Are you forever forgetting appointments, birthdays, things to do, to walk the dog, your dentists appointments, exams, etc.?

Well, you'll know that using post-it notes is often a very disorganized affair - they get torn, lost and, before long, your desk looks like a sea of yellow sticky paper. PNotes basically allows you to write virtual post-it notes on your desktop rather than plastering them around your working environment.

PNotes is a beautifully designed and presented program which gives you an authentic sticky note feel. PNotes not only act as a visual reminder but can also be set to alert you when an appointment is near, at a time you configure.

Another really useful feature of PNotes is the ability to join groups by choice, which allows you to create, modify, delete and relocate groups by simple clicking or dragging-and-drop. You can change the group for each note written simply by dragging it to the group of your choice. Whatsmore, you can even customise the look with some pretty cool skins and even create your own with PNSkinCreator (although this has to be installed separately) so sticky yellow post it notes will never look the same again.

PNotes has recently been updated to add a much needed search and replace tool which helps you find those notes that have expired or you'd like to change using keywords. You can set the notes to appear randomly in a different colors each time you post them and you can also select whether you want your most recently created post it note to appear on top or not.

PNotes is a clever and highly useful program that will have sticky note fans reaching for their wastepaper bin and converting to this far more organized method instead.

Download PNotes 4.01 in Softonic

Rainlendar is a lightweight and customizable calendar for your desktop.

When I first launched Rainlendar I was impressed by the widget-like appearance. Widget are small, handy gadgets that can pop up on your screen to show you all types of information, from weather forecasts, to stock charts or the time and date. They are usually small, attractive and very discreetly fit on your desktop. Rainlendar’s elements similarly have that cloud-like feel. The notes, events and calendar windows float around on your desktop and can be moved about your screen and disappear or reappear in a touch.

Rainlendar stands out from classic calendar programs thanks to a highly customizable interface and the possibility to quickly and effortlessly jot down notes and important events. Although it only comes with two different skins, the program offers a link to www.customize.org, where you should find the style which suits your tastes. But Rainlendar doesn’t stop there. You can set up hotkeys to manage Rainlendar at the push of a key and, thanks to various plug-ins present in the program, integrate Rainlendar directly to other utilities like Outlook and iCalendar. Rainlendar is always within reach as a tray icon on your desktop and bringing it up just takes a click of your mouse.

Unfortunately Rainlendar’s real originality is also its weakness. The program offers a wide range of skins but adding these to the program is far from straightforward. You have to drag your downloaded skin into the Skins folder for the Rainlendar program file and then browse to the new skin from the ‘Edit Skin’ option in Rainlendar’s drop down menu.

If you like to keep your calendar on your PC, but find the one offered by Windows too dull, Rainlendar is a good alternative. You’ll enjoy setting your own style and the way it discreetly fits onto your desktop.

Download Rainlendar 2.4 in Softonic

aMSN is an alternative to the classic MSN Messenger, with more features yet a much weaker interface. The chat client looks very similar to Microsoft's product yet differs on a number of points. aMSN developers have delved into the preferences menu, adding extra little features like event alerts and sounds, conferencing support or autoaway messages. Like with MSN Messenger you'll be able to transfer files and organize all your contacts into groups.

Audio/Video support is the number one function that users look for in IM clients nowadays, yet an area which aMSN doesn't particularly focus on. Webcam support is fairly weak and unstable, and instead of integrating into your chat window will open up in a new Quicktime window.

One of the biggest pet peeves of users with aMSN is the interface. It simply doesn't compare with more sleeker, more recent IM clients. To the developer's defense though you can download all sorts of skins from the program's website. Similarly it offers up a range of plugins, to customize your client to your liking. Chat addicts will also appreciate the animated emoticons on hand.

In terms of performance, you have to keep in mind that aMSN is still a Beta product, so still liable to some crashes and bugs. We did have some trouble when opening up new chat window and noticed that the client tended to use a lot of CPU.

In a few words, aMSN is a good alternative to MSN for users looking to add more plugins, skins and delve into the preferences menu.

Download aMSN Messenger 0.97.2 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

K-Meleon is an extremely fast, customizable, lightweight web browser for the win32 (Windows) platform based on the Gecko layout engine (the rendering engine of Mozilla). K-Meleon is free, open source software released under the GNU General Public License.

Features:

• Choose your desired bookmarking system
• "Tabbed" browsing
• Mouse gestures
• Complete toolbar, menu, context menu, & keyboard shortcut customization
• Block popup windows
• Fast load time
• Easy web searching
• Themes & skins
• Macros

Download K-Meleon 1.5.0 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

The Start menu is supposed to give you quick access to programs and files, but it often ends up being a real mess. This is the time when you need some alternative like Executor.

Despite its scary name, Executor is a nice, useful application that enables you to open files and launch your favorite applications and websites just by typing the keywords you have previously assigned to them. What's more, as the program auto-completes each entry, the first few letters are usually enough. The program also includes some built-in keywords for the most common tasks, such as performing a Google search or opening the Control Panel.

Executor features an extensive configuration menu that enables you to customize every single detail. It also has support for skins, but the included skins are generally very dark and hard to read. Luckily enough, you can create your own personal color combination and save it as skin.

Download Executor 0.98b in Softonic

If you're a Windows Vista user you'll no doubt be enjoying all those cool sidebar gadgets. But if you don't you can always make do with tools like Thoosje Vista Sidebar.

With Thoosje Vista Sidebar you can have a completely customizable gadgets sidebar on your desktop even if you have Windows XP. Simply run it and start adding any gadget you want by clicking on the little cross button on the top. The gadgets are quite varied and cover different needs: from the PC resources meter to the photo slideshow, from the RSS mini-reader to the weather gadget. Bear in mind that when you select gadgets for Thoosje Vista Sidebar they appear on your desktop – not on the sidebar itself – and you have to manually drag and drop them on Thoosje Vista Sidebar.

Once ready and customized with all your chosen gadgets, Thoosje Vista Sidebar looks really beautiful on your desktop. Plus, it includes some background skins to make it fit perfectly with the image you have as wallpaper. The downside to this graphical beauty is that it may slow down your system. Also, Thoosje Vista Sidebar seems to be a bit slow when opening menu windows. But the main drawback is undoubtedly the fact that you can't download new gadgets – you must stick to the ones the author provides you with in the program's configuration.

Thoosje Vista Sidebar looks beautiful on your desktop, but it may slow down your system. Also, not being able to download new gadgets is really frustrating.

Download Thoosje Vista Sidebar 2.5 in Softonic

Following the release of new versions of both Internet Explorer and Firefox, the infamous 'browser wars' are flaring up again. Despite both Firefox 1.5 and the Beta of IE7 making significant strides, it would be be foolish to think this was a two-horse race. While gaining a good reputation with geeks and power users, Opera has long been a bit-part player among the big boys of the browser world. However, if this preview release is anything to go by, the Norwegian-built browser could finally be ready to punch with the heavyweights.

Opera has been pioneering new ways of browsing the web for some time. It has had tabbed browsing since the days before tabbed browsing was cool and developed the innovative 'mouse gestures' control system, where you navigate through the web just by holding the mouse button and flicking your wrist. The developers even dabbled with a multi-pane interface for viewing several pages within one interface.

The good news is that Opera has lost none of its appetite for innovation, and version 9 is packed with new goodies that will have the programmers at Mozilla and Microsoft choking on their doughnuts. For starters the app runs much quicker than the previous release, making it arguably the quickest browser around (except perhaps for Safari) at rendering pages. Incredibly, despite this boost in performance, the program appears to use less memory than version 8.5, making it far less draining on system resources than Firefox and IE.

In terms of features Opera is the gift that keeps on giving. New to the program comes OSX Tiger-style 'widgets', allowing you to check news, convert currency, view the weather and so on through a series of draggable pop-ups which anchor themselves in front of the browser. Although there aren’t many widgets to choose from at present, this is sure to change once the tech-minded Opera fans start developing more.

Another great addition to Opera 9 is BitTorrent support, allowing you to download torrents directly within the browser – a feature that amazingly no one had thought of before. This system works very smoothly, which makes us wonder why RSS feed reading support in Opera is still so poor.

Among the other new treats within the program is a nifty new search feature which lets you add any search engine to the search bar in the main toolbar. This means you can instantly access searches within your favorite online destinations (Softonic, for instance).

Tabbed browsing remains, although some users may be annoyed to discover that Opera has added close tab buttons to the tabs themselves rather than as a separate button. Having said this, the new web page preview thumbnails that appear when you rollover a tab are a real masterstroke. Mouse gestures are still there too, along with the addition of Total Recall-style voice commands – another example of how cutting-edge this browser is.

Opera's developers have been keen to ramp up security features too, and although they aren't highly original, the new content blocking and pop-up blocking functions serve their purpose effectively. What's more, it's refreshing to see a browser that embraces the latest web standards so freely, with the latest release boasting support for CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 tags.

The browser is remarkably stable and is far better behaved than Internet Explorer 7. Combined with its speed, innovative features and standards support, Opera is undoubtedly web software's best-kept secret, and the final release may prove to be even better than Firefox. Don't say anything though, or everyone will want it.

Download Opera 9.52 in Softonic

Maxthon (formerly MyIE2) is a multipage browser based on the Internet Explorer core. It can open multiple Web pages in just one window, and it takes only a few system resources when you're surfing with the integrated user interface. The application supports special plug-ins and IE extensions, and its features include autoscrolling, form autofilling, external tools, plug-in support, a newsgroup-browsing mode, mouse gestures, customizable skins, and an Autohide panel.

Download Maxthon Standard 1.6.4.20 build 50 in Softonic

Have you ever wanted to play a joke on someone in a chatroom by pretending to be someone completely different?

Unless you're a ventriloquist it's not easy but AV VoizGame allows you to do so specifically in online chatrooms. AV VoizGame allows you to change your voice as you speak through a microphone in realtime to confuse the hell out of your online buddies or opponents. If you're playing multiplayer online role playing games, then you can really have some fun confusing your opponents or just generally mucking about.

If you want to relive your favourite gags, AV VoizGame comes with an inbuilt recorder which records your voice for. If you want to keep it hidden on your desktop, you can also do that by making the skin transparent. However, at almost $30 to upgrade, it seems a bit of a steep cost for a simple voice modulation software.

There's not much point to AV VoizGame other than playing jokes on online opponents and while it is a lot of fun, it's questionable whether it's really worth $30 to upgrade.

Download AV VoizGame 4.0.77 in Softonic

Some months ago I learnt about Greasemonkey, a Firefox extension that enables you to customize the appearance and behaviour of certain web pages by means of some Javascript snippets. But that coding bit somehow kept me away from testing it. You know, I'm a lazy user and I want software apps to do all the work by themselves.

Now I've found this great extension that features the best Greasemonkey scripts for Gmail. You don't even need to have Greasemonkey itself installed. Better Gmail is the only thing you need to add new functionalities to your Gmail inbox, customize its appearance and improve your productivity.

Among other things, you'll be able to see previews of message content, identify attachments with a file type icon, save searches, add skins to Gmail's interface and even integrate Google Reader under the Gmail page.

Unfortunately I had problems with some of the scripts (label coloring wouldn't work for me) but in general terms this makes a great extension for Gmail fans.

If you think Gmail is great, install this Firefox extension and make it even better with new functionalities and an improved look.

Download Better Gmail 2.0.6 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

PeaZip is an OS-portable archiver tool (released for Windows and Linux); it supports it's native Pea archive format (featuring compression, splitting and flexible encryption and integrity check schemes) and other mainstream formats, with especial focus on handling open formats. Full support: 001 (raw file split/join), 7z, 7zip sfx, Bzip2, Gzip, Pea, Tar, Zip; Browse/extract-only support: Z.

PeaZip doesn't follow the Explorer-like interface paradigm; the interface is more similar to a CD/DVD-burner application, allowing the user to: - save and restore layout of archives (input files and folders list) to speed up definition of archiving and backup operations; - save job definition (as plain text, to be used in any script language).

The interface is fully skinnable (skins can be customised and saved as plain text to be re-edited as freely as possible) and uses customisable transparency. The program doesn't need to be installed/unistalled, it can run from any path (even remote; a writeable path is recommended), however Windows version is released both as a standalone binary and as a fully automated installer/uninstaller package, allowing tight system integration to use PeaZip right from Explorer.

Download PeaZip 2.2 in Softonic

Winamp was born as a very basic media player and has slowly but consistently improving for many years. Its main purpose was to be completely customizable and through the years, many people have contributed to a library that now consists of 20,000 skins and 461 plug-ins.

When version 5 was released, Nullsoft redeemed themselves in the public's eyes after producing a much improved player to replace Winamp 3. They didn't need much encouragement as they justified skipping version number 4 by saying that it was such a huge improvement that it deserved to be called 5!

Luckily they are justified in their opinion, as Winamp offers everything you might want in a media player. Using the skins, you can set it to look like the original or the current default which looks great and puts you in control of all your media quickly and easily. I particularly like the minimized player that consists of a small bar that you can place on the edge of your screen. Of course, if neither of these agree with your taste you can download and try any of the thousands others available on the Winamp website.

The player supports a wide range of file formats, and because the program is small and simple, it works quickly on almost all computers. Have a look through the available plug-ins and you will also find that you can hook up your iPod and manage its music library.

Download Winamp 5.541 Full in Softonic

Winamp Lite is a small version of Winamp, it weighs less than one megabyte, that will essentially let you play audio files and use classic skins and plug-ins. Great to fit onto your desktop and if you don't to use up to much hard drive space. However, if you want to enjoy the complete benefits of Winamp, you should install the Full version instead.

Download Winamp 5.541 Lite in Softonic

Power Notes is a multi-featured desktop notes organizer, reminder and scheduler allowing you to create electronic sticky notes and display them at a set time. The program is very easy to use and has low system requirements.

The program allows you to perform the following:

• Create electronic desktop notes (stickers)
• Edit sticky notes in the quick and advanced modes
• Specify the date and time of reminder
• Customize the default parameters of notes (their size, text, background and title color, position on the desktop, transparency; shortcuts)
• Specify the date and time of a reminder in every detail with the help of "Alarm Wizard"
• Run programs and opening web pages when the note appears
• Print the text of stickers
• Save the text of a note to a file
• Anniversary and birthday reminder
• Use various skins
• Scheduling turning off the computer

Download Power Notes 3.33 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

One of the best Firefox extensions you'll find, FoxyTunes lets you control any media player from your browser.

FoxyTunes is really the ideal add-on if you listen to your music all the time and are tired of switching back and forth between your browser and your media player. The extension fits discreetly at the bottom of your browser window, and includes all the basic playback buttons. You can also have it appear as a floating window, called FoxyTunes Mini. Advanced users will also enjoy being able to control it via keyboard shortcuts.

What makes FoxyTunes such an exceptional add-on though is its customizability. Not only can you add all sorts of skins, but you can also associate with any of the most popular media player, including online services like Last.FM, Pandora or Rhapsody Online. And since Yahoo! has acquired FoxyTunes you'll also now get fresh content from Yahoo! News and Yahoo! Music related to the music you're playing.

Via FoxyTunes Planet, which opens up in a new browser window, you can get search for any track, album or artist and get all sorts of content such as video, articles or audio from your results.

Despite the volume slider not being very precise, FoxyTunes is the ultimate Firefox extension for music lovers. It works with any player and also displays additional content on the music you're playing.

Download FoxyTunes Extension 3.0.4.1 in Softonic

Alert yourself about important events with different alarms and replace your tray clock using different skins. Alarm clock that will play a MP3 file. It also can run a program, log off, reboot, shut down, or power off. Atomic Alarm Clock also an atomic-time synchronizer and advanced replacement for Windows tray clock, over 100 skins are included in the distribution. This alarm clock is built into your personal PC and is completely customizable.

Download Atomic Alarm Clock 5.65 in Softonic