RemoveIT is a free trojan, adware and spyware scanner that searches and destroys dangerous viruses, trojans and spyware.

However, the effectiveness of it is open to debate. The developers claim that it's so good, it "locates and removes many new dangerous files including spyware, malware, virus, worms, trojans and adware that other popular AV programs do not find." This program therefore is NOT a real-time scanner - it's based on cleaning-up after something has installed itself on your PC rather than real-time protection which I always think is a dangerous approach.

There's nothing flashy about this program - the interface is based on Windows Explorer shell which also includes a slightly more advanced and expanded version of Windows Task Manager (to stop and block illegal processes) and the same with a Service Manager which gives you an overview of the services and program currently running on your PC. With these tools, you have more control over what runs on your PC both during startup and day-to-day operation. The Services Manager is recommended for beginners as you can see clearly the actual names of the programs running while the Process Manager only shows those files that are running as parts of programs and as a result, you may shut something down that you didn't mean to.

For a free and light malware scanner, this is a solid program although it does not seem to detect anything that other scanners (such as Ad-Aware) can't so it's maybe not as effective as the developers claim.

Download RemoveIT Pro 4 SE 25.9.2008 in Softonic

A smart freeware program that can clear all forms of mal-ware from your computer. Spybot S&D is a powerful application that offers a default mode and an advanced mode.

When you install this program, you are immediately given the choice to update, which is of course all important when dealing with the various forms of spyware that you want to be protected from. Unfortunately, when updating, progress can seem rapid and then stop for no apparent reason, for several minutes before finishing off the job.

Once you get over that small hiccup, you are prompted to create a system backup, just in case the program happens to remove something that is actually quite important for the smooth running of your system. It should go without saying that making this backup is recommended after which you may finally immunize your system from a growing database of malicious processes.

The program has plenty of options for tweaking and customizing scans as well as some unrelated functions like the secure shredder and a start-up manager.

Although this is a powerful piece of anti-spyware software, it may be better to see it as part of your security solution. For example, team this up with Ad-Aware SE and you should be covered from practically every form of threat to your online safety.

Download SpyBot Search & Destroy 1.6.0 in Softonic

Ad-Aware is one of the most popular anti-spyware tools, with millions of downloads worldwide, and I bet this number will be increased with the release of Ad-Aware 2008.

Though the interface in itself hasn't changed that much, the new Ad-Aware 2008 includes a few interesting enhancements such as a noticeable improvement in stability and performance, which makes the program a lot lighter on system resources. The rootkit and threat detection tools have also been enhanced for a more efficient protection, together with an all new integrated anti-virus functionality.

Ad-Aware is very easy to install and use, especially if you've been using the previous version, because the program features a similar design. It's constantly updated with new definitions, so that you keep up with the latest online threats and also includes a system restoration point to help you recover your system from a virus or Trojan attack. I especially liked the fact that Ad-Aware supports multiple browsers, which enables you to manage web browsing traces and control your privacy online in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera.

The program still keeps some functions as exclusive to the Pro and Plus versions (like the customizable scans or the real-time monitor) but still, Ad-Aware 2008 Free is a reliable, effective anti-malware tool that will keep your system safe and sound without disturbing your daily workflow.

Ad-Aware 2008 features an excellent package of security tools with which you can efficiently protect your PC from virus, Trojans, spyware and other undesirable elements.

Download Ad-Aware 2008 7.1.0.8 Free 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

Framefun is probably one of the easiest and quickest ways to spice up your photos, simply by adding some basic frames and borders.

You should be aware that this tool is not a full featured graphic editor, but just a simple app to add frames, borders, shadow effects and watermarks to your images. You can work both with single images one by one or in batches, and preview the final result at all times in the program's interface.

There isn't a wide selection of frames in Framefun. In fact, the only frame available is a plain line with customizable width and color. But the combination of this frame together with a border and a shadow effect can achieve really good results. The program can also add watermarks to your images, either in text format or as a small graphic.

I specially liked the possibility of using FrameFun in batch mode. It takes a while to understand the way it works because it's not very well implemented and poorly documented, but once you get the idea, it really saves you loads of time.

Though it doesn't include many frames to choose from and its batch mode could be improved, FrameFun is still a great tool to add frames, borders and shadow effects to your photos in a snap.

Download FrameFun 2.0.0.5 in Softonic

For many people, the only reason worth upgrading to Vista if for the look since the functionality and basic framework really don't differ that much from XP.

If you think the same way, then you'll be more than happy with Vista Transformation Pack. Once installed, the program makes superficial changes to XP that give it the Vista look. The main changes are that it "Vistarises" your start-up screen, cursors, sounds, screen-savers, tool bars, clock, etc. The transparent effect in Vista is hard to emulate on XP machines but by combining with Windows Blinds, Vista Transofrmation Pack does a surprisingly impressive job. Be warned however that some users have complained the program changes driver DLLs in XP which make it difficult to remove, or at least, it leaves problems behind when you do so.

To be fair to them, the developers advise you to view their user discussion board before installing to be warned of any potential problems as they readily admit that they are not aware of all the bugs it may cause. Note that if you're simply updating Vista Transformation Pack, there's no need to uninstall the original - just install the patch. They've also added a user selection feature whereby if you log onto your PC as a different user, you can select whether you want to transform your XP desktop to Vista.

This is probably one of the best transformation packs out there although be warned that it's likely that you'll suffer conflicts with programs from time to time, and may have problems with XP when it's uninstalled.

Download Vista Transformation Pack 8.01 in Softonic

Crawler Smileys enables you to easily cheer up you IM chats and email messages by inserting nice animated smileys into them.

The program displays a colorful interface with a few hundred smileys classified into several different categories. Besides the traditional yellow smiling interfaces, you'll also find cute graphics referring to animals, love, holidays, sports and magic, among others. Inserting them is as easy as clicking on the program's floating bar on top of the window and selecting the one you prefer. The only drawback is that the recipient of your emails must also have Crawler Smileys installed; otherwise they'll only see a hyperlink.

Crawler Smileys also includes a collection of eCards, perfect for all occasions: birthdays, holidays, friendship, support and love, for example. The eCards are embedded inside the email message and the recipient only has to click on the link.

Crawler Smileys is perfect for those who love graphic-ridden email messages, all full of animations, color and music. However, bear in mind that there are people who don't like that kind of email and won't bother to read your message if they have to face a jumping yellow face every three words. Also, I didn't like the advertisement line that the program adds to my email messages.

If you don't mind the ad bit, Crawler Smileys is great to spice up your emails and IM chats with these cute smileys… but be aware that not everybody likes them.

Download Crawler Smileys 1.0.5.30 in Softonic

So you’re back from vacation, you’ve downloaded all your photos to your PC, but you’re not convinced by the quality of the images. What you need is to retouch them, adjusting colour balance, eliminating red eyes, setting sharpness and removing noise. While it won’t equal a great picture at first try, at least it'll get you rid of all the imperfections. Corel Paint Shop Pro (PSP) is a hands-on and complete photo editor that intermediate users will take to their liking.

We instantly fell in love with PSP’s easy-to-handle interface. Select the tool panels you need and drag and drop them into the main window. The best way to work with PSP is via the left hand panel, a descriptive menu of all the actions you can undertake, like printing, retouching, collage, or adding text and graphics. Clicking on one option will give you access to a sub-menu with more choices. You can always go back to the main menu by clicking on the house icon. If you have multiple images opened you’ll be able to access them in no time thanks to the tab-browsing feature. The only element that we didn’t like was the image browsing pane at the bottom of the interface, which we found to be pretty cluttered.

Corel is aware that the majority of users have nor the time or the experience to retouch their photos in depth. For these users, there are the “one step photo fix” and “one step noise removal” buttons, to edit your photos in one click. Paint Shop Pro offers numerous editing variations like Illumination, 3D, Texture and Edge effects. Just like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro works with layers, making it easy to have a history of all the changes you have made to your photo. Although PSP offers fewer effects and editing tools than Adobe’s stellar creation, we believe there are enough options to keep the photo enthusiast well occupied. We appreciated the extra features like photo collage, to create an original mash-up of your favourite pictures, or web share to upload your images to an online photo album. You can also easily create a custom card thanks to the text editor.

The only real drawback to Corel Paint Shop Pro is the lengthy installation process and having to create a Corel account to install the program. However once you get past that step, you’ll be happy to know that the application starts up fairly quickly and does not overuse memory. Beginners will find the help file to be very complete and simple to use.

Paint Shop Pro is an excellent photo editor offering the whole range of tools and effects that you would expect, and a bit more. A well structured interface and clear cut options make it a good choice for beginners.

Download Paint Shop Pro X2 in Softonic

Facebook is probably the most popular social networking site nowadays, which means that there are dozens of Facebook-based applications created everyday. One of them is Fizzboost, a small tool that enables you to manage your Facebook account from the system tray.

After authenticating the program so that it can access the Facebook site, Fizzboost will sit unobtrusively on your system tray and will display a notice every time a friend wants to add you or whenever you've got unread messages, pokes, wall posts and more. The program also displays links to quickly access the most important areas in your Facebook profile.

In general terms I found the program to be quite useful for Facebook users, allowing them to be permanently aware of any important changes without having to be constantly logging into the site. On the downside, the app was a little buggy and some of its functions, like the Photo upload tool, are still a bit clunky.

With Fizzboost you can view what's going on in your Facebook account without having to log into the website, right from your Windows desktop.

Download FizzBoost 1.5 in Softonic

They don't come much more comprehensive than VBA 32 Antivirus. The program consists of an on-access scanner, on-demand scanner, auto-update system, Windows Explorer context menu extension plus a host of plug-ins for e-mail clients such as The Bat!, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Client.

It also features a mail filter to scan incoming e-mail messages received by POP3 or IMAPv4 protocols independently of your e-mail client, a script-filter to protect users from execution of malicious scripts in Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook Express and for that matter, any other applications that use the Microsoft Windows Scripting Host technology.

In terms of reliability however, the ability of this virus checker has to be questioned. In a scan, it did not pick up several pieces of malware that Ad aware had detected although they were pretty minor. However, it does work discreetly and is worth trying if your dissatisfied with your current ant virus package

Download VBA32 Antivirus 3.12.2.4 in Softonic

If you’re not impressed by P2P heavyweights such as eMule and Limewire, you might find Warez worth a try. Warez is a P2P file-sharing network based on the Ares network and offers a service similar to that of Kazaa. In fact, up to version 1.6, Warez was an exact clone of Ares Galaxy but since then has branched out to offer some interesting features of its own. As a result, Warez claims to be the third largest decentralized P2P filesharing network in the world with over 1.5 million users.

The first thing to be aware of is that although the developers claim Warez contains no spyware or adware, many users have reported problems on Softonic of pop-up ads and browser hijacks. The installation itself takes less than a minute and once done, you’re taken through a small configuration wizard similar to that in eMule. The interface is also in classic P2P style – a search bar on the left, with search type below it. If you are searching for music, one nice feature is the three windows across the top which “divide-as-you-search”. So if you search for Judas Priest, the name of the band appears in one pane, the names of all their albums in another and finally the names of all their tracks in the last one.

It's obvious that Warez is very much designed to integrate with the web more than most P2P apps. Along the toolbar at the top is a web button which takes you directly to the Warez site where you can expand your search beyond its P2P network. There’s also a torrent button which, via an easy to use wizard, allows you to post your own torrents on the Warez website. Of course, you can also download torrents using Warez. In addition, there’s also a nice media player (although it does not allow previews of partially-downloaded files) and a convenient CD ripper button to put your favourite files on disc. Of course, the chat facility comes as standard.

However, these cosmetic improvements are hardly a giant leap in the P2P world. Warez claims that its major advantage is an “advanced queuing system” and “multi-sourced swarmed downloads”. It claims particular speed advantages over Kazaa and Gnutella networks. In tests, we didn’t notice any significant difference in either download or search times between Warez and these applications although much depends on your own personal configuration and broadband network.

User opinion is clearly divided on Warez. One disgruntled Softonic user reports it has, “port hopping technology designed to get around your network security” and that “you are a fool to install this software.” Another meanwhile says, “I like that there is no spyware…an easy to use interface.” Be careful that if you do notice spyware, it may be down to other programs you downloaded rather than Warez.

In summary, a very good looking P2P and web integrated program.

Download Warez 3.2.0 in Softonic

VAMP Media Center is a full multimedia suite. It includes:

• Audio Player
• Media Organizer for your images
• Videos and music files
• Slide Show Builder
• Screen Saver Maker
• Wallpaper Maker
• Media Mixer for mixing music files with visual files
• Greetings Maker
• Clip Editor for creating video clips with many transitions and special effects
• Calendar Maker

VAMP is fully integrated and Internet aware. You can send your creations to friends. They can enjoy them without downloading VAMP. You can upload your creations to your page on the VAMP site. VAMP Photo Sharing online service allows you to start or join online photo albums and share pictures. You can post images for others to view and they can be delivered automatically to other album members' PC. This latest Beta release includes multiple user accounts, customized file-mapping process, added transition menu in Slideshow, and printing for visuals now available in the Media Organizer.

Download VAMP Media Center 4.0 in Softonic

The Google Pack is like a first aid kit for your PC: it’s small, tidy and filled with all the essentials. So what’s inside? The Firefox web browser, Ad Aware SE Personal and Norton Antivirus for protection, Adobe Reader for your PDF files, Picasa for your pictures, Google Earth to span the globe, Google Desktop to organize your files and a Google Screensaver. The Google Pack is an excellent selection of solid and essential software, half of which are from Google itself, which any new PC users should get his hands on.

First time users will appreciate the smooth download process, and a friendly interface. Once started, the Google Pack will check your computer to see if you already have any of the applications and if not will install them. The download progress bar at the top lets you know how far you are in the installation process. The application also shows the download size of each program, just in case you’re worried about the space on your PC. If you’re not sure what a program is for, roll your mouse over the title and a tooltip (or small description) will appear. Once you’re done with the pack, you can let it sit discreetly in your system tray, and call it up whenever you need it.

The Google Pack is also a Google Updater, and will regularly check that the installed applications are up to date. Beginners will be glad to know that there’s a link to the help page for every program and that you can easily uninstall each application. Another cool thing is access to more software (like Skype, RealPlayer, or Google Talk) from a link in the “installed software” tab. However one can’t help but wonder why Google didn’t just include all that software in the Google Pack. It might mean that more applications will be available in the future.

We were a bit annoyed to find out that the Google Pack installs Firefox with the Google Toolbar, a plug-in which is not completely necessary. Another irritating thing is how the Pack automatically installs all programs instead of letting you choose individual components. There’s also no refresh button to check for new updates or to reinstall software you’ve erased.

Google Pack is intended for new PC users and, although it blatantly stuffs a good number of Google applications in there, you have to recognize that all the programs it offers are top notch. Don’t waste your time on the net finding the right apps for your PC, let Google Pack set you up.

Download Google Pack 1.1.489.24609 in Softonic

Comprehensive protection is priority number one for every computer user connected to the net and no matter what measures one takes, there will eventually be some way for attacks to circumvent them. There is therefore the need for not only a shield from spyware but a permanently up-to-date scanner that will give your system a rigorous once over to weed out any root kits and of course any other kind of malware. Step up Spy Sweeper, an advanced solution that will help you put your mind to rest.

Emphasising the need to stay on top of recent trends, the program will conduct an automatic update when you first open it. Follow that with a “Sweep” and you’ll soon realise that the term “excavation” may better suit the process that follows. There’s no point in holding your breath for it to finish because if our test system is anything to go by you can expect a wait of up to one hour! Thankfully though, a scan won’t gobble up your CPU usage and there will be no noticeable slow-down if you use other applications during the process.

A unique and very practical feature of Spy Sweeper is the running commentary of everything you’ve done since beginning the session. As the scan progresses, issues will appear in red with the type of problem and the name of the offending file. A more detailed log of your session history can be found under the Results tab which also time stamps every event.

While Spy Sweeper tries to keep the user informed, it doesn’t venture so far as to estimate the time remaining for a scan. This is a small feature that should be regarded as standard for this type of software but it’s just not to be the case here. What’s more, within the options tab you find what amounts to nothing more than advertising with links to more Webroots products. We would hope that these disappear once you’ve registered your copy.

Issues aside, Spy Sweeper packs a punch where it counts and certainly justifies its modest price tag. While there are free alternatives to be found in Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy, the extra funding may provide more incentive to stay on top of recent threats and should also guarantee the longevity of support for many years to come.

Download Spy Sweeper 5.3 in Softonic

VX2 is one of the most problematic applications to remove from your computer. While Ad-Aware SE effectively deals with most VX2 variants, there are a few that none of today's available antispyware application can detect or remove.

Until the release of Ad-Aware 2006, we will continue providing protection against threats such as certain VX2 variants through the add-on functionality of Ad-Aware SE. Ad-aware 2006 will tackle threats such as VX2 without the need for add-ons. Note that VX2 Cleaner 2.0 works with all editions of Ad-Aware SE.

Download Ad-Aware VX2 Cleaner Plug-In 2.0 in Softonic

Worm Detector is a new handy antivirus tool for Outlook 2000 and XP to fight against internet mail worms and spam. Everybody is aware of worldwide epidemics of such worms as "ILoveYou", "SirCam", "Klez" and everybody knows what a significant damage can be caused by such viruses: data loss, network lags, mailboxes crashing etc. Worm Detector is the antivirus defense tool for preliminary detecting and killing of such viruses.

Antivirus defense is based on integration into the MS Outlook 2000/XP and interactive scaning of all incoming e-mails. On finding infections, the program locks the suspicious e-mail and suggests you delete it to avoid infecting of your computer. Messages' scaning is produced by the constantly updating virus base and all base updates are absolutely free. In addition Worm Detector has built-in algorithms performing detection of the latest worms not yet added to virus base. And in addition to worm scaning, Worm Detector has the powerful possibilities to fight against spam such as spam recognition on standard subjects and creation of special narrow specified anti spam filters.

Due to high integration with MS Outlook 2000 and XP, work with Worm Detector is very handy and easy. Worm Detector combines easy usage, friendly user-interface and low cost registration with a powerful system of finding and killing worms. Be protected from worms - use Worm Detector!

Download Worm Detector 3.2 in Softonic