There's an increasing demand for alternatives to Adobe's resource hogging, RAM sapping, not least expensive PDF creator and PrimoPDF weighs in as an excellent alternative.

The fact that this program is free makes it all the more appealing. One of the problems with these PDF programs is that invariably, they change the formatting of your text, once you've converted your Word, Publisher etc. document to PDF. PrimoPDF largely avoids this however converting to PDF as faithfully as the original. It's also remarkably fast and the installation is equally speedy.

Once installed, the program appears as a virtual printer in your Printer Driver preferences too. The main downside, of which there are few, is that you are regularly prompted to register although this is a small price to pay for an excellent program. It's also a bit unreliable when converting images. Text is fine but images can sometimes be in the wrong position or formatted incorrectly when converting from Office documents. It also doesn't use Windows standard way of saving documents - it has it's own format which doesn't suggest a file name but it's a small drawback.

A really excellent PDF creator that will have Adobe critics laughing all the way to their virtual printers.

Download PrimoPDF 4.1.0.9 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

There is nothing that annoys me more in Firefox when a PDF document tries to open and crashes the browser. That was until I tried PDF Download.

PDF Download prevents this problem ever arising by allowing you to control exactly how and when PDF files are opened or downloaded. Instead of opening PDF files "blind" which is currently the case, PDF Download lets you know exactly how big it is with options of whether to convert it, open it, download it or convert to HTML. PDF Download stops the annoying problem of PDF files taking ages to open - especially big ones. With PDF Download, you can see instantly whether its a big file, in which case, it's advisable to download it for reading later as opening a big PDF file is like waiting for Christmas to arrive sometimes.

The PDF Download plugin usually presents you with 3 options unless you've instructed it to do the same thing by default all the time - convert the PDF to HTML, download the PDF or open the PDF in the browser. One bonus with PDF Download, that perhaps separates it from others, is that it's not just limited to Adobe Reader. PDF Download also works with Foxit Reader and other PDF readers although to be honest, if you're using Foxit, you won't find much use for PDF Download anyway as it opens PDF files much more smoothly than Adobe Reader.

PDF Download is an excellent PDF tool which will result in fewer Firefox crashes although not everytime as it still seems susceptible to crashes when opening PDF files in the browser.

Download PDF Download 2.0.0.0 in Softonic

You could pretty much consider FileZilla an open source success story. It's popular, works well and fast, and regularly updated.

If you're looking for a solid FTP client what more could you ask more? In fact, FileZilla is not just limited to FTP, but also handles FTPS and SFTP for secure transfers of multiple files on multiple servers. The interface gives you a quick outlook of all your transfers, sites and disks and makes it easy to drag and transfer. I also quite like the QuickConnect feature to access your favorite server in seconds.

FileZilla is known to be fairly fast, and can also resume downloads and handle very big transfers, I'm talking here higher than 4 GB. You can set both local and remote filters for things like images, explorer files or CVS and SVN directories or even create your own. FileZilla also includes a tool to compare directories in terms of file size or modification time.

The application can guide you when setting up your network and lets you set speed limits in case you don't want to overload your bandwidth.

One thing really missing from FileZilla though is a scheduler to automatically set transfer times.

Despite lacking a scheduler, FileZilla is an excellent open source FTP client. It's stable, fast and very efficient. Highly recommended.

Download FileZilla 3.1.1.1 in Softonic

MySecurityCenter Internet Security Suite aims to prevent your computer being taken over by hijackers or trojans that could compromise your security.

This includes an anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam and firewalls designed to work together for maximum protection. Naturally, with so many applications operating at once, you'd expect occasional slowdown of your machine during use which does happen but it's nothing inconvenient.

The anti-virus and anti-spyware of MySecurityCenter Internet Security Suite work in real time so nothing is left to deal with after it is happened - if it's out there, then it's unlikely to get past MySecurityCenter Internet Security Suite. The same goes for the Outlook and Outlook Express filters which ensure that any attachments received or sent are completely clean.

The MySecurityCenter Internet Security Suite firewall is relatively simple to configure and operate allowing you to select which programs should be allowed to access the internet and which cookies and popups should be allowed.

MySecurityCenter Internet Security Suite is an excellent all round security package that leaves no holes open.

Download MySecurityCenter Internet Security Suite in Softonic

Poster Forge is a fun tool that enables you to create posters with your own digital pictures in a very easy way. Unlike other similar tools, which only create larger versions of the image for you to print out, Poster Forge adds some cool effects that can turn any picture into a motivational poster, movie poster or a Far West "Wanted" style poster.

The program's interface is divided into three tabs (one for each kind of poster) and includes all the tools you need to customize them. Simply add a picture, type in any text you want, tweak a few settings and you're pretty much done. Unfortunately, there were things I couldn't customize, such as font size. Also, even though there's a tool to move the picture around and make it fit better, it's very limited and sometimes the picture needs to be cropped with a third-party app.

Once finished, the poster can be saved as an image file or conveniently printed as a poster with the built-in printing tool, which enables you to optimize poster printing and make them easier to assemble.

Turn your photos into original posters very easily and in just a few minutes.

Download Poster Forge 1.01.10 in Softonic

Titan FTP Server is one of those rare FTP servers that aims to cater for both home users and huge commercial enterprises. Because of this, it's a bit daunting for beginners although if you get the hang of it, you'll find yourself with one of the most powerful FTP servers out there.

The good news is the user interface is very simple and straightforward to use meaning the server is fairly simple to setup and maintain. For home users, the functionality does not extend much more than this although it does offer configurable upload/download ratios and disk quotas and you can control the way that files are shared on your system.

For large businesses, Titan FTP Server offers unlimited user accounts (in the professional edition) and the power to appropriately manage them. It also offers bandwidth throttling and configurable maximum transfer speeds that allow you to customize the bandwidth given to any user or server.

The security features are particularly impressive as they should be when serving big businesses. Titan FTP Server features SSL for secure file transfers, S/Key MD4 and MD5 password encryption, enabling or disabling of anonymous access, and the ability to permit or deny access based on IP address. This is an excellent FTP server although business users will get much more out of it than home users.

Download Titan FTP Server 6.23 in Softonic

Many Windows users stay with the standard applications included in the operating system for their most common tasks, like managing files with the integrated File Explorer. However, there are alternative file managers that can also help you to do the job – and sometimes even better than Windows Explorer! Total Commander is one of them.

First of all, be warned that Total Commander is intended for medium to advanced users, and especially for those who like working mainly via keyboard shortcuts. It's not that Total Commander can't be used with your mouse; it's just that it's optimized to be keyboard-controlled.

Total Commander doesn't have what we could describe as an eye-catching design. In fact, it looks pretty dull. It does, however, support three possible views (Full, Brief and Tree) and also uses a double-pane interface, which seem to be quite a common characteristic among other alternative file managers.

This double pane allows you to perform file management tasks like moving and copying in a much more comfortable way. But Total Commander has other aces up its sleeve. It includes extra integrated applications like an FTP client, a ZIP viewer, a renaming tool, a disk space analyzer and a file synchronizer. Another great tool I found to be especially interesting is one that allows you to control, manage and edit file associations so they're not suddenly messed up by a program that you just installed.

Like we said before, Total Commander is intended to be used mainly with your keyboard. This is why it offers handy shortcuts for common tasks like viewing, editing, copying, moving or deleting files. But if you find it hard to abandon your mouse, don't worry: you can use the icons on the program's toolbar as shortcuts for Notepad, Wordpad and the Control Panel, and also add your own shortcuts to your favorite applications via the Configuration > Button bar menu. In fact, Total Commander has such an exhaustive configuration menu that you'll be able to tweak every single detail of the program.

In all, Total Commander is an excellent application that could almost be described as a professional file manager for the advanced user. If you prefer more simple apps then you’d better stick to Windows Explorer.

Download Total Commander 7.04 in Softonic

There are many necessary evils in this life including queues, rain, and, perhaps most annoyingly for computer users, RealPlayer.

The latter of the three has traditionally been cursed for its slow buffering times and the fact that it comes rammed with all manner of obnoxious advertising and intrusive web links. Unfortunately the application has always been the only tool available to play streaming media files in the rather arcane RAM format, in which many sites still insist on encoding their video and audio in. Luckily, there’s a saviour around these days, in the shape of Real Alternative, which is designed to play these files with less hassle.

The program is a streamlined advertising-free application designed to easily play most media content, including RealAudio (.ra .rpm), RealMedia (.rm .ram .rmvb .rpx .smi .smil), RealText (.rt), and ReadPix (.rp) formats, along with as non-Real media content such as MP3s, MPEGs, AVIs, QuickTime movies, and CD/DVD content. You can also use the program to stream media embedded in web pages.

In terms of performance, Real Alternative beats the pants off RealPlayer, and for that matter, Windows Media Player, playing all the files we tested smoothly and virtually instantaneously. The app contains enough features to keep more serious users happy, including the useful ability to bookmark favorite files, adjust volume in the window, track progress of the file, and more. Although not as quite as fully loaded with tools as its more established rivals, we can live without all manner of channel guides and visualizations in exchange for a much slicker playback experience.

There are some areas where Real Alternative falls down, such as its inability to handle .smi files or its lack of support for CDDB look-ups. But if you’re looking for something that will play audio and video quickly and without interruption, you can’t fault Real Alternative. There are programs, such as KMPlayer, which also offer superior playback quality, but Real Alternative excels in the way it handles streaming media, making it a worthwhile addition to your PC’s arsenal of programs.

Download Real Alternative 1.8.2 in Softonic

High speed Internet connections are quite common now but that doesn’t mean we don’t sometimes need some help when it comes to downloading game demos, videos, MP3 collections and other big files. So, even if you’re enjoying the fastest router in the neighborhood, take a look at Internet Download Manager, because it really has a lot to offer.

This excellent app will take care of all your downloads from the moment you install it on your PC. You can add new download tasks from the program’s interface but the usual thing is to let it capture the links. This means that every time you click on a certain file type (which can be specified through configuration options), IDM will handle the download for itself rather than letting the browser do the job. It’s a really handy option because everything is automatic: no changing from one app to another, no copying and pasting links, just no hassle at all. Also, it works with all major web browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera.

Once IDM captures the link, you can either start to download the file right away or add it to a download list for later, which can be a good alternative if you need all of your bandwidth for the moment and plan to leave the computer on during the night. Downloads can be classified into custom categories right before starting them and can also be resumed if the connection is lost or broken for some reason.

As regards download speeds, Internet Download Manager does meet expectations, although it all depends on your Internet access. That is, don’t expect to download at the speed of light if you’re still using one of those old-fashioned 56K modems. Anyhow, IDM achieves quite satisfying download rates as a result of establishing multiple thread connections to servers. Also, it displays a small window with some interesting information about the download process: transfer rate, data downloaded so far, time left and a neat progress bar for each thread.

The program’s configuration menu displays a wide range of functions and tools devoted to handling your downloads, such as checking files for viruses directly from IDM with your own antivirus system or limiting the amount of bandwidth used by the program. There’s also support for server authentication and proxy, FTP and HTTPS servers.

The fact of the matter is, we couldn’t really find anything wrong with Internet Download Manager. It does its job and does it pretty well, so even if your Internet connection speed is far beyond the usual limits, you should definitely give it a try.

Download Internet Download Manager 5.14.3 in Softonic

This very basic image editing tool can be used to remove any scratches on your old photographs but that is just about all you can do. In this sense, it is a very specialized program and as a result won’t appeal to many users.

Retouch Pilot’s major advantage is its simplicity. While a lot of people will be frustrated by the lack of functionality, those who are wary of complicated procedures and difficult to use tools will appreciate the minimal approach. Simply open the file you want to clean up, select the scratch tool, (there is only one other tool, the “Undo Brush”) and carefully trace over or click the parts of the image that need to be fixed.

In terms of effectiveness, the program can do an excellent job on obvious flaws when they contrast highly with the surrounding colors, especially when working on monotone photographs. However, for highly detailed images or not so obvious discrepancies, the program stumbles and the desired result is not so straightforward to achieve.

The interface is uncomplicated and there is an extensive undo history although this may be somewhat unnecessary with the availability of the Undo Brush. For someone who has a collection of old, slightly damaged photographs that they would like to scan and clean up a little bit, this is a convenient solution. However, for anyone who is serious about getting great results and having complete control, they should check out Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.

Download Retouch Pilot 3.0.2 in Softonic

The idea behind Tag Clinic is simple; a program that will make editing or reformatting your MP3 tags a quick and painless experience. In truth though, what you get is an excellent solution that has been so packed with features that at times it is unnecessarily complex to use.

Although it’s far from bloated in terms of the strain it puts on your processor Tag Clinic loses points for the sheer quantity of options that are presented to the user on the main interface. The design of the interface does you no favors either and the glut of buttons littering the three-windowed menu only serves to confuse you.

Once you finally manage to find the directory containing your music you can begin to experience the powerful features of Tag Clinic. There is a huge number of options for interacting with tags, the most advanced of which must be the auto-extract feature, which will look at the file name and use any details from it to fill in the ID3 tag information for titles, artists, albums and tracks. Formatting the text is also a breeze with options to capitalize the first letters or eliminate any spaces from between words.

Although this is a program for editing tags, it seems to be incomplete because of the lack of an internal player and if you want to preview files you must open your default player. We would also like very much to see some kind of CDDB integration that would pull relevant information about albums from the internet repository.

With its direct editing of tag entries, Tag Clinic does offer a very efficient way to edit your music library’s details; However it could do with a major interface re-design and a few more MP3-relevant features to make the experience that bit more user- friendly.

Download Tag Clinic 4.3.7.2 in Softonic

We're in the 22nd century and the human race is in trouble. This is the main setting of Space Siege, an interesting mixture between RPG and action games.

Space Siege creates a dark, oppressive atmosphere inside the last surviving spaceship after the massacre that wiped out the Earth. You're the only one capable of confronting and defeating the Kerak, the invading alien race. For this reason you'll be assigned several different missions in Space Siege, in which you'll have to explore unknown areas, collect mechanical parts and kill loads and loads of enemies.

The graphics in Space Siege are excellent, especially as regards light and shadow effects. The space environment somehow reminds me of the Alien series: a gloomy spaceship full of dangerous creatures in which you need to explore in constant tension.

As for gameplay, Space Siege is played very much like role-playing adventures: you use the mouse for everything (moving, killing, interacting with objects…) and use keyboard to change perspective. It's somewhat hard to get used to it, especially if you come from action games, but the worst is definitely having to repeatedly click on an enemy in order to kill it.

Space Siege is an original and attractive mixture of action and RPG elements, set in a gloomy space atmosphere.

Download Space Siege in Softonic

Some anti-virus programs cause more problems than they solve. Avast! Home Edition anti-virus is thankfully not one of those as it exceeds expectations while remaining free. Lightweight, vigilant and most importantly, effective, this could be the answer to your prayers if you’ve had no luck finding a virus checker you like.

The developers make a point of stressing that this program is strictly not for institutional use – it is designed specifically for the threats most home users face daily. Their philosophy is that efficient home virus protection is essential in preventing users one day being struck by a serious global virus. What impresses you immediately with Avast! is its vigilance. It’s likely that within minutes of installation, you’ll receive a pop up alert due to a Trojan or virus that had been incubating on your PC. If not, rest assured that it won’t be long before Avast! sets off its trademark siren and alerts you that something has been detected. The latest version of

Avast’s antivirus kernel promises 100% detection of ‘In-the-Wild’ viruses (viruses already spreading between users) and excellent detection of Trojan horses. Avast! provides 24 hour protection via its ‘On-Access’ scanner but you can initiate manual scans via the fairly simple user interface. You can start additional modules from here, such as the Virus Chest, Updater or Log Viewer. Another great feature of Avast! is the option to change the skin of this interface. The developer website features practically hundreds of distinctive designs made by aficionados and even offers a guide to designing your own.

Something often overlooked by major virus checking packages is P2P applications installed on your PC but Avast! covers this with a P2P and Instant Messenger shield. Whilst chat applications themselves do not impose any serious security risks in terms of viruses, their less sophisticated file sharing methods can easily lead to virus infections if not properly monitored. With so many infected files on P2P networks such as Kazaa and eMule too, it’s also good to know that Avast! won’t let you open them without quietly checking them first.

The program also features both a Web and Network shield that constantly monitors traffic. The Web Shield acts as a transparent HTTP proxy and is compatible with all major web browsers. One of the truly outstanding features of Avast! is that unlike heavyweights such as Kaspersky or Norton, you hardly notice it working in the background. This is because of a unique feature the developers call ‘Intelligent Stream Scan’ that scans objects on-the-fly, without needing to cache them locally. Even the virus updates are unobtrusive. Avast! downloads the updates gradually and only those that are absolutely essential instead of the whole database. You receive a ‘Virus database has been updated’ voice message every time this has been completed along with a small popup which you can turn off if it annoys you.

There really is little to fault Avast! on in a market that is saturated with too many ineffective virus checkers. Although it doesn’t guzzle resources, if you’re running it on an older machine, you might find it slows you down. Some new users also complain that conducting a simple manual scan is more complicated than it should be but if you’ve spent anytime with virus checkers, you’ll realise that its more than worth your while getting to know this excellent program.

Download Avast! Home 4.8.1229 in Softonic

WinBubble helps you customize and tweak your Windows Vista easily. It features customization, security and and optimization options for an all-in one solution.

The first thing that strikes you is the sheer number of features this program has. It's absolutely ram packed with options that will keep you tweaking and fiddling with Windows Vista until the cows come home. The program features a "My Tweaker Tool" which allows you to create your own tweaker customized exactly how you want it. You can add, edit and delete DVD and CD drive names and labels, and the program now features full support for tweaking and optimizing Firefox.

It also supports Internet Explorer with the additional bonus that you can delete specific IE URLs. The program has been further enhanced by allowing it to update automatically instead of having to visit the developer homepage. Don't be fooled by the small file size - this program has plenty of features, many of which seem unique and original to WinBubble.

The name WinBubble doesn't really fit the program but there's no taking away from the fact that this is an excellent tweaker and optimizer for Vista fans.

Download WinBubble 1.74 in Softonic

Being one of the most widely used IM applications, MSN Messenger has always had a large base of users keen on developing plugins with which they could personalize their favorite chat client. Amateur programmers released plugins to discover who had erased you from their contact list, to start more than one MSN session, to log conversations... until MSN Plus! was launched.

MSN Plus! soon became the most popular MSN plug-in, collecting together all the extra options users could ask for into one program. Even now Plus! is still an excellent pack of tools which heavy Messenger users consider as essential and which certainly improves your IM experience. During all these years it has been able to adapt to every new Messenger version, including the name change and the new interface design. In fact, Plus! is now seamlessly integrated into Live Messenger: it launches with the program and the only way you can tell it's there it by two tiny buttons on the main interface.

When Plus was launched, its main feature was the ability to record "chat logs", that is, create text files with all your conversations. However, as this has been already included in the IM app itself, Plus! has had to widen its range of extra functions. These tools can be divided into two groups: those dedicated to chatting improvement and those devoted to contact management. As for the first group, you'll enjoy tabbed chat windows, support for custom text format (bold, italics, font, color) and the so-called quick messages, personal keyboard shortcuts you can assign to sentences or expressions used on a regular basis. The second group of tools allows you to create custom status messages, have your favourite contacts right on the Windows desktop (as an icon) and gather all kinds of stats about contacts, like the last time they logged on or whether they have recently changed their nickname, which I personally find kind of excessive, but hey, to each his own.

Besides all this, Live Messenger Plus still offers its popular chat log tool, which is said to be more powerful and flexible than the default function featured in Windows Messenger Live. Actually, it looks much better thanks to the use of HTML, the ability to record emoticons and winks and the possibility to customize its appearance with CSS formatting.

The list of improvements Plus brings to Windows Live Messenger doesn't end here. You can, for example, hide the application in the system tray under an almost invisible icon (in case you're chatting at work, something we completely disapprove of) or password protect access to the program, amongst others. The good thing though is that you can create your own extra functions, that is, if you know how to code scripts. Plus already features a nice bunch of them, allowing you to display the name of the song you're listening to, send screenshots, use sticky notes and other nice extras.

All in all, Live Messenger Plus is probably the only plug-in you'll ever need, especially if you like customizing every single detail of your Messenger.

Download Messenger Plus! Live 4.60.326 in Softonic

Portable OpenOffice.org allows you to carry an entire office suite -- word processing, spreadsheet, presentations, drawing, etc. -- with you on an iPod, USB thumbdrive, portable hard drive or any other portable media. You can plug it right into any Windows computer and use it just like you would on your own.

Portable OpenOffice.org is a repackaged version of OpenOffice.org designed with portability in mind. It works just like regular OpenOffice.org installed on your computer does, except it allows you to use it on any Windows computer without installing anything. It has all the features of the excellent OpenOffice.org office suite except for the Data application. It also includes some special enhancements to make it work even better from your portable drive.

Download Portable OpenOffice.org 2.4.1 in Softonic

Ever needed to get detailed information about your PC but felt too lazy to look around for the specifications? Well, don’t bother yourself browsing the net or leafing through your PC’s instruction manual; set up a system analysis application like Belarc Advisor instead. This program will profile your PC, giving you thorough information on every aspect of your machine.

Installing the application only takes a few seconds and it will analyze your PC right away. Make sure you are connected to Internet, as Belarc Advisor only works inside a browser window. It displays not only your hardware specs like controllers, bus adapters or the capacity of your processor but also software versions and licenses. Belarc Advisor also provides you with a list of all missing and installed Microsoft 'hotfixes' with a direct link to the corresponding update page.

Belarc Advisor also carries out a CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmark of your PC according to elements such as event log policies, security options and users rights. For each category, Belarc will give you a grade out of 10, with elements you comply with given a green check and those you fail given a red cross. If you click on a particular element you will be taken to a suggestions page. For example, click on “password age” and a new tab will open up with information on how and why to change your password regularly. We recommend looking over Belarc Advisor’s suggestions for any element in the benchmark that your PC might have failed. Try implementing their tips and do the benchmark test again to see if your PC gets a better score.

While the amount of information can easily overwhelm new users, Belarc Advisor is an excellent and speedy solution to get detailed specs on your PC. Providing details on your hardware and software and featuring a thorough benchmarking test, Belarc Advisor should come in handy when upgrading your PC or looking for any vulnerability to patch.

Download Belarc Advisor 7.2.24.6 in Softonic

MediaCoder is a free universal audio/video batch transcoder, putting together lots of excellent audio/video codecs and tools from the open source community into an all-in-one solution, capable of transcoding among different audio/video formats with many extra features.

Download MediaCoder 0.6.1.4140 in Softonic

Deluge is a popular Linux BitTorrent client that has now been ported to Windows while keeping its ease of use and excellent transfer speed, the two main features that have contributed to its success.

First of all, bear in mind that this app was originally written for another operating system, which means that the Windows version, according to the author's own words, is not as stable as the original one. In fact I got the odd error message while testing it, but other than that, the program worked fine. Transfer speed was excellent, along with the array of tools the program puts at your disposal to handle torrent files. Also, the program was totally unobtrusive for the user and very light on resources.

Deluge features a clear, uncluttered interface where you can easily manage all your file transfers and see information about each one of them. Also, the program's configuration settings enable you to tweak its behavior in great detail: you'll be able to limit bandwidth usage, configure a proxy server and also enable special plug-ins to add extra functionality to the program.

In all, Deluge is a powerful, easy-to-use BitTorrent client that's worth a try and will hopefully improve its stability under Windows in future releases.

Download Deluge 1.0.0 RC 3 in Softonic