If you're worried about the safety of your documents you should start using some encryption method to protect them.

PixelCryptor is probably one of the best options for your first steps into encryption. It enables you to protect your private documents by combining them into a package that is then encrypted with any photo of your choice.

The pixel data contained in this photo is what the program uses to protect your documents, by creating almost endless, hacker-proof combinations. And whenever you want to decrypt your documents, simply open the package with your documents and select the picture you used to encrypt it.

PixelCryptor may not offer as many security options and encryption methods as other tools, but it's very easy to use and probably the best choice for encryption newbies. On the downside, anyone who you're sending encrypted data too will need to have it installed.

PixelCryptor is a fairly basic encryption tool, mainly addressed at novice users, which uses images to encrypt confidential data.

Download PixelCryptor 1.2 in Softonic

Some music players are so complex that you spend more time fiddling and customizing them than enjoying your music.

If this sounds like thinly veiled criticism of iTunes then it is a little bit I guess but the point is that some people don't want online stores, most played lists etc, etc. QuuxPlayer is a simple and straightforward player that has you up and running in minutes and includes a 30 band equalizer.

However, the big draw of QuuxPlayer is Wireless Gamepad support which means that you can control it in a unique way from just about anywhere in the room as long as you in range of your receiver. The look and feel of QuuxPlayer is certainly unique in comparison with other similar efforts. However, the developers already seem to be going against their philosophy of keeping it simple by adding automatic lyrics download, control locking for child management and an automatic directory monitoring service for updates amongst many other things.

That said, QuuxPlayer definitely occupies a unique position in the world of music players and if you've got a gamepad, you should definitely give it a whirl even if controlling music in this way is a bit odd.

Download QuuxPlayer 2.0.6.13 Standard Edition in Softonic

XYplorer is a simple to use file manager which replaces Windows Explorer with several enhanced functions and interface improvements.

Whatsmore, it's completely portable so you can put it on a USB stick and use it wherever you want and whenever you need it. The biggest advantage this program has over Windows Explorer is undoubtabley the Move and Copy dialogues. XYplorer allows you to configure hotkeys to carry out the most common copying and moving operations that you require meaning less mouse movements and faster management of your files and folders. XYplorer also removes the need for multiple folder windows along your taskbar because it employs the use of tabbed file management much in the same way as Firefox does with internet browsing. These tabs are fully customizable too - you can drag them around, rename them, hide them, lock them and much much more. This tabbed feature does give XYplorer a distinct browser style feel especially the featuring of an address bar which accepts not just folders, but also files, URLs, and search terms. This latter function can save hours of time searching through files by allowing you to search directly in XYplorer - without any need to use Windows search tool - simply by placing a "?" between the location and search pattern.

A truly impressive replacement for Windows Explorer - once you've used it you may never go back.

Download XYplorer 7.50.0000 in Softonic

For all those in agreement with the French government that proprietary formats are damaging to the legitimate spread of digital music, then Tunebite will be right up your street. Proprietary music is essentially locked, so it can only be played using a particular brand of player. This software can be used to make any music playable on whatever portable devices you have or to burn your own music CD. It works by creating a playlist in the file’s native player, (Media Player for WMA, iTunes for M4B, M4P) playing the list and recording each track as an unprotected file. It could be seen as the modern equivalent of recording radio onto cassette, although Tunebite will automatically separate the different tracks.

The installation of this program is a bit tongue-in-cheek with a notice to say that you may see a warning during the process, swiftly followed by a pop-up warning letting you know that a particular driver hasn’t been registered with Microsoft. Following the advice of the previous notice and ignoring the warning dialog lets you finish the process. You are then taken to the configuration wizard where you complete six steps to choose what file format you want to record in.

The interface is so intuitive that when you first open the program you should have no doubt as to how to get recording. The three main elements of the interface are clearly marked as the “songs to record” window, the “recorded songs” window and an unmistakable “GO!” button in the centre. To get started you can either drag and drop your music files or use the “add file” or “add folder” buttons within the program. From there, it’s a simple matter of clicking the “GO!” button and letting Tunebite go to work.

Because the files are protected, they must be played through their own player, for example iTunes, and recorded in real-time. During our test, we happened to have another audio player in use as the recording began and as a result, the unprotected file was an incomprehensible mix of two tracks. This also means that if Tunebite is making a recording, you shouldn’t use your computer for other tasks such as browsing the net since every click sound that plays when you hit a link or even the Start Menu button will be recorded as well. With recording taking place in real-time you should plan for times when you won’t be using the computer, especially if you have a large music collection.

Tunebite is a solution to a problem that many music lovers face as control over their digital content becomes tighter and more restrictive. Protected tracks that have been paid for can easily be copied to any MP3 player or burned to CD for use in regular stereos. Admittedly, the method for recording is not ideal for everybody, but used properly, the results will be of the highest standard possible today.

Download Tunebite 5.1.120 in Softonic

There aren't many apps out there that give you more control over how your CD/DVD drive door is used but CD-Door Guard is one of them.

The question is, do you really need it? Well yes if you want to avoid the problem of your CD door crashing or getting stuck. CD-Door Guard is a utility that helps you to deal with drive door errors. The program works by closing the drive's door when you forget to do it and allows you to lock it if you want to protect the door from children for example.

In addition, CD-Door Guard allows you to open and close the CD/DVD door using the mouse only and can also remind you if you've left a disk inside (very useful if you've been searching for that missing music CD). CD-Door Guard's interface is extremely friendly and removes the need to worry about disk getting stuck or doors getting jammed.

CD-Door Guard is an easy to use solution for those worried about damage to their CD or DVD drive.

Download CD-Door Guard 2.6.1 in Softonic

If you don't trust passwords to protect your computer, you should take a look at Rohos Logon Key.

With Rohos Logon Key you can block access to your computer using any USB memory stick you have previously configured with the program as access key. So, instead of a weak, easy-to-forget password, Rohos Logon Key uses a combination of hardware (the USB device) and software (the PIN code associated to that device) to protect the computer.

Rohos Logon Key is very easy to configure and use. It features a wide variety of configuration options with which you can not only customize security settings, but also graphic settings such as the welcome message or the logon screen Rohos Logon Key will use.

Some other interesting features in Rohos Logon Key include the Emergency login option in case you lose your USB key and the restricted access based on time limitations, which I personally find very handy to control the amount of time your children spend on the PC.

Rohos Logon Key is a comfortable and powerful alternative to traditional passwords you can use to protect your PC from unauthorized access.

Download Rohos Logon Key 2.5 in Softonic

Photo Collage is a full featured, easy-to-use application with which you can create beautiful photo compositions in no time. No technical skills required!

The program contains just about anything you need you create the collage – that is, everything except images themselves. The featured material includes background images, frames, clipart, borders and masks, all of them is such a large and colorful variety that you'll find it hard to choose just one. Besides, the program is extraordinarily easy to use: simply drag and drop the different elements of your collage on the interface, resize and rearrange them any way you want with your mouse and you're pretty much done. It's like scrapbooking, but without scissors and glue.

The only drawback I found to this great app is the fact that some frames don’t blend with the background properly, meaning they show a white border around the frame instead of being transparent. Also, I'd like to be able to save my work in other formats (HTML, EXE) rather than just as an image file, but at least I have a few graphic formats to choose from.

Photo Collage enables you to create amazing collages with your digital pictures, but only save them as image files.

Download iFoxSoft Photo Collage 2.06 in Softonic

Move Action is designed to allows your webcam to detects motion and set it up as a security camera.

This can be used to trigger a blocking mechanism on your PC or signal an alarm. Alarms can either be sent via e-mail or even text to warn you of intruders. The PC blocking function works by blocking your PC and requiring a password to access it again. It can also save webcam shots in JPG format and then send them submit them by mail or transfer them by FTP, play a sound file or run external applications. However, as impressive as this is, the most intriguing feature of this program is that it can compare two images captured at different intervals. This way you can monitor a site without having to look at the videos on the camera constantly. This saves you sitting there for hours on end monitoring and is great if you need to use evidence to prosecute or charge someone.

A great little program for those concerned with security although the configuration is rather complicated.

Download Move Action 2.5 in Softonic

Pitaschio is a free, easy application that makes it more convenient to use Microsoft Windows. This tool includes a large number of useful functions to tweak the way windows behave, disable certain keys and collect statistics about the usage of keyboard and mouse.

Take a look at what Pitaschio can do for you:

• Stick window to other windows when moving and resizing
• Restrict window position to inside of the screen
• Minimize window to system tray
• Use small icons in the desktop
• Disable Windows key, Insert key, Alt key etc.
• Lock mouse or keyboard while you are cleaning keyboard or mouse
• Take statistics about mouse and keyboard
• Calculate Moon's age

Download Pitaschio 2.24 in Softonic

Have you ever needed to remotely control another machine but found that most software designed to do so leads to unreliable or slow connections? Anyplace Control aims to simplify and speed-up this process by allowing you to securely control remote computers and transfer files via the Internet or LAN.

Once connected, the program displays the remote computer's desktop on your local screen and lets you use your mouse and keyboard to control that PC remotely. This is invaluable if you need to offer technical support to someone who lives or works a long way from you or you need to share a file or presentation. Unlike many similar desktop sharing systems, there's also a built-in File Transfer feature which lets you transfer files between computers with relative ease.

You can perform a whole manner of tasks once you take control of a PC. With Anyplace Control, you can restart and shutdown a remote PC, lock a remote mouse or keyboard, and do various other remote tasks such as looking for potential problems. For Network Administrators, this tool will prove particularly useful because there's a wizard that allows you to setup Anyplace Control on multiple PC's.

This is a great tool for anyone needing to do some remote admin although the inititial connection time can be rather long. There are more efficient programs for the same task, such as Crossloop, but the fact that this includes a File Transfer feature makes it a more complete solution.

Download Anyplace Control 4.7.1.0 in Softonic

Clean Space 9 is not a one function program, but rather it is a toolbox for the protection and removal of personal information, spyware, anonymous surfing service, file anti-recovery tool, computer lock and many others. Competitors of Clean Space 9 prefer to distribute these programs separately, TeoSoft includes them all in one, very powerful, easy to use package.

Clean Space 9 prevents unauthorized access to your computer history from anyone - friends, family and even coworkers. In other words, nobody will be able to view web sites you’ve visited, images or videos you've viewed, programs you've started, letters you've written, and much more which you would like to keep a lid on. By your command or at a scheduled time, Clean Space 9 starts deleting activity history in over two hundred sensitive areas such as Internet Browser history, Windows Explorer history, temporary internet files, cookie files, index.dat files, swap file, and many others. Once it accomplishes its work, Clean Space 9 leaves no chance to learn your computer session details.

Download Clean Space 14.06 in Softonic

Lock My PC is an easy to use and compact tool for quick computer locking when you leave it unattended. It shows a lock screen, disables Windows hot keys and the mouse. You can lock your PC with a hotkey or from the system tray. To unlock the computer you must enter correct password only. The program can log invalid password entry attempts and has option to keep your PC locked even if power failure occurs or someone switches it off and on.

Download Lock My PC 4.7 in Softonic

With more of us keeping sensitive data on our computers than ever before, the need to protect your data from the eyes of unwanted intruders is greater than ever. Of course, there are plenty of applications that allow you to encrypt your private data, but many of them come at a high price. Folder Vault is a relatively cheap alternative that blocks access to files, folders and archives through an interesting interface, which is completely styled around the theme of locking and protection.

Once installed, the program create a default protected folder called Folder Vault, to which any file on your PC can be added. One of the neat features of the software is that it can be run in Stealth mode, to avoid being detected and attacked. There are plenty of cool options locked within the app, such as the ability to auto-shutdown your machine after a designated number of failed password attempts. Handily the program includes a feature whereby once you enter a password, all of the files and folders within your protected folder become unblocked, saving you a lot of time.

I found the program was great for blocking files thanks to its powerful encryption algorithms. However, I was a little disappointed with the Hack Prevention and Automation modes, as these did not seem to work at all when I tried them.

Download Folder Vault 2.0.0.46 in Softonic

Image for Windows is an affordable, reliable drive image backup and restore utility that creates and restores snapshot images of entire partitions or volumes. The backups can be saved to a set of files on a local or network drive, or directly to most CD or DVD drives (which will create a bootable restore disc). When needed, you can simply restore the snapshot image and the partition or volume will be back as it was before.

Using the free PHYLock add-on utility, you can continue to use your computer while the backup is locked to a point-in-time. This eliminates the inconsistencies typically experienced while backing up a partition that is in use.

Download Image for Windows 2.13 in Softonic

PC Security Tweaker is a security tweaking utility you can use to tweak Windows-based computers. It is compatible with all Windows versions and lets you control which users are allowed to access your PC and the level of access each user may have. You can choose to tweak access to lots of Control Panel applet functions, including Display, Network, Passwords, Printers, System, Add/Remove Programs, etc. You can enforce users to use separate system profile folders and provide them with their own custom shell folders such as Desktop, Start Menu, Favorites, My Documents.

Additionally, by tweaking, you can: disable selected Start Menu items, lock and protect disk drives in My Computer, disable the DOS and command prompt, interruption boot keys, real DOS mode, Registry editing, taskbar, task manager, and network access, hide desktop icons, and much more. You can password-protect Windows and restrict users to running specific applications only. Security tweaks can be applied universally or just to specific users. This software also lets you tweak Internet Explorer to secure web browsing.

Download PC Security Tweaker 7.61 in Softonic

ClamWin is a simple, powerful and most importantly, free antivirus checker for Microsoft Windows.

The program features an easy to use GUI and the developers claim high detection rates for viruses and spyware although it doesn't seem to find anything extra or beyond what other anti-virus scanners find. The full program is facilitated by regular virus database updates so that's its generally always updated with the latest threats to your system. Unfortunately ClamWin Portable has scheduled scans and updates disabled so that the program is not locked in huge updates every time you activate it on the move. The downside of this of course is that it's never up to date with the latest threats. The big advantage of this version of course is that you can take it pretty much anywhere on a USB stick. However, the program does not feature a real-time scanner which means that scanning for protection is down to you. You have to manually scan your system with the program every so often to see if you have been infected with anything.

Free, portable and easy to use, this is a decent anti virus solution let down by the fact that it doesn't scan in real time nor update itself automatically unless prompted.

Download ClamWin Portable 0.93.1 in Softonic

Don't be fooled by the name - XP Tools Pro is not just for Windows XP but it's an all round registry tweaker, cleaner and PC optimiser for any system.

Making sure the registry is clean of errors is essential to the smooth running of your machine and XP Tools Pro helps you reach the parts that other optimisers can't. It basically promises to speed up your PC by almost twice as much and while that is a bit far fetched, it does pack a big punch - much more so than the average optimiser. Probably the most powerful component is the "Memory Turbo" element which reuses RAM which isn't being used or is being wasted by Windows. However, although this does make an initial difference, it seems to fight Windows for control of your RAM and you may experience slight freezes or at least a few hang ups from time to time. In addition to optimising and cleaning however, this program also promises to make your machine more secure. Amongst the 20 utilities it offers are options to erase your Internet tracks, hide sensitive files and folders and lock important applications. In this respect, it's actually much more useful as a privacy tool as it covers just about any possible angle where your surfing habits or file usage could be compromised.

Cleaning, privacy and security management, this tool features some highly impressive tools that will be of use to anyone on the move.

Download XP Tools Pro 9.1 in Softonic

Copying or cloning CDs has become increasingly difficult with copyright encryption getting more and more sophisticated.

However, there are always a few programs out there that seem able to crack just about anything and CloneCD is certainly one of them. CloneCD gives you the option to clone as much or as little as you want from not only CDs but DVDs as well. Why the developers chose to keep the name CloneCD is a mystery because this program is more than capable of both.

The utility can compress extensive footage at high speed due to what the developers call "advanced transcoding technology" and it allows you to select both the audio and language you'd like to use from DVDs. The program works very well with ISOs and UDFs and is particularly useful to "unblocking"copyrighted disks - i.e. those CDs or DVDs which are copyrighted and won't play in your CD player. However, it should be noted that copyright laws vary from country to country and that you should not be using this program to break copyright laws or decode commercial disks - it's entirely for your own use.

For unblocking or copying locked or heavily encrypted DVDs or CDs, CloneCD is an incredibly powerful application.

Download CloneCD 5.3.13 in Softonic

In the beginning was Microsoft Office. Then OpenOffice appeared as an open-source alternative. And now IBM makes a new move and offers its own productivity suite, all free of charge. The idea is not new: there have been a few free suites launched lately, but all of them were online. IBM Lotus Symphony is the only desktop suite that, together with OpenOffice, can offer a free alternative to Microsoft's proprietary apps.

IBM Lotus Symphony offers three tools: word processor, spreadsheet and presentations. It's true that other productivity suites are usually more complete. However, Lotus Symphony stands out for a convenient, single-windowed interface from which you can launch the three apps. Simply click on the "Open" button and select the kind of document you want to open: the program's toolbar will change accordingly. What's more, you can have as many opened documents as you want at the same time, no matter which type, and switch between them in the top tab bar.

The suite includes all the basic tools that you could expect in such an application: spell checker and tables for documents, predesigned templates for presentations and charts for spreadsheets - to name a few - besides the usual configuration options as regards fonts, colors and the like.

In my personal opinion, I'm glad to have another possibility to choose from when deciding which suite I'm going to use. A little rivalry is always good and usually produces better and wider options for computer users. And it seems IBM is beginning to take the suite competition quite seriously.

IBM Lotus Symphony has left the beta stage behind and now offers a stable, highly functional productivity suite that, despite not being as complete as other suites, may perfectly fit your needs.

Download IBM Lotus Symphony 1.0 in Softonic

DeviceLock is an excellent tool for network administrators that need to lock out unauthorized users from using USB and FireWire devices, WiFi and Bluetooth adapters, CD-Rom and floppy drives, serial and parallel ports and many other plug-and-play devices. Once DeviceLock is installed, administrators can control access to any device, depending on the time of day and day of the week. The USB white list allows you to authorize only specific devices that will not be locked regardless of any other settings. The intention is to allow special devices (e.g. smart card readers) but lock all other devices. The Media White List feature allows you to authorize access to specific DVD/CD-ROM disks, uniquely identified by data signature, even when DeviceLock has otherwise blocked the DVD/CD-ROM drive.

Once completed, you can generate a report concerning the permissions that have been set and see which users have been assigned for which device and what devices are on the USB white list on all the computers across your network. If you're not a network administrator, I don't advise touching this program without a through reading of the instructions because you can end up locking yourself out! However, generally DeviceLock provides a high level of security with an interface that is well integrated into Windows Group Policy Editor. If you've had problems with people using illegal devices on your company network, it's the answer to your prayers.

Download DeviceLock 6.3.14610 in Softonic