Adobe's Flash Player (originally a Macromedia product) remains the standard platform for viewing a wide variety of web content, varying from navigation elements to every video you watch on YouTube. Its ease of use, high performance, small file-size and now near-HD quality all combine to make it a popular choice for web content professionals and casual users alike.

Flash Player 9 includes a range of interesting additions and improvements when compared to previous versions. Top of that list is the inclusion of support for the H.264 video codec and the HE-AAC audio codec, which together offer a much richer, higher-definition picture along with crystal-clear sound. Introducing these capabilities with only slightly reduced performance looks set to trigger another revolution in web video, as the first HD movies are already beginning to appear on YouTube - and they look and sound great!

Apart from that, Flash 9 irons out some of the problems that previous versions have suffered from (like security and stability issues), as well as adding suuport for ActionScript 3.0, the latest instruction set from Adobe. This makes for more dynamic and interesting navigation, games and interactivity on websites.

Adobe Flash Player 9 represents a leap forward in terms of quality and also stability and security. It's therefore a highly recommended update for all users.

Download Adobe Flash Player 9.0.124 in Softonic

Adobe's Flash Player (originally a Macromedia product) remains the standard platform for viewing a wide variety of web content, varying from navigation elements to every video you watch on YouTube. Its ease of use, high performance, small file-size and now near-HD quality all combine to make it a popular choice for web content professionals and casual users alike.

Flash Player 9 includes a range of interesting additions and improvements when compared to previous versions. Top of that list is the inclusion of support for the H.264 video codec and the HE-AAC audio codec, which together offer a much richer, higher-definition picture along with crystal-clear sound. Introducing these capabilities with only slightly reduced performance looks set to trigger another revolution in web video, as the first HD movies are already beginning to appear on YouTube - and they look and sound great!

Apart from that, Flash 9 irons out some of the problems that previous versions have suffered from (like security and stability issues), as well as adding suuport for ActionScript 3.0, the latest instruction set from Adobe. This makes for more dynamic and interesting navigation, games and interactivity on websites.

Adobe Flash Player 9 represents a leap forward in terms of quality and also stability and security. It's therefore a highly recommended update for all users.

Download Adobe Flash Player (IE & AOL) 9.0.124.0 in Softonic

If there's something positive about Vista, that's its visual appearance. The Aero style, packed with jaw-dropping 3D effects and transparent windows, makes an eye-catching operating system. And now you can add that style to Firefox too!

Simply install this theme and select it from the Tools - Add-ons menu, and you'll tweak the browser's interface so that it perfectly matches the Vista design. In fact, the skin uses IE7 buttons, which I must admit suits Firefox well. However, I didn't like having all those extra Favorite buttons on the tab bar and not being able to remove them.

Needless to say, you can use this theme even if you don't have Vista, but it doesn't look quite as nice.

Download Vista-aero Theme 2.0.0.8 in Softonic

JAP uses a single static address which is shared by many JAP users. That way neither the visited website, nor an eavesdropper can determine which user visited which website. Instead of connecting directly to a webserver, users take a detour, connecting with encryption through several intermediaries, so-called mixes.

Download JAP 00.09.010 in Softonic

If you miss those good ol' arcade titles you used to play in your Nintendo Entertainment System, whine no more: NES is back on your favorite web browser!

FireNes is a Firefox add-on that lets you play more than 2,500 NES titles of all times, covering all sorts of interests and styles. Games appear listed in alphabetic order on a sidebar to the left of your screen (if you don't see it, open it with Tools > FireNes), from which this list you can choose the one you want to play and run it with a double click. The sidebar also includes two other tabs (Top and Favorites) to manage games in a different way. It would have been great to have some kind of search tool to quickly locate certain games though.

When launched, games appear on a small-sized window that runs independently from Firefox. Controls are limited to arrow keys, Enter, Ctrl, Z and X, though sometimes the game does take a while to react to them. Also, I noticed that some games are a bit buggy, but you can always let the author know by filling in a small form. In any case, FireNes features such a huge collection of games that you'll surely find that one title you were hooked on a few years ago.

With FireNes you can use Firefox for more than browsing webpages: play more than 2,5000 NES games and remember gaming prehistory!

Download FireNes 1.1 in Softonic

Just when you thought you wouldn’t see another version of Internet Explorer this side of the next ice age, Microsoft hits the world with a totally new release of its almighty browsing app. It’s been so long in the making that many web users have got fed up with waiting for Microsoft to update its technology and have looked elsewhere – mainly in the direction of Firefox. Now the big, bad king of the browser world is in no mood to see its crown wrestled away, but can it do enough to win back its deserters?

For starters, the new streamlined interface is definitely an improvement. Microsoft has basically stripped back the menu bar and hidden all of the tools and functions within a set of compact icons, placed subtly at the top-right of the interface. It allows you to see pages in a very large viewing space. IE has also finally decided to support tabbed browsing. It includes a ‘New tab’ button for instant opening, plus an ingenious ‘Quick Tabs’ button, which opens up thumbnail previews of all your opened tabs in one screen and, unlike Firefox, IE 7 actually has a close button on each tab. You can even save groups of tabs as your homepage so they all launch upon start-up. We also appreciated the print preview tool, which adjusts the page according to your paper size.

IE 7 has improved the way it integrates RSS. Whenever you come across a site that supports RSS, the icon in the toolbar will turn its characteristic orange. Click on it and you will be lead to a page that reveals all the feeds for that website. Just click on the “subscribe to this feed” link to add it to your favourites. You can also subscribe by clicking on the small star icon on the left. Unlike Firefox however, there’s no drop down view of each item in a feed. The Favorites Center, opened up by clicking on the big star icon, is divided into favourites, feeds and history.

Security is usually one of the characteristic weak spots of IE. Apart from a pop-up blocker, version 7 also dishes out an anti-phishing filter. To give it a try, we opened up known phishing sites published on Phishtank. To our disappointment, the filter failed to report most of them. Phishing protection may not be IE 7’s strength but at least the browser incorporates security protocols SSL 2.0 and 3.0 and TLS 1.0, just like Firefox.

For all its improvements, IE is still far from perfect. Like Firefox, IE fails to pass the Acid2 Test and does not even support the latest standards. We found IE to lag and drag whenever opening up new tabs, the tools section and applying new settings. You can add a good number of search bar providers and add-ons from the Microsoft website, however they are still in much fewer number compared to the Mozilla extensions for Firefox. Furthermore, IE 7 is actually limited to those of you that have XP SP2 and for some reason you will need to disable your antivirus and restart your PC to properly install it. This new version of the Microsoft browser is definitely an improvement, but it’s still a long way away from Opera and Firefox.

Download Internet Explorer 7 in Softonic

Firefox is my favorite browser ever. I love it because I can open as many tabs as I want in a single window and I can freely customize it with extensions. The problem is that these two great features, tabs and extensions, sometimes turn Firefox into a heavy burden on system resources.

But now I've found the perfect solution. It's called Firefox Ultimate Optimizer and it's a small tool that drastically reduces the browser's craving for memory and CPU. The program doesn't have any configuration options and can only be set to launch with Windows if you have admin rights on your system.

Once launched, it will simply sit on the system tray and perform its task in an incredibly efficient way. Just open the Task manager window and see the difference between running Firefox with or without Firefox Ultimate Optimizer.

I have one single complaint: I'd like to be able to hide the system tray icon. But I guess that's a small detail that can be added that to the Wish List for future versions. In all, this is an excellent Firefox companion that makes me love my favorite browser even more.

Firefox Ultimate Optimizer will make your Firefox browser much lighter on resources!

Download Firefox Ultimate Optimizer 1.1 in Softonic

Following the release of new versions of both Internet Explorer and Firefox, the infamous 'browser wars' are flaring up again. Despite both Firefox 1.5 and the Beta of IE7 making significant strides, it would be be foolish to think this was a two-horse race. While gaining a good reputation with geeks and power users, Opera has long been a bit-part player among the big boys of the browser world. However, if this preview release is anything to go by, the Norwegian-built browser could finally be ready to punch with the heavyweights.

Opera has been pioneering new ways of browsing the web for some time. It has had tabbed browsing since the days before tabbed browsing was cool and developed the innovative 'mouse gestures' control system, where you navigate through the web just by holding the mouse button and flicking your wrist. The developers even dabbled with a multi-pane interface for viewing several pages within one interface.

The good news is that Opera has lost none of its appetite for innovation, and version 9 is packed with new goodies that will have the programmers at Mozilla and Microsoft choking on their doughnuts. For starters the app runs much quicker than the previous release, making it arguably the quickest browser around (except perhaps for Safari) at rendering pages. Incredibly, despite this boost in performance, the program appears to use less memory than version 8.5, making it far less draining on system resources than Firefox and IE.

In terms of features Opera is the gift that keeps on giving. New to the program comes OSX Tiger-style 'widgets', allowing you to check news, convert currency, view the weather and so on through a series of draggable pop-ups which anchor themselves in front of the browser. Although there aren’t many widgets to choose from at present, this is sure to change once the tech-minded Opera fans start developing more.

Another great addition to Opera 9 is BitTorrent support, allowing you to download torrents directly within the browser – a feature that amazingly no one had thought of before. This system works very smoothly, which makes us wonder why RSS feed reading support in Opera is still so poor.

Among the other new treats within the program is a nifty new search feature which lets you add any search engine to the search bar in the main toolbar. This means you can instantly access searches within your favorite online destinations (Softonic, for instance).

Tabbed browsing remains, although some users may be annoyed to discover that Opera has added close tab buttons to the tabs themselves rather than as a separate button. Having said this, the new web page preview thumbnails that appear when you rollover a tab are a real masterstroke. Mouse gestures are still there too, along with the addition of Total Recall-style voice commands – another example of how cutting-edge this browser is.

Opera's developers have been keen to ramp up security features too, and although they aren't highly original, the new content blocking and pop-up blocking functions serve their purpose effectively. What's more, it's refreshing to see a browser that embraces the latest web standards so freely, with the latest release boasting support for CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 tags.

The browser is remarkably stable and is far better behaved than Internet Explorer 7. Combined with its speed, innovative features and standards support, Opera is undoubtedly web software's best-kept secret, and the final release may prove to be even better than Firefox. Don't say anything though, or everyone will want it.

Download Opera 9.60 in Softonic

A must-have for online gaming and entertainment! Macromedia Shockwave Player is a browser plug-in that allows you to experience the best the web has to offer - including dazzling 3D games and entertainment, interactive product demonstrations, and online learning applications.

Some of the best games on the internet are Shockwave games - BlackJack Poker, Redline Rumble, Gutterball and more! Download the Macromedia Shockwave player now and play them all. This version of the player is designed for Netscape and Internet Explorer.

Download Macromedia ShockWave Player 10.2.0.023 in Softonic

Microsoft has made the first public beta of Internet Explorer 8 available for download. While generally keeping the same design as IE 7, this new version features some new functionality and is also fully standard-compliant.

First of all bear in mind that this beta of Internet Explorer 8 is intended solely for web developers and designers, not for the average user. This beta is still under heavy development and may not work properly with certain web pages. True, you've got a button to "emulate" IE7 while running IE8 but that's not the point. So if you're not a programmer or do not like strong emotions you'd better stay away from this one.

Internet Explorer 8 includes a couple of exciting new features: Activities and Weclips. The first ones are a collection of customizable add-ons that let you access online services from the browser's context menu. As for webclips, they work like RSS feeds, but focusing only on certain areas of a given webpage that are being constantly updated. Besides these two elements, Internet Explorer also features some other goodies like integration with Facebook and Live Maps and a crash recovery system.

This first public beta of Internet Explorer 8 lets you take a sneak peek at the future next version of Microsoft's web browser and start playing with its new feature. For a more extended review, check out our blog OnSoftware.

Download Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 in Softonic

Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of web development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page just the way you like it.

Firebug is always just a keystroke away, but it never gets in your way. You can open Firebug in a separate window, or as a bar at the bottom of your browser. Firebug also gives you fine-grained control over which websites you want to enable it for.

Download FireBug 1.05 in Softonic

Torrent Finder Firefox Toolbar enables all Torrent Finder search functions from your own Firefox browser, so that you can locate any torrent files you're interested in while browsing the Internet in your favorite browser.

This is what this extension has to offer:

Open sites in Firefox tabs with (previous|next) buttons for easier navigation

• Flexible popup menu width to fit screen width
• Search all Torrent Finder sites gathered or by single site
• Toggle between showing and hiding sites logos
• Navigate between sites using site's first letter
• Arrange Sites list with easy drag and drop form
• Easy show/hide option with context menu for the dockable toolbar
• Resize search area for to save more space
• Holding CRTL key searches the remembered last searched single site
• Search history for all searched keywords with optional auto-completion
• Highlight searched terms on the page button
• Search words button to find single word on the result page
• Context menu search option for the selected text on the page

Download Torrent Finder Firefox Toolbar 1.2 in Softonic

Firefox, the world’s most significant web browser has finally unveiled its new version, and with it a slew of improvements. If you’re not already using it to browse this page, then read on to learn all about its new features before getting a hold of it.

Firefox 3 has undergone a significant makeover, with sleeker icons and a cleaner look. The ‘Go back one page’ button is bigger and elements in the location bar, like titles and URLs, are more easily recognizable. I was also impressed that it finally passes the Acid2 Test, so Firefox can be guaranteed to render any web page out there.

Mozilla have worked on improving the bookmarking system in Firefox. To add a new bookmark all you need to do is star a site from the address bar. Firefox also lets you search bookmarks and history straight from the bar itself. Places, the system for handling your bookmarks and history, now shows all sorts of information like recently starred pages, most used tags or most visited pages. I’m not sure everybody will make use of all that info, but it’s still nice to find it there.

The download manager in Firefox 3 is improved and not only will it remember your downloads even after quitting the browser, it will also allow you to pause/start/stop downloads at any time. Similarly, Firefox will automatically look for updates to your add-ons and features a built-in search box to browse the Mozilla add-ons site for new extensions. However you’ll find most add-ons still don’t support the latest version of Firefox.

In terms of performance you’ll find that Firefox loads pages much faster and seems to handle memory usage much better than before. This is a big improvement considering that that was the main concern in previous versions.

Security has also been improved in Firefox, with one-click site info and malware protection. You can also set specific permissions (like text size, image blocking or cookies) for each website you visit. You’ll find Firefox 3 also interacts with Windows CardSpace and OpenID, two services which unify your identity online, whilst securing it.

Firefox version 3 really feels like a big step up. It includes lots of improvements, notably in the design and in improving the whole user experience, with a better download manager and improved bookmarking system. I’m not sure everybody will use Places or tags that much, but they’re a welcome addition. True to its roots, Firefox has also bettered its security features. But for me the real highlight of this new release has to be the performance enhancements. We’ll have to see as soon as add-ons are supported, but this new version should fare much better than previous ones. If you’re a Firefox user, make sure you update now.

Download Firefox 3.0.3 in Softonic

Are you a real Softonic fan? If so, this toolbar has been especially developed for you.

The Softonic Toolbar brings the latest reviews, updates, blog posts and software apps published on Softonic right to your web browser. You'll be able to read all the new content published on the site with a single click and you'll always be up to date with the latest program versions and software news.

What's more, this toolbar also features a series of online services, such as local weather forecast, an embedded search engine, an email notifier, a translation service powered by Babylon and a radio player with support for streaming radio stations, although you may need to download a separate plug-in to make it work properly. I found the email notifier particularly useful, as it supports multiple Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and POP3 accounts.

The Softonic Toolbar also includes a configuration menu where you can customize it by choosing the elements you want to be displayed.

A web browser toolbar that brings you all the best from the web: a variety of online services and all the latest news on Softonic and OnSoftware.

Download Softonic Toolbar in Softonic

If you've never heard of DjVu, it's a unique way of viewing high resolution images in your browser whether for a magazine or high tech research purposes.

It allows the scanning, storing and exchanging of complex color documents such as magazine articles, maps, technical manuals and archived financial records. The plug in allows your browser to interpret the resolution of the images and display them correctly in Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer. Despite it's power, it's a very small plugin requiring only 900KB to download and can even be added to applications using ActiveX via VB, .NET and C++. As yet, the plugin is only available in a limited number of languages, mainly English, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Korean, Italian, Polish and Chinese. The problem with this plugin is that you very rarely have to view DjVu images in you're an average home user although I can see it would be useful for professionals, designers etc. The other thing is that, a bit like Adobe Reader, it has a tendency to hang when opening images or texts in DjVu format. There's no telling sometimes whether it has crashed or is just slow in opening the file. It would have been more useful if they'd added a status bar when it's opening files for this reason.

If you view DjVu files and images frequently, then this is an essential plug in although don't expect it to reveal what it's supposed to every time.

Download DjVu Viewer Plug-in 6.1.1 in Softonic

Firefox is my favorite web browser, but doesn't mean it's flawless. Just as an example: it usually takes ages to load, and things tend to get worse with any new themes, extensions and other plug-ins you add to it.

If you have the same problem as me, try Firefox Preloader. This small app sits on your system tray and preloads certain elements of Firefox, so that the browser takes an amazingly shorter time to open when you launch it, which you can do from the icon itself. This icon also enables you to tweak the browser's Internet options and a few other basic settings. However, there's no way to customize which elements the program preloads in memory.

I guess you'll be already complaining about having yet another icon on your already crowded system tray. But believe me, it really does the trick. I was also skeptical about it, especially on having a program constantly running in the background just to make Firefox launch faster. But Firefox Preloader hardly uses any system resources (less than 4000 K and 0% CPU, you won't notice it!) and it's truly a shot of vitamins for your favorite browser.

If your Firefox takes ages to load, try speeding it up with Firefox Preloader. It won't affect your system's overall performance and will dramatically improve the browser's startup time.

Download Firefox Preloader 1.0.366 in Softonic

WAMP5 installs automatically Apache 1.3.31 ,PHP5, MySQL database ,PHPmyadmin and SQLitemanager on your computer. It's principal aim is to allow you to easily discover the new version oh PHP : PHP5. WAMP5 comes with a service manager installed as a tray icon. It allows you to manage WAMP5 and access all services.

When you install WAMP5, all the files are copied in the directory you choose. Conf files are then modified to point to that directory. It also installs a "www" directory which will be your Document Root.

At the end of the installation, WAMP5 will automatically install Apache and MySQL as services:

• Service 'wampapache' : apache service
• Service 'wampmysql' : mysql service

Download WAMP5 1.7.5.3 in Softonic

DivX Browser Plug-In is a utility that integrates with your browser and lets you view streaming DivX videos in much the same way as you may view Quicktime movies. It is compatible with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape and Opera, allowing videos using the DivX 5/6 (MP3 audio) to be played, and also lets you view videos in full screen and save them to the hard drive.

Download DivX Web Player 1.4.0 in Softonic

Microsoft's long awaited answer to Adobe's Flash is finally released. This lightweight (1,4Mb) plug-in works on most popular browsers both on Mac and PC. It's really simple to install, and you'll just need to restart your browser to make it work. We went to the Silverlight home page to see the plug-in in action. Although it's got a lot of snazzy effects, obviously set up by Microsoft to impress users, the plug-in worked smoothly and we experienced good image quality. Silverlight can stream high resolution video well and supports HD quality videos.

Developers will be glad to know that you can write managed .NET code that runs right in the browser. Using Expression Studio and Visual Studio (which are separate from Silverlight), designers and developers can build their own Rich Internet Applications with Silverlight.

On the downside, Silverlight supports Windows Media audio and video, VC-1 and MP3 but not other popular formats like H.264, Flash or AAC. Flash still remains the reference by far, but with many big content providers looking to use Silverlight we should be seeing more of it in the near future.

Download Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 in Softonic

Many people know from their own experience that it's not easy to install an Apache web server and it gets harder if you want to add MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use - just download, extract and start.

The distribution for Windows 98, NT, 2000 and XP. This version contains: Apache, MySQL, PHP + PEAR, Perl, mod_php, mod_perl, mod_ssl, OpenSSL, phpMyAdmin, Webalizer, Mercury Mail Transport System for Win32 and NetWare Systems v3.32, JpGraph, FileZilla FTP Server, mcrypt, eAccelerator, SQLite, and WEB-DAV + mod_auth_mysql.

Download XAMPP 1.6.6a in Softonic