Pokki is easy to install and launch. From there, you can search for and install a variety of different apps. Some fun games include Four Horsemen, Tweeki, and Mixtape. You can search for new apps to install directly from the app store on your desktop. App downloads and installs take no more than a few seconds usually.

Each app in Pokki has its own settings and must be individually configured and authorized in the correspondent web application. Although they don’t include all the functions offered by the original web app itself, they do display the number of unread items and show desktop notifications. This can be pretty useful when tracking email and social networks.

Pokki is ever increasing its app selection, and offers a variety of different apps for all ages and interests. The developer's website even includes a special area to encourage developers to create more app. Given time, Pokki will hopefully expand its app selection even more.

Pokki lets you pin websites, social networks and other utilities to the Windows 7 taskbar, as well as download challenging and fun games.

Download Pokki 1.0 in Softonic

ICQ used to be the most popular IM application... until Microsoft launched MSN Messenger and thousands of ICQ users switched to it. In the meantime ICQ continued to be upgraded until finally reaching version 7.

ICQ 7 has a quick, painless installation process that hardly takes a couple of minutes and enables you to import contacts from other online services such as Facebook, Gmail and Windows Live, among others. Once installed on your system, the program plays its characteristic siren and launches, displaying a colorful, customizable interface – with the omnipresent banner at the bottom, of course.

Text chats are still the main function in ICQ. You can spice them up with smileys and tzers (the equivalent to Live Messenger's winks), customize the text font and color, save the conversation to message history and play games with your friends. ICQ 7 also enables you to transfer files and send short text messages via phone.

Video chats have also been integrated in the latest version of ICQ. The program features an excellent video image quality, but the video chat is displayed on a separate window from the text chat and makes it a bit uncomfortable to use.

The most outstanding characteristic in this new ICQ is undoubtedly its integration with social networks. You'll find a tab devoted to notifications from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr, which enable you to track your friend's activities at all times. Oddly enough, you'll have to set these services up from the ICQ website.

ICQ keeps working on new versions to measure up to its main competitors but fails to really offer any new functions.

Download ICQ 8.0 in Softonic

The web version of Angry Birds is almost the same as this Pokki desktop app version. The goal is to destroy the green pigs who've stolen your eggs by smashing the structures they're hiding within or on top of. You do this by firing multi-colored birds strategically towards the pigs. Either knock them off their structures from a height tall enough to kill them, or use their own structures against them by collapsing them on top of the pigs.

Aim is required to be successful at Angry Birds. Depending on the angle and power at which you shoot, one shot could be more effective than others. To help you improve your aim, Angry Birds keeps the trajectory of the previous bird as a dot line on the screen.

Angry Birds for Pokki features 200 levels, but the majority require you to log into your Google/Gmail account in order to access. They’re classified into different groups and become gradually more difficult as you progress through the game.

If the mobile and web versions of the game weren't enough for you, give the Angry Birds Pokki app a try.

Download Angry Birds in Softonic

To bring Yahoo! Messenger up to date, Facebook chat has been integrated into the latest version, along with social games like Mafia Wars. You can now use video chat in full-screen mode, and the 'Always On' feature means you'll stay connected whether on mobile, at home or at work.

You can of course update your Facebook status from Yahoo! Messenger, and also on Yahoo! What hasn't changed from the previous version is the amount of bloat in the app. Some people may appreciate the shared videos, social games (as shown in the video here), radio stations, emoticons, search bar and so on. However, all this stuff adds a lot of weight to the Yahoo! Messenger, and it feels unsophisticated today. The video call quality in Yahoo! Messenger is pretty good, however, and in fact if it stuck to being a chat app, we would recommend it more highly!

The amplification of social aspects in Yahoo! Messenger isn't a revolution. If you love all the bells and whistles, you'll love this app, but many people will find it annoying and intrusive.

Download Yahoo! Messenger 11.5.0.228 in Softonic

In short more than Windows 8 is offering And this comes in small package of 12mb Uses less resources and CPU A simple lite app

The closest resemblance to Windows 8. The software is only 12mb unlike other big softwares. Uses less resources than Rainmeter 6 times faster than a rainmeter alternative

This software is meant for people who love customization and want Windows 8 Start Screen in their PC. For all current Windows Users who want to have Windows 8 but can't afford it And above all its free of cost

Download Windows 8 Start Screen Full 3 in Softonic

In game tools

Functions and resources

Additional widgets available for Overwolf are screen capture, Steam chat, Overwolf Chat, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Windows Live Messenger, and Twitter.

Conclusions

Good looking, functional and free, Overwolf is well worth checking out.

Download Overwolf Beta 0.28.170.36556 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 5.9.911.3589 in Softonic

It's a simple to use but configurable chess game that aims to offer those hardcore chess players, a much more challenging experience. You can choose the difficulty level in 2 ways - by limiting how many moves ahead the computer can analyze or by limiting the time you have to make a move. For those who are learning to play chess, or do not fall into the same class as Gary Kasparov, limiting the moves ahead is a great way to improve your skills level by level. The developers estimate that chess masters play a staggering 8 moves ahead and world champions around 12! The GUI is simple to use and navigate. Wen you open the game it’s your move so just click on the piece you want to move and click on the square you want to move it to. The game will light the squares as place the piece. You automatically start as the white pieces but if you want the PC to start as white, just click on the "play" options when you originally start a new game. Here, you can also change the difficulty settings to at least give you a decent chance.

A great way to learn to play chess with lots of difficulty settings and a very easy to use graphical interface.

Download GChess 2.0.0.31 in Softonic