The extension takes little space and lives in your notification bar. Persistent chat windows exist at the bottom of your screen and can be minimized when you aren't using them.

You can still send pictures and emojis using the extension. Hangouts is a perfect extension if you have a lot of friends using Google.

Download Hangouts 1.2013.508.5 in Softonic

Features

These days, it's an app that attempts to be all things to all people - play DVDs, organize music, catalog photos, convert video, interact with social networking sites, browse internet multimedia....there's no end to what RealPlayer offers to its users. Even so, it's not an out-and-out success...

Usability

For a start, installation of RealPlayer is annoying - it takes a while, requires lots of "nexts" and tries to install and enable several features that users don't really need. Finally, when it starts, you're offered a chance to upgrade to paid versions of RealPlayer before you have to register yourself with Real Networks. If all this messing around doesn't appeal, check out a slimline app like UMPlayer.

When you're up and running, RealPlayer features a wide interface where you will notice ads and videos recommended by Real Networks. This looks cluttered and messy, and it's hard to know what the app actually offers. In reality, RealPlayer is ideal for playing and sharing video with your friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter and it works easily with BlackBerry, iPod, iPhone and other game systems. The new video converter allows you to copy online video to your iPod, Xbox, PS3 and other devices. Unfortunately, you can't rip DVDs with RealPlayer, although this is available as a feature if you upgrade to RealPlayer Plus.

Most recently, RealPlayer has been updated with far better mobile and social networking integration. You can now copy your favorite videos to an iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry and dozens of other popular devices automatically. Downloading internet videos is faster, and for those of you with something to hide, RealPlayer offers a new Private folder. Social media has also been bumped up, with direct access to Facebook videos and usefully, a built-in feature to transfer videos to your mobile devices.

Quality

That said, RealPlayer isn't bad at all. It's comparable to Windows Media Player 12 as they both have some impressive ways of organizing your music. For me, the best feature is the CD burner which is something I've used from the early days of RealPlayer. The sheer quality of some of the media only available in Real formats makes RealPlayer an essential item in the toolkit of any fan of internet video and audio.

Conclusion

There's no shortage of media players theses days, and RealPlayer is by no means a bad option. It offers lots of features, good options and is a high-quality player that will do justice to your media. The only problem is that despite its modern features, it feels like a bit of a dinosaur. It's heavy and slow, looks chunky and takes an age to respond to clicks, and for many people - especially those who have experience of lighter options - it's just not the most comfortable player.

RealPlayer is a media player that, although powerful, has suffered from serious feature-creep over the years.

Download RealPlayer 16.0.2.232 in Softonic

Features

Mozilla Firefox 18 is the latest version of the popular web browser and brings with it a few key and welcome new features. First among them is the company's claim to a speedier, safer browsing experience. Tests reveal that this newest version of Mozilla Firefox is certainly quick to load even the most graphics intense pages.

Firefox 18 also now features secure connections when performing Google searches to improve privacy and there's an updated site identity indicator in the URL bar. Windows users also now get silent updates while Mac users on Lion or above can use Firefox in full-screen mode.

Mozilla Firefox's new tab layout itself is a pretty noticeable new feature. Quite similar to Google's Chrome browser, instead of seeing a blank page whenever a new tab is opened Firefox users will now be treated to icons that offer quick access to everything from bookmarks to most recently accessed and most frequently visited sites.

These icons are fully customizable in Mozilla Firefox as well. You can click and drag them to any spot you like on your name tab's page. If you're not a fan, you can also go to the grid icon on the upper right side of your browser and erase them entirely.

Something completely new to Mozilla Firefox is Facebook integration. Firefox now supports Facebook's social API so you can have dedicated buttons for Facebook in your browser. Mozilla Firefox supports Facebook's Messenger within Firefox, giving users desktop notifications as well as a persistent friends list and activity feed on the right. Conversations will open up as overlays on top of whatever website you're on so you can multitask while you chat.

Usability

Mozilla Firefox really changed the way people browse the web when it originally burst onto the scene. Today Firefox remains an incredibly powerful and customizable browser, although competition from Google Chrome has given it a definite run for its money.

Conclusion

Mozilla Firefox 20's interface isn't much different from previous versions, but the features it has added certainly make for a nicer, more enjoyable browsing experience overall.

What's new

For full release notes, please visit https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/20.0/releasenotes/

Download Mozilla Firefox 21 in Softonic

Adobe Flash Player is an essential plugin for your browser that allows you to view everything from video to games and animation on the web.

Features

Adobe Flash Player 10 includes a range of interesting additions and improvements when compared to previous versions. Top of that list is the inclusion of support for the H.264 video codec and the HE-AAC audio codec, which together offer a much richer, higher-definition picture along with crystal-clear sound. Introducing these capabilities in Adobe Flash Player with only slightly reduced performance looks set to trigger another revolution in web video, as HD movies are already an important element on YouTube - and they look and sound great!

Quality

Adobe Flash Player 10 irons out some of the problems that previous versions have suffered from (like security and stability issues), as well including support for ActionScript 3.0. It also makes fantastic 3D graphics possible. This makes for more dynamic and interesting navigation, games and interactivity on websites.

Conclusion

Adobe Flash Player 10 represents a leap forward in terms of quality as well as stability and security. It's therefore a highly recommended download for all users.

Download Adobe Flash Player Firefox, Safari, Opera 11.8.800.42 (Firefox) in Softonic

Adobe Flash Player (originally a Macromedia product) remains the standard platform for viewing a wide variety of web content, varying from navigation elements to every video you watch on YouTube.

Some of the main reasons to use Adobe Flash Player are:

-simple to use
-high performance
-small file size
-near-HD quality

Additions and Improvements

Adobe Flash Player 10 includes a wide range of interesting additions and improvements when compared to previous versions. Some of these great new features include the inclusion of support for the H.264 video codec and the HE-AAC audio codec, which together offer a much richer, higher-definition picture and crystal-clear sound. By introducing these capabilities and only slightly impacting performance, Adobe Flash Player is set to encourage another revolution in web video, since HD movies are becoming standard on YouTube. They also look and sound fantastic!

Adobe Flash Player 10 also irons out some of the problems that previous versions have suffered from. These include previous security and stability issues. This update also includes support for ActionScript 3.0 and makes fantastic 3D graphics possible. This means more dynamic and interesting navigation, games and interactivity on websites.

Adobe Flash Player 11 represents a leap forward in terms of quality, stability and security.

Download Adobe Flash Player (for IE) 11.8.800.42 in Softonic

Compared to the latest stable version this edition contains subtle modifications that make it worth trying for die-hard Chrome fans. As you expect from Google Chrome, you get a web browser with a sleek, minimalist design.

Even compared with Safari and especially Firefox, the browser has very few buttons. All settings and options to choose your extensions are accessible via icons in the top right.

Please note that this version of Google Chrome is strictly a developer release, so bear in mind that you may occasionally encounter bugs and the developers are very keen to hear feedback on such problems.

The latest developer version of Google Chrome gives you a taste of what's to come from one of the fastest growing browsers out there.

Download Google Chrome Dev 28.0.1485.0 in Softonic

This means that anything that appears in Google Canary, will eventually probably appear in both the developer and stable versions, so if you want to stay at the very cutting edge of Google Chrome, Canary is what you need. The good news is, when you install Google Canary, it won't install itself over any other version you've got installed, so you can test it to your heart's content.

However, since its completely untested and designed for those that want to help Google develop the next version of Chrome, you'll find it very unstable and unreliable at times and be warned that it will send anonymous usage stats back to Google.

If you want to see the cutting edge latest in the development of Chrome, Google Chrome Canary is your answer.

Download Google Chrome Canary 28.0.1485.0 Alpha in Softonic

The extension supports Word (DOC, DOCX), Excel (XLS, XLSX) and PowerPoint (PPT, PPTX) files.

Chrome Office Viewer lets you zoom in on your documents, save them or print them, but bear in mind that it doesn't allow any editing. At the moment, Chrome Office Viewer is only available for the Chrome beta release, but we think that it will be made available for the stable version very soon .

Download Chrome Office Viewer 2.8.7.25 in Softonic

Chrome's outstanding features, like its download manager, incognito browsing mode and bookmark syncing, already make it a stand out app. In version 20, it adds a more new features, as well some tweaks that make it even more user-friendly.

New features

Being able to search directly from the address bar is one of the great things about Google Chrome. Now Omnibox, Google Chrome's address bar, will offer you various suggestions as you type. Depending on how accurate it thinks its results are, Chrome may even begin to pre-load a chosen page. Popular sites like Facebook and Twitter are now sure to load almost instantaneously.

You'll now also receive warnings when Google Chrome thinks a downloading file that might contain malware or something harmful to your PC. It does this by tracing the download's originating server and comparing it to sites on its blacklist. If you're concerned about privacy when it comes to Google looking at your downloads for potential malware, you can disable this feature within your browser preferences.

Updates and tweaks

Google Chrome introduces several smaller updates designed to improve the user experience. First, Google Chrome has improved page zooming to make it more consistent with other browsers - you can now zoom up to 500%. In addition, Print Preview no longer shows up in its own tab but rather appears in a highly-configurable modal window - this improves your workflow and makes printing even quicker. Google Chrome's History tab has also undergone a redesign. It now allows users to filter out or even remove specific domains you don't want showing up there.

There's also been an update to the V8 JavaScript engine and more than a dozen security fixes. In short, these changes make browsing even quicker - and using the internet even safer.

In addition, version 20 helps with vulnerability greatly, in that it covers patches for quite a few security-related bugs. Google Chrome's latest update will consequently help make your browsing experience even safer.

Chrome extensions

Last, but not least, there are also changes for extensions - not only can you now count on a range of Google Chrome extensions that rivals (and in many cases betters) Firefox's, but those of you with a more technical bent can take advantage of improved extension APIs, so if you've got an idea, it's even easier to make it into an extension yourself.

If you're considering making the switch from old favorites like Firefox or Internet Explorer, we'd wholeheartedly recommend Google Chrome as the browser of the future!

Google Chrome, Google's browser, mixes a clean, minimalist interface with a variety of powerful tools, making it a great browser.

Download Google Chrome 26.0.1410.64 in Softonic

CCleaner is a very efficient and easy to use utility that cleans and optimizes your PC to ensure best performance and freedom from malware.

The beauty of free download CCleaner is the speed at which it carries out the various scans and fixes. Its main purpose is to clean any unnecessary files from your hard-drive and on opening the program you see the various aspects of Windows that you can search through and clear. CCleaner will also detect your installed applications that may hold on to files which are no longer any use, such as Google Earth histories or Flash Player configurations. The uninstaller is probably more useful, and more powerful, than Windows own uninstaller although use it with care! If you don't know what an entry relates to in the program list, leave it alone to be on the safe side otherwise you could end-up removing vital components.

When you install CCleaner, it will prompt you whether you want to install Google Chrome as well and whether you want to use CCleaner to preserve cookies that you use regularly to log-onto websites, security checks etc.
The interface in CCleaner is very easy to navigate and before taking any action, you will always be asked to confirm that you are sure about what you want to do. There is a useful Registry Checker that will quickly check its integrity, and let you fix bad entries after making a backup. CCleaner's uninstall and startup tools are very handy to have overall and simply add to the usability of this very rounded little maintenance assistant.

The most recent release of CCleaner now comes with a Drive Wiper. Drive Wiper can be accessed in the Tools section of CCleaner and allows you to choose whether to scrub only free space or an entire drive using three levels of strength - Department of Defense-level three-pass option, a National Security Administration-level seven-pass cleaning or a 35-pass Gutmann-level deep scrub.

There's also improved support for cleaning files left behind by Google Chrome and Internet Explorer 9. Web Apps that use HTML5 database storage are also now included in CCleaner's cleaning process. Finally, a few more System directories have been targeted for cleaning and CCleaner now supports 64 bit machines.

CCleaner makes keeping your PC clean easy for beginners and experts alike. It's small, fast, comprehensive, and free to download - get cleaning now!

Download CCleaner 4.01.4093 in Softonic

How does Disconnect work? It simply blocks widgets that companies like Google and Facebook place on websites in order to capture data. Disconnect's real-time data display lets you see this as it happens, picking and choosing what you allow or disallow.

Download Disconnect for Chrome 5.0.1 in Softonic

Download Superbird Browser 27.0 in Softonic

Fresh modern-looking user interface, combines easy to use password generator, password checker that checks password as you type it and Google Chrome password recovery tools.

A person that bothered quality of his password or a person that needs Google Chrome password recovery.

Download SecurePassword Kit 4.2 in Softonic

RSS Subscription Extension is a Chrome extension that allows you to easily add RSS feeds to multiple readers. This extension is an independently developed version of the discontinued official RSS Subscription Extension by Google, replicating its look and functionality.

However, this identically named Chrome extension removes obsolete RSS readers like Google Reader and iGoogle by replacing them with current ones like Feedly, NewsBlur, and The Old Reader. RSS Subscription Extension will allow you retain easy address bar RSS subscribing even as Google removes official support.

What it does

By default the extension allows you to quickly add RSS feeds. You must also be signed up with each of these RSS services for RSS Subscription Extension to work. You can individually pick which service is used for each feed, or set a single service for all new feeds.

You can also add in other RRS services, although you must know the URL coding. If you don’t know the specifics for each service, RSS Subscription Extension won’t let you save your settings. This can be very confusing and intimidating for new users.

How it's used

When you visit a site with an RSS feed an icon will appear in the address bar, making it easy to access. The functionality depends on if you set a primary reader or not. If you have a primary reader, pressing the icon will automatically add the feed to your chosen reader.

Otherwise you will be presented with a banner allowing you to select which reader you want to use, or if you wish to add or edit them. It is much easier and faster to use one reader, but if you wish to change that one you have to enter the Chrome extension menu; there is no convenient button to switch readers.

Does it work?

RSS Subscription Extension doesn’t always work as expected and will often result in errors. This frequently occurs when trying to add RSS feeds into Feedly. Adding feeds to The Old Reader and Newsblur does not have this problem, making them much more reliable options.

It is possible to have errors when adding in a reader. Thankfully, there is a reset list button that will clear out all new readers and restore the initial three.

Final word

This independently developed extension retains the functionality of Google’s defunct RSS Subscription Extension. For those that used Google Reader in the past, this will be a welcome extension to seamlessly transition into Feedly, Newsblur, or The Old Reader.

While there are occasional issues connecting to Feedly, the extension works great with the other two services. You can even add additional RSS readers, provided you have their URLs. RSS Subscription Extension makes it easy to subscribe to RSS feeds right in the address bar.

Download RSS Subscription Extension 2.2.2 in Softonic

Overview

Opera 12 keeps the general design and functionality of the highly-praised Opera 11, but adds convenient improved features like themes, web cam access and hardware acceleration. As for the the interface, Opera 12 features a slightly cleaner GUI with a focus on webpages instead of buttons and menus. Overall, Opera 12 isn't a huge change compared to the last version, but it has been improved with some nice new features.

Innovations and speed

The big innovation in the last version of Opera was extensions and while the choice of browser enhancements is still fairly limited, when you install or uninstall add-ons, you don't have to restart your browser. They are also sandboxed, so if one crashes, your browser won't. Opera 12 runs just as quickly as Google Chrome (the developer claims it's even faster) and the rendering engine has been tweaked slightly to offer an even faster browsing experience.

Visual Tabs and Tab Stacking is useful if you often have too many open, and there are now visual mouse gestures. These are well implemented, and accessed by holding the right mouse button which brings up a translucent guide to mouse gestures. This is a great introduction for people who've never used gestures, and hopefully allows for greater use in the future.

There's still an integrated mail client, which continues Opera's move towards doing everything you need in one application. The newest features or improvements of note are themes and web cam access. The most notable improvement has been to Speed Dial which instead of simply giving easy access to your favorite sites, now allows you to embed your Speed Dial with dynamic information - in other words, web apps within Opera. Meanwhile Password Syncing allows you to sync passwords across machines and devices - just sign-up for an account and Opera does the rest. There have also been some HTML5 improvements for developers such as Session History, Navigation and the W3C File API.

Conclusions

Opera 12 is a definite improvement on Opera 11 although the changes aren't revolutionary. However, if you're looking for a new browser, this is probably the most innovative currently on the market and is well worth installing.

Download Opera 12.15 in Softonic

Overview

If you’ve had your PC for awhile, it’s not uncommon for it to get slower over time. Part of this has to do with accumulated clutter. You’ll want to use an application that optimizes your computer to get it back up to speed. TuneUp Utilities 2013 is a good option. The program helps remove browser traces and other file clutter to ensure your PC is running its quickest.

Streamlined and intuitive

When you launch TuneUp Utilities for the first time, the programs performs a system analysis and displays the 1-Click Maintenance window. This provides you with an overview of your computer's main problem areas, the specific problems it has found, and a "1-click" button to fix them.

TuneUp Utilities' main window is divided into several tabs, each one of them devoted to a different purpose: status & recommendations, gain disk space, customize Windows and more. The whole program exudes efficiency by only showing essential information unless you choose to look deeper into any one option. A complete list of TuneUp Utilities' functions - and there are many - is available under the Overview of all functions link in the top right corner of the program.

Loads of optimization tools

TuneUp Utilities 2013 includes tools to optimize system startup, defragment the hard drive, clean broken keys in the Windows Registry, restore accidentally deleted files, check your hard drive for errors, and modify hidden settings and customize Windows’ appearance, just to name a few. Other interesting utilities in TuneUp Utilities 2013 are a file shredder, a complete system report generator and the excellent 1-Click Maintenance tool, which lets you automatically and regularly scan for some of the most likely issues your computer might encounter.

Among some of TuneUp Utilities 2013's newest features are an Economy Mode - perfect for saving battery when you are on a laptop - and a flexible, automatic program deactivation option, ideal for when you need peak performance for certain tasks.

New in the 2013 version

On top of all those great features, TuneUp Utilities 2013 comes equipped with a myriad of new features. The TuneUp Disk Cleaner, for example, removes junk data from over 150 programs. It can clean chat logs, history lists, and cached files in one easy step. TuneUp Utilities 2013 also includes Live Optimization, which will stop resource-heavy applications from slowing down your PC, as well as a Browser Cleaner, which will clean various traces such as Flash cookies. Browser Cleaner is compatible with the Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, and Firefox browsers.

TuneUp Utilities 2013 gathers all the maintenance and optimization tools you need into one efficient, easy-to-use application. You couldn't ask for more.

Download TuneUp Utilities 2013 13.0.3020.7 in Softonic

ChrisPC Free Ads Blocker has many key features like: - Blocks annoying banner ads, reducing the page loading time and saves your bandwidth. - Blocks video ads on YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo, Break.tv, LiveLeak.com, ABC, CBS, NBC, Bravo.tv, Wat.fr, TF1.fr and other video websites. - Blocks rich media and other non-standard types of ads. - Protects your privacy by blocking tracking scripts of ad networks and web counters. - Support for major browsers: Internet Explorer 7 or higher, Firefox 3 or higher, Google Chrome, Opera. - Minimize ChrisPC Free Ads Blocker to systray.

Your time will be better spent since you can focus now on the important things you are looking for on the net, without being distracted by pesky adware, announcements and banners. Your favorite websites will be showing pure content without the annoying ads which usually are customized based on your search history and are distracting.

Do you feel that ads are not only irritating, but also violate your privacy ? ChrisPC Free Ads Blocker is your solution. Beside blocking ads, the software protects your privacy by stopping tracking scripts of ad networks and web counters.

Download ChrisPC Free Ads Blocker 1.1 in Softonic

If you're familiar with Chrome, you'll find Comodo Dragon very easy to use. Even if you're not a Chrome user, it won't take you long to figure out how things work. The overall appearance of Comodo Dragon is very similar to Chrome and you can even use the same themes, which makes it an attractive and flexible browser.

What makes it different?

Obviously, Comodo Dragon's security features are its main draw. How exactly it implements these features, however, is a bit of a mystery. Even the Comodo website doesn't shed any light, saying that users need more privacy and security, but not explaining how they provide it. If you compare Chrome and Comodo Dragon's options side-by-side, you'll see differences, but you'll need a good knowledge of the browsers to understand what these differences mean in practical terms.

Comodo Dragon is a comfortable browser that is easy to use. Existing Comodo fans might be happy to trust in the company's vague-sounding "Superior Security and Privacy", but the rest of us would like just a little more information.

Comodo Dragon's claims sound great, and using it is a smooth ride, but its security advantage over Chrome needs way more explanation.

Download Comodo Dragon 25.1 in Softonic

Features

Custom Google Background will first prompt you to select one or images to add to your background collection. You can upload your own picture, link to one on the web, or search across 500px.com. Custom Google Background recognizes all popular image file types such as GIF, PNG, and JPG. Once you have compiled your image gallery you may select a single image to always display, randomize images, or disable backgrounds.

Custom Google Background also contains a personalization menu where you can hide features of the Google main page. This includes disabling the Google logo, search button, lucky button, footer and more. You can also change the background's size and position.

Usability

All of Custom Google Background's selections are made in a browser tab; there is no drop down menu for quick access. Each menu is placed side by side on a single page for easy access. These four menus are labeled and numbered with clear steps. The buttons and icons in each of these menus are intuitive even with sparse text explanations.

Pasting an image from the web does not have a preview. It will instead be instantly added to your gallery. If you search on 500px an overlay will appear with only the first twenty search results selectable. Unfortunately Custom Google Background will not give any sort of error message or notification if nothing can be found on 500px. Any image you're unhappy with can be deleted by pressing the "x" icon in the upper right corner.

Quality

When you visit Google there will be a slight delay loading your background. You will typically see the standard front page for a second or two before your image and personalization appear. Once the image loads there are no noticeable performance issues, even when the background contains large and/or animated pictures.

Conclusion

Custom Google Background is a great way to change the look and feel of your Google homepage. It's interface is easy to understand and use. While there some minor display and loading issues Custom Google Background is a fast and painless way to change Google's aesthetic.

Download Custom Google Background 4.1.3 in Softonic