It's always a pain trying to remember to backup things so why not let an application take care of it automatically?

Cobian Backup works as both an application and service. The program is very light on resources for a backup program of its size and runs in the background very discreetly. it makes periodic backups but unlike some programs, doesn't seem to slow down your PC in the process. It acts too quickly to really slow down whatever you are doing although if it has to backup a very big file, you will notice some lag (more than 1 GB). The program only copies your files and folders in their original or compressed mode to another destination and does not perform any compression itself. This is to ensure that nothing is corrupted during the backup process but if you are backing up particularly large files, you might find this something of a problem unless you've got lots of backup space. However, there are limited compression and strong encryption methods available if you need to reduce the size of your files and protect them at the same time.

A very convenient program that backups quickly, quietly and without any further prompting from it's user.

Download Cobian Backup 9.5.0.201 in Softonic

Download managers are one of the most important component of any PC users' tool kit since so many e-mails contains attachments that need to be downloaded on a daily basis.

That's not forgetting files and music and anything else that your hard drive accumulates during the day as you click away. Most people have a browser integrated download manager but sometimes, its nice to have a separate application to do the job in case your browser crashes and your downloads disappear with it.

Orbit Downloader is a fast, lightweight and easy-to-use free download manager which is usually based on P2P and multi-source downloading technology. This means that downloading with Orbit Downloader is usually super fast. Orbit Downloader supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, MMS and RTSP protocols although its developers claim that it can increase speeds by up to 500% are a bit far fetched. However, you may experience increases in speed of up to two or even three times as much using Orbit Downloader depending on the file and host.

What's also impressive is that Orbit Downloader is super lightweight occupying a very minuscule amount of RAM which is important if you've got multiple downloads running at once. Orbit Downloader has also got a handy Flash capture tool which allows you to save Flash video files from YouTube and DailyMotion etc without the need to use a separate video downloader.

Fast, easy to use and very lightweight, Orbit Downloader is a competitive alternative to any browser-integrated download manager.

Download Orbit Downloader 2.7.6 in Softonic

The world of FTP can be a little confusing for anyone new to it or unfamiliar with what it's all about.

Basically, FTP servers are a quick and easy way to remotely back up or store any data on your PC. To use one, you'll need an FTP client such as Save2FTP, which is a free and easy-to-use utility designed to automatically back-up your most important data to remote FTP servers. Of course, you'll need an FTP account which Save2FTP can't provide - this you can obtain from a web hosting company or other dedicates online storage host.

However, Save2FTP doesn't just act as a go between for you and an FTP site. It actively prompts you when you need to make backups based on your own time schedule and preferences. In this way, Save2FTP can actually help you organize your backups and schedule automatic backups. Generally FTP client interfaces aren't complicates and Save2FTP is particularly easy to use making it suitable for both beginners and advanced users.

It would have been nice to have had some sort of browser extension for Save2FTP but as a general FTP server, it hots all the right notes.

Download Save2FTP 2.1.2 in Softonic

If you need to transfer files from PC to PC regularly then there are various ways of doing it but CCFile attempts to make it easier.

CCFile is a free web based file transfer application that allows you to transfer files PC to PC regularly. It helps you share files, photos, music and video with friends without the need for P2P software or dealing with the complexities of FTP software. It's especially useful for large files.

It's an extremely simple apps to use. It supports drag and drop so simply drag the files you want to transfer into the CCFIle interface. You then simply enter the IP address of the recipient you want to send it to or if your own on a home network, it will automatically detect all connected users. You can observe the status of transfers via status bar and you can even resume broken transfers at a later date.

Simple and much easier than FTP, CCFile is an excellent way to transfer files to other users in a hurry.

Download CCFile 3.31 in Softonic

When you live and work away from your home town (or even your home country), as many people do these days, it can sometimes be difficult to stay in touch with the folks back there.

One of the best ways to keep your friends and family posted on what you're up to is to share your photos with them. This can get a little boring for them though if you're just emailing them the shots, so it's a good idea to create a web gallery to hang your pictures in a more elegant fashion.

If you don't your HTML from your elbow then PhotoOnWeb provides a good way of creating a cool online gallery with ease. All you need to do is load your photos, select a template then publish the gallery on your PC, on your FTP server or on the server provided with the software.

If you've never worked with servers before then don't worry because the program pretty much takes care of the nuts and bolts for you. Although not as powerful as using the Flash authoring tool, it's a great free tool for anyone who wants to communicate with home without actually saying anything.

Download PhotoOnWeb 0.8.6 in Softonic

As far as FTP clients go, Core FTP Lite is one of the most comprehensive out there. It allows you to do pretty much anything that you can do with FTP transfers. It features everything from SFTP (SSH), SSL, TLS, IDN, browser integration, site to site transfers to FTP transfer resume, drag and drop support and command line transfers.

Where Cute FTP really distinguishes itself is through it's security features. Not many FTP clients support so many different security protocols meaning you can upload and download to FTP servers with peace of mind. This is essential if you're administering a website that holds. The list of features doesn't stop there though and is truly mind boggling. It also supports Auto retry of failed transfers, bandwidth control throttle, remote file searching and .htaccess/.htpasswd editing amongst many many more.

If you're looking for a fully comprehensive free solution to FTP transfers, then you can't do much better than Core FTP Lite. If you're new to FTP transfers however, you'd probably be better off with something a bit simpler.

Download Core FTP Lite 2.1.1573 in Softonic

Sometimes you need to be sure that your FTP transfers are not going to get hijacked or intercepted by a third party. Most FTP applications are not designed for secure transfers over SSL which is why WinSCP was developed.

For starters, be warned that WinSCP is not the easiest FTP client to use. Because of the extra security features, it can appear overwhelming at first although it does feature a graphical user interface. It also supports integration with Windows in terms of drag & dropping files, pasting in URL's and shortcuts.

The key to the program is the fact that it supports both SFTP and SCP protocols over SSH-1 and SSH-2. Of course, it also supports normal FTP protocols too. It also features full support for SSH password and Kerberos (GSS) authentication. A particularly nice little addition is the Session Saving option. If you want to save your session configuration, you can use the save button on the login dialogue. In this way, you can make huge FTP file transfers and not worry about stopping and completing it later.

This is not the most user friendly FTP client out there but it must be one of the most secure. If security is your concern, you won't be disappointed by what it offers.

Download WinSCP 4.1.6 in Softonic

If you’ve ever had to publish, send or receive particularly large files sizes, you’ll know that it can throw up all kinds of problems – crashed servers, blocked inboxes and transfers that suddenly just hang-up. Pando aims to take the pain out of this process and according to the developers, 3 million people agree that it does exactly that.

Pando is based on a P2P network that enables you to send files of up to 1GB in size by e-mail or by publishing it to the web. It supports all multimedia file types including video, audio and photos meaning it’s great for people who deal with audio-visual files regularly.

For most users, the major benefit will be with e-mail attachments and the good news is, there's no need to change your existing e-mail client. Pando works by creating a torrent-like link file which you can then send in the body of your e-mail for the recipient to click on. There’s no need to be online when the recipient downloads the file and there’s no compression, FTP or dodgy web uploading applets to deal with. The reason you don’'t need to be online is because Pando sends files to its "super-node" servers, which means that there's always at least one "seeder" online at any given time. This seed is guaranteed for 14 days so even if you log off, your recipient can still view it. Obviously, the more people that share it too, the faster the download.

For those unfamiliar with FTP, Pando is fantastic since it works on the same principle as a Bittorrent client. Once the small interface is opened, you can drag and drop or select “add-file” to create a ".pando” file which you can then e-mail to whoever you want once it is uploaded.

The main drawback is that the recipient has to have Pando installed to receive the file. If you transfer files to someone regularly, this is not a problem but if it’'s just the odd file you want to send, then it could be a nuisance to ask someone to install it just to see your file. Be warned also that Pando cannot guarantee security although the developers assure that Pando has 256bit AES end-to-end encryption built in making it technically one of the most secure ways to transfers files online today. The only way that someone could realistically compromise your security however is by hacking into your e-mail account.

Whilst Pando is obviously open to abuse by sharing illegal files, most people go to the major Torrent sites to do that, meaning Pando is refreshingly free of any copyrighted material flying around and causing problems. Overall, it’'s a great solution for those unfamiliar with FTP who need to send big files regularly.

Download Pando 2.1.5.5 in Softonic

Neither the download managers that come bundled with Firefox or IE are particularly impressive so it's a good idea to add a third party downloader or plugin.

Fresh Download claims it can "turbo charge" downloads to make them download in less than half the time they would normally. It works with both FTP and HTTP protocols and gives you a whole range of control over how downloads are completed. Included is a pause and resume feature which is very useful for broken downloads or those downloads that suddenly and annoyingly time out. The program achieves such high speeds due to it's ability to connect to multiple connections and it works across most major browsers. if you don't want to carry out downloads immediately, you can also schedule them for a later date and it can even download links that you've copied to your clipboard or dragged into the main interface from your desktop. If you're downloading zip files, it can also decompress them automatically with it's own Zip extractor although note that it's not particularly powerful or fast - you'd be better using WinZip or WinRAR.

Although you won't notice huge download speeds, you will notice an improvement and besides, this is a much easier way to manage downloads.

Download Fresh Download 8.06 in Softonic

Sharing files online can be a pain if you don't have a proper web space or the people you want to share them with don't know how to access an FTP server.

SpiderOak is the perfect solution for these situations, as it provides you with the necessary space and tools to store and share your files online in an easy, safe way. After creating a personal account for free, SpiderOak lets you select which files and folders you want to share and uploads the content to a 2GB web space you're given for free with your account. Then you can simply go on with your work while SpiderOak uploads all the data to their server.

Besides being a storage and backup service, you can also use SpiderOak as a way to share files online. After uploading content to your SpiderOak account, you're offered the chance to share it (all of it or just selected items) on a personal page hosted in the SpiderOak servers. In this way your family and friends can access your photos, videos, documents or any other files you want to share.

The best thing about SpiderOak is undoubtedly its simplicity of use, together with the fact that is cross-platform; that is, it can be used in Windows, Mac and Linux. And if I have to point out any weakness that would be that it takes way too long for SpiderOak shared spaces to be available online – even if it's only a few pictures you're sharing on them.

SpiderOak is probably one of the easiest ways to store and share any kind of files online, no matter what operating system you're using.

Download SpiderOak in Softonic

Large files are always difficult to share online. Free file sharing sites are a pain, not everybody has an FTP server to share stuff and sharing them by email can take ages – if your email server can handle a 10MB email attachment at all.

Fortunately now there's another way to share big-sized files using email: Podmailing. Of course it doesn't work the usual way (message plus attached file) but more like as a P2P client or maybe I should say P2M client, which is the right way to name this file sharing protocol. The idea is not new (see Pando) but Podmailing has launched to add more choice to the P2M market.

The program is really easy to use. Simply click on the "New" button, select the files or folders you want to share, enter the email addresses and add a message. That's pretty much everything, although bear in mind that you must leave the program open (and your Internet connection on) in order to send the file.

The addressees of your podmail will receive a message in their inboxes with a link to download the file, which they'll be able to do very comfortably from their own web browser without the need for any third-party apps. Anyway, there's also the possibility to download the file via Podmailing or using the BitTorrent protocol (which also works with Podmailing, as this program is also a torrent client).

The main drawback I found is that you have to wait until the file is completely uploaded before starting to download it directly from the browser, so if your friend wants to share a 9GB file you'd better be patient. At least you can always start downloading it right away by using the Podmailing app or any BitTorrent client, which don't require the file to be finished uploading. Also, uploaded files are saved for 30 days on the Podmailing's servers.

Podmailing is a new client for the P2M protocol with which you can easily share large-sized files on the Internet. It may not be the fastest method but it's reliable and above all, very easy to use.

Download Podmailing 0.10.0 in Softonic

If you find that your programming development tool doesn't exactly make life easy for you, you may be pleasantly surprised by RJ TextEd. It's basically a web development tool and a Unicode text editor which aims to make HTML coding simpler, faster and more intuitive.

Some of the key features are syntax error highlighting, auto completion and a very handy CSS editor. One rather unusual feature is that RJ TextEd includes an FTP client that enables you to get your coding published super quick although it's not exactly an advanced client and if you need secure connections, you're probably best not to rely on it.

For those that are relatively new to coding, another handy feature is the HTML validation tool which allows you to format and repair your code using wizards. Finally, it also includes spell checking, e-mail support and advanced search options. The remarkable thing is that this is all entirely free although the downside is that it won't support all coding languages so if you frequently use different ones, you'll need something more flexible.

Download RJ TextEd 4.51 in Softonic

These days, when it comes to publishing your own photo albums and sharing them with your friends there are many programs to choose from. JALbum is a free and intuitive tool to edit your photos and prepare good looking albums.

Although the interface feels a little crowded it will provide a good way of exploring your folders for pictures and quickly selecting the ones you want to put into your album. JALbum also includes a good set of editing tools to tweak your pictures a bit, like removing red eyes, blurring or sharpening.

However the strongest feature of the application is certainly making albums. This is very easy to do and JAlbum comes with a number of styles to start out with. You can also download more skins from the developer's website. Once you're album is done, you can either upload it to your JAlbum account, if you have one, or to any other server if you have the login details.

With a good set of editing tools, and a straightforward process, the free JAlbum makes for a great way of creating photo albums to share with your friends.

Download JAlbum 8.0.9 in Softonic

Remembering passwords is one of the most challenging parts of modern PC usage - we have password prompts for everything from our banks to our favourite social networking sites.

If you've got several passwords, then Black Box Password Manager can help you overcome the memory barrier by storing them all under one easy to remember password. It's completely free and very lightweight and uses very strict encryption standards to ensure that your data is safe. The program saves your passwords in one single file which can easily fit on a USB stick or be transferred from one computer to another or even attached to an e-mail. Black Box Password Manager allows you to store your passwords grouped any way you like and organise them via function, for example Email, FTP or server. You can also export the database to various other file formats such as TXT, XML, CSV and conversely, import data from other formats Meanwhile, if you want to store the passwords offline, you can print them in an easy to read and well organised list. Finally, if you can't come up with a strong enough password yourself, Black Box Password manager has a password generator which the developers claims guarantees unique and complex passwords each time it is used.

For those with a bad memory, or those that just want an easier way to manage their passwords, Blackbox Password Manager is a simple and effective solution.

Download BlackBox Password Manager 1.9 in Softonic

Swiss File Knife - SFK makes daily tasks with Windows Command line easy. It covers such a huge range of tasks that it's hard to list them all here.

Amongst many other things, it can find and extract text in binary files, list dir tree sizes, filter and replace text, run an instant ftp server, find duplicate files, join many text files into one, create and verify md5 checksum lists and of course, run a command on all files. It can also detab text, create hexdumps from files, trace contents of a tcp connection, find dependencies between files, print colored text to terminals, locate commands in path, print last lines of a file, hex to binary, binary to source code, convert CR/LF, split and join large files. So how does this help you in your daily life. Well, if you want to transfer files from one PC to another for example, Swiss File Knife allows you to simply type "sfk ftpserv", and you have an ftp server running within one second. The same goes for many other functions: "sfk find" finds text within files - without long and boring index creations. "sfk run" runs your self-defined command on all files, but you get a preview of what would be done before the stuff is really executed.

No installation, registry modifications or DLL dependencies - SFK simply runs instantly, anywhere and is a great command line tool.

Download Swiss File Knife 1.5.0 in Softonic

AbleFtp is designed with those users in mind that need automate FTP transfers without having to constantly manage them themselves.

The program is extremely easy to use with no programming or scripting required and features an attractive GUI for an FTP client which by and large are usually pretty drab affairs. It's designed to run up to 1000 or more tasks a day which is an incredible amount that most people will have no need for but indicates that even business users may get some mileage out of this program too. If you have any urgent problems, the program also offers free technical support so you don't have to upgrade if you get stuck although major upgrades have to be paid for. There's no denying however that the big draw of this client will be the scheduling and remote access options. You can schedule FTP of files between your PC and the server and even automatically rename files based on the current month, day or time if needed. In addition, FTP supports wildcards (*) and can transfer multiple files at once. Meantime if you want to monitor your transfers from afar, the remote FTP directory monitor can detect directory changes and initiate FTP, ZIP, copy and delete actions.

It may not be the most advanced FTP client you'll ever use but it's certainly one of the most intuitive and automated and therefore, a great time saver.

Download AbleFtp 8.04 in Softonic

JaSFtp is a secure FTP (SFTP) interface designed with automation in mind, so you don't have to spend time interactively transferring files.

Its aim is to Improve your productivity and save time. Key features include:

Easy to use: no programming or scripting required, graphical interface
Powerful, versatile, reliable and affordable
Run more than 1000+ tasks a day
Timely and Free technical support before and after you purchase

Download JaSFtp 8.04 in Softonic

Let’s say you need to make a presentation which includes associated text and photos, and you would like a more homely design than the professional, at-times flat PowerPoint slideshow. eXPress Collage Suite might help, as it allows you to create simple presentations as e-books, collage albums, or even calendars.

The outcome will appear rather amateur, but depending on its purposes, can be what you are looking for home-made feeling presentation. The way you carry on your project is also a bit rudimentary and icons look a bit messy. The general rule to follow is that you can import images, text and audio file simply by clicking the import button on the left menu. Change the layout with the menu below and apply changes to see a preview of your document. The GUI can be a bit confusing and there’s plenty of room for usability improvements.

Althought eXpress Collage wouldn’t be suitable for professional purposes, it can be interesting for amateur photo albums, calendasr, eBooks and collages as it lets you create for free virtual books, to present texts and images in a different way.

Download eXpress Collage Suite 5.0 in Softonic

This free FTP client for Windows houses all the features expected of a complete FTP client. SmartFTP reveals a very intuitive and user-friendly configuration, thanks among other things to a friendly interface. Along with the classic features included in most FTP clients, such as passive mode transfers, uploading and downloading of files, a large choice of FTP connections, creation of favorites, SmartFTP carries its unique batch of attributes. For instance, you can connect to multiple FTP connections without time delays or errors. By dragging and dropping, you can transfer files from folder to folder. A few other notable features are passive mode and site to site transfers.

However, its most entertaining novelty is probably the transfers menu. This handy tool allows you to create queues of transfers, either global or in a specific session. You can easily monitor the speed of your transfers and set specific tasks to the queue, like hibernating or shutting down, once all files have been transferred. Last and not least, SmartFTP’s menus can be customized in a breeze, letting you choose what information you want to see.

Smart FTP is free for personal use, and although beginners might need a bit of time adjusting to it, they will be bound to love the flexibility of SmartFTP as much as more seasoned users.

Download SmartFTP 3.0 Build 1013 in Softonic

Although it is true that standalone computers are always more powerful, it is also true that for portable devices, the need for light applications is always strong. If the portable device were to be a USB pen drive this need is even greater.

In modern life, its useful to have all our document, photos, videos and contacts with us all the timeIts nice to feel free to send a document we have just created at any moment if we need to. The release of very thin and hybrid devices, notebooks with a very small screen try to answer to this need and this life style change. So far though, these devices are not that powerful and they don't have so much storage space. Having a tiny application then is still important and this is why this set of programs may come inhandy.

Tiny USB Office allows you to create text file, export them topdf, use a basic MSN Instant Messaging service, and create spreadsheets. Do not think you can open and modify your doc or xls files though. The application, at least for the latest file uses a proprietary format not compatible with Excel, despite what the developer says. I've actually tried creating simple excel files and the Tiny USB Office couldn't open them. The utility is of course reduced, but you might find useful to have a little office of just 2.3Mb, always available on your USB drive.

The idea of a portable office is great, but I would have allowed compatibility with MS Office; if not the portability is zero and the utility greatly reduced.

Download Tiny USB Office 1.0 in Softonic