TurboBackup has actually been around for more than 10 years so you know you're going to get a well tried and tested product when you try it.

It's been designed to make creating backups as easy as possible, so in other words, select the source you want to backup and click on backup - TurboBackup does the rest.

TurboBackup helps you to easily backup any type of critical data to secure places that you are comfortable with and restoring it all is pretty easy too. The TurboBackup "Prepare Backup" function lets you know ahead of time how much data will be backed-up and gives you an estimate about space requirements and the number of discs needed for the backup.

TurboBackup is very useful for those that need to synchronize between Laptop and Desktop computers, exporting data to off-site locations or preparing for recovery in case the worst happens. In addition to full and partial restores, there's also a "Previous Version" function which allows you to revert to older backups.

TurboBackup is a little pricey but as a one stop backup solution, it's an excellent tool especially for beginners.

Download TurboBackup 7.0 in Softonic

There are literally hundreds of utilities out there designed to download videos from the Net, mainly aimed at YouTube.

By it's name alone, DownUtube doesn't pretend to do anything else (although it does work with a few other sites too) but at least it does the job well. DownUtube allows you to download embedded videos and multimedia from Google Video, YouTube, Apple.com Movie Trailers and IMDB.

Like most good video downloaders, DownUtube features an integrated search facility to help you find videos on the various sites which means you don't even have to open a browser. It can also follow RSS feeds for your favourite users on YouTube. If you can't wait for your clip to download, then you can also play them because they download thanks to an integrated player called MPlayer. There are various bugs that need ironing out however - sometimes downloads will stop for no apprent reason even if your connection is fine and some videos can cause DownUtube to simply crash.

As a simple solution to your video downloading needs, DownUtube is a great search utility and downloader that eliminates the need for a browser.

Download DownUtube 3.0 Beta 3 in Softonic

IcoFX is an award winning freeware icon editor. It is an all-in-one solution for icon creation, extraction and editing. It is designed to work with Windows XP and Windows Vista icons supporting transparency.

With a wealth of tools and more than 40 effects at your fingertips, there’s virtually no limit to the icons you can create. You can convert your favorite images into icons, or icons into images. With IcoFX you can extract icons from other files, including Windows Vista files. You can easily work with multiple files using the batch processing capability of IcoFX.

This is what IcoFX has to offer:

• Support for transparency (alpha channel)
• Batch processing for import, export and extract
• More than 40 effects + custom filter
• Resolutions up to 256x256
• Data types: 2, 16, 256, True Color, True Color + Alpha
• Extract icons from 32 bit exe and dll
• Import and export images
• Transparent, Brighten/Darken, Blur/Sharpen tools

Download IcoFX 1.63 in Softonic

Sandboxie is an interesting alternative to traditional anti-virus/anti-spyware software. According to the developers, when you run a program on your computer, data flows from the hard disk to the program via read operations. The data is then processed and displayed, and finally flows back from the program to the hard disk via write operations. For example, if you run the Freecell program to play a game, it starts by reading the previously recorded statistics, displaying and altering them as you play the game, and finally writing them back to disk for future reference.

Sandboxie changes the rules such that write operations do not make it back to your hard disk. The key is the transient nature of the sandbox which makes it easy to get rid of everything in it. If you were to throw away the sandbox, by deleting everything in it, the sandboxed statistics would be gone for good, as if they had never been there in the first place. You maye in fact prefer to run your Web browser inside the sandbox most of the time. This way any incoming, unsolicited software (spyware, malware and the like) that you download, will be trapped in the sandbox. Changes made to your list of Favorites or Bookmarks, hijacking of your preferred start page, new and unwanted icons on your desktop - all these, and more, are trapped in and bound to the sandbox.

This is a very original solution to the perennial problems caused by adware, spyware and malware. However, it's dubious as to whether it can deal with the continual sophistication of such programs.

Download Sandboxie 3.30 in Softonic

Fresh UI is a fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with hundreds of useful hidden settings in Windows XP/2000/NT/ 98/95/Me, this software covers the customizing and optimizing techniques that you'll be glad to know, such as:

• Customizing Windows User Interface (UI)
• Optimizing system settings
• Optimizing hardware settings
• Customizing Windows application settings
• Controlling user environment with policies

Fresh UI is organized by section for easy navigation and is complete with detailed descriptions for easy reference.

Download Fresh UI 8.14 in Softonic

If you get easily bored of your desktop or your desktop background, Dream Wallpaper is a free and easy-to-use solution that changes your computer desktop wallpaper.

With Dream Wallpaper, the developer has left 80,000 high-quality free wallpapers at your disposal, ranging on themes from Movies to Stars, Nature, Cartoons, Art, Animal and Games. Dream Wallpaper automatically cycles through your wallpaper too, so that you have a different image every day if you want.

Alternatively, if you don't like the selection on offer at the developer website, you can use your own images and Dream Wallpaper will cycle through the wallpapers automatically. The selection of images on the developer website is truly outstanding including high-quality images and even widescreen options. However, there don't seem to be many tweaks that you can perform such as adding fade-in and fade outs to changes but this is no big drawback.

Dream Wallpaper is an excellent solution for those that can't be bothered changing their wallpaper manually and want something that spices up their desktop a bit.

Download Dream Wallpaper 1.2 in Softonic

It's not easy to get excited about the look of a PHP environment and editor but PHP Designer puts in more effort than most to create a stylish and highly usable one.

PHP Designer is a complete PHP IDE (Integrated Development Environment) and PHP editor that caters for just about all your PHP coding needs but it also applies itself to HTML, CSS and JavaScript development. The main aim of PHP Designer is to boost your productivity and make your life easier. However, because of this, it's aimed more at beginners than professional editors, although there's enough there to keep the latter interested too.

Probably the main bonus of PHP Designer is the intelligent syntax highlighting which spots errors as you type, meaning less head scratching at the end of a long coding session. This applies not just to PHP but to other languages as well. Of course, PHP Designer also comes with a debugger which can test scripts for errors and suggests possible solutions although as with all debuggers, the success rate can be hit and miss according to most users.

If you're looking for a good looking PHP editor that supports plenty of other languages too, then PHP Designer may well make your life a lot easier.

Download PHP Designer 2008 6.1 in Softonic

If you've got a lot of Windows open at once, it's a real pain to go through each one by one and minimize them.

That's why GameMinimizer offers an excellent solution via a simple application which sits in your tray ready for action at any moment. It works quite simply by minimizing every single window you've got open. Alternatively, you can use GameMinimizer to select a hotkey as the minmizer instead. Unfortunately, this is not customizable - you can only use the combination keys of WIN M or ALT TAB or just F12.

GameMinimizer is very useful in cases where you have several applications open and one of them crashes. Alternatively, it's useful as a "boss" key if you're using windows you shouldn't be in the office. However, the annoying thing is if you've got JavaApplet windows open, it doesn't seem to close them at the same time as other windows which is a bit frustrating or embarrassing depending on what you're doing.

GameMinimizer, despite the name, minimizes everything that's full screen including games, although it will leave certain things behind.

Download GameMinimizer 1.0 in Softonic

Find Desktop is the entry level solution for document management. The extreme simplification of all operations, allows you to drammatically decrease the time needed to find, view and elaborate documents. Find Desktop is integrated with a powerful "full-text" retrieval engine, supported by O.C.R. (optical character recognition) engine.

This allows you to search directly in the text, starting from one word or exact phrase contained in electronic or image documents. Other important functions are the mail indexing system, the enhanced scanning functions (with virtual annotation capabilities) as well as the management of the classification fields associated with documents render Find Desktop the fast and economic solution for document management.

Find Desktop is equipped of technology "Highlight" that evidences directly on the original document (image file or electronic file) the search results and supports the most common electronic document formats (Adobe Acrobat PDF, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, etc..) with search capabilities also in ZIP file. The Automatic Web Update allows you to maintain the software always up to date.

Download Find Desktop Standard 1.84 in Softonic

DV Kitchen aims to be a complete video solution for preparing and uploading videos to the web. All in one workflow solutions just like these are becoming more and more common to make it easier for anyone to share videos online.

Although I did find the interface a little unfriendly, you can't resize it properly and the tabs at the top right are too small, the video production process is well streamlined. You start off by selecting a video and encoding it. DV Kitchen comes with over 77 formats to choose from, among which the most popular.

Upload to a server is very easy thanks to the folder browser. You can also create remote folders.

Because video production is complex, DV Kitchen have included three tools that make it easy for users: SampleLab, Budget BitRate Calculator and TimeFreezer. These are all great help for best preparing your video to your needs.

One thing that is missing out is presets for online web platforms such as You Tube or Brightcove.

DV Kitchen is a good all around solution for preparing and uploading videos to the web.

Download DV Kitchen 1.1.6 in Softonic

Computers are great and all that, but some tasks can get a bit boring if you have to do them every day. That's why it makes sense to install a macro recorder to perform these mundane activities for you - and JitBit's solution isn't a bad option. The application lets you record mouse click sequences, typing and the movement of the cursor on your screen for later use. Once these actions have been recorded they can be 'replayed' at any time and even compiled in an EXE file.

The program saves you a lot of time in filling out forms, generating information and performing maintenance tasks, and it's also good for creating presentations and video tutorials (although you can't export to different movie formats). However, the best thing about the app is its scripts, which allow you to program certain commands, such as launching programs or web pages, or even shutting down your PC without you having to record the action yourself.

When it comes to accessing the web, the app is a little cumbersome, but for general computing tasks JitBit Macro Recorder can be a real godsend.

Download Jitbit Macro Recorder 4.11 in Softonic

As the saying goes - Timing is Everything - and Good Timing aims to ensure that you'll get it right everytime.

It's a very simple program that allows you to configure alarms in any way that you want for every occasion. In fact, it's one of the most flexible alarms you'll find anywhere. There's nothing complicated about setting the times. You can enable several alarms to trigger at one time which is useful if you have to time different events in succession or simultaenously. Of course, it can also be used as a simple reminder tool allowing you to configure a short text warning regarding the type of event you're setting it for - whether it's food in the oven or an important meeting you have to attend. You can also scroll through the history of your alarms which is useful if you need to know at what time a recurring event is finishing it and compare it with current trends. The best thing about this alarm however is that all the sounds are completely customizable. You can use audio files, including Mp3s, as the default sound which is preferable to the ones that come with the program which are rather uninspiring.

There's nothing fancy or difficult about this alarm and it's a great solution for anyone who needs to time multiple events or a highly customisable warning system.

Download Good Timing 1.92 in Softonic

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

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

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

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

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

Download Tunebite 5.1.120 in Softonic

Hospitals and medical care facilities are on area where there simply isn't enough software to cater for the huge potential there surely is in this field.

FileMed is an effective Electronic Medical Record (EMR) solution for small and medium sized medical care facilities. It's recommended for those facilities holding up to around 200 users. FileMed basically offers simple patient management so that you can keep track of your patients conditions and ailments without having to sift through bulky boxes of papers or appointment cards.

FileMed also allows you to create Clinical Charts for patients according to their condition and allows you to attach diagnosis reports. Of course, FileMed also allows you to schedule that most important of details - schedules and appointments of patients. After a consultation, you can also attach clinical charts, X-rays and other documents that you'd like to scan in and store offline. FileMed also makes it relatively easy to setup an internal office network so that you can share documents and patient data between doctors, receptionists and other assistants.

If you're a small or medium sized medical facility, FileMed may make it easier for you to track and keep on top of your patients visits and conditions.

Download FileMed 4.0 in Softonic

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

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

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

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

Download CD-Door Guard 2.6.1 in Softonic

With this software you can burn CD-R, CD-RW DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW discs. It offers the following main features:

• Writes all kind of mediums apart from double-layer DVD (follows in next version)
• Burn audio-CDs with and without gaps between tracks
• Burn on the fly / Burn-proof
• Supports most IDE, USB, Firewire and SCSI drives
• Rip Audio-CDs to harddrive, obtain track-information (ID3-tags) from Internet
• Burn and create ISO-files
• Customizeable with many settings
• Data verification after burn, create bootable discs
• Bin/nrg->ISO converter, simple cover printing and much more

Download CDBurnerXP Pro 4.2.1.919 in Softonic

Checking multiple e-mail accounts can be a pain - it's not easy to keep tabs on all the incoming mail that you're bombarded with everyday.

CheckMail is a powerful POP3 email checking program which notifies you when you have received new email. CheckMail allows you to check all your email accounts for new messages and preview or delete them before downloading them to your computer. This immediately makes CheckMail a great solution for those that are worried about downloading a virus onto their PC via e-mail.

You can delete unwanted and large emails directly from the CheckMail server without downloading them and you can compose and send new emails directly with CheckMail, or reply to or forward existing ones. If you've got different POP3 accounts - that is to say Windows Live Mail, Gmail, yahoo Mail etc, CheckMail supports multiple custom notifications and even filtering and much more. It has it's own virus filter which seems pretty solid although as mentioned, it can preview mail before you download it anyway so you'll have a good idea weather it's malicious or not from the start.

An excellent auto e-mail checking utility although don't be surprised if CheckMail lags behind your real e-mail client in telling you when you've got new messages.

Download CheckMail 5.0.4 in Softonic

Slideshows are one of the best ways to add colour and life to a photo collection no matter what the subject matter is.

Slideshow Magic is aimed at both home users and business professionals who want to impress friends or colleagues with their photo slideshow creations. Best of all, it doesn't require the viewer to have the program installed as all slideshows can be saved in any QuickTime compatible format.

The easy to use interface is somewhat like that of a video editor allowing you to add music or audio tracks either for the whole slideshow or just specific segments. You can add some impressive transitions and titles much in the same way as you do with Windows Movie Maker for example. The program also features a useful guide to help you get your photos online or burnt to DVD. However, unfortunately the program doesn't provide either it's own webspace or burner for uploading and saving photos. For uploading, you'll need an FTP client and web host and for burning, a third party burner such as Nero.

In addition, although it's a cross platform application, sharing with other platforms requires some form of network solution between clients (although this needn't be something complicated - a program like MSN Live Messenger is enough

Slideshow Magic is a relatively cheap but powerful way to get your photos either online or burnt to DVD.

Download Slideshow Magic 5.0.5 in Softonic

Most multimedia publishing programs only allow you to publish one type of format be it photos, video or audio - Gallery Designer allows you to publish all 3 at once and does all the HTML coding for you.

Everything is explained and taken step by step until your gallery is online with no further effort required on your part. To get going, first of all you're asked which image files you want to upload. Secondly, you're asked what title you want to give the album and the layout parameters - how big, what style etc. Then, you simply click "Build" and the software whizzes into action building a perfect HTML gallery, complete with thumbnails, for publishing on the net.

Once ready, you are given detailed control over exactly how you want the gallery to look such as by changing the thumbnails to full image size, the titles, layout gallery style, border colors etc. If you see another gallery online that you like developed using Gallery Designer, you can even borrow that template or alternatively, design your own.

With support for for a wide range of video and photo formats and even support for text files, Gallery Designer takes the pain out of coding your own online gallery.

Download Gallery Designer 1.0.9 in Softonic

If you spend a lot of time away from your computer or need access to all your email accounts while traveling then Reach-a-Mail is a great solution.

When you're on the move, you may not always have access to your webmail or at least, access may be slow. And if you are traveling to a destination where Internet connectivity is poor then, you'll need some way of accessing your old e-mails. The only way to do this is to take them with you which is exactly what Reach-a-Mail allows you to do. In a nutshell, Reach-a-Mail is an ultra compact mail client which allows you to compress and take your mail and address book with you on a USB stick. If you're internet connection is working, you can also check new mail but if not, it can save all your e-mails for offline viewing before you set-off on your travels. This includes e-mail to multiple accounts so it's a great tool if you're running a small business or private project on a budget but have to move around a lot.

Reach-a-Mail installs easily on USB flash memory stick, allowing you to store your address book and any important correspondence you might need for day-to-day tasks. In the free version, you are plagued with ads but this Pro version is completely ad free and also includes a small RSS reader. You may be better sticking to your regular reader though as it doesn't seem to import feeds easily but it's the mail client that impresses most anyway.

Ideal for travelers and business people on the move, Reach-a-Mail is a small, portable and easy to use solution for those moments when you don't have online access to your e-mail and contacts.

Download Reach-a-Mail Pro 3.51 in Softonic