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

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

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

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

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

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

Download ICQ 6.0.0.6063 in Softonic

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

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

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

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

Download Thoosje Vista Sidebar 2.5 in Softonic

There's an increasing demand for alternatives to Adobe's resource hogging, RAM sapping, not least expensive PDF creator and PrimoPDF weighs in as an excellent alternative.

The fact that this program is free makes it all the more appealing. One of the problems with these PDF programs is that invariably, they change the formatting of your text, once you've converted your Word, Publisher etc. document to PDF. PrimoPDF largely avoids this however converting to PDF as faithfully as the original. It's also remarkably fast and the installation is equally speedy.

Once installed, the program appears as a virtual printer in your Printer Driver preferences too. The main downside, of which there are few, is that you are regularly prompted to register although this is a small price to pay for an excellent program. It's also a bit unreliable when converting images. Text is fine but images can sometimes be in the wrong position or formatted incorrectly when converting from Office documents. It also doesn't use Windows standard way of saving documents - it has it's own format which doesn't suggest a file name but it's a small drawback.

A really excellent PDF creator that will have Adobe critics laughing all the way to their virtual printers.

Download PrimoPDF 4.1.0.9 in Softonic

I don't know about you, but I quickly grow tired of a Windows appearance. This is why I was happy to find MyColors, a simple theme manager with which you can completely customize the way Windows looks.

MyColors is another product from the Stardock company, which seems to have specialized in customizing software. MyColors features a sleek interface divided into several tabs, from which you can manage your themes, adjust the program's settings and select the wallpaper, among other options.

MyColors includes a few themes and allows you to easily download a few more from the Stardock website. Be aware though that only a few of them are free, while the most attractive ones are only available after paying 20 bucks.

The best thing about MyColors is how easy it is to install new themes. Simply click on the "Apply" button and wait for it to complete the process. Also, going back to Windows standard appearance is as easy as re-installing the Windows standard theme from MyColors.

If you'd like to give Windows a completely new look, you should give MyColors a go, although the theme selection is not precisely very wide.

Download MyColors in Softonic

Sometimes you need to be sure that your FTP transfers are not going to get hijacked or intercepted by a third party. Most FTP applications are not designed for secure transfers over SSL which is why WinSCP was developed.

For starters, be warned that WinSCP is not the easiest FTP client to use. Because of the extra security features, it can appear overwhelming at first although it does feature a graphical user interface. It also supports integration with Windows in terms of drag & dropping files, pasting in URL's and shortcuts.

The key to the program is the fact that it supports both SFTP and SCP protocols over SSH-1 and SSH-2. Of course, it also supports normal FTP protocols too. It also features full support for SSH password and Kerberos (GSS) authentication. A particularly nice little addition is the Session Saving option. If you want to save your session configuration, you can use the save button on the login dialogue. In this way, you can make huge FTP file transfers and not worry about stopping and completing it later.

This is not the most user friendly FTP client out there but it must be one of the most secure. If security is your concern, you won't be disappointed by what it offers.

Download WinSCP 4.1.6 in Softonic

FinePrint is a Windows printer driver that saves ink, paper and time with your print jobs by controlling and enhancing printed output. The program contains a number of time-saving measures that you simply wouldn't be able to find within your printer settings.

Features:

Print Preview

Universal print preview with editing capability. Easily add blank pages, delete pages, and re-sequence jobs.

Ink Saver

Provides options to convert colored text to black and skip graphics.

Multiple Pages on a single sheet

Print 2, 4 or 8 pages on a single sheet of paper.

Watermarks Headers and Footers

Watermark, header and footer option allows documents to be marked with the date, time, system variables or custom text.

Forms and Letterheads

Allows the simplified creation of electronic forms and letterhead. The preview feature shows how output will appear before you print it to ensure correct alignment.

Combine Print Jobs

Allows multiple documents to be combined together as a single print job. This is useful for creating booklets based on web pages, etc.

File saving

Save pages and jobs to TIFF, JPEG, BMP, text and FP formats.

Clipboard Support

Any printed output can be copied to the clipboard for easy pasting into other applications.

Double Sided Printing Support

Booklet making and double sided printing are supported with all documents and printers. Booklets create a professional touch to all documents and are easy to read and carry. Double sided printing cuts paper use in half and reduces travel weight.

Paper Scaling

Allows large pages to be scaled to that they fit on standard paper sizes such as letter or A4.

Adjustable Margins

Margin adjustment allows for increased text sizes for better readability, by using more of the printable area on the page.

Gutter Support

Gutter capability provides space for binding documents.

Multiple FinePrinters

Multiple FinePrinters can be created. This allows the creation of "virtual printers" that have different pre-defined settings.

Download FinePrint 6.01 in Softonic

One of the biggest temptations when chatting on the Internet is playing a joke on the person you're talking to. And AV WebCam Morpher can be a really good help.

AV WebCam Morpher is especially designed for video chats. The program replaces your current webcam video signal with a fake video loop that shows a completely different person. This means that it'll be this character's face – and not yours – the one that will appear on the video window on whichever IM client you're using.

You can choose between different people in AV WebCam Morpher. Video loops are quite elaborate: people on them play a very credible role while pretending to be typing on a keyboard or looking at the screen. What's more, AV WebCam Morpher includes a smiley menu with which you can make them laugh, dance, grin and many other visual gestures that are part of body language.

AV WebCam Morpher is quite easy to set up, and is also compatible with popular IM clients such as Yahoo Messenger, Skype, Camfrog, PalTalk Messenger and Windows Live Messenger. On the downside, its interface could be greatly improved.

With AV WebCam Morpher you can play a funny joke on your video IM client pretending to be someone else.

Download AV Webcam Morpher 2.0.23 in Softonic

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

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

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

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

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

Download FoxyTunes Extension 3.0.4.1 in Softonic

Being one of the most widely used IM applications, MSN Messenger has always had a large base of users keen on developing plugins with which they could personalize their favorite chat client. Amateur programmers released plugins to discover who had erased you from their contact list, to start more than one MSN session, to log conversations... until MSN Plus! was launched.

MSN Plus! soon became the most popular MSN plug-in, collecting together all the extra options users could ask for into one program. Even now Plus! is still an excellent pack of tools which heavy Messenger users consider as essential and which certainly improves your IM experience. During all these years it has been able to adapt to every new Messenger version, including the name change and the new interface design. In fact, Plus! is now seamlessly integrated into Live Messenger: it launches with the program and the only way you can tell it's there it by two tiny buttons on the main interface.

When Plus was launched, its main feature was the ability to record "chat logs", that is, create text files with all your conversations. However, as this has been already included in the IM app itself, Plus! has had to widen its range of extra functions. These tools can be divided into two groups: those dedicated to chatting improvement and those devoted to contact management. As for the first group, you'll enjoy tabbed chat windows, support for custom text format (bold, italics, font, color) and the so-called quick messages, personal keyboard shortcuts you can assign to sentences or expressions used on a regular basis. The second group of tools allows you to create custom status messages, have your favourite contacts right on the Windows desktop (as an icon) and gather all kinds of stats about contacts, like the last time they logged on or whether they have recently changed their nickname, which I personally find kind of excessive, but hey, to each his own.

Besides all this, Live Messenger Plus still offers its popular chat log tool, which is said to be more powerful and flexible than the default function featured in Windows Messenger Live. Actually, it looks much better thanks to the use of HTML, the ability to record emoticons and winks and the possibility to customize its appearance with CSS formatting.

The list of improvements Plus brings to Windows Live Messenger doesn't end here. You can, for example, hide the application in the system tray under an almost invisible icon (in case you're chatting at work, something we completely disapprove of) or password protect access to the program, amongst others. The good thing though is that you can create your own extra functions, that is, if you know how to code scripts. Plus already features a nice bunch of them, allowing you to display the name of the song you're listening to, send screenshots, use sticky notes and other nice extras.

All in all, Live Messenger Plus is probably the only plug-in you'll ever need, especially if you like customizing every single detail of your Messenger.

Download Messenger Plus! Live 4.60.326 in Softonic

If you ever need to edit audio files, look no further than ALO Audio Editor, a full featured audio editor with a wide array of tools.

ALO Audio Editor works with many different formats and lets you perform all sorts of operations on your audio files, from the basic cut, copy and paste tasks to more complex special effects and filters with which to alter the way your audio file sounds.

ALO Audio Editor features the classical audio editing interface, with a timeline displaying the loaded file and all the buttons and menus you need just a click away. The program includes a varied selection of filters and effects you can apply to the while file or just a selected area. Then, you can check the results in the built-in audio player.

The only drawback to ALO Audio Editor, in my opinion, is the nagging window that appears with almost any action you perform on the program. I know this is a trial version, but I don't need to be reminded of it every 20 seconds.

If you ever need to edit an audio file, be it a simple cut and copy task or a cool special effect, AOL Audio Editor is a great choice.

Download ALO Audio Editor 3.2 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 miss those good ol' arcade titles you used to play in your Nintendo Entertainment System, whine no more: NES is back on your favorite web browser!

FireNes is a Firefox add-on that lets you play more than 2,500 NES titles of all times, covering all sorts of interests and styles. Games appear listed in alphabetic order on a sidebar to the left of your screen (if you don't see it, open it with Tools > FireNes), from which this list you can choose the one you want to play and run it with a double click. The sidebar also includes two other tabs (Top and Favorites) to manage games in a different way. It would have been great to have some kind of search tool to quickly locate certain games though.

When launched, games appear on a small-sized window that runs independently from Firefox. Controls are limited to arrow keys, Enter, Ctrl, Z and X, though sometimes the game does take a while to react to them. Also, I noticed that some games are a bit buggy, but you can always let the author know by filling in a small form. In any case, FireNes features such a huge collection of games that you'll surely find that one title you were hooked on a few years ago.

With FireNes you can use Firefox for more than browsing webpages: play more than 2,5000 NES games and remember gaming prehistory!

Download FireNes 1.1 in Softonic

We never get tired of Windows manager tools here in the Softonic offices, and after trying out this latest offering from Yamicsoft, we are still looking for a tool that strikes a good balance between usability and functionality. WinXP Manager may offer a fine range of options and tweaking utilities, but the delivery is haphazard with several sources of concern for the average user.

Let’s start from the beginning. The first time you open the program you are prompted to create a system restore point, just in case something should go horribly wrong. If you have system restore disabled on your computer, WinXP Manager will go ahead and load up anyway. What you are presented with is a detailed overview of your system specs. Through the tabbed navigation, you can switch the view to check out details about your operating system, computer, hardware, and processes. There isn't, however, any central tab that would display all the information in one place so that you could easily print out a complete run down on what you have in your box. Neither, for that matter, is there a print button for quickly converting anything to hard copy.

On further investigation, you find yourself digging through tabs of tabs to find what you need, or alternatively, opening pop-up windows that appear when you click buttons that lie alongside those that don’t produce pop-ups. Supposedly consistency wasn't high on the priority list. WinXP Manager runs inside a fixed width window, something that wouldn't usually merit any criticism but in this case the window is very small relative to the entire screen size and results in some scrolling.

Putting design and usability aside, there are a lot of positive things to say about WinXP Manager. As we mentioned, it does provide comprehensive information about all aspects of your hardware and software. There is a handy optimization wizard that guides inexperienced users through the process, and for every tick box you see, there is a corresponding detailed tooltip that will give you a clue whether or not you are on the verge of destroying your PC. There are an amazing amount of utilities for tweaking XP to the last, although we are concerned that the registry cleaner may be over aggressive.

Boiling it down, WinXP Manager is a fantastic utility for anyone that has a good general understanding of the many various elements making up their PC. If you have a tweak in mind and don’t want to bury yourself in the actual system files, then this program will serve you well. On the other hand, if you are after a quick all round maintenance fix and you don't quite get the registry or services, then you should look for a less hard-core solution.

Download WinXP Manager 5.2.6 in Softonic

Writing PHP code and testing it on-the-fly can be a real hassle but this offering from DzSoft promises to ease the pain of coding by acting as a virtual server that can process code and display the results.

DzSoft PHP Editor is primarily a code editor, and includes the majority of features that you’d expect from this type of software. However, while most rival code editors tend to generalize, offering syntax highlighting for a multitude of languages PHP Editor is specifically tuned to the needs of web programmers who are working with the Hypertext Preprocessor language. Evidence of this can be found in the inclusion of common code and functions libraries and the ability to run and preview your work.

At first glance the program doesn’t appear to have a particularly intuitive interface. The design wouldn’t be out of place in Windows 95 and the main editor window is a typical reproduction of Notepad with each line numbered for easy reference. What appears to be a navigation bar on the left offers some hope of functionality, and once you get stuck in to coding it really delivers. The explorer bar tracks everything and records the location of each include, function, variable, and class you use. Should you wish to specifically save a reference point you can add up to nine bookmarks, although you can’t assign names to them - an addition that would have helped clarify what function each snippet serves.

To use the run and preview feature you must install PHP on your PC, a simple operation when compared to setting up your computer as a server that can process PHP. With a syntax check also included, this tool comes highly recommended to anyone that will be writing significant bodies of PHP. DzSoft PHP Editor may be a little rough around the edges, but with its outstanding functionality, that can be forgiven.

Download DzSoft PHP Editor 4.2.0.0 in Softonic

Smart Wallpaper Lite is a powerful and easy-to-use wallpaper manager which makes freshening-up your desktop that much easier.

The program will automatically change your wallpaper either on each Windows startup or at specified time intervals. There's no need to touch the control panel either - everything can be administered from the system tray. The developers claim they have stripped it down so that it doesn't use up system resources like the Windows wallpaper changer although I never really noticed the latter ever did anyway.

Nevertheless, it is very lightweight, easy to use and doesn't slow down your PC while changing wallpapers. You have some limited control over how your wallpaper in changed. You can set the program to random mode or "one-by-one". Random obviously means that wallpapers are picked to appear in a random order while "one-by-one" selects them in the order of your choice. When a wallpaper has changed, the program settings automatically pop up from the taskbar which can be annoying but it disappears after a few seconds if you don't use it.

Overall, this is a simple and useful program for anyone who gets bored of their wallpaper on a regular basis.

Download Smart Wallpaper Lite 3.2.0 in Softonic

As far as free PDF converters go, doPDF is one of the best out there saving you tons of cash on Adobe's patented version and whatsmore, doing it in half the time.

The program is remarkably simple to use. Just open a document in Microsoft Word, WordPad, NotePad or practically any other text editing software, choose Print and select doPDF. The program asks you where to save the PDF file and when finished, the PDF file will be automatically opened in your default PDF viewer. This process takes less than a minute and you'll be amazed at how accurate the PDF is. Occasionally, it can suffer with unusually formatted text and images and so they won't come-out exactly as you want but this can be remedied.

Unfortunately, there's also no option to print large web pages (such as long news articles or forum pages) without dividing it into separate pages so you'll end up with lines dividing the article up throughout your PDF documents. The other slight downside is that it seems the PDF files it creates can be rather large although if you ZIP them up, this is not much of an issue.

An excellent PDF converter that's fast, easy to use and serves as more than an adequate replacement for Adobe's software.

Download doPDF 6.0.265 in Softonic

All-in-One Sidebar (AiOS) is a sidebar control, inspired by Opera's. Click on the left edge of your browser window to open the sidebar and get easy access to all your panels.

It lets you quickly switch between sidebar panels, view dialog windows such as downloads, extensions, and more in the sidAiOS screenshotebar, or view source or websites in the sidebar. It includes a slide-out button and a toolbar, all of which can be extensively customized.

You can set the orientation to left or right, set the minimum, default and maximum width and the behavior on browser startup. All-in-One Sidebar provides enhancements for many built-in features, which are related to the sidebar, and adds some extra features.

The options dialog gives you the ability to configure many features, behaviors and the appearance of All-in-One Sidebar.

Enjoy a clear browser window, more toolbar space and much more!

Download All-in-One Sidebar Extension 0.7.6 in Softonic

The Royale Theme is a slick black theme for Windows XP which originally leaked out of Microsoft and onto the web in 2005.

There's no way to know but it seems to have come out of the new version of Windows Media Centre that Microsoft developed for XP. The Royale theme is remarkably similar to XP's default "Luna" theme but is a much sleeker shade of black. If you are tired of the default theme then you'll surely find something that appeals in Royale. It's also a remarkably small download at 2MB so there's no need to worry that it's going to slow down your machine although it does take up slightly more RAM so if you're on a slow machine, you might want to think twice before installing it. The installation is very simple - simply download the theme and run the EXE and it will ask you automatically where you want to install it. If you choose C:\WINDOWS path the files will automatically be placed in the Resources Folder on your computer. Once it's installed, you'll still need to activate the theme by right-clicking on you desktop, selecting Properties, then Appearance and finally Windows and Buttons. Select the Media Center Style option and click apply and the screen may go black while the theme is applied.

If you're bored with XP's default theme, this is an excellent free way to spice up your desktop and Windows itself.

Download Royale Theme for Win XP in Softonic

Although it might appear like some sort of Communist software, CCCP is actually just a pack of codecs to help just about any video run on your system.

The full title is the "Combined Community Codec Pack". In reality, it's more like a filter pack than a codec pack but the developers say that "filter doesn't begin with C and we wanted a good acronym"! For anyone who understands Russian, the developers also like to point out that the name is also a pun on the Russian name Союз Советских Социалистических Республик, which is transliterated into the Latin alphabet as "Soyuz Sovietskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik", or "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics", abbreviated as "СССР" or "USSR". Anyway, the CCCP codec pack was created to replace the filter packs provided by other groups which simply often did not work properly or broke compatibility for other formats. In reality, it is an extremely powerful Codec pack, playing back effortlessly most popular formats and some unpopular ones too. There are now fiddly options to get it working although if you have other codec packs installed, you may experience some conflicts or significant slowdown in reproduction of your films.

However, overall, this is an impressive pack which deals with just about anything and I quite like the attitude of the developers and their ironic communist branding.

Download Combined Community Codec Pack 2008-01-24 in Softonic

Ripping CD's is increasingly difficult because of the protection that manufacturers place on the disks.

Now however, there are some programs strong enough to break that protection such as RipIt4Me. These encryption methods cannot be dealt with by most major DVD rippers and burners because they employ such encryption as ARccOS and RipGuard DVD techniques that totally immobilise programs such as DVD Shrink or DVD Decrypter. RipIt4Me is an incredibly powerful ripper which can handle just about any encryption. Of course, it should only be used for non commercial use - such as your own personal backups of your own commercial discs. The program is very simple to use with a "One Click" wizard to take you through the very simple ripping procedure which consists of little more than inserting a disc, browsing to a save location, and off you go. In it's latest incarnation, the program now has an automatic updater and an encryption decoder which detects whether the DVD appears to be protected or not. You'll see this displayed in the main window during the first step of the wizard.

This is a remarkably powerful ripping tool that can rip just about any copyrighted DVD (although not all) but only use it for your own backups.

Download RipIt4Me 1.7.1.0 in Softonic