If there is something we have learned here at Softonic, it's that a good PDF creator is hard to find. They are either ugly, slow, lack functions or, more often, all three. Will PDF-XChange Viewer be any different?

It is! Viewing PDFs with PDF-XChange Viewer is fast and smooth - you can skip through and back pages, view documents in a variety of layouts, and search and find pages and keywords seamlessly. PDF-XChange Viewer's toolbars are totally customizable, and there is a considerable range of configuration options.

PDF-XChange Viewer's editing options are also impressive. Although the free version doesn't allow you to create documents from scratch, it does let you edit extensively, with a few exceptions, mainly the ability to add or remove pages. Commenting, underlining, stamping, attaching files and creating text boxes are all easily done, and can be modified and removed in the click of a button.

There are also tooltips, so you know what you are doing before you click. This feature is very welcome, as the PDF-XChange Viewer help is not very good. Additional cool features include a snapshot tool, document preview when opening PDFs and a huge range of interface language options.

PDF-XChange Viewer is a great PDF editor that is streets ahead of its many rivals.

Download PDF-XChange Viewer 2.5.211 in Softonic

Viewing PDFs with PDF-XChange Viewer Portable is fast and smooth; you can skip through pages, view documents in a variety of layouts, and search and find both pages and keywords seamlessly. PDF-XChange Viewer Portable's toolbars are entirely customizable, and there is a considerable range of configuration options.

PDF-XChange Viewer Portable's editing options are also impressive. Although the free version doesn't allow you to create documents from scratch, it does let you edit extensively. The main exception is the ability to add or remove pages. Commenting, underlining, stamping, attaching files and creating text boxes are all easily done, and can be modified and removed in the click of a button.

There are also tooltips, so you know what you are doing before you click. This feature is very welcome, as the PDF-XChange Viewer Portable help is not very good. Additional cool features include a snapshot tool, document preview when opening PDFs and a huge range of interface language options.

PDF-XChange Viewer Portable is executable from a USB stick and offers the same features as the desktop version. It is incredibly easy to move PDFs from your PC to PDF-XChange Viewer Portable as well, making the program even more desirable for frequent PDF users and readers.

PDF-XChange Viewer is a great PDF editor that for anyone who makes frequent use of this document type.

Download PDF-XChange Viewer Portable 2.5.211 in Softonic

Features

With Skype you can not only have voice chats on your computer – just like telephone, only for free – but also make real phone calls at much lower rates, using the SkypeOut service and paying with Skype credit. Besides voice chats, Skype also includes standard IM functionalities (written conversations, emoticons, user avatars and so on) and also lets you have group video conferences and share screens.

Usability

These video calls are precisely the main focus on Skype's latest version. The program's interface has been completely redesigned with video conferences on mind. This means it's been made wider so that video fits in perfectly with your written chat, your contact list and a toolbar to manage conversation.

The new interface is transformed when you make a call, getting rid of all the clutter, so you just see the video images, and controls. Group video is still being tested in this version, and it's pretty cool.

The other major development is Facebook integration. This is a pretty big thing, as not only does it give you your news feed in the app - anyone can do that - but adds call and sms buttons to any of your friends who share their contact numbers.

If you’ve paid for Skype minutes, you can call your Facebook friends, and if they’re also signed in to Skype you can call them for free. One of the best new features is the automatic call recovery - drop a call and it’s put in pause. Restarting it is now really easy.

Quality

The sound quality during our testing was perfect: loud and clear. Video sometimes appeared a bit pixelated, but nothing we couldn't really deal with. There was also one nice detail, and that's the ability to see your own video image built-in on your contact's video, and the option to take a snapshot of your own image.

Conclusion

Skype 6 features a complete interface overhaul that now focuses more on video chats, and also adds some handy improvements to the way you communicate online.

What's new

Log in with your Microsoft account
Select and pin your favorite contacts
Facebook and Skype contacts combined into one Contacts list
Easier to understand premium subscription notices
Possibility to control Skype video rendering technology for backward compatibility for people who have trouble with video calls

Download Skype 6.5.0.158 in Softonic

This product does not require Adobe Acrobat or any other PDF reading software. This product will quickly convert pages of PDF files to image files and display them in the interface of your application. This protects your PDF files from being modified.

This ActiveX control was designed to allow software developers to add PDF viewing and editing capabilities to their applications.

Download ActiveX PDF Viewer 2.3.5 in Softonic

Foxit Reader Portable on the other hand is light and quick. The proof is in the pudding for starters - compare Foxit Reader Portable's 8.5MB against Acrobat's more than 320MB and you can see why it opens documents in a snap. The key is that Foxit Reader Portable doesn't have all those annoying splash-up screens, endless credits lists and plugins - as well as the fact that it doesn't need to be installed, obviously!

Foxit Reader Portable's interface been designed with ease of use in mind. You have several toolbars available, which you can show or hide at your will and which give you access to all the available utilities: zoom, text selection, image snapshot, search tool, rotation or full screen view, among others. There is a small ad in the upper right corner, but you can deactivate it by going to the View menu and deselecting the Advertisement option.

One added bonus in Foxit Reader Portable is that you can annotate PDF documents in several ways by highlighting text fragments, underlining them, strike them out or even add personal comments.

If you want a small, fast, stable and portable alternative to Adobe Reader, then look no further: Foxit Reader Portable is what you need.

Download Foxit Reader Portable 6.0.2.0413 in Softonic

Apowersoft Free Screen Recorder is video capture software that will allow you to record your computer’s screen or audio. With only a few simple tools you can decide which parts of your computer are captured and converted. Apowersoft Free Screen Recorder is a great piece of software for screencasts, screenshots, and audio.

Features

With Apowersoft Free Screen Recorder you can record your desktop, take screenshots, or record audio. With the screen record option you can select from recording the entire screen, specific regions, focus around the mouse, or take web cam input. For audio you can pick to record desktop sounds, speak through your microphone, or combine both. Default formats for video is WMV, and for audio MP3, OGG, WMA, or WAV can be selected.

Apowersoft Free Screen Recorder can also set up tasks that automatically record for you. You may schedule a certain time of day, the duration of your recording or specific stop date, and if you are capturing video (including regions) or audio. You can also set if your computer shutdowns automatically after Apowersoft Free Screen Recorder finishes.

Usability

Apowersoft Free Screen Recorder has a very basic yet intuitive design. When the app is first opened and no files are in the output folder the file window will be hidden. After your first recording this window will expand, causing Apowersoft Free Screen Recorder to become larger in size. Each button has a simple drop down menu to adjust settings. There are rarely any detailed settings windows, except when scheduling tasks. One annoying aspect of Apowersoft Free Screen Recorder's UI are false buttons that you might expect to open new options and menus. Instead these are just fancy links to Apowersoft’s website placed in deceptive locations.

If you select region recording, an overlay will cover the screen, allowing you drag a desired rectangle sized space. If you’re unhappy with the rectangle size you can move it around, adjust pixel width and height, or select a preset from a drop down menu. Before recordings you can set up a countdown to prepare your screen, as well as audio beeps when a recording starts and stops.

Quality

Apowersoft Free Screen Recorder has a very minimal appearance, often times you may forget it is even open. When not recording it simply looks like a black and off-white bar. The miniature design works well as you rarely want a large abrasive UI while recording. You can also choose to hide most all of Apowersoft Free Screen Recorder’s toolbars to further increase its stealth.

Apowersoft Free Screen Recorder doesn’t cause any obvious slow down while it records, allowing you a smooth capture session as you open other programs and web pages. Quality of finished recordings is generally high and files are compressed to low sizes. There can be visual problems when using the area around mouse option, but only if you select a resolution under 640x480.

Conclusion

Apowersoft Free Screen Recorder is a great way to capture your screen for screencasts and audio. It only supports WMVs, but the quality of recordings is good with compact file sizes. Apowersoft Free Screen Recorder can set up captures at specific dates and automate shut downs, making handy for daily recording. Just remember that several buttons are links and not options.

Download Apowersoft Free Screen Recorder 1.0.9 in Softonic

Transparent ftp file editing.

Many nice tricks like left+right click to select a tag, shift+color inserts span with style, place cursor inside img/link tag and click img/link toolbar button to edit it etc.

Developers, designers, anyone affiliated with development or otherwise text editing.

Download CodeX Writer 4.2.2.069 in Softonic

A smart freeware program that can clear all forms of mal-ware from your computer. SpyBot Search & Destroy is a powerful application that offers a default mode and an advanced mode.

When you install SpyBot Search & Destroy, you are immediately given the choice to update, which is of course all important when dealing with the various forms of spyware that you want to be protected from. Unfortunately, when updating, progress can seem rapid and then stop for no apparent reason, for several minutes before finishing off the job.

Once you get over that small hiccup, you are prompted to create a system backup, just in case SpyBot Search & Destroy happens to remove something that is actually quite important for the smooth running of your system. It should go without saying that making this backup is recommended after which you may finally immunize your system with SpyBot Search & Destroy from a growing database of malicious processes.

SpyBot Search & Destroy has plenty of options for tweaking and customizing scans as well as some unrelated functions like the secure shredder and a start-up manager.

Although SpyBot Search & Destroy is a powerful piece of anti-spyware software, it may be better to see it as part of your security solution. For example, team this up with Ad-Aware SE and you should be covered from practically every form of threat to your online safety.

Download SpyBot Search & Destroy 2.1.19.0 in Softonic

Features

Mozilla Firefox 18 is the latest version of the popular web browser and brings with it a few key and welcome new features. First among them is the company's claim to a speedier, safer browsing experience. Tests reveal that this newest version of Mozilla Firefox is certainly quick to load even the most graphics intense pages.

Firefox 18 also now features secure connections when performing Google searches to improve privacy and there's an updated site identity indicator in the URL bar. Windows users also now get silent updates while Mac users on Lion or above can use Firefox in full-screen mode.

Mozilla Firefox's new tab layout itself is a pretty noticeable new feature. Quite similar to Google's Chrome browser, instead of seeing a blank page whenever a new tab is opened Firefox users will now be treated to icons that offer quick access to everything from bookmarks to most recently accessed and most frequently visited sites.

These icons are fully customizable in Mozilla Firefox as well. You can click and drag them to any spot you like on your name tab's page. If you're not a fan, you can also go to the grid icon on the upper right side of your browser and erase them entirely.

Something completely new to Mozilla Firefox is Facebook integration. Firefox now supports Facebook's social API so you can have dedicated buttons for Facebook in your browser. Mozilla Firefox supports Facebook's Messenger within Firefox, giving users desktop notifications as well as a persistent friends list and activity feed on the right. Conversations will open up as overlays on top of whatever website you're on so you can multitask while you chat.

Usability

Mozilla Firefox really changed the way people browse the web when it originally burst onto the scene. Today Firefox remains an incredibly powerful and customizable browser, although competition from Google Chrome has given it a definite run for its money.

Conclusion

Mozilla Firefox 20's interface isn't much different from previous versions, but the features it has added certainly make for a nicer, more enjoyable browsing experience overall.

What's new

For full release notes, please visit https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/20.0/releasenotes/

Download Mozilla Firefox 21 in Softonic

Traditionally the first choice when it comes to compressing and uncompressing files, WinZip is one of the most popular downloads of all time. Despite the fact that its competitors have caught up somewhat, it remains a simple way to archive programs and reduce file sizes.

Much of WinZip's success has been down to its simplicity. From the outset, the program prompts you to choose between Classic mode and Wizard mode. The wizard is great for beginners, although even the classic interface is easily negotiated, giving you instant access to a range of features such as compression ratios, password-protection and a Favorites list.

While archiving files in WinZip is quick and easy, you can't help but thinking that the program has lost some ground on its competitors. For instance, the compression rates aren’t as high as they are in WinRAR, and you can only save files in Zip format rather than RAR, ISO or JAR.

Nevertheless, WinZip performs its function well, helping you archive files quickly and effectively.

Download WinZip 17.5 build 10480 in Softonic

The interface in Advanced SystemCare can be a bit confusing at first. Instead of having a standard toolbar or menu system, the program shows a sphere structure on the left side pane that gives you access to the four main sections: Home, which is a summary of the program's usage stats; Maintain Windows and Diagnose System, which contain Advanced SystemCare's main tools to scan, repair and optimize the computer; and finally Utilities, a pack of small system tools that let you perform small fixing tasks, like defragging the hard drive, backing up drivers, finding duplicate files or finding out which programs are set up to run with Windows.

Advanced SystemCare is surprisingly quick. It hardly takes a few minutes to scan and fix your system, though it may take a bit longer when defragmenting the disk. In any case, Advanced SystemCare always creates a backup copy before fixing anything (as well as a restoration point the very first time you launch it) just to be on the safe side.

Advanced SystemCare is an easy-to-use, quick system analyzer and optimizer that fixes the most common computer problems and can make your PC faster and more stable.

Download Advanced SystemCare 6.2 in Softonic

Unlike its few competitors presented on the market, the software is simple, comfortable and fast. You need to spend only some seconds to print the screen and save the ready image on the PC or cloud server.

My Print Screen software can be applied by all types of users regardless the place of its use: home, work or public computer.

Download My Print Screen 2 in Softonic

GPU Monitor will show you your graphics card maker and model, details on GPU use and load, VGA RAM data, GPU and PCB temperature, fan speed and use, and more.

You'll see your real-time data in a small graph. GPU Monitor's packed with functions, configurations and tweaks, and is perfect for all-round geeks and video card overclockers.

Mandatory toolbar

Please be aware that when you install GPU Monitor, you are forced to also install a Babylon toolbar. This cannot be avoided, unfortunately.

Download GPU Monitor 7.6 in Softonic

This product is also capable of removing Viewpoint Manager, Viewpoint Media Player, and Learn2.com. These are additional products often included with AOL and AIM that are no longer necessary after the AOL product has been removed.

AOL Removal Tool is currently the most up-to-date, dedicated tool capable of removing the latest America Online products. Competing uninstall tools, including AOL's own built-in uninstaller, fail to completely remove many newer versions, leaving registry entries and files behind. AOL Removal Tool is also the only tool with Windows 7 & Windows 8 support, working on both 32- and 64-bit operating systems.

AOL Removal Tool is designed for any user wanting to remove one or more of AOL's products from their PC. Its simple interface allows even the most inexperienced PC users to rid their computer of unwanted or broken AOL software.

Download AOL Removal Tool 0.4 in Softonic

You can change background and other graphic values of the program, such as font color.

Virtual Shortcuts its very easy compared to similar programs, so almost any user can use this application without complications. Also, its very efficient.

Every organized house or work computer should have this program, in order to clean the messy Windows desktop.

Download Virtual Shortcuts 1.0.1 in Softonic

Microsoft Access 2013 is a database management program included with Microsoft Office 2013. Microsoft Access 2013 has been updated with significant changes. The biggest change is the ability to easily create database-related web apps and use them through SharePoint that colleagues can access. This free trial will allow you to easily maintain a database for your business or project.

Features

The biggest new feature is the ability to create Access apps that are fully compatible with SharePoint. Microsoft Access 2013’s emphasis is on these apps as you can easily create them from the Welcome screen using templates. Online Access app templates are designed for collaboration with colleagues, but there are also offline apps for local databases.

After selecting from a variety of templates you will need to select a type of data to be tracked, such as contacts or tasks. The app will then generate the database structure, navigation, and command interface. If you’re not happy with the data displayed in the app you can edit it or add in new data types.

The focus on Access apps does have a few drawbacks for those seeking older database tools. Microsoft Access 2013 removed some Query designs such as Pivot Chart and Pivot Table, as well as the Upsizing Wizard. It is possible that these features were rarely used in the 2010 version, but it would have been better if Microsoft improved these tools instead of omitting them. You can still use Microsoft Access 2013 to create standalone databases instead of Access apps, but there are not handy tutorials and templates to guide new users.

Usability

Access 2013’s interface is similar to the 2010 version, but updated to the sleeker look of Microsoft Office 2013. Data creation is entered from either the toolbar or corresponding hotkeys. The main tools such as Table, Query, and Form all return, along with new menus to quickly list different SharePoint and Access apps. The look and feel of Access apps depend on which template you select.

Some of them are better suited for displaying timesheets or orders, but might be a poor choice for graphs and charts. All of the fields and interface will depend on the template you select. You’ll need to spend time and try different templates to find one that actually fits your project.

The app is tailored for sharing your database and apps with all of your business partners. To achieve this you’ll be constantly connected to SkyDrive in order to share and edit files. While this is useful on a large stable network, it can cause problems if you are ever disconnected from the cloud and have to edit data offline.

You can still work on local Access apps while offline, though you will have to connect to the cloud if you want to upload and transfer to a collaborative app. Thankfully, Microsoft Access 2013 has many tools and prompts to easily import data from local apps, Access 2010, or Excel into an online Access app or database.

Quality

The app is color coordinated to help highlight key menus and notifications. The majority of Access app templates create a sleek web app that looks very similar to Outlook.com. Microsoft Access 2013 generally functions quickly, even when working on many complex projects. Collaborative Access apps open in your default web browser, and functions in multiple browsers such as Internet Explorer, FireFox, and Chrome. Access functions Local Access apps have a similar look and feel, though you don't have to be online to use and edit them.

Conclusion

Updates to Microsoft Access 2013 are great for connecting your business into a single connected database. The 2013 version removes some functionality from the 2010 version and is geared towards SkyDrive and SharePoint integration. If you are ready to move forward and leave old tools behind Microsoft Access 2013 is an excellent upgrade.

Download Microsoft Access 2013 15.0.4420.1017 in Softonic

It's very fast and easy to use. It has a 1CLICK2ALL approach. The complete design you can change by creating extreemly simple your personal themes or you can select one of the buildin themes. The languages incorperated.

All windows users that needs to have a quick access to there programs, documents and internet pages.

Download Gomigo Light 1.2 in Softonic

System Explorer is a complete tool that could be described as the standard Windows Task Manager on steroids.

This full-featured system analyzing tool lets you take a sneak peek at everything that's going on in your system, like currently active processes, network connections, startup applications, system services and opened files, among other elements.

System Explorer features a renewed interface with a top toolbar that gives you access to the different areas of information included in the program (Processes, Performance and History) and a main window to display the selected area.

The good thing about System Explorer is that it enables you not only to see what's brewing in your system, but also take action. You can end any active program, set the priority for a selected process or delete items from the startup menu. Another feature I specially liked in System Explorer is the ability to obtain more information about each process from Google and ProcessLibrary.com, or check it for virus with an online antivirus tool.

With a handful of configuration and customization options that put the finishing touch, System Explorer is efficient, useful and easy to use. Even if you're happy with the Windows Task Manager, you should give it a try. You have nothing to lose!

System Explorer is a full-featured task and process manager that gives you an exhaustive view of all the activities currently going on in your system.

Download System Explorer 4.1.0 in Softonic

This full-featured system analyzing tool lets you take a sneak peek at everything that's going on in your system, like currently active processes, network connections, startup applications, system services and opened files, among other elements.

System Explorer Portable features a renewed interface with a top toolbar that gives you access to the different areas of information included in the program (Processes, Performance and History) and a main window to display the selected area.

The good thing about System Explorer Portable is that it enables you not only to see what's brewing in your system, but also take action. You can end any active program, set the priority for a selected process or delete items from the startup menu. Another feature I specially liked in System Explorer Portable is the ability to obtain more information about each process from Google and ProcessLibrary.com, or check it for virus with an online antivirus tool.

With a handful of configuration and customization options that put the finishing touch, System Explorer Portable is efficient, useful and easy to use. Even if you're happy with the Windows Task Manager, you should give it a try. You have nothing to lose!

System Explorer Portable is a full-featured task and process manager that gives you an exhaustive view of all the activities currently going on in your system.

Download System Explorer Portable 4.1.0 in Softonic