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

Traditionally the first choice when it comes to compressing and uncompressing files, WinZip is one of the most popular downloads of all time. Despite the fact that its competitors have caught up somewhat, it remains a simple way to archive programs and reduce file sizes.

Much of WinZip's success has been down to its simplicity. From the outset, the program prompts you to choose between Classic mode and Wizard mode. The wizard is great for beginners, although even the classic interface is easily negotiated, giving you instant access to a range of features such as compression ratios, password-protection and a Favorites list.

While archiving files in WinZip is quick and easy, you can't help but thinking that the program has lost some ground on its competitors. For instance, the compression rates aren’t as high as they are in WinRAR, and you can only save files in Zip format rather than RAR, ISO or JAR.

Nevertheless, WinZip performs its function well, helping you archive files quickly and effectively.

Download WinZip 17.5 build 10480 in Softonic

Ubuntu epitomizes everything that open source software is all about - free, quality software that works well and looks good. The latest version of Ubuntu "Maverick Meerkat" is packed with new features aimed at bringing Ubuntu to a wider market by making it easier than ever to use.

This download is for the Windows installer version of Ubuntu which installs Ubuntu on your system just like any other application you might install in Windows. It's the easiest and safest way of installing Ubuntu for the first time because you can easily remove it if you find you don't like it. If you do like it, you can download the desktop version which you'll then have to transfer to a CD or USB stick to install correctly.

Ubuntu allows you to do everything that Windows allows you to do with bonus that everything from the word processor to the e-mail client is free and it's fast. Ubuntu comes with Mozilla Firefox preinstalled although you can choose Google Premium from the fantastic Ubuntu Software Centre. One of the big stars of Ubuntu is Open Office which provides you with everything that Microsoft Office has. The IM client is Empathy IM and the mail client is Evolution Mail although you can install Skype and Thunderbird if you prefer. Other apps included in Ubuntu include Me Menu which gives you access to Facebook, Twitter and Identi.ca plus The GIMP, Flickr and Shotwell for image editing.

The major innovation in 10.10 however is the integration of a music store. Ubuntu's music player includes an integrated store, so you can buy and download new tracks. In addition, Ubuntu One's file-syncing means you can stream your music uninterrupted to your Android device or iPhone. This file syncing capability extends to other files and folders too. For video fans, you can still watch clips in YouTube, iPlayer, and MSN Player as well as play your own videos with Movie Player or you can use Pitivi to edit your videos. For game fans, there's lots of games to choose from in the Ubuntu Software Center including puzzles, adventures, strategy games and more - all for free.

One of the major benefits of Ubuntu however is simply its awesome speed. If you're used the the sluggishness of Windows, you're in for a treat. However, the major downside of Ubuntu is that it can be hard to get components in your PC to work with it. There is no driver center as such, meaning finding drivers to run your WiFi card, mouse-pad etc can be very hard. However, most newer laptops and PCs should have no problems being supported from the start.

Ubuntu is a fantastic example of how open source software can compete with the big guns. If you can get it working smoothly on your PC, you may never look back.

Download Ubuntu 13.04 in Softonic

Adobe AIR is a cross-operating system runtime that opens up much more possibilities to both developers and everyday computer users.

Adobe AIR allows developers to create new web applications using HTML, XML, Javascript and Flex. What's more they aren't limited to using Adobe's library, but can create, share and use their own to create specific web applications.

For users, Adobe AIR gives access to new and exciting rich internet applications (RIA) which can be run straight from their desktop. These use very little memory, are usually quick to launch and execute and have very smooth animations.

A quick visit to the Adobe Showcase Gallery and you get an idea of the sort of applications that are being developed for Adobe AIR: a Google Analytics reporting suite, a Twitter desktop client, a movie discovery tool and much more. Of course, you can also find apps that are not that good, but thankt to Adobe AIR the possibilities are endless and really depend on the creativity of developers.

Adobe AIR contributes to the web app revolution by helping designers and developers create all sorts of Internet-based apps.

Download Adobe Air 3.8 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

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

How It Works? ePaperflip Software (ES) will convert PDFs and other printed materials into online and offline customized flipping digital editions. Customizations include the ability to personally brand the content with a logo, embed unlimited video and audio, translate into various languages, and sell products from within the edition. Our user friendly publishing software converts your print ready files into a dynamic, user friendly, page flipping digital publication, which allows for online and off-line versions. ES solution provides statistical tools to keep you informed on audience behavior.

Your audience will be able to view your digital edition directly from your Twitter, Facebook, or Google and share your digital edition with friends and colleagues. Your digital edition can be created in HTML5 or flash. This enables users on the iPhone, iPad, Android and other mobile devices to enjoy a rich viewing experience. ePaperflip digital magazine software solutions allow many brands worldwide to create digital editions in minutes, including digital catalogs, brochures, magazines and more.

With ePaperFlip Software you can easily create interactive online digital catalogs, magazines, and brochures out of your PDF's. ePaperFlip digital magazine software gives life to your publication with fully customizable editions.

Download ePaperFlip Software 3.3 in Softonic

Smart app helps you to search even faster, by recognizing what you want to do.

You just need to choose what site you want to search and you are on. Smart app function will make your work easier by sensing what do you want to do. You will not get confuse in this, as it is very easy to use.

For people who needs to or likes to search a lot. This software will make your work easier

Download Super Search 1 in Softonic

Explore and learn

Google Earth not only displays satellite images but it also includes terrains and 3D reconstruction of buildings. You can look for directions and businesses, just like in Google Maps and pinpoint areas or draw on maps straight in Google Earth.

Google Earth includes a very wide, and constantly increasing library of layers, which you can add to the map to enrich your experience. You'll find all sorts of information, from historical landscapes to national parks, regions where you can find endangered species or tourist spots. Google Earth will also showcase more news related information such as forest fires or tsunamis.

But Google Earth is not limited to terrain, and with every new version, it adds new sources of satellite imagery and information about other areas in the world. Say you're really into stars; then you should turn to the Sky mode and navigate among the constellations. Or, if you prefer exploring the seas, enable the Water surface option and learn all the secrets about oceans and marine creatures. Feeling more adventurous? Select the Moon or the Mars options and take a walk in space without leaving your easy chair. What's more, Google Earth also lets you travel in time by providing you with a new Historical Imagery function that allows you to see the evolution of certain locations during the past few years.

Navigation

Moving around in Google Earth is incredibly intuitive thanks to the multiple navigation tools. Some areas will show less information than others, and Google Earth is known to use up a substantial amount of bandwidth, but it remains a fascinating piece of software

Conclusion

Google Earth is as of yet an unequaled application. Browse around the world, zoom into streets, gaze at the stars or dive into the ocean. Millions of possibilities.

Download Google Earth 7.1.1.1580 Beta 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

Features

After logging into your Google account, Picasa HD gives you access to all of the photo albums you've uploaded to Picasa. You can browse photos at your own pace, or use the slideshow feature, which adds transition effects between each of the shots.

Beyond being "just" a simple photo viewer, Picasa HD will also allow you to create and manage photo albums. You'll be able to add photos to albums and edit information about them (name, description, date, etc.) all without visiting the web version of Picasa.

Picasa HD will also allow you to delete photos, access and edit the information attached to images, zoom in on pictures and download them to your PC or tablet. Don't forget that there's also a full screen option, so you can get the most from your screen space.

Getting started

If you've got a touchscreen device, you can take advantage of its features to use the famous pinch-to-zoom or swipe though your images.

Appearance

Picasa HD definitely takes a back seat to your photos. It's simple and fuss-free, in order to show your images off to their best advantage. The majority of the interface is taken up by thumbnails of your images, allowing you to easily see the photos you are working with.

Conclusion

As Google doesn't currently offer an official app for Picasa on Windows 8, Picasa HD is the next best option for viewing the photos in your Picasa account on a tablet or hybrid device. It will allow you to view and edit information about your photos, as well as adding new images to your collection, all without having to visit Picasa online.

Download Picasa HD 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

· Listen to +150 different genres of music ranging from Rock to Electronic Dance Music · See the upcoming events of the Digitally Imported radio station and export them to a calendar file · Use your Listen Key to enjoy the maximum streaming quality and no ads! · Low CPU and RAM usage, ideal for using it at your grandma's PC · Completely portable, no changes are made to the Windows registry when you use the player, so it's great for carrying it around in a USB stick · Quickly access all the functions from the menu available on the tray icon · The music never stops! If the connection is lost to a server, a new one will be connected to automatically! · The equalizer makes it so that you can listen to your favourite genre your own way!

This program differences from your regular music player because it lets you do such things like opening the forums, see the upcoming events or a list of previously played songs. Besides, the player lets you use your Listen Key to enjoy the maximum quality the stations have to offer, and will even allow you to change the streaming format without having to worry about going to the station's website and download a new playlist file.

Both advanced and novice PC users will find the player a joy to use. With its easy-to-use interface you're at only one click away from the music, but its powerful options panel makes it so that customising it is just a few clicks away!

Download Digitally Imported Windows Player 1.19 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