Pidgin (previously called Gaim) is a multi-protocol instant messaging client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows. It is compatible with AIM (Oscar and TOC protocols), ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, and Zephyr networks. Pidgin users can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AOL Instant Messenger, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time. Pidgin supports many features of the various networks, such as file transfer (coming soon), away messages, typing notification, and MSN window closing notification.

It also goes beyond that and provides many unique features. A few popular features are Buddy Pounces, which give the ability to notify you, send a message, play a sound, or run a program when a specific buddy goes away, signs online, or returns from idle. Plugins, consist of text replacement, a buddy ticker, extended message notification, iconify on away, and more.

Download Pidgin 2.5.1 in Softonic

Some years ago ICQ was one of the most popular IM applications among Internet users. But when Microsoft launched MSN Messenger, many of these users forgot about their original IM client and joined a network that was growing very quickly. In the meantime, ICQ continued to be upgraded until finally reaching version 6, which sets a new milestone in the history of this classic piece of software.

To begin with, the installation process is fast and easy, the only downside being the fact that you must set ICQ Search as your web browser's default search engine, as there's no way of getting around this option.

This new ICQ boasts a fresh-looking interface which has been completely redesigned. Also, you can customize it with skins, although you'll have to download them because there's not a single skin included in the program. It does include, however, a very complete personal profile which you can fill in with all your information, including name, location, interests, spoken languages and a personal avatar that ICQ oddly refers to as "devil".

Generally speaking, ICQ 6 offers all the functions that we find in other IM applications, namely instant written messages, voice calls and video calls. All of these are complemented with a very nice set of animated smilies and the so called "Tzers" which are the equivalent to Messenger's "Winks". Chat sessions can be grouped together under the same window, which prevents your taskbar getting cluttered. ICQ allows you to start text conversations right from the contact list using the Quick message feature. There's also the option to send SMS messages to your contacts, but this is not available in all countries yet.

This new version promises to give you complete control over configuration settings. However, we must admit that we had some trouble in finding them, until we happened to click on the "Main" button on the interface. The configuration options are quite complete indeed, allowing you to change every single detail regarding sounds, notifications, privacy and security, message history, appearance and the program's general behaviour.

In all, ICQ seems to have developed a new version with a fresh redesign only to measure up to its main competitors but without really offering any new functions. Again, choosing ICQ (or any other IM app) ends up being just a question of which IM your friends use.

Download ICQ 6.0.0.6063 in Softonic

Maybe summer is not the most appropriate season to practice snowboard, but Project Powder makes it possible – as long as you have a computer with you.

Project Powder is a frenetic snowboard simulator that challenges you to play and compete against people from all over the world, either individually in single races or teaming up with other players in group races. The game also features an extensive social components, including a lobby, chat rooms, instant messages and more.

Unlike other sport simulators, Project Powder is very easy to control. It features a complete tutorial that teaches you the basics of racing, plus a few nice jumps and tricks. Mastering them in order to reach the finishing line in the first place is another story. Also, keep an eye on penguins, rocks, snowplows and other obstacles! As you can see, races in Project Powder are definitely full of surprises.

Project Powder features surprisingly good graphics (at least for a free game), and that counts not only for landscapes and character design, but also for the physics engine, capable of rendering a truly speed sensation while sliding down the mountains.

Being an online game, Project Powder requires an internet connection at all times. But the main drawback, in my opinion, is the game's lengthy installation process.

Project Powder is a challenging, action-packed online snowboard simulator with which you can have fun with people from all over the world.

Download Project Powder 1.32 in Softonic

If you regularly conduct video calls or video conferencing with more than one person, then ooVoo is an elegant and powerful video conferencing and IM client that combines elegance with functionality.

With ooVoo you can talk face-to-face with up to six people, add an ooVoo link to your blog or online profiles (so others can instantly add you to their contacts), send and receive video messages and best of all, it's completely free. To get started, you need to create an ooVoo ID which is fairly painless although a bit annoying as all registration forms can be. Once you've started the setup process, you'll be asked to create an ooVoo username and password. You'll also be asked to add a few friends and contacts to your ooVoo account although if like me, you don't know anyone using ooVoo, you can simply elect to send invites. Unlike some video conferencing applications, it's very easy to get up and running with your webcam and it can handle very high quality cameras of up to 2 megapixels depending on the speed of your connection. During chats and video calls, you can add effects to video such as sepia, blurring and morphing although it seems to take some time in applying these successfully. ooVoo also serves as a VoIP app although unfortunately, it only serves mobiles and landlines in the USA and Canada at the moment. What's really nice about ooVoo though is the ability to place your contacts, and their video images, down the side of your screen in a sidebar simultaneously. This way, you can chat away to all of them at the same time and see them at once. This does hog quite a bit of your RAM though if you're not working on with at least 1GB of RAM or more.

An impressive video conferencing and chat IM although it would be interesting to see how it performs when a maximum of 6 people are trying to conduct a video conference at the same time.

Download ooVoo 1.7.1.38 in Softonic

Miranda IM is a multi protocol instant messenger client. It is designed to be resource efficient and easy to use. It uses very little memory and requires no installation. Just unzip and run! This also makes it ideal for users that want to run their messenger client from a removable storage such as a USB memory stick.

The powerful plugin system makes Miranda IM extremely flexible. Only the most basic features are built in, but there are currently more than 350 plugins available for download that allow users to extend the functionality in Miranda IM. Plugins can be installed to add support for ICQ, AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, Gadu-Gadu, Tlen, Netsend and other protocols.

Download Miranda IM 0.8.0 Test 90 in Softonic

PostSmile makes it easy to add fun and excitement to your email messages and web-forum postings. You can drag and drop images and animations, smileys and emoticons, text or HTML snippets, quotes and signatures into your email, message board or web-forum postings.

The program offers a wide variety of original artist-created smileys that are sure to leave no one indifferent. All smiley faces are divided into clear categories - Happy, Love, Sad, Communication, Other, Signatures, Famous Quotes, Love Quotes, Proverbs, Jokes and Compliments. But, you don't have to stop there! Our artists have created for you the world best Online Smileys Collection!

PostSmile works with the most popular email programs, including Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Thunderbird, IncrediMail, AOL Mail and many others that support HTML-based email. And also it works with Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail and other Internet Web-based email systems.

The program is easy to use, has an attractive and compact interface with images, animations, emoticons, "signatures" and text snippets organized into categories. You may change the appearance of the Smileycons program interface by using the different "skins" provided with the package.

Download PostSmile 6.8.1 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

Miranda Portable brings all the functionality and features of the popular cross-network IM client Miranda right to your pocket.

This portable version can easily be installed in any USB memory device so that you always have a tool to chat with your online buddies, no matter which network they connect to or which computer you're using. Pocket-sized Miranda is light on resources, works fast and leaves no trace on the host system's Registry.

This IM client supports multiple networks, which means you'll be able to talk to people on ICQ, AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo! and even IRC. The program's interface and general design is honestly not the most brilliant I've seen, but the program is so handy and easy to use that it makes up for it.

Also, though Miranda Portable is quite a basic client, you can add loads of new features by means of plugins – just like the Firefox extensions, but for Miranda.

Save Miranda Portable in your USB memory stick and you'll be able to chat with your IM buddies anytime, anywhere.

Download Miranda IM Portable 0.7.8 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

Kerio MailServer is what's known as a "groupware server" which basically means it allows several companies or organisations to collaborate on it at the same time.

Kerio MailServer does this through email, shared contacts, shared calendars and tasks. Kerio MailServer is completely secure because it is integrated with McAfee Antivirus which enables it to instantly remove viruses from incoming and outgoing email. Likewise, SpamEliminator automatically detects and filters spam from the server.

Kerio WebMail is particularly easy to use. You can drag-and-drop mails to an extent that's not possible in Outlook but at the same time, it can be used in conjunction with Outlook because Kerio MailServer Server-based calendars and address books synchronize seamlessly with both Outlook, Entourage and of course, Kerio WebMail. You can even migrate data and messages from Outlook on anything held on an MS Exchange server with a handy wizard.

If you're looking for a good alternative to Outlook with more drag and drop features and need group collaboration options, Kerio MailServer is worth a try.

Download Kerio MailServer 6.5.2 in Softonic

We're always being bombarded by warnings about the dangers of malware and although the level of threat is probably not as high as the antivirus companies make out, it's still essential to take precautions. Although it's far from a complete antivirus tool, DriveSentry does a very thorough job of preventing certain applications trying to access the Internet without your knowledge.

A good thing about this program is like, unlike many of its rivals, it doesn't bombard you with pop-up messages warning you whenever a program is trying to access the Net. Instead, you have an easy-to-manage list of programs that are automatically granted permissions, which you can quickly add to at any time.

What's more, permissions can also be applied on a Registry level, meaning you can give writing access to certain common processes. With an instant access System Tray icon thrown in for good measure, this is a great no-frills firewall app for those who want their system protection to be done in the background.

Download DriveSentry 3.1 in Softonic

Internet filtering and parental control software program, gives you the ability to control and monitor your child’s use of the Internet, irrespective of where you are: in the neighboring room, at work, or even on vacation, thus enabling you to protect your child from the dangers of the Internet.

Features of CyberSieve

• Filter harmful websites and newsgroups
• Restrict Internet time to a predetermined schedule
• Decide which programs can have internet access
• Limit the amount of data that can be sent or received to/from your computer
• Block e-mails, online chats, instant messages and P2P connections containing inappropriate words
• Set different levels of restrictions for every member of your family depending on their maturity, interests, habits, and parental control needs
• Monitor your child’s use of the Internet, irrespective of where you are; in the neighboring room, at work, or even on vacation.
• Get detailed Internet activity logs
• Comes provided with a huge built-in database

Download CyberSieve 2.6.1 in Softonic

BlackICE teams a personal firewall with an advanced intrusion detection system to constantly watch your Internet connection for suspicious behavior. BlackICE responds immediately by alerting you to trouble and instantly blocking the threat.

BlackICE's Application Protection quickly and invisibly defeats dangerous programs that attackers deliver through instant messaging, email, or even your Web browser! BlackICE stops these destructive programs before they do harm-like damaging your PC or launching email attacks against your friends and co-workers.

BlackICE automatically detects and blocks attacks through a comprehensive inspection of all inbound and outbound information to your computer. And BlackICE PC Protection is constantly working to secure your dial-up, DSL, and cable modem from hackers 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Download BlackICE PC Protection 3.6crc in Softonic

This nifty app lets you automatically log everything you do in MSN Messenger 6.x/7.x. This includes instant messages, winks, emotion icons, hand writing, text font and colors, the online status of your contact, and all the activities like sent and received files, audio/video invitations in MSN Messenger.

Major features:

• Record MSN chat automatically and completely including
• Monitor MSN chat secretly. It is completely undetectable!
• Easy-to-use interface makes recording and monitoring simple
• Suitable for parent control and other monitoring purpose
• Suitable for your company to record custom supports, provided via MSN Messengers
• Accessing and setting are all password protected
• Save, search and edit log easily and efficiently
• Exporting the rich text messages to a RTF file easily
• Import logs from previous version of MessengerLog series
• Date time stamp

Download MessengerLog 6.72 in Softonic

Tor is a toolset designed for anyone who wants to improve their safety and security on the Internet. The application can help you anonymize web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and other applications that use the TCP protocol. Tor also provides a platform on which software developers can build new applications with built-in anonymity, safety, and privacy features.

Tor hushes up your communications by bouncing them around a distributed network of servers, called onion routers. Tor's technology aims to provide Internet users with protection against "traffic analysis," a form of network surveillance that threatens personal anonymity and privacy online, confidential business activities and relationships, as well as state security.

Download Tor Alpha 0.2.0.28 RC in Softonic

Crypt4Free (freeware) is file encryption software with the ability to encrypt files and text messages. The application contains support for ZIP files and ability to securely delete sensitive files, as well as a skinnable user-friendly interface.

Features of the app:

• Easy-to-use
• Skin support (one free skin in standard downloadable package)
• Encrypts every kind of file on every kind of medium, whether floppy disk, removable hard drive, zip drive, tape drive or other
• Full .ZIP support - Crypt4Free can browse for existing .zip archives, extract its contents and even create new .zip archives
• Built-in files compression to reduce size in transmission
• Ability to send encrypted files and messages via the internet
• Ability to encrypt email text (or any other text message) to send it securely via e-mail, chat, or instant messengers like ICQ, AOL Messenger, Microsoft Messenger etc. The recipent must enter the password to read this message
• No "back door" in the software - No access possible under any circumstances. If you do not remember the password you cannot access the encrypted contents. There is no special procedure, secret code, or hidden entry method to fall back on
• Built-in file shredder - i.e. wiping the contents of the original pre-encrypted file

Download Crypt4Free 4.7.6 in Softonic

No matter how accurate your typing is, you probably do a few typos every time you write an email or post something to your blog. How can you avoid this?

The answer is Enso Words. This universal spell checked takes care of your written accuracy when writing, be it in your word processor, your web browser, your email client or even your instant messaging app.

Simply select the text you want to analyze in whichever program you've written it and launch Enso Words using its keyboard shortcut. The spell checker will be displayed as a new layer over your screen, showing a copy of your text and highlighting all those words that seem to be wrong. To correct them, simply click on them and select the right option from the context menu. You can also make Enso Words learn new terms in this same context menu.

Any drawbacks? Well, if you're to be picky, Enso Words only supports English, and doesn't include advanced options to replace the same word all through the document or simply ignore it.

Enso Words can correct any text on an application, provided is written in English and you don't need any advanced features.

Download Enso Words 1.0 in Softonic

Would you like to create some cool Flash animation effects but don't even know where to start? Then Animation Web Creator is the program you need.

This easy animation editor will help you create basic animations in Flash format that you can later use on your website or as an electronic greeting card. The program also includes an avatar editor with which to design your very unique avatar for forums, instant messaging clients, social networks and so on.

To make things even easier for you, Animation Web Creator includes a bunch of templates you can directly import and customize at will. But if you feel brave enough, you can also choose to create the animation from scratch using the program's built-in editor.

Animation Web Creator is very easy to use and also well documented. On the downside, I found templates a bit disorganized (despite their category structure) and quite repetitive as well.

With Animation Web Creator anyone can create a basic yet nice Flash animation, no matter what your design or coding knowledge is.

Download Animation Web Creator 2.0.1 in Softonic

MDaemon, a Windows-based email server software, contains full mail server functionality and control with a strong emphasis on security to protect your email communication needs. MDaemon is proven as secure, dependable, and versatile.

MDaemon features include:

• Top-notch antispam security features
• Seamless integration with AntiVirus for MDaemon plug-in
• Built-in groupware functionalities for sharing folders, tasks, contacts, and address
• Separately licensed plug-in for Outlook users
• Secure instant messaging
• Free web-based email client
• Remote administration tool
• Central address book repository

Download MDaemon 9.6.6 in Softonic

Searching in Windows has always been painfully slow but Microsofts launch of Windows Search 4 aims to bring searching up to speed with applications such as Google Desktop.

Windows Search 4 uses the same indexing style approach that Google Desktop does meaning that your data is always indexed and instantly searchable. Search results are now returned in seconds rather than minutes under Windows older search tool. You can preview information that's returned in results including information within e-mail messages. The search tool is much more easily accessible too in Vista from the Start menu and XP is equipped with a deskbar for instant searches. Be warned however - the indexing file can be huge especially if you have a large amount of data on your PC so make sure you have plenty of disk space free before installing Windows Search 4 otherwise you’ll find it locks up your system before finally warning you that your disk space is low. In this release, Microsoft have finally ensured that you can also index and search encrypted files which was something missing from previous versions. This is something that should have already been included in Vista and is yet another area where Microsoft are adding and completing aspects of the system that should have been ready before it was released.

Google Desktop and Copernic Desktop Search have been on the market for years now and yet Microsoft have only just been able to implement such a basic feature into their operating system but it's definitely a vast improvement on previous Windows search tools.

Download Windows Search 4 Vista SP1 & Server 2008 in Softonic