the colourful Sidebar icons to Lion and Mountain Lion. You can even customise the background and text colour of the Finder window itself.

Thankfully, despite the ever-increasing feature list, Trank Ny Am Software is sensible enough to make sure they’re all optional, so you can pick choose exactly which bits of XtraFinder you want, ensuring it works to your specifications and not the other way round.

XtraFinder 0.16.1 is available now as a freeware download for Macs running OS X 10.6 or later.

Photo Credit: Kachan Eduard/Shutterstock

What’s the one thing that is missing from Windows Explorer? Actually, there’s probably more than just one thing missing, but what is the most obvious? Tabs. They are now so ubiquitous in web browsers that it’s unlikely you give them a second thought; they’re just there and you use them. Why should your file browser be any different? This is an anomaly that the developers of Clover felt had to be put right with the latest release.

Aside from the addition of tabs to Explorer -- which means that it is possible to deal with multiple folders in a single window -- there are a number of other changes in this latest released. For anyone concerned with aesthetics, support for themes means that the look of the program can be completely changed.

But there are more important changes that are worth noting. To allow for easier navigation of files, new methods of interaction have been added. The folder bookmarking system has been updated so that by middle-clicking on a bookmark it is possible to load a folder in a foreground tab, and bookmarks can now be exported and imported.

This is a handy option to have available if you use Clover on more than one machine, but it also serves as a useful backup mechanism.

Another navigation option allows a double click to be used to skip up a directory level. Forget seeking out the Up button, now you can simply double click in an area of white space to jump to the parent of the current folder.

Clover stands apart from many of the tools that are used to enhance Explorer in that it does not try to go too far. It focuses on doing a small number of things and doing them well.

You can find out more and download the latest version at the Clover review page.

Photo Credit: Milena_Bo/Shutterstock

Saving a document as a PDF generally produces a very small file, which is one reason the format is such a popular way to share information.

This isn’t always the case, though. And so if it’s important your documents are as compact as they can possibly be, then you might like to try shrinking them even further, with a little help from the free (for personal and non-commercial use) ORPALIS PDF Reducer Free.

The process starts by specifying your source file, and its destination folder. Sounds straightforward enough, right? But you need to be careful.

The issue here is that ORPALIS PDF Reducer allows you to specify the same folder for your source and destination, but it doesn’t support overwriting the source file. So if you try this, you’ll find the program makes you wait for the entire compression process (that’s anything up to 50 minutes in our tests), before failing with a "can’t overwrite the document" error message. Which is just a little annoying.

Once you understand the problem, though, ORPALIS PDF Reducer is straightforward enough to use, if rather slow in processing our files. And while we found a few documents weren’t cut in size at all, others shrank by anything up to a spectacular 80% (although that kind of higher level did usually involve some level of quality loss).

The technology behind this isn’t too complicated: essentially it involves recompressing document images with a new quality and DPI setting, while removing form fields, annotations, bookmarks, embedded files and more. Although if you have issues with any of this, the Settings dialog allows you to define exactly what you’d like the program to do.

What’s more, the Settings dialog also apparently includes an option to allow for batch processing (General > Input Mode > Folder Selection). This didn’t work consistently for us, though -- sometimes the files were compressed correctly, on other occasions the program seemed to be using the wrong folder path -- so if you enable this, test the program carefully to make sure it’s working as you expect.

Should you try ORPALIS PDF Reducer Free, then? There is definitely some sloppy programming here, and PDF Compressor, which we looked at last year, seems far more professional (and faster, too).

Still, if you test ORPALIS PDF Reducer Free with a few small files, first, then you’ll soon learn how it works.The program provides a good level of control over how your PDFs will be compressed, and the end result is often a significant reduction in file sizes. Give it a try, see how it works for you.

Photo Credit: Arkady/Shutterstock

If you’re working on some important PC task and want to avoid distractions, then maximizing your program window is usually a good place to start. But if you need to monitor several programs -- or the window just can’t be maximized -- then Le Dimmer may offer a more interesting approach.

The program is tiny, portable, and has just a single task: after launching, it dims everything on your desktop apart from the current window.

The effect can be quite restful on the eyes, depending on your applications, with all the usual brightness reduced by a considerable degree. (Although if you run a program with a white background then the contrast becomes greater, so it won’t work for everyone.)

It all runs entirely automatically, too. There’s nothing to do, no complex interface to navigate, the program just works. All you have to remember is to right-click the system tray and select "Quit" if you decide you don’t need the effect any more, and want to resume normal operations.

If you do need more control, though, there is a useful command line switch available. Pass the program a number between 0 and 255 ("LeDimmer.exe 150") and you’re setting the "Dim factor". 150 is the default; increasing this will darken the dimmed part of the screen even further, while reducing the value will brighten it. (Check the program’s ReadMe.txt for details.)

Le Dimmer isn’t quite bullet-proof. We changed our screen resolution while running the program, and not only did it not notice, but after a few clicks it also managed to crash Explorer. Oops.

Still, no data was lost, even with this extreme test. The rest of the time, Le Dimmer worked just fine. And if you’re looking for a way to focus your attention on one task, while not entirely losing track of some others, then the program could prove very useful.

Photo Credit: kentoh/Shutterstock

Keyboard task switching under Windows normally means repeatedly pressing Alt+Tab or Win+Tab, cycling through your running applications until you find what you need. But this is a more direct way. If you see you required program is, say, the 7th button on the taskbar, then pressing Win+7 will launch it directly.

When your taskbar is cluttered then of course it may take a moment to figure out exactly which number any particular button might be. But that’s where the free 7+ Taskbar Numberer comes in. The program can add number overlays to each of your taskbar buttons, helping you identify them at a glance.

If this is sounding familiar, then you’re right, we covered the first version of the program last year. But the latest build has two interesting improvements.

First, it introduces an option to hide the numbers until the Windows key is pressed. If you didn’t like the number overlays then this may appeal, as normally your taskbar will look just as it always did.

(Unfortunately the numbers will also reappear whenever you press the Windows key for some other reason -- Win+R to open the Run box, say -- which can be distracting, but on balance we think it’s a useful addition.)

And second, 7+ Taskbar Numberer is now fully compatible with Windows 8, which may help you launch regular Windows programs from the Start screen.

If you’re at the desktop, say, having 7+ Taskbar Numberer will help you see that Firefox is, perhaps, button 9 on the taskbar. If you later want to return to Firefox from the Start Screen, there’s no need to use Alt+Tab, or click the desktop tile, then the Firefox taskbar button: just press Win+9 and the browser will reappear immediately. (Win+number is a standard task switching hotkey, of course, but 7+ Taskbar Numberer just makes it a little easier to use.)

One small down side here is that getting 7+ Taskbar Numberer set up and working as you’d like still requires a little work. There’s no automated setup, so you’ll need to save the program somewhere safe, set up a shortcut, give it the correct command line arguments, and so on.

It’s not difficult, though – the program’s readme.html file has everything you need -- and on balance7+ Taskbar Numberer makes it notably easier to switch to and launch running and pinned applications.

Photo Credit: Liv friis-larsen/Shutterstock

Although the decentralized digital currency first appeared in 2009, Bitcoin’s popularity has really taken off in recent weeks and the value of the coins has skyrocketed since January. The world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, currently has the currency listed as being worth $209 per coin.

Although you can purchase bitcoins, the real way to get your hands on some is to mine for them using a computer. The process involves solving a complex mathematical algorithm and it becomes harder to find blocks of bitcoins as time goes on because there’s only a set number of them in the system (the total number of bitcoins in existence will never exceed 21 million).

Anyone can mine for bitcoins, although attempting to find coins on your own is now very difficult because so many people have jumped onboard the digital gold rush in recent weeks. Check out the Bitcoin mining profitability calculator to see the average generation time for a solo block.

You can however, increase your chances of making money by joining forces with others and mining in a pool.

The trouble is, although it seems everyone is talking about Bitcoin at the moment, understanding what it is, and how to get started may seem a bit confusing to first timers. I’d recommend you read this article on Business Insider, browse the official FAQ and watch this excellent video from Duncan Elms which will tell you everything you need to know about the digital currency.

To join in on the Bitcoin craze you’ll need a wallet, and a miner. Launch GUIMiner and go to File, New Miner. Choose the type you want, and then give your miner a name. Select a server and go to the website to create an account and then create a worker or copy the details of the one created for you. Log into GUIMiner using the worker details, and then click the Start Mining button.

50Miner is also very good.

Are you a bitcoin miner? And if so what has your experience been like? Have you made any real money from it?

Photo credit: ppart/Shutterstock

Adobe has refreshed its cross-platform web media playback and runtime tools with the release of Adobe Flash Player for Other Browsers 11.7, Adobe Flash Player for Internet Explorer 11.7 and Adobe AIR 3.7.0.

There’s only one notable change to report in this first stable release of Flash Player 11.7: enhancements to the sandboxing features that allow it to better address application launches in protected mode.

During the beta testing phase for this release, Adobe warned developers that there could be backwards-compatibility issues as a result of some of the security updates. These should have been resolved in most cases, but be prepared for sites to stop functioning correctly in isolated cases.

With this release out of the way, Adobe has announced its next major feature will be a new patch update mechanism that it claims will reduce the size of future updates by around 75 per cent. This is currently undergoing testing in the beta channel, and should appear in a future update of Flash Player 11.7. Other unspecified new features are also planned.

Adobe AIR 3.7 also introduces a number of new iOS-focused features for developers. The first is a new static ‘preventBackup’ property, which prevents local shared object data from being backed up to iCloud. This property is required to comply with recently updated Apple guidelines.

Also added is the <forceCPURenderModeForDevices> tag that will allow AIR iOS applications to perform on lower end iPads and iPods where memory issues may occur when using GPU render mode. The final iOS-themed development is the addition of an option for developers to host secondary SWF files such as game assets or new levels on an external server, loading them on demand and helping to keep the size of the parent app down.

Android developers also gain a new feature: captive runtime debugging capability, which allows them to both create and debug captive apps. Finally, the Actionscript Compiler 2.0 has now been integrated into the AIR SDK 3.7, and is no longer available as a separate download.

Adobe Flash Player for Other Browsers 11.7.700.169 and Adobe AIR 3.7.0 are both available now as a freeware downloads for Windows and Mac. Also available is Adobe Flash Player for Internet Explorer 11.7.700.169 for PCs running Windows 7 or earlier (Windows 8 users are delivered updates through the OS).

Task Manager, Regedit and Explorer are fine for basic Windows troubleshooting, but if your system is having real problems, or you’re trying to manually remove a virus, say, then stronger medicine will be required.

And it would be difficult to find anything quite as strong as PC Hunter.

At first glance the program seems much like many similar system information tools. There’s a tab listing your running processes, for instance. A second covers your Windows startup programs, while others detail your Windows services, file associations,

Look a little closer, though, and you’ll find many tabs have several sections. So “Startup Info” lists services and scheduled tags along with the regular startup programs, while the “Network” tab covers open network connections, IE plugins, HOSTS file, and more.

There are also many sections aimed squarely at experts: Ring 0 hooks, Ring 3 hooks, filter drivers, DPC timers, HAL callbacks, file system filters and callbacks and a whole lot more. (Fortunately you don’t have to explore any of those unless you really want to.)

PC Hunter has built-in file and Registry browsers, too. And that could very useful if, say, a virus has disabled Regedit, or Explorer is unstable and won’t work properly.

And most important of all, PC Hunter isn’t just producing static text reports. It can also carry out useful functions on the various objects it identifies.

For example, if you’re having malware problems then you might want to delete several programs at once. No problem: click Process, select the offending items, right-click one of them, and there are options to kill all the processes, “force kill” if they’re stubborn, even delete the process executable after it’s been terminated.

If you’re the technical type then there are all sorts of powerful tools at your disposal. You don’t only get to view suspect system hooks, for instance – the program can even run a disassembler at the relevant address to get a clearer look at what’s happening.

But again, you don’t have to explore these technicalities, and the program has plenty of more straightforward options available. So if you’re wondering which processes have a particular file open, for instance, just click File, right-click the file and select “View Handle” for a list. While other right-click options allow you to search for a file online, upload it to check for malware, verify its process signature, repair a file association, delete a user account and more.

One issue we did notice here was a performance lag in some windows. Expand a folder tree in the File browser, for instance, and there was a noticeable delay. And this can lead to some initial confusion if you click something, see there’s no instant response and click it again. But you’ll figure it out within a few minutes.

There are some minor interface irritations. The File Handles window opens at too small a size, for instance, and it can’t be resized, only maximised. Not a big deal at all, but it is annoying.

And the layout of the program as a whole means it’s not quite as comfortable to use as, say, Process Hacker or Process Explorer. If you just need an expanded Task Manager then they’re still your best option.

PC Hunter is still an excellent tool, though, packed with functionality, and if you’re ever likely to go hunting malware manually then you need a copy to hand. Give it a try.

Photo Credit: cbeniel/Shutterstock

Patch Tuesday is almost upon us yet again. As is its custom, Microsoft has released a monthly Advance Security Bulletin to let customers know what to expect next week. There are nine bulletins headed our way on April 9, with two of them being considered critical.

Per standard procedures, Microsoft does not release details of the patches until the updates are actually live. This is done in an effort to prevent the bad guys from knowing the vulnerabilities and attempting to take advantage of them  between now and the update release. There is, however, nothing to protect those users who fail to install Windows updates in a timely fashion.

This time around fixes are coming for all versions of Internet Explorer going back to IE 6 (please tell me you are not still running that). The updates will also cover Infopath 2010, Sharepoint Server 2010, Sharepoint Server 2013, Sharepoint Foundation 2010, Office Web Apps, Windows Defender, Windows operating system versions XP, 7, 8 and RT and Windows Server 2003, 2008 and 2012.

This pretty much covers everything except Windows Home Server, so all of you can expect an update and reboot to be coming your way next week.

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It’s no secret that Windows 8 has seen some controversial changes, in particular the removal of the Start menu. But with all the focus on these larger issues, you might have missed some smaller, but also significant design decisions. Like, for example, that there’s no longer any desktop alert when Windows updates are available.

There is a new alert on the logon screen, of course. And you can always set up Windows to install updates automatically. But, if you don’t reboot often (or you bypass the logon screen), and you want to keep tighter control over your updates, then you’ll need to look elsewhere for a little extra assistance. And Windows Update Notifier is the perfect candidate.

The program is very lightweight, for instance, arriving in the form of a 90KB download.

And it keeps any hassles to a minimum. So on first launch, you won’t see a splash screen, or a wizard, or a settings dialog, or anything at all. The program will just take a few seconds to scan for updates; a desktop alert then lets you know if you’re missing something, and clicking this opens the regular Windows Update window, ready for installation.

Windows Update Notifier is so unobtrusive, in fact, that it won’t even set itself up to run when Windows starts. If you’d like to change this, call up the program’s settings box (right-click its system tray icon, select “Settings”) and check the relevant box.

The options dialog also allows you to decide how often the program will check for updates. By default this is every 60 minutes, but the process isn’t always quick, so you might want to increase the interval a little.

And if you’re using Windows Defender then the program also has an option to install Defender updates automatically. You’ll have to set up Windows Update Notifier to run as an administrator for this to work, but there are instructions on how to set everything up, if you need them.

On balance, dropping the alert seems like another Windows 8 oddity. Changing default behaviour is one thing, but why remove the option entirely? Still, if you care about the issue then Windows Update Notifier does at least make it easy to resolve. Just grab a copy and normal service will be restored within seconds.

If you’d like to download a YouTube video then there are plenty of options available, from web services like KeepVid to dedicated tools like Free YouTube Download.

Capturing streaming videos from other sites can be a challenge, though, as their URLs are often concealed by scripts and similar tricks. Examining the page source will sometimes give you clues, but URL Snooper could be a simpler option: the program just watches your internet activity, and displays a list of any streaming URLs it finds.

Getting started with URL Snooper is surprisingly easy. It’s a small (3MB) download, and portable, so there’s no installation required. And while the program uses WinPcap to capture your network traffic, there’s no need to install that, either -- simply launch the program and you’re ready to go.

URL Snooper will first present a very simple interface, just an empty table. But to see it in action, open a site which streams video (not YouTube, it’s not compatible), play a clip, and any URLs detected by the program will be displayed right away.

Does it work? Our results were a little mixed. We had no luck with Facebook, for instance, but the program detected rtmp:// URLs at Metacafe, and found addresses from simpler sites -- Apple Trailers, say -- without any problems at all.

If you’re not successful immediately, though, URL Snooper does have some extra options which can help. Click File > Advanced and you’re able to filter detected URLs by protocol or keyword, for instance.

And in particular, if you select "Show All" in the Protocol Filter box then the program displays every URL it’s detected, whether it’s related to streaming media or not (images, icons, ad servers -- it even detected and displayed the URL of our antivirus tool’s streaming update file). This makes URL Snooper useful in many more situations, so we’d recommend you keep a copy to hand, just in case you ever need a better understanding of how your internet connection is being used.

Photo Credit: Yuriy Boyko/Shutterstock

Established UK developer Xara has released Xara Web Designer 9 and Xara Web Designer Premium 9, the latest builds of its popular web design package for Windows. Version 9 automatically supports the creation of HiDPi/Retina-compatible websites (Premium only), updates support for HTML5 and CSS3 standards and adds a dedicated 64-bit build for 64-bit systems with more than 4GB RAM installed.

Improved HTML5 and CSS3 compatibility has a number of benefits for Xara developers, most notably more efficient and faster loading websites. This is due to the fact many page elements that were previously converted into images can now be rendered natively in HTML5. These include rectangles -- simple, rounded and skewed, box shadows, text with drop shadows and various page backgrounds.

Another side-benefit of this improvement is that HTML5-rendered elements are fully scalable and resolution independent, making them automatically compatible with higher-resolution Retina and HiDPi displays. Other page elements not natively supported, such as feathered objects, are still exported as images.

Web Designer 9 Premium also includes other tools to improve compatibility with Retina/HiDPi screens, such as automatically creating high-res photos and web graphics for "smart" web pages that display the correct resolution according to the browser being used.

Xara Web Designer 9 also includes improved font embedding, with the Premium build supporting the use of Google fonts, a growing free and open-source collection numbering over 600, for websites.

Also added to version 9 are improved re-coloring of clipart and vector-based artwork, extended support for automatically positioning and resizing objects when changes are made, easier Web presentation creation and drag-and-drop Navbar replacement support.

In addition, 20 new website themes and a number of new widgets have also been added to Web Designer 9.

Xara Web Designer 9.0.0, Xara Web Designer Premium 9.0.0 and Xara Web Designer Premium 9.0.0 (64-bit) are all available as trial downloads for PCs running Windows XP or later. Web Designer 9 is a cut-down entry level version aimed at beginners and retails for $49.99; Web Designer Premium 9 has a MSRP of $89.99 and is aimed at experienced and professional web developers looking for additional web authoring and publishing tools, as well as more sophisticated graphics tools and additional galleries.

Malwarebytes has unveiled its new Secure Backup product, an online service created in conjunction with SOS Online Backup, which automatically scans your files before they’re uploaded to the cloud. This ensures that, if you’re ever hit by a virus, you’ll know you can restore a backup without any danger of reinfection. And if you want to share a file with others, then, again, you can all be confident that it’s clean.

The current Secure Backup download is a beta offering 5GB of online storage, which will expire after 14 days. If you like the idea and decide to upgrade, though, there are 100GB ($59.95 per year), 200GB ($119.95) or 500GB ($299.95) packages available.

The backup client is simple and easy to use. It automatically scans for documents, pictures, music or videos on your system, and can upload those in a click or two. But if you need more control, there’s also an option to select whatever individual files and folders you’d like to protect.

Backups may then be scheduled to run at intervals of anything from an hour to a month, with an option to receive email reports whenever a backup job ends.

A Secure Backup console provides some useful configuration settings, including include and exclude settings. (No option to limit bandwidth use, though, which we always like to see in online backup tools.)

And there’s also a web portal which allows you to access and restore your files from anywhere, as well as share particular files or folders with others.

How useful might this service be? In an ideal world your PC would be set up to detect malware as soon as it arrived, not just before you’re despatching it elsewhere.

In practice, though, it’s not uncommon common for people to reinfect their systems via backups, so having this second layer of protection certainly isn’t a bad thing.

And if you regularly share files with others, then using Secure Backup should reassure everyone that their downloads are clean.

We’ll need to run more intensive tests to see how Malwarebytes Secure Backup performs as a backup tool, then, but in principle this could be a useful service. If you’d like to try it for yourself then a 14-day trial version is available now, but keep in mind that it is still flagged as a beta: don’t rely on it as your sole backup program just yet.

Photo Credit: Sergey150770/Shutterstock

NirSoft’s prolific Nir Sofer has announced his latest release,NetConnectChoose. And it’s a tiny tool which displays all your active internet connections, and allows you to choose one that Windows should use by default.

But if that doesn’t sound relevant to you, don’t worry: despite the program being as compact as ever (a 60.6KB download, including the Help file), Softer has still managed to cram in some useful extra functionality, and NetConnectChoose will also display a host of statistics on every connection it finds.

Browse the table and you’ll find your network adaptor’s MAC address, for instance. The length of time the connection has been running. Its current send and receive data speeds; the number of bytes and packets sent and received; your IP address, default gateway, name servers and DHCP server; your MTU setting, interface speed and more.

This information isn’t just static text, either. Leave the program open while you start a download, say, and you can watch as the “received data speed” (and other figures) update in real time.

Unusually for NirSoft tools, NetConnectChoose can be accessed from a system tray icon, allowing you to view this data -- or change your default internet connection – in a couple of clicks.

And if you need to refer to the connection details later, they can be saved as a report in various formats (TXT, CSV, HTML and more).

Sofer reports that NetConnectChoose does have one significant issue. If you use it to change the default internet connection on a Windows XP system, then all existing TCP connections will stop working. That’s obviously going to be a little annoying, if, say, you’re half way through some bulky download, so use the program with care.

NetConnectChoose doesn’t have the same problem on Windows Vista, 7 or 8, though, where it works very well. The connection statistics it displays can be useful, too, and on balance it probably deserves a place in your troubleshooting toolkit.

Photo Credit: Sergej Khakimullin/Shutterstock

Piriform has released Recuva 1.46 and Recuva Portable 1.46, brand new versions of its free data recovery tool for Windows PCs. Recuva can restore both lost and deleted files from a wide variety of devices attached to the user’s PC, including hard drives, camera memory cards and MP3 players.

Version 1.46 contains one notable new feature -- an option to scan folders for deleted items via the Windows Explorer context menu. It also promises better scanning of exFAT and FAT32 drives along with other minor tweaks and improvements.

The new folder scan feature is only available in the main Recuva build -- it’s not accessible via the portable version. The option is added to the program installer and selected by default -- if left in place, users gain the ability to browse to a folder in Explorer, then right-click it and choose "Scan this folder for deleted files". Recuva will then perform a quick scan and display the results of its search, allowing users to quickly recover files from known locations.

Recuva 1.46 also promised an improved deep scan tool for exFAT and FAT-formatted drives. It also adds new file extensions to the available filters (pictures, music, video, documents, compressed and emails).

The latest build also promises improved scan statistic accuracy, better usability of the folder browser and improved uninstallation of menu items when the program is removed. A minor bug in the secure overwrite tool for exFAT file systems has been fixed, and the update is rounded off by subtle tweaks to the recovery wizard and user interface.

Recuva 1.46 and Recuva Portable 1.46 are both available as a freeware downloads for PCs running Windows 2000 or later. Professional and Business editions are also available.

Photo Credit: Amy Walters /Shutterstock

If you like to keep your backups simple then image-based solutions have an obvious attraction. There’s no need to spend an age figuring out what to protect, and then change your settings regularly to suit some new application: you just back up everything, and so can always be sure you’re fully protected.

Don’t rule out file-based backups just yet, though. Genie Timeline Professional 2013 can be set up in just a few clicks; runs regularly to protect even your most recent files; keeps multiple versions of a document, allowing you to restore whatever you need; and that’s just the start.

Launch the program and the focus on ease of use is immediately apparent. There’s no need to browse to, or create a folder to hold your backups, for instance – just choose a drive (internal, external or network), and Timeline Professional 2013 will take care of everything else.

Deciding what to back up doesn’t have to be any more difficult. The program provides 13 tiles representing different types of files -- “Pictures”, “Office Files”, “Email”, “Music” and so on -- and all you have to do is check a box for each category you’d like to protect. (You may not even have to do that, as the most common options are checked by default.)

You don’t even have to schedule your backups, as the program will by default select different backup intervals for your files, depending on their type and size. And even the “advanced” options, encryption and compression, can be enabled with just a click.

This doesn’t always work quite as smoothly as you might hope. Checking a tile like “Pictures”, for instance, won’t necessarily protect all your images – only the formats the program recognises (bmp; jpg; jpeg; jpe; gif; tif; tiff; png; raw; dng; nef; cr2). You could edit this list to, say, add support for PSD files, but then you’ll have to know all the formats you might use, and suddenly the program isn’t quite so beginner-friendly any more.

Other backup categories have their limitations, too. The Email option only supports Microsoft tools, for instance (Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail), while you can save the bookmarks for the top browsers, but nothing more (the ability to save profiles would be very useful).

Still, if you want more control then clicking the “My Computer” tab displays a familiar Explorer-type screen, where you can manually select whatever files and folders you’d like to protect.

And there’s a new “Filter my selections” option which allows you to define file types which you’d like to include or exclude from the backup. So if you want to add support for, say, PSD, OGG and TS files (none of which are covered by the default selections) then filters allow you to do it in one place.

Arguably, having to do this at all makes Genie Timeline Professional 2013 much like any other backup tool. Still, at least you only have to set it up once, then you can sit back and leave the program to do its work, while you get on with more important things. (And we do mean “leave”: install the iPhone or iPad app and you can monitor your backup status wherever you are.)

Recovery

Disaster has struck, and you need to recover some files? There are several ways to go about it.

If the file still exists but you’d like to recover an earlier version, right-clicking it in Explorer and selecting “Show Versions” will display your options, and you can restore an older copy with a click.

The program also adds a Timeline Explorer view to Explorer. Choose a backup time and you’re able to browse everything it contains, restoring individual files as required. (These Explorer integrations can be disabled if you don’t want other users to have access to them.)

Genie Timeline Professional 2013 has an “Advanced Restore” option with even more powers. Again, choose a backup time and you can browse everything included in that job. There are sometimes so many files that it’s hard to find what you need, but this version now includes a filter where you can choose to see only deleted or new files, for instance, making your browsing a little more manageable.

“Advanced Restore” is further improved this time with the addition of a search box. If you’re looking for a specific file there’s no need to browse for it, just enter a part of the name and you’ll be presented with all available matches (including previous versions) and again you can restore individual files with a click.

Another option is simply to manually switch to your backup drive, where your files are available in their original folder structure (our fourth backup job stored test desktop files at D:\_Genie Timeline(4)\0\C\Users\Mike\Desktop, for instance).

And if you’d enabled Disaster Recovery, and prepared by burning a disaster recovery disc (available as a separate download for Genie Timeline Professional 2013 owners), then this may be able to help you get a broken PC working again by restoring your system folders. Boot from the recovery disc and a simple wizard walks you through the process.

There are some problems here. If you’ve chosen to encrypt your backups, for instance, you may not be pleased to find that all your file and folder names are still visible to anyone with access to the destination folder.

And restoration isn’t always as straightforward as you might like. If you’re at the Timeline Explorer, say, you can right-click and restore individual files, but not several files or folders in a single operation. And the new Search option locates files, not folders, and again only allows you to restore one at a time. (Recovering folders and multiple files is available via Advanced Restore, but that’s not always as convenient to use.)

For the most part, though, the process works very well. There are plenty of recovery methods, and once you understand how the program works, the most common situations -- restoring an individual file or one or more folders -- can be completed quickly and easily.

Settings and Options

As we’ve seen, Genie Timeline Professional 2013 is fine for simple applications, but what if you need a little more power?

One issue is the program’s inability to maintain more than one backup job. In an ideal world you might want one job to back up your documents every few minutes, say, while another saves your emails every day, and a third protects your downloads every week. But here there’s just one backup job, and if you want to do something differently then you’ll have to change its settings. Every single time.

Scheduling is at least reasonably flexible, though. If you don’t want to allow the program to decide, you can have backups run at regular intervals from 3 minutes to 24 hours, or on a weekly schedule.

Disaster Recovery backups provide even more control, as you can run them at anything from one day to six monthly intervals.

You can keep control of your backup size, both by setting an overall limit, and telling the program to delete files once they’re older than a defined number of days.

And although the program is extremely lightweight and didn’t noticeably affect other applications at all, there are some useful performance-related settings.

A “Game Mode” disables backups when you’re running full-screen applications, for instance.

You can prevent backups from starting as soon as your system boots, when they’re most likely to clash with other programs.

And if you just want to get a backup finished as soon as possible, Genie Timeline Professional 2013 finally allows you to turn on the high-speed Turbo Mode manually, a small but worthwhile improvement.

The program is easy to set up, then. Backups run smoothly, if a little slowly; restoration is straightforward, and there are some useful configuration options. The new features are conveniences, more than must-haves, and the inability to run multiple backup jobs will annoy many, but if your needs are simple then Genie Timeline Professional 2013 could still be a very good backup choice.

The software lists for $59.95 and is available for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8.

Verdict: It's lacking a few advanced features, but Genie Timeline Professional 2013 remains very easy to set up and use, and if you're only looking for the backup basics then we'd give it a try.

We Like: Easy to set up and use, won't slow down your PC, keeps multiple file versions, several restore methods, disaster recovery disc.

We Don't Like: Can only run one backup job, slow backup speeds, encryption doesn't conceal file and folder names, gets notably more complex as you move from the default.

Photo Credit: Balazs Justin/Shutterstock

Here’s the contradiction: you need secure, unique and hard-to-remember passwords to protect your online (and offline) accounts from being hacked. However, remembering those secure, unique and hard-to-remember passwords is another matter entirely. Thankfully there is a solution, and it’s called a password manager.

There are dozens of password managers to choose from, but in this guide we’ll showcase four of the better ones, ensuring that you set safe, secure passwords without having to worry about remembering them.

Most password managers work like this: you set up an encrypted file, or vault, into which all of your unique passwords are stored. This vault is “locked” with a master password, so as long as you can remember that, you’ll always be able to access your other passwords.

Of course, a master password can be guessed, so the better password managers go further. Open-source favorite KeePass allows you to create special key files, which need to be provided with the password when unlocking the vault. You can also lock files to the current Windows user account and even use a special USB drive called a YubiKey to provide another level of authentication.

Speaking of providing secondary hardware devices to provide extra protection for your passwords, Sticky Password Free allows you to add any USB or Bluetooth device as a secondary form of authentication, thus increasing your vault’s security that little bit further.

Sticky Password also ships with browser plug-ins, so it can automatically fill web login pages as you visit them (KeePass requires you to drag-and-drop or use hotkey triggers). But the Free version is limited to just 15 passwords -- for full functionality you have to pay $29.99 for the full version.

One worry with offline password managers is what happens if your encrypted vault is corrupt? Obviously you can manually backup your files, but 1Password for Windows and 1Password for Macboth let you sync your encrypted database to Dropbox for protection against data loss. Note both are trial versions only -- the full version costs $49.99 per license.

Another way to avoid this potential calamity is to entrust your passwords (encrypted, of course) to the cloud, and if you’re happy to do so then take a look at cross-platform beauty LastPass, which works seamlessly across most major browsers, and also allows you to store other confidential information online too. It’s free, although you’ll need to purchase a Premium subscription if you’d like to be able to sync passwords with your mobile devices. or add support for YubiKey authentication.

LastPass can also detect when you’re signing up for a new site and offer to quickly generate a secure password for you – something the other tools also offer, but LastPass makes the process effortless.

LastPass also offers to review your existing passwords, alerting you to any insecure ones you can then quickly make secure with its help.

Ultimately which password manager you go for depends on your individual needs: Sticky Password offers the best blend of features and security for both online and offline use, but there’s a price tag attached. If you’re happy to store your passwords in the cloud, then LastPass wins for its ease of use, but for a portable, offline solution that won’t cost you a bean, KeePass is well worth considering.

KeePass 2.21 and KeePass Portable 2.21 are both available as free, open-source downloads for Windows (other platforms are also available). Sticky Password Free 6.0.9.439 is available as a function-limited free download for Windows, while LastPass 2.0.20 is available as a freeware download for Windows, Mac and Linux. Also available are LastPass for Windows 8, LastPass for Android and LastPass Tab Browser for iOS.

Photo Credit: marekuliasz/Shutterstock

Data loss can take many forms, but one of the most devastating is through physical drive failure. There’s no knowing how long your hard drives will last -- one drive might last well beyond its projected five-year lifespan while another identical model fails within six months. But it’s not just bad luck that can shorten a drive’s life -- it’s the physical environment it operates in (hotter hard drives die sooner) and how well it’s maintained (a fragmented hard disk works a lot harder, and the physical stress again shortens its life).

Windows can provide some built-in tools for monitoring hard drives, but you’ll need a good third-party program to check on its physical status. The good news is, keeping an eye on your hard drive doesn’t have to cost a cent, thanks to the freeware tool CrystalDisk Info 5.5.0.

CrystalDiskInfo, also available as a portable build, allows you to monitor the health of all the physical hard disks attached to your PC -- internal and many external USB drives -- using their own built-in SMART tools plus any temperature-monitoring tools that may be present in the computer or hard drive.

Each physical disk is clearly marked with a rating of Good, Caution or Bad, color-coded accordingly. Also displayed is the drive’s current temperature, allowing you to see just how hot your drives are running (anything over 50 degrees C in a desktop should be considered bad for your drive’s long-term health).

Click on a drive’s entry and you’ll see plenty more information about the drive -- its key statistics such as firmware, serial number and interface, plus its supported features. Also displayed are two useful figures: power-on count (the number of times the drive has been booted up) and power-on hours. These help monitor how long the drive has been in operation, which in turn can give you an idea of whether or not a replacement may be in order sooner rather than later.

The tool also displays detailed SMART information about the drives -- it’s these figures which are used to generate the drive’s overall health rating, and those marked yellow or red will be responsible for potential problems. It’s worth Googling attribute names before panicking too much however, and with issues marked with Caution, simply keep an eye on the Current and Worst figures over a period of time to determine if the potential problem is stable or rapidly deteriorating, suggesting the drive will need replacing (after backing up).

Version 5.5.0 has just been released with improved support for Intel and OCZ support, better support for Internet Explorer 10 and improved drive letter mapping.

Both CrystalDisk Info 5.5.0 and CrystalDiskInfo Portable 5.5.0 are available as freeware downloads for PCs running Windows XP or later.

Photo Credit: vision001/Shutterstock

Avast! 8 is the latest generation of avast!’s security range, and as usual it’s available in several different packages, from the basic avast! Free 8 to the do-everything Premier build.

If you just want solid, standard all-round protection, though, avast! Internet Security 8 could be the best option. It takes all the core security suite basics -- antivirus, browsing protection, firewall, spam filter -- and extends them further with some useful new tools, making for what seems to be an appealing mix.

How does it feel in real life, though? We took the suite for a test run, to find out.

Avast! Internet Security 8 arrived in the form of a 135MB download, which unfortunately will install the Google toolbar by default. You can easily avoid this by choosing the “Custom Installation” option, but this is still the kind of issue we’d expect from dubious freeware, not commercial products from big-name companies.

Installation is at least quick, though, with the program telling us it was done after only around 40 seconds, and not even requiring a reboot. It was time to explore.

Interface

Avast! Internet Security 8 opens with a new touch-enabled Windows 8-style home page; six chunky tiles provide access to its various function areas (“Scan”, “Firewall” and so on), while a summary box displays your current protection and highlights any problems.

This screen is really just a front end, though, so if you choose one of the options (or simply click the Security tab) then you’ll find an interface which looks very similar to previous avast! editions.

A left-hand summary tab gives a more detailed view on how your system is doing. This now includes figures for all eight shields, as well as tooltips with more information (hover your mouse cursor over “File System Shield” displays the last scanned and infected files, for instance).

And the other tabs also provide quick access to common actions (launching a full system scan, say), useful settings and system information.

One small annoyance is that you can’t maximise the program window any more (if you want to avoid scrolling then you can manually resize it, but that’s not exactly convenient). But that aside, the avast! Internet Security 8 interface works well, providing easy access to its functions and a good summary of your current protection status.

Scanning

Avast! has never had the fastest scanning engine around, but this edition does see one or two interesting performance optimizations. For example, it will by default now scan files in the order they’re stored on disk, rather than spidering through folders, and this should help keep seek operations to a minimum.

The end result was still a fairly average 19:22 for the first full scan of our test system. This dropped by a third once avast! began to make use of its persistent cache, though, while Quick Scans were completed in under 5 minutes, and in general we found the program to be noticeably faster than the previous edition.

Scanning accuracy is more important, of course, and the program detected 95% of the test malware in our own small test. The independent testing labs tend to give avast! more mid-range ratings (AV-Test’s “Average Protection 2012″ chart placed avast! Free 11th out of 20), but avast! 8 improvements – an enhanced behaviour shield, more frequent updates and more – may help lift it in the rankings.

One notable plus with avast! 8 is that it can now scan emails even if you have SSL/ TLS security enabled in your email client. Although some people have reported problems with this, it worked well for us.

But whatever you’re doing, avast! has its usual minimal impact on system performance. Even when scanning, the suite typically only has three processes running, consuming perhaps 50MB RAM at most and little CPU time: it’s not going to slow you down.

Phishing, firewall and antispam

Run a web search and avast! Internet Security 8 checks the results with its WebRep tool, highlighting sites which other avast! users have rated poorly. And a toolbar icon displays the same information when you’re at the site -- green for safe, yellow for uncertain, red for risky -- allowing you to see at a glance when you might need to be careful.

Of course user ratings can only give you a very general picture of a site, so avast! Internet Security 8 also has a separate antiphishing module which tries to detect and warn you about scam sites. This delivered average results in testing, picking up only around half of sample sites, but the program did do better with web-based malware. Detection rates were excellent and all forced downloads were blocked.

Avast! Internet Security 8 includes additional protective layers, too. Suspect programs are launched in a sandbox, an isolated environment which limits any damage they might be able to do. And the suite also comes with the SafeZone, a virtual desktop with its own custom browser, separate from the rest of your system. Do your internet shopping or banking here and you’ll know your details are safe from monitoring by keyloggers and similar stealthy malware.

Elsewhere, the firewall does a competent job of hiding you online and protecting your system from network attacks, all without any hassles from alerts. But it can also be disabled easily -- just set the “avast! Firewall” service Startup type to “Disabled”, and reboot -- and while the suite recognizes the problem, it’s not smart enough to spot the cause, or resolve it. We’re not sure how important this is (if you’re infected by malware which can stop services then you’re already in big trouble), but it’s still an issue we’d like to see fixed.

Fortunately the spam filter does rather better, its 94 percent detection rate being above what we’d expect from a security suite. The program did also falsely flag 5% of our legitimate emails, but that can be addressed in several ways (tweaking filter sensitivity, adding addresses to your whitelist and more), and on balance it works well.

New tools

There’s no backup component here, no parental controls, but avast! Internet Security 8 has been extended with a couple of lesser tools.

Browser Cleanup is a simple program which tries to identify and help you remove IE or Firefox addons which “either have a poor reputation amongst [avast!] users or which engage in aggressive tactics to manipulate your settings”.

While this sounds good, we’re not sure that it’s highlighting the worst offenders (on our PC it picked up on Firefox’s popular “YouTube Ratings Preview” extension, as well as the Winamp Toolbar), and experienced users probably won’t be impressed. But security novices may find the program useful, especially as it resets browser settings after removal, and on balance it’s a small plus.

Software Updater is a more promising addition, a handy tool which scans the software installed on your PC and then checks for any missing updates. While it doesn’t cover everything, there’s a sensible focus on the components which really matter -- browsers, Flash, Java, Adobe AIR, Adobe Reader, iTunes, uTorrent and so on -- and the program correctly detected and highlighted outdated software on our test PC, installing most new updates with a click.

We say “most” because there were occasional issues, as for instance all Chrome updates just failed with an error. But even here, Software Updater still helps, by first alerting you to the update, and then providing a “click here” link which takes you to a web page with more information. It’s definitely a positive addition to the suite, and we’ll be interested to see how it improves in future.

Verdict: avast! Internet Security 8 isn't the best security suite around, but it's a solid mid-range product which improves on the previous edition in a number of ways, and is a worthwhile upgrade for avast! fans.

We Like: Lightweight; improved scanning performance; effective firewall; SSL email scanning; high spam detection rate; excellent sandbox and SafeZone; highlights missing software updates.

We Don't Like: Scanning speeds could still be faster; firewall can be disabled; some legitimate emails flagged as spam; Software Updater can't always install updates.

Available for Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8, all 32 and 64-bit editions. MSRP: $49.99.

Photo Credit: Andrea Danti/Shutterstock

March 31 is World Backup Day. It’s when you’re reminded of the importance of having a backup for all of your precious data and settings. Anyone who’s confronted the horror of data loss full on should know the importance of having at least one backup copy of all their key documents, photos and other files and settings, but why wait until you’re faced with the prospect of losing irreplaceable data or shelling out hundreds, even thousands, of dollars to get it back?

Windows ships with a relatively effective backup tool, but it’s blunt and not particularly flexible to your exacting needs. Instead, you should turn to the plethora of third-party backup utilities if you’re serious about protecting your data from harm. And to celebrate World Backup Day, we’ve put together a selection of amazing deals on backup software that could save you money as well as put your data in a safer place this Easter.

Our headline deal this World Backup Day gives you the chance to purchase O&O DiskImage 7 Professional for just $9.95 this holiday Sunday and Monday. The powerful tool provides you with everything you need to back up both selected data such as individual files and folders, plus take a drive image of entire partitions and drives for complete peace of mind.

While’s it’s still not a tool for complete beginners, O&O DiskImage does provide some hints and tips to guide you towards protecting your data, and version 7 makes things friendlier with a redesigned dashboard-style interface.

The $9.95 price represents a massive 67-percent discount on O&O DiskImage’s normal MSRP of $29.95, and is available for just 48 hours from 00.01 GMT, Sunday March 31 to 23.59 GMT, Monday April).

More Great Offers

If O&O DiskImage doesn’t tempt you, why not check out some other great deals from our comprehensive backup range? If you’re looking for a backup tool that does things with the minimum of fuss, check out Genie Timeline Professional 2013 at just $29.95, which is half its MSRP.

Your purchase gives you a 1-PC, non-expiring lifetime’s license to one of the simplest and fuss-free backup tools on the market. Launch the program, select your backup drive and then simply choose between ticking category boxes like Documents, Email and Bookmarks from the Smart Selection tab, or manually choosing individual files and folders to back up via the My Computer tab.

Once done, that’s it: just leave Genie to do the rest of the hard work for you, updating your backups as files are changed and your PC sits idle. A built-in Restore tool makes recovering individual files as well as your entire backup a doddle too.

If you like the basic concept, but want that little bit more control over your backups, such as being able to back up the Registry or key Windows settings, then check out Genie Backup Manager Home 9.0 instead. It’s also available for $29.95, a 40 percent saving on its MSRP.

Imaging your entire hard drive doesn’t just allow you to recover data, it also enables you to restore your entire system quickly in case of disaster, even if you’re forced to replace your PC’s hard drive. We’ve got some great deals on drive-imaging tools this Easter weekend: get the renowned Norton Ghost 15 for just $39.99, a saving of 43 percent on its MSRP for a single-computer, single-year licence.

Alternatively, you can pick up Paragon Backup & Recovery 11 Home for $31.96, a saving of 20 percent. Or if finances are extremely tight, check out our fantastic deal -- 46 percent savings on MSRP -- on True Image 2013 by Acronis.

For just $26.99, True Image offers comprehensive backup tools covering individual data and entire drive images, plus comes with a Try&Decide feature for testing software without affecting your main PC installation. There’s also file-sync support for keeping files updated across several PCs and access to True Image Online, a subscription-based cloud backup service for storing your files securely over the internet.

Speaking of cloud-based backups -- a great complementary way of creating a backup that’s stored securely away from your computer -- we finish our roundup of selected deals with an amazing offer on AVG LiveKive. Until 23.59 on Monday, you can pick up AVG LiveKive 25GB, which offers up to 25GB online storage space for a whole year, for the amazing price of just $16.95, a saving of 66 per cent on its MSRP. By way of comparison, that means you’re paying the equivalent nominal sum of just $1.42 a month for the security of keeping your precious files protected (and synced with all your other devices).

All of these great deals mean there’s no excuse not to mark World Backup Day by taking the plunge and investing what is a very small sum on keeping your precious files and settings backed up. Particularly when you consider the potential cost of actually having to pay to have your data recovered.

Photo Credit: Andy Harbin/Shutterstock

Manually shutting down your PC when you’ve finished a task is easy enough, but Windows isn’t quite so straightforward when it comes to automating the process. Playing around with the power options and the task scheduler may deliver what you need, but for real flexibility you’ll be much better off turning to the free Airytec Switch Off.

The program is a surprisingly tiny download (191KB), which once installed adds an icon to your system tray. And right-clicking this displays a menu showing the various actions it can carry out: shutdown, restart, log off, sleep, lock, and more.

If you want to activate any of these immediately, then you can do so -- just choose that action and click "Now". But there are also timed delays, from 5 minutes to 5 hours. And these can each be applied in three different ways.

For instance, you could tell Airytec Switch Off to shut down your PC in precisely 5 minutes time; or to wait until the user has been inactive for 5 minutes (no mouse or keyboard activity); or to look for 5 minutes of computer inactivity (that is, CPU usage has been below a set threshold for all that time).

This works well, and is straightforward to use -- but it’s just the start of Switch Off’s capabilities.

You don’t just have to choose from the program’s list of standard actions, for instance. Airytec Switch Off also supports scripts, so you can have it launch any program you like. For example, the default list of program actions doesn’t include "Hibernate", but you can easily rectify this yourself: just use a script which calls the Windows Shutdown command to hibernate the system for you ("shutdown.exe /h").

Airtytec Switch Off also includes a complete task scheduler. If you’d like actions to run daily, weekly, at system start or log on, perhaps, you can set them up here.

And there’s even a web interface, which allows you to shut down your PC from any internet-enabled device. (Although if you’re concerned about the security implications, this is at least turned off by default.)

Perhaps most impressive of all, though, is despite all this power, Airytec Switch Off really is very lightweight, with its core requiring less than 1MB RAM on our test PC.

One possible issue here is that development seems to have stalled. The program hasn’t been updated in almost two years, so it’s possible this will be the last version.

Right now, though, Airytec Switch Off works very well. And if you’re looking for a PC shutdown tool with some real power and versatility then it’s still worth a closer look.

Photo Credit: Sashkin/Shutterstock

Sysinternals has announced updates for Autoruns and Process Monitor, as well as the release of a new command line tool, Registry Usage.

The Autoruns tweaks are the most significant. In particular, all reports now include a timestamp for executable files, folders or Registry keys. And so if you browse to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run in the Everything view, say, you’ll now see a timestamp which tells you when that Registry key was last modified.

Of course, while this is a welcome addition, it does highlight one current failing of the program: you can’t simply click a column header to sort entries by date (or any other field). Perhaps that will be next.

Elsewhere, Process Monitor gains support for Windows 8 file information query types, as well as having a minor bug fix in its tooltip handling.

And the new Registry Usage (RU.exe) is a simple command line tool which give you details on the size, value and subkey counts of a specified Registry key.

To try the program out, just open a command line at the folder where it’s located, and launch it with a suitable path (short and long forms are supported: "ru hkey_current_user" or "ru hkcu", for example). After a pause you’ll see a report listing the number of values and keys within that path, and their total size in bytes.

Other options allow you to itemize subkeys, as well as control the number of levels the program will browse, as well as exporting the details as CSV for easy reference and analysis later.

And, as usual, launching Registry Usage without any command line switches will display information on the program’s various options.

Photo Credit: andrea michele piacquadio/Shutterstock

Genie9 has released Genie Timeline 2013, the latest edition of its easy-to-use backup tool. As previously, the program is available in three editions -- Genie Timeline Free 2013, Genie Timeline Home 2013 ($39.95) and Genie Timeline Professional 2013 ($59.95) -- and all of these gain plenty of features in the new release.

This starts with the new protection level, for instance. This will immediately highlight any problems -- lots of file changes which haven’t been backed up, say, or you’ve run out of free space on the destination drive -- giving you a quick and easy view of your backup status.

All three editions also offer you more restore features. You can search old backups for a particular file name, for instance, or filter the restore view to show new, modified or deleted files.

Genie Timeline Home 2013 also gains an enhanced disaster recovery engine, as well as the ability to strip deleted files out of your backup.

As you’d expect, Genie Timeline Professional 2013 has even more. The program now has include and exclude filters, for instance (with regular expression support). You can actually decide when to turn turbo mode on, if you’re in a hurry. The backup folder name can now include a user and computer name, for easier identification, while new low-level options mean you can choose a delayed start for the Genie Timeline service.

And all three versions have a revamped interface, which is now looking more Windows 8-like than ever.

The end result is a solid, if not revolutionary change for Genie Timeline Free 2013 and Genie Timeline Home 2013. The restore view filtering is welcome, though, while the include and exclude filters are a great addition to Genie Timeline Professional 2013, and on balance Timeline remains a capable and effective backup tool.

Photo Credit: Raimundas/Shutterstock

Donationcoder.com has released Screenshot Captor 4.00 and Screenshot Captor Portable 4.00, brand new versions of its powerful screen-capture tool for Windows PCs.

Version 4.00 builds on features introduced last year in version 3 with the addition of support for capturing images from webcams, a new -- and dockable -- QuickCapture bar, extended Undo support and rewritten image uploader tool.

The most visible new feature in Screenshot Captor 4.00 is the new floating quick-capture bar, which can be docked to the top or bottom of the screen where it hides minimized until the user rolls the mouse over it. The bar provides convenient access to all the program’s capture functions, plus shortcuts to the main program window, screenshot settings and the program’s main user preferences.

Another major new addition to Screenshot Captor’s arsenal is support for capturing still images from webcams. Users can switch between different webcams, choose the capture resolution and access the webcam’s own configuration tools. Support for capturing video is available through the ESR add-on.

Version 4.00 also introduces freehand painting and annotation tools that, like objects, can be edited after the image has been saved. Undo support has also been widened to include most object manipulation actions, and users can now specify custom comments in the pop-up dialog that appears after a screen capture.

Screenshot Captor 4.00 also overhauls the image uploader tool introduced in version 3 to make it significantly easier to use with supported accounts – currently ImageShack and imm.io. Users can also select the open-source ShareX tool (a separate download) should they wish to upload to other services.

Other notable improvements include the ability to save and load custom configuration files, allowing users to easily switch between different profiles for different applications. Users can also now save all selected images to an animated GIF.

A new Quick Expand Canvas item has been added to the Edit menu, and users can now define their own custom list of preset sizes for resizing and scaling. Also added to the resizing and selection dialogs are percentage options.

The SaveAs dialog now remembers the last file format and directory used, and Screenshot Captor has a new option that should improve its accuracy when selecting active windows.

For a full list of new features, improvements and bug fixes -- all comprehensively documented -- see the program’s version history.

Screenshot Captor 4.00 and Screenshot Captor Portable 4.00 are both available as a free-for-personal-use downloads, but users will be periodically prompted to register for a free download key. Donating $25 to Donationcoders.com entitles the user to a single, universal (and non-expiring) product key for all of its products.

Iolo Technologies has released System Mechanic 11.7 Free andSystem Mechanic 11.7, a minor update to its popular Windows system optimization tool that delivers refinements to existing technologies in order to eke more performance out of PCs.

Version 11.7 comes with three major new features, aimed at the paid-for versions of the software: streamlined startup speeds, more machine-oriented optimisation and Direct Expert Connection.

System Mechanic 11.7’s promise of faster start-up times is delivered via enhancements to System Mechanic’s boot-optimization technology, which iolo promises will make Windows ready for use much quicker than with previous builds of the program. This builds on previous enhancements including one where the user is given complete control over what boots when -- for example, creating “black out” times where no boot-time operations are performed.

System Mechanic already makes use of special Tune-up Definitions, which allow it to pass on research findings on performance-related issues to the program that in turn deliver improved performance on the user’s PC.  Ongoing testing has allowed iolo to now inject more personalized recommendations into its definitions, which in turn means performance can be focused into the individual setup and profile of the user’s PC.

The final new feature is the Direct Expert Connection, which sees iolo’s collective powers being delivered direct to the desktop, allowing computers to benefit even more quickly than before from the latest cutting-edge performance data.

The enhanced features build on other recent improvements -- version 11.5 extended Windows 8 support, introduced cloud-based Guided Recommendations based on advice from other System Mechanic users, and dropped per-PC licensing restrictions, for example.

System Mechanic 11.7 Free is available as a free, reduced-functionality download, while both System Mechanic 11.7 and System Mechanic Professional 11.7 are available as free trial downloads for PCs running Windows XP or later. The 11.7 update is free to all registered users of System Mechanic 11.

You can purchase both for a significant discount through the Downloadcrew Software Store: System Mechanic 11.5 costs $24.95, a saving of 50% on the MSRP, while System Mechanic Professional 11.5 can be bought for just $39.95, saving you 43 percent.

 Photo Credit: studio online/Shutterstock

There are plenty of web services around which can try to help you find a stolen computer. Usually this involves equipping your system with a small agent of some kind, which then uses the system IP address, wifi connections and more to determine its current location, before communicating this to a central server.

If you’d like something more lightweight, though, there are a few simple free tools around which you might like to try. IPFetcher, for instance, won’t grab images from your webcam, and can’t lock down your system remotely. But it can retrieve a system’s IP address, then email or upload it to an FTP server, and that’s more than enough to be useful.

The program arrives as a compact (1.2MB) download. Unzip this, install the two components included (IPFetcher.msi and IMFetcherBackend.msi) and reboot your PC.

Launch IPFetcher from the Softraven section of the Start menu, and click either “Set FTP” or “Set Mail”, depending on which method you’d like to use. In both cases you’ll need to complete a form with your server names, account details and so on.

Setting up the program is awkward - but you only have to do it once

The “Set Mail” page includes a “Test Mail” button, which in theory should send a test message to confirm your settings are correct. But in practice this didn’t work for us. If we tried it, the program interface would first stop responding for a while, before displaying a horribly technical .NET error message (even though we’d entered the right information).

There are other setup problems, too. Once you’ve completed the form you’ll probably click “Save”, but this just displays a less than clear error message. You’ll have to click “Set interval and log” and set both the “Reset log count” and “Repeat hours” (how often the location will be sent) values; “200″ and “24 hours” will be fine for now. We would manually start the service, too, just in case (click Service Settings > “Click to manually start Service”).

Finally, enter a password in the box, click Save and reboot your PC.

If this sounds all a little irritating, then it certainly was. But if you’re interested in the idea, don’t let it put you off. Once we were past the clumsy setup process we found IPFetcher worked very well, correctly retrieving our external IP address and emailing or uploading it as we’d specified. And there’s no further maintenance required, unless you change your email account or FTP server, anyway -- it just works.

Photo Credit: Matt Antonino/Shutterstock

Piriform has released CCleaner 4.00 and CCleaner Portable 4.00, major new release of its popular free cleaning tool for Windows users. Version 4.0 includes two new tools, but for the first time restricts one of these to paid-for users with Pro licenses only.

Version 4.0 also debuts a new program icon and tweaked user interface, added support for cleaning additional programs and the usual raft of performance and stability tweaks, including unspecified improvements to the program’s internal architecture for better performance.

CCleaner 4.0 adds two new tools to its armory, only one of which is available to those running the free version. This is a Duplicate File Finder, accessible from the Tools section of the program. Users select what criteria to match by – including name, size and last modified date – what to ignore and which drives, folders and wildcards to both include and exclude from the search. Users then click the Search button to review and manually select which copy or copies of each duplicate file to delete.

The second new feature is a browser and system monitoring tool, but this is restricted to Pro users only.

The Registry Cleaning tool has been optimized and improved, while Drive Wiper should also now benefit from improved performance. The Startup item detection algorithm has been improved, as has the 64-bit CCleaner build for Windows 7 and 8.

Cleaning support has been extended to Samsung Kies along with the latest versions of Avast! Antivirus (v8), Adobe Photoshop (CS6) and Real Player (v16). The update is rounded off with the usual mix of unspecified performance improvements and bug fixes.

CCleaner 4.00.4064 and CCleaner Portable 4.00.4064 are both available as free-for-personal-use downloads for Windows PCs running XP or later.

Photo Credit: Goydenko Tatiana/Shutterstock

Windows Blue, the next Windows release, leaked onto the internet at the weekend. It has some interesting new features and tweaks, but because it’s such an early and buggy build it wouldn’t be advisable to replace your existing OS with it. You could of course dual boot from it, but it’s just as easy to run it in a virtual environment where any crashes or issues won’t lead to you having to reboot your PC.

For this guide I’ll use Oracle VM VirtualBox because it’s a great free program and setting up Windows Blue is incredibly straightforward with it.

To start you’ll obviously need a copy of the leaked image file -- build 9364. It’s available on all the usual torrent sites, so just do a quick search. The file you want is 2.63GB in size. There’s only a 32-bit version available, but because we’ll be running it in a virtualized environment, it will run fine on 64-bit systems.

Launch VirtualBox and click New in the Manager. In the Create Virtual Machine dialog box enter "Windows 8" as the name of the OS. VirtualBox will fill in the rest of the details for you.

Next set the Memory Size. Accepting the recommended memory amount will likely be fine. On the next screen choose to "Create a virtual hard drive now" and click Create. Accept VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) as the hard drive file type.

You’ll now be asked if you want the new virtual hard drive to be dynamic (it will grow as required) or a fixed size. I always select the latter option. It takes a while to create a fixed size drive, but the operating system runs faster afterwards.

Type in a name for the new virtual drive and choose a size for it. Again, accepting the default will likely be fine. Click Create and VirtualBox will begin building the drive. It will probably take around 10 minutes or so to do this (maybe more if like me you choose to convert some large videos at the same time).

The "Select start-up disk" window will open. If you’ve burnt the downloaded ISO file to disc you can select your drive in the drop down menu (if it’s not already selected). If you just have the file residing on your hard disk, click the folder icon and navigate to it instead.

Once selected, click Start and Windows 8 (which is what the OS is referred to throughout) will start to load. The language screen will appear first. You’ll have to accept English (United States) as this is the only option in the leaked build. On the next screen, click the "Install now" button.

Choose the "Custom: Install windows only (advanced)" option. It will show you the drive it’s going to be installed on. Click Next, and it will begin the installation process, rebooting when required. When that’s done, personalize the OS by picking a color and entering a PC name, and then choosing to use the express settings (which I do) or customizing things further.

Set up a Microsoft Account if required, and then that’s it. Windows Blue will be up and running and you can begin trying it out for yourself.

Glorylogic Software has released ISO Workshop 4.0, a major update of its disc image management, conversion and burning tool. Version 4.0 broadens the tool’s ISO format support to cover six different disc types: CD, DVD, Blu-ray, Bridge, DVD video and bootable.

The program also tweaks the existing user interface, adding new buttons to facilitate creating folders and editing files within ISO images. Other buttons have been added for loading and extracting files from ISO images.

ISO Workshop 4.0 also comes with an updated disc-burning SDK and promises resolutions for problems opening certain image formats as well as compatibility issues with other, non-specified burning tools.

ISO Workshop’s big selling point is its simple, unfussy interface. There are five options available -- users can both create new image files from scratch and burn existing image files to disc. ISO Workshop supports all common image file formats, including ISO, BIN, NRG and MDF, and there’s an option for converting images to ISO or BIN format.

Users can also extract individual files and folders from image files without having to burn them to disc or mount them using Windows 8’s native tool or a third-party utility such as Virtual CloneDrive. A fifth option -- Backup -- allows users to create image files from physical discs.

The program promises to work with most major optical disc formats, including Blu-ray and most writable DVD formats, and claims to support all types of recordable drives. ISO Workshop 4.0 is a freeware download for PCs running Windows NT or later, including Windows 8.

Photo Credit: AISPIX by Image Source/Shutterstock

If you’re looking to give your Windows desktop a radical makeover, then Rainmeter 2.5 is one tool worth looking at. This open-source desktop customization tool goes beyond Windows’ own rather limited tools by provide alternative “skins” that can be downloaded or created from scratch.

Version 2.5 offers a number of new features – many aimed at skin developers – including a new FileView plugin, support for the scroll wheel and macro mouse variables. The update also promises dozens of other improvements and bug fixes.

The headline new feature is the FileView plugin, which can be used to index and gather information about all files and folders within a specified path. The plugin supports commands for scrolling through the file index, moving around the folder tree and selecting files for display or opening in a specific program.

Skin and meter developers gain a new ClipString=2 and ClipStringW/ClipStringH options for more dynamic clipping and wrapping of strings when sizing the containing meter to accommodate all its contents. Also added are new Mouse Actions to support the scroll wheel, and Mouse Variables to provide the current X and Y position of the mouse in pixels or percentage. A new OnUpdateAction command allows actions to occur when supported elements (skins, meters and measures) are updated normally or by a “bang”, while an OnChangeAction command has been added to Measures to allow actions to take place when the measure changes.

Developers can also now execute actions when a skin gains or loses focus when clicked in Windows via OnFocusAction and OnUnFocusAction commands. All measures and meters can also be updated with bangs by the addition of support for * as a wildcard parameter to !UpdateMeasure and !UpdateMeter commands.

Fixes include a plugged memory leak for the Skin Packager, while the Calc now handles negative numbers that haven’t been enclosed in brackets correctly. A dialog layout problem with right-to-left languages has also been resolved.

Rainmeter 2.5 is a free, open-source download for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP or later, including Windows 8.

Copying files in Windows is normally as easy as a quick drag and drop -- but if they’re locked, it’s a different story. An error message will warn you that the file is in use, and you’re left to resolve the situation yourself, or just try again later.

One alternative is to run a backup program, as most can use Microsoft’s Volume Shadow Service to copy locked files. But this could seem like overkill, especially for only occasional ad-hoc copies, which is why you might prefer the simpler and more lightweight ShadowCopy.

The program installs easily, and is very straightforward to use. At its most basic, you can just specify the source and destination folders, the files you’d like to copy (*.*, *.docx or whatever), click Copy and wait as the files are transferred.

If you need a little more control then ShadowCopy does provide a few extra options. You can decide whether it should copy subdirectories, for instance, or overwrite existing files, just by checking a box or two.

And if you want to do this regularly -- or automatically -- then the program’s support for command line switches means you can run it from a script. For example, something like "shadowcopy c:\*.* d:\ /s" will copy everything on your C:\ drive -- even if it’s locked -- to D:\, including all subfolders.

This is all presented in a very basic way, and needs to be used with some care. Once you’ve initiated a copy, for instance, there’s no way to cancel it. And in our tests the program allowed you to click Copy, even if a copy is already running, which caused such confusion that it shut down almost immediately.

If you only use ShadowCopy occasionally, though (or from a script), then this probably won’t matter too much, and on balance it’s still a quick and easy way to copy locked files.

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Windows X has released updates for its skinning tools, Windows 8 UX Pack 7.0 (for Windows 7) and Windows 8 Transformation Pack 7.0 (for Windows XP, Vista and 7). The programs bring much of the look and feel of Windows 8 to earlier desktops.

One notable change this time around is the inclusion of WinMetro as an alternative Start Screen for both packs. Windows X says the program is stable and not resource hungry, which perhaps is why they’ve made it the “Immersive UI” alternative, but if you prefer the older Newgen, just the charms bar, or nothing at all, then all those options are still available.

Both packs also gain an updated Glass UI theme, and an updated Windows 8 visual style for Windows 7.

Enhanced audio features include improved sounds scheme files handling in Windows 8 Transformation Pack 7.0., and new sounds scheme media files in Windows 8 UX Pack 7.0

And Windows 8 Transformation Pack 7.0 benefits from updated font installation code.

This isn’t the most essential of updates, perhaps. If you’re not interested in WinMetro then the updated theme and visual style are the real highlights.

Both the Windows 8 UX Pack 7.0 and Windows 8 Transformation Pack 7.0 remain very comprehensive, though, with logon screens, wallpapers, themes, a Start Screen which automatically configures itself to suit your needs, along with a Windows 8 Start orb,user tile, Aero auto-colorization, and more. In our experience both packs can be installed and removed easily, and they’re a good choice for anyone who would like the look of Windows 8, without the hassle of upgrading.

NirSoft has announced the release of JumpListsView, a new tool that displays details of the jumplist records stored on Windows 7/ 8 PCs.

And the end result is a detailed report on many of the files and folders opened on your PC, perhaps going back months.

Simple launch this tiny (80KB) executable and it extracts all jumplist records from the \Users\[User Profile]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations folder, displaying each file or folder name; path; record, created, modified and accessed times; file attributes, size, entry ID and application ID in the usual NirSoft grid.

This can be sorted in various ways. If you’re looking for a particular file, say, clicking the “Filename” column header will sort the list into alphabetical order. Or you might sort by “Created Time”, allowing you to see what’s been happening on your PC yesterday, last week, last month, or as far back as the jumplist records allow.

The program also includes a Find option to help you locate specific file or folder names.

The full list (or just your selected items) can be saved to a TXT, CSV, HTML or XML report for analysis later.

And some advanced options allow you to standardise the times to GMT, or import jumplists from another folder.

You don’t need to worry about the details to find JumpListsView useful, though. Whether you’re trying to remember the name of that podcast you opened yesterday, or just want to get an idea of what your kids were doing on the system last night, the program provides a quick and easy way to find out.

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You’re at the PC, with lots of important work to do. And you’re going to get started on it -- once you’ve checked Facebook. And Twitter. Then watched a YouTube clip someone mentioned earlier, checked what’s happening on eBay, and worked your way through a host of other online distractions.

Sounds familiar? Then you might like Cold Turkey, a simple free tool which can temporarily block access to your favourite web destinations.

Launch the program and it first asks which sites you’d like to block. You can block some popular sites -- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, eBay and more -- just by checking a few boxes, while a Custom Sites dialog lets you enter URLs of your own.

The next step is decide how long the block will last, which can be anything from 10 minutes to a week.

Finally, click “Go Cold Turkey”, and after a quick “Are you sure?” check, that’s it -- try to visit the sites you’ve specified in any browser and you’ll get a “not found” error.

Don’t think you can easily get around this, either. Changing your system time won’t help. Closing down the Cold Turkey processes won’t do it. And if you’re thinking the HOSTS file might be involved here, you’re right -- but simply editing that alone won’t remove the restrictions (and there’s no “back door” to regain access, either, so you need to be careful in how you use the program). You could keep trying other things, but it’ll probably be easier to get on with the work you should be doing, anyway.

This isn’t a perfect solution, of course. It can’t stop you browsing sites via a smartphone, tablet, or any other internet-enabled device you might have around.

If you’re just looking for a quick and easy to selectively block a few web distractions, though, Cold Turkey will get the job done. And if you need more power, check out the Serious Edition ($4.99), which can block sites for up to one month, and prevent you launching specified applications, too.

Photo Credit: Karen Roach/Shutterstock

You’ve lost that important document you were working on yesterday; you’re wondering which files a program is accessing; or maybe you’d just like to know what someone else has been doing on your PC. There are many reasons why you might want to know which files have been created, modified or accessed on your PC -- and Recent Files Scanner is just the tool to help.

To get a feel for how the program works, just launch it and click the green Scan button. By default it will scan your Documents folder and any subfolders, and you’ll quickly be looking at a report listing everything you’ve modified recently.

Click Settings and you can customise your scan, setting details like the folder to check, and the search depth (the folder only, 1 level, 10 and so on).

There’s an option to set the range of dates that interests you. This is initially set to the last week, but you can change this to the last day, three days, 5 days around last Christmas, whatever you like.

And elsewhere there are include and exclude filters; you can specify content which the file must include; you’re able to decide which file date to check (created, modified or accessed), and more. Click the Start button again to try the new settings.

The report you’ll produce from this isn’t just a text list. Right-click any file and you’ll find options to open it, view its containing folder, check the file’s properties, view a preview (for images) and more.

And if this still isn’t enough, click the binoculars icon and the program will monitor whatever folders you’ve specified, displaying newly created, changed or modified files in real time.

There are some oddities here. In particular, the program didn’t always work as we expected, either intermittently refusing to scan the path C:\ and replacing this with its own Program Files folder. We couldn’t figure out why, though -- other root folder scans worked fine, as did monitoring subfolders -- so this might be a specific issue with our test system.

Recent Files Scanner has some issues, then, but if you can live with its quirks (or perhaps avoid them entirely) then you’ll find a capable tool, very useful for monitoring file-related activity.

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Microsoft Office has released the Office Configuration Analyzer Tool (OffCAT), a portable utility which can check all your installed Office applications, report on any problems, and provide links to possible solutions.

If you’ve ever tried to diagnose an Office problem yourself then you’ll know it can be difficult, just because there are so many factors to consider (Registry settings, add-ons, Office policies, installed updates and more). But OffCAT aims to help by quickly locating and highlighting any issues for you.

The process starts very simply: launch the program click "Start a scan" and choose the Office tool you’d like to check (Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word are all supported).

You then have the option to enter a "scan label", just a name to identify this scan from any other (useful if you’ll regularly scan lots of machines). This isn’t necessary, though, so you can just click "Start scanning" and OffCAT will run some detailed checks on your setup, displaying a summary in just a few seconds. Click "View a report of this configuration scan" for the full details.

The Configuration Report opens with an "All Issues" tab which highlights anything interesting. Exactly what you’ll see here depends on your setup, but scanning Outlook on our test PC revealed that we were missing some updates, and that there was a problem opening hyperlinks. Clicking this provided a simple text explanation, along with links to view the relevant Microsoft support web page, or download a Microsoft Fixit file to resolve the issue automatically.

Sometimes you may see a "Critical Issues" tab with details on more serious problems. If the program has crashed recently, for instance, details will appear here, again with links which might help.

An "Information Items" tab lists your installed updates, with information on when each one was installed, whether it’s uninstallable, and a link to find out more.

And if you’d like to keep the report for later reference (or to compare details like installed updates with another computer, say), then you can print it, or save a copy in HTML, XML or CSV formats.

OffCAT has a few very small issues. We would like to see a single option to check your entire Office setup, for instance, rather than having to run each one individually. And the "Scanning Summary" (the list of checked items displayed immediately after each scan) won’t be useful to most people; you should at least have the option to skip that and display the full report immediately.

For the most part, though, the Office Configuration Analyzer Tool is an excellent program: portable, fast, easy enough for PC novices to use, while also providing the more in-depth information that experts need. If your copy of Office is currently misbehaving, grab a copy and find out why.

Photo Credit: Kar/Shutterstock

Are you tired of bloated disc burning suites? You’re not alone. Modern burning programs are mostly very overweight, packed with unnecessary functions which you’ll probably never use.

If your needs are very simple, though, there are some effective freeware burning apps around, and Folder SimpBurn is a particularly straightforward example.

The program arrives as a small download (560KB). And it’s portable, so easy to use just about anywhere: just unzip it and launch Folder_SimpBurn.exe.

Folder SimpBurn has all its options on a single dialog, and this makes it very straightforward to use. At a minimum all you need to do is choose your optical drive, select a folder which you’d like to burn, click Burn Option > Start Burn, and then watch as your disc is created (CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays are supported, as both single and multisession discs).

If you need more control, then it’s also possible to set the maximum burning speed and the disc name, as well as choosing the file system (your options are ISO9660, Joliet, UDF, or Joliet/ UDF).

There’s some ISO support, too. Click "Burn Option" and you’ll find tools to save your selected folder as an ISO file, or burn an existing ISO file to disc.

And other small touches include a "verify" option, some disc erase tools, and an "Info" box which displays your disc burner’s capabilities.

It’s not all good news. The interface is a little unconventional, with buttons which open menus; it really needs a little documentation (even the German language-only manual doesn’t tell you much); and the "Add to context" menu, which supposedly lets you create discs directly from Explorer, didn’t work for us.

Folder SimpBurn does well at its core tasks, though, reliably burning folders to disc and creating ISO images with ease. And if you’d like to be able to do this from just about any PC, without having to install anything, then the program should serve you very well.

Photo Credit: Kachan Eduard/Shutterstock

Windows software management is a tedious business. If you want to download a particular program, you have to find the relevant website, then the download link, save the file locally, grab any other components the program might need, and install everything in the right order. You’ll need to start again for every new program. And they’ll all have their own procedures for updating, or uninstalling.

What if you could automate all of this, though? Manage downloads, updates and everything else, just with a few keypresses? That’s the aim of Chocolatey, a tool which brings Linux-like package management to the PC.

The program comes in the form of a PowerShell-based command line tool. And yes, we know, that’s less than ideal, but don’t let it put you off just yet. Chocolately doesn’t require any PowerShell knowledge to use; if you use the command line occasionally then you’ll be able to try out.

Getting started is simple, as there’s nothing for you to download. Just paste the text below into a command prompt (copy it to the clipboard, launch cmd.exe, right-click in the window, select Paste) and press Enter.

@powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -Command “iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString(‘http://chocolatey.org/install.ps1′))” && SET PATH=%PATH%;%systemdrive%\chocolatey\bin

The Chocolatey code should download automatically, while status messages keep you up-to-date with the installation process. And when it’s done, close and reopen the command window and you’re ready to go.

Installing programs is now as simple as using the “cinst” command. Would you like a copy of Skype, for instance? Type “cinst skype” (less the quotes), press Enter, and Chocolatey will handle the rest. Or try “cinst keepas” to install KeePass Password Manager, “cinst procexp” for Process Explorer, “cinst gimp” for the GIMP image editor, and more. (Enter “clist” at the command line for the full list of packages, or use “clist | clip” to copy the list to the clipboard).

This isn’t just a matter of downloading an installation file and leaving you to do the rest, either. If a program needs something else installing before it’ll work, Chocolatey will grab that first. And as long as the application allows it, installation is silent – there’s no working your way through some tedious setup program.

Better still, Chocolatey can also handle updates for you. So if you need the latest version of Firefox, just enter “chocolatey update firefox” (or “cup firefox” for short) and it’ll be downloaded and installed.

Or, if you really want to save time, using “cup all” will check everything you’ve installed via Chocolatey and update it to the latest version.

Plainly the command line approach here is still a hassle, but the key is that it’s scriptable, and that brings some very interesting opportunities.

If you want to set up a PC to your specifications, then you could create a batch file with the appropriate “cinst” commands (as you’ve seen, they’re not exactly complicated). Once Chocolatey is installed on the target system, run the batch file and all the programs you need will be downloaded and installed. Add another shortcut to run updates – or maybe a batch file which you have Task Scheduler run once a day – and suddenly your software maintenance has become a whole lot easier.

Photo Credit: Yellowj/Shutterstock

There are plenty of ways to launch programs using hotkeys, and even Windows has one of its own (right-click a shortcut, select Properties > Shortcut and click the “Shortcut key” box), but remembering enough of these to cope with all your applications is extremely difficult.

The open source MadAppLauncher takes a different approach, though, which is very much simpler. It uses a simple QWERTY-type layout, and allows you to assign one program to each key. The relevant application icon and name is displayed alongside the key letter, so if you press H, say, whatever is in the H box will be launched.

You also get ten tabs, which correspond to the number keys, and each of these have their own QWERTY layout. This allows you to separate your programs into ten groups of up to 30 applications, for 300 in total. And if that’s not enough, you can save your current layout with a descriptive name (“Internet”, “Work”, whatever fits) and then create and load as many others as you need.

Every application “key” can be customized in much the same way as a regular Windows shortcut. You’re able to set its name,icon, target, command line arguments, starting folder, window style (normal, hidden, minimized, maximized and so on).

Unusually, you even get some control over the window size and position, so for instance you might decide to launch a program in the bottom half of the screen (assuming the application supports that, anyway). This doesn’t always look good -- the application may appear somewhere else, then move -- but it does work.

And there are all kinds of options here. You can move an application from one key to another; keep MadAppLauncher on top of other windows; show or hide the program when Windows starts, and more.

We had some issues here, too. Some of the program’s default settings are a little annoying, so for example if you drag and drop the program window then it’ll just snap back to the centre of the screen. Just about everything can be reconfigured via the View menu, and the Hotkey and Options dialog, but it could still be annoying for beginners.

Elsewhere, there’s very little documentation. And if you expect your launchers to look stylish and glossy then, well, MadAppLauncher will leave you extremely disappointed. But, if you just want a simple way to organise large groups of applications, folders or files, then the program should serve you very well. Go check it out.

Photo Credit: Lilya/Shutterstock

TechPowerUp has released GPU-Z 0.6.9, the latest version of its lightweight graphics card information tool.

This build adds direct support for even more graphics cards, including AMD Radeon HD 8870M, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost, GT 415 and GT 750M.

NVIDIA Kepler DirectX support has been revised to 11.0. (This complication isn’t TechPower’s fault, though; originally NVIDIA said its Kepler GPUs had full DirectX 11.1 support, but late last year it emerged that four non-gaming features were missing, so 11.0 is more accurate.)

The interface has gained a few tooltips, which should help beginners to find their way around. Hovering the mouse cursor over that tiny icon to the right of your BIOS version, for instance, will now explain that it can save or upload your BIOS. It’s now easier to spot the PCI Express Render Test (the question mark icon) which helps to confirm your card slot configuration. And there are a few similar additions elsewhere.

The latest build also adds a couple of fixes. If your system has the Intel OpenCL driver bug, for instance, then the program won’t display the same warning twice. And the shader count for the AMD Radeon HD 7790 is now displayed correctly.

Otherwise, though, GPU-Z 0.6.9 remains its usual excellent self. It’s small (a 1.24MB download); can be installed or run stand-alone; provides all kinds of details for a wide range of graphics cards (GPU, BIOS, memory type and size, clock speeds, driver details, DirectX support and more); and plots clock speeds, fan speeds, system loads, and voltage over time, making the program an excellent troubleshooting tool.

Open-source Windows file management tool DropIt 5.0 has been released. Also available as a 64-bit build and in portable form, DropIt allows users to process folders and files quickly via drag-and-drop, with up to 15 different actions (including move, copy, send by mail and upload) supported.

Version 5.0 improves the way DropIt handles relative paths, tweaks the main context menu and Options windows and promises better performance, minor feature additions and a number of bug fixes.

Once installed or launched, DropIt displays a floating icon on your desktop. Drag a file on to this icon, and DropIt will ask you what you want to do with it: 15 actions are supported, including copying or moving the file to a specific location, opening it in a particular application, attaching it to an email, copying it to the clipboard or changing specific properties.

DropIt can make any of these actions the default for your files based on their properties: name, size, date, properties, content or regular expressions. You can save sets of associations in profiles and then associate a profile with a particular folder, allowing you to place files in folders and wait for DropIt to automatically process them for you at a specified time.

After a short period, you can even drag an entire folder packed full of different files on to the DropIt floating icon and the program will automatically process them according to whatever filters and actions you’ve defined.

What’s New

Version 5.0 represents a major update, with a number of improvements and new features. Top of the list is the fact that relative paths in destination folders are now relative to each loaded file.

Additions include %Counter% and %UserInput% abbreviations for adding file enumeration and customized input when processing files. A Duplicate button has also been added to the Associations context menu to allow new associations to be created using existing ones as a template.

Filtered text is now highlighted in HTML lists, and support for creating PDF and XLS lists has also been added to the program. Users can now set different HTML themes for each new Create List association created.

Folders can now be processed as files if required, and a list of loaded items is now displayed in the Processing window. Users can now define a minimum size when scanning folders, and profiles can be exported via the context menu.

Two options, considered redundant, have been removed: “Check moved/copied files integrity” and “Enable associations for folders”.

Improvements have been made to the performance of various actions as well as the Options dialog and context menu, while the Compress action now merges items added to existent archives.

Also improved are the process that loads all dropped files at the beginning and support to Import profiles from the context menu.

DropIt 5.0, DropIt 5.0 64-bit and DropIt Portable 5.0 are all available now as free, open-source downloads for PCs running Windows XP or later.

Photo Credit: Liv friis-larsen/Shutterstock

Paragon Software has revealed the latest edition of its excellent imaging tool, Backup & Recovery 2013 Free.

The most important addition this time around is the program’s new “Windows 8 Compatible” stamp. If you’re upgrading soon, or have done so already, then Paragon Backup & Recovery 2013 Free should work just as it always has.

And as a part of this, Paragon Backup & Recovery 2013 Free now also supports Windows 8 Storage Spaces. (Paragon first made this technology available back in December 2012 in an update for their Hard Disk Manager Suite and Professional packages, but it’s finally filtering through to the free products.)

Storage Spaces is an interesting Windows 8 feature which allows users to combine the space in multiple existing hard drives, then reallocate it to virtual volumes in whatever configuration they need.

And Paragon Backup & Recovery 2013 Free now recognizes Storage Spaces volumes and treats them like any other, which means you can freely back up, partition or delete them, without worrying about the underlying technology.

That’s all we’ve noticed with regard to new features. There’s not even an interface revamp, the usual trick companies employ when an upgrade isn’t looking too exciting. (Although that’s probably a good thing, especially if you’re an existing user: at least you can download and use the new version immediately, without having to find your way around rearranged dialogs and menus.)

Then again, when you consider how much Paragon Backup & Recovery 2013 Free offers -- wide hardware support, full and differential backups, file exclusions, partitioning tools, a bootable recovery disc and more -- it’s hard to see what else the company might reasonably have added. If you need an imaging backup tool, take a look, it’s still one of the best options around.

Photo Credit: Raimundas/Shutterstock

At first glance, JPEGview doesn’t appear as though it’s going to be a particularly interesting image viewer. A 798KB download suggests there can’t be too much power here. And on launch the program asks you to choose an image, and then just displays it, with no menus, toolbars or other obvious signs of any interface.

First impressions aren’t always reliable, though -- and you’ll quickly realize that as you begin to explore.

Touch the left and right cursor keys, for instance, and you’ll find you can browse through all the images in your chosen folder. There’s support for a reasonable range of file types, including some RAW formats: JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF, GIF, WEBP, WDP, HDP, JXR, PEF, DNG, CRW, NEF, CR2, MRW, RW2, ORF, X3F, KDC, NRW, DCR, SR2 and RAF. And JPEGView loads and processes them quickly, too, thanks to its support for SSE2 and multiple cores.

Move your mouse cursor over the image and a small control overlay appears, with some useful options. You can step backwards and forwards through images in the same folder, for instance; switch to a full screen or "actual size" view; rotate images by fixed increments or just by dragging the mouse; and there’s perspective correction, auto image enhancement, and a simple EXIF viewer.

JPEGView would be useful if it only did this -- but the program is just getting started. Move your mouse cursor below the control overlay and more options should fade into view (if they don’t, maximize the window and try again).

A collection of sliders allow you to tweak contrast, brightness, contrast, colors (CMY/ RGB); there are options to tweak your shadows and highlights, correct colors and contrast; there’s an Unsharp Mask option, and you can rename the image, too.

Still not impressed? Then right-click the image for even more. Like the option to display your images as a slideshow or movie (that is, at speeds of anything up to 100 per second); a complete batch file renamer/ copier; and a settings file which gives you more options, including the ability to extend JPEGView with other programs and custom commands.

And even this isn’t the end. Pressing F1 reveals a list of more than 50 keyboard shortcuts covering every aspect of the program’s operation. And so if you’re unhappy with the way it cycles only through images in the current folder, for instance, you can press F8 to have the program browse through subfolders as well, or F9 to work through the current folder and its siblings (folders at the same level).

Despite all this power, JPEGView isn’t going to appeal to everyone. The fact that most of the program’s interface is entirely hidden is one issue, for instance. We quite like that -- it’s clean, stays out of your way, yet remains very easy to access -- but beginners may be confused.

And at the same time, you don’t get the same level of functionality here as, say, with IrfanView, so more experienced user might also have some complaints.

On balance, though, we think JPEGView is an excellent image viewer. After all, it’s well designed, crammed with features, highly configurable, tiny, portable and free -- and that works for us. So go check out a copy for yourself, see how it performs for you.

Photo Credit: Iaroslav Neliubov/Shutterstock

It doesn’t take much to accidentally delete a file. A brief lapse of concentration, a click in the wrong place, selecting “Yes” instead of “No”, and that’s it: your data has gone.

As long as you’ve a good undelete tool to hand, though, this doesn’t have to be a disaster. And this doesn’t have to be expensive.Pandora Recovery comes with plenty of useful features and functionality, and it’s entirely free (for personal use, at least), with no adware or annoying restrictions.

The program does its best to cater for all levels of user. On first launch, for instance, it fires up a Recovery Wizard which walks you through every step of the undelete process, even suggesting you check the Recycle Bin as a first step.

But if you don’t need that level of hand holding, then you can dismiss the wizard forever and continue manually. It’s still not exactly difficult: click a drive, the program scans for deleted files, and presents them in an Explorer-type view. Just browse to the right folder and you can recover them in a couple of clicks.

If you’re not sure where the files were located, or they were spread across your system (lots of JPEGs in multiple folders, say), then you’ll need Pandora Recovery’s search tool. This is quite powerful, allowing you to search by file name, size, even creation and last modified date, so for instance you could look for everything modified yesterday. A Preview option (text or image based) gives you the chance to check whatever the program finds, and again the files are easy to recover.

And if these initial checks don’t locate your files, you can always turn to the surface scan. This can only recover a few file types -- ZIP, BMP, DNG, GIF, JPG, PNG, PSD, TIF, DOC/ DOCX, PPT/ PPTX, XLS/ XLSX, OST, PST, MP3, MOV and PDF -- and is much slower, but in our tests did a very good job of finding and restoring data.

We did have some small issues with Pandora Recovery. The image preview option failed regularly, with the program reporting “no preview available”. And the first scans regularly failed to retrieve anything at all on our test FAT drives (USB keys). Running a surface scan successfully restored all our files, but if you’ve lost something the program doesn’t recognise then you won’t be so lucky.

For the most part, though, Pandora Recovery performs very well. It’s easy to use, but also has some powerful features, and is one of the better free undelete tools around.

Photo Credit: Pavel Ignatov/Shutterstock

There are plenty of tools around to check your PC for missing updates, but most have significant issues. Soft4Boost Update Checker is good at detecting updates, for instance, but it won’t download or install them – that’s left up to you.

OUTDATEfighter (from the makers of SPAMfighter) is a little more ambitious. Not only will it find updates, but it can also download and install them for you. There’s a Windows update checker as well. And the program is free, so there are no annoying omissions and you’re not forever being nagged to “upgrade”.

Getting started is simple enough: launch the program, click “Scan for Program Updates” and it’ll examine your installed applications, compare their installed versions against a central list, and produce a report listing available updates.

Installing all these updates is as easy as checking the Name box, and clicking “Update Selected Software”. OUTDATEfighter then downloads the various files and launches them for you. These won’t be silent installations -- you’ll have to work through each setup program, just as normal – but overall you should still save plenty of time.

If you want more control over your updates, it’s also possible to select particular files from the list. And if OUTDATEfighter can’t download an installer itself, or you need to keep the file to use elsewhere, then the program also provides a direct link to the official download page (click the “Information” icon, and click “Link”).

Elsewhere, an Uninstall tab lists your installed applications and can launch their uninstaller with a click.

An “Update Windows” tab seems to be an equivalent to the regular Windows Update tool, listing “Important” and “Optional” updates and installing whatever you select.

And there are a few useful configuration options, including an “Ignore List” which tells OUTDATEfighter to ignore particular programs which you’d rather manage yourself.

In our tests, OUTDATEfighter detected only an average number of updates. And for some reason it couldn’t install a Chrome update; we tried repeatedly, but each time were told “Download failed: try again”. Maybe it was a temporary issue, or something related just to our setup, but there was no way to tell.

We had issues with the “Update Windows” module, too. The regular Windows Update tool said our test PC required only one “Important Update”, but OUTDATEfighter listed eight, most of which weren’t important at all (a fax tool for our all-in-one printer, for instance). Not only does this increase the chance that you’ll install files you wouldn’t otherwise have touched, but it also makes it harder to spot the worthwhile updates amongst the rest.

This isn’t necessarily a critical problem. The ability to batch download all your available updates is very convenient, and we’d certainly recommend giving OUTDATEfighter a try, just to see what the program can do for you.

We would also recommend you leave the Update Windows function alone, though. Or at least check what each update does before you agree to install it.

Photo Credit: ARENA Creative/Shutterstock

With release of OS X 10.8.3, the latest update for Mountain Lion, Apple upgraded the Boot Camp utility, which allows users to dual-boot Windows and OS X on a supported Mac, to version 5. Boot Camp 5 allows users to install either 64-bit editions of Windows 7 or 8 alongside their copy of OS X -- by downloading Boot Camp Support Software 5, you’ll have all the drivers you need to run Windows on your Mac.

One consequence of upgrading to Boot Camp 5 is that support for 32-bit versions of Windows – including XP and Vista as well as 32-bit iterations of Windows 7 and 8 – is no longer supported.

Boot Camp 5 effectively ties Mountain Lion users into choosing Windows 7 or 8 as their alternative OS by dropping support for all previous versions of Windows. It doesn’t affect existing Boot Camp installations, so should you wish to install XP, Vista or a 32-bit version of Windows 7, make sure you set it up now before applying the OS X 10.8.3 update. Alternatively, go down the virtualization route by installing a copy in a virtual machine for free using VirtualBox.

Boot Camp 5 not only supports 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and 8, it also now supports Macs with 3TB hard drives. It’s only available through the OS X 10.8.3 update, which also upgraded Safari to version 6.0.3. Therefore Macs running OS X Lion or earlier aren’t supported.

Users will need to source their own copy of Windows 7 or 8 -- you can download Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit as an ISO image here to work with a licensed product key.

The Boot Camp Support Software 5 contains the latest versions of all Apple hardware drivers across its platforms -- including Thunderbolt, USB 3.0, Apple Trackpad and all chipset, wireless, audio, Bluetooth, keyboard support and graphics. Also installed are the Boot Camp Control Panel for Windows and the System Task Notification item.

Boot Camp Support Software 5 is a free 554MB download for Macs running OS X 10.8.3 or later -- the drivers are installed after Windows has been installed using Boot Camp 5. Updated versions of Boot Camp Support Software 4 are also available for existing Boot Camp installations – visit Apple Support for details.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

What are you doing, standing there tentatively at the edge of the pool? Come on in, the water’s lovely and warm. What, it’s not as lovely and warm as the last pool you were in? Someone says it’s as bad as the pool you were in before that? Poppycock. It’s nowhere near as rubbish as that. What’s that hulking great thing in the corner, you say? Ignore it, you don’t need it.

All of this is a rather convoluted way of saying Windows 8 is not as bad as everyone is making out. But there is that one rather large elephant in the room in the form of the Modern UI, or whatever Microsoft’s calling it these days. But here’s the trick: you can ignore it all with the help of a free -- and now portable -- tool called Skip Metro Suite 3.0.

Skip Metro Suite 3.0 allows you to do two principal things: first, you can bypass the Start screen entirely, so after Windows logs on you find yourself at the more familiar looking Windows 8 desktop. Sure, there are changes, but on the whole we like them. There are plenty of new features and improvements here to justify the update.

Second, Skip Metro Suite 3.0 lets you selectively disable the hotspots at the edge of your screen, aimed at touchscreen users wanting quick access to the Charms bar, task switcher or Start menu. Disabling these means your mouse is free to roam at will into the corners of your screen without worrying about triggering something.

And you can still access these elements by using their keyboard shortcuts: [Win] for the Start screen, [Win] + [Tab] for the task switcher and [Win] + [C] for the Charms bar. In short, the Modern UI is kept out of sight (and largely out of mind) – it’s there if you need it or want to explore it, but it won’t get in the way of your day-to-day.

Everything’s achieved via a simple interface -- just tick the options you want to disable, save your settings, reboot and they’re implemented. Better still, version 3.0 of this useful tool has been completely rewritten from the ground up, converting it into a tiny, standalone portable app with no third-party dependencies. Just fire it up each time you want to tweak (or reverse your changes).

Version 3.0 also claims to have squashed all previous bugs and issues by being rewritten from scratch, and in lieu of an uninstaller utility comes with a new option for disabling the program entirely, so Windows 8 is free to perform as Microsoft envisaged.

It’s all very useful, but it’s worth noting that you’re still left without the traditional Start menu (the [Win] + [X] menu is okay, but no real substitute). If you’re looking for all the features of Skip Metro Suite and the old Start menu, install the Classic Start portion of Classic Shell 3.6.5 instead.

Skip Metro Suite 3.0 is available now as a freeware download for PCs running Windows 8.

If Firefox seems to be using a lot of memory on your system then a resource-hogging add-on could be responsible, but finding out for sure can be a challenge. Entering about:memory in the address bar will provide lots of figures on RAM allocations, for instance, but they’re extremely technical, more about "heaps" and "compartments" than providing information which most people can actually use.

About:addons-memory is a simple Firefox extension which takes a different approach. There’s no jargon, no unnecessary technical details, just install it (no restart required) and enter about:addons-memory in a new tab for an instant report on your extensions and their memory usage.

The list is conveniently sorted by RAM requirements, so if you do have a problem extension then it’ll probably appear at or very close to the top.

If you’re curious, though, just scroll down the list for details on every extension you’ve installed.

And at the bottom of the report is a "Minimize memory usage" button which may help you free up some RAM, as well as a few notes on what the various figures actually mean.

This all worked very well for us, but if you try the add-on yourself then you’ll need to be careful how you interpret the figures.

Coming top of the list doesn’t necessarily mean an extension is poorly coded or inefficient, for instance -- it all depends what it’s doing.

And about:addons-memory may not be able to determine the full amount of RAM used by all your extensions, so you need to treat its memory allocations as a minimum: some add-ons could be using more. If you’re thinking this limits its usefulness, then you’re right, but about:addons-memory is still a handy way to start exploring Firefox’s memory usage, and well worth installing.

Web gallery creation tool JAlbum 11.0 has been released for Windows, Mac and Linux. Version 11.0 allows users to combine video with photos for the first time using the program. Features include support for over 160 video formats, tools for rotating and trimming clips, and preview image generation.

Version 11.0 also improves existing photo-editing tools, updates existing skins and includes a number of developer-friendly improvements, bug fixes and general tweaks.

The key new feature in JAlbum 11.0 is support for video clips in addition to existing support for photo. Clips can be imported from a wide variety of formats via drag-and-drop, and JAlbum is capable of automatically detecting and adjusting video orientation on import. Users can then double-click individual clips to edit them -- in addition to using the existing image tools on offer, videos can also be edited by trimming the start and end points. Users can also choose a preview image by using the slider beneath the video itself.

Video support can be enabled or disabled under Preferences, and users can configure which video formats are supported by the program via the Advanced tab. All videos are converted to MP4 format prior to uploading to the web for maximum compatibility, and all published albums containing movies are automatically tagged with "video".

Other changes to version 11.0 include the bundling of the Arty and AutoCorrection image tools with JAlbum itself. All images -- not just those imported directly from digital cameras -- can now be rotated too. There are also minor updates to the Turtle, Base, Mr.Burns and Lumen skins.

Developers gain a new API for unzipping and downloading, plus closeupPath for supported videos has been set to slide page, which enables embedded video. Also added are videoWidth and videoHeight variables, available when video support is enabled. A fileCategory variable introduces file category support, and the blur filter now accepts defined radius and strength.

Version 11.0 is rounded off by a number of bug fixes, new program icons and a new 128×128 web icon set. JAlbum 11.0 is a free-for-personal-use download for Windows, Mac and Linux. Published web albums are ad-supported -- users can purchase a license or JAlbum hosting account to remove these. Licenses start from €27 for non-commercial use -- a current saving of 30 per cent on the MSRP.

While YouTube’s vast choice of clips means there’s always something good to watch, tracking down the best videos can take a while. Especially if you’re clicking each clip in turn, checking the ratings, then returning to your search results to try something else.

Install YouTube Ratings Preview, though, and you don’t have to worry about that any more. This smart Firefox extension (also available for Chrome) highlights the best-rated videos immediately so you can spot them at a glance.

Once installed, a Likes/ Dislikes bar under every video thumbnail provides a general idea of its popularity (more green is good, more red really isn’t).

And if you need precise figures, just hover your mouse cursor over the bar (and it needs to be the bar, not just the thumbnail) to see the percentage of likes and dislikes, the total number of votes, and the overall rating.

YouTube Ratings Preview has some useful configuration settings, too.

Enable the Highlight option and the best videos on the page will have a blue box drawn around them, so you don’t even have to bother with looking at individual bars.

And while those bars are very narrow -- only 4 pixels, by default -- you’re able to increase them up to 7 pixels, if that’s an issue on your device.

Getting easier access to a Windows 7 shortcut is extremely easy: right-click, select "Pin to taskbar", and an icon will pop up on your taskbar, ready for immediate use.

Right-click a file, though -- or a folder, a drive, a Control Panel applet or just about anything else -- and you’ll find no "Pin" option. There are various manual workarounds you can apply, but your life will be much simpler if you grab a copy of Taskbar Pinner, which allows you to fill the taskbar with just about anything you like.

The program arrives as a tiny (236KB) download. Unzip this and launch either the 32 or 64-bit Taskbar Pinner, depending on your version of Windows. (Or if you’re not sure, just pick one, and the program will tell you if you need to use the other.)

The Taskbar Pinner interface looks much like a regular Windows 7 dialog, and it’s very straightforward. You have four options -- "Pin a File", "Pin a Folder", "Pin a Shell Location" and "Pin a Library" -- and all you have to do is click one, choose whatever it is you’d like to pin, and you’re done.

Probably the most interesting option here is "Pin a Shell Location", as this gives you access to all kinds of system features (not just your own folders). So you can pin Control Panel applets, Windows Help, the Recycle Bin, Windows Search, the Run box and more.

Whatever you select can be removed in the usual way, just by right-clicking and selecting the "Unpin" option.

And if you think you’ll use Taskbar Pinner a lot, then checking the "Explorer context menu" allows you to access it from Explorer, or the desktop, without needing to manually launch the program first. To pin a file, folder or drive to the taskbar, say, you’d just right-click them, select "Pin with Taskbar" and the shortcut will be added right away.

Photo Credit: valdis torms/Shutterstock

File-sharing Dropbox has updated its desktop client for Windows, Mac and Linux with the release of Dropbox 2.0 FINAL. The new build debuts a major revamp of the user interface, accessed when the user clicks the app’s menu bar or Taskbar Notification area icon.

At the present time, the new menu system is only available to Windows users running XP or later, and Mac users running Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) or later -- it has not yet been implemented in the Linux build.

The new menu is more graphically pleasing affair than its predecessor, displaying a summary of recently changed or shared files complete with file type icon or thumbnail preview for identification purposes. Rolling the mouse over an item reveals a Share button, which whisks the user off to the Dropbox website for setting up a public file-sharing invite.

Users should also get notifications when other Dropbox users share items with them -- in the case of files, it’s a straight link to the file itself via the Dropbox website, while folder invites can be accepted or declined from here. Once accepted, shared folders are accessible from the user’s own Dropbox folder.

The new build also provides real-time notification of invites and other sharing functions -- via the program icon in Windows and the Notification Center in OS X, while shortcuts at the top or bottom of the pop-up menu provide quick and easy access to the user’s locally hosted Dropbox folder as well as their Dropbox account online.

Features displayed on the old menu bar -- including how much space is left in a user’s account as well as the current sync progress -- have been relegated to a new settings button. The update also fixes a bug where discrete graphics would be enabled on OS X laptops along with other small, unspecified bug fixes. Support for Brazilian Portuguese has also been added with this release.

In itself, the new features -- while pleasing on the eye -- don’t offer an awful lot to get excited about, but highlight Dropbox’s new focus on sharing as well as backup and syncing. They follow similar functionality appearing on recent updates to the mobile versions of Dropbox, including Dropbox for iOS 2.1.3 and Dropbox for Android 2.3.3.

Dropbox 2.0 FINAL is a freeware download for Dropbox users running Windows, Mac or Linux.

Photo credit: mojito.mak[dog]gmail[dot]com/Shutterstock

I've been a user, and a fan, of Soluto since the Tel Aviv-based PC management service launched back in 2010. It helped me reduce my boot time by a few seconds, but more importantly it halved the boot time of my in-laws' PC. A move to the cloud means the service now lets me remotely solve issues on several PCs belonging to less tech-savvy friends and family, and I'd definitely recommend it.

Soluto offers various useful features -- it can cut boot times and de-clutter browsers; it will let you remotely manage system security, and even add a Start menu to Windows 8. By collecting anonymous user data, Soluto also offers a fascinating insight into PC use around the globe. Did you know, for example, that in Vietnam the average PC takes a minute less to boot up than PCs in the US and UK? I chatted to Tomer Dvir, Co-founder and CEO of Soluto, about the service, and he told me how it's evolved and how the Soluto community is actively working to find solutions to the system and software crashes that plague PC users everywhere.

BN: For the benefit of any readers not familiar with Soluto, can you tell me about the service and what it does?

TD: Soluto is a service for managing multiple PCs, designed for the small business IT person or just anyone who’s helping friends and family with their PCs.

Soluto makes it simple to support PCs -- it gives visibility into the managed PCs from any browser, wherever you are.

It helps you solve PC issues and undertake standard maintenance work (such as installing and updating apps, shortening boot time, monitoring PC hardware) without the need for using remote access. In addition, it allows you to keep the PCs you manage in top shape from anywhere even when they’re off without disrupting people’s ongoing work.

Most importantly -- Soluto notifies you by email when there is an important task on an individual PC that requires your immediate attention, thereby avoiding the need to constantly check the PCs.

BN: Soluto used to be a desktop program for speeding up Windows boot then it switched to the cloud, and added the ability to remotely manage/fix other people’s PC. Why the change?

TD: Our vision has always been to let people do more with their technology.

When we started building our first product, we focused on bringing the best out of a single PC. As we progressed, we wanted to let people manage more than one PC and let them do that from anywhere, which naturally led us to build a web-based service with remote access capabilities.

BN: You launched at TechCrunch Disrupt and won the competition. How did that affect the business?

TD: Launching Soluto at TechCrunch Disrupt and winning the competition was an awesome experience and a huge surprise for us (we launched a PC management service in a room full of 2,000+ Macs).

The immediate effect was a boost in downloads, and seven weeks following the competition Soluto had more than 500,000 downloads in over 150 countries. We didn't expect something that crazy and weren't ready to scale up so fast. We had to improve our solution so we could expand quickly; therefore, we decided to move to the cloud.

In addition to the technical aspect, the user scale we reached generated huge amounts of feedback that was really eye-opening with respect to the direction people wanted Soluto to take. We quickly moved to the next phase and started working on a service which helps people manage multiple PCs.

Beyond that, there were the obvious memorable media moments, like being featured in the NY Times or being picked as Top Windows Software at Lifehacker in 2010.

If you’re an Internet entrepreneur, especially if you’re building a consumer service, we strongly recommend checking out TechCrunch Disrupt as a launch platform.

BN: Soluto has an option to allow Windows 8 users to switch to classic desktop mode and bypass the Start screen. What made you decide to add that as a feature?

TD: We were lucky to be one of the companies that had an opportunity to review Windows 8 before it was launched and quickly realized that some people might prefer to keep using the old Start menu and desktop (as many people just don’t feel comfortable with changes). We’ve decided to let those people work the way they like.

Even among Soluto’s employees, some love the new Start screen, while others prefer to keep using the old Start menu.

BN: You’ve recorded PC boot times across the world, what countries are the fastest and what are the slowest?

TD: We've recently released some interesting stats regarding boot time. One of the analyses we did was average boot time per different countries. The fastest countries are Vietnam (2:28 min), Brazil (3:06 min) and Germany (3:00 min), while the slowest countries are the UK (03:27 min), the USA (03:26 min) and Japan (03:20 min). In addition to the country stats, you can find some really cool facts there, for example -- the average person spends no less than 1.6 hours a month watching his PCs start up.

BN: What type of PC data do you collect and how do you use it?

TD: The PC data collected from our users is technical information required to help them perform standard maintenance for the PCs they support and solve PC issues. We never keep any personal Information -- only technical info such as hardware and software installed, PC crashes and non-responsive apps events, usage of browsers and installed toolbars.

Based on this data, we provide our users with better visibility into their network and the PCs they manage. In addition, reports are being produced so that users can better measure and monitor their PCs -- how much storage PCs are consuming, how much time is being wasted on boots and crashes, average power cost and power consumption, to name but a few examples.

In addition, we aggregate all of this data anonymously and provide our users with recommendations about what other people do to help them make decisions on boot items, toolbars, apps they're using etc.

BN: When programs crash Soluto tries to find a solution, but in my case never does. Does Soluto find solutions for a lot of problems?

TD: Helping users solve crashes was always part of our vision. In a typical week, more than 300,000 crashes are detected by Soluto and in respect of every crash we collect a lot of technical information about the crashing application and other processes running during the crash. This information can help our users learn more about the crash they've experienced. For our community users, this information is very helpful when trying to solve a crash. Our community already helped in solving part of the crashes detected and today every time there is a crash on one of the PCs you manage, which we have a solution for, you get an email with the full solution and details on what to do next.

Unfortunately, not all crashes have solutions yet, and there is still a lot of work to be done in that area. We encourage our users to join the community and contribute from their experience and knowledge.

BN: How does Soluto make money?

TD: Soluto has different pricing plans for both home users and IT businesses to accommodate the needs of our diverse user base.

Home users can upgrade their account and enjoy features like remote access. They can also use Soluto for free up to a limited number of PCs.

IT businesses can choose the package that works for them depending on the nature and size of their business by going here http://www.soluto.com/business.

BN: What makes Soluto worth paying for as an IT solution?

TD: Soluto gives IT professionals a different experience from any other tool out there today. It's an offline service which works even if the PCs you're supporting are off or in a different location. You don't have to constantly check in and see what's going on with your PCs as the service is proactive -- it will notify you when there's something important to do in clear actionable emails. In addition, Soluto helps you measure yourself and your network by providing visibility to stuff like asset management, power consumption and PCs performance. For business users it also includes a remote access feature.

And most importantly, Soluto is designed for people. We believe IT is all about people who happen to also use PCs. That's why the service communicates with both sides of the relationship -- the IT person and the supported person. We have also added features like QuickQuestion, which lets the people you support communicate with you and ask you questions when they need your help.

IT people using Soluto can really stand out as IT professionals -- the people they support will understand what they’ve done to help them with their PC, and they'll appreciate them for it.

Photo Credit: fotoscool/Shutterstock

Launch some applications and they’ll display the Windows User Account Control prompt, asking "Do you want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer?". And while this is great for security, if you’re running the same trusted program on a regular basis then you might begin to find it just a little annoying.

You could avoid this by turning off UAC entirely, but that’s not ideal (it does have some security value). And so a better idea might be to use ElevatedShortcut. It’s a tiny portable tool which helps you to creates shortcuts that won’t generate a UAC prompt, no matter what you’re trying to launch.

The program has a straightforward and very Windows-like interface. Simply launch it, click "New shortcut", specify the program to launch (which you must trust 100 percent, because you are giving it the right to do virtually whatever it likes) and where you’d like your shortcut to be launched: the desktop, say. Then click OK, the shortcut will be created and you can use it right away.

If you have an existing shortcut to a program then the "Modify shortcut" option will tweak this to again avoid the UAC prompt.

And if you’re worried about the security implications of doing this, then you might appreciate the "Remove shortcut" option, which lists all the shortcuts the program has created previously and allows you to delete them (all, or individually).

In our tests this all worked very well, but we wanted to understand more about how ElevatedShortcut worked. What was it doing, and could this have any other effect on our system?

There was no reason to worry, though: a quick look at the properties of our new shortcuts revealed that they’re just using Windows Task Scheduler to bypass UAC. It’s been public knowledge for a long time that this is possible; all the program does it make the process simpler and more accessible.

If you’re a little tired of UAC, then, ElevatedShortcut offers a useful and very convenient way to bypass it for programs you trust. Go grab a copy immediately.

Photo credit: Ronald Sumners/Shutterstock

Launch an application on the Windows desktop and you have complete freedom to position and size its window however you like (as long as it’s resizeable, anyway). But while this is all very flexible, it also brings management problems when you need to position windows precisely, set and restore a particular window size, and so on.

There are some keyboard shortcuts which might help, just a little (press Win+Shift+the up or right arrow to maximise the current window vertically or horizontally, for instance). If you need more control, though, you might like to try Gridy, which provides plenty of useful windows management features in a very compact and convenient package.

The program is portable, so it’s easy to try: just download, unzip and go. Then try dragging and dropping a desktop window with the mouse, and you’ll notice the first Gridy feature -- your windows now snap to a grid. It’s quite fine (32 pixels by default), but if you’re trying to align windows then it should be enough to make your life much easier.

Or maybe you’d prefer to move your window from the keyboard? Just hold down the Win key, press one of the arrow keys, and the current window will snap from one grid position to the next. (You can do something similar anyway by pressing Alt+Space, then M, but Gridy’s approach is a little more straightforward.)

And if you have a situation where you need to position a window outside of the grid, that’s possible too. Simply hold down the Shift key and drag with the mouse.

This would be useful in itself, but Gridy is just getting started. The program can also store the size of the current window (Win+Shift+Home) and restore it later (Win+Home). Or you can store the size and position of up to 9 windows (Win+Ctrl+Numpad 1-9), then recall them as required (Win+Numpad 1-9).

Elsewhere, pressing Win+F10 toggles transparency for the current window.

Win+F12 toggles “always on top”.

And there are plenty of configuration options on offer. You can change the grid resolution, the transparency level, the hotkeys, how the program treats the screen edge (whether it lets windows moves past the edge, or not), and more.

This isn’t bad at all for a free tool which normally requires less than 3MB RAM. And so if you’re looking to bring a little order to your desktop, give Gridy a try – it’s capable, configurable and extremely easy to use.

Photo Credit: Lilya/Shutterstock

It’s no secret that keeping your installed software up-to-date is a very good idea, for a lot of reasons (improving security, fixing bugs, boosting performance and more), but if you don’t have the time to regularly visit developer’s websites then individual updates are easy to miss.

Install Soft4Boost Update Checker, though, and the program can check your PC on demand, alerting you to any new updates in just a few seconds: much easier.

Update Checker is free, though with the usual adware offered during installation. But they’re not trying to hide anything, it’s all up-front, so as long as you’re paying attention you can clear the appropriate checkboxes and install only what you need.

Launch Soft4Boost Update Checker and it’ll quickly scan your PC, checking your installed applications with a server list of the current versions, and displaying a list of any available updates. If you see something of interest, select it, click the globe icon and you’ll be taken to the program’s home page.

And that’s about it. There’s no automatic installation, no new system tray icons, no component running all the time to give you immediate update alerts -- just basic on-demand checks only.

How effective is this? The Soft4Boost site doesn’t provide a list of the programs it supports, or even give an idea of how many there are, which made us a little suspicious. So we decided to compare its performance with FileHippo.com Update Checker on a Windows 7 test PC, and our worries turned out to be groundless. FileHippo reported 10 available updates for our system, but Soft4Boost Update Checker uncovered 19, an easy victory.

The program does still have some small issues, mostly related to its interface. When you’re viewing a list of items on a grid you’d expect to be able to use the cursor keys to scroll, right? Not here: they do nothing at all (you can spin the mouse wheel instead, but that won’t help if you don’t have one).

And we thought double-clicking should open a browser window at the application site, but no -- that doesn’t work, either.

Still, it only takes a moment to figure out what you need to do instead, and once you’ve done that Soft4Boost Update Checker works very well: it’s lightweight and simple, a hassle-free tool which quickly alerts you to plenty of application upgrades.

Photo Credit: alexmillos/Shutterstock

GIMP is the most powerful free graphics editor around but you can extend it even further with the right extensions. You’ll need to find them first, of course, because GIMP doesn’t have any built-in mechanism to show you what’s available. But if that’s too much trouble then you could always install GIMP Extensions for Windows, which gives you more than 50 in a single package.

You’ll get GIMP Paint Studio, for instance, which equips the program with additional brushes, patterns, palettes and more.

Plugins include Adaptive Contrast Enhancement, BIMP (Batch Image Manipulation Plugin), Cartoonizer, Focus Blur, GIMP Mask, Image Registration, Liquid Rescale, PAL & VHS, and Save for Web.

Bundled scripts include AnimStack, Fake HDR Effect and Split Studio 3. While GIMP FX Foundry adds more than 100 new options all on its own.

There’s more file format support (APNG, DDS, JPEG XR, WebP).

And you even get animation options via GIMP Animation Package. (The full list is available at the GIMP Extensions page.)

You don’t have to install all of these, fortunately. If you have some already, or just want to decide for yourself, then the setup tool allows you to select the extensions you need, and the ones you really don’t. Whatever you’ve chosen will then be added to your system with a click.

Launch GIMP and you’ll probably find it’s now quite slow to start. Much of this is a one-off, though, as GIMP Extensions’ new tools are installed and initialised. And once the program appears, you can begin exploring its extra powers -- the new FX-Foundry menu is a great place to start.

Bopsoft has released Listary 4.0 and Listary Portable 4.0, the latest builds of its lightweight, ultra-compact search add-on for Windows users. The new release has been rewritten from scratch, and simplifies browsing and searching for files from a number of locations, including Windows Explorer, Open/Save dialog boxes and various third-party tools.

Version 4.0 includes a number of major new features, including disk and sub-folder search, fuzzy navigation, History, Actions and Projects. It also comes with a number of notable improvements, including enhanced search performance and ranking.

Listary is triggered from Windows Explorer, application open/save dialog boxes and other supported programs simply by typing keywords -- for example, browse to a folder and start typing to see a list of files and folders containing the letters or phrase typed.

Version 4.0 adds a number of major new features. By adding the ‘>’ prefix to an item, Listary will switch on the new Disk Search mode to search across your entire hard drive for the file or folder name entered as opposed to the currently selected folder. Note that Disk Search only works with NTFS-formatted drives.

Projects, Actions and Fuzzy Navigation support are all billed as new Pro features, but will work without restriction in the free version, with the occasional nag screen and reminder to upgrade whenever they’re used. Projects allows users to create shortcuts to frequently accessed folders that can be searched directly from the Listary dialog simply by entering the folder’s name or pre-defined shortcut. Browse to the folder and type proj to set it up.

A new Actions feature provides users with access to commands from the Windows Explorer context menu from Listary by selecting the target file and pressing the right cursor key. Also added is Fuzzy Navigation, which allows users to drill down to favorite files without knowing their exact name or location by typing what you do remember – such as a mixture of the parent folder name and the file itself.

Also added to version 4.0 is the ability to exclude items from the Recent list by drive, folder or user-defined filter -- this feature is managed manually via the History tab of Listary’s Options dialog. Toolbars and menus can also now be customized via the Menu tab. A tutorial is also provided to give users a head start into using the program -- this launches automatically on first-run, and can be repeated via the program’s Taskbar Notification Area icon at any time.

Support for many third-party file explorer tools has been updated to support the latest versions and add new tools, such as FreeCommander XE, XnView and Clover. The program now also checks for updates automatically -- a timely addition as both skin and custom action support for Pro users is planned for version 4.1.

Listary 4.0 is rounded off by a number of improvements, including better search ranking and performance, better support for changing the portable folder’s user-data location and an enhanced auto-expanding folder option.

Listary 4.0 and Listary Portable 4.0 are both available as a free-for-personal use downloads for Windows XP or later. The commercial version -- Listary Pro -- can be unlocked within the program and costs $19.95 for a three-computer license and lifetime of free updates.

Photo credit: olly/Shutterstock

Windows 8 has several annoyances, but perhaps one of the most notable is its requirement to run apps full screen, or in an ugly 2/3, 1/3 mode. When you’re used to being able to position and arrange application windows just as you like, this seems like a significant backward step: we have far less choice then we did before.

But ModernMix, the latest release from Stardock, changes all that. Because this simple $4.99 program allows you to run Windows 8 apps in a resizable window on your desktop, just like anything else.

Getting hold of the beta build is a little awkward right now, as you have to provide your email address and wait to be sent a link. But with that out of the way, the program downloads and installs quickly, before presenting you with a basic settings dialog. Just clear that for the moment (the default settings are fine), and you’re ready to go.

Now launch an app from the Start Screen, and it’ll appear in a window on the desktop, where you can use it as normal. The window can be freely resized and positioned to suit your needs, and has a regular Close button in the top right corner, so you can shut the app down like any other program.

The app also has a button on the taskbar, of course, and clicking there will bring it to the foreground. Right-click, though, and you’ll find an option to pin your favorite apps to the taskbar, so avoiding the need to switch to the Start screen at all. (And if you do launch an app that way, it’ll relaunch with whatever window size and position it had last time, so you only need set it up once.)

While this all worked very smoothly for us, it’s possible that some apps might not work so well in a window. Or perhaps you’ll just want to switch back to the Start screen for some other reason. Either way, pressing F10 while running an app will switch you from a desktop window to the start screen, and back again. Or, if you prefer to use the mouse, ModernMix adds a tiny overlay to the top right corner of the app which allows you to do the same thing.

And if you’re unhappy with any of this, a settings box makes it easy to change. You can turn off the window overlay, say; disable or change the F10 hotkey; or maybe set things up so that apps run full screen when launched from the Start screen, but in a window when launched from the desktop.

Despite being a beta, all this worked very well for us, with no noticeable problems or issues at all. And so, if you spend more time on the desktop than the Start screen, ModernMix comes highly recommended: it’s the best Windows 8 extension we’ve seen to date, and at $4.99 is an absolute bargain.

There are many reasons why you’d want to hide your internet IP address. The most common one is that you’re trying to access services or web sites restricted to a specific country or territory -- this might be to catch up with UK BBC TV’s shows via iPlayer or for more fundamental reasons, such as bypassing a country’s censorship restrictions.

Spoofing your IP address so you appear to come from another country than the one you’re residing in isn’t by itself a difficult task -- all you need is a decent VPN service. But when it comes to simplicity and decent performance, you can’t beat a service called Hideman, available on Windows and Mac via the free Hideman 2.0 tool, and Hideman VPN 1.9.7 for Android.

Hideman isn’t new -- version 2.0 has just been released sporting a brand new user interface -- but it’s built a reputation as one of the better VPN services out there. Aside from providing you with the opportunity to spoof your own IP address, it also provides 256-bit encryption for all data received and transmitted, adding an extra layer of protection to your web browsing while also allowing you to surf safely via open public Wi-Fi hotspots.

The software is ridiculously easy to use. Fire it up, click the > button to choose the country you wish to appear to be in, and let the software do the rest. Suddenly services restricted to your country of choice are available to you wherever you happen to be.

The service -- like most good VPN services -- isn’t completely free. However, for occasional use and testing purposes you can use the service for up to five hours per week -- note, however, that once you trigger one of your free hours, it will count down relentlessly in the background whether or not you use the service, and shutting down the program has no effect.

You can subsequently leave the program running in the background and trigger a fresh hour by clicking the Hours button, or completely close it from its Notification area icon, knowing the next time you launch it, the next hour’s countdown will begin.

There are other restrictions for free users to be aware of: first, you can only connect through six countries: the US, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Panama and Singapore (four of which permit the use of P2P). Second, you can only download 2GB per month, and the connection speed may be limited to 512Kbps.

It’s also worth noting that free users’ access logs are stored encrypted for 14 days, and will be used in exceptional circumstances (see the FAQ for full details).

Should you want unlimited access with no logging to more than 20 countries (including Australia, the UK, Canada and Japan), support for port forwarding and changing IP on the fly, then invest in a paid-for account. Prices start from $3 for one week’s access from your computer, or $2.90 for one month’s access from your mobile (either through the Android app or by logging on through the Hideman website on your iPhone or iPad). Pricing plans go all the way up to a year’s access -- $69 for computers, $24.90 for mobiles.

Hideman 2.0 is available as a free, function-limited download for Macs and Windows. Hideman VPN 1.9.7 is a free app for Android users. Up to three devices can connect at one time through a single account.

Launch Windows, open a folder or file, install, remove or run a program -- just about everything you do on a PC results in Windows writing to the Registry. And over time that means the Registry files will grow, as they contain more and more "slack space", gaps where old entries used to be.

This isn’t particularly harmful, but it does waste a little memory and hard drive space. And so you might like to try Tweaking.com’s Registry Compressor, a small and simple tool which can defragment your Registry, removing this slack space (nothing else -- this isn’t a Registry cleaner) and cutting the files down to size.

The defragmentation process isn’t particularly difficult or dangerous, but plainly if there is a problem, and the Registry is corrupted, then it could trash your PC. And so we’d recommend caution. Only run Registry Compressor on a system which has been fully backed up. And close down all running programs before you launch it, too (you’ll want to minimize Registry activity while the program runs).

With that done, fire up Registry Compressor, click Analyze, and after a few seconds it’ll present some figures on how bloated your Registry files might be. This can deliver some apparently dramatic results, with for instance some of the smaller files on our test PC being anything up to 9 times larger than necessary. Overall, though, fragmentation wasn’t a major problem: the total size of our Registry was currently 172MB, and Registry Compressor claimed it could reduce this to 168.99MB, a 1.75 percent saving.

Still, if your system shows a larger figure -- or you’re just thinking that "every little helps" -- then all you have to do is click "Compress". After a second or two (it’s very quick) the program will tell you it’s done, and recommend you reboot. And as we’re not quite sure how this defragmentation will affect processes which are currently accessing the Registry, it’s probably a good idea to do this right away.

Once our system had restarted, we ran Registry Compressor again, just to see what its analysis revealed now. And sure enough, it seemed to have worked, as our fragmentation had dropped to 0.1MB, or about 0.06 percent.

Is this worth the effort? We saw no obvious performance improvement, but perhaps that’s because our test system wasn’t too badly fragmented in the first place.

If you’d like to try Registry Compressor on your own system, though, it’s very quick and easy (a 335KB download, no installation required, no adware), and simply seeing a report on the degree of Registry fragmentation could be interesting. Just be sure you use it with care; backup your system and close programs beforehand, and reboot your system immediately afterwards.

Photo Credit: Andrew Park /Shutterstock

Windows apps that you run on Windows 8 are limited to the Start screen environment by default. Here you can run them in full screen, or attached to a side of the screen so that they use 1/3 or 2/3 of the screen. What you cannot do is run them in windowed mode on the desktop.

Attempts have been made in the past to bring that extra functionality to Windows 8 in the form of third-party applications. One of them, RetroUI Pro does so, but the implementation is fairly limited.

Stardock's ModernMix for Windows 8 is the first program -- to my knowledge -- that makes Windows apps as usable as desktop programs that run on the system. The application has been designed so that you can run one or multiple Windows apps that you have downloaded and installed from the built-in store on the desktop just like any other program you may have installed on the system -- side-by-side with desktop programs or other apps.

Even better is the fact that it does so in an unobtrusive way. Once you have installed the program on your system you are presented with an options menu where you can select how apps should be opened on the system.

You can modify settings for apps that you launch from the Start screen, and settings for apps that you launch from the desktop. This works in sync with Start menu programs that you may have installed already on your system, which is probably the easiest way to run apps from the desktop.

Your options are to launch apps in full screen like before, in full screen but with window controls, or in windowed mode on the desktop. The latter enables you to manage the app windows like any other program window that is currently open on the desktop. You can resize the window, minimize it to the taskbar or close it easily using the window controls that  you used to work with in previous versions of Windows.

The applications retain all of their functionality when you run them on the desktop. You will notice that many become better to work with when you do so. The mail application, for instance, benefits from this greatly. You can now easily copy and paste multiple items into mails, fire up a browser without losing focus of the mail window, or watch a video on YouTube while you are composing an email.

All apps that you launch that way on the desktop get their icon on the taskbar so that you can easily switch between them. App switching was never that easy on Windows 8 before.

The developers have integrated a shortcut -- F10 -- in to the program that you can use to switch between app states easily. A tap on F10 switches between windowed mode and full screen mode. If you prefer to use the mouse, you can alternatively use the controls at the top right of every full-screen app window to do so. Both options can be disabled in the settings if you prefer so.

The program has one small issue that I encountered during tests. If you try to add an attachment to an email, you are taken to a full screen file browser regardless of app state. That's not a big issue but I thought I mention it anyway.

If you'd ask me an hour ago which program I'd consider essential for Windows 8, I'd replied with the name of a start menu application for that operating system. This has changed with the release of ModernMix. The program improves the Windows 8 experience significantly by making apps as usable on the desktop as standard desktop programs.

Stardock's ModernMix is available as a 30 day free trial version. The full program is available as of now for $4.99. It is only compatible with Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro, but not Windows RT.

Berlin software developer Ashampoo GmbH has released Ashampoo WinOptimizer 10.1.0, the latest version of its Windows system optimization tool. WinOptimizer 10, which provides one-click tools for privacy, cleaning and optimizing PCs, debuts four new modules, plus a brand new user interface.

The tool, which is available as a 10-day trial by default (users can extend this by a further 30 days by registering for a free key), also comes with four updates for existing modules, enhanced Windows 8 support and user-definable favorites.

The most striking thing about WinOptimizer 10 is its brand new interface. The overtly blue appearance of version 9 is replaced by a steel grey look. The main screen provides a summary of the three key areas WinOptimizer addresses: cleaning, optimizing and protection. Users can then go for a one-click scan, with options for easily reviewing and "hiding" (ignore) individual issues, or letting Ashampoo fix the problems automatically.

Alternatively, users can opt to optimize manually via the program’s Modules section. Four new modules have been added to version 10 to take the grand total to 32 -- these are a duplicate file finder, obsolete shortcuts checker, fonts manager and System Restore manager, the latter allowing users to review and delete individual Restore points.

In addition to these new modules, four existing tools have also been enhanced. The File Wiper adds an option for wiping free disk space to prevent recovery of previously deleted files, while the Internet Cleaner and Drive Cleaner promise faster performance. The Drive Cleaner -- along with the Registry Optimizer module -- has also been improved by providing more accurate detection rates for better results.

While WinOptimizer 9 came with support for Windows 8, version 10 promises enhancements for users of Microsoft’s latest operating system. There’s a revised task scheduler, and Windows 8-tailored tweaks to go with compatibility improvements.

Other user interface tweaks include redesigned overview and statistics pages for better clarity, and user-definable favorites. The Favorites screen has always displayed the most frequently accessed modules in WinOptimizer, but from version 10 users can now pin up to four of their favorite modules to this screen for permanent access: from the Modules page, roll the mouse over an individual tool and click the star icon that appears next to it to add (or subsequently) remove that module from the Favorites screen.

Ashampoo WinOptimizer 10.1.0 is available now as a free trial download for PCs running Windows XP or later. The full version comes with a MSRP of $39.99, although upgrades and discounts are available for existing and trial users.

Photo Credit: Amy Walters /Shutterstock

When you’re troubleshooting a network problem then it often makes sense to take a look at your network adapters, and all their associated details. But Windows doesn’t make this nearly as easy as it should. The information is available, but very fragmented, so you’ll probably have to browse various Control Panel applets and run a few command line tools to get the details you need.

Fortunately there now an easier way, though, in the shape of a new tool from NirSoft, NetworkInterfacesView.

Just launch the program and it immediately list all your network interfaces, both active and inactive, along with all their basic details: the device and connection name, IP address, default gateway, name servers and MAC address.("USB\VID_050D&PID_2103\00E04C000001" is a typical example) but can still provide helpful information. Physical adapters built into your PC will probably begin with PCI\; removable USB adapters start with USB\, while virtual (software-based) interfaces typically begin ROOT\.

There are also details like the adapter’s DHCP server (if appropriate), interface GUID and MTU value.

And the program also includes interesting items such as "Registry Time", which presumably relates to the time when an interface Registry key was last written or modified. Although as we’re not sure which keys, or what might cause these to be written or modified, this information is tricky to interpret.

That’s just the start, though. NetworkInterfacesView also provides an Instance ID, which looks cryptic Still, even without these extras, NetworkInterfacesView does provide a great deal of data which could be very helpful when you’re troubleshooting network issues. As usual with NirSoft tools, these details can be exported as a report for analysis later. And the program itself is a tiny (56KB) portable executable which should run on any edition of Windows, from 2000 through to 8 (and both 32 and 64-bit).

Photo credit: Vladru/shutterstock

Open-source Windows defrag tool UltraDefrag 6.0 FINAL has been released along with a 64-bit build and portable editions. The new build promises optimized disk processing algorithms for speed and efficiency, support for optimizing FAT disks and the ability to minimize the main window to the Taskbar Notification area.

Ultra Defrag comes with a graphical interface for less experienced users as well as options for defragging individual files, folders and drives from the Explorer context menu, but power users can also control it via a console, with options for batch processing and setting up scheduled tasks available. It also comes with boot-time options for defragging system files and Registry hives.

The key improvement in UltraDefrag 6.0 is the reimplementation of all the disk processing algorithms. This optimization improves the program’s overall speed through more efficient and therefore shorter processing times.

Version 6 also allows users to optimize FAT disks for the first time, plus users can now sort files on the disk by optimization as well as path, size and one of creation, modification or last accessed times. The program’s optimization tools now also make full use of all specified filters.

The GUI has been tweaked with redesigned icons aimed at making the program look better on Windows Vista and above. Users also gain a few additional options, including one to minimize the program to its Taskbar Notification area icon, and another that allows them to suspend and resume running jobs.

Windows 7 and 8 users can also view a progress of any currently running jobs through the program’s Taskbar Notification area icon with this latest release. Like many other settings, this can be switched off by clicking the program’s Options button, which opens its configuration file in Notepad for editing manually.

All file fragmentation reports are no longer stored on the root directory of each analyzed drive; instead they can be found in the Reports sub-folder inside the program’s own folder.

The new release, which went through two beta and three Release Candidate versions, is rounded off with one new language (Bengali) added alongside numerous language updates (including Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Russian and Spanish), plus the usual gamut of bug fixes and behind-the-scenes tweaks.

UltraDefrag 6.0 FINAL and UltraDefrag 6.0 FINAL 64-bit, along with UltraDefrag Portable 6.0 32-bit and UltraDefrag Portable 6.0 64-bit, are all available as open-source downloads for PCs running Windows NT 4.0 or later.

Photo Credit: Balandina G/Shutterstock

Oracle has released VirtualBox 4.2.8, a maintenance update for its open-source, cross-platform virtualisation tool that should improve stability and fix various regressions. Notable changes include a fix that caused guests to crash when using a huge amount of guest RAM on machines with Intel Virtualisation (VT-x) technology.

Aside from bug fixes, there is one minor performance tweak of note, which sees the time for merging snapshots reduced under certain conditions. Users can now also change VRDE settings for saved VMs under Settings.

Over 30 changes have been recorded in version 4.2.8 -- other notable bug fixes include a fix for the layout bug in the OS X version of VirtualBox’s Clone VM dialog box that caused the GUI to fail. Windows hosts will also find they are now able to use keyboard input when the Take Guest Screenshot dialog box is open.

An access violation error that caused occasional crashes on multi-monitor setups when users attempted to change resolutions has been resolved, while another that destroyed VDI images using the XFS file system when extended has also been fixed.

Performance issues with IPv6 networking over bridged adapters have been resolved through fixing a TCP pseudo header checksum computation, while a small memory leak affecting VBoxService.exe in the Guest Additions has also been closed.

Among the regressions fixed include one that caused VirtualBox 4.2.6 to hang when certain inaccessible VMs were present, and another that has affected X11 Additions since version 4.2.0, which prevented screen automatic resizing for guests using X.org 1.3 or earlier.

VirtualBox 4.2.8 is available now as a free, open-source download for Windows, Mac and Linux. Also available is VirtualBox Extension Pack 4.2.8, a free-for-personal-use download that adds support for USB 2.0, VirtualBox Remote Desktop Protocol and more.

Download an ISO disc image onto a brand new PC and you probably won’t need any third-party software to handle it. Windows 8 makes it easy to mount the image as a virtual drive, so you can access the contents without needing to burn them to a physical disc.

This option isn’t exactly configurable, though. It offers no support for the many other disc image formats out there. And it’s not much help if you don’t have Windows 8, either -- which is why you might prefer to install VirtualDVD.

The program is a simple free tool which can mount CD, DVD and Blu-ray images to a virtual drive. It’s a small download (under 3MB), and installs quickly with no adware to avoid.

Once running, VirtualDVD can be accessed via its system tray icon. Right-click it, select Virtual Devices, choose the virtual drive, click Mount Image, and point the program at the image you need (B5T/ B6T, BIN, BWT, CCD, CDI, CUE, DVD, IMG, ISO, ISZ, LCD, MDS/ MDF, NRG and PDI formats are supported so you shouldn’t have any problems).

The disc then becomes available in Explorer just as though it was a physical drive.

This can be customized to a degree via the usual Windows tools (you can change its region, drive letter and so on).

And you’re also able to add further virtual drives, if necessary. Right-click the system tray icon, select Preferences, and set "Count" to the number of devices you need (up to a maximum of 24).

The program is a little on the basic side. It doesn’t have the configuration options you’ll get with some of the competition (or any significant settings at all, really). And there’s virtually no documentation, either. There’s nothing provided with the program itself, and the online help currently has a single page listing the supported image formats only.

To be fair, though, VirtualDVD is extremely simple, and you’re most unlikely to need any assistance. So if you need easier access to disc images beyond just ISO files, the program could be worth a try.

Plymouth, MI-based Stardock Software has released Stardock DeskScapes 8.0, a brand new version of its Windows desktop and screensaver animation tool. Version 8.0, which costs $9.99 after the intial 30-day trial expires, adds full Windows 8 compatibility to the tool’s roster, plus debuts a brand new user interface that’s designed to be easier to use.

DeskScapes 8.0 allows users to customize existing desktop wallpapers with animations and over 40 special effects. Users can also apply, and create, specially animated desktops created using Stardock’s own proprietary Dream format. A number of examples are provided with the program, but dozens more are available to download via wincustomize.com. Stardock, which specialises in desktop customisation tools, is celebrating its 20th year.

The tool is incredibly easy to use. It can be accessed at any time via the desktop by right-clicking and choosing Configure DeskScapes. From here, it’s a basic three-step process: first, choose your target wallpaper – seven animated examples are provided in the program, with the other options made up of images from selected folders (users can choose other folders to include with the default selections too). There’s also a link to wincustomize.com, where users can download dozens of animated desktops created by other users.

A small preview, plus description and three or four tabs will appear. Select these to configure the wallpaper further -- select Effects to access one of 40 special effects, which include a range of filters including blur and colorization effects. Again, the preview updates when one is selected to give you an idea of how it will look.

Users can also combine up to four special effects together for one striking effect -- click the Combined effects button to get started -- and then it’s a case of clicking Apply to my desktop to make it your desktop wallpaper, or clicking the down arrow next to the button to access an option to make it your screensaver instead.

The tool also comes bundled with Stardock DreamMaker, a tool for creating your own desktops in the Dream format. It’s not particularly simple to use, but does at least give you the opportunity to indulge your creative side further.

Stardock DeskScapes 8.0 can be downloaded for free as a 30-day trial, with the full version costing $9.99. DeskScapes 8.0 requires a PC running Windows 7 or 8.

If your PC has multiple drives – or even just several USB keys -- then you’ve probably already decided exactly how each drive is going to be used. But are you sure that decision is correct? Do you know which drive is the fastest, for instance? If that might make a difference, then BenchMe is a simple and free device benchmarking tool which may be able to help.

The program comes in a very small download (703KB), which unfortunately then requires installation. We’re not quite sure why -- it looks like the kind of tool which could very easily be portable -- but at least there’s no adware or other dangers to worry about.

On launch BenchMe presents you with an extremely basic interface, which essentially consists of 5 buttons and an (initially blank) report screen. And so, while we’d normally complain about the lack of documentation -- there’s no Help file, no Readme.txt, not even any tooltips -- in this case you really don’t need any at all.

All you really have to do is click the arrow to the right of the Start button, and choose the device or drive you’d like to benchmark. And that’s it, your work is done -- you can now sit back and watch as BenchMe begins its checks.

This simplicity doesn’t mean the program is short on features, though. It’ll start by giving you the model name of your drive, for instance. And then it’ll itemize your drive’s capabilities, so if you need to know whether it supports S.M.A.R.T., Automatic Acoustic Management, Native Command Queuing, Tagged Command Queuing, TRIM and so on, you can find out at a glance.

BenchMe measures some values, too. It’ll tell you the drive’s minimum, maximum and average access time, for example. And you’ll see the number of IOPS (I/O Operations Per Second) the drive can handle, for both a queue depth of 1 and 32.

Perhaps most usefully, you’ll also get a graph which shows you the linear read speed and how it varies across the surface of the drive, with the minimum and maximum speeds highlighted.

And when it’s all done, you’re able to print the results immediately, or copy them to the clipboard (in various sizes) for further processing elsewhere.

We did have one problem with BenchMe. For some reason it was unable to detect our drive capabilities, and so they were all greyed out on the report screen.

We’re not sure whether that’s a general issue, though, or just something specific to our hardware setup. And even without that feature, BenchMe is a handy benchmarking tool, straightforward and easy to use.

Photo Credit: Sarah Cheriton-Jones/Shutterstock

Astonsoft Ltd has released EssentialPIM Free 5.5 and EssentialPIM Pro 5.5, major new versions of its Windows personal information manager. Highlights in this new release include support for iCloud synchronization, native Dropbox support and improved CardDAV tools.

Also updated are EssentialPIM for iOS 2.6 and EssentialPIM for Android 1.8.2, mobile apps designed to give users access to their EssentialPIM data while on the move. While iOS users only see minor bug fixes in this update, Android users will enjoy major improvements to the Calendar and Contacts modules.

The most eye-catching new feature in EssentialPIM 5.5 is native Dropbox support -- users can now easily access their EssentialPIM data from multiple PCs by storing their database in the Dropbox cloud folder. EssentialPIM can automatically download, upload and pack the database from this location, and the effect is seamless.

Also added in version 5.5 is full support for Apple’s iCloud and the CardDAV synchronization service, the former being of most benefit to EssentialPIM for iOS users. As with other supported cloud services, including Google, CalDAV and Yahoo!, however, the feature is restricted to EssentialPIM Pro 5.5 users.

Enhancements in version 5.5 include better CalDAV support, plus improved synchronization with both Android and iOS apps. The update also promises to have fixed all known issues since the last release.

EssentialPIM for Android users also gain new features with the 1.8.2 release. These include a new Calendar module, which now syncs with EssentialPIM’s own Calendar module in Android as opposed to the native Calendar app. At the present time, Agenda and Day views are available, with more to follow.

There are also improvements to EssentialPIM’s Contacts support, with all contact fields now being synchronized with the native Contacts app along with photo synchronization support.

EssentialPIM Free 5.5 and EssentialPIM Free Portable 5.5 are both free-for-personal-use downloads for PCs running Windows XP or later. EssentialPIM Pro 5.5 is available as a free trial download, with full licenses starting from $39.95. Both EssentialPIM for iOS 2.6 and EssentialPIM for Android 1.8.2 are free downloads.

Photo credit: tele52/Shutterstock

Piriform Software has released CCleaner 3.28 and CCleaner Portable 3.28, updated versions of its popular freeware Windows cleaning tool. Version 3.28 is a minor release, promising better performance and compatibility, plus support for cleaning up behind two new programs.

Piriform has also announced that the release of CCleaner 3.28 will be the last of the 3.x branch, with CCleaner 4.0 the next release slated. It also hints that this is the first of a number of major updates to its product line planned over the coming months.

Key changes in CCleaner 3.28 include the promise of improved compatibility with Windows 8 machines. Windows 7 users should also benefit from faster performance through enhanced memory usage, while version 3.28 also improves cleaning of the Windows log files.

The new build adds cleaning options for Gadu-Gadu, a Polish instant messaging client, as well as Foxit Phantom PDF, while existing cleaning options for Adobe Flash Player and ConvertXToDVD have also been tweaked for a more thorough cleaning experience.

Pro users will benefit from faster automatic updates, while the update is rounded off with the usual mixture of updated translations, minor interface improvements and bug fixes.

Piriform has also announced that the next release of CCleaner will be version 4.0, which will add system monitoring tools and file-finding capabilities alongside a minor interface refresh and will also debut a brand new program icon. Piriform also claims to be finalizing details of other "exciting" releases. It appears these may be brand new tools to add to its stable, which currently include Recuva 1.45 and Defraggler 2.13 as well as CCleaner for Mac.

CCleaner 3.28 and CCleaner Portable 3.28 are both available as free-for-personal-use downloads for PCs running Windows 2000 or later. Pro and Business Editions are also available.

Photo Credit: Amy Walters /Shutterstock

If your browser has been taken over by an aggressive addon then you can try the standard routes to remove it (the "Manage Addons" dialog in IE, for instance). These can be confusing for beginners, though, and may not always work, so avast! has developed a custom Browser Cleanup tool as a simpler alternative.

The program is portable, a compact 1.75 MB download which runs on Windows XP, 7 and 8, so it’s generally convenient to use. It supports IE, Firefox and Chrome, and on launch checks each of these to evaluate your browser addons.

If any of your extensions are particularly dubious then they’ll be highlighted on a Summary screen which is displayed first. On a test PC, for instance, one addon was reported as either "having a poor reputation" with avast! users, or engaging "in aggressive tactics to manipulate your settings". If you also have something listed on this page then clicking its "More details" link explains why.

If the extensions on the Summary page are unnecessary, then you can remove them all with a click. But if you don’t agree with avast! Browser Cleanup’s report then you also have the option to remove highlighted addons individually, or maybe do nothing about them at all.

It’s quite possible you might have nothing listed on the Summary page, of course, and in that case you can just click one of the left-hand tabs to view the addons for a particular browser. As we’ve mentioned, this can be done from within the browser anyway, but the Cleanup tool does have a small advantage: by default it excludes add-ons with a "good" rating, so cutting the list down to size and helping you focus on any potential threats.

Spot a potential problem here and clicking Disable will disable that addon completely. There’s no "Remove" option, unfortunately, but presumably avast! think it’s safer to do this from your browser (and if the addon is disabled then maybe the browser’s own uninstall tool will be more reliable).

And if your browser’s home and search pages have been hijacked then there’s a "Reset browser settings" button to restore their default values.

Avast! Browser Cleanup isn’t exactly the most powerful of aware removers, then. But PC novices will appreciate its ease of use, and the program’s "user rating" for extensions could be a helpful way to highlight any addons you need to check. If your regular extension management tools don’t work then this may be worth a try.

Accidentally deleting a partition seems like a major disaster when it first happens. Not only have all of its files disappeared, but you can’t even see that drive any more.

The situation may not be as bad as it seems, though. Your data is unlikely to be erased, just yet (other programs will generally write only to their own partition). And missing partitions are relatively easy to recover, as long as you have access to something like the free (for personal use) MiniTool Partition Recovery.

The program works with regular hard drives, USB and other removable storage devices. And it covers most of the file systems you’re likely to encounter on a PC, including FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 (although not exFAT, unfortunately).

A wizard-based interface means MiniTool Partition Recovery is generally very easy to use, too. There are only a few steps: select the drive you’d like to browse; choose the area to check (the entire disk, its unallocated space, or whatever range of sectors you need); accept the default Scan mode, and you’re done. The program scans your drive, hopefully finds any missing partitions, and you can restore them in a couple of clicks.

Of course life isn’t always so straightforward, but if you do encounter any problems then MiniTool Partition Recovery has a few extra options which just might help.

If it can’t find your partition with the default settings, for instance, choosing the Full Scan Mode rather than the default Quick Scan will run a more thorough check. It’s also considerably slower, but there’s a better chance of finding your files.

Or, if the program thinks it’s found more partitions than you’ve actually lost, just double-click each one to explore its contents and you’ll quickly find your data.

There is a significant limitation here, in that you don’t get a bootable version on a disaster recovery disc. Which means that if your PC won’t boot because the system partition is damaged then you’ll have no way to restore it.

MiniTool Partition Recovery does deliver plenty of functionality for a free tool, though, and if you don’t have something similar to hand already then it might be worth installing a copy -- just in case.

Photo Credit: Zadorozhnyi Viktor/Shutterstock

If you’re bored with the regular Windows wallpaper then there’s no shortage of software which can help. But much of it will just download fairly random images from a variety of online sources. And even if you can select a theme which appeals to you – “landscapes”, “animals” or whatever – there’s no guarantee that you’ll like everything the program selects.

Livecam Wallpaper, though, is different. As you might guess from the name, the program allows you to set images from your choice of internet webcams as wallpaper, so you can be sure the picture will be something you like. But it can then update the images as often as every 10 seconds, a very interesting way to bring your desktop to life.

We were initially a little wary of the program, as it sounds like just the kind of tool which comes bundled with ten toolbars. But no. The download is a compact 834KB, and it only includes the core program files. Even the Livecam Wallpaper licence is only 168 words long, a refreshing change these days.

The core interface is very simple, too. There are no menus, no hidden settings – everything you need is accessible from one dialog. And so you’ll start by setting the number of webcams you’d like to use (1, 4 or 9). There’s the refresh time to decide (10 seconds, then 1, 3 or 10 minutes). And after you’ve chosen whether Livecam Wallpaper should load from the desktop, that’s your basic settings completed.

All you have to do now is choose your webcams, and that’s just as easy. Choose a category, first: “HD”, “City”, “Mountains”, “Tech” and so on. Then click the default image, select your preferred camera and the desktop will be updated right away.

There are some limitations here. The webcam categories don’t all offer a lot of choice, for example -- “City” has 45, but “Forest” has only 3. And while the program includes webcams from all over the world, there’s a considerable bias towards Europe.

This kind of idea may not be too practical in some cases, either. If you display icons on your desktop, the regularly changing images may make them hard to view sometimes. And there’s the resource usage to consider. Memory requirements are impressively low at under 9MB when minimised, but if you’re updating 9 pictures regularly then that’s going to generate plenty of network and hard drive activity.

Overall, though, Livecam Wallpaper remains a very likeable program. It’s easy to use, looks great, has some spectacular webcams, and does its best not to be too demanding (you can always turn off the “Run on startup” option and run it just occasionally). So if you’re bored with normal wallpaper then this makes a great alternative.

If the latest Java security scares have persuaded you to ditch the technology forever, then removing it from your PC is normally straightforward. Java’s regular uninstaller should do the job in just a few seconds.

If this doesn’t work, though -- or you just want to remove and reinstall Java, because of problems with your system -- then it might be worth trying JavaRA, a compact tool that can help you to update or cleanly uninstall the Java Runtime Environment.

The program comes in a compact package (a 139KB zip file), with no unwanted extras. And launching it presents a simple and straightforward interface, with just four large buttons (and only two of those are particularly important).

This doesn’t mean that JavaRA is lacking in options, though. So click "Update JavaRA Runtime", say, and the program provides no less than three ways to proceed. It can open a web page to perform an online version check; use another executable to do this for you; or download and install the latest version, regardless of what you have got installed right now.

If you click "Remove Java Runtime" then that will first prompt you to run the official uninstaller, before itself trying to clear up any files, folders and Registry keys associated with Java.

And there are a few other settings which might be helpful. Click "Additional Tasks", say, and there’s an option to "Remove outdated JREF Firefox extensions".

For all this, JavaRA didn’t always quite work as we’d like.

The program needs to run as an administrator, for instance, but doesn’t prompt for that -- you’ll need to remember.

You have to click "Update JavaRA Definitions" to make sure it has the latest information about which files and folders to remove; again, this should happen automatically (by default, at least).

And the program didn’t detect the regular Java uninstaller on our test PC.

Still, JavaRA did correctly update our test Java installation, and then correctly and cleanly remove it. So while we’d always try the normal Java uninstaller first, if that’s not working for you then JavaRA provides a quick, easy and effective alternative.

If you’re confident enough with hard drives to have tried editing them before at the sector level, then you’ll know that most disk editing software is, well, less than helpful. Open a drive and you’ll generally be presented with a basic hex view of your data, then left on your own to figure out what it all means. And okay, it’s true, sector editors are only for the most knowledgeable of PC users, but even experts could benefit from a little help, occasionally.

You don’t have to put up with this, though. Some editors do make a real effort to help you interpret what you’re seeing while browsing a drive. And you don’t always have to pay big money for them, either: Active@ Disk Editor can be yours for free.

On launch the program presents a clear dialog which prompts for the device, partition or logical drive you’d like to view. You can also open disk images in DIM, Microsoft’s VHD and VMWare’s VMDK formats. And whatever you select is then displayed in a familiar hex editor-type view: but that’s just the start.

There’s no need to start guessing where key drive structures are, for instance. If you want to look at the boot sector, directory entries, the MFT and various other NTFS/ FAT/ FAT32/ exFAT/ HFS/ ext2/ ext3 structures, all you have to do is choose the appropriate template from the list. Select "Master Boot Record", say, and the hex editor view will jump to that point on the disk, while the Templates window interprets the data for you (you’ll see bootstrap code, details on individual partitions, the disk serial number, and more).

And this low-level knowledge of how your disk works can be very useful. Choose the "NTFS Boot Sector" template, for example, and Active@ Disk Editor doesn’t only display a table of its core values ("Signature", "Bytes per sector", “Sectors per cluster" and so on), but also shows the same values for the boot sector copy. If you spot a problem then you can edit these directly (so you’re working with decimal values rather than in the raw hex view), and that alone could be enough to get a drive working again.

Typically you’ll have a more complex problem to solve, though, perhaps interpreting some figures of your own -- and Active@ Disk Editor can help here, too. Just browse to the sector you need, click at the relevant point, and check the Data Inspector view. This looks at the data you’ve selected, then interprets and displays it as a binary value, ANSI character, Unicode character, 16/ 32/ 64-bit value, even a time (DOS, Windows or Unix) -- just pick the one you want.

If you’re looking for particular data but aren’t sure where it is (the contents of a lost file, for instance), then a Find option will help you locate them. You can search for a specific ANSI, hex or Unicode sequence, and there are even options to use regular expressions or wildcards.

Of course you can also edit the disk, too. A Navigate option helps you locate the sector you need; you’re able to edit individual bytes, copy and paste information, clear or fill selected blocks; and if things go wrong then Undo and Revert Changes options should help you to avoid disaster.

And perhaps most remarkably, all this comes in a free package with the absolute minimum of dependencies, which means it’s able to run on anything from Windows 98 to 8.

Active@ Disk Editor still needs to be used with extreme care, of course. As with any other low-level drive editing tool, a single mistake could very easily cause a major loss of data.

But if you know what you’re doing, give it a try: we found the program to be an excellent way to inspect and edit the contents of our drives.

Photo Credit: Balandina G/Shutterstock

We’re now well in to the new year, with the February software offers live through the Downloadcrew Software Store.

You may have picked up a brand new Windows 8 computer during the festive season. If so, the first thing you’ll want to do is pick up a security suite to keep your system secure. The Downloadcrew Software Store is packed full of security offers from Bitdefender, AVG, Kaspersky, Avira and other brands.

Let’s start with Bitdefender. If you’re seeking a lightweight low-cost security application for one PC, we’d like to draw your attention toBitdefender Antivirus Plus 2013, a staggering 83 percent off MSRP. Bitdefender Windows 8 Security is the company’s brand new offering, and can be yours for $19.95, 67 percent off MSRP. There’s a saving of 63 percent off Bitdefender Total Security 2013 [3-PC] which includes a strong antivirus engine, intelligent two-way firewall, capable spam filter – all for just $29.95. If you want to keep your computer safe for even less, look no further than Bitdefender Internet Security 2013 [1-PC] which still packs a punch for just $14.99 saving you 70 percent off the MSRP.

You’ll also find the latest versions of the most popular security tools including AVG Anti-Virus 2013. This industry standard antivirus tool is available for the massively discounted price of $6.95 – that’s a colossal 83 percent off the MSRP. For a more complete security solution, take a look at AVG Internet Security 2013 which includes an added firewall, spam filter and more – all for just $17.99 (or a 67 percent discount). The most complete security package comes in the form of AVG Internet Security 2013 Complete Bundle, which includes FIVE separate AVG applications, worth $307 – yours for only $59.95, a staggering 80 percent off MSRP!

We recently added the Norton 2013 products to the store. Highlights include Norton Internet Security 2013 [1-PC] for $23.99, or 60 percent off MSRP. The more simplistic anti-malware tool Norton AntiVirus 2013 [1-PC] is $19.99 or 50 percent off MSRP. Multi-user editions are also available. Other Symantec products include Norton Anti-Theft at $27.99, or 30 percent off MSRP.

The avast! products were also added to the store through January. Within avast! 8 around the corner, buy avast! 7 products now and you’ll get a free upgrade to avast! 8, on release, in March. avast! Internet Security 7 [3-PC] will safeguard three computers, for $41.99, or 40 percent off MSRP. The more basic avast! Pro 7 [1-PC] is yours for $23.99, again 40 percent off MSRP.

Everyone needs a backup tool, whether this is to store important files in a secure location or to make a 1:1 copy of your hard drive, to safeguard against system failure. There are few better backup tools than True Image 2013 by Acronis (Acronis True Image 2013), available for only $26.99, which is currently 46 percent off MSRP. Through February, you can purchase Genie Timeline Professional 2012 for only $27,95, 53 percent off MSRP, plus you get a free upgrade to the forthcoming Genie Timeline Professional 2013, due for release this March. Finally, an alternative backup tool isBackup4All Professional 4.8, which you can buy for $24.95 or 50 percent off MSRP.

System maintenance and PC optimization tools help keep your brand new system in check while you continue to enjoy using your PC. System maintenance tools enable you to remove unwanted startup items, erase clutter and temporary files, personalize your computer and much more.

Our first recommendation is TuneUp Utilities 2013. You can save 60 percent from TuneUp Utilities 2013 [3-PC], ideal for installing on three home computers. If you have a single PC, save even more with TuneUp Utilities 2013 [1-PC]. There is also TuneUp Utilities 2013 [UPGRADE] for existing users to upgrade, at a significant discount. Another recommended maintenance tool is AVG PC TuneUp 2013, effectively a re-branded TuneUp Utilities, which helps you to eke extra performance from your machine. This great utility costs as mere $12.99, or a saving of 68 percent off the MSRP. Auslogics Boostspeed 5 is also worth considering for $19.95, 60 percent off MSRP, as is IObit Advanced SystemCare Ultmate 6 is another great all-round system maintenance suite, available for only $24.99 or 50 percent off MSRP.

Be sure to check the Downloadcrew Software Store for other software deals and brands. In addition to the above offers, there are further deals from MAGIX, CyberLink, Avira, PC Tools, BullGuard and many others. Hurry though as some of the current offers will end February 28 2013!

Helder Almeida/Shutterstock

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is an important Windows framework that is used by many system components, as well as plenty of third-party applications, so if it’s ever damaged then you could experience all kinds of odd system problems. There’s no single place that you can check to see whether WMI is working, either, as it’s just too complex, and so Microsoft has developed a script called the WMI Diagnostic Utility to provide some in-depth troubleshooting information.

The tool is aimed at system administrators and other IT professionals, so if you’re a Windows novice then it’s probably best to stay away. If you’ve even just a moderate level of PC experience, though -- you’ve no problems running the occasional tool at the command line, say – then it could be worth a look.

To run it, extract the contents of the download to somewhere safe, launch an elevated command prompt (right click cmd.exe, select “Run as administrator”), change to your new folder, and enter cscript wmidiag.vbs.

And then wait. WMI really is massive, so the script has a lot to do, and it’ll take some time to gather the necessary information (four to five minutes on our test PC). The command window will update occasionally with details of the current test, though. And when it’s done, Notepad (or whatever else is your default for plain text files) will open to display the finished report.

As you’re scanning the details, you’ll find a lot of very low-level, technical information which isn’t going to mean very much at all. We were told that our test PC had 1848 “WMI static instances”, but no “WMI dynamic instances”, for example. Is this normal, good, bad…? We don’t have the faintest idea.

Amongst all this, though, are plenty of nuggets which you may find useful. So we were told that our system had no WMI system or repository files missing, for instance: just knowing that may be helpful if you’re trying to diagnose some odd Windows problem.

The script also complained that a Registry setting wasn’t what it expected, telling us the precise key and what it’s value should be. Might that also be useful? We don’t know, but again it gives you a starting point. If something similar happened on your system, you could at least enter the key name at Google, see what it’s for, whether the setting might relate to any issues you’re having.

And the script, as well as the documentation which comes with it, also explains how you can fix some problems by running command line tools such as WMIDIAG.

This still isn’t a tool you’ll need to run very often. If your PC is taking an age to boot, say, you’ll be better off following the usual troubleshooting tips first (check your startup programs, your Windows services, clean and defrag your hard drive, and so on).

But, if you’re suffering from major Windows problems, all the regular solutions have failed and you can’t find an answer (or, maybe, you’ve just heard somewhere that your type of problem might be WMI-related), then it may help to run the WMI Diagnosis Utility as a last resort. The tool checks a lot of Windows components, and there’s just a chance that it could uncover something useful.

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When you need to share files with others, setting up a web server probably won’t be the first idea that comes to mind. It just seems like too bulky a solution, too complex, and so you’d probably opt for something more conventional: setting up a network, using a file sharing service, whatever it might be.

With the right software, though, setting up a web server can be much more straightforward than you think. And the open source HFS (Http File Server) is a particularly good example of this, because even if you’re a networking novice, it could have you sharing your files locally within minutes.

This all starts with an ultra-compact download (559KB), all the more surprising because it’s not even zipped. The entire program is contained in a single executable which you just download and run.

The interface is relatively straightforward, too. If you’ve set up a server before then you’ll probably guess that the "Virtual File System" pane is where you’ll share your files. But even if you’re a beginner, hovering your mouse cursor over the pane will explain all with a tooltip asking you to "drag your files here".

And all you then have to do is drag and drop the files you’d like to share onto the Virtual File System pane, click the "Server is currently OFF" button to turn it on, and give the IP address HFS displays to someone else on your local network. When they put that into a browser they’ll find a simple page with your files displayed, ready for immediate downloading.

If you want to share your files across the internet then there is more work to do, but HFS can at least help you get started. Click Menu > Self Test and the program analyses your system and network setup, before explaining what else (if anything) you need to do to make this happen. If you’re new to this kind of networking complexity then there may still be some research to do (on our system we were told simply to ensure out router was "configured to forward port 7000 to your computer", for instance), but it’s still much more straightforward then many similar tools.

And when you’re ready to consider what else you might need from a file sharing tool, there are plenty of options on offer. So you can password-protect particular files and folders, for instance. You might allow users to upload, as well as download files. There are various speed limits and controls to help ensure the program doesn’t tie up all your bandwidth. And there’s dynamic DNS support, a configurable HTML template, a custom scripting language, and lots of configuration settings to help get everything working properly.

HFS still has some limitations. While in theory you could use it as a web server to host your own website, for example, that probably wouldn’t be a great idea. It’s short on features (there’s no PHP support, for instance), doesn’t run as a service, and tends to do most things in its own, very non-standard way: even if you did get something to work here, it may not be easily transferrable to another host.

If you’re just interested in an alternative way to make files available on your network, though, it’s a very different story. HFS is lightweight, quick and easy to configure, and ideal as a simple way to share some files or folders with others.

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Alexander Beug has released USB Image Tool 1.60, the latest version of his compact, portable and free backup tool for USB devices.

And a very welcome addition this time is support for non-removable USB devices. So on launch, the program won’t only list any mobile USB devices you might have connected (keys, cameras, MP3 players and so on), but it’ll also display regular USB drives, memory card readers and so on, and allow you to back them up.

Another new feature is the Reset button. USB Image Tool has always been able to, say, restore an 8GB image to a 16GB drive, but you would then effectively "lose" the extra space. In version 1.60, though, clicking Reset will overwrite the boot sector, causing Windows to reformat the drive with its original capacity.

USB Image Tool 1.60 is also now simpler to use, as there’s no need to manually run it as an administrator: the program now prompts for the appropriate rights on launch.

A new option to define the program’s buffer size may help improve performance, which could be important if you’ll now be using USB Image Tool to back up large USB drives.

There are a few extra options in the command line version of the program, and a couple of bugs fixed (see the official change log for more).

And, remarkably, all of this still comes in an ultra-lightweight portable package (even unzipped, it still required only 422KB of drive space on our test PC), with no adware or similar annoyances.

Put it all together and USB Image Tool 1.60 is an excellent tool, especially now it’s able to back up just about any USB storage device. Of course the GUI doesn’t support extras like scheduling, but if you’re happy to create your own scripts then it’s not difficult to set that up: just launch usbitcmd.exe from the command line to get a feel for your available options.

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If you’re looking for a free video converter then there are now plenty of great free programs around, which is plainly very good news for the end user.

Software developers, though, are having to cram in ever more features to help their converter stand out from the crowd and Video to Video is a particularly strong example.

The program supports over 200 input formats, for instance, while exporting over 700. And so it can handle several file types which aren’t so well covered elsewhere (DV, VC3, MXF, NUT).

Video to Video also provides output profiles for a host of different devices: Apple, Android, Mobile, Sony, Blackberry and more. We’re not just talking about one or two generic examples, either. Click the Android tab, say, and you’re presented with more than 240 profiles for mobile devices from all the major manufacturers (and quite a few of the minor ones, too).

You could then accept the default profile settings, click Convert and wait for your new videos to appear. But if you like more control, then you’ll love the options available here. You can set your video and audio codecs, bit rates, resolution, aspect ratio, frame rate and more. There’s subtitle support. You can crop, pad, rotate or flip the video. There are options to tweak brightness, contrast, colors, hue and saturation. And an "Other Filters" list contains tools to sharpen your video, remove noise, stabilize a clip, remove a logo, and more.

A "Tools" menu provides some useful processing options, allowing you to trim videos, join them, rip and burn video DVDs, and more.

There are some unexpected bonus features, too. So the program can actually create animated GIFs from a video, for instance. And an "Images to Video" tool proves a surprisingly powerful way to create video slide shows, with support for a soundtrack, text captions, a vast number of custom transitions, and more.

And all this comes in a straightforward portable package with no codecs to install, no adware, not even a "Donate" button (unless you head to the website).

There are some downsides, too. Once you get past the basics, for instance, the interface isn’t always as intuitive as it could be. And we did run into one technical issue when creating a video slide show; the conversion process failed for no apparent reason when exporting to AVI, but worked just fine if we chose MP4 instead.

For the most part, though, the program performed very well, importing all the files we threw at it, and quickly converting them to our chosen formats. And so if you’re in the market for a video converter with some real power, then should probably download a copy of Video to Video right away.

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Google has announced the release of Chrome 25 to the Stable Channel for Windows, Linux and Mac, and as revealed in the beta, this release features a major change in the way extensions are handled.

In particular, the previous support for the automatic and silent installation of extensions will now be disabled by default, as apparently Google has noticed that this feature "has been widely abused by third parties to silently install extensions into Chrome without proper acknowledgment from users". We could argue Google really should have predicted that in the first place, but at least it's seen the light now.

This change will have an immediate impact, as any extensions previously installed in this way will be disabled by default, while a one-time dialog will ask users to re-enable them.

And the other result is that, in future, every Chrome extension will require specific consent from the user before it can be installed.

Elsewhere, Chrome 25 adds support for speech recognition via the Web Speech API, which means you could be talking to websites very soon. Once you’ve installed the new build then you can get a feel for how this could work at Google’s speech demo page.

The official Chrome blog post on this release reports that it also includes "better support for HTML5 time/date inputs" and "better WebGL error handling".

And there are also the usual collection of bug and security fixes, although one of the solutions was a little drastic: the Webkit MathML implementation apparently includes a "high severity security issue", and so it’s been disabled in this release.

The extra security alone makes it well worth upgrading to Chrome 25, then, but if you need to know more than the fine detail on this release is available at the SVN Revision Log.

If Windows is proving particularly unreliable on your PC then that could mean a key operating system component has been deleted, or replaced. Fortunately, Windows File Protection (WFP) monitors your key system files, and if any are removed then it can automatically restore the original. And you can also use the System File Checker (sfc.exe /scannow) to manually check for and resolve any problems.

But while this usually works well, it can also lead to problems, particularly if you want to replace a file which the system is protecting. But which files are covered by WFP, exactly? Windows won’t tell you – and that’s why you might need System File Lister.

The program is a tiny 40KB download, just unzip it, launch SystemFileLister.exe, and it’ll begin to list the protected files for you. There will probably be a lot -- the program found almost 15,000 on our test PC -- so be patient, this could take a while.

When it’s done, though, you can scroll the list, or sort it by file path if you’re interested in a particular folder.

A Search box allows you to search for file names containing any given text.

And you can also browse to any individual file on your system to check whether it’s on the Windows File Protection list.

All this is presented in an interface which is, well, basic. You can’t resize the window, copy file paths to the clipboard, export the file list in any way, or open a particular file path in Explorer, for instance -- there are no convenient extras here.

System File Lister does provide an occasionally useful function which you can’t easily achieve in any other way, though, and so if you’re interested in this topic then it’s probably worth adding a copy to your portable troubleshooting toolkit.

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If you’re wondering how to open a particular file on your PC, then right-clicking it and selecting Open With may provide some options -- but only if you’ve already installed an application which can handle that particular file type.

OpenWith Enhanced takes this idea a step further, replacing the standard Windows with an extended version which not only displays your installed programs, but also lists other popular options, both commercial and free, and links directly to their download page.

The program installs quickly and easily, with no adware to worry about. When we immediately tried right-clicking an image and selecting Open With…, though, the standard Windows dialog was displayed: it turned out we needed to restart before OpenWith Enhanced would work.

With that done, though, everything ran very smoothly. We right-clicked an image, selected Open With > Choose default program, and our installed graphics software was listed. And a couple of seconds later, additional recommendations appeared (highlighted in red to show they’re not installed yet) for Picasa, IrfanView and XnView for Windows. Hover a mouse cursor over any of these and you’ll usually a few sentences describing the program, as well as its popularity with other OpenWith Enhanced users. And if you decide you’d like to try the program, double-clicking it opens a browser window at the download page.

There are plenty of programs supported here, at least for some file types. Try OpenWith Enhanced on a PDF file, say, and you’ll be told about Foxit Reader, SumatraPDF, Nitro PDF Reader and Foxit Reader, as well as commercial options like Nitro PDF Professional and Adobe Acrobat.

And there are a few interesting bonus extras, including options to disable particular file associations, remove a file type, or manage its "Open With" menu.

The program does also have some limitations. You may choose "Open With" on a video because you’d like to edit it, for instance, but what you’ll see is a list of media players. And while this isn’t always the case, there is more focus here on finding applications to view a file type, than process it in more advanced ways.

Of course this can still be very useful, though, whether you’re presented with an unusual file type, or would just like another way to view something more standard. And as it’s also free, lightweight and generally easy to use, OpenWith Enhanced will probably be a welcome addition to most people’s PCs.

There are many ways to break a shortcut. Moving an important file might do it; manually deleting a program is another possibility; and of course too many uninstallers will leave application shortcuts behind. And because there’s no visible sign that a shortcut is broken it’ll just stay there, cluttering your system, until eventually you click it and discover the problem.

If you’re tired of junk shortcuts, though, ShortcutsMan offers an easier way to control them. It’s a lightweight and portable application which quickly provides a very detailed report on your system shortcuts, highlights any that are broken, and allows you to fix or resolve these with a click.

As usual with NirSoft tools, ShortcutsMan is amazingly small (the 32-bit download is a mere 39KB). There are no annoying extras or dependencies, either, so the program will even work on ancient Windows 9x systems.

This doesn’t mean the program is lacking in power, though. Launch ShortcutsMan, it’ll scan your Start Menu, desktop and a few other areas, and immediately you’ll see a very detailed report on every shortcut it’s found: their name, command line arguments, window style (normal, minimized, maximized), hotkey, location, date, any custom icon file, and more.

And this kind of information can be interesting in itself. Seeing which applications take command line arguments might be useful, for instance, as you can then explore their documentation, find out what other switches are available. Being reminded of system hotkeys (like Ctrl+Alt+N) is also helpful. And ShortcutsMan can even save these details as a report if you’d like to preserve them for posterity.

The big plus point here is that ShortcutsMan will also detect and highlight any broken shortcuts, though. And you can scroll through the list to view these, or click the "Broken Shortcut" column header to group them all together.

Choose particular shortcuts of interest (or click Edit > Select Broken Shortcuts to select them all) and you’re then able to delete them all.

And alternatively, the program provides a Resolve option which tries to find the missing object and update its shortcut accordingly. Which sounds good, but proved oddly inconsistent in our tests. We moved one file, for instance, breaking two identical shortcuts, selected them and clicked File > Resolve. The first one was fixed correctly, but the second one was unchanged.

ShortcutsMan has one or two problems, then, but don’t let that put you off. We’re not sure why the Resolve function had some issues, so perhaps it’ll work for you, but even if it doesn’t there’s more than enough functionality here to justify the tiny download. And so if you’d like to know more about your shortcuts, this is an excellent way to get started.

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I do not generally use our desktop computer. I prefer my laptop, but my wife likes that desktop and uses it daily. She also keeps her precious files on it, and I have the folder set to backup to Crashplan automatically, as well as to sync with the home server. However, she also uses a small four gigabyte USB drive for files -- I assumed ones that she just wishes to move around with her. I was wrong.

I am not making excuses for myself. Even if I had known the files were backed up I would not have deleted them -- I had no reason to wipe her drive. The truth is that it was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was a victim of my own oversight.

Here is the story -- and take heed because it can happen to all of us at anytime. After complaints from wife and kids that the computer had become slow over time, I decided it was an opportunity to start over fresh. I copied the User folder to an external drive, knowing it was also in the cloud for good measure. I then inserted a CD containing the ISO of a small program known as "Derrick's Boot and Nuke" or DBAN to most. It is frequently used by businesses to wipe data before getting rid of a drive. Without thinking I booted to DBAN, set each drive to "wipe" and let it run. I failed to notice that the little Kingston USB was one of those drives.

DBAN works very well. It eradicates all traces of data, rendering the drive so unrecoverable that you need to reformat to just get back a file system and use it again.

The files contained on that little piece of portable hardware, as it turns out, did not exist in my wife's backed up documents folder -- or anywhere else. Meaning that they now existed nowhere at all. And that I could be facing that same fate.

I have said many times that one copy of a file is the same as zero, because zero is what you could have at any second. Drives die and, in this case, accidents happen. I backup everything to home server and cloud -- three copies for good measure. I will be adding the thumb drive to that routine providing I survive to do so.

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Parental controls software is normally bulky, complex, and the kind of application which can take some considerable time to configure. There may be lots of files to install, resident components which must always be running in the background, user profiles to create, content filters to customize, and the list goes on.

If your child protection needs are simple, though, you may not have to worry about any of this, as DNS Angel can provide a reasonable amount of protection with a single click.

The program is a tiny download (506KB), free, portable and extremely easy to use. Just launch DNS Angel and it will present you with buttons for the more family-friendly DNS servers it supports (Norton, OpenDNS and MetaCert). Click one of these -- we’d start with MetaCert if you’re unsure -- and immediately the server will block any attempt to reach an inappropriate website (porn, phishing sites, known malware sources and more) and any browser or other internet tool which you might have installed.

This worked well for us. MetaCert, for instance, has rated hundreds of millions of web pages for family safety. The web moves quickly and it may still be possible to access some dubious sites, but everything we tried was blocked, while regular sites remained unaffected.

But if you do have any problems then clicking "Restore DNS" will restore your original DNS settings, while choosing "Default DNS" tells Windows to obtain your settings automatically (they might be assigned by your router, say).

There are also some problems here. You don’t get an option to configure the type of protection you get, for instance. The same sites will be blocked, whether your child is 6 or 16.

And, of course, if a user of the PC has any technical knowledge then the DNS change is very easy to do. If you leave your copy of DNS Angel lying around, say, they could reverse its effects with a click. Or they could do this anyway via the standard Windows network settings.

Still, if you just want to protect a single, very young child, DNS Angel and the whole DNS-based approach to site blocking could work well. Although you may also want to take additional measures, such as having them log in via a limited user account, to further control exactly what they can and can’t do.

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Spanish security company Panda Security Ltd has released Panda Cloud Antivirus Free 2.1.1, a minor update to its free cloud-based security tool for Windows. Version 2.1.1 is the first release to secure a Windows 8 compatible logo after passing the eligibility requirements laid down by Microsoft.

Panda Cloud Antivirus, also available with built-in firewall in Pro form, is primarily a maintenance release, building on the major improvements found in version 2.1, which included real-time protection for Windows 8 Store apps and anti-exploit technology.

Panda Cloud Antivirus 2.1.1 includes five specific fixes for problems. The first resolves an issue with file-blocking while waiting for scan results to be returned from the cloud. Another bug squashed was one that prevented the GUI console from opening in certain circumstances.

A number of linguistic errors have also been fixed, while the promotional banner should now be removed in all situations after users upgrade to Panda Cloud Antivirus Pro in the program. The final resolution ensures the correct remote IP address is shown in the Pro version’s firewall popups.

The update follows on from the release of Panda Cloud Antivirus 2.1, which added anti-exploit technology to both free and Pro versions, providing users with protection against malware that exploits so-called zero-day vulnerabilities in unpatched software such as Java, Adobe and Microsoft Office. Like traditional signature-based malware, suspicious files are sent to the cloud for analysis, but in this case their behavior is tracked to determine whether or not they pose a potential risk.

Version 2.1 also added real-time protection for Windows 8 Store apps, plus came with performance improvements, a tweaked user interface and a number of unspecified bug fixes.

Panda Cloud Antivirus Free 2.1.1 is available now as a freeware download for PCs running Windows XP or later. Users can upgrade to the Pro version for $29.95 per year, which adds a built-in firewall, extra protection when using public Wi-Fi networks and automatic USB vaccination.

In theory Windows should be able to shut down a PC when it’s been idle for a while, and even if that doesn’t work for you, there are plenty of tools around which promise to do something similar. In practice, though, the difficulty of detecting idle time accurately means that these tools aren’t always reliable, which is why many people take the safer approach of leaving their system running all the time.

AllOff is a little different, though. This free (for personal use) tool doesn’t just shut down your PC after some fixed period of time, or when your keyboard or mouse haven’t been used for a while. It also monitors CPU usage, even download speeds, and provides a host of configuration options to ensure everything works just as you require.

After a slightly more complex installation than usual (you have to register the program with your email address), AllOff presents its default console. It’s not exactly going to win any interface design awards, but this does provide all the key details you need. So you’ll see that by default your system will close if there’s no activity for 10 minutes; an "idle" counter will show you how close you are to that figure; and a couple of figures for your CPU usage and download rate highlight any current background activity.

Click Config, though, and you’ll find the program’s settings, which is where life gets much more interesting.

By default AllOff will calculate your average CPU usage over 5 seconds, for instance, which makes it less likely that the idle count will be reset by a brief spike in activity. But you can adjust that averaging time to anything from 1 to 30 seconds, as well as setting a minimum CPU usage figure which you’d consider as idle, to make the program even more accurate.

You can set the minimum download rate, which again aims to prevent the idle count being reset unnecessarily (when some update checker briefly connects to its website, for instance).

AllOff will also leap into action if your mouse and keyboard have been inactive for your preferred period of time.

And there’s plenty more. You could enable only some of these idle detection methods, say, perhaps ignoring the CPU check and using only download rate, keyboard and mouse monitoring. You’re able to have the program control a remote PC. There are multiple logging and console display options (minimize to the system tray, set the AllOff window to be "always on top"). And of course you can choose your preferred action when the program does finally activate (Hibernate, Log off, Power off, Reboot, Shutdown, Standby).

Even at this final point, though, AllOff still gives you choices. So you can have your system power down in a couple of seconds. But if you’d prefer to be cautious then you can have the program display a warning alert for up to 10 minutes, giving you time to cancel the shutdown, while clearing the "Force" checkbox means open applications won’t be forced to close.

You don’t have to get into any of this complexity at first, of course -- in our experience the default settings worked very well. But, if you do have any problems, AllOff’s extensive configuration options should help you fine tune its performance, and it certainly earns a thumbs up from us.

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Piriform Software has released Defraggler 2.13 and Defraggler Portable 2.13, brand new builds of its freeware Windows defragmentation tool. Version 2.13 adds support for Quick Defrag scheduling, Fragmentation Threshold options when scheduling and support for external 3TB drives.

The update comes four days after Piriform updated its free data-recovery tool, Recuva 1.45 and Recuva Portable 1.45, with the promise of better reliability when deep-scanning NTFS drives as well as improved performance when securely overwriting data.

The notable improvement in Defraggler 2.13 is a new option for creating a scheduled quick defragmentation of the hard drive to tidy things up. Also added to the scheduled tool are two options, the first closing Defraggler when the defrag completes, and the second to allow the user to set a fragmentation threshold, which can prevent scheduled defrags taking place if the specified figure (as an overall percentage of the drive) hasn’t been reached.

Version 2.13 also adds support for external 3TB drives, drives with allocation units greater than 4KB, and the ReFS filing system as found in Windows Server 2012. It’s rounded off with the usual mix of updated translations, GUI and usability tweaks and minor bug fixes.

The Recuva 1.45 update also adds support for external 3TB drives as well as hard disks with 4KB sectors. More critically, perhaps, it promises improved secure overwrite performance when wiping hard drives as well as better reliability when recovering data using the NTFS Deep Scan tool.

The paid-for Pro version gains an option for creating VHD drive images for recovery purposes, while a minor bug with opening VHD images in Windows has been fixed. The update is again rounded off with minor tweaks to the user interface.

Defraggler 2.13, Defraggler Portable 2.13, Recuva 1.45 and Recuva Portable 1.45 are all available as free-for-personal use downloads for PCs running Windows XP or later.

The classic free memory diagnostic tool MemTest86 has been maintained by author Chris Brady since 1994, but this has finally changed, with Australian company PassMark Software taking over the program this month.

It doesn’t seem like there’s any need for MemTest86 fans to be concerned, though. The program code remains open source, and so of course it’s still available to download for free.

The only major commercial addition we noticed was a new option to purchase a bootable USB key with MemTest86 pre-installed, yours for $16 plus postage, which seems a reasonable price (although you can still download an ISO file and configure a USB drive yourself for free, if you prefer).

MemTest86 is remaining an open source product, free to download and use

Anyone who wants to order a CD or USB key will now benefit from new options to pay by credit card, or have their order delivered by FedEx as an alternative to regular airmail.

PassMark has also created a MemTest86 forum on their own support site where users can discuss any issues and ask for help.

And the company has pledged that there will be "more active future development on new versions, with some type of UEFI version of the application being the immediate priority".

Does this mean the beginning of the end for the free version, though? PassMark suggest not, as they hope to earn some income by "selling pre-made bootable USB drives, support services and using some of the MemTest86 algorithms in our other products".

And as the company already maintains a great free product in OSForensics, with no particular restrictions or annoying marketing hassles, we’d say there’s good reason to be optimistic that this move won’t be a problem, and in fact could bring new life to the MemTest86 project.

The Windows Run box has always been a quick and easy way to launch programs, but it’s not exactly packed with features. You can specify an application to launch, choose something you’ve run recently from the History list, and, well, that’s about it.

You don’t have to live with these limitations, though. Grab a copy of the new Run-Command and it’ll take your Run box to a whole new level.

The program is a tiny download (42KB), so you can just unzip and go. And it’s extremely portable. There are no .NET or other major dependencies, and the author says it’ll run on anything from Windows 98 to 8.

Launch Run-Command and at a minimum it’ll work more or less like the regular Run box. You can enter a URL, file or folder name (or browse to it), press Enter or click Run and it’ll launch as usual.

There’s also a button to run programs as an administrator, though. (You can do the same thing from the regular Run box by entering a program name and pressing Ctrl+Shift+Enter, if you remember, but this is certainly easier).

There are easy ways to launch commonly-used tools. So for instance Run-Command has built-in icons for Regedit, Cmd.exe, the Computer Management and System Properties dialogs, and more.

There’s even a customizable Favorites system, which acts something like a mini Start menu. It comes with built-in links to many system tools, but you can also add more of your own. And if you’re using Run-Command from a USB stick then this could help you to create your own portable working environment.

Through all of this the program does its best to stay out of your way, by default minimizing to the system tray. But it’s easy to launch via the regular Win+R key (although you can change this to whatever you like). And background RAM use is reasonable at around 7MB.

There is also one annoying bug. Our test PC happened to have the display of icons on the desktop turned off, but we noticed that launching Run-Command (and closing it) caused them to be displayed again. There’s no harm done, you can just hide them once more, but it still quickly becomes extremely irritating.

This may not be an issue which applies to all systems, though. And if you allow icons to be displayed on your desktop then this won’t be an issue, anyway. So if you’re interested in the idea, don’t let this put you off: just download Run-Command and see how it works for you.

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Nitro PDF Pty Ltd has launched two major updates for its flagship PDF reader and authoring products. Nitro Reader 3.5 is its powerful freeware PDF reader app, also boasting PDF creation and limited editing and form-filling tools. Nitro Pro 8.5 is Nitro’s flagship PDF authoring product.

The headline new feature in this update is Nitro Pro 8.5’s ability to convert PDF files to Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 (PPTX) format as well as Word and Excel. Also added to both Nitro Pro 8.5 and Nitro Reader 3.5 are support for XML Forms Architecture (XFA) documents and the promise of vastly improved printing of images and text in PDF documents.

Nitro Pro 8.5, the paid-for version of Nitro, adds one major new feature to its arsenal: the ability to convert PDF files into Microsoft PowerPoint documents. At the present time, documents must be converted into PPTX format, which requires PowerPoint 2007 or later, but Nitro promises the conversion is highly accurate, preserving the original text, images and layout. This new feature adds to the program’s existing capabilities converting PDFs to both Word and Excel, the latter option having been tweaked extensively in the Nitro Pro 8.1.1.3 update released in December.

Other changes in these latest builds apply equally to Nitro Reader 3.5 as well as Nitro Pro 8.5. First, there’s added support for XML Forms Architecture, allowing users to not just view, but also fill out and save dynamic XFA forms.

The update also promises to simplify the use of portable document and collection portfolios through the use of the Attachments pane for easy access to key documents.

The update also resolves a couple of notable issues with both apps. The first sees several significant updates being applied to Nitro’s Web Browser plugin, with the promise of better stability and improved document rendering of PDF files through supported web browsers. The second resolution promises to deliver better performance and PDF rendering across many areas of Nitro Reader 3.5 and Nitro Pro 8.5.

These latest improvements build on others introduced since Nitro Pro 8 and Nitro Reader 3 were released last September, including the ability to use pre-defined scanner configurations when using the Create PDF from scanner option (Nitro Pro only), and Remember Last Location and Google Search improvements (both apps).

Nitro Reader 3.5 32-bit and Nitro Reader 3.5 64-bit are both freeware downloads for PCs running Windows XP or later. Nitro Pro 8.5 32-bit and Nitro Pro 8.5 64-bit are available as free trial downloads, while the full version can be purchased for just $95.99 from the Downloadcrew Software Store, a saving of 20 percent on the MSRP.

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When you’re having problems understanding an idea, or conveying it to someone else, then building a mind map can often help. Just the process of defining the core concepts and showing how they’re related will often make things very much clearer.

If you’re familiar with the basics then creating a map doesn’t require very much, of course -- a pen and paper will probably do. But if you’re a beginner to this kind of outlining approach then a little software-based assistance should help to make things clearer, and while it has some problems, InfoRapid KnowledgeBase Builder is an interesting place to get started.

The program is a relatively small download (under 5MB), for instance. It’s free for personal use. And there’s no adware, no installation hassles, in fact no installation at all: just unzip the download somewhere and you’re ready to begin.

KnowledgeBase Builder launches with a sample mind map covering the process of troubleshooting a web server. And at first this just looks like a more attractive flowchart, with questions like "Is it out of memory?" and "Is it a software failure?", and yes/ no arrows leading from these to some other step. But actually this is just the start.

The example map looks basic, yes, but this is only because the initial view is hiding its complexity from you. If you click one of the questions on the map -- "Is it out of memory?", say -- then the program will zoom in on that point, display an extra question, and other issues which you might want to consider ("Is the CPU overloaded?"). Clicking new questions will do the same thing, and the whole map quickly becomes an interactive tool, leading you through the process to help figure out whatever you might need to do.

Not every mind map requires this dynamic approach, of course, but if you’d prefer a more static view then that’s possible, too. Just keep clicking "More Details" at the top of the map pane and KnowledgeBase Builder will expand the map, showing more and more information, until it’s all visible (subject to your screen size, anyway).

If the example map doesn’t interest you, however it’s displayed, then KnowledgeBase Builder has something else you can try. Click File > New, then Tools > Generate Site Map, point the program at www.google.com, and in a few seconds you’ll have a map showing the initial pages on the Google site. This can be excellent way to visualise site structure, especially as it’s so dynamic: you can click on a page, move to it, see all the pages available from that link, and more.

And, of course, once you understand how this all works then you can begin to enter the objects and relationships necessary to build maps of your own. Although this may take quite some time; there are lots of options here, and vanishingly little help.

One major issue with all of this is there’s no way to export your maps in a standard format that others can view them immediately (you can save the details in a CSV file, but that probably won’t help you very much).

Still, you can show people a map on your own system. And as the KnowledgeBase Builder is just a single executable, you could always zip up your own database with a copy of the program if you need others to see it. Plus the maps look so good that even just printed copies may be useful. So, while there limitations here, if you’ve any interest in this kind of tool then InfoRapid KnowledgeBase Builder definitely deserves a closer look.

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If you regularly troubleshoot other people’s PCs then you’ll know that the process usually starts by collecting system information. Which graphics card does it have, for instance? How many network interfaces, which USB controller, what user accounts are there? And whatever it might be.

You may be able to collect some of this data by browsing the target PC, but life will probably be a lot easier if you have a system information program to collect and present everything in a single place. And few tools provide quite as much data as the free Kiwi System Info.

The program certainly doesn’t look like it’s going to tell you very much. It’s a tiny 195KB download, for instance, and unzips to a single executable. This looks like the kind of tool that will tell you your Windows version, total RAM, free hard drive space, and that’s about it.

But the reality is quite different. Kiwi System Info organizes its data into 7 key areas: “Hardware Info”, “Data Storage”, “Memory”, “System Info”, “Network”, “User & Security” and “Developer”, and each of these in turn has multiple categories to choose from. So “Hardware Info” includes “BIOS”, “Printer” and “Processor”, for instance; “Data Storage” has “DiskDrive”, “DiskPartition” and “LogicalDisk”; and “System Information” gives us “Account”, “Process”, “Service” and so on. Just select a category and you’ll see a report covering that particular area.

While this sounds great, there is a catch here. Kiwi System Info works by using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to discover and display the information available on the current PC. This is very easy to do, which is why the program can be so small, but the problem is that most WMI data is highly technical, poorly presented, or both. Which doesn’t make for great reports.

When you’re browsing categories, for instance, options like CIMLogicalDeviceCIMDataFile, HeatPipe and PerfRawData_W3SVC_WebService probably aren’t going to mean much to the average user (or even many experts).

And worse still, when you do select a more basic category you’ll often find that its data isn’t presented particularly helpfully. When we clicked “DiskDrive” on our test system, for instance, it listed our drives with their physical IDs rather than drive letters (so \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 rather than D:), reported our drive D: capacity as “1000202273280″, and didn’t list the drive space used at all.

This isn’t necessarily a fatal problem, though. Look past the occasionally dubious presentation and there’s still lots of useful information here. So if you choose “Service”, say, you’ll see all your installed services, their full names, descriptions, short names, the service executable file, its current process ID, whether it can be paused, whether it can interact with the desktop, and more (all of which can be exported as a TXT file with a click). If you’re an experienced PC user, and willing to spend time discovering which areas of the program are helpful, and which really aren’t, then Kiwi System Info could prove very helpful.

For simpler and more general troubleshooting, though, you’ll need a regular system information tool, as well -- Piriform’s Speccy, for instance, delivers a great amount of detail but in a much more readable way.

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Binary Fortress Software has released DisplayFusion 5.0, a brand new version of its multi-monitor management tool for Windows. DisplayFusion 5.0, which comes in Free and Pro editions, gives users more control over multi-monitor management.

Version 5.0 is a major update, adding more online wallpaper sources and a background gradient option for desktop wallpaper, while Pro users also gain a number of Windows 8 enhancements, plus options for flipping and rotating desktop wallpaper.

Both Free and Pro versions gain access to two new online wallpaper sources: 500px and Binary Fortress’s own WallpaperFusion. Users can now also select a linear gradient for use as the desktop wallpaper background color via the “Background Gradient” option.

Users can now also quickly locate the current wallpaper image by double-clicking the image preview in the Desktop Wallpaper window. The Desktop Wallpaper tool now speeds up searches for desktop wallpaper by reusing the Image Chooser window for each monitor.

New features exclusive to the Pro version include support for four third-party Start menu replacements for Windows 8 users on the DisplayFusion replacement Taskbar, namely Classic Shell, Start8, StartIsBack and Start Menu X. The taskbar is also now capable of showing full jump lists for both pinned and running applications.

Also added to DisplayFusion Pro’s Desktop Wallpaper selection tool are options for both flipping and rotating desktop wallpaper – both settings can be found on the Adjustments tab.

Windows 8 users will also benefit from a number of Pro-only enhancements, specifically a boot to desktop option to bypass the Windows 8 Start screen, plus options to reduce the Start Screen to a user-custom size, move the Power User menu to the current mouse cursor position and an option for adjusting the border size for application windows. This latter option is also available to Free edition users.

The new build also includes the requisite number of bug fixes, performance and stability improvements – specific examples include fixes for issues involving Monitor Profile detection and loading, and a resolution for erratic window sizing of the Wallpaper and Settings windows when DPI scaling has been enabled.

DisplayFusion 5.0 is available now as a free download for PCs running Windows XP or later. XP users will need to have installed the .NET Framework 2.0 tool. The program installs as a fully functional 30-day trial of DisplayFusion Pro before reverting to the cut-down freeware version. The Pro version, which is currently on sale for $17.50, adds support for multi-monitor Taskbars, TitleBar Buttons and customizable hot keys to simplify the task of using two or more monitors with a single PC. Users can cancel the trial version and revert to the free version at any time by right-clicking the program’s Notification Area icon and choosing Enter A License Key, then clicking the Change to Free Version button.

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There has been a lot of news recently about Surface Pro. The new tablet made quite a splash over the weekend, but the jury still is out about the real success of the launch. However, Bluestacks is interested enough to bring its wares to the new platform and carry 750,000 Android apps along.

That may sound like a nice gesture towards Microsoft, but it also represents somewhat of a dig at the company. In fact, the website launched by Bluestacks is titled Get your Apps Back. The site even has a headline -- Missing your apps on Windows 8? While a dig at the lack of apps proliferating the new Windows Store, it is also a nice little bonus for Surface Pro early-adopters and other Windows 8 users.

For those of us who run Windows 8 in our computing environment, but prefer our mobile devices to be of an Android-persuasion, this is a big win. After all, we have invested money in our mobile apps and we want to be able to use those apps everywhere, including on our PC's and Surface tablets.

While this is touted as being "optimized for Surface" the new Bluestacks will run just fine on any Windows 8 device and add a lot of new options for any user, including thousands of free games. At first glance, a niche item, it really is more like a second app store for customers and is a win-win proposal for everyone.

If, like my colleague Joe Wilcox, you’ve already been lucky enough to get your hands on Microsoft’s new Surface PC, or you’re thinking of buying it in either the Windows 8 Pro or RT editions (and a stunning 45 percent of you say you'll be purchasing the former), you’ll want to download the new getting started guide immediately.

The official PDF manual from Microsoft Press is 68 pages long (1.35MB) and starts by introducing the device and explaining the differences between Surface RT and Pro, and also lists the accessories available to buy, before guiding readers through the setup process.

It covers everything from configuring Windows and adding accounts, to explaining how to use the interface, customizing the UI, and connecting devices and a second screen.

It’s a clear and concise guide, that really anyone with an interest in Surface needs to read (and which I would definitely have appreciated during my week long play with Surface RT).

You can download the getting started guide from here.

Binary Fortress Software has released DisplayFusion 5.0, a brand new version of its multi-monitor management tool for Windows. DisplayFusion 5.0, which comes in Free and Pro editions, gives users more control over multi-monitor management.

Version 5.0 is a major update, adding more online wallpaper sources and a background gradient option for desktop wallpaper, while Pro users also gain a number of Windows 8 enhancements, plus options for flipping and rotating desktop wallpaper.

Both Free and Pro versions gain access to two new online wallpaper sources: 500px and Binary Fortress’s own WallpaperFusion. Users can now also select a linear gradient for use as the desktop wallpaper background color via the "Background Gradient" option.

Users can now also quickly locate the current wallpaper image by double-clicking the image preview in the Desktop Wallpaper window. The Desktop Wallpaper tool now speeds up searches for desktop wallpaper by reusing the Image Chooser window for each monitor.

New features exclusive to the Pro version include support for four third-party Start menu replacements for Windows 8 users on the DisplayFusion replacement Taskbar, namely Classic Shell, Start8, StartIsBack and Start Menu X. The taskbar is also now capable of showing full jump lists for both pinned and running applications.

Also added to DisplayFusion Pro’s Desktop Wallpaper selection tool are options for both flipping and rotating desktop wallpaper -- both settings can be found on the Adjustments tab.

Windows 8 users will also benefit from a number of Pro-only enhancements, specifically a boot to desktop option to bypass the Windows 8 Start screen, plus options to reduce the Start Screen to a user-custom size, move the Power User menu to the current mouse cursor position and an option for adjusting the border size for application windows. This latter option is also available to Free edition users.

The new build also includes the requisite number of bug fixes, performance and stability improvements -- specific examples include fixes for issues involving Monitor Profile detection and loading, and a resolution for erratic window sizing of the Wallpaper and Settings windows when DPI scaling has been enabled.

DisplayFusion 5.0 is available now as a free download for PCs running Windows XP or later. XP users will need to have installed the .NET Framework 2.0 tool. The program installs as a fully functional 30-day trial of DisplayFusion Pro before reverting to the cut-down freeware version. The Pro version, which is currently on sale for $17.50, adds support for multi-monitor Taskbars, TitleBar Buttons and customizable hot keys to simplify the task of using two or more monitors with a single PC. Users can cancel the trial version and revert to the free version at any time by right-clicking the program’s Notification Area icon and choosing Enter A License Key, then clicking the Change to Free Version button.

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Launch your PC and very soon there will be a host of processes making use of your internet connection. Your antivirus program might download new definitions; other programs will check for updates; your email client may scan for new messages, and of course there’s also your browser, download manager and anything else you’ve directly launched for some specific task.

If you have unlimited internet access and a speedy broadband connection, none of this will matter very much. But if you have limited bandwidth, a slow connection, or you’d just like to track your system’s network use, then installing NetTraffic could be a great way to monitor exactly what’s happening.

The program is free, a compact download (414KB) which installs quickly, with no adware worries. On launch it displays a simple icon in your system tray which flashes to indicate network traffic. And if you need to know more, then hovering a mouse cursor over the icon displays a tooltip showing the current upload and download speeds.

Right-clicking the system tray icon and selecting "Show" then displays a tiny scrolling graph, allowing you to watch how bandwidth use changes over time. This stays on top of other windows for convenience, and is resizable if you’d like to see more detail.

If even this isn’t enough, though, right-click the graph, select "Statistics", and you’re presented with tables showing your network traffic (total and average) for the past hour, day, month and year. The program will even try to predict how much bandwidth you’ll use in future. (This didn’t look too accurate in our initial tests, but perhaps the figures will improve as NetTraffic has more time to sample your usage.)

It’s even possible to zoom in on a particular period of time in your network history, and display charts of network use. So if there was an unusual spike in network traffic last December, say, you can drill down to try and find out when it happened.

And while by default these figures track all your network traffic, you can of course ask the program to monitor specific network interfaces only. Just right-click the system tray icon, select "Settings", clear the "Use all interfaces" box and choose your preferred network cards.

If there’s a minor issue here it’s that the program uses a little more system resources than we’d like, maybe 20-40MB of RAM on our test PC.

That’s not enough to make the faintest difference to most users, though, and so if you need to track your network bandwidth then you should give NetTraffic a try: it’s easy to use, provides plenty of information, and offers useful configuration options and settings to ensure it’s working just as you’d like.

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The Windows HOSTS file is based on a simple idea -- it just redirects specific domain names to your preferred IP address -- but this has some very useful applications. If you want to block access to a particular website, for instance, just add its domain name to HOSTS, point it to an IP address representing your local system (127.0.0.1, usually), and you won’t be able to reach the site in any browser.

But that’s just the start. You could also use HOSTS to block advertising servers, and known malicious sites. And sometimes malware will tweak your HOSTS file to gain control over your internet access. If you want to review all this then you could just open HOSTS in Notepad, but HostsMan could be a much better option -- it’s a compact, portable and free HOSTS file manager with a stack of features.

Launch HostsMan as an administrator and you might start by viewing your own HOSTS file. Click Editor, the file will appear, and you can browse it to see what entries (if any) it contains.

There are plenty of editing options here. Right-click and you’ll find options to create, edit, disable or delete entries, copy them to and from the clipboard, and add comments. An Edit > Find option contains a powerful search feature, with regular expression support, to help you locate particular entries. And useful management features include options to delete the empty lines in a file, the comments, and more.

And better still, if you’re worried about malware then you can ask the program to look for possible hijacked HOSTS entries, or just display any which have been created or modified recently.

HostsMan has another very useful security function elsewhere, though in its Hosts Updater. This provides built-in access to seven popular HOSTS files which can help to block ad servers, known malicious sites, and so on. You can add more sources if necessary, then import these to update your own HOSTS file.

It’s worth keeping in mind that an incorrectly updated HOSTS file can cause problems, perhaps blocking access to sites you’d like to reach (especially relevant as this is a beta version, and bugs are to be expected). Fortunately HostsMan also includes a backup tool where you can save your current HOSTS file, and restore it later if necessary. Click Tools > Backup Manager, then Create Backup to save your current HOSTS. Or, if you want to return to the default Windows HOSTS setup with no redirections at all, click "* Original Hosts *" > Restore Backup.

And just in case this isn’t enough, HostsMan also contains several time-saving shortcuts. If a HOSTS file change doesn’t work right away, for instance, it could be because Windows has cached the previous IP address; click Tools > Flush DNS Cache to try again. Or, if you want to update or access the file yourself, there’s no need to manually browse to it: just click Tools > Open Hosts Folder, and there are menu entries to open it in Explorer, a command window or PowerShell.

There are plenty of powerful functions here, and as HostsMan 4 is also in beta right now it’s probably not a good choice for networking beginners.

If you’re already used to exploring your HOSTS file, though, the program should prove an excellent assistant which will make the management process very much easier.

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From a Captain Picard facepalm to a dancing Homer Simpson, there’s an animated GIF for every occasion. Which is one reason why they’re still regularly used in emails, forum posts, on web pages and so on. (Although another is probably compatibility: unlike more modern technologies, such as HTML5 or CSS3, animated GIFs work just about everywhere.)

If you’re tired of reposting one of the standard animations, though, why not create a new GIF of your own? It’s surprisingly easy. Any GIF Animator imports just about any video or YouTube clip, and once you’ve zoomed in on the section you’d like to use, can have a quality animated GIF ready and online in just a few seconds.

After a quick installation (no adware, but the program does ask to install Media Player Codec Pack Lite) you’re able to import your first video. The program can open a wide range of formats (3GP, ASF, AVI, DAT, FLV, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPEG, RAM/RM/ RMVB, TS, VOB, WEBM, WMV), and it’ll also download YouTube clips if you just provide the appropriate URL.

An embedded media player then allows you to browse through your video clip, find and mark the section you’d like to convert. Oddly, you can’t step through the movie in frames -- the smallest increment is a tenth of a second -- so you’re not able to be as precise as we’d like. But otherwise this is a fairly simple operation, and you’ll quickly have your core clip ready.

If you’d like fine control over your animation then the good news is that Any GIF Animator provides lots of configuration options. So you can set the GIF’s size and frame rate; crop the image; tweak saturation, brightness and contrast; add a text caption, choose the best dithering method, set the animation type (looping, direction) and more.

But if you’re not sure whether you need any of this, or are just in a hurry, then you can just accept the default settings -- they work well, most of the time.

And when you’re happy with the clip, all you have to do is click "Convert to GIF" and Any GIF Animator will process your chosen video, create an animated GIF version, and upload it to the AnyGif server, where you’ll be given the URLs you need to share the clip with others.

One very obvious issue here is that the program doesn’t offer you a choice about uploading animations -- it just does it. And your GIF will then immediately be visible to anyone who visits the site, so bear that in mind before you create anything of a, well, personal nature. (We’d also urge caution if you’re looking for something family-friendly; the program itself is fine, but view what others are creating on the website and you’ll find plenty of porn.)

Perhaps most annoyingly, Any GIF Animator doesn’t even provide an option to save a local copy of your animation. If you want to do this then you’ll need to either allow it to be uploaded, then save it from your browser, or make a copy of the temporary file the program creates -- see C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Roaming\Any GIF Animator, for instance, or search your system for out.gif.

There’s a lot to like about Any GIF Animator, then, and you can use it right now to produce quality animations. The program also has some significant annoyances, though, and it really needs a local save option to be added very soon.

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There are many reasons to be annoyed by Windows, but perhaps one of the most common is its feeble file manager. Explorer is desperately short on features and functionality, and there’s no sign of this changing any time soon: if anything, it looks like Microsoft is trying to head for a simpler world where most people never bother with file management at all.

Fortunately you don’t have to put up with the standard Windows offerings, though, as there are a host of third-party file managers to explore. And the latest, Just Manager, is particularly promising: it’s still in alpha, but if you’re interested in Explorer alternatives then it’s definitely worth a few minutes of your time.

The program’s portable build is extremely compact, for instance, at barely more than 500KB. And its installation is extremely simple: a single executable, one DLL, a few settings and language files, and that’s it. Just Manager isn’t going to clutter your system.

Launch the program and there are no obvious compromises in the interface, though, which looks just as you’d expect for this kind of tool: multi-pane, with a tabbed interface, already network-enabled (your existing mapped drives should already be available, and you can easily add more), with full drag and drop support, and so on.

And despite its alpha status and small size, Just Manager still has room for some useful extras. Like a small command line at the bottom of the program window, for instance. Navigate to a folder, enter a particular command there -- “attrib *.exe” or whatever it might be -- and a console window will open to show you the results.

But that’s just the start. There’s also a batch file renaming tool. A capable search dialog. An option to change the file stamps and attributes for your chosen files (and we mean all the attributes: Compressed, Offline, System, Sparse file, Reparse point and more). A folder comparison tool. You even get an FTP client (basic, but it works).

And this can all be configured via a surprisingly capable Settings box, where for example you can already customise the entire menu system. So you can browse to a particular item and remove or rename it, replace its icon, even give it an entirely different action of your own (so clicking “Search”, for example, could launch any other search tool you might want to use).

This is still an alpha, of course, and so you’ll spot deficiencies and problems from time to time. Icons can’t display the contents of files, for instance (image file icons won’t show picture thumbnails). You can’t drag and drop files onto a tab that isn’t currently selected. And we found the program crashed a few times for no apparent reason.

Still, even now Just Manager is a likeable tool with a lot of features, and already far more powerful than Explorer in many areas. Development seems to be proceeding well, too, and we’ll be interested to see where the project goes next.

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Yesterday it appeared that WinZip for Windows 8 app was now available for free. Which would have represented a fairly swift change of direction, as it’s not even three months since the app first appeared in the Windows Store with a price tag of $7.99.

But apparently this is not the case. The Windows 8 store may label it as free, and you won’t be told otherwise on installation, but it seems the app is only free for a 15 day trial, after which point you’ll need to subscribe for the same $7.99 a year.

And that’s plainly not something to get too excited about.

Could the app still be worth considering? The interface looks good and works well, allowing you to browse files and folders with a clean and touch-friendly tile-based interface.

It runs on Windows RT, as well as Windows 8.

And WinZip for Windows 8 also provides access to the ZipSend service for sending archives to others, while allowing you to securely share your files via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive and more.

But on the other hand, the app only handles ZIP and ZIPX files, which is fine when you only need to create and manage your own archives, but could be an issue if you regularly download or are sent other formats.

And that annual $7.99 does seem a little much, especially when 7-Zip and other competitors deliver so much power for precisely nothing at all.

If you’re running Windows RT, then, or just like Windows 8′s “modern UI” so much that you never want to leave, then WinZip for Windows 8 may still appeal. But everyone else should probably head off to the desktop, where there are far more archiving programs to choose from.

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WinZip Computing has announced that its WinZip for Windows 8 app is now available for free.

This represents a fairly swift change of direction, as it’s not even three months since the app first appeared in the Windows Store with a price tag of $7.99.

Still, given the number of other quality free archiving tools around, the move probably isn’t a great surprise.

Is the app now worth considering? It depends what you want to do. One potential problem here is that the app only handles ZIP and ZIPX files, which is fine when you only need to create and manage your own archives, but could be an issue if you regularly download or are sent other formats.

Otherwise, though, the interface looks good and works well, allowing you to browse files and folders with a clean and touch-friendly tile-based interface.

It runs on Windows RT, as well as Windows 8.

And the app also provides access to the ZipSend service for sending archives to others, while allowing you to securely share your files via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive and more.

You could of course achieve much of this by combining a few other appropriate apps, but WinZip for Windows 8 does still provide some very useful functionality, and if you’re yet to explore the world of modern UI archive management then it’s not a bad place to start. Especially now the price tag has been removed.

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Browser password manager LastPass 2.0.20 has been released for all major web browsers. The new release, also available for 64-bit versions of Windows is accompanied by the LastPass for Windows 8 app, which gives users access to their LastPass account directly from the Modern UI interface in Windows 8.

Version 2.0.20 now automatically calculates the user’s security score and displays it next to the Security Challenge link in the user’s vault. It also extends support -- albeit in beta -- to the Maxthon web browser.

The new build also adds a new preference that permits users to clear login credentials filled in automatically by LastPass on logging out of the service. Also added is faster login through performing hashes through binary components of the app, while password iterations are now recommended to be at 5000 for greater security.

Also improved is accessibility to the Generate Secure Password tool from the LastPass toolbar, while the LastPass Sentry online test now offers an option for checking usernames to see if they’ve been used as part of browser hacks. There’s also a fix for NTLM authentication in Internet Explorer.

A number of new Enterprise features have been added, including the extension of SAML Support to include Box.com, Zendesk and SalesForce among others. Enterprise users can now see security scores for all users in the organization to see which ones aren’t following the best practices.

The new Windows 8 app works in much the same way as the standalone LastPass Tab Browser app for iPhone and iPad, providing users with full access to their vault, plus bundling a built-in browser for quickly accessing websites on the go. Users can also opt to copy passwords to the clipboard for manually logging into other web browsers.

LastPass 2.0.20 is a free download for all major browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera. Also available are standalone tools, LastPass for Windows 8, LastPass for Android and LastPass Tab Browser for iPhone and iPad. Users can upgrade for additional tools, including the ability to access their LastPass vaults from mobile devices.

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Take a photo with most digital cameras and by default you’ll get a JPG file, which is great for compatibility purposes, but does involve some compromises in image quality. And that’s because your picture will go through various processes before the final JPG is produced -- sharpening, adjusting colors and contrast, compressing the results -- and each step results in the loss of some information.

Take pictures using a camera’s RAW format, though (if it has one), will give you access to the full and unprocessed image data. And you can then apply any tweaks you like on a case by case basis, for the best possible results. You’ll probably need a specialist tool to access the RAW images, but that may not be a problem: Scarab Darkroom, for instance, is a very capable RAW converter with support for cameras by Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, Samsung, and Sony, and you can download it and it entirely for free.

After a quick and easy installation, the program presents a straightforward interface. A right-hand tabbed sidebar displays the drives and folders on your PC; you’ll navigate through these to a folder containing your RAW images; and their thumbnails will then appear at the bottom of the program window, making it easy to spot and view whatever picture you need.

There are a few small buttons above the thumbnails with various viewing-related options: rotate, crop, zoom and so on. And you can also drag the image with the mouse, and zoom in and out with the mouse wheel, so even if you’re viewing a very high resolution photo, it’s quick and easy to find and examine a particular detail.

Life gets more interesting when you click the Adjustments tab, though, where Scarab Darkroom provides tweaks for Exposure (Brightness, Contrast, Recovery, Blacks, Fill Light), Colors (Temperature, Tint, Hue, Saturation, Vibrance), Tone Curve (Highlights, Midtones, Shadows) and Sharpness. Drag a particular slider and the picture will update accordingly, giving you immediate feedback. And it’s easy to copy your settings to the clipboard, and restore them later, so once you’ve found a configuration which delivers good results then you can quickly apply it to all your other shots.

There’s also a Metadata tab, although this is relatively basic by comparison. It displays a few of the key image details -- exposure, aperture, focal length, ISO speed, flash used, date taken, camera, owner -- and allows you to set the image rating, but that’s about it.

And when you’re happy, and it’s finally time to abandon RAW for an image format you can actually use elsewhere, then the program can save your pictures as JPG or TIF files.

There are a few small gaps in functionality here, mostly because this is the free version of the program. The developer is currently working on a commercial build, and so extras like noise filtering are going to be reserved for that edition.

It seems unreasonable to complain, though, because otherwise Scarab Darkroom is an excellent tool. There’s no adware, no marketing annoyances; it’s fast, easy to use, supports a lot of RAW formats and is still being regularly updated to add more. Go grab a copy immediately.

Photo Credit: diez artwork / Shutterstock

Popular open-source image editor GIMP 2.8.4 FINAL has been released for Linux and Windows, with a Mac binary build due for release imminently. Version 2.8.4 is a minor stability release, but does contain a number of interesting improvements, including more responsive drawing -- particularly with the brush outline tool -- plus better names for the default filters when saving or exporting.

GIMP 2.8.4 will also be the second OS X release that runs natively on the Mac -- 2.8.0 and earlier required X11, and many improvements in this release are aimed specifically at that platform.

Aside from the improved responsiveness and filter tweaks, other user interface changes include GIMP now remembering the maximized state of windows across sessions, allowing the text tool to start on a non-layered image and various other fixes for text style attribute handling.

Plug-in improvements include better default values being set in the Drop Shadow script and a major round of bug fixes for the BMP plug-in.

Platform-specific improvements concentrate on the OS X platform -- the gimpdir has been moved to the user’s Library\Application Support folder, while the system screenshot tool is now used when creating a new image from a screenshot. Plug-in windows should now automatically appear on top, and users can now select their chosen language via GIMP’s Preferences dialog.

One addition to the Windows installer is the addition of a Brazilian-Portuguese translation.

The stability update builds on the major 2.8.0 release from last year, which saw GIMP radically overhaul its user interface with such elements as a new ‘single-window’ mode, multi-column Dock windows, a brand new Cage Transform tool and the ability to organise layers into groups.

GIMP 2.8.4 FINAL is available now as a free, open-source download for Windows, Linux and -- coming soon -- Mac OS X.

Windows disc-burning tool BurnAware 6.0 Free has been released. This major update, also available with additional features as BurnAware 6.0 Premium (rebadged from Home Edition) and BurnAware 6.0 Professional, comes with an updated burning engine and a number of new features, including a new tool for checking discs for read errors.

BurnAware 6.0 also ships with a number of improvements, including the grouping of all burning elements at the bottom of the main form, and a number of notable bug fixes.

BurnAware 6.0 adds a new View menu to its roster, allowing users to view the basic options in normal or large size. The new menu is joined by a brand new Verify Disc tool that scans discs for read errors.

Also added is an option to burn an 800MB CD from the Disc Type drop-down list, plus users can now select the cache size (press [F10] and then set the size via the Recorder tab). BurnAware 6.0 also adds support for importing multi-extent and UDF embedded files, and there’s a new log window accessible from the Copy Disc and Copy to Image tools.

The program’s burning engine has been updated, and the user manual has been rewritten from scratch to reflect all the changes in this new build. BurnAware 6.0 is also now capable of locking the burning drive for exclusive access when burning using the SCSI Pass Through Interface (SPTI). Version 6.0 also promises better optimized data transfer and buffering during the burning process.

The update is rounded off with five notable bug fixes: problems causing potential read errors in produced disc images, write errors at the end of the burning process on DVD-R/-RW discs and with ejecting discs at the end of the burning process have all been resolved, along with fixes for BD-R disc burning errors on certain Pioneer drives and the "A general error occurred" error that occasionally appeared while Blu-Ray disc images were being prepared.

BurnAware 6.0 Free is available as a free-for-personal-use download for PCs running Windows XP or later. Users wanting direct disc-to-disc copying capabilities and the ability to extract audio tracks and recover files from discs should download the 10-day trial of BurnAware 6.0 Premium, while a 10-day trial of BurnAware 6.0 Professional adds an option for burning a single ISO to multiple drives simultaneously to its commercial-use license. The two packages cost $29.95 and $39.95 respectively.

Photo Credit: AISPIX by Image Source/Shutterstock

When you’re creating a presentation, a demonstration, a software tutorial, or just trying to show someone else what’s happening on your desktop, then you could just take and save screen grabs at the appropriate moments. But while that sounds simple enough, it’s not exactly convenient. You’ll have plenty of work to do later in converting your grabs into something meaningful. And even then, the finished results may not be that professional.

Fortunately ActivePresenter Free offers a more capable alternative. It’s a powerful screen recorder which can track everything you’re doing, and automatically add some useful annotations. You can then quickly customize the results with an excellent editor, before saving your project as images (JPEG, PNG) or video (WMV, AVI, MPEG4, WebM).

Create a new project and the program allows you to record a fixed area, an application window or the entire screen. It’s smart enough to grab images only when you take some action, like clicking a button or typing. But ActivePresenter can also record onscreen activity as a video, if you like, with an audio narration as well.

And that would be useful enough, but it’s actually just the start. Because if, say, you click on the View menu within a program, ActivePresenter doesn’t just show an image with the cursor in the appropriate position. It can also highlight it, and even add a callout to make things clear to the reader, like "Select [View] menu item". So you may need to do very little post-processing to your images, because ActivePresenter has sorted out the basics already.

If you need to do more, though, that’s not a problem. The program includes a capable editor which allows you to further customize each slide with new shapes, captions, highlights, images, cursor paths, zoom and pan effects, even audio or video clips.

And if you don’t like some aspect of how the program works, just check the Preferences dialog -- it’s quite astonishingly customizable. So if you’re creating a cursor path, for instance, you’re able to set the default cursor highlight shape, color, size and opacity, the type of movement path, the cursor shape, even the noise it makes to indicate a left, right or double-click.

This is the free version of ActivePresenter, of course, and so we were expecting it to be hobbled by ridiculous restrictions -- you can only record 3 slides, they all have a massive watermark, and so on. But, surprisingly, there’s nothing like that here. The commercial versions (priced from $349.95) do have many more features, including the ability to add interaction to your projects (questions, quizzes, scripting and more), or export to PDF, Word, PowerPoint and so on. But the free edition has no length restrictions, watermarks, nag screens or anything similarly annoying, and if you need to export your on-screen activities to video then it should serve you very well.

Photo Credit: Alexey Kashin/Shutterstock

Windows Notepad may be easy to use, but it’s also horribly basic, and so it’s no surprise that an entire industry has grown up in providing more powerful alternatives. Some, like Notepad++, have become famous in themselves, but there are also plenty of powerful but lesser-known tools around, and EverEdit is one of the most interesting.

The program gets off to a good start with its ultra-compact 1.25MB download, for instance. There’s no installation, no adware, not as much as a "Donate" button -- just unzip the file somewhere and you’re ready to go immediately.

EverEdit’s versatility is apparent very quickly, too. Click File > New, for instance, and you’ll find the program has built-in template support (there are C, HTML and PHP templates included, and it’s easy to add your own). And while full Unicode support means EverEdit can open text files in any encoding, the program also has an option to open binary files in its own simple hex editor.

The interface is surprisingly configurable for a program of this size, too. As well as having a central tabbed area where you can work on your documents, EverEdit can display a Directory View to browse your system; an Outline window for easier navigation of lengthy documents; a list of open files, and a command window.

There’s even a Snippets window for speedy entry of commonly used text. Choose the HTML category, say, then double-click "Object (Flash Movie)" and EverEdit will insert an ‘<object type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”…’ tag at your current cursor position.

Other elements of the interface proved smarter than we’d expected. The status bar, for example, doesn’t just display details about the document and your current cursor position; it’s also clickable, so you can select your current tab size (or coding, or insert mode or whatever) and change it to something else.

There are a stack of other extras, too, from the small (a Print Preview option, and the ability to set the program window transparency, or set it "always on top"), to the surprisingly large, like macro and plugin support.

And of course you also get lots of core editing and developer-oriented features, like drag and drop support when moving text around, case conversion options, line manipulations (sorting, remove duplicates, more), auto-complete, code folding and more.

The program isn’t perfect, of course. For all its functionality, there are some features which seem relatively basic when compared to the best of the competition (syntax highlighting), while one or two others are missing entirely (there’s no option to maintain multiple clipboards, for instance).

More seriously, the features you do get aren’t always organized in an intuitive way. And there doesn’t seem to be any English language documentation, either, so figuring out how some of the more advanced features might work could prove quite a challenge.

This isn’t a fatal problem, though. You won’t need any help to use the core EverEdit features, and there are more than enough of those to justify downloading the program. And if you’re willing to invest some time in exploring its features then there’s plenty more to discover.

When Team XBMC recently announced the launch of XBMC 12.0 FINAL, fans of the media center alternative rejoiced. Version 12.0 didn’t just extend to support to even more platforms -- including the Raspberry PI and Android -- it also introduced a number of new high-end features too, including support for HD audio as well as live TV and PVR.

PVR -- in case you didn’t already know -- stands for Personal Video Recorder, and allows you to turn your PC into a tool for recording all your favorite TV shows. However, while XBMC 12.0 adds support for PVR, it takes a little setting up. Here’s what you need to do.

The key thing to understand is that live TV and PVR capabilities aren’t actually built into XBMC 12.0; instead, it’s been designed to work in tandem with various third-party tools that offer this functionality. That means you’ll need to install an additional program if you plan to use this functionality with XBMC.

There are a number of third-party options available to you depending on which platform you’re running XBMC on, but we’d recommend NextPVR if you’re running Windows and MythTV if you’re running Mac or Linux.

Configure the Back-End

In this guide we’ll focus on using NextPVR: once installed, launch the program. Right-click in the program window and choose Settings. Switch to the Devices section and verify your TV tuner card has been detected. Select it and click Device Setup.

Now set the Type Specific Settings dropdown menu to your country and -- if known -- transmitter. UK and Australian users should tick the Scan Offsets box as recommended. Finally, click Scan. Wait to see what channels are picked up -- if some are missing and you’re sure the tuner is connected to a powerful enough aerial or transmitter, you may find the configuration file for your chosen region is outdated. If you know what the correct frequencies are (UK users can click here) you can manually update the transmitter configuration file yourself -- you’ll find it in the appropriate folder under C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Tuning -- or you can simply select All Regions -- Frequencies from the Region dropdown list in NextPVR and scan using that setting. The latter option is simpler, but much slower.

Once the channels have been successfully scanned and are in place, switch to the Decoders tab and verify decoders have been set for MPEG2 Video and -- if applicable -- H.264 Video. Once done, check the other tabs for any key settings (you may wish to choose a different directory to store recorded programs in under Recording, for example) click OK and close NextPVR.

Set Up XBMC

With the TV tuner and PVR now setup, you can install and launch XBMC. You’ll be told that PVR has been enabled without any add-on, then prompted to select one. Pick NextPVR from the list and you should find it works out of the box, giving you access to live TV through XBMC’s Live TV menu while also allowing you to configure (and later watch) recordings directly from XBMC too. If subtitles are appearing on-screen, you can switch these off from within XBMC itself: click the sound icon on the live TV playback controls and disable Subtitles.

XBMC 12.0 FINAL is available now as a free, open-source download for Windows, Mac and Linux. Live TV and PVR services require a compatible TV tuner plus separate free back-end tool such as NextPVR 2.5.9 for Windows, or MythTV 0.26 for Linux and Mac.

Photo Credit: holbox/Shutterstock

Windows System Restore is usually an excellent technology. Your PC creates Restore Points automatically at key times, and if disaster strikes then you can restore your system settings or key files in a click or two. It all seems very reliable -- until, that is, you need to use a Restore Point and then your system hasn’t been creating any for quite some time.

The reality is there are all kinds of problems which can affect System Restore. At the simplest, another user might have accidentally turned it off. But it can also be disabled via Windows policies, or just stop working altogether if you have issues with WMI or your Windows services. And that’s why it might be useful to have a copy of QuickSystemRestore around as a backup plan.

The program is a tiny (96KB) tool, no installation required, just download the executable somewhere safe. And then, when you run it as an administrator, it’ll try to create a Restore Point for you.

That’s simple enough, of course. But life gets more interesting if that creation attempt fails, because the program doesn’t just give up, or make an Event Log entry you’ll never, ever read. Instead it tries to repair things, and get your PC working again.

This starts very simply, for instance by activating System Restore if it’s currently turned off, and restarting the necessary services.

But if that doesn’t help then the program will try more advanced repairs for System Restore itself, and the WMI Service. And if these fail it’ll warn you of the problem and suggest you reboot, just in case that might resolve the situation.

One annoyance here is that, if you forget to run QuickSystemRestore as an administrator, it won’t alert you to the problem. Instead it’ll display misleading alerts suggesting that System Restore is somehow at fault, which isn’t exactly helpful.

Set QuickSystemRestore up correctly, though, and this won’t be an issue. You might then use Task Scheduler to manually run the program every day or two, perhaps, and if anything does happen to System Restore you can be sure that it’ll quickly be restored to full working order.

Photo Credit: Lilya/Shutterstock

Sharing files across your network sounds like it should be simple, but the reality is often very different. There are lots of factors to consider -- the basic LAN setup, protocols, users, permissions, and more -- and if you’re trying to connect different platforms as well then life will only get more complex.

If your networking needs are simple, though, Dukto could offer a more appealing approach. It’s a straightforward tool which runs on Windows, OS X, Linux, Symbian and iOS, and helps you transfer files or folders across your LAN without any hassles at all.

Launch the program on a PC and you’re presented with a very simple, Metro-like interface, with an icon representing your user and computer name. And when other network users also launch Dukto, they’ll automatically be discovered, and their names added to your “buddies” list.

Starting a data transfer is then as easy as clicking an icon for one of the other systems, then dragging and dropping whatever folders you need onto Dukto. Conveniently, you can also send text, very handy for passing on long URLs.

And that’s about it. Dukto already knows where to save any incoming data (your desktop by default, though you can change this to wherever you like), so all you have to do is watch as the program transfers your data. Which probably won’t take long, as it’s very fast.

There are a few small extras, if you need them. You can review the IP addresses of everything Dukto has discovered, for instance, and send data directly to an IP address if that’s necessary. But for the most part, it really isn’t. Dukto just works.

That doesn’t mean the program is entirely perfect, of course. If we’re being picky, it’s a little annoying that the interface can’t be reduced to a smaller size (if there’s only one client then you’re left with an unnecessary amount of white space). And more significantly, it really needs an Android version.

Considering what you’re getting, though -- and all for free (although there is a commercial Dukto Pro iOS version) -- Dukto is a triumph, and an exceptionally convenient way to transfer files across your network. Go grab a copy immediately.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

Open-source password management tool KeePass 2.21 has been released. Version 2.21, also available as a standalone portable build, adds a number of new features, including a hex viewer mode, support for a user-defined group separator in the Generic CSV Importer and various tweaks, improvements and bug fixes.

KeePass is designed to act a single, central repository for a user’s sensitive data, from logons to credit card details. This information is encrypted with a single, master password, allowing the user to securely lock away their personal details when not required.

KeePass 2.21 makes it easier to import group trees into the program using its Generic CSV Importer tool by adding support for user-specified group separators. The internal data viewer has also added a hex viewer mode, which is automatically made the default view for unknown data types.

The tools support for storing special keycodes has been extended with the addition of {WIN}, {LWIN}, {RWIN}, {APPS} and {NUMPAD0} through to {NUMPAD9}. Also added is an option -- enabled by default -- to additionally show references when showing dereferenced data.

KeePass is also a little more robust -- when another application window hangs, the auto-type association editing dialog doesn’t hang with it. Version 2.21 also warns the user when another app attempts to switch from the secure desktop to a different one -- clicking OK returns to the secure desktop.

When opening the icon picker dialog, KeePass 2.21 ensures the currently selected icon is visible, plus adds OK and Cancel buttons to the dialog. The app also comes with improved importers for other programs including Password Safe and AnyPassword Pro, and prefers the .NET Framework 4.5 if it’s installed on the user’s computer.

Bugfixes include the UI updating correctly after multiple databases have been locked and the Save Changes dialog is cancelled, plus the ‘&’ character is now displayed correctly in various texts: dynamic menu texts, dialog banner texts, tooltips and more.

KeePass 2.21 and KeePass Portable 2.21 are both open-source free downloads for PCs running Windows 2000 or later.

Photo credit: marekuliasz/Shutterstock

When Windows Explorer doesn’t immediately provide all the information you need on a file or folder, a quick right-click > Properties will give you easy access to assorted other low-level details: attributes, date stamps, metadata and so on. But the standard Properties dialog has several limitations. It doesn’t show all the file attributes, for instance (Hidden and System are missing, others are a little hidden), while details such as file stamps are displayed, but can’t be edited.

If you’d like to take better control of your file and folder properties, then, you’ll need to get a little help from a third-party tool. And Attribute Changer‘s lengthy feature list suggests it could be a great place to start.

After an adware-free installation, right-clicking an object in Explorer and selecting "Change Attributes" will display the core program’s interface, a tabbed dialog with a lot of options. And the first you’ll see (unsurprisingly, given the program’s name) is a full list of file attributes -- Read-only, System, Hidden, Compress, Archive and Index -- which can all be tweaked with a click. (Altering the System attribute in particular can be dangerous, of course, so you do need to be careful here. If you don’t know why, then this isn’t the program for you).

You also get to see your file creation, last modified and last accessed times. You can manually adjust any of these, set them automatically to the current time, or even generate random date and timestamps between the range you specify. Attribute Changer can even set the EXIF datestamp of your photos to whatever you like.

And as you browse the various tabs, so even more options appear. At its simplest, you can use the program to standardize the case of your selected files and folders in various ways (both the name and extension can be in upper or lower case). But if you need rather more power then there are all kinds of configuration options available. So you can have the program include or exclude particular files from modification if they match the criteria you specify, for instance (file names, dates, times, attributes and more).

If you think this sounds very powerful, then you’re right. But some of the more advanced operations are a little more complicated than they need to be, thanks to a less than intuitive design. Documentation comes in the form of a separate PDF manual rather than a regular Help file, another inconvenience. And the program also seems to have a few bugs, or at least interactions which we didn’t understand. Because we really didn’t see why enabling the option to save program settings should have disabled our ability to change file stamps, for example.

Still, for all that, Attribute Changer’s basic options -- tweaking attributes, changing the case of names, setting file datestamps to "right now" -- proved quick and easy to use, and some of the program’s other abilities (applying random timestamps, say) are hard to do in any other way. If you need to take more control of your file properties, and are willing to take the time to master its quirks, then Attribute Changer could prove a very handy tool.

Photo credit: NinaMalyna/Shutterstock

There are no shortage of services that can backup your data to the cloud, but now the likes of Carbonite and Crashplan have a bit more competition in the market.

Over the weekend, Bitcasa, which has generated a lot of buzz recently, sent out an email to its early testers to alert them that the service would be leaving beta on Tuesday February 5th.

"Thank you for participating in the Bitcasa beta!" the email begins. "We have amazing product updates coming on Tuesday, and exclusive pricing for our faithful testers. Stay tuned for details in your inbox next week, but rest assured, we heard your feedback, and you will be handsomely rewarded for helping us out!"

The service will offer 10 GB of free storage or unlimited space -- "infinite" as Bitcasa prefers to call it -- for $10 per month. However, as you saw above, beta testers will be getting a "bonus". The app is available for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android. There's also a modern UI version for Windows 8 customers.

I have been testing Bitcasa for sometime now and have found it to be pretty simple. A folder is added to the Explorer window and the program can be set up to mirror your entire computer or just individual folders of your choosing.

Bitcasa is just one more player in a sea of competition, but its functionality and pricing should make it competitive. The beta is still open to the public so, if you want to take advantage of whatever deal the company plans to offer to early users, you may want to sign up for an account today.