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 4.8.1227 in Softonic

In the ever increasing battle against malware, you can never have too many good malware removers and detectors. Malwarebytes Anti Malware scans disks and devices connected to your PC and removes all types of malware.

The program is constantly updated with a list of the latest known malware threats across the net so you'll always be fully covered although the update prompts can be annoying and should be switched off. They may also slow down your PC momentarily but it's worth it to keep up to date. The program cannot be schedule to offer real time protection bit it can scan your system at any time. There is also a list for the files in quarantine and one for those which can be ignored. If an infected file is detected, the programs "Fileassassin" can be launched although use it with caution because it is potent and you may end up deleting essential drivers and files.

If you want realtime protection, you can register online although you'll have to pay for this service.

A powerful and quick scanner but it's a shame there's no realtime protection with it.

Download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.22 in Softonic

StrongDC++ is an improved version of DC++ to improve download speed management for all major P2P networks.

The good thing is that this program requires no installation. Simply decompress the file and run the program and you're off. The next step is to select the hub that you want to connect to. The hub looks very much like DC++ but with some important improvements. For example, you can now download from simultaneous multiple users without corrupting the file, it can distribute the parts of files that are not completed and can assign the download speed according to the sources available and the dozens of possibilities in customization of the interface. The improvement of the simultaneous downloading makes a significant improvement to download times and it's much safer than normal single source downloading. The developers point out that segment position and size are decided by file size and chunks speed. You can also set sounds, change the colour scheme or icons, show popup balloons, see emoticons and much more.

A sophisticated P2P application although it's a shame there aren't more users as you won't get many hits on the files you're looking for.

Download StrongDC++ 2.21 in Softonic

ALSong is a Live Song Lyrics MP3 player with everything you expect in a modern MP3 player, as well as some extras that make ALSong more than just "yet another mp3 player".

Live Song Lyrics let you listen to your favorite tunes and read the lyrics in time to the music.

Find Music Fast in the ALSong Playlist. More than just a list, you can easily organize music inside your playlist, on disk, in special albums, in ZIP files, and in virtual folders. You can quickly browse and search your music your way because everything is setup to make playing your music as easy and fast as it should be.

Create Music Albums to organize your music or easily take with you. ALSong albums have a special customizable interface for you to decorate your favorite music with images and pictures however you like. And since ALSong music albums are portable, you can take them with you on any USB key or other portable storage.

Download ALSong 1.53 in Softonic

iTunes is a great tool to synchronize content between your iPod or iPhone and your computer, but unfortunately it only works in one way. So if you want to transfer files from the Apple device or you're simply looking for an iTunes alternative, here's Xilisoft iPod Rip.

This handy app lets you synchronize contents between an iPod/iPhone and your computer in both ways, including music and video. Transfers are easy to do and also instantaneous, syncing content in the very moment you add files or folders to the list. They can also be done in batches, though the trial version has some limitations in this area.

On the downside, Xilisoft iPod Rip is obviously not the same as iTunes, so it doesn't support podcasts, or ringtones to name a few. I specially missed ratings and even more Cover Flow, to which I'm addicted after having spent a whole weekend downloading covers for all my albums so that they look nice on iTunes. At least the program does support playlists!

In any case, Xilisoft iPod Rip is a really handy solution if you're looking for a quick, easy way to copy files from the iPod/iPhone to your computer. If you need a complete music organizer, you'd better stick to iTunes.

Download Xilisoft iPod Rip 2.1.1.0616 in Softonic

Ever fancy making your own film but don't have the patience to learn the major editing packages such as Adobe Premiere and Final Cut?

Then Auto Movie Creator converts you into Steven Spielberg but without the hours spent learning how to cut and splice and render videos that most video editing packages require. In fact, the program does much of the work for you via the editing wizard which is effectively your Assistant Director. It takes you logically and slowly through every step holding your hand as you go from capturing video to outputting it in a format that's suitable for your needs. One of the most time-consuming parts of editing is going through the footage to see which parts you need to take out. Auto Movie Creator even does this for you simply by selecting "Detect Scenes" and the program automatically scans your footage for the best quality shots. It also allows you to add professional style effects such as dissolves and fades simply by dragging and dropping them into the timeline. You can also add photos and other images into your video to give them a more personal touch.

Auto Movie Creator feels more like a photo editing package than a video editor but this is the key behind it's appeal - it requires absolutely no prior editing knowledge and is simple enough for even the most amateur of video makers.

Download Auto Movie Creator 3.13 in Softonic

Flash can be one of the most impressive additions to any website but it can also be one of the most sluggish and bandwidth hogging.

Flash Optimizer is designed to make Flash less bloated and faster to load in your website. It's a simple tool for web designers and Flash developers, allowing you to reduce the size of your SWF files by up to 60-70%. Flash Optimizer does this using a range of algorithms of vectors, shapes, morphing, fonts and other optimizations.

The Flash Optimizer user interface is simple enough for those without Flash programming knowledge to use. When you open Flash Optimizer you're presented with two types of compression configuration - simple and advanced, the latter offering more than 50 separate tweaks and adjustments. The latest version of Flash Optimizer is even simpler to use than before too because you can open multiple tabs according to how many files you want to compress. Flash Optimizer does more than compress graphics and animations though - it also allows you to compress sound which can constitute a large part of any Flash file.

Flash Optimizer is a simple utility that may or may not speed up the time it takes for your Flash animations and graphics to load in your website.

Download Flash Optimizer 2.0.0.316 in Softonic

Copying DVDs (for your own use, of course) is becoming increasingly difficult as manufacturers improve the security encoding on DVDs. AnyDVD however claims to be able to crack any DVD encryption code and judging by the number of downloads, Softonic users are certainly endorsing it too.

The beauty of AnyDVD is that it simply works in the background to automatically remove the copy protection of a DVD movie as soon as it's inserted into the drive. In this way, it can decrypt data without actually saving it to your hard-disk. You can watch the DVD at the same time or just insert a disk and let AnyDVD do its stuff. When you insert a disk, you are automatically prompted whether you want to decrypt it. When it has finished inspecting the disk, the program prompts you to backup the DVD using your preferred backup tool such as CloneDVD or Power DVD Copy.

The programme goes much further than this though. A handy bonus is that you can also remove the RPC region code, thereby making the movie region free and viewable on any DVD player. This is especially useful for those who buy many of their disks abroad or travel a lot. If you want to create a stripped-down version of a DVD, it can also remove unwanted movie features, including subtitles and extras for example. The programme also moves beyond decryption and allows you to control the speed of your DVD drive. This is useful if you’re having trouble playing a DVD properly or if the noise of your drive is causing annoyance. Finally, there’s also an option to display the frequency of your monitor for both NTSC and PAL displays although you probably won’t use this unless you’re having serious display issues.

The only drawback of AnyDVD is the number of daily updates that are released. Whilst this is obviously a good thing in terms of keeping it up-to-date with the latest encryption methods, the update alerts can be rather annoying and are prone to slowing your computer down.

However, this is a small price to pay for a programme that seems able to crack all but the toughest disks and for anyone who likes to create backups of their favourite DVDs, it’s an essential addition to your software collection.

Download AnyDVD HD 6.4.5.6 in Softonic

There is nothing that annoys me more in Firefox when a PDF document tries to open and crashes the browser. That was until I tried PDF Download.

PDF Download prevents this problem ever arising by allowing you to control exactly how and when PDF files are opened or downloaded. Instead of opening PDF files "blind" which is currently the case, PDF Download lets you know exactly how big it is with options of whether to convert it, open it, download it or convert to HTML. PDF Download stops the annoying problem of PDF files taking ages to open - especially big ones. With PDF Download, you can see instantly whether its a big file, in which case, it's advisable to download it for reading later as opening a big PDF file is like waiting for Christmas to arrive sometimes.

The PDF Download plugin usually presents you with 3 options unless you've instructed it to do the same thing by default all the time - convert the PDF to HTML, download the PDF or open the PDF in the browser. One bonus with PDF Download, that perhaps separates it from others, is that it's not just limited to Adobe Reader. PDF Download also works with Foxit Reader and other PDF readers although to be honest, if you're using Foxit, you won't find much use for PDF Download anyway as it opens PDF files much more smoothly than Adobe Reader.

PDF Download is an excellent PDF tool which will result in fewer Firefox crashes although not everytime as it still seems susceptible to crashes when opening PDF files in the browser.

Download PDF Download 2.0.0.0 in Softonic

Before you get confused - Downfall has nothing to do with that film about Hitler which documents his final days.

Downfall is actually a lot lighter than that - a fun arcade puzzle game, that pretty much rips off Tetris and the Columns game by Sega. If nothing else, Downfall is remarkably easy to learn - you simply have to drop stacks of colored blocks to form lines that then "connect" and disappear. Downfall has 30 different formats and playing boards to play on and the 3D graphics and animations are very smooth if not particularly impressive.

Each different playing board is littered with potential stumbling blocks such as sticks of dynamite, snow shovels and wrecking balls etc. Each Downfall board therefore requires a particular level of skill and presents a different challenge if you get bored with one or the other. You can also import and export high scores from Downfall which is handy for comparing with friends and family although it would be much easier if these were just stored online under a profile or something. It does maintain the highest score however even after it's closed down, meaning you've always got something to aim for.

Downfall is not particularly original or blessed with great graphics but it's a decent time waster that will provide at least a few hours of fun.

Download Downfall 2.7.3 in Softonic

We're always being bombarded by warnings about the dangers of malware and although the level of threat is probably not as high as the antivirus companies make out, it's still essential to take precautions. Although it's far from a complete antivirus tool, DriveSentry does a very thorough job of preventing certain applications trying to access the Internet without your knowledge.

A good thing about this program is like, unlike many of its rivals, it doesn't bombard you with pop-up messages warning you whenever a program is trying to access the Net. Instead, you have an easy-to-manage list of programs that are automatically granted permissions, which you can quickly add to at any time.

What's more, permissions can also be applied on a Registry level, meaning you can give writing access to certain common processes. With an instant access System Tray icon thrown in for good measure, this is a great no-frills firewall app for those who want their system protection to be done in the background.

Download DriveSentry 3.1 in Softonic

If you're like most people, you have at least a few web sites that you go to on a regular basis. Whether it be BBC World News, Wired or Slashdot, there's a wealth of information out there, constantly changing.

Awasu (TM) is a free Windows news-reader that runs in the background on your computer and monitors these sites for you. When it sees that something new has appeared, it will let you know. Awasu will also keep track of what you have already read which saves you even more time since you no longer need to search through your favorite sites for new stories.

No more surfing the web looking for interesting stuff to read. Instead, Awasu will watch what's happening around the globe and let you know about events almost as soon as they happen. No more trawling through pages full of ads or popups. Now you can get only the stuff you're interested in, delivered to your desktop.

You're not limited to just news services either. You can keep an eye on the current weather in New York, the latest sales data from your London office or which band is playing at your favorite club this weekend. You are limited only by your imagination!

Download Awasu Personal Edition 2.3.3 Alpha 2 in Softonic

If you are the type of person who always changes your mobile ring-tone, this application is a must-have for you. EZ Ringtone allows you to convert music, either from CD tracks or mp3 file, to different ring-tone formats compatible with all modern devices.

The interface is really clear and simple: you just have to open an audio file to have an image of the right and left channel. Then select the part of your music you would like to convert to a ring-tone and press the format button compatible with your mobile. That’s it.

It’s annoying though that the trial version limits the duration of ring-tones to 5 seconds and it is a shame that there is not even a simple editing tool. It would have been good, for example, to have the possibility of mixing different parts of a song or maybe different titles as well. A fading or echo effect to end the recording would have made the final ring-tone a bit more ’professional’.

The tool that compresses MP3 files size from 30% up to 70% is also useful, saving valuable space on your mobile phone in case it’s not yet as capacious as a proper MP3 player.

Don’t be bored with your ring-tone ever again and drive all your co-workers mad with your favourite songs!

Download EZ Ringtone 1.7.0 in Softonic

Keeping track of your latest podcasts is a full time job especially if you're subscribed to several at once.

If you want to organise, capture and of course listen to your favourite podcasts, but are busy when they are scheduled, Juice (formerly known as iPodder) could be your solution. Juice allows users to capture and listen to Internet audio programs at anytime for listening at a time more convenient to them - it's kind of like a VCR but for podcasts.

Juice enables you to select and download shows and music and to play them whenever you are ready on your iPods, portable media players or PC. Juice is completely free to use and supports a range of external media players (although not all) and Juice can even help you discover new music with hundreds of podcast feeds you might not be aware of or have heard about (although most are American based). It's the organisation of your podcasts and highlighting of what you've listened to and transferred however that's most useful in Juice. Plus of course the fact that you'll never miss a podcast again.

Juice is an easy to use podcast organiser and scheduler that takes the stress out of keeping up and planning when to listen to your podcasts.

Download Juice (iPodder) 2.2 in Softonic

If you ever get sick of filling in forms and password fields then Online Vault will save you hours of work.

Online Vault automatically remembers your logins and passwords, and fills in Web forms in a single click. When prompted for a password or registration form, Online Vault gives you the option of automatically filling in the fields or leaving you to do them manually. Alternatively, you can use it just as a password filler-in by using a master password.

Online Vault works by automatically storing and remembering names and passwords the first time you log into a site which you may or may not feel comfortable with but the developers assure that everything is very secure. If you don't want it to do this, then you may want Online Vault to help you generate some bulletproof passwords that no one will guess anyway.

If you share your PC, and don't want it to remember private details every time you log on, then Online Vault can create your own profile so you can use different shipping addresses, credit card numbers, personal credentials etc. However, you don't have to shut down Windows to log in and out of Online Vault profiles - you can do it all through the main OnlineVault taskbar.

The problems in Online Vault come with particularly long forms that involve data that it has never seen before - especially foreign language forms. In this case, Online Vault may half fill in the form for you but in the end, you may get more confused and prefer just to do it from scratch on your own.

If you use a lot of sites that involve passwords and form filling in then you can't go far wrong with OnlineVault although if you use particularly sensitive secure sites, you may find it doesn't work for those anyway.

Download Online Vault 1.0.0.61 in Softonic

They say the key to beat procrastination is managing your time properly, and FruitfulTime TaskManager can help you with that.

FruitfulTime TaskManager is a lightweight, effective task manager that helps you organize your tasks in a more productive way and thus make the most of your time. With FruitfulTime TaskManager you always have your tasks at sight, which makes it easier to track their progress and prioritize certain projects over others.

Tasks in FruitfulTime TaskManager are organized by tags. You can add as many customized tabs as you want and also create subtasks to any task. The program also features a built-in notes tool, a basic contacts list and a reminder tool that makes sure you don't forget any significant date or miss an important event again.

That said, it's worth bearing in mind that FruitfulTime TaskManager is the "lite" version of a more complete task manager, so you may find it a bit basic in terms of its tools and configuration options. But if you only need the standard stuff – that is, basic task managing tools - FruitfulTime TaskManager may be perfect for you.

FruitfulTime TaskManager is a basic, lightweight task manager that helps you track all your tasks in a more efficient way.

Download FruitfulTime TaskManager Free Edition 1.0.5.0 in Softonic

Sharing video is becoming increasingly important with bandwidths and hard drives getting bigger.

It's about time then than someone harnessed the power of P2P technology to share video which is what the developers of SwarmPlayer have done. SwarmPlayer essentially combines three ways of video watching and sharing i.e. Downloading videos, streaming videos, and watching videos while they are being generated i.e. via webcam. Effectively, SwarmPlayer allows a single player to download movies, watch video-on-demand, and watch live video streams using one technology, while taking advantage of the popularity and maturity of existing BitTorrent clients.

At the moment SwarmPlayer is purely in testing mode and you can only watch two videos -
a BBC test program (a weather report) and something called the "Fabchannel" which is basically a webcam on a TV station rooftop in Amsterdam - not very interesting. However, the SwarmPlayer principle looks good - you can see how many people are watching a stream at one time via the stats page which is great for those that are learning to produce their own broadcasts and want to know how popular it is via SwarmPlayer.

SwarmPlayer is potentially a new and exciting way to share video over the net although it may be a while before the finished product is released.

Download SwarmPlayer 1.0.1 in Softonic

In these days where most things have been commercialised to the hilt, it’s always refreshing to come across a free piece of software that performs as well as its pricey rivals. Irfanview has long been a shining example of such a program, and I’ve been using the app for some time for perusing and managing my ever-growing photo collection.

Amazingly, since Bosnian developer Irfan Skiljan released the image viewer back in 1996, he’s generously kept it free of charge in spite of its massive popularity. Perhaps even more incredibly, the app still stands at just over 1Mb, bucking the trend of programs that swell immensely as the feature updates go by. In fact, it’s Irfanview’s slimline qualities that are its greatest asset, helping to make it the fastest image viewer in the West. Images load almost instantaneously when you click on them and you get rapid-fire results when cycling through a directory of photos using the Back and Forward buttons. It’s only when you’re flicking through vast amounts of images using the thumbnail viewer that things get a bit slow, which could easily be remedied do with an improved caching function.

Another of Irfanview’s crowd-pleasing talents is its ability to handle an enormous range of different file formats, including g, somewhat rarely, icon (.ico) files. Unlike many of its rival tools, Irfanview doesn’t try to impose itself as the default viewer for all image types, giving you the option to specify the formats you wish to associate with it for yourself.

The program’s functionality can be expanded by installing plug-ins that allow Irfanview to open other file types, such as movies and audio – again a unique feature among photo viewers. You also get a smattering of basic editing features such as crop, rotate, flip and resize, along with some bread-and-butter effects like blur and sharpen, plus a smart crop function.

Upon first try, many users might be put off by the somewhat basic interface and the fact that it loads new images externally, rather than within the GUI itself. Nevertheless this is a small sacrifice to pay for a program that proves to be probably the quickest way to view images on your PC.

Download IrfanView 4.20 in Softonic

Drive emulation has many advantages. You can use it to check the integrity of your disk image (e.g. ISO) files; you can avoid burning images to CDs loading them directly from your storage device; and by and large, loading times are slashed from what you could expect to get from your CD drive. DAEMON Tools has enjoyed a lot of support, being the number one choice for several years thanks to its light system footprint and distinct lack of strings attached. Unfortunately for the loyal DAEMON Tools users, things have changed a little in recent releases and more and more people are turning to Alcohol 120% as an alternative.

The problem lies in a small program called SaveNow, bundled with the DAEMON Tools Searchbar as an optional add-on for Internet Explorer. This spyware program has only become part of the most recent versions and can be avoided during the install process by de-selecting the option to include the Searchbar.

Controls for DAEMON Tools are dictated from the task bar, with a handy context menu that pops up when you click. Being a specific CD/DVD drive emulator, the options consist of choosing the number of virtual drives you want, where the image files for each virtual disk are located so that they can be mounted, and of course you can dismount images when you’ve finished with them.

With support for a wide range of formats, DAEMON Tools makes a good choice for users who travel frequently and would prefer to do so without lugging their CD and DVD library everywhere they go. It also makes a lot of sense for those who tend to scratch their CDs, because an initial backup will see them through unlimited uses without the danger of rendering the image unusable. Alternatively though, if you’re after a complete package with burning and ripping capabilities on top of the emulation, Alcohol 120% will be right up your street.

Download DAEMON Tools 4.30.0 in Softonic

Registry cleaners are so common that it's hard to sort the wheat from the chaff sometimes but AML Free Registry Cleaner is definitely one of the better free cleaners you'll try.

Normally I use CCleaner for my registry cleaning requirements but AML Free Registry Cleaner offers a level of registry cleaning and penetration much deeper than that. AML Free Registry Cleaner is particularly good at identifying and correcting multiple entries in your Windows Registry but of course, not all entries should be removed. This is why the program comes equipped with an editable filter which can help you select which kind of entries should be considered as dangerous. However, be very careful when configuring this because if you get it wrong, and tell it to ignore dangerous entries, AML Free Registry Cleaner may miss those entries that pose a danger to your system.

The AML Free Registry Cleaner scanning process is simple enough and if you have any uncertainties, the wizard will take you through most of the process. Like most good cleaners, AML Free Registry Cleaner also makes a backup before making any drastic changes so that if the worst does happen, you can always roll back although if you do break your OS badly, this could prove difficult. Probably the most useful feature in AML Free Registry Cleaner however, which I've never seen before in a registry cleaner, is that it allows you to see in real time which registry entries relate to which programs. This makes it easier to identify those processes that may be malicious and those that are not.

If you're looking for a simple, efficient little registry cleaner, you could do a lot worse than AML Free Registry Cleaner.

Download AML Free Registry Cleaner 4.7 in Softonic