Alarm is a digital clock that you can set to display a message and play a sound whenever you want. You can configure and how the alarm sounds.

Options/Features:

• Shows the current time in configurable LED's
• Beeps or plays a sound (you can replace the default alarm siren)
• Plays music (you can use your own mp3, mid, wav and so on music files)
• Shows a small dialog or alarms you with a Full Screen Alert with your text
• Option to preview your alarm

Download Alarm 2.0.4 in Softonic

Keeping Windows continually optimised is an ongoing challenge and the worst problem is when software conflict with each other.

PCHeal is designed to step in when you've suffered a major software conflict or system slowdown. It makes direct changes to your system registry and files to enhance memory, screen drawings, animations, refresh rates and CPU threading speeds. According to the developers, it automatically adjusts settings and changes made based on computer specifications although it's hard to tell if anything really has been done or not after running the program There is also a deep system analyzer and diagnostic tool which attempts to find and repair any potential problems with the computer which is affecting its performance. The software also focuses on over-clocking features to enhance memory and CPU priorities and there's an easy and intuitive user interface which performs all setting changes immediately. In reality, in the case of a major software conflict, there's little you can do but this program offers some hope of at least recuperating some of your system's performance without uninstalling the guilty products.

Worth a try if you've experienced a major system failure although don't expect it to perform miracles.

Download PCHeal 1.9.29.2008 in Softonic

The Google Desktop application allows users to search their desktop content quickly and easily. Praised for its ingenuity and criticised for its intrusiveness, Google Desktop brings the power of Google’s search engine technology to your PC.

After installing the application, you’ll have to give it some time to index the files on your PC, including emails, photos, chats, contacts and calendar events. Google Desktop will index the first 10,000 words in the first 100,000 documents on your PC. The application supports the majority of file types and you can decide which ones to index, or omit protected files, using the preferences menu.

In its latest version, which is compatible with Windows Vista, Google Desktop has been given a new transparent look, providing a pretty sleek feel to your PC. Your search results will appear in your browser (in the familiar Google web page format) and a small preview button allows you to view results without actually clicking on the corresponding link. Results are as precise as we’ve come to expect from Google searches, however we were slightly disappointed to learn that the application doesn’t offer logical 'OR' support or substring search. On another note, Google Desktop is not limited to your PC as you can cross index content from multiple machines and share some panel items with your friends.

Google Desktop is not only about search, though. Joining a marketplace already occupied by Apple’s Dashboard Widgets and Yahoo! Widgets, Google Desktop can be fitted with any number of little gadgets. These mini apps perform all kinds of functions, from fetching your mail to jotting down notes or checking up on your local weather. There are hundreds of gadgets to choose from to customize your desktop bar. Our personal favorites are: Google Translate, the Skype plug-in to check your credit and call your contacts, “Am I Blocked” to find out who’s blocked you on IM, Workspace to quickly move between tasks, System Stats to monitor your PC and Games, a selection of Flash games like Tetris and Moonlander.

When running, we found Google Desktop to use up around 30 MBs, but that can quickly increase if you add more gadgets to it. The application is also constantly re-indexing your files to incorporate your modifications and new elements. However you should rarely feel your PC slowing due to indexing.

When you’re dealing with Google, however, you know the main criticism will be about security. Because Google Desktop indexes all your documents, you’re basically opening up your PC and all your personal files to the Moutain View company. What some users fear is that Google could one day take advantage of that access or that a bug in the application would allow malicious users to infiltrate your PC and steal information.

While the intrusiveness of Google Desktop will give some users pause for thought on installing the app, Google Desktop is highly effective and simple to use. The gadgets you can add to its sidebar may not all be essential, but many of them are quite fun and original and let’s face it, the sidebar looks good. Give it a go if you think your PC is a mess and you need quick access to anything.

Download Google Desktop 5.8.809.8522 in Softonic

Getting up early is hard enough so why make it even worse with the annoying beeping of a conventional alarm clock? Use College Alarm Clock instead.

With this simple tool you'll wake up to the sound of your favorite songs, videos or whatever other media files – including CDs - you set as the alarm sound. College Alarm Clock can be scheduled to go off at a different time and play a different tune every day, which is perfect if you want to sleep a bit more during the weekend.

The program features a tabbed interface – one tab for each day – that's very easy to use, but which could certainly be improved in design. However design is not College Alarm Clock's main problem: you'll need to leave your computer on all night if you want the program to wake you up.

With College Alarm Clock you can wake up with your favorite songs, as long as you don't mind leaving the PC on all night long.

Download College Alarm Clock 1.06 in Softonic

Maintaining Windows in decent working order can be a full time job and it's a pain to have to download multiple programs to keep everything in check.

Pristy Utils 2009 is a collection of tools to maintain your PC. It features everything from a power scheme manager to a web management utility and Vista tweaker

The first Pristy Utils 2009 utility, System PowerDown serves to schedule shutdowns, restarts, suspensions and blocking sessions in the PC after a specified time. Web assistant is the second application which works as a quick shortcut for different Web related uses such as sending mails, files over the internet etc. The third tool is called PC detector. It displays all the information from your computer hardware in eight different sections: - CPU, screen, sound, memory, network, disk storage devices, and so on.

Finally, Pristy Utils 2009 has three applications for maintenance tasks - a cleaner to free RAM Memory, File Wipeout for secure deletion of files, and a desktop clock which is basically a widget for the desktop. More recently, Pristy Utils 2009 has been bolstered with a Vista booster that defrags your boot sequence. However, what this program is crying out for is a defragmentation tool - it's all very well cleaning up your hard drive but it doesn't speed them up which is where a defrag tool would come in really useful.

Pristy Utils 2009 is a great all round lightweight maintenance and web management tool although it lacks a few essentials.

Download Pristy Utils 2009 1.0.8 in Softonic

CPU-Z is a freeware utility that provides some information on your CPU with which you can identify areas that may be optimized to improve the efficiency of your system. Some of the topics checked by this sofware include:

• Processor name and vendor
• Core stepping and process
• Processor package
• Processor current core voltage
• Internal and external clocks, clock multiplier
• Partial overclock detection
• Processor features, including supported instructions sets
• L1 and L2 cache informations : location, size, speed, technology
• Motherboard informations : BIOS, chipset, memory, AGP

Download CPU-Z 1.47 in Softonic

There are so many graphics cards and chipsets nowadays that compatibility problems with software inevitably arise. PowerStrip provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the Matrox Millennium I to the latest ATI X850 and NVidia SLI solutions.

The developers claim this is the only program of its type to support multiple graphics cards from multiple chipset vendors, simultaneously, under every Windows operating system from Windows 95 to the x64-bit edition of XP. A simple menu pop up from the system tray provides access to some 500 controls over your display hardware, including color correction tools, period level adjustments over screen geometry, and driver independent clock controls.

The program automatically detects when programs are launched and responds by activating specific display settings, gamma adjustments, performance switches and even clock speeds - returning everything to normal when the program closes. A quick setup wizard gets you up and running with minimal fuss and and live updates are supported to ensure you're always running the latest release.

If you've had problems with games or compatibility issues with other software, look no further than PowerStrip.

Download PowerStrip 3.82.632 in Softonic

As the saying goes - Timing is Everything - and Good Timing aims to ensure that you'll get it right everytime.

It's a very simple program that allows you to configure alarms in any way that you want for every occasion. In fact, it's one of the most flexible alarms you'll find anywhere. There's nothing complicated about setting the times. You can enable several alarms to trigger at one time which is useful if you have to time different events in succession or simultaenously. Of course, it can also be used as a simple reminder tool allowing you to configure a short text warning regarding the type of event you're setting it for - whether it's food in the oven or an important meeting you have to attend. You can also scroll through the history of your alarms which is useful if you need to know at what time a recurring event is finishing it and compare it with current trends. The best thing about this alarm however is that all the sounds are completely customizable. You can use audio files, including Mp3s, as the default sound which is preferable to the ones that come with the program which are rather uninspiring.

There's nothing fancy or difficult about this alarm and it's a great solution for anyone who needs to time multiple events or a highly customisable warning system.

Download Good Timing 1.92 in Softonic

Don't be fooled by the name - Alarm Clock Pro is much more than just a flashy way of getting you out of bed on time.

Alarm Clock Pro is a fully functional organizer and scheduler that aims to ensure you never miss an important date again. As a wake-up alarm, it allows you to configure the tone as anything from an internet radio station to an MP3 and even a movie or daily task. If you don't have your PC in your bedroom that's no problem either - Alarm Clock Pro can be configured to send wake-up text messages to your cell phone.

An alternative use for the application is to have it periodically check your webcam and automatically send security screenshots to your e-mail address. This way, you can use your PC as a closed circuit TV monitoring device. In addition, you can program it to randomize the iTunes playlist, remind you of holidays and special occasions, perform system tasks, automatically send out birthday cards, text message your daily task list to a cell phone, amongst other things.

One slightly unusual aspect of Alarm Clock Pro is the ability to speak inspirational quotes at random moments throughout the day. This can be programmed to occur at virtually any specific time interval set by yourself to keep you going through the day.

An attractive interface combined with an array of different uses make Alarm Clock Pro one of the best alarm clocks around - it's just a shame it's not free.

Download Alarm Clock Pro 8.4.7 in Softonic

FoxClocks is an extension for Firefox, Thunderbird and Sunbird which can conveniently add world times to your status bar or alternatively, any any toolbars that you're using.

FoxClocks is a great idea for anyone who has to travel widely or finds themselves constantly having to know what time it is in other regions to contact colleagues etc. You have various choices on which clocks you display in FoxClocks. If you prefer, you can simply set it so that a FoxClocks clock changes colour during certain hours - for example you can make your Tokyo clock turn green if you have to make an important call there and don't want to risk waking them out of bed!

You can browse time zones by country, region or city and if you enable automatic updates, you'll always have the right time (although your PC should update itself automatically anyway so this is no big deal). Other than that, there aren't many other customization options in FoxClocks but you can change the time formats to something more useful or familiar to you.

Foxclocks is an excellent time tracking tool for anyone that works across timezones or regularly calls people in other parts of the globe.

Download FoxClocks 2.4.91 in Softonic

Power Clock replaces the outdated mechanical time clock used in many businesses. It has many features that even the most advanced mechanical time clock cannot duplicate. It can clock employee work hours and help you follow time spent on projects.

Download Power Clock 7.60 in Softonic

TimeLeft is an unique application containing lots of features and options designed to help you manage your time more effectively. At the same time it is user-friendly and very easy to use. The application boasts the following impressive features:

Download TimeLeft 3.36 in Softonic

Alert yourself about important events with different alarms and replace your tray clock using different skins. Alarm clock that will play a MP3 file. It also can run a program, log off, reboot, shut down, or power off. Atomic Alarm Clock also an atomic-time synchronizer and advanced replacement for Windows tray clock, over 100 skins are included in the distribution. This alarm clock is built into your personal PC and is completely customizable.

Download Atomic Alarm Clock 5.65 in Softonic

What date will it be in 60 days? 11 weeks? 9 months? Did you remember to include your vacation days? Have you sent cargo and would like to know the expected arrival date? You can use days, weeks, months, or years to calculate these or any other due date. Such tasks become simple with the Timestimator. Logistics managers, travel agents, secretaries and many other professionals who need convenient due date calculator will find Timestimator an easy-to-use and effective tool.

With the World clock dialog screen, you can easily make a list of clocks that show time in different parts of the world. This feature is similar to calculation of time zone differences, but here you can see a lot of time zones simultaneously and you do not need to click any buttons to calculate an actual time.

The Calendar is an extremely important tool for the modern human. Our life is a "timetable," and all timetables are based on calendars. Timestimator provides you with a perpetual calendar with handy navigation features. Timestimator can show you four, five, six or more months at once! All you need to do is enlarge the Timestimator's window.

The Earth is huge; so huge in fact that time is different in different places. Are you going to call your colleague in Tokyo, but do not want wake him in the middle of the night? If you are booking a bungalow on Fiji then it's a good idea that you should know when it will be appropriate to call the manager.

Timestimator takes into account daylight savings time and shows you the current time in the chosen cities and calculates the timeshift between them. Professionals who need to monitor processes in different parts of the world will find this feature convenient.

Download Timestimator 1.6 in Softonic

Alarms - you either love 'em or you hate 'em depending on what it means. If it means getting up for work, then chances are it's not your favourite sound but it doesn't have to be as painful as an annoying high pitched tone.

Citrus Alarm Clock is a simple but elegant alarm clock designed for those that want to wake up in style via their PC. It's much more advanced than a normal alarm clock and it gives you many more options over how you'd like to wake-up. The program is operated via a simple interface which allows you to set as many different alarms as you like using your existing media player. It therefore supports as many media formats as your player does which makes it pretty flexible in what tone, music or noise you choose to wake up to. You can even wake up to visual images of you want by setting it to play your TV Tuner or favourite show saved on your hard drive.

So that whatever you choose doesn't wake you too harshly, it features a gentle fade-in function to wake you up gently or you can choose to listen to it into your sleep up to a certain time when it will automatically mute until it starts again when you have to wake up. In this latest version, the developer had added a number of cool new features too including a snooze feature and a much more attractive and intuitive GUI.

Simple to use, powerful and completely free, this program could make those early starts just that little bit less painful.

Download Citrus Alarm Clock 2.0 in Softonic

Neutron is a very simple and small time synchronizing program that retrieves the accurate time from one of several specialized time servers on the Internet. Once the network time has been retrieved the program can set your computer's clock to match it.

Options in the program enable you to automatically obtain the time from the time server and set your clock appropriately at program startup. It is also possible to have the program automatically exit after the time has been set and so is ideal for placing a shortcut in your Startup folder to sync your clock when your computer is started.

Neutron uses the standard Time protocol (TCP or UDP port 37). See RFC 868 for more details. The time retrieved from the network time server is given as the number of seconds since midnight on January 1st 1900. Since the protocol only allows accuracy down to the second you may not get the most accurate time possible but it is usually good enough to always be within about half a second of "true" time. Network latency is accommodated in the calculations involved in setting your computer clock.

Download Neutron 1.07 in Softonic

Checking the current time from your PC couldn´t be easier thanks to this little gem of a program. DS Clock is a free desktop timepiece that displays variable date and time information built from the format string.

The program comes with a number of customization options. You can select any combination of date, time, and time zones, insert any text, pick custom colors and fonts, set custom sound to play at the top of the hour, and even play real Westminster chimes The program can also sync your computer with atomic clocks.

Download DS Clock 2.2 in Softonic

If you're a network administrator, your number one task is to ensure that your network does not go down at any point.

However, monitoring whether this happens is easier said than done but IsItUp provides an easy one stop solution for small networks. The program monitors multiple "pingable" TCP/IP devices around the clock and notifies you, via email or pager, of the status of a particular device. It lets you know when it goes down and when it comes back up again. The application keeps comprehensive stats for each device it monitors including up time, maximum response time, minimum response time, standard deviation and more. Most useful of all however, it tracks the last successful and last failed Traceroute to a destination so it can determine where the break-down occurred. In addition, it's a great tool for those on the move because it has both a Web and a Windows User interface that allows you to check your network status from any location.

For medium to small sized network administrators, this is a powerful tool which allows you to track your network performance from any location.

Download IsItUp 6.28 in Softonic

If you're constantly moving between different folders in Windows, you'll have noticed that its native file explorer is a bit limited. This is why it's always a good idea to use plug-ins to improve its functionality.

Folder View is one of those plug-ins; a simple tool that makes working with Explorer easier and faster by adding shortcuts to your most frequently used folders in certain key locations such as the Explorer interface, the context menu and also the system tray.

These shortcuts can be customized with any folders you want, and are also automatically updated. This means that if you erase one of the folders that appear on the Folder View toolbar from your hard drive, the correspondent shortcut will also be erased.

I found Folder View to be very generally handy, but I had problems when trying to customize the toolbar: it's easy to add new shortcuts, but I really can't figure out how to remove them without actually deleting the folder they link to.

Folder View adds some extra handy shortcuts to Windows Explorer, so that file management in Windows is faster and easier.

Download Folder View 2.1 in Softonic

As the moon influences the sea's tides, vegetable development, and even hair growth, stars may have an effect us when we're born. It would be nice to know in which way though, so Free Astrology Birth Chart is here to help... if you are experienced enough to understand the results!

In order to see the birth chart you need to know some fundamental information: the birthday, OK, that's easy; the birth time, that's going to be hard. I'm sure you didn't know how to tell the time at the time of your birth, but your mother will remember if you were born at 2 o'clock in the morning. Next, you need to add information about the longitude and latitude of your birthplace. Don’t worry if you don’t have a clue, there is a search tool linked to Google which should give you the right results, although you have to look for them, and inserting the right values in the forms can be difficult for a non-expert.

Eventually you can press the 'Get My Birth Chart' button and see your personal, coloured chart which includes all the specifications of the planetary positions on the day you were born! That would be cool enough, but I personally don't understand what 'Sun - 19 Leo 17' or 'Moon - 06 Cpr 28' mean. So, in case you're a kind of wizard or a Harry Potter super-fan and you think you can decrypt the information given, then give it a try and post a comment for us.

Print your personal Planetary Position and Birth Chart to impress your friends, even if you don't really know what any of this means!

Download MB Free Astrology Birth Chart 1.40 in Softonic