If you're a big fan of Wordpad but wish it was a little more advanced, then without doubt, TextPipe is for you.

With TextPipe you can specify all your text processing needs through one application rather than having to remember and manage several text editors, command line tools, custom scripts and Word and Excel macros. In a nutshell, TextPipe basically makes it fast and easy to convert, transform and re-form data in text files including HTML and XML documents. Probably the most outstanding feature of TextPipe is that it is very fast and can handle files of unlimited size. TextPipe is also remarkably efficient at handling multiple tasks simultaneously. The advantage of this is that you only need to learn how to use one tool rather than several to do multiple tasks. For those that have invested a lot of money or are planning to invest a lot of money in an editor, it's also a much cheaper solution. If the developers claims are right, it certainly packs an impressive punch when it comes to making corrections. They report that in a recent speed trial, TextPipe made the same number of changes to a document in seconds that took MS Word hours.

A very powerful all in one text editor, cleansing and conversion tool although it will only come into it's own if you're dealing with very large documents and tasks.

Download TextPipe Pro 8.1.8 in Softonic

Studiometry is a project management system that enables you to handle every single aspect of your work projects. Either if you work as freelancer or you're member of a professional team, you can take full advantage of all the tools features in Studiometry to make your work easier and also improve your relationship with customers.

The program takes care of every detail to such an extent that it looks very confusing at the beginning. In fact, I strongly recommend following the tutorial that you can access through the Help menu. Once you learn the basics of the program, you may start creating a new project, adding customers and customizing options. Also, there's a sample project for you to use to practice a bit before starting the real work.

In all, Studiometry is a very complete project manager that can really help you with your work. Just one small complaint: I hope they make the interface font size bigger in future versions. Maybe it's because I'm short-sighted, but I found them to be too small.

Download Studiometry 5.1.5 in Softonic

Tabs can be created that show the contents of folders. These mini-explorer windows provide true explorer context menu access for folders and files as well as full drag/drop support. Enter richly formatted or plain text notes into note tabs. Each note tab is associated with a text file of your choice anywhere on disk. It offers basic word processing functions but more readily available than your average word processor.

You can browse the web using internet tabs. These tabs offer the rudimentary function you expect from a web browser but with the convenience of being readily available in a screen tab. These are great for sites that you frequent throughout the day like weather, traffic, news, etc. The tab manager is your control panel for Stick. Create, delete, edit tabs on the fly. Tabs are very customizable with the ability to have their font, colors, slide behavior, transparency and more changed quickly and easily. Save groups of settings as templates and apply them to other tabs with the press of a button.

The RSS News Feed Plugin is a simple RSS client that allows users to connect to one or more RSS feeds in a single tab. The plugin supports auto-refresh, auto-pruning and textual previews of items. It will also notify you via popup when new items are downloaded. Only supports RSS 0.91 and RSS 2.0.

Download Stick 2.8.0.82 in Softonic

If you want to access your favorite programs as quickly as possible, you may find Microsoft Speed Launcher interesting.

Microsoft Speed Launcher is an application launcher from which you can access and run your most frequently used programs. Not only does it work with software, but it can also open web pages. Plus the program comes with a few handy shortcuts bundled as an example.

Microsoft Speed Launcher stays on your desktop at all times for quicker access, but being a semi-transparent icon on the bottom right corner it won't disturb you. You can always reduce the size of the icon or hide it completely (in which case you'll have to use a keyboard shortcut to open the launcher).

You can easily customize Microsoft Speed Launcher with your favorite programs, either using the built-in shortcut manager or simply dragging and dropping the executable file on the launcher's icon.

Microsoft Speed Launcher works fine as an app launcher, but it's not certainly the handiest I've seen. I miss having more configuration options plus a more comfy way to access shortcuts. Then again, the program is still under development, so hopefully it'll be improved in future versions.

Microsoft Speed Launcher lets you quickly access applications and websites from a desktop customizable menu.

Download Microsoft Speed Launch 1.0.811.0 in Softonic

Limewire, one of the world’s most popular peer-to-peer filesharing applications, has received a lawsuit from the RIAA, who are demanding $115 million in damages, claiming the application promotes the infringement of copyright. Similar applications like Grokster and Kazaa have been forced to go legal and there is speculation as to just how long Limewire will resist until they have to buckle and pay up. The existence of the popular P2P application is not under threat, but if you haven’t given it a try yet, here’s just what makes it a standout program.

In terms of file sharing, Limewire is the cream of the crop, offering the essential peer-to- peer tools in what is probably the friendliest interface of applications in its class. Beginners will appreciate the search bar, which allows you to select the type of file you’re looking for, video, image, audio, program or file. Limewire has a “what’s new” button to check out what popular files users have recently exchanged. We also enjoyed the direct connect option. If you know the IP address of one of your friends, type it in the box and Limewire will browse that user’s files. This is a quick way of sharing files with someone else and can come in handy when working on a project and exchanging documents. The only little snag we have with direct connect is that it doesn’t let you enter the username, much simpler than looking for your friend’s IP address.

Downloading with Limewire is very intuitive. After you’ve searched and found the file you are looking for, double-click on it to start the downloading process. The speed of your download depends firstly on the quality of your connection (broadband is a minimum), if you’ve correctly opened your router’s ports and whether you’re downloading a popular file or not. We would like to point out the effort that Limewire takes to make itself accessible to beginners. Not only does a tip pop up every time you launch the application, the help option also leads you to Limewire’s support centre, FAQs and a forum to get in contact with other users.

The lawsuit carried out by the RIAA is all the more surprising because of the measures Limewire takes to keep you in the realms of legality. If you decide to download Limewire from its website, you will first have to agree you will not use it for copyright infringement. When you’re configuring the application, you can set content filters, to avoid downloading files that copyright owners do not want you to share. To avoid embarrassing situations, make sure you tick the “block adult content” box, which will filter out any pornographic files from your searches.

The best way of checking the quality of the audio or video you’re downloading is via Limewire’s mini player. It’s fairly basic and to par with the players you find in similar filesharing applications, but we appreciated the way it was integrated in the application.

If there’s one thing that we’re still expecting from the Limewire team, it’s that it finally decides to jump on the BitTorrent bandwagon. Torrents are the way forward when it comes to peer to peer file sharing because of the speed, the security and freshness of downloads. Large files like movies or complete seasons of TV series are much easier to download via BitTorrent. We were also annoyed by the “buy the PRO version” window that popped up every time we started Limewire.

For its wealth of possibilities and huge base of users, (more than 4 million simultaneously on the Gnutella network) we encourage you to give Limewire a test drive. Because of the controversial nature of the application, you should always make sure that you aren’t using Limewire for illegal activities like copyright infringement. However don’t be scared off by the legality issue. Limewire, like most P2P applications is one of the most exciting possibilities that the internet gives us. It would be a shame not to give it a try. You should also check out Frostwire, the not-for-profit project of the Limewire development team.

Download LimeWire Basic 4.18.6 in Softonic

Hospitals and medical care facilities are on area where there simply isn't enough software to cater for the huge potential there surely is in this field.

FileMed is an effective Electronic Medical Record (EMR) solution for small and medium sized medical care facilities. It's recommended for those facilities holding up to around 200 users. FileMed basically offers simple patient management so that you can keep track of your patients conditions and ailments without having to sift through bulky boxes of papers or appointment cards.

FileMed also allows you to create Clinical Charts for patients according to their condition and allows you to attach diagnosis reports. Of course, FileMed also allows you to schedule that most important of details - schedules and appointments of patients. After a consultation, you can also attach clinical charts, X-rays and other documents that you'd like to scan in and store offline. FileMed also makes it relatively easy to setup an internal office network so that you can share documents and patient data between doctors, receptionists and other assistants.

If you're a small or medium sized medical facility, FileMed may make it easier for you to track and keep on top of your patients visits and conditions.

Download FileMed 4.0 in Softonic

Some people control their web browser mainly with mouse buttons, while others prefer keyboard shortcuts. But what if you could control it with mouse gestures?

This is precisely what you can do with FireGestures, a handy Firefox extension that once you try, you won't be able to do without. FireGestures recognizes special movements you make with the mouse and performs the associated actions. So, for example, moving the mouse from left to right moves one webpage forward, from up to down opens the link on a new background tab, and so on.

These gestures are usually executed while pressing the mouse's right button so that you can freely move your mouse without being constantly opening new tabs or moving forward webpages. FireGestures also enables you to associate them with certain keyboard keys, or even the mouse wheel.

FireGestures comes with some basic movements already built into the extension, to which you can add as many new ones as you want. The FireGestures script editor though is not as easy to use as I expected, and it does take a while to get the hang of it.

FireGestures enables you to control Firefox just with mouse movements.

Download FireGestures Extension 1.1.3 in Softonic

With such an ever growing range of multimedia devices, no wonder format converters are becoming so popular these days!

Any Audio/Video Converter is one of those converters: a simple, easy-to-use application that support pretty much any format you can find nowadays and lets you convert both audio and video files in just a few steps.

The program works with a list where you add the files you want to convert, no matter what format they are. Then you configure the conversion options for each one of them separately and finally click on the "Convert" button to let the program do the rest. I think this method is quite handy and saves you loads of work and time; pity the trial version only accepts one file on this list!

Any Audio/Video Converter includes a built-in player in its interface, but it's only good to watch the video while it's being converted and not preview it before actually starting the process.

With Any Audio/Video Converter you can convert basically any audio and video file you can think of, in a quite easy process that involves very little effort.

Download Any Audio/Video Converter 5.3 in Softonic

While most security packages employ 128-bit encryption, Data Guardian goes a lot further with a staggering 448-bit level of protection.

The Blowfish protection system is enough to stop all but the most determined hackers. The program basically allows you to create multiple databases based on different themes e.g. an address book, customer database, journal, password manager, or even notepad. With 448-bit encryption employed on each of these however, you can be sure that they'll be pretty safe even if they're not stored locally.

The program prides itself on customizability - i.e. you can create just about any kind of database you require with any category or colour coding of your choice. The program also employs what it calls "Keychain integration" which basically autofills passwords. Although Firefox and IE also do this now, you're probably much safer using Data Guardian because of the encrytion protection that surrounds your data.

It also offers a few other useful shortcuts such as one click calling based on auto recognition of phone numbers, instant access to your e-mail client via auto recognition of e-mail addresses and generation of secure passwords.

A well designed a super secure database/productivity enhancement application, Data Guardian gives you more than one less thing to worry about.

Download Data Guardian 1.5.1 in Softonic

Super Frog is a classic arcade game where you have to guide a frog across a busy highway to safety. This Christmas alternative to the popular game adds a bit of twist to it, with not only cars and trucks, but also candy canes and stockings coming into your way. After crossing the road successfully you'll have to make your way on a path and grab the present on the other side.

Christmas Super Frog is a fun timewaster but doesn't offer much more. First of all the graphics are really weak and the music itself gets annoying after a while. Even though the game is fairly easy to get used to, all you need is your arrow keys, it lacks any guidance for new users. We also thought the game got too difficult too early, as level 2 is already very challenging, with much more faster cars than the first level.

Christmas Super Frog is a basic time waster, fun for the holidays but nothing more.

Download Christmas Super Frog 1.9.1 in Softonic

If you ever need to take a screenshot of a whole website, you'll face a common problem: how do you capture the complete webpage, from top to bottom?

The answer is SiteShoter, a really simple tool that's been specifically designed to capture websites. It's a standalone app – not a web browser plug-in – that can take screenshots from a given webpage just by entering its URL in SiteShoter's interface.

The program captures the viewable area in any resolution you set, but its most interesting feature by far is the ability to capture the whole website, from top to bottom, scrolling down the page on its own a producing an image in JPG, BMP, GIF, TIFF or PNG.

SiteShoter also includes some basic configuration tools with which you can set the image quality and size and also opt to disable certain web elements such as Javascript or Flash.

Capturing complete websites is no longer a pain thanks to SiteShoter, a simple tool that can grab the whole webpage from top to bottom.

Download SiteShoter 1.18 in Softonic

Harmony Assistant is a all-in-one software product with digital audio capabilities. Its harmonizing capabilities enable the composer to build quickly and efficiently tunes that include accompaniment, multiple instruments and drum patterns. Its full page edit and engraver modes will ease editing and page setup of your scores.

A wide range of music symbols will enable to edit scores of great quality: notation capabilities are immense. Using the page mode, you will edit the score just as it will be printed on paper. The Engraver mode will make look it nice. Score input can be performed through the mouse, computer keyboard or an external MIDI keyboard.

Harmony Assistant comes with its own embedded software synthesizer (SoftSynth), which provides high quality output on basic sound cards, even without any external MIDI device, and includes hundreds of different instruments. Harmony Assistant can load and save in many formats (MIDI, WAV, AIFF, MP3, OGG, TAB, ABC...).

With MyrScript, the embedded programming language, you can add your own features to the program

More features:

• Complete score editor, with unlimited number of staves
• Page mode editing
• Automatic harmonizer
• Accompaniments & drum patterns in a few clicks
• Tablature calculation for miscellaneous string instrument
• Tablature calculation for Harmonica, diatonic accordion, wind instruments...
• Completely scriptable application. Many open-source scripts are available.
• Embedded softsynth : does not need any hardware other than a sound card.
• Midi, Kar, MOD, S3M... import
• Digital tracks (possible to import WAV, AIFF, MP3, OGG...)
• Wav-to-note pitch tracker, noise reduction, formant-compliant pitch change, ...
• Gregorian notation
• Chord diagram library for various instruments
• Enables to build custom instruments from digital recordings
• Lute tablatures
• Street organ card printing
• Karaoke and multi-voices lyrics are actually sung.
• Enable visitors of your Web site to view, transpose, play or print your scores

Download Harmony Assistant 9.4.6 in Softonic

Watching television is no longer a dining-room activity. With the number of available online TV channels constantly increasing, chances are you'll end up watching TV on your computer rather than on a TV set.

Internet TV is the perfect tool to watch television on the PC. This free app gives you access to more than 5,000 TV channels that stream content over the Internet. Among such a wide offer you'll surely find something you like, from news to sports, from music to documentaries, from religion to education.

Using the program is a piece of cake. Simply select the channel you're interested in and click on the "Play" button on the right-side screen. After a few seconds of buffering, the show will start. I have to say most of the channels I tested worked perfectly fine and only a few failed to start, most of them when I tried to filter contents by country. Apparently it's better to just leave the "All countries" option enabled. Also, when a channel didn't work sometimes it showed music instead, so in the end it wasn't that disappointing.

Internet TV lets you add your own Internet TV channels, if you know any that's not currently on the list and provided you have all the necessary data. A Favorites list completes the array of included features.

Internet TV is a basic viewer with which you can access thousands of streaming TV channels worldwide. Perfect to have a sneak peek at how television looks like in other countries and other cultures!

Download InternetTV 7.12 in Softonic

Maybe summer is not the most appropriate season to practice snowboard, but Project Powder makes it possible – as long as you have a computer with you.

Project Powder is a frenetic snowboard simulator that challenges you to play and compete against people from all over the world, either individually in single races or teaming up with other players in group races. The game also features an extensive social components, including a lobby, chat rooms, instant messages and more.

Unlike other sport simulators, Project Powder is very easy to control. It features a complete tutorial that teaches you the basics of racing, plus a few nice jumps and tricks. Mastering them in order to reach the finishing line in the first place is another story. Also, keep an eye on penguins, rocks, snowplows and other obstacles! As you can see, races in Project Powder are definitely full of surprises.

Project Powder features surprisingly good graphics (at least for a free game), and that counts not only for landscapes and character design, but also for the physics engine, capable of rendering a truly speed sensation while sliding down the mountains.

Being an online game, Project Powder requires an internet connection at all times. But the main drawback, in my opinion, is the game's lengthy installation process.

Project Powder is a challenging, action-packed online snowboard simulator with which you can have fun with people from all over the world.

Download Project Powder 1.32 in Softonic

Those of us who work with computers on a daily basis need to be as fast as possible with the keyboard, and programs like Klavaro Touch Typing Tutor can be really helpful.

Klavaro Touch Typing Tutor is a simple tool that teaches you the basics of typing and also lets you practice to improve your speed and accuracy. Lessons in Klavaro Touch Typing Tutor grow in difficulty as you make progress through the program, from single letters on the keyboard to complete texts.

The good thing about Klavaro Touch Typing Tutor is that it offers support for many different keyboard layouts and languages, which makes it suitable for a wider number of users, no matter what their mother tongue is.

On the downside, I missed some extra features found in other similar tools, such as the possibility to keep track of your results with statistics, or to customize the text with which you can practice.

Use Klavaro Touch Typing Tutor everyday and you'll be able to improve your typing speed and accuracy.

Download Klavaro Touch Typing Tutor 1.1.3 in Softonic

If you're bored of Windows Explorer or would like to experiment with something a little different, then NexusFile may be your answer.

NexusFile is a powerful and fast file manager that allows you to browse through the contents of your hard drive with great ease. The vast majority of its functions can be controlled by keyboard shortcuts, which makes it quicker and more convenient than other programs especially Explorer. The program also includes integrated utilities that let you go beyond just file browsing and exploring such as a file extractor for compressed files in ZIP, RAR and ACE and it also allows you to create ZIP files, rename multiple files and directories simultaneously, add a description to your personal files and directories, and much more. The program features a very intuitive interface also can be customized completely, using colour coding to better distinguish the various elements, changing fonts and so on.

This is a neat little alternative to Explorer although it takes some getting used to but if you invest the time, you might find yourself sticking with it.

Download NexusFile 5.02.3196 in Softonic

Do you need the processing power of Microsoft Word but don't have hundreds of dollars to pay for the Office package itself?

Jarte may be your answer. It's a free word processor based on Microsoft WordPad's word processing engine. It's extremely fast and easy to use. In a way it acts more like WordPad on steroids, adding tons of useful features to the basic word processor. It's very portable - it can fit on a USB stick - and yet it can open any document compatible with Word and WordPad.

Believe it not, Microsoft is continually upgrading the simple WordPad editing engine, although WordPad itself hasn't changed. never know it by examining WordPad. Jarte however takes advantage of these changes and has evolved to take advantage of the new useful features that Microsoft have added. These include tabbed document windows for easy access to open documents, larger buttons for the most commonly used functions, instant dictionary and thesaurus word look-up and a free spell check and text search tools that do not impose themselves on top of the text you are trying to edit.

There are many new features in Jaxtr that make it a superb option for those that can't afford or access Word but need it's processing power.

Download Jarte 3.3 in Softonic

If you're looking for a powerful high-quality video converter, player, editor for MPEG, QuickTime, and iPod clips then MPEG Streamclip may fit the bill.

Not only that, MPEG Streamclip now edits DivX and can even download the latest DivX releases from the DivX corporation. It's clear that MPEG Streamclip is a multi-faceted utility that can be used to do a variety of things from playing most movie formats and then performing simple editing in terms of Cut, Copy, Paste, and Trimming clips (which isn't much but enough for most of us).

Because the editing feature is so limited however, it may make more sense to import the semi-edited files you have and then import them into a DVD authoring application to burn them to disk or another editing program such as Windows Movie Maker.

MPEG Streamclip is an all in one solution to convert MPEG video to multiple formats, from AVI or QuickTime DV up through MPEG-4 and perform basic editing on them.

Download MPEG Streamclip 1.2 in Softonic

Sometimes it's handy to have an all in one tool that does everything from cleaning the registry to system monitoring rather than several different apps. This is not only more likely to work properly and not conflict but it's also lighter on your RAM.

Desktop Maestro is an all-in-one cleaning and monitoring application that integrates registry cleaning, system monitoring and privacy cleaning. The developers PC Tools are well known for Registry Mechanic and Desktop Maestro combines the best of this tool with it's other flagship product, Privacy Guardian.

Desktop Maestro features the same clean and easy to administer interface that you get with most PC Tools products. Desktop Maestro will scan your entire registry for any invalid entries and clearly lists the registry errors found so you can choose to selectively clean each item or automatically repair all errors. It does of course make a backup before making any changes. The Privacy Guardian basically clears any trace of surfing habits and document use from your system and finally Desktop Maestro can also provide optimization and performance tweaks that can improve efficiency in system usage, processes, CPU, memory and disk space.

Desktop Maestro is a quality all in one product that removes the need to have a separate registry cleaner, privacy cleaner and optimiser in one.

Download Desktop Maestro 3.0.0.830 in Softonic

Orbz is an action/arcade game set in colorful 3D environments. The object of the game is to shoot your orb at targets located throughout 14 distinct courses in a race to score the most points. Game play contains both intense action and also strategy in planning the best scoring shots. Power-ups, like the "Money Shot" and "Curse of the Goober", are also available to either give you a scoring advantage or to slow down your opponents.

In Solo Mode, the player completes a series of progressively difficult challenges that focus on scoring the most points in different scenarios. Bronze, Silver, and Gold medals are awarded for scoring performance and high scores for each challenge are tracked world-wide against all other Orbz players. For every 5 gold medals achieved, the player will also unlock a fancy new Orb to use in Solo or Online mode. Finally, there is a tutorial mode that will teach the player basics controls and scoring strategies.

The Online Mode allows Orbz players to compete against each other over the Internet or Local Area Network. Up to 10 players, including computer opponents called Botz, can join a Lobby where the matches will be coordinated by selecting the course to play, number of rounds in the match, and a per-round time limit. A world-wide ranking system is also available for those who wish to compete for the ultimate title of Orbz Champion.

Download Orbz 2.1 in Softonic