Over the years Nero has evolved from being a simple CD burner in its earlier versions to becoming the complete multimedia suite we find in its latest version, Nero 9.

As well as the classic Nero Burning ROM tool – which now includes support for Blu-Ray – Nero 9 includes pretty much everything you need to make the most of your music, photos, videos and creativity. You'll be able to carry out complete multimedia projects, from ripping your favorite audio CDs and mixing the tracks with Nero SoundTrax to creating videos with your photos, and even design CD artwork (top and back covers, booklet and CD sticker) by yourself with Nero CoverDesigner.

All these tools are conveniently available from Nero StartSmart, a handy app launcher with two main toolbars: on top of the window, shortcuts to Nero's apps; on the left-side menu, direct access to the most frequent tasks (data burning, audio burning, copy disc, etc.) than open right on StartSmart's main area.

Nero 9 features other interesting tools that try to cover even more areas. You can use the built-in Nero Backup tool to make safety copies of your most important data, for example. Nero also includes an embedded video player and a photo editor (known as Nero PhotoSnap) though these two apps are quite basic and could have probably been left out without much remorse for the user.

Talking about extra apps, Nero has often been accused of being bloatware, and this version won't change that. It does include a large array of tools, though to be honest they're all quite straightforward and easy to use. I guess the discussion about complexity versus simplicity will still go on, but my view is that Nero 9 is no longer a simple burning tool: it's a full-featured suite that happens to include a burning app, plus many other features that make it an excellent application for all your multimedia projects.

Nero 9 follows the trend of previous versions and adds even more features. If you only need a DVD burning tool, look elsewhere; but if you're looking for a complete multimedia suite, this is your program.

Download Nero 9.0.9.4b in Softonic

RegCure provides fast and efficient scanning and cleaning of your Windows registry so that your computer can run at an optimal level of performance.

RegCure enables you to fix your PC's Windows registry in the way that is most comfortable for you. Clean your registry manually according to your own specifications or perform a thorough scan and clean it automatically.

The user-friendly interface allows you to monitor the progress of your scan, schedule RegCure to scan at the times that are best for you and will even manage and clean up your start up programs. Removes of invalid registry items including COM/ActiveX Entries, Uninstall Entries, Font Entries, Shared DLLs, Application Paths, Help Files Information, Windows Startup Items, File/Path References, Program Shortcuts, Empty Registry Keys, File Associations. Ability to back-up and restore the Windows registry.

Download RegCure 1.0.0.43 in Softonic

As video goes the way of the good old cassette tape, DVD has become universally adopted as the format of choice for watching movies. Of course, the medium is not infallible, and DVDs are as prone to scratching or damage as VHS tapes were to getting chewed by the machine. CloneDVD represents one of the easiest ways to back up your movies to disk, ensuring that even novice users don't have to worry about loss or damage of their favorite films.

The interface is wonderfully simple to use, allowing you to select your source location and destination through an obvious wizard-style menu system. The beauty of the program is that it gives you a number of options for cloning to help you compress the file size without compromising movie quality. For instance, you can choose to omit certain extras from your DVD such as foreign language subtitles or theatrical trailers. Copying speed is among the fastest around, allowing you to copy to an ISO file on your hard drive or directly to recordable DVD in a flash.

Although the application doesn't allow you to clone copy-protected media, this is of course, illegal anyway, and if you want to perform such operations then there are alternative applications available that can be used alongside CloneDVD. If it's simplicity of use and speed that you require then CloneDVD is more than capable.

Download CloneDVD 2.9.1.9 in Softonic

If you want to keep your PC in good condition and running as smoothly as the very first day you switched it on, you've got two options: either you download a dozen different system optimization apps or you just use TuneUp Utilities, a nice piece of software that has turned into an essential maintenance toolkit for your PC.

The new version of TuneUp Utilities brings many exciting new features that make the program even better. It has not only improved many of the tools included in previous editions, but has also added new ones such as a defrag tool or a repair wizard. Also, you'll notice a completely revamped TuneUp Utilities interface which makes the program even easier to use: tools are classified into several categories as usual, but now there are also direct links to the most frequently used ones. As for the other areas in the program, TuneUp Utilities 2008 maintains the same clear, intuitive and eye-catching design that has made it so popular among users.

The first thing you see when launching TuneUp Utilities is a nagging window, a short message reminding you that this is not free software and that you have a 30 day trial period. It's a bit of a nuisance because it appears every time you run TuneUp Utilities, but no big deal.

Featured tools in TuneUp Utilities range from customizing the appearance of your Windows installation to editing the Registry and covering many important aspects of your system. You'll be able to optimize its overall performance, gain disk space by erasing useless files and even recover those documents you've deleted by accident. TuneUp Utilities can also generate a highly detailed report on the state of your PC. The good thing is that, no matter how many changes you make in TuneUp Utilities, you can always go back to your PC's previous state thanks to TuneUp Rescue Center.

TuneUp Utilities is seamlessly integrated into Windows. New commands are added to context menus to shred or undelete files in your Recycle Bin. Also, you'll find a new shortcut named "1-Click Maintenance" on the Desktop, which enables you to perform a quick maintenance check-up and which has also been optimized in TuneUp Utilities 2008. This is certainly a very handy tool which we recommend running every week as a periodic maintenance task.

TuneUp Utilities gathers pretty much all the maintenance and optimization tools you need into one efficient, easy-to-use application. You couldn't ask for more.

Download TuneUp Utilities 2008 7.0.7992 in Softonic

Computer maintenance tasks are usually boring and tiring, but you really need to spend some time on them if you want your system to run as smoothly as the first day.

Luckily there are programs like Advanced Vista Optimizer 2008, a comprehensive system optimizing application that's been specially developed for Windows Vista, and which makes computer maintenance much easier. Advanced Vista Optimizer contains all the tools you need to analyze, clean, repair and optimize your computer, all of them distributed among several categories in a very attractive interface.

These categories include optimization, security, customization and cleaning tools among others, and let you perform many different tasks in just a few steps. Advanced Vista Optimizer also analyzes your system and displays a complete report about it. Other interesting features are a mass file renamer, a junk file remover, a folder hiding tool, a file splitter and a duplicate file finder, to name a few.

Of course, some of these tools are more complicated than others – memory usage optimization, for example - and novice users may not find them that easy at first sight. Others though are quite straightforward and self-explaining. In any case, the program includes a thorough Help section that will help you with any problem you may have.

The only thing I didn't like about Advanced Vista Optimizer 2008 is the fact that it performs a system scan right away the first time you run it, without even asking for permission.

Advanced Vista Optimizer 2008 is a full featured maintenance tool that includes anything you need to clean your PC and improve its performance.

Download Advanced Vista Optimizer 2008 1.0 in Softonic

Getting a hard drive error is probably the worst nightmare you can think of in a computer user's life. Luckily now you can rely on Partition Table Doctor, a powerful data recovery software with which you can repair (or at least try to) your hard drive – as long as it isn't a hardware failure, of course.

It features a simply designed interface where you can see your current partitions, and a complete toolbar with the program's main functions. You can scan and repair the master boot record, the partition table and the boot sector. Partition Table Doctor works with all kinds of file systems (FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, EXT2, SWAP…) on different kinds of drive (IDE, ATA, SCSI…).

Besides managing partitions, the program can also create emergency floppy disks or bootable CD so that you regain access to your computer even if your operating systems doesn’t boot.

If all this information sounds too complicated for you, don't worry: Partition Table Doctor includes a thorough help system and a complete user guide in PDF.

With Partition Table Doctor you can see, organize and manage partitions in your hard drive, as well as try to fix any of them in case of hard drive failure.

Download Partition Table Doctor 3.5 in Softonic

When converting videos from any format to DVD the last thing you want to do is having to struggle with an application that makes the whole process even more difficult.

ImTOO DVD Creator is just the opposite: an easy video converting tool that enables you to convert from a variety of video formats to DVD video, so that you can enjoy your favorite movies in any regular DVD player.

The program's simple interface is a good proof of its ease of use: a working area to drag and drop videos, a template selector to choose the design for your DVD menu and finally an embedded video player, though I must say it doesn't work very well (or at least it doesn't handle video forwarding properly).

You can add as many videos as you want, or fit into your DVD. Then just press the big red button to start recording. Bear in mind though that the trial version will add a watermark.

ImTOO DVD Creator makes converting videos to DVD format a quick and easy task.

Download ImTOO DVD Creator 3.0.36.0328 in Softonic

In a few easy steps you can make your PC run faster, cleaner and error-free with the help of a new system tool – Smart PC Professional. The software fixes stubborn errors, cleans-up space-wasting junk and debris making your PC more efficient and reliable. Special features of the new software ensure your personal privacy while surfing through the Web and protect your PC from information theft.

Download Smart PC Professional 5.3 in Softonic

Managing partitions has never been my cup of tea. I always get the impression that it's something difficult and dangerous that I couldn't do by myself – and I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks like that.

However this impression may change with EASUS Partition Manager, a disk partition management tool with which you can easily create, format and delete partitions in your hard drive at will. The program features a very intuitive, user-friendly interface which makes all these tasks a child's play.

EASUS Partition Manager works with different file types and can handle hard drives of up to 800 GB. But the most outstanding feature is definitely the fact that you can move and resize partitions live, that is, without erasing them or losing any data. Just remember that you'll need Administrative rights in order to be able to use it.

With EASUS Partition Manager you won't be afraid of creating, deleting, formatting, moving and resizing partitions in your hard drive anymore.

Download EASUS Partition Manager 1.6.2 in Softonic

Stop scribbling on your discs with smelly, messy permanent markers!

With Droppix Label Maker Deluxe, you can easily create and print high-quality labels for your music compilations, your video discs, as well as your CD and DVD file archives.

Benefits:

• New version 2.0, even more simple and easy-to-use!
• Powerful WYSIWYG graphic creation module
• Shipped with a variety of templates, background images, cliparts and fonts
• Import any image or photo (JPG, WMF, PSD, BMP, TIF, GIF and PNG)
• Layer management with transparency adjustment
• Automatically import CD-Audio information (CD Text and CDDB support)
• More than 50 different types of field available to create you own label templates
• Retrieve information from any data disc, disc image or CSV database
• Simple creation of circular texts
• Support for non-Latin character sets (such as as Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Cyrillic, etc.)
• Integrated online support and free online upgrades
• 100% free support
• Works with any LightScribe-enabled drive or with any desktop color printer
• Compatible with Direct-To-Disc printers

Download Droppix Label Maker Deluxe 2.9.2 in Softonic

Data Recovery Wizard is a complete range of data recovery software for all Windows platforms and supports undelete, unformat from various file systems including FAT, FAT16, VFAT, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5 on various storage media, such as IDE/ATA, SATA, SCSI, USB, Fire wire (IEEE1394) hard drive and other media such as floppy disk, compact disc, USB flash drive, digital camera, digital audio player and so on. Data Recovery Wizard ensures safe and precise file recovery against numerous threats like: Drives that have been formatted or overwritten, Corrupt or missing critical file system structures, File deletion, Application crash, Computer viruses and worms, Partitioning or boot-up problems, Damage due to a power failure or surge and so on.

Key Features:

• Recovers deleted files and folders (Undelete files) even after recycle bin has been emptied or use of Shift+Del key
• File recovery from deleted partition, lost or missing partition or formatted logical drives
• File recovery from missing or lost folders
• Recognizes and preserves long file names when restoring files and folders
• Large and Multi-Disk Drive Support
• Can resume the last data recovery session
• Before recovery, you can preview the pictures with the format of BMP, EMF, JPG, JPEG, GIF, TIF, PNG, etc
• RawRecovery supports the format of TIF
• Shows you thumbnail previews of recovery pictures

Download EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard 4.3.6 in Softonic

I don't know about you but I've got plenty of golden home videos and old shows lurking in my video cabinet and stored on my digicam. If only, there was a way for me to put these onto a disc to share with my pals. Oh hang on, there is. As the title rather suggests, MAGIX Movies to CD and DVD allows you to import movies from any source and commit them to optical media.

The package is aimed largely at novices, and as a result you get a clear and straightforward interface that's easy to traverse thanks to its obvious icons and large window panes. You can quickly grab video from a range of sources, including a digital camcorder and VHS player, or even capture footage from the TV (provided you have a TV tuner, of course). The importing process is dead easy, although the addition of a preview image would make things even better, in case your filenames are in a jumble.

Once you've imported a movie file, it's automatically added to the timeline at the foot of the screen. You can then edit your footage from the application before saving to disc. Although the editing features are pretty basic (you basically just chop segments between two points on the timeline), the Story Maker mode allows you to play with the video a bit more. You can choose from a range of effects and video enhancements after checking out thumbnail previews of them. This includes video softening and auto enchanement of brightness and contrast in your video.

As a result of its ease of use, MAGIX Movies on CD and DVD is one of the best solutions for video novices to make decent quality discs from their old movies. However, if you're after a more advanced video editor then this one isn't going to be enough for you.

Download MAGIX Movies on CD & DVD 6.0 (UK) in Softonic

If you like your CD and DVD burners to support drag and drop then CyberLink Power2Go might be the right solution for you.

CyberLink Power2Go features everything you'd expect from a burner produced by a big developer such as CyberLink, including the ability to burn onto double layer DVDs and Blu-ray discs. It's also been designed to produce photo slideshows with Digital Dolby audio and even extract audio tracks from video files.

The ease of access and speed of use is what impresses with this burner. If you want to burn any DVD or CD, simply drag them into the desktop shortcut and CyberLink Power2Go whizzes into action. It even takes it's image seriously with the option of downloading fresh new skins and templates online.

CyberLink Power2Go is a powerful and extremely quick burner that will handle all your CD/DVD and Blu-ray burning needs.

Download CyberLink Power2Go 6 in Softonic

MAGIX Ringtone Maker lets you add some spice to your mobile device by creating your own ringtones and animated pictures. The program is extremely friendly to use. The interface itself is clearly divided in sections to select your media, edit the ringtone and export it. A help guide is easily accessible from the bottom right of the interface and tutorials for specific actions from the menu bar. We were impressed with the advanced editing tools on hand to add effects like distortion, filters or delay. Similarly, the equalizer was very effective at adjusting sounds. If you want to add extra elements, you can also access the extensive Catooh online library from the menu bar. MAGIX Ringtone Maker features a "simulate ringtone" button, quite useful to test your creation before exporting it.

We were also well impressed with the export function. The application provides a list of many mobile manufacturers and models to allow you to export to the format which most corresponds to your device.

Overall, the structure of the interface feels great, especially the timeline view, which really makes it easy to edit your media. We did feel however that some elements, like the media selection part at the top, felt a little bit crowded. It's a shame that you can't resize the interface window. Similarly, the installation process was a bit lengthy.

On the whole though, MAGIX Ringtone Maker is a great application to create and add media to your mobile device, providing a very accessible interface and loads of advanced editing tools.

Download MAGIX Ringtone Maker 2007 (UK) in Softonic

If you ever need to convert documents to PDF format, the easiest way to do so is simply by printing out your document with Royce PDF Printer.

Royce PDF Printer works as a virtual printer that's configured and added to your Printers and Faxes folder and thus accessible from any Windows application with printing capabilities. The difference is that, instead of creating a copy of your documents on paper, Royce PDF Printer generates a PDF file.

The PDF you create with Royce PDF Printer contains exactly the same information as the original document. Plus, being a standard format, you have the guarantee that it'll keep its design and design, no matter in which program and/or platform the PDF is used.

Royce PDF Printer includes a complete settings menu you can access from the "Preferences" button in the Print dialog of any Windows app. My only complaint is the size of the watermark: I understand this is a shareware version, but was that huge watermark really necessary?

With Royce PDF Printer you can convert any document to PDF, as long as the application you open it with has printing capabilities.

Download Royce PDF Printer in Softonic

Plato DVD Copy is exactly what its name states: an easy-to-use tool to copy your DVD discs.

The most outstanding feature in Plato DVD Copy is its simplicity: even users with no previous experience in copying DVD discs will be able to use it in no time. The program has a plain interface with no configuration settings, except for a few choices when it comes to select the content you want to copy (extras, subtitles, etc.)

With Plato DVD Copy you can choose to copy DVDs from a physical disc or a source directory, and also copy it to another directory or burn it straight away on a new disc. Plato DVD Copy can even compress contents to fit a single-layer disc.

What more advances users will miss in Plato DVD Copy is definitely having more options like frame rate selection, a range of codecs to choose from, compression method to use and so on.

Plato DVD Copy is the perfect tool for those who have never copied a DVD before, though more experienced users will miss a bunch of advanced settings.

Download Plato DVD Copy 7.76 in Softonic

Losing data is one of the worst things that can happen to you especially if you haven't used a backup solution.

Help is at hand however with Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery, a complete data recovery solution that helps you to search, locate and recover lost, missing, inaccessible or deleted data. It's aimed at those unfortunate users who have lost data due to accidental reformatting, virus attacks, software errors and unexpected shutdowns. It's also been designed with ease of use in mind - the software has a very simple GUI that includes a find file option, file mask and file filter so that you can target specific file types. It's also pretty useful if you want to partition your drive to install alternative operating systems.

The program works courtesy of a ‘Raw File Recovery’ feature that can recognizes & recovers more than 300 file types including documents, spreadsheets, web content & images. However, this doesn't mean it will always recognise the files that you are looking for because if they've been corrupted, the structure or format may also have been changed.

Nevertheless, if you've lost data then you've got little to lose by running this although it doesn't detect everything that's been lost or corrupted.

Download Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Software in Softonic

If you've just erased a very important file by mistake, don't worry: first, you're not the only one who makes that kind of mistake and second, there's still hope.

This hope comes with Easeus Photo Recovery, a data recovery software tool that's been specially designed to recover multimedia files. According to the author, the program can recover deleted images, audio files and videos from removable devices, corrupt partitions and even formatted drives, which is pretty impressive. However we couldn't fully test it because the trial version doesn't actually recover files – only finds them.

Easeus Photo Recovery features a simple interface, not really very attractive but easy to use. The main page lets you choose between three types of recovery (Deleted file recovery, Complete recovery or Partition recovery) and then it all works as a simple step-by-step wizard that guides you through the whole recovery process.

Before resigning yourself to losing those accidentally deleted files forever, try using Easeus Photo Recovery and maybe you'll be able to save them, although you'll need the full version to actually recover files.

Download Easeus Photo Recovery 2.1.1 in Softonic

If you're looking for a suite of tools with which to make the most of your DVD collection, look no further: Roxio Easy DVD Copy features everything you need.

This complete DVD suite gathers the most common DVD tasks under a single interface, making it easier for you when you need to burn discs, compile movie collections, manage ISO files or create labels for your CD and DVD. These tasks are conveniently organized in several categories, with a quick access for the most frequently used ones on the welcome screen.

With Roxio Easy DVD Coy you'll be able to copy DVD discs (not protected ones though), create data discs (perfect as backups) and convert DVD to a format compatible with portable devices, such as PSP or iPod, among other options.

Roxio Easy DVD Copy works very smoothly, and its visually appealing interface makes all tasks easy and light. Thought the configuration window is definitely not the most complete we've seen, the program makes up for it with easy menus and wizards that help you throughout the steps of any process, be it burning a video to DVD or creating a label.

A complete DVD suite that includes the most frequent tasks in managing DVD: burning, converting, copying and labeling.

Download Roxio Easy DVD Copy 4 in Softonic

If your computer starts to run at a slower pace than it used to, it may be due to many reasons. The most common one though is having a fragmented disk.

You can easily solve this situation with a disk defragmentation tool like JetDrive. This application analyzes and defragments your hard drive, organizing information in such a way that it's much easier and faster for the computer to access it – and thus optimizing the overall system performance in a quite noticeable way.

In addition to a general defrag tool, JetDrive features a precise defrag utility that enables you to work with specific files, and also a cleaning tool with which you can erase temporary files and recover disk space. Also, after the defrag is finished, the program creates a complete report about it.

On the downside, I missed having the possibility to schedule defragmentation and being able to switch off the computer after finishing the job. Also, I found the interface to be resource-consuming and even a bit naïve: I don't need to have an animated puppy on screen while defragmenting; it reminded me too much of that awful Microsoft dog that appears in the Windows embedded search tool.

JetDrive is a standard defragmentation tool that doesn't really offer any extra features. In all, it's another choice you have when looking for a defragmenting tool.

Download JetDrive 2008 in Softonic