Bittorrent and Gnutella might be hogging the headlines of the peer to peer (P2P) world, but close behind comes Ares, a successful P2P application that boasts of having its own decentralized network and a simple, quick access interface. Ares spun-off from Gnutella in 2002, and since then has been building a strong and dedicated community of users.

Installing Ares only takes a few minutes and the interface is simple enough that anybody will feel comfortable with it. The new version has a very sleek and dark interface, not unlike that of WMP 11. When you start Ares, it lets you auto scan your PC to find files you might like to share on the network. Beginners will be relieved to know that there is no complex configuration process involved. Once Ares is installed, all you need to do is select the search tab and type the name of the file you want to download. Once it appears, double click on it to begin downloading. You’ll be able to check its progress in the transfer tab. The recent update adds bittorrent support, opening Ares up to loads of new content.

If you enjoy exchanging words with other users, click on the chat tab and connect to one of the thousands of channels available. You can pick up tips on how to use Ares better, ask which files other users recommend or just chit chat about your life in general. You can even insert emoticons into your conversation and keep a list of your favorite chat channels.

Of all the P2P programs, Ares probably features the widest preview screen. You can set it to fit to screen or adjust it to your preference. This is a great way of making sure you’re downloading the right movie or to get a sneak peak at your downloads.

Unlike WinMX or FileNavigator, the two other spin-off Gnutella projects, Ares did not drop into obscurity and unites a flourishing community of users. However, the same old problems usually seem to arise. According to many Ares users the application suffers from constant connectivity troubles making it difficult to properly search for a file or to successfully complete downloads. Others will worry that Ares is a much smaller network than the globally used Gnutella and does not offer quite as much download sources.

Ares is an ambitious project, and the fact that it still remains standing while eDonkey has fallen at the hands of the RIAA, is characteristic of its reliability. Thanks to a strong community of users, a simple interface, a great preview page and multichat service, Ares remains a P2P application of choice for anybody interested into sharing files over the internet.

Download Ares Galaxy 2.0.9 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 6.1.274 in Softonic

As one of the mainstays of the instant messaging world, Yahoo! has finally decided to drag itself onto the VOIP bandwagon with the launch of this Voice version of its popular client. As well as offering free PC-to-PC calls and cheap PC-to-phone (landline and mobile) calls, the program throws in all the usual over-the-top gadgetry and gimmicks we've come to associate with Yahoo! Messenger.

As we've seen before from programs that try to be all things to all people, there's always a danger that things can get a little out of hand for the user, and this is the territory that Yahoo is entering with this latest incarnation of its messenger. It's true that the voice facilities in the program are top-notch, delivering crystal-clear clarity for most calls to PCs and phones. It's also true that the application boasts a bevy of interesting and innovative features, such as the ability to play games and listen to online radio together, send animated, talking emoticons, and quickly share files and photos simply by dragging and dropping them into the chat window.

Although, in the main, these features are good for a laugh, we did have a couple of things that we'd like to raise if we ever met Mr Yahoo! Firstly, we like the games but they lack instructions, so sometimes it can take a while to figure out how to play them. Also many of the so-called 'Audibles,' which are essentially animated, talking emoticons, are a little vulgar to say the least, and not really suitable for anyone with a reputation to uphold.

There are plenty of ways to customize the client to suit your mood too. The main interface is fully skinable, and you can also change the way the chat window looks by selecting from dozens of themed 'IMvironments', which certainly helps to inject some variety into your chat experiences. You can also build your own avatar – a process which can take hours as you carefully select the right haircut, clothes, sunglasses and even breed of dog to have sitting at your side in your IM profile.

Individually, these features are both innovative and compelling, but ironically they combine to contribute to the downfall of Messenger for Voice. The fact is that all of these options serve to swamp the interface and if you have a lot of the features running at the same time it's often hard to find even the text window. While it's fun and novel at first, the messenger very quickly becomes an irritant more than anything. Our advice – stick with Skype.

Download Yahoo! Messenger with Voice 9.0.0.1912 in Softonic

The Google Desktop application allows users to search their desktop content quickly and easily. Praised for its ingenuity and criticised for its intrusiveness, Google Desktop brings the power of Google’s search engine technology to your PC.

After installing the application, you’ll have to give it some time to index the files on your PC, including emails, photos, chats, contacts and calendar events. Google Desktop will index the first 10,000 words in the first 100,000 documents on your PC. The application supports the majority of file types and you can decide which ones to index, or omit protected files, using the preferences menu.

In its latest version, which is compatible with Windows Vista, Google Desktop has been given a new transparent look, providing a pretty sleek feel to your PC. Your search results will appear in your browser (in the familiar Google web page format) and a small preview button allows you to view results without actually clicking on the corresponding link. Results are as precise as we’ve come to expect from Google searches, however we were slightly disappointed to learn that the application doesn’t offer logical 'OR' support or substring search. On another note, Google Desktop is not limited to your PC as you can cross index content from multiple machines and share some panel items with your friends.

Google Desktop is not only about search, though. Joining a marketplace already occupied by Apple’s Dashboard Widgets and Yahoo! Widgets, Google Desktop can be fitted with any number of little gadgets. These mini apps perform all kinds of functions, from fetching your mail to jotting down notes or checking up on your local weather. There are hundreds of gadgets to choose from to customize your desktop bar. Our personal favorites are: Google Translate, the Skype plug-in to check your credit and call your contacts, “Am I Blocked” to find out who’s blocked you on IM, Workspace to quickly move between tasks, System Stats to monitor your PC and Games, a selection of Flash games like Tetris and Moonlander.

When running, we found Google Desktop to use up around 30 MBs, but that can quickly increase if you add more gadgets to it. The application is also constantly re-indexing your files to incorporate your modifications and new elements. However you should rarely feel your PC slowing due to indexing.

When you’re dealing with Google, however, you know the main criticism will be about security. Because Google Desktop indexes all your documents, you’re basically opening up your PC and all your personal files to the Moutain View company. What some users fear is that Google could one day take advantage of that access or that a bug in the application would allow malicious users to infiltrate your PC and steal information.

While the intrusiveness of Google Desktop will give some users pause for thought on installing the app, Google Desktop is highly effective and simple to use. The gadgets you can add to its sidebar may not all be essential, but many of them are quite fun and original and let’s face it, the sidebar looks good. Give it a go if you think your PC is a mess and you need quick access to anything.

Download Google Desktop 5.8.809.8522 in Softonic

If you write many articles, you probably know what a pain it is to have to regularly skim through a heavy dictionary to find the word you’re looking for. Luckily there’s a whole batch of lexicon applications that’ll send it back to the shelf (or in the trash can) forever. WordWeb is the perfect example of this type of dictionary and thesaurus combo in a hands-on interface.

What you’re looking for in a dictionary application is something you can open in a click, paste your word, and immediately get the results. You get that in Wordweb via system tray integration, and a Ctrl+Alt+W hot key combination. On install WordWeb will ask you the English locale you will use, such as Australian, Canadian American or New Zealander. The program keeps a history of your searches and you can quickly access them via the side arrows. You can refine your search by selecting word category like nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs and decide to show pronunciation, usage and offensive or vulgar words. WordWeb isn’t associated to any world famous reliable dictionary like Webster’s ,preferring its very own online source, comprising of more than 240,000 words and updated regularly, according to the developer.

The heart of WordWeb resides in the results tabs, although the difference between them all wasn’t obvious from the start. After a bit of testing we found that the “nearest” tab showed you the preceding and following words in the dictionary, “see also” was a suggestion of related words and “similar” presented a word that resembled your search but had a slightly different meaning. “Types” goes down to the meaning of the word, for example solid “types” will be plastic, crystal or block. The “type of” tab is another variation. “Types of” solid will be substance, state or form. These tools will be particularly helpful if you feel limited by your vocabulary and are looking to diversify your choice of words in the document you are writing.

WordWeb is a reliable dictionary and thesaurus with a simple, hands-on approach. It is an ideal partner to fight off writer’s block and improve your vocabulary. The online dictionary is a rich source and WordWeb should help you out of any mind jam whenever you’re writing an article.

Download WordWeb 5.5 in Softonic

Do you need the processing power of Microsoft Word but don't have hundreds of dollars to pay for the Office package itself?

Jarte may be your answer. It's a free word processor based on Microsoft WordPad's word processing engine. It's extremely fast and easy to use. In a way it acts more like WordPad on steroids, adding tons of useful features to the basic word processor. It's very portable - it can fit on a USB stick - and yet it can open any document compatible with Word and WordPad.

Believe it not, Microsoft is continually upgrading the simple WordPad editing engine, although WordPad itself hasn't changed. never know it by examining WordPad. Jarte however takes advantage of these changes and has evolved to take advantage of the new useful features that Microsoft have added. These include tabbed document windows for easy access to open documents, larger buttons for the most commonly used functions, instant dictionary and thesaurus word look-up and a free spell check and text search tools that do not impose themselves on top of the text you are trying to edit.

There are many new features in Jaxtr that make it a superb option for those that can't afford or access Word but need it's processing power.

Download Jarte 3.3 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've always used MS Word for my word processing needs but if you don't have Office installed, then it's not exactly a cheap option.

AbiWord can read and write all standard industry docs ranging from open source efforts such as those created in OpenOffice to those created in professional apps such as Microsoft Word. It also features support for WordPerfect documents, Rich Text Format documents, HTML web pages etc. Although the editing options can't compare with Word, I do like the fact that this is a very light word processor that doesn't take up much more processing power than even MS Text. This makes it especially suitable for those working on slower machines who haven't got a decent word processor installed. What's also nice is that AbiWord is fully customisable with several different plugins to extend its capabilities. These can vary from format converters, document importers and thesauruses to image importers and a text format managers.

This may be basic but it's generally a very impressive word processing app that has everything you need to edit simple documents.

Download AbiWord 2.6.4 in Softonic

OpenOffice.org is both an open-source product and a project. The product is a multiplatform office productivity suite. It includes desktop applications such as a word processor, a spreadsheet program, a presentation manager, and a drawing program, with a user interface and feature set similar to those of other office suites. OpenOffice.org also works transparently with a variety of file formats, including those of Microsoft Office.

Localizations of OpenOffice.org are available in 27 languages, with more being constantly added by the community. OpenOffice.org runs on Solaris, Linux (including PPC Linux), and Windows. Written in C++ and with documented APIs licensed under the LGPL and SISSL open-source protocols, OpenOffice.org allows any knowledgeable developer to benefit from the source.

Download OpenOffice.org 2.4.1 in Softonic

Whenever I hear the word "Pro" and "Microsoft" in the same package, I get inherently nervous because it's often nothing more than a few add-ons for hundreds of dollars more.

The first thing to warn you about is upgrading from Office 2007 with this package. You are almost certainly going to experience a myriad of upgrade problems, compatibility issues and goodness knows what else. certainly. Note that you'll certainly need a considerable amount of time to adjust to upgrading to this new version of Office although those used to the Classic version will probably have least problem and for the cost of the upgrade, it's debatable whether it actually increases productivity or speed of use at all. The ribbons in particular are still cluttered, poorly organised and occupy too much of the desktop. In addition, there's not much added functionality although they have manged to make sure that the ‘saved’ file sizes are smaller. I really can't see much reason in upgrading from Office 2003 based on this very frustrating version of 2007 but if you really do enjoy constant technical hiccups and error messages, then go ahead.

This is one Microsoft upgrade to definitely avoid although the one advantage is that saved file sizes are smaller.

Download Microsoft Office Professional 2007 Beta 2 in Softonic

In the beginning was Microsoft Office. Then OpenOffice appeared as an open-source alternative. And now IBM makes a new move and offers its own productivity suite, all free of charge. The idea is not new: there have been a few free suites launched lately, but all of them were online. IBM Lotus Symphony is the only desktop suite that, together with OpenOffice, can offer a free alternative to Microsoft's proprietary apps.

IBM Lotus Symphony offers three tools: word processor, spreadsheet and presentations. It's true that other productivity suites are usually more complete. However, Lotus Symphony stands out for a convenient, single-windowed interface from which you can launch the three apps. Simply click on the "Open" button and select the kind of document you want to open: the program's toolbar will change accordingly. What's more, you can have as many opened documents as you want at the same time, no matter which type, and switch between them in the top tab bar.

The suite includes all the basic tools that you could expect in such an application: spell checker and tables for documents, predesigned templates for presentations and charts for spreadsheets - to name a few - besides the usual configuration options as regards fonts, colors and the like.

In my personal opinion, I'm glad to have another possibility to choose from when deciding which suite I'm going to use. A little rivalry is always good and usually produces better and wider options for computer users. And it seems IBM is beginning to take the suite competition quite seriously.

IBM Lotus Symphony has left the beta stage behind and now offers a stable, highly functional productivity suite that, despite not being as complete as other suites, may perfectly fit your needs.

Download IBM Lotus Symphony 1.0 in Softonic

If you've been working on a Word document for a long time then it's a nightmare when it suddenly corrupts or won't open.

The reasons for this are numerous and usually it's not your fault. If you've ever received any of the following messages then you'll know what I'm talking about: "The document name or path is not valid. Try these suggestions. Check the file permissions for the document or drive. Use the File Open dialog box to locate the document."; "Word cannot open the document."; "Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges."; "When you attempt to open a Microsoft Word 97 document into Microsoft Word version 6.x or 7.x, the document contains garbage characters." Repair My Word can come to the rescue if you've suffered any of these error messages and has the ability to repair Microsoft Word 6.0, Word 95, 97, 2000, XP, and 2003 for Windows. To use it, you simply open the corrupt Word file, preview the recoverable text in the preview window and save this text to a new error free Word file. However, don't expect miracles from this software because it doesn't work in all cases and in addition, even if it can, the rescued document is often a jumbled mess of words of symbols.

If you've ever lost a Word document to corruption or file error, then this is definitely worth a try.

Download Word Repair 1.0.0.49 in Softonic

Although it is true that standalone computers are always more powerful, it is also true that for portable devices, the need for light applications is always strong. If the portable device were to be a USB pen drive this need is even greater.

In modern life, its useful to have all our document, photos, videos and contacts with us all the timeIts nice to feel free to send a document we have just created at any moment if we need to. The release of very thin and hybrid devices, notebooks with a very small screen try to answer to this need and this life style change. So far though, these devices are not that powerful and they don't have so much storage space. Having a tiny application then is still important and this is why this set of programs may come inhandy.

Tiny USB Office allows you to create text file, export them topdf, use a basic MSN Instant Messaging service, and create spreadsheets. Do not think you can open and modify your doc or xls files though. The application, at least for the latest file uses a proprietary format not compatible with Excel, despite what the developer says. I've actually tried creating simple excel files and the Tiny USB Office couldn't open them. The utility is of course reduced, but you might find useful to have a little office of just 2.3Mb, always available on your USB drive.

The idea of a portable office is great, but I would have allowed compatibility with MS Office; if not the portability is zero and the utility greatly reduced.

Download Tiny USB Office 1.0 in Softonic

Any software that attempts to present an alternative to Adobe's sluggish PDF software is fine by me and novaPDF does an impressive job at rivalling the industry standard package.

novaPDF is a PDF creator that allows you to easily create high-quality searchable PDF files. The first thing you'll notice is that it's very easy to use because once installed, all you have to do is select "Print" from the file menu of virtually any application you're using. The reason being is that novaPDF acts like a virtual printer. You can create just about any type of PDF file including bookmarks, PDF links, public and private documents as well as PDF watermarks and perform PDF compression. Although it's very straightforward with a fully comprehensive tutorial and manual, there's even free support which is unusual in an unregistered piece of software (although registered users are dealt with first). You have pretty much full control over what you add to the documents including the ability to embed fonts and insert images of different resolutions. If your images or text are unusually large - don't worry, you can compress the entire document afterwards no matter what it contains.

At just a fraction of the cost of Adobe's software, novaPDF is a superb answer to your PDF needs and it also enables you to do your bit for the environment by using less paper.

Download novaPDF Pro 5.3.247 in Softonic

The good thing about PDF documents is that they keep the same design and layout cross-platform. The bad thing is that they can't be easily edited.

Of course, there are a few PDF editors out there but they're usually quite expensive. So if you don't want to spend your savings in such a program, use Free PDF to Word Doc Converter instead. Despite not being a PDF editor in itself, this simple tool will enable you to perform certain PDF editing tasks by converting the original PDF files to Word documents. And you don't even need to have Acrobat PDF Reader or Microsoft Word installed.

Free PDF to Word Doc Converter is very easy to use: select the source PDF file and target directory and choose whether you want to convert the whole file or just a certain page range. Then you'll be able to open and edit your document in Word just like any other DOC file.

While Free PDF to Word Doc Converter seems to work fine, I had some trouble with PDF embedded images in some of my conversions. Also, bear in mind that once your editing is done, you'll have to save the document in DOC format: there's no way to go back to PDF – at least with this app.

Free PDF to Word Doc Converter enables you to easily convert PDF documents to DOC files. You'll be able then to edit it or extract its images, but not to save it back to PDF again.

Download Free PDF to Word Doc Converter 1.1 in Softonic

Use SimpleOCR to add accurate character recognition capabilities to your custom software without the complexity and expense of runtime licensing. The SimpleOCR freeware demonstrates the power of its engine and is completely free.

Convert your scanned images to text files or Word documents with SimpleOCR is also a royalty-free developer toolkit (aka SDK or API) that you may use to add OCR to your custom software application. A 15-day demo of Charactell's Softwriting handprint recognition engine is also included. Machine print recognition has no limitations or advertisements.

Download SimpleOCR 3.5 in Softonic

CataThumbs is a free tool that allows you to print a catalogue of thumb shots or miniature shots in just a few clicks. You can use it to create HTML, RTF and PDF archives. It even has a button that in a matter of seconds, composes a message that you can send to yourself with all the images in the scale you require. You can also attach it as a PDF document too.

CataThumbs is designed to achieve a balance between functionality and complexity. However, sometimes it has problem locating all the image files you need on your hard drive. It can also prove a long drawn waiting for the program to minimise the photos into thumbnail views that are suitable to print.

If you've ever needed a complete printout of your photos in thumbnail or miniature form for easy viewing, this is a reasonable program although it isn't half as quick, or user friendly, as it should be for such a simple program.

Download CataThumbs 0.01 g in Softonic

PC Garbage Remover allows you to safely scan and remove many different garbage files on your computer, freeing up extra disk space and keeping your system at peak performance. You can automatically remove various garbage/junk files, temp files, and 0 byte files.

You can also select and remove the previously viewed webpages and webpage graphics, which are stored on your computer everytime you visit a website. Other file types which you can search through are zipped files, screensavers, text files and word processor documents, videos, graphics, and sound files.

This program contains an internal trash bin that enables you to easily restore any files you remove. You can also sort the list of found files by file extension, filename, file size, or file path. This software includes a built-in video player, sound player, and graphics viewer which enables you to immediately view or listen to your multimedia files.

Download PC Garbage Remover 3.96 in Softonic

When it comes to saving documents to the web, Adobe's PDF format rules the roost. However, users have traditionally grumbled about the fact that you need to shell out lots of cash in order to get Acrobat, the program used to create PDF files. Thankfully, FreePDF offers a free alternative that does a pretty good job of making PDF files complete with password protection. As a result, you can use the program to save files from a number of formats into printable format, including Word documents, pictures or Web pages.

The program is a doddle to use, installing itself on your machine and adding an option for you to 'Print to PDF' in your printer dialog. From here you can choose from a wide variety of options for output, such as the dimensions or the resoltution. Despite the fact that you're limited to the number of PDF files you can generate, FreePDF XP performs very well and is a viable alternative to Acrobat.

Download FreePDF XP 3.24 in Softonic

This eBook reader loads text files and web pages (including direct from an Internet address), reformatting them into paperbacks for screen reading. The application also includes a printout routine to generate booklets and hard copy for binding, plus a compiler to generate your own ebooks for distribution. You can also select a textured background to make the pages look like real paper. yBook will read HTML files, text files, RTF files and PDB/PRC files (Palm document format).

Features include:

• Display your book on side-by-side or single pages
• Resize the pages, adjust the margins, set text and paper colour
• Text, HTML and RTF reader
• PDB and PRC reader
• Search for words or phrases
• Automatic bookmarks
• Text sizes from tiny to huge
• No zooming, panning or scrolling
• Direct download of all Gutenberg titles, with index
• Internationalised menus - Spanish, German, etc.
• Completely free to use: No registration, no adware, no spyware

Download yBook 1.4.85 in Softonic