Tor is one of the most widely used anonymous surfing proxy servers used on the web and as the name suggests, OperaTor is designed for the specific needs of the Opera browser.

OperaTor is a portable software bundle which allows you to browse the web anonymously and actually combines Opera, Tor and Polipo. The developers assure that no privacy data is stored on the computer that you plug your OperaTor pendrive into. You'll experience no difference in browsing other than every HTTP request will be conducted from an anonymous IP - great if you want to hide surfing habits or prevent yourself being tracked.

The application is pretty much a plug-and-play design although note that the only protocols which OperaTor anonymizes are HTTP and HTTPS. This means that it's wise to turn off other Opera features such as Java, JavaScript and other integrated elements. In addition, some sites simply won't accept anonymous surfing via Tor. This is obviously a real pain if you want a to visit a Java enabled website and something that should definitely be fixed in future releases.

If you use Opera regularly but want to ensure your privacy then OperaTor is a quick, easy and portable solution.

Download OperaTor 3.2 in Softonic

Mac users are often regarded as very loyal customers, but that's because they have very good reasons, such as iTunes, to stick to Apple products.

iTunes has become one of the most widely spread music managers today. The release of the iPhone and the new iPod models has only contributed to increase this popularity, thanks to the seamless synchronization of contents between the computer and your device.

Now with iTunes 8, Apple continues to develop and improve this music software masterpiece with fresh new features that enable users to make the most of their multimedia library.

Managing your iTunes library is a piece of cake. You can view extended information about each track, edit their tags and rate them. Also, iTunes lets you comfortably browse through your library with the amazing Cover Flow system or the newly implemented grid view, which displays cover artwork sorted by album, artist, genre or composer. And for those of you who work in a LAN environment, the great news is that you can share your music libraries with your network mates.

One thing I particularly like of iTunes as music manager is its ability to create playlists. The Smart Playlist tool enables you to create almost any kind of playlist based on just about any criteria you set: artist, genre, date added, star rating or even the number of times you've played each song. Another great playlist is the so called Party Shuffle, which comes in very handy when you invite some friends over to your place. You can then leave iTunes working as a DJ and play music on its own, but if you drop by the PC at any time, you can freely add more songs to the list or rearrange them in any way.

Regarding playlists, iTunes 8 includes now an exciting new feature called Genius. Just like other popular music sharing tools, Genius learns from the tracks you play on iTunes and recommends you similar songs, either from your own library or from the iTunes Store. In this way you can easily build thematic playlists by grouping similar songs, and also meet new bands you may not know about. The only drawback is that Genius needs to gather information about your music library and send it over to Apple in order to work, something that privacy freaks won't be happy about.

However, if there's something where iTunes is not perfect yet, that's the player function. You may disagree here, but I think the iTunes player falls too short, especially when compared to its music manager side. It does have some interesting features, like the Smart shuffle function and crossfading playback, but I still find it too simple. I also missed the ability to control the player from anywhere with global hotkeys, which is great if you listen to music while you're working on the PC with other apps. Fortunately there are some plug-ins that cover this need.

In all, despite these slight flaws, iTunes is probably the best choice to manage your music collection –and that includes Windows users.

Download iTunes 8.0.1.11 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 6.0.0.7015 in Softonic

CCleaner is a small utility that will take care of a few of the important maintenance tasks that every computer user should carry out as regularly as possible to keep their systems in top shape. Fast, reliable and easy to use - CCleaner it's one of the best cleaning systems out there.

For me, the beauty of 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 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 uninstall and startup tools are handy to have and simply add to the usability of this very rounded little maintenance assistant.

The most recent release of CCleaner now works on Vista with Admin permissions where available and features various bug fixes and improvements to the translated versions.

CCleaner makes keeping your PC clean easy for beginners and experts alike. It's small, fast, comprehensive, and free to download it - get cleaning now!

Download CCleaner 2.12.660 in Softonic

When Google suddenly entered the battle of the browsers with Chrome, many users expressed their concern about security and privacy issues. If you're among them, you'll be happy to learn about the launch of Iron.

Iron is a modified version of Chrome's source code that removes all the components in the original browser that collect usage data. This means that Iron blocks the unique user ID, doesn't send user-specific data to Google, disables the report-on-crash feature and doesn't connect to Google to check for updates.

Personally I don't see that much danger in leaving those features enabled, but I can understand there are people who might be worried about their privacy when surfing the web. As for the rest, Iron remains pretty much a Chrome clone, with the same clean interface, the Omnibar, the thumbnails homepage and even the Incognito function. In fact, the only problem you may find with Iron is language: the program runs in English, but the developer's website, installation and documentation are all in German.

If you don't agree with Chrome's privacy policy, get Iron: a web browser with Chrome's look and feel but without all the data-collecting elements.

Download SRWare Iron 0.2.152.0 in Softonic

The default Windows search tool has always been accused of being slow, inaccurate and useless. This is why it could be a good idea to replace it with another local search engine.

Everything could be that replacement you're looking for. This simple, fast tool indexes absolutely all the contents on your hard drive (hence its name) and puts them into an ever-growing database that you can search with keywords, like you use any regular search engine.

The program is incredibly fast in all aspects: installation, indexing of contents and display of results. Also, it doesn't hog system resources like other similar apps do. Another difference between Everything and other local search tools is that Everything lets you set up an HTTP server that makes all indexed content available online.

On the one hand this is a handy feature because you can access your files remotely from other computers or share files with your friends: on the other hand it does raise some concerns about privacy, especially since there's no way to filter which kind of content is indexed and which is not, neither is there a system for controlling who has access to the HTTP server.

Everything is a simple, really fast local search tool that makes a great replacement for Windows default search box, though sadly you don't have any control over what the program indexes.

Download Everything 1.1.4.299 in Softonic

Mozilla Firefox is a fast, full-featured web browser that's easy to use. It has lots of great features including popup-blocking, tabbed-browsing, integrated search, improved privacy features, automatic updating and more. Plus, thanks to the PortableApps.com launcher bundled in Mozilla Firefox - Portable Edition, it leaves no personal information behind on the machine you run it on, so you can take your favorite browser along with all your favorite bookmarks and extensions with you wherever you go.

Intelligent Start

Firefox Portable now uses an intelligent start system that keeps track of where you're running it from. That way, if you run it a second time from the same location or move to another PC that happens to give you the same drive letter, it won't have to do as much to start Firefox up.

Alternate INI Locations Dropped

To improve startup time, the alternate directory layouts for the FirefoxPortable.ini file have been dropped. It will need to be placed next to FirefoxPortable.exe. If you use an INI, you'll also need to update it with the new INI options.

Most Alternate Directory Layouts Dropped

To simplify the launcher, all alternate directory layouts have been dropped except placing the launcher one directory above the FirefoxPortable directory.

Improved Unicode Support

Firefox Portable has improved support for unicode, so you can drop a file with non-ASCII characters right on FirefoxPortable.exe and open it up.

Improved Live CD Support For Windows 95/98/Me

Live mode has been improved for better compatibility with most Windows 95, 98 and Me systems.

Download Firefox Portable 3.0.3 in Softonic

TweakVI was designed for easy tweaking and optimizing a Windows Vista based computer. It allows you to tweak hundreds of hidden features of Windows Vista, optimize your machine and customize it to your needs.

Unlike other tweaking utilities, TweakVI bundles lots of different utilities in one. It was developed to combine both tuning and optimizing features to increase the speed of your Windows Vista system. It's the worlds first software for Windows Vista to combine both customization, tweaking and optimization features.

The main application of TweakVI together with 13 plugins is available completely for free. Additional plugins can be downloaded after subscribing.

Take a look at what TweakVI has to offer:

• Activate hundreds of hidden Windows Vista settings
• Clean your registry
• Activate system and software restrictions
• Display detailed system information
• Create a 256 MB RAM drive
• Protect your privacy
• Clean your harddrive
• Manage TrueType fonts
• Improve your internet connection
• Optimize your CPU
• Optimize your RAM

Download TweakVI Basic 1.0.1090 in Softonic

The downside to having multiple computers is synchronization. Whether you share your time between a desktop and a laptop PC, or you work both with a home and an office PC, you'll often need to sync files between two computers.

Dropbox is the perfect solution for these situations. With this app you can seamlessly synchronize contents between several different computers – even mobile devices – no matter where you are. This means that you can use Dropbox not only to sync files between computers, but also to share photos with friends or collaborate in a common project with your workmates.

Dropbox is dead easy to use. All you have to do is install a small client and from that moment on, you'll have a special folder inside the My Documents folder. Anything you drop here will be synced in the background with your public dropbox profile – and therefore accessible online. Dropbox currently offers 2 GB of free storage, which should be enough to share quite a bunch of files.

Worried about privacy? Fear not. Only computers you link to your account will be able to access your files. Also, Dropbox keeps track of changes, so that you can access previous versions of a file. In a way it works as a backup tool as well, because it keeps copies of your files.

Dropbox has a main drawback though: it's painfully slow. Yes, it works in the background and yes, you don't have to be checking the uploading rate every ten seconds, but 30 minutes to upload three photos is simply too much for me.

Dropbox is an easy, handy tool with which you can sync files online, share them and have them always at hand.

Download Dropbox 0.6.394 in Softonic

ZoneAlarm Pro automatically blocks known and unknown Internet threats for home users, small-business owners, and corporate employees working remotely. The program monitors outgoing application traffic, as well as incoming traffic to protect you from any local applications attempting to use your Internet connection to communicate with the outside world.

You have the option to grant or deny access on a per-application basis, customizing the protection of your system. ZoneAlarm Pro also offers password protection, automatic mobile-PC protection, and e-mail-attachment protection for 47 file types.

ZoneAlarm Pro features online-privacy protection with pop-up stopping, ad blocking, and cookie-control features. The latest update adds Complete Mailsafe for blocking suspect e-mail, Cache Cleaner for eliminating traces of your Internet activity, expert firewall controls, and Hacker ID for tracking and mapping hacker attacks.

Download ZoneAlarm Pro 7.0.462.00 in Softonic

Are you worried about privacy in your email communications? If so, you can trust your
messages to eCipher from now on.

This tool secures the contents of your email messages by protecting them with two of the
most powerful encrypting algorithms available today, 256-bit AES and 2048-bit RSA. As
complicated as it sounds, the good thing about eCipher is that it's very easy to use.

The program features a launcher-style small interface from which you can access the
settings menu, open an encrypted file that's been sent to you, manage your contacts
and, of course, compose and send encrypted e-mails. Bear in mind though that your
recipient must also have eCipher installed on their computer in order to open your
messages.

Unlike other encryption tools, eCipher is not directly embedded into your email's interface
– which would have probably been easier – but works as an independent email tool that
uses your email server settings to send messages. eCipher is currently compatible with a
wide variety of email clients and webmail platforms, including Outlook, Thunderbird and
Gmail.

With eCipher you can easily send and received encrypted email messages, no matter
which email platform you use.

Download eCipher 1.6 in Softonic

Don’t want other people or web sites to know which web pages you have visited? Worried about people finding out what you have done on your PC? Then you may want to use CleanAfterMe to take care of your privacy.

The program can remove anything from registry entries to temporary files and empty the internet cache. Of course, everything will be deleted, from the history folder to the saved passwords. You can deselect things you don’t want to be deleted, if you find useful that the browser auto-completes logins or passwords, or if you want it to save cookies to access to your personalised search page and so on.

It’s very easy to select what you would like the program to delete every time you run it, as you have a list of options which you can just deselect. Unfortunately, for those concerned with internet privacy, the program only integrates with IE and not with other browsers.

You can clean traces you leave behind after using a computer with this efficient application, although unfortunately, for internet cleaning, CleanAfterMe only works with Internet Explorer.

Download CleanAfterMe 1.2.1 in Softonic

Vista Manager is a powerful software tool to tweak, optimize, maintain and tune up your Windows Vista, it bundles more than 20 different utilities in one. It will help your system to be stable, fast, secure and personal.

Information

Get detailed system and all hardware information on your system; show all detailed information of running processes and threads on your machine; Vista Manager offers 1-clicking and cleans your system automatically.

Optimizer

Tweak your system to improve windows startup and shutdown speed; tweak your hardware to increase system speed and performance.

Cleaner

Find out which files or folders engross your disk space and shown with chart; Find and clean junk files to increase Hard Disk space; Duplicate Files Finder can scan your computer for files with the same size, name and modification time; Registry Cleaner can easily checks your registry and repair incorrectly linked registry entries, automatically remove invalid entries; Registry Defrag rebuilds and re-indexs your registry to reduce application response time and registry access time.

Customization

Control what is started on Windows startup; edit context menus of mouse Right-Clicking; customize system desktop, menus, toolbar and notifications settings; automatically change your desktop wallpaper on background.

Security

You can improve desktop, menus, Windows logon securities, and enable numerous hidden performance options of system, disable system updates and error reports; hide and restrict to access drives, specify which applications are not allowed to be executed on your computer; encrypt/decrypt and shred files, change the location of system folders; Privacy Protector can maintain your personal privacy by eliminating the tracks that you leave behind; create lots of randomization password once.

Network

Optimize your Internet connection speed, manage all shares items; tweak your Internet Explorer easily.

Download Vista Manager 1.5.6 in Softonic

Sometimes I prefer watching movies and TV series on the computer rather than doing it on the couch. The image quality in my PC monitor is better and I can handle more formats than just DVD.

Of course, I need a good video player in order to enjoy my favorite movies at their most, and my choice is no other than BSPlayer. This great video player features anything you need to watch movies or any other kind of video on your PC. It supports all popular video formats (and audio as well, in case you were wondering) and though its basic interface is not really the nicest one I've seen, you can easily customize it with skins.

BSPlayer supports video subtitles, takes screenshots of movie currently playing, lets you create bookmarks and chapters to move along videos more easily and has also support for plug-ins. I especially liked the way you can control playback, either by using keyboard shortcuts or simply your mouse: one click to stop the video, two clicks to go full screen, mouse wheel to raise or low the volume…

The only thing I didn't like was the fact that, being a free version, you're obliged to install an adware element on your PC that displays ads from time to time while you're browsing the way. It's a safe app that doesn't compromise your privacy, but still it's not my cup of tea. I guess it's just the price you have to pay for having such a great video player for free.

BSPlayer lets you enjoy your favorite movies on the PC with a wide range of features (subtitles, screenshots, bookmarks and more) provided you're willing to accept some ads on your desktop.

Download BS.Player Free 2.31.974 in Softonic

Maxthon Internet Browser software is a powerful tabbed browser with a highly customizable interface. It is based on the Internet Explorer browser engine which means that what works in the IE browser will work the same in Maxthon tabbed browser but with many additional efficient features like such as Tabbed Browsing Interface, Mouse Gestures, Super Drag&Drop, Privacy Protection, AD Hunter, RSS Reader, IE Extensions Support, External Utility Bar, Skinning and much more.

Download Maxthon 2.1.4.443 in Softonic

Erasing data solely via the recycle bin is not the safest way to dispose of your data - anyone with a bit of know-how can recover it.

AceErase File Shredder is a simple file shredder and privacy tool in one. It works with several powerful file shredding algorithms which the developers claim are up to the Department of Defence standards and stronger. AceErase File Shredder can permanently delete and destroy files so that no trace is left of them on your hard drives indexing system.

What's nice about AceErase File Shredder is that it supports an easy to use drag and drop interface plus it doesn't just erase files permanently but it also erases history of surfing habits, recently opened files etc. AceErase File Shredder can protect you against Identity Theft or someone recovering data from a PC you've either loaned or used before someone else (such as in internet cafes).

AceErase File Shredder is an easy to use and ultra secure way to delete, shred and destroy files as well as remove traces of any recent activity.

Download AceErase File Shredder in Softonic

You can download the program and use Zultrax for free. With Zultrax you can share any kind of files with millions of users around the world. Zultrax makes filesharing fast, easy and secure. Zultrax offers stable, clean software that is easy to use, works fast and does a lot to protect your privacy. With the ZEPP protocol Zultrax introduces a way of sharing and downloading files in which your privacy is protected.

Download Zultrax P2P 4.26 in Softonic

When analyzing a software application one must praise its virtues, but also look for possible flaws that developers can improve in future versions. However, in the case of Glary Utilities it's really difficult to find anything that we don't like.

This excellent toolkit includes a handful of system utilities that enable you to tweak, repair, optimize and improve your system's performance. Tools are conveniently categorized so that you can quickly find what you're looking for: disk cleaner, uninstall manager, memory optimizer, file shredder, duplicates finder, tracks eraser... just about any tool you need. They're all generally very intuitive and in case they make important changes to the system (like the Registry repairing tool) the program creates a backup copy first.

Not all the tools included in Glary Utilities include configuration settings, something we missed in some of them such as the Disk cleaner. Also, we would like to have a Firefox Assistant, the same way the program includes an Internet Explorer Assistant.

Download Glary Utilities 2.6.1 in Softonic

Sometimes it's handy to have an all in one tool that does everything from cleaning the registry to system monitoring rather than several different apps. This is not only more likely to work properly and not conflict but it's also lighter on your RAM.

Desktop Maestro is an all-in-one cleaning and monitoring application that integrates registry cleaning, system monitoring and privacy cleaning. The developers PC Tools are well known for Registry Mechanic and Desktop Maestro combines the best of this tool with it's other flagship product, Privacy Guardian.

Desktop Maestro features the same clean and easy to administer interface that you get with most PC Tools products. Desktop Maestro will scan your entire registry for any invalid entries and clearly lists the registry errors found so you can choose to selectively clean each item or automatically repair all errors. It does of course make a backup before making any changes. The Privacy Guardian basically clears any trace of surfing habits and document use from your system and finally Desktop Maestro can also provide optimization and performance tweaks that can improve efficiency in system usage, processes, CPU, memory and disk space.

Desktop Maestro is a quality all in one product that removes the need to have a separate registry cleaner, privacy cleaner and optimiser in one.

Download Desktop Maestro 3.0.0.830 in Softonic

There are loads of hard drive cleaning applications out there designed to ensure you enjoy maximum privacy on your PC but NVT Internet Privacy Cleaner is more focused than many of them.

Most cleaners try to clean absolutely everything, which is a bit surprising because after all surfing habits are one of the main reasons people want to cover their tracks which is the niche that NVT Internet Privacy Cleaner attempts to fill. NVT Internet Privacy Cleaner is an application that can eliminate all traces of web browsing making sure to delete session cookies, temporary files and other website data.

In addition, NVT Internet Privacy Cleaner can clean any trace of downloaded files, directories of temporary files, and even files that have been downloaded from the web and opened in WinRAR, WinZIP, MS Word etc. This marks NVT Internet Privacy Cleaner out from other hard drive cleaners because many comprehensive cleaners leave out tell tale signs like recently opened file menus in compression tools or other utilities that have been used in conjunction with your browser.

NVT Internet Privacy Cleaner only works with Firefox or Internet Explorer but as an effective and quick way to clear your tracks without clearing anything else, it does a solid job.

Download NVT Internet Privacy Cleaner 1.0.0 in Softonic