It's really unbelievable to find free software applications as amazing as Photoscape. But as they say, truth is stranger than fiction. Here you have a really excellent photo editing tool that includes just about everything you need to view, optimize, edit, print and have fun with your photos, all for free.

Photoscape strikes us from the very beginning with an uncommon interface design from which you can choose what you want to do: view pictures, optimize those that didn't come out so well, print several photos on a single page collage-style or perhaps add any of the dozens of filters and special effects included in the program. Other extra tools featured in Photoscape are a file renamer, a color picker, a screen capture tool and even a RAW converter.

We really have nothing negative to say about Photoscape. Just download it, test it, love it and keep it forever. It's free!

Download Photoscape 3.2 in Softonic

Video is becoming an increasingly important element in multimedia creations, which means you need powerful tools to work with it in proper conditions.

CyberLink PowerDirector is probably your best option when choosing a decent video application. This program lets you create stunning video composition featuring videoclips, images, transition effects, clipart, text layers and of course, a personalized background soundtrack.

As complicated as it seems, the truth is that CyberLink PowerDirector is really easy to use. The main working area follows the standard interface design in video editors, which include a media library window to browse your multimedia library, a timeline to drag and drop elements for your creation and a preview window to check how everything looks when put all together.

CyberLink PowerDirector features all the necessary tools for the whole creative process, from assisting you in with the very first step (capturing video from several different sources) to adding the final touches to your creation (a totally customizable DVD-style menu).

When you’re done, you can save your video as a streaming file, write it back to the videotape or even upload it to Youtube straight away. The program also allows you to record the video on a CD or DVD.

CyberLink PowerDirector is the perfect combination of powerful features with an appealing, easy-to-use interface that will please power users and beginners alike.

Download PowerDirector 7.0.1829 Ultra in Softonic

Video is becoming an increasingly important element in multimedia creations, which means you need powerful tools to work with it in proper conditions.

CyberLink PowerDirector is probably your best option when choosing a video editor. This program lets you create stunning video compositions featuring videoclips, images, transition effects, clipart, text layers and, of course, a personalized background soundtrack.

As complicated as it seems, the truth is that CyberLink PowerDirector is really easy to use. The main working area follows the standard interface design in video editors, including a media library window to browse your multimedia collection, a timeline to drag and drop elements for your creation and a preview window to check how everything looks when put all together.

CyberLink PowerDirector features all the necessary tools for the whole creative process, from assisting you in with the very first step (capturing video from several different sources) to adding the final touches to your creation (a totally customizable DVD-style menu).

When you’re done, you can save your video as a streaming file, write it back to the videotape or even upload it to YouTube straight away. The program also allows you to record the video on a CD or DVD.

CyberLink PowerDirector is the perfect combination of powerful features with an appealing, easy-to-use interface that will please power users and beginners alike.

Download CyberLink PowerDirector 7.0.1915 Deluxe in Softonic

Numerador Fusión is intended to make our printing tasks lighter and easier, by providing us with an almost fully automatic method to print out incremental documents such as bills, invoices, member cards and so on.

Despite the terrible English translation, the program itself is easy to use thanks to a wizard-style interface that guides you step by step through the whole process. But if at any given moment you need to take a look at the program's Help, be aware that it's in Spanish.

This wouldn't be much of an issue because the program is pretty simple, but we did receive some error messages when trying to save the template and we would have appreciated it if we could have searched the Help file for some advice.

Download Numerador Fusión 1.0.13 MAX! 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

UltraEdit-32 is a text and hexadecimal editor. It includes column-mode editing, CR fix-up, insert and overstrike modes, drag-and-drop support, bookmarks, font selection for view and print, complete macro support, pop-up menus, numbered lines, tab settings, automatic backup, a spelling checker, and conversion from DOS to Unix file types.

UltraEdit-32 also supports HTML Tidy, contains a sort option in the function list, supports group projects, and more. Files greater than 4GB are supported. Back/Forward functions take you to the previous place you edited, scrolled from, or jumped to. It works across multiple files. Some new features in version 11.0 include an enhanced configurable menus/toolbar support, CSS Style Builder, enhanced color selector, HTML toolbar, and syntax highlighting for multiple languages in a single file.

Download UltraEdit-32 14.20 in Softonic

Gizmo Central is a package of tools intended to make computer tasks easier and more comfortable to do. The program works as a main basic app to which you can add several plug-ins in order to obtain new functionalities. These plug-ins are chosen during the installation process and can be changed at any time by running the installation again.

According to the author, Gizmo is addressed to all kinds of users, but I think it's more suitable for advanced ones. Among the featured plug-ins you'll find a launch toolbar, a synchronization server, a database tool or a disc image manager, which are generally very useful but certainly not the kind of apps that beginners are looking for.

On top of that, Gizmo is not intuitive at all as regards program configuration, nor does it have support for dragging and dropping elements, which would have been especially useful for the toolbar plug-in.

Gizmo Central is a convenient pack of tools designed to help you perform very diverse tasks.

Download Gizmo Central 2.6.2 in Softonic

EureScribe is a transcription software system that attempts to make transcription of any audio and video files fast and easy.

It does this by basically breaking down media files into small chunks that you can memorize easily. Everything you need to use to EureScribe is accessible through keyboard shortcuts so there's no skipping to and from the mouse all the time while transcribing, which saves a lot of time. The final transcript can be saved in Word (RTF) format or as a subtitles video file if you're creating subtitles.

EureScribe is extremely flexible in what it can handle, dealing with most major media formats such as WAV, .MP3, .WMA, .AVI, MPEG and DVD video. It comes in two editions - Personal and Workgroup. The former is designed just for individual projects and the latter for teams working on subtitling a project or film.

If you're serious about adding subtitles or transcribing a script, then EureScribe makes the job more digestible.

Download EureScribe 1.0 in Softonic

If you're anything like me, you get bored of your desktop wallpaper very quickly. And like me, you'll be interested in testing tools like Wallpapers from MSN.

This app is a complete wallpaper manager that includes a collection of more than 50 images you can use as desktop background right away. You can also add you own photos to the Wallpapers from MSN collection and comfortably browse through them thanks to a thumbnail list and a small preview window.

What makes Wallpapers from MSN different from other similar applications is the fact that you can add special effects to the images. By "special effects" I mean you can add clipart on top of the image, insert a line or two of text and, of course, crop, resize and adapt the image to make it fit your computer monitor.

On the downside, there's no clear indication if you'll be able to download more wallpapers apart from the ones that come already bundled with the program. Also, Wallpapers from MSN is certainly a bit too heavy on resources to have it permanently running in the background – a requisite if you want it to cycle through your wallpapers automatically.

If you're a wallpaper collector, Wallpapers from MSN is made for you: a wallpaper manager that includes more than 50 images and also lets you edit them.

Download Wallpapers from MSN Beta in Softonic

Speed Reading, Assessment and Online Reader Software. AceReader Pro is 3 tools in one:

• It is a training tool that will help you become a more proficient reader both online and offline
• It can be used to assess and track your reading level
• It can also be used as an online reading tool to help you read more efficiently while online

Utilizes Tachistoscope Technology to pace your reading. Designed for all ages. Assess and Improve your reading skills with Comprehension Tests, Drills and Games for grades 1-12 plus adult. Drills will automatically adjust training speed relative to personal reading ability. Test results are logged and graphed for accountability. With the Online Reader you can rapidly read and skim text from web pages and other sources in RSVP mode. In RSVP mode the words come to your eyes instead of your eyes going to the words. Customize your own hotkeys and create your own preset option settings. Includes Startup Wizard Screen and online Help.

Download AceReader Pro 5.1.3 in Softonic

CurrPorts displays the list of all currently opened TCP/IP and UDP ports on your local computer. For each port in the list, information about the process that opened the port is also displayed, including the process name, full path of the process, version information of the process (product name, file description, and so on), the time that the process was created, and the user that created it.

In addition, CurrPorts allows you to close unwanted TCP connections, kill the process that opened the ports, and save the TCP/UDP ports information to HTML file , XML file, or to tab-delimited text file. CurrPorts also automatically mark with pink color suspicious TCP/UDP ports owned by unidentified applications (Applications without version information and icons).

Download CurrPorts 1.51 in Softonic

In case you don't know, the 'Places Bar' is that left-side menu that appears on every Windows File Explorer window and that includes shortcuts to the most frequently used folders.

The problem is that you may not agree with what Windows considers to be a frequently used folder. If so, simply load Findexer on your system and you'll be able to customize this menu with shortcuts to your actual favorite folders.

Using the program is a bit tricky, as it doesn't have a proper graphical interface. You need to run the register.bat in order to load it on your system and then restart Windows File Explorer. Open any folder, click on View > Explorer Bar > Findexer and you'll be ready to use it. You can customize Findexer in many aspects, from the menu's appearance to the number of links displayed, including number of shortcuts, the order they appear and the icon and text font. Plus, adding new shortcuts is as easy as dragging and dropping them onto the Places Bar.

Though the idea behind Findexer is very good, there's one big drawback to the program: apparently you need to activate it (that is, go to View > Explorer bar > Findexer) every time you open a new window, even if you already activated it before on that same window.

Findexer lets you customize the Places Bar on Windows File Explorer, though unfortunately you have to manually enable it on every single window.

Download FindeXer 1.1.0.3 in Softonic

Fedit Image Editor is an image processing tool which appears simple at first but contains a wealth of editing tools.

These include advanced image filtering options, editing tools, multilayer documents, workflow history and multiple document interface model. However, Fedit Image Editor is still very much a work in progress although it seems pretty stable and polished as far as the eye can see.

Fedit Image Editor is certainly very flexible allowing you to work with just about any format imaginable. Like all standard image editors, it can focus on one particular art of an image or take the image as a whole and work in it that way. It has selection tools ranging from rectangles to polygons and can automatically and or cut text from images allowing you to redo and undo at will. It also allows you to change its skin, resize photos and add effects to change the look of the photographs such as making them look like collages or watercolours.

Fedit Image Editor really doesn't have any outstanding features that distinguish it from the crowd but it is at least lightweight and easy to use.

Download Fedit Image Editor 1.0.0.6 Beta in Softonic

SQLyog is an easy-to-use, compact and very fast graphical tool to manage your MySQL database anywhere in the world. There are a number of features designed to help you speed up your database development.

Top tools include:

• Shortcuts to quickly generate SQL statements and paste object names
• Learn MySQL by looking at the SQL generated by SQLyog
• Multi-tab query editor and result-set editor
• Multiple Query Execution
• Multi-threaded query execution with option to stop long running queries
• SQL templates
• Excel-style grid interface to view/update resultsets
• Multi-format blob editor
• View data in grid/text mode
• Support for all MySQL table handlers

Download SQLyog 7.11 in Softonic

Some years ago ICQ was one of the most popular IM applications among Internet users. But when Microsoft launched MSN Messenger, many of these users forgot about their original IM client and joined a network that was growing very quickly. In the meantime, ICQ continued to be upgraded until finally reaching version 6, which sets a new milestone in the history of this classic piece of software.

To begin with, the installation process is fast and easy, the only downside being the fact that you must set ICQ Search as your web browser's default search engine, as there's no way of getting around this option.

This new ICQ boasts a fresh-looking interface which has been completely redesigned. Also, you can customize it with skins, although you'll have to download them because there's not a single skin included in the program. It does include, however, a very complete personal profile which you can fill in with all your information, including name, location, interests, spoken languages and a personal avatar that ICQ oddly refers to as "devil".

Generally speaking, ICQ 6 offers all the functions that we find in other IM applications, namely instant written messages, voice calls and video calls. All of these are complemented with a very nice set of animated smilies and the so called "Tzers" which are the equivalent to Messenger's "Winks". Chat sessions can be grouped together under the same window, which prevents your taskbar getting cluttered. ICQ allows you to start text conversations right from the contact list using the Quick message feature. There's also the option to send SMS messages to your contacts, but this is not available in all countries yet.

This new version promises to give you complete control over configuration settings. However, we must admit that we had some trouble in finding them, until we happened to click on the "Main" button on the interface. The configuration options are quite complete indeed, allowing you to change every single detail regarding sounds, notifications, privacy and security, message history, appearance and the program's general behaviour.

In all, ICQ seems to have developed a new version with a fresh redesign only to measure up to its main competitors but without really offering any new functions. Again, choosing ICQ (or any other IM app) ends up being just a question of which IM your friends use.

Download ICQ 6.0.0.7015 in Softonic

It hasn't taken long for developers to embrace Google Chrome and ChromePass is a small password recovery tool that allows you to view the user names and passwords stored by the Google Chrome Web browser.

For each password entry information is displayed about the Origin URL, the Action URL, the User Name Field, the Password Field, the User Name, Password, and Created Time. There's not much more to it than that. You do have the option to save the data however - simply select one or more items and then save them into a text, HTML or XML file or alternatively, copy them to the clipboard.

The handy thing is that ChromePass doesn't need any kind of installation - you can simply run the executable file and the main window will display all passwords that are currently stored in your Google Chrome browser. This obviously means it can fit on a USB stick easily too.

ChromePass can be used as a handy backup tool for your usernames and passwords but in the wrong hands, it could also seriously compromise your security.

Download ChromePass 1.0 in Softonic

Alarm is a digital clock that you can set to display a message and play a sound whenever you want. You can configure and how the alarm sounds.

Options/Features:

• Shows the current time in configurable LED's
• Beeps or plays a sound (you can replace the default alarm siren)
• Plays music (you can use your own mp3, mid, wav and so on music files)
• Shows a small dialog or alarms you with a Full Screen Alert with your text
• Option to preview your alarm

Download Alarm 2.0.4 in Softonic

Gizmo5 is one in a long line of VoIP applications that allows you to use your internet connection to make cheap phone calls.

If you're a Google Talk fan, like me, then the first good thing is that Gizmo5 and Google Talk are now connected. This means that Gizmo5 users can now send instant messages to Google Talk users but unfortunately, you can't call them although the developers promise that it's coming soon. To send Instant Messages, simply click on the IM icon next to your contacts name and you can instantly text other Gizmo5 users. One great feature of Gizmo5 is that you can perform free mobile phone and landline conference calling although you have to setup the system beforehand with the Gizmo5 FreeConferenceCall utility which can be tricky due to a few complicated configuration options. Another interesting feature is that Gizmo5 includes Asterisk PBX Support which means that you can now log into your virtual office with Asterisk PBX software. This basically means that you can receive calls and access your Gizmo5 phone wherever you are in the world. I also like the fact that it includes a free recorder which is something lacking in Skype.

Easy to use and integration with GTalk makes this a nice little app although it's calling rates need to be a lot more competitive before it can compete with Skype.

Download Gizmo5 4.0.0.386 in Softonic

IECookiesView is a small utility that displays the details of all cookies that Internet Explorer stores on your computer. In addition, it allows you to do the following actions:

• Sort the cookies list by any column you want, by clicking the column header. A second click sorts the column in descending order
• Find a cookie in the list by specifying the name of the Web site
• Select and delete the unwanted cookies
• Save the cookies to a readable text file
• Copy cookie information into the clipboard
• Automatically refresh the cookies list when a Web site sends you a cookie
• Display the cookies of other users and from other computers
• Open the IECookiesView utility directly from Internet Explorer toolbar
• Change the content of a cookie
• Export your cookies to Netscape/Mozilla cookies file
• Block specific Web sites from using cookies through the cookies blocking mechanism of Internet Explorer 6.0

Download IECookiesView 1.73 in Softonic

Due to lossy nature of the JPEG format each editing and subsequent recompression of JPEG images in generic image editors such as Photoshop results in progressive degradation of image quality.

Fortunately, in many cases there is a way to avoid the unnecessary recompression. If all you need is to quickly process a bunch of JPEG photos from the latest vacation - rotate, crop, remove red eye effect, imprint date or comment - you don't have to compromize the quality. Better JPEG is a batch JPEG editor capable of doing all this editing losslessly.

Main features:

• Lossless transformations - rotation, flip
• Lossless crop (free, fixed aspect, fixed size, predefined and user-defined aspects and sizes), composition guidelines (diagonals, golden mean, rule of thirds)
• Highly customizable lossless date/EXIF info/text insertion (position, font, size, color, background, language, format, etc.)
• Advanced lossless red eye removal (anti-aliasing, adjustable size, sensitivity, darkening)
• Copy/paste to external editor and back for local retouching without full recompression
• Batch image processing
• Multi-level undo/redo
• Metadata preservation
• Compression optimization

Download BetterJPEG 2.0.0.6 in Softonic