For a while now, computer users have been waking up to the real threats that exist while browsing the web. Every day, more turn their back on the established vulnerabilities of Internet Explorer and opt for the hottest open source project on the net, Mozilla’s Firefox. But there are plenty of alternatives that offer great features, and one of those is Avant Browser.

Based on Internet Explorer, Avant will import all your favorites automatically and also keep your settings intact. As such it makes a good alternative to the popular Firefox browser, which shuns all things IE, and may seem slightly too foreign from the conventions that many users have built up while using Microsoft’s browser. Although Avant Browser is based on the Internet Explorer engine, it doesn’t fall victim to the same security vulnerabilities (although no-one is claiming that it’s invulnerable), and while it’s at it, adds some great tools designed to enhance your browsing experience.

The Flash blocker is an effective way to keep memory usage of the browser to a minimum or to simply cut out those over-elaborate ads that invade and take over many web sites. To appeal to a wider audience, there are quick links that let you quickly translate pages to a wide selection of languages, or you can customize the look of the browser using the many skins that are included by default. Of course, no modern browser could claim to be complete without tabbed browsing and Avant really delivers the goods with a system that allows you to even reload tabs after you’ve closed them.

In fact, this browser has some of the best extras that we’ve seen to date, in particular the system whereby tabs can be resized like normal program windows letting you display multiple site windows side-by-side, within one browser window. There‘s also a useful toolbar item that displays tags describing the page that you’re on. Click on a tag and you open a list of site that result from a search using that tag or keyword; brilliant! And the piece de résistance is an automatic session saver that lets you open up all the sites you were browsing when you last closed the program.

Avant Browser is relatively unknown as a mainstream browser and as such is not restricted from experimenting and taking the best ideas from the big hitters, as well as adding its own nuggets to the mix. What you get is a very impressive selection of tools in a browser that will even run your Microsoft update without objections. Definitely worth consideration if you are thinking of changing browser.

Download Avant Browser 11.7.15 in Softonic

Registry errors are one of the main reasons for the slow operation of your PC or frequent crashes. Baku can ensure that if your registry does have malicious entries, they can be removed safely. Baku also deletes empty folders, 'History' folder contents, 'Recent documents' folder contents, 'Temp' folder contents and temporary internet files. It can also search Windows log files, shortcuts to missing files and folders and user specified file types. The registry scan itself aims to remove unused and obsolete keys, including ActiveX, Application Paths, Fonts, Help files, Icon files and pesky uninstallers.

Like all such programs, it backs up your registry in case of any wrongful changes although I found that this wasn't exactly easy to restore. Probably the most useful function is the registry compacting facility which does seem to make a notable difference to the running speed of your PC. The developers claim the program uniquely works by recreating each registry hive "from scratch", thus removing any slack space that may be left from previously modified or deleted keys. Note that this function does NOT change the contents of the registry in any way, nor does it physically defrag the registry files on the drive. Be warned though that it takes a little longer than programs such as CCleaner and you'll have to wait more than few minutes for the registry backup to be made.

Download Baku 3.6.3.3194 in Softonic

Some players come loaded with too many features and too many codecs - not MPCStar. MPCStar is a universal video player that can play most formats of films downloaded from the internet. MPCStar has been developed using open source libraries, so it's highly customisable if you have any programming knowledge. One of the best features however is a pop-up blocker which prevents pop-ups appearing that sometimes come loaded with films.

To ensure smooth playback and not get weighed down with too many codecs, MPCStar contains only the major codecs including Media Player Classic, FFDshow Codec Pack,
RealPlayer Codecs, ActiveX controls, QuickTime Codecs and DirectVobSub (a.k.a. VSFilter). The only problem is that these codecs are regularly updated and there appears to be no automatic update function but overall, this is one of the simplest and most powerful players I've tried since VLC player.

Download MPCStar 3.1 in Softonic

Although web-based e-mail has meant that many desktop based clients are redundant, there's nothing that beats your own personal client. Koma-mail is the sort of client you can take anywhere on a USB stick which makes it ideal for those that are worried about the security of web based mail.

Best of all, it requires absolutely no installation and supports the all important SSL and APOP protocols. It also features support, as you would expect, for POP3 and IMAP plus it includes some other extra security add-ons such as ActiveX script blocking. From an aesthetic perspective, it's not the best looking e-mail client you'll ever use but it's very easy to find your way around, much simpler than something like Outlook and has everything you need. If you share the client amongst colleagues and employees, you can

You can define multiple user profiles so that each of them have their own settings and it supports multiple accounts, use of templates and both a simple spam filter and RSS reader.

If you're looking for a portable e-mail client to use between various people, then you'll find this helps you easily configure multiple profiles and does a simple but effective job.

Download Koma-Mail 3.75 in Softonic

CRT is a robust, configurable 32-bit terminal emulator designed for Internet and intranet use with support for Telnet, rlogin, serial, and other protocols. CRT is ideal for connecting to remote systems running UNIX and VMS as well as the many BBSs and databases that are now available via the Internet.

CRT's Windows interface is easy to use and offers pinpoint control of session behavior with extensive customization options. The Quick Connect feature connects to UNIX, VMS, and Windows servers by entering only a hostname. Emulation support includes VT100, VT102, VT220, basic Wyse 50/60, ANSI and SCO ANSI, Linux console, and Xterm.

All of CRT's emulations support ANSI color. Other features include support for SOCKS and generic firewalls, transparent printing, and ZModem file transfers. With the Activator utility, manage sessions from the system tray instead of the taskbar.

Or use session folders to manage hundreds of sessions. Dialer support for Windows 95/98 and NT through Windows TAPI allows saving dialup connections in session information. CRT's ActiveX scripting support lets you automate remote tasks with VBScript, JScript, PerlScript, or other Windows scripting engines.

Download CRT 6.0.3 in Softonic

HttpWatch integrates with Internet Explorer to provide unrivaled levels of HTTP monitoring without the need for separately configured proxies or network sniffers. Simply interact with a web site and HttpWatch will display a log of requests and responses alongside the web page itself. It even shows interactions between Internet Explorer and the browser cache.

HttpWatch will show all HTTP requests issued by Internet Explorer regardless of the server technology used, e.g. IIS, Apache, Java, ASP.Net, PHP, etc. However, certain plug-in components such as ActiveX controls and Java applets bypass Internet Explorer when they make web requests and their HTTP traffic is not logged by HttpWatch.

Download HttpWatch 5.3.12 in Softonic

PE Explorer is the most feature-packed tool for inspecting the inner workings of PE files (EXE, DLL, ActiveX controls, and several other Windows executable formats). It offers a thorough look at PE file structure and all of the resources in the file, and tells you just about every little detail you could possibly want to know about a PE file.

PE Explorer comes with a Visual Resource Editor, PE Header Viewer, UPX Unpacker, Exported/Imported API Function Viewer, API Function Syntax Lookup, Dependency Scanner, and powerful Disassembler. The product allows you to peek inside Delphi applications and edit the properties of controls on Delphi forms within the PE file. Once inside, file structure can be analyzed and optimized, problems diagnosed, changes made and resources repaired.

Whether you are an advanced computer user just wondered what makes an executable file tick, or software developer suffered from hard-to-find program bugs, PE Explorer is the software solution that will make it easy to find the answers. With PE Explorer you can view, edit and repair the internal structures of PE files with the click of a button.

It works with PE formats such as EXE, DLL, MSSTYLES, SYS, OCX, SCR and other win32 executables. Support for custom plug-ins. Use it for serious development projects, for restoring lost information, for keeping damaged files intact, for determination of the existence of viruses or malicious code in the programs, to reverse engineer projects with missing source code, to view the imports/exports of the standard dll's, or to simply reduce the numerous internal information sources of PE files into a more convenient viewing format and save your valuable time. The possibilities are up to you. PE Explorer gives you an easy to use point and click approach from which to operate.

Download PE Explorer 1.99 R3 in Softonic

FeedForDev VCL Control and ActiveX components makes it simple to communicate with users from within your software application! Integrate components into your application, to communicate with users. Use standard RSS feeds and provide users. All you have to do is add the FeedForDev component to your existing project.

Set the URL to your RSS feed, and let it do the rest. You can then ask the control for types of information from your RSS feed. Send sales messages, tech support tips and notify users of new releases and product launches.

Download FeedForDev 1.0.0.1 in Softonic

If you're being constantly hassled by pop-up ads, then you'll know how annoying it can be. Adblock blocks annoying popup windows although it's specifically designed for Internet Explorer. The advantage of blocking pop-ups are numerous. Firstly, it enables you to speed- up page loading as ads usually take-up valuable bandwidth and RAM. Secondly, it can make your page much clearer without annoying ads in the way and finally of course, it stops you being hassled by casino and viagra companies all the time.

Adblock blocks a range of different ad types including Flash ads to save bandwidth and RAM, Activex object ads to make your browser more secure, fly-in ads and rich media/banner ads so that your page is clearer to read. The other good thing is that the developers are constantly updating the software so it's always up-to-date with the latest ad tricks.

Adblock is particularly useful if you live in a rural area and rely on a slow dial-up modem for the internet. The most useful feature is that you can choose any image on the web page and right click to add it to the blocked list.

This is a powerful Adblocker although still not as effective as simply switching to the Firefox browser which blocks far more pop ups automatically.

Download Adblock Pro 2.6 in Softonic

SpywareBlaster takes the approach that prevention is the best way to deal with Spyware attacks and in the main, it accomplishes this aim.

Most importantly, this program is completely free, simple to setup and and very straight-forward to use. It works by preventing the installation of adware and spyware by blocking them at source. In this way, you prevent attacks rather than having to scan for installed diallers, trojans and bots later with something like Ad-Aware. Of course, this is no easy task. One annoying aspect used to be that there was no auto update function but this has thankfully been solved in this latest version. Via these updates, the program is constantly updated with a blacklist of potential threats that the program monitors for. However, you do get the slight impression that nothing much is going on when it's installed. It doesn't seem to issue any update messages or warnings although it seems to be doing it's job properly. As a result, for many people, this program may seem a bit too flimsy to trust 100% but if run alongside something like Ad-Aware as a backup tool, you don't have much to lose by trying it.

A valient effort although I still wouldn't change it for the trio of Ad-Aware, SpyBot, and Spyware Terminator.

Download SpywareBlaster 4.0 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

Many links to streaming audio and video that you come across on the web are hidden behind javascript or activex scripts. Because of this, it is sometimes very difficult to figure out the actual urls that correspond to the streams being played. URL Snooper provides easy solution to finding the URLs for all streams by by watching network traffic and identifying potential urls, especially streaming media urls.

Download UrlSnooper 2.21.01 in Softonic

Slim Browser is a multiple-site browser based on tab-page interface. It incorporates a large collection of wonderful features like recoverable popup killer, form filler, site group, quick-search, auto login, hidden sites, built-in commands and scripting, online translation, script error suppression, blacklist/whitelist filtering.

All features:

• Multiple site browser based on tab-page interface
• Seamless integration with AI RoboForm FormFiller/Password Manager
• Built-in Popup Killer based on intelligent identification and pre-defined filtering
• Site windows killed by mistake are fully recoverable
• Ability to turn on/off Flash Animation
• Built-in web form spell checker
• Universal URL Filter: Block ad banners, flash animations, iframes or any components within any web pages by URL patterns
• Built-in RSS News Rendering Engine. Now you can read RSS news directly inside SlimBrowser without additional RSS Reader software
• ActiveX Filter: block obtrusive dialogs prompting you to install unsafe ActiveX controls
• Convenient access to major search engines by Quick-Search Bar
• Seamless integration of most Internet Explorer toolbars. View screenshot
• Hidden Sites : hide and show a site at users' request
• Skinned window frame
• Free-zooming of any web page
• AutoLogin: automatically connect and log into specified website with just one click
• Seamless integration with online translation engine and dictionaries
• Ability to suppress script error message dialog
• Site Group: Open and save a collection of sites as a group
• Flexible control of startup actions
• URL Alias: Type short alias instead long URL

Download Slim Browser 4.10.015 in Softonic

COM Explorer is a unique tool specifically designed to enable developers and system administrators to explore, manage and fix ActiveX Controls, EXE Servers (Out-Proc) and DLL Servers (In-Proc). An Explorer like GUI allows developers to browse registered COM objects and view information such as GUID, TypeLib, version information, dependency information, file information and more.

Misbehaved objects such as objects with missing files left as junk in the registry are clearly marked. A Registry editor is fully integrated allowing you to view and edit COM settings. COM Explorer is integrated into Windows Explorer enabling to quickly register, unregister and view COM Controls using a pop-up menu.

One of the most powerful features is an inventory report generator. HTML or comma delimited text reports are easily generated . These reports include a list of the COM objects installed. Strong filtering and customization capabilities are provided as well. COM Explorer substantially reduces the complexity of identifying COM related problems developers and system administrators face every day.

Download COM Explorer 2.1 in Softonic

Microsoft HTML Help is the standard help system for the Windows platform. Authors can use HTML Help to create online help for a software application or to create content for a multimedia title or Web site. Developers can use the HTML Help API to program a host application or hook up context-sensitive help to an application. As an information delivery system, HTML Help is suited for a wide range of applications, including training guides, interactive books, and electronic newsletters, as well as help for software applications.

HTML Help offers some distinct advantages over standard HTML, such as the ability to implement a combined table of contents and index and the use of keywords for advanced hyperlinking capability. The HTML Help compiler (part of the HTML Help Workshop) makes it possible to compress HTML, graphic, and other files into a relatively small compiled help (.chm) file, which can then be distributed with a software application, or downloaded from the Web.

HTML Help consists of an online Help Viewer, related help components, and help authoring tools from Microsoft Corporation. The Help Viewer uses the underlying components of Microsoft Internet Explorer to display help content. It supports HTML, ActiveX, Java, scripting languages (JScript, and Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition), and HTML image formats (.jpeg, .gif, and .png files). The help authoring tool, HTML Help Workshop, provides an easy-to-use system for creating and managing help projects and related files.

Download Microsoft HTML Help SDK 1.5 in Softonic

Virtual Serial Port is a powerful advanced ActiveX Control that allows your application to create custom additional virtual serial port in system and fully control it. Created virtual port looks like real serial port for other Windows applications. From your application you can control data sent to virtual com port by other applications and respond to them by sending your own data to virtual port, which will be received by other Windows applications like from a real one.

Download Virtual Serial Port ActiveX 6.0.0.103 in Softonic

URL Snooper effectively recovers multimedia urls in any web page. The application starts working as soon as you launch it and quickly analyzes the site you've selected. We suggest going immediately to the advanced features, which will allow you to set network sniffing options, select a browser to view links or add keyword filters. Although the program interface is fairly unattractive, URL Snooper is good at finding multimedia urls.

While the program installs the WinPCap sniffing engine driver, you can choose to install another one if you prefer and also select the network adapter that suits you most. URL Snooper may be useful for anybody analyzing web pages and looking to find all multimedia URLs.

Download URL Snooper 2.20.1 in Softonic

Add the ability to work with a scanner or camera from your application with VintaSoftTwain ActiveX. You can fully control an image acquisition process, use an automatic document feeder, clean up images using noise removal, auto border crop, blank page detection, save acquired images to disk or SQL server, upload images onto Web or FTP server.

VintaSoftTwain was tested and has examples of use in: MS VB.NET, MS C#, MS VB 6.0, MS VC++ 6.0, Borland Delphi 7.0, C++ Builder 6.0, Visual FoxPro 8.0, Gupta SQL Windows 3.1, MS Access, VBScript, JavaScript, MS Excel & Word, IBM Object Rexx language.

Download VintaSoftTwain ActiveX 3.7.1 in Softonic

Once you've used Evidence Sweeper, you'll be amazed how much crap your computer actually picks up whilst surfing the internet. The deluge of temporary files, cached pages, cookies, ActiveX controls and key registers soon build up and both clog your hard rive and slow down the general performance of your PC.

Evidence Sweeper includes more than 60 application plug-ins to eliminate traces left behind by even the most popular applications. Every day, Evidence Sweeper safely eliminates Web and PC clutter without deleting essential information. For security and peace of mind, the developers even claim it can also destroy data to disposal standards similar to that of the US Department of Defense.

One of the most impressive features of this cleaner is that it's very fast. You can complete an average full clean in under 10 seconds and you can also customise exactly what it deletes. A pretty unique feature is a plug-in editor which allows you to make your own toolbar plugins for Evidence Sweeper. It also removes traces of the last films and videos you watched in all multimedia applications.

This is one of the most complete disk cleaners you'll ever use although it's got so many options that it could do with a bit of streamlining in future releases.

Download Evidence Sweeper 2.9 in Softonic

It can often be annoying when you need to find out a URL to a video or download and you can't retrieve it because it's hidden within a JavaScript or ActiveX script. URL Helper helps you get one over on the awkward web designers who perpetrate this by sniffing out the URL for you. The program does this through the WinPCap platform, which thankfully is bundled with URL Helper, making it easy to install.

Finding the URL link to a piece of video or streaming media is pretty straightforward, and can be achieved in just a couple of clicks. In addition you can filter results by file extension, with each type clearly marked in a different colour, helping you quickly find your way around the maze of URLs. As far as we could tell, the program doesn't find links hidden within Flash pages, but does a great job of sifting through JavaScript and ActiveX scripts.

Download URL Helper 2.92 in Softonic