USB memory sticks are undoubtedly very handy devices to carry and share files anywhere, but the way Windows handles them is still slow and annoying.

Desk Drive can help you manage USB removable devices in a much more comfortable way by automatically creating a desktop shortcut every time you connect a USB device to your computer. This is the way USB memory sticks are usually handled with in Mac OS and Linux, so if you're used to those operating systems and miss that functionality in Windows, you'll love Desk Drive.

The program is really easy to use: simply launch it and it'll rest in silence on the system tray, waiting for the moment you plug a USB device, in which it'll create a desktop shortcut to access the USB content.

Desk Drive makes USB device management easier on Windows, but my advice is to disable the autoplay window, as it interrupts the whole process and makes the program not that useful anymore.

As long as you also disable the autoplay dialog window, Desk Drive makes USB memory device management really comfortable on Windows – just like Mac OS and Linux.

Download Desk Drive 1.6.4 in Softonic

Getting a video out has always been one of the best ways to while away an evening at home. However, these days few people choose to trudge down to the video store, preferring to download a movie, or plunder the near-infinite archives on popular video sharing sites such as YouTube and Google Video. Until recently it's been impossible to obtain movies from these sites without having to stream them online. However, Vdownloader is one of a number of programs changing that, allowing you to download these videos to your computer in AVI or MPEG format.

Essentially what this means is that you don't need to wait an age for popular videos to start streaming and can keep your favourites on your hard drive to watch at any time. This application does the job as simply as you could wish for. The executable makes a very small footprint and although the interface is very barren, it makes it easy to grab videos from YouTube, Google Video, Grinvi or DailyMotion very quickly. Basically all you need to do is copy and paste the link to the video into the box provided and hit ‘download'. Alternatively, you can browse the sites themselves by selecting the portal of your choice from the drop-down menu.

In one sense, the sparseness of the interface is an advantage, as it keeps things as clean and simple as possible. In another respect we were left wanting for extra features and options to help us peruse and download the videos we want. Practically the only setting you can tweak is the via the format dialog, allowing you to specify the format of the saved video (AVI or MPEG), the size of the video and the audio bitrate. We feel that the addition of a built-in video search tool or some video compression utilities would have lifted the program from being a good program to a great one.

Add to the fact that you can't download embedded movies like the ones you find on the front page of Google Video and you can't help feel frustrated that VDownloader doesn't do quite as much as it perhaps could. Having said this, the app is still in the early stages of development and the fact that it is so lightweight makes it prefect for those who want to grab video content with the minimum of fuss.

Download VDownloader 0.74 in Softonic

From slow beginnings, BitComet has risen to become one of the most popular torrent client downloads on Softonic. For users accustomed to the often sparse interfaces of torrent apps, BitComet surprises with its flashy icons and multitude of options that give you more control over your downloads. For those that want a no-fuss client, the extra features may simply get in the way.

Once a torrent is selected for download with BitComet, a dialog pops up allowing you to determine the location to save to and select exactly which files in the torrent you want. Once downloading, the regular stop, pause, cancel, update etc options are all available plus a handy “remove torrent & all files” option which removes all trace of an unwanted torrent from your PC. Many users report the download rates are good although note no particular difference with other client speeds. The best feature however is a ‘preview media’ option, which forces the torrent to download sequentially instead of randomly thus allowing you to preview any multimedia downloads. It’s a great way to avoid broken links, but, on the downside, it will slow down your download considerably.

Another interesting feature is the ‘intelligent disk cache’ which really comes into its own on high speed connections. If you are lucky enough to get download transfer rates of 500 kb/s or higher, activating it allows BitComet to cache the data to access the disk less frequently. The result of this is that it doesn’t slow down your PC as receiving large amounts of data can sometimes do.

Forum reports from foreign users suggest that the program has not been translated properly from English, yet this doesn’t affect the capacities of BitComet. The other downside is that the uninstall procedure is not particularly clean. The application directory remains as does the registry entry although you can remove the former manually and the latter with any good registry cleaner.

There are simpler clients out there, such as uTorrent uTorrent and Azureus that offer the same download rates but with less fuss. If you have a particularly fast connection, can’t wait for your files to download before watching them and enjoy a torrent client with lots of whistles and bells, BitComet might be for you.

Download BitComet 1.05 in Softonic

If you need to share files more often than not, and you're tired of large email attachments and uncomfortable USB devices, this program is for you.

GBridge lets you easily share files by extending Google's IM service Gtalk to a virtual private network where you can share data, backup files online, sync content between different computers and even chat with your Gtalk contacts on a safe, encrypted environment.

The program is really easy to use and doesn't require any configuration to start working. Simply select the folders you want to share from your hard drive, choose those people from your contact list who will have access to that content and send them a notification. Notice that they'll also need to have GBridge installed to see and download any shared content. Security and network freaks though have a settings menu where they can tweak connection settings, limit bandwidth usage and fiddle with other options.

GBridge works fine and it's a very decent solution to share file without getting involved in complicated configurations or expensive software.

With GBridge, sharing files with your friends and creating online backup copies is easy as pie!

Download GBridge 1.0.0.1130 in Softonic

Today's professionals need to have access to their e-mail any time, no matter where they are, and Syncing.net can be very useful in these cases.

With Syncing.net you can synchronize all your Outlook data (that is, folders, contacts, tasks and calendar) on your PC with other computers, in a totally safe network you can create by yourself in just a few easy steps.

Syncing.net is therefore a perfect alternative to Exchange for synchronizing Outlook between computers, and it's especially helpful if you usually work with a desktop and laptop computers.

Syncing.net works not only with Outlook, but also with regular files. Simply select the folders you want to share in your own private network and then choose who you want to share this information with. It's as easy as sending them a message from within the program, though the invitation email can't be customized and their recipients will have to install Syncing.net as well before being able to access your network.

If you need to have your files and Outlook data permanently synchronized between different computers then this app is for you.

Download Syncing.net 2.3 Professional Edition in Softonic

CyberLink DVD Suite includes ten basic tools designed to help you make the most out of your multimedia library. Tasks like burning music compilations onto CD and DVD, creating data backup copies, or designing photo slideshows to share with friends and family are just some of the tasks that you'll be able to carry out with CyberLink DVD Suite.

The suite includes an application launcher, known as PowerStarter. This launcher works as some kind of control panel from where you can easily access all the tools included in the suite. They're categorized in tabs according to the task or action you can do with them ("watch movie", "make an audio CD", "copy a data DVD") instead of displaying the actual tool's name. PowerStarter also includes a special Favorites tab where you can add shortcuts to your most frequently used actions.

This app launcher obviously makes things much easier for the average user, but power users may find it confusing, as they're probably used to choosing the application they want to open – not the task they want to do.

What does CyberLink DVD Suite include? As a starter, you'll find a powerful recording tool (Power2Go) with which you can burn audio and data CD and DVD, perfect to enjoy your favorite music anywhere and make backup copies.

Another outstanding app is PowerProducer, which lets you create VCD, SVCD and video and photo compilations. If you want to create a fully customized slideshow with soundtrack, transition effects and all the bells and whistles, then your best choice is Medi@Show. PowerDVD Copy and PowerBackup also deserve a mention, allowing you to copy non-protected DVD movies and create security copies of your sensitive data respectively.

CyberLink DVD Suite is undoubtedly a very complete package with high-quality tools, which is very suitable for the average user. I'm not that sure about more advanced users though: I'm convinced that the more you learn about how to use computers and software, the less you need to download a huge-sized suite with a dozen tools from which you'll probably only use three or four - especially in the case of CyberLink DVD Suite, where you can't choose which specific tools you want to install.

CyberLink DVD Suite is a fully featured multimedia suite with a very varied set of tools to burn discs, create backup copies, design slideshows and more.

Download CyberLink DVD Suite 6 Essential in Softonic

CyberLink DVD Suite includes ten basic tools designed to help you make the most out of your multimedia library. Tasks like burning music compilations onto CD and DVD, creating data backup copies, or designing photo slideshows to share with friends and family are just some of the tasks that you'll be able to carry out with CyberLink DVD Suite.

The suite includes an application launcher, known as PowerStarter. This launcher works as some kind of control panel from where you can easily access all the tools included in the suite. They're categorized in tabs according to the task or action you can do with them ("watch movie", "make an audio CD", "copy a data DVD") instead of displaying the actual tool's name. PowerStarter also includes a special Favorites tab where you can add shortcuts to your most frequently used actions.

This app launcher obviously makes things much easier for the average user, but power users may find it confusing, as they're probably used to choosing the application they want to open – not the task they want to do.

What does CyberLink DVD Suite include? As a starter, you'll find a powerful recording tool (Power2Go) with which you can burn audio and data CD and DVD, perfect to enjoy your favorite music anywhere and make backup copies.

Another outstanding app is PowerProducer, which lets you create VCD, SVCD and video and photo compilations. If you want to create a fully customized slideshow with soundtrack, transition effects and all the bells and whistles, then your best choice is Medi@Show. PowerDVD Copy and PowerBackup also deserve a mention, allowing you to copy non-protected DVD movies and create security copies of your sensitive data respectively. The Pro version of the suite also includes PowerDirector, a handy video editor to tweak, cut, crop, copy and paste your video files.

CyberLink DVD Suite is undoubtedly a very complete package with high-quality tools, which is very suitable for the average user. I'm not that sure about more advanced users though: I'm convinced that the more you learn about how to use computers and software, the less you need to download a huge-sized suite with a dozen tools from which you'll probably only use three or four - especially in the case of CyberLink DVD Suite, where you can't choose which specific tools you want to install.

CyberLink DVD Suite is a fully featured multimedia suite with a very varied set of tools to burn discs, create backup copies, design slideshows and more.

Download CyberLink DVD Suite 6 Pro in Softonic

Poster Forge is a fun tool that enables you to create posters with your own digital pictures in a very easy way. Unlike other similar tools, which only create larger versions of the image for you to print out, Poster Forge adds some cool effects that can turn any picture into a motivational poster, movie poster or a Far West "Wanted" style poster.

The program's interface is divided into three tabs (one for each kind of poster) and includes all the tools you need to customize them. Simply add a picture, type in any text you want, tweak a few settings and you're pretty much done. Unfortunately, there were things I couldn't customize, such as font size. Also, even though there's a tool to move the picture around and make it fit better, it's very limited and sometimes the picture needs to be cropped with a third-party app.

Once finished, the poster can be saved as an image file or conveniently printed as a poster with the built-in printing tool, which enables you to optimize poster printing and make them easier to assemble.

Turn your photos into original posters very easily and in just a few minutes.

Download Poster Forge 1.01.11 in Softonic

ImagePut is all about sharing images and organizing them into beautiful albums in an easy-to-use and attractive interface.

However, it can also be used to share cool things you see on the Internet with others. So for example, if you see a great picture on a website, you can drop it into the interface and instantly share it with your friends. ImagePut allows you to upload a collection of internet images in as well as create image based presentations.

ImagePut works with most major image formats and allows you to upload images to Flickr, Inspiration, Glowfoto, TinyPic and PicOodle! You can upload files separately or in batches and it even includes a very basic but functional editor to add elements to a photograph or eliminate red-eye.

ImagePut doesn't really offer anything out of the ordinary for a piece of image presentation software but it does at least cater for all image needs whether it's presentations or just sharing.

Download ImagePut 1.2 in Softonic

If you've already adopted Google Chrome as your default browser, here's a small tool that you're going to find really useful.

Google Chrome Backup lets you create a backup copy of your Chrome user profile, that is, all the data you collect and save for your personal usage while using the web browser. This user profile includes saved passwords, bookmarks, browsing history and cookies, among other personal elements.

The whole process is done through a three-step wizard that limits user intervention to choosing a target folder where to save the backup copy. Easy as pie! Unfortunately, Google Chrome Backup doesn't really let you choose which elements should be added to this backup and which shouldn't: either you backup the whole thing or not.

The good thing though about Google Chrome Backup is that you can not only backup your existing profile, but also create new ones. This comes in specially handy when you want to run some tests or install new add-ons that may be dangerous for your current profile. It's also a great way to share the browser between users: each one of them can have their own profile.

With Google Chrome Backup you can create backup copies of your current Google Chrome profile as well as create new ones, all in a very easy way.

Download Google Chrome Backup 1.4.0.65 in Softonic

CyberLink is a comprehensive program designed to let you manage, edit, optimize and share your photos and videos.

CyberLink MediaShow allows you to arrange your photo collection in any way you like, supporting the dragging and dropping of images. You can organize and enhance your videos or photos easily or you can even create a personalized screensaver for your computer by dragging pictures onto the screensaver icon.

CyberLink MediaShow features what the designers call a "Liquid Interface" which allows you to browse pictures and videos in a unique way. The entire interface is in 3D which obviously puts a lot of pressure on your RAM but it really makes images jump out at you in much the same way as browsing pictures on Picasa. CyberLink MediaShow immediately detects external devices as soon as they are connected and imports the images into its library for instant use.

CyberLink MediaShow has everything to make your photo slideshows into something special but it does require a lot of RAM and processing power.

Download CyberLink MediaShow 4.0.1805.7150 in Softonic

Bittorrent and Gnutella might be hogging the headlines of the peer to peer (P2P) world, but close behind comes Ares, a successful P2P application that boasts of having its own decentralized network and a simple, quick access interface. Ares spun-off from Gnutella in 2002, and since then has been building a strong and dedicated community of users.

Installing Ares only takes a few minutes and the interface is simple enough that anybody will feel comfortable with it. The new version has a very sleek and dark interface, not unlike that of WMP 11. When you start Ares, it lets you auto scan your PC to find files you might like to share on the network. Beginners will be relieved to know that there is no complex configuration process involved. Once Ares is installed, all you need to do is select the search tab and type the name of the file you want to download. Once it appears, double click on it to begin downloading. You’ll be able to check its progress in the transfer tab. The recent update adds bittorrent support, opening Ares up to loads of new content.

If you enjoy exchanging words with other users, click on the chat tab and connect to one of the thousands of channels available. You can pick up tips on how to use Ares better, ask which files other users recommend or just chit chat about your life in general. You can even insert emoticons into your conversation and keep a list of your favorite chat channels.

Of all the P2P programs, Ares probably features the widest preview screen. You can set it to fit to screen or adjust it to your preference. This is a great way of making sure you’re downloading the right movie or to get a sneak peak at your downloads.

Unlike WinMX or FileNavigator, the two other spin-off Gnutella projects, Ares did not drop into obscurity and unites a flourishing community of users. However, the same old problems usually seem to arise. According to many Ares users the application suffers from constant connectivity troubles making it difficult to properly search for a file or to successfully complete downloads. Others will worry that Ares is a much smaller network than the globally used Gnutella and does not offer quite as much download sources.

Ares is an ambitious project, and the fact that it still remains standing while eDonkey has fallen at the hands of the RIAA, is characteristic of its reliability. Thanks to a strong community of users, a simple interface, a great preview page and multichat service, Ares remains a P2P application of choice for anybody interested into sharing files over the internet.

Download Ares Galaxy 2.0.9 in Softonic

Limewire, one of the world’s most popular peer-to-peer filesharing applications, has received a lawsuit from the RIAA, who are demanding $115 million in damages, claiming the application promotes the infringement of copyright. Similar applications like Grokster and Kazaa have been forced to go legal and there is speculation as to just how long LimeWire will resist until they have to buckle and pay up. The existence of the popular P2P application is not under threat, but if you haven’t given it a try yet, here’s just what makes it a standout program.

In terms of file sharing, LimeWire is the cream of the crop, offering the essential peer-to- peer tools in what is probably the friendliest interface of applications in its class. Beginners will appreciate the search bar, which allows you to select the type of file you’re looking for, video, image, audio, program or file. LimeWire has a “what’s new” button to check out what popular files users have recently exchanged. We also enjoyed the direct connect option. If you know the IP address of one of your friends, type it in the box and LimeWire will browse that user’s files. This is a quick way of sharing files with someone else and can come in handy when working on a project and exchanging documents. The only little snag we have with direct connect is that it doesn’t let you enter the username, much simpler than looking for your friend’s IP address.

Downloading with LimeWire is very intuitive. After you’ve searched and found the file you are looking for, double-click on it to start the downloading process. The speed of your download depends firstly on the quality of your connection (broadband is a minimum), if you’ve correctly opened your router’s ports and whether you’re downloading a popular file or not. We would like to point out the effort that Limewire takes to make itself accessible to beginners. Not only does a tip pop up every time you launch the application, the help option also leads you to LimeWire’s support centre, FAQs and a forum to get in contact with other users.

The lawsuit carried out by the RIAA is all the more surprising because of the measures LimeWire takes to keep you in the realms of legality. If you decide to download LimeWire from its website, you will first have to agree you will not use it for copyright infringement. When you’re configuring the application, you can set content filters, to avoid downloading files that copyright owners do not want you to share. To avoid embarrassing situations, make sure you tick the “block adult content” box, which will filter out any pornographic files from your searches.

The best way of checking the quality of the audio or video you’re downloading is via LimeWire’s mini player. It’s fairly basic and to par with the players you find in similar filesharing applications, but we appreciated the way it was integrated in the application.

If there’s one thing that we’re still expecting from the LimeWire team, it’s that it finally decides to jump on the BitTorrent bandwagon. Torrents are the way forward when it comes to peer to peer file sharing because of the speed, the security and freshness of downloads. Large files like movies or complete seasons of TV series are much easier to download via BitTorrent. We were also annoyed by the “buy the PRO version” window that popped up every time we started LimeWire.

For its wealth of possibilities and huge base of users, (more than 4 million simultaneously on the Gnutella network) we encourage you to give LimeWire a test drive. Because of the controversial nature of the application, you should always make sure that you aren’t using LimeWire for illegal activities like copyright infringement. However don’t be scared off by the legality issue. LimeWire, like most P2P applications is one of the most exciting possibilities that the internet gives us. It would be a shame not to give it a try. You should also check out Frostwire, the not-for-profit project of the LimeWire development team.

Download LimeWire Basic 4.18.8 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

Shareaza started out life as the legendary Gnutella network but today is one of the most realistic competitors to eMule.

Shareaza is a completely free peer to peer (P2P) file sharing system. The program features Multi-Network Support which basically means it can connect up to 4 separate Peer-to-Peer networks at the same time meaning more hits and faster downloads.

You can download and upload from the EDonkey2000, Gnutella, BitTorrent and Gnutella2 (G2) networks. The latest release features something called "Collections" too. Collections basically group previews of album covers, descriptions, and song lists all in one complete package. It's designed to help you discover similar music to that you already like although in reality, it's not that useful. The interface is very simple to use - very much like eMule. All the search results are displayed clearly including file type, size and estimated download time. You can also choose to filter searches by file type such as picture, video or software.

Shareaza is one of the best P2P networks out there although it still pales in comparison to eMule in terms of results and download speeds.

Download Shareaza 2.4.0 in Softonic

The torrent phenomenon is one of the most hyped about in the world of technology among Peer to Peer (P2P) users. It consists of sharing large files, like movies, software, or games anonymously and quickly with other peers. The file you want to download is cut up into small segments shared by users, creating what is called a swarm, and does not go through a central server, significantly reducing the bulk of file transfers, The Bittorrent client is actually the first P2P application to use this technology and became immensely popular when it was released. Torrents are considered by online users as a great way to download recently released movies or tv shows.

Thanks to a straightforward, uncluttered interface Bittorrent appears as a friendly torrent client that beginners will feel comfortable with. We particularly appreciated the integrated search box to look for files on the bittorrent website. Once you’ve found the torrent you want, download it to your PC, open it up inside Bittorrent and let the client do its job. The speed at which you download will depend on the number of seeds, that is people who have the complete file and are sharing it. The more seeds there are the quicker files will download.

You can set multiple torrent downloads and the downloading speed is fairly quick. It’s easy to configure the client and we suggest choosing the right port and setting upload and download rate limits to avoid hogging your bandwidth. It’s also good to set your downloads by priority to monitor more precisely how your torrents are doing.

Compared to the exhaustive Azureus, Bittorrent is very simplistic. It doesn’t provide half as many statistics and doesn’t let you customize the interface. Integrating a search box is a great idea, but it limits searches to the bittorrent website, not considered the most thorough source by torrent aficionados.

If you’re a newbie to the torrent world, Bittorrent is a good bet. It’s safe, stable and sharp. Associated with the huge database of legal torrents that is the bittorrent website, it makes for a very rich P2P experience. Advanced users will probably frown upon its lack of options but others should give it a try.

Download BitTorrent 6.1.1 in Softonic

For anyone involved in software reviewing like the team at Softonic, annotations of screenshots and other data are essential in day-to-day work.

The same goes for anyone who regularly has to use presentations and other graphical displays to share information. ZoomIt aims to make presentations and annotations easy enough for anyone to illustrate and add comments and annotations to their presentations and screenshots. The first time you run ZoomIt, you're presented with a configuration dialog that gives you some tips on what the program can do and how it should be used. During this time, you're also offered the chance to specify alternate hotkeys for zooming in and out and for entering drawing mode without zooming. In addition, you can customise the drawing pen color and size although this is one aspect where ZoomIt could do with some work as both the sizes and colour palette is rather limited. There's also what the program calls a "break timer" that remains active even when you tab away from the timer window but then allows you to return to the timer window by clicking on the ZoomIt tray icon.

This is by no means the most advanced screen annotation utility you'll ever use but for simple arrow pointing and circling of certain facts and figures, it does a quick and efficient job.

Download ZoomIt 2.11 in Softonic

WinRAR for U3 is WinRAR adapted to the U3 smart drive computing platform. All you need is a U3 smart drive, and you can access WinRAR (including your profiles, AV-Code, themes, etc.) from any Windows 2000 or XP computer, anywhere.

No hassle – with a U3 smart drive, you minimize the hassle of managing multiple and shared computers. There’s no need to – because you can carry your personal PC-environment with you wherever you go. It’s easy to carry, easy to install, and completely secure. Once you remove the U3 smart drive from a PC, your software is removed, too – and no one else will have access to it.

Download WinRAR for U3 3.7.1.1 in Softonic

Desktop sharing is not just the expert field of tech professionals anymore. Whether you want to show how an application works or simply to explain things on someone else's PC, you'll need to find a way to share desktops easily.

TeamViewer offers a simple way of creating desktop sharing sessions with other users whether on a distant PC, local connection or over the internet. Both users will each have an ID and password with which to connect to their session.

Taking control of another PC is a great way to solve issues from a distance and demonstrate things on a desktop without actually being there physically. TeamViewer also allows file transfer and includes a chat function to communicate with your contact.

You can also record sessions and play them back afterward. These can then be used as tutorials or to go back on what you've done in previous sessions.

If you dig in the details you'll be able to choose not only whether to optimize quality or speed, but also configure the amount of access you want to give to your desktop.

The free version of TeamViewer has a number of limitations, and lacks a number of modules like the TeamViewer manager or customer module. If you want more features you'll have to be ready to pay at least €159 for higher end versions.

TeamViewer is a good program to quickly share desktops with another user. The free version will let you create secure sessions and control what you show to your contact over the internet.

Download TeamViewer 3.6.4889 in Softonic

As mobile phones become ever smarter, more and more of us are using our devices as mini computers. But how easy do you find it to share data from your Windows machine with your mobile? Not very, I reckon.

Until now, only Windows Mobile users have really had any kind of standardized platform for transferring files and synchronizing contacts between a PC and a handheld device: using Microsoft ActiveSync. Not any more though, because Microsoft Phone Data Manger enables data sharing between Windows and a wide variety of different phones and PDAs.

Microsoft Phone Data Manger is specifically designed to transfer contacts, photos, music and video from your device to your PC, and to synchronize your phone's contacts with your Windows Live contacts. This is great for users of the service, as it ensures you have access to your phone book when you don't have it to hand, and means that your contacts are kept safe in the vent of you losing your mobile. Of course, this is only good if you use Windows Live, because Microsoft Phone Data Manager doesn't support GMail, Yahoo! or any other webmail provider.

The key to Microsoft Phone Data Manager lies in its simplicity. The application detects any device connected, provided it supports the SyncML standard - check the Microsoft website to see if your device does. You'll need to connect via Bluetooth or USB cable in order to perform syncs. Syncing in Phone Data Manager is a real breeze. You simply double-click on the device you wish to hook up to, then choose whether you want to sync your contacts or back up your files. Enter your Windows Live (or Hotmail) ID and the program will automatically share your contacts between your phone and the email service.

Microsoft Phone Data Manager is still in beta, so it isn't perfect. There are a few interface glitches, such as the screwy Live ID entry screen, and the fact that there aren't any advanced features like a proper file explorer.

On the whole, however, Microsoft Phone Data Manager provides a fast and reliable way of syncing contacts and backing up files.

Download Microsoft Phone Data Manager Beta in Softonic