McAfee SiteAdvisor for Firefox 26.1

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Mac OS X, Linux
Type freeware
Manufacturer McAfee
Size 40Kb
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Even with the better security of Firefox compared with Internet Explorer, McAfee Site Advisor is a good way to sort the good from the bad online.

Once installed it appears as small area of text in the bottom right hand corner of the browser window. This changes colour depending on the website. Green signifies a website that can be trusted, yellow a site that might send lots of emails or red for sites that are known to send spam or bundle adware into downloads.

Clicking on this text gives the option to read more information about the site. This includes the number of emails received after registration and whether the website links to any suspicious sites. Downloads hosted on the site are also checked.

Most websites are tested by computers at McAfee but it is possible to submit a user report if you feel that a website has been the cause of spam or adware.

In this case the website will be looked at by a member of the McAfee team, rather than relying on automatic checking. The site owner can also leave a message responding to the rating.

nLite 1.3 beta

Platform Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Dino Nuhagic
Size 1.84MB
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Windows is a very flexible operating system, both after installation and, surprisingly, before you install to your computer.

For instance, wouldn't it be beneficial to take your old Windows XP installation CD and add Service Pack 2 and other security updates so these are installed with Windows?

Indeed, if you own a PC with a serial ATA interface, you'll have to go through the routine of trying to locate your old drivers (and these have to be on a floppy disk) so that Windows can install to your serial ATA hard drive.

If you own a small-form factor PC, such as a Shuttle system, you won't have a floppy drive, making this task more difficult.

nLite is a superb little tool that enables you to add external drivers and Windows updates to your original Windows XP installation CD.

Once you've added these files, you simply burn another Windows XP installation CD. Note, however, that you still need your original Windows XP serial code.

nLite also enables you to customise your Windows XP installation, so you can choose to exclude certain components and applications.

nLite 1.3 RC contains a number of new features, such as support for Windows XP Media Center, desktop theme customisation, support for the latest IE 7 and many bug fixes.

Auslogics Disk Defrag 1.1.0.188

Platform Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Auslogics Pty Ltd
Size 1.4MB
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Hard disks are by far the slowest component in your computer, particularly if you’re a laptop user with a 2.5” drive. CPU and memory work much faster than hard disks because they do not have moving parts. Therefore fragmented disks often become a bottleneck of the system performance.

Besides causing slowdowns, fragmentation makes the hard drive disk heads move frequently when reading files which leads to freeze-ups and system crashes. It is important to keep your disks defragmented and optimised as much as possible.
Disk fragmentation leads to system slowdowns, PC crashes, slow startup and shutdown and sometimes to system failures.

Auslogics Disk Defrag is designed for fast optimisation of today's modern hard disks. Get the maximum performance out of your expensive hardware investment.

Google Desktop 5.0.612

Platform Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Google
Size 1.93MB
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Today's hard drives are getting bigger and bigger and it can often take forever to find something, and the Windows search tool leaves a lot to be desired.

Google is trying to improve this situation with the launch of its own desktop search tool. Once installed it will perform a background search of your PC's entire contents, and then simply add new items as they are created.

You can select which items to index: Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents; AOL/AIM chats; web history (including secure web pages, if you wish); text video and other media; and email (Gmail, Outlook, Outlook Express and Thunderbird only).

Once installed, users can search using the Google website, and a link to a desktop search for the same item is included at the top of the page. Handy.

This version of the application adds several new features. The most notable is the ability to search for files across all of your computers, whilst you can now share information with friends from within the sidebar.

Version 4.5 adds a number of additional Google Gadgets and an improved sidebar.

Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.1

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Mozilla Corporation
Size 5.5MB
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Mozilla Firefox, the popular web browser, caused a stir with the original release, but apart from minor changes, visual improvements and security fixes, there haven’t been a wide range of new features since the original 1.x release. This is all about to change, with the release of Firefox 2.0. Windows version available to download from this page.

Current new 2.0 features include anti-phishing support, useful for acknowledging the difference between a legitimate website and a fake site set up for the purposes of obtaining your personal information.

Other new features include enhanced tabbed browsing, the ability to open tabs closed accidentally, spell checking within web forms, a search plugin manager, combined and enhanced Add-Ons manager and much more, including support for new web standards.

Firefox Backup Extension 4.04

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Custom Software Consulting
Size 353Kb
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We all like routine and we like to customise our web browsers, both at home at work, with the same bookmarks, extensions, ‘look and feel’ and much more. However, we have the time at home to make all the necessary changes, but at work we’re often stuck with a basic web browser, simply as we don’t have the time to customise.

Google recently released a Firefox extension that enabled you to backup your bookmarks and passwords, so the browser information stored on one computer could be transferred to another machine – that machine could be at work, home or a temporary machine such as a loaned laptop.

The Firefox Backup Extension goes much further and enables you to backup just about everything, including your themes, preferences, bookmarks and more. You can even backup your entire profile. You can then move this information to another copy of Firefox or, in case of a system crash, restore your preferences.

There is a key difference between this and the Google extension. The Google extension uses an online Google account to store your Firefox info and, whenever you start Firefox (and on whatever computer you use Firefox), your preferences are synchronised between your web browser and secure online account.

FlashGet 1.80

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Amaze Software
Size 3.5MB

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FlashGet promises fast downloads, and on the whole it delivers. It is different to many download managers in that it is integrated into the browser toolbar (IE and Netscape, and Opera via optional plug-in).

FlashGet's main adavantage is its ability to split a download into up to 10 separate packets; each one downloads a portion of the file only, making more effective use of the available bandwidth.

Downloaded files can be placed into different categories in FlashGet's file explorer. These categories are duplicated on your hard drive as folders, ensuring complete file organisation.

Batch downloads are supported, as is the ability to browse an entire site (FTP or HTTP) for downloadable material.

The downside is that only eight simultaneous downloads are possible.

Experts warn of Media Player vulnerability

A newly discovered security vulnerability in Windows Media Player has prompted security firms to warn users to remain extra vigilant and alter the way they handle a certain type of file.

According to a Microsoft security advisory, an attacker could use a specially crafted Media Player .asx file to gain control of a user's system and remotely execute malware.

The file could be placed in an HTML file, causing it to be automatically launched by the user's web browser.

Microsoft has confirmed the vulnerability and said that it is investigating the issue.

Secunia has given the vulnerability a rating of 'highly critical', the security firm's second highest alert level.

Originally disclosed on 22 November, and thought to cause only a denial-of-service attack, security research firm eEye now believes that exploit code could be written for the vulnerability.

EEye suggests that users can mitigate the threat by changing the default application to load .asx files.

WatchGuard security analyst Corey Nachreiner, however, believes that users should not panic over the vulnerability.

In a posting to WatchGuard's newswire feed entitled 'Unpatched Windows Media Player vulnerability announced; world fails to end,' Nachreiner downplays the immediate urgency of the flaw.

"While I do not doubt eEye's findings, there is a big difference between a flaw assumed to allow code execution and one confirmed to allow code execution, " he said.

Nachreiner pointed out that the Media Player vulnerability does not pose as serious a threat to users as the currently unpatched and active Word exploit.

The analyst still recommends users to follow eEye's steps to mitigate the effect of the vulnerability.

Word flaw left out of Patch Tuesday

Microsoft will not be including a fix for the recently discovered Word vulnerability in its scheduled security update on 12 December.

The software giant has admitted that its next 'Patch Tuesday' update will not address a recently discovered vulnerability in Word that is currently being exploited.

A Microsoft spokesman told vnunet.com that the company is still investigating the matter.

Although the fix is not currently included in the December security update, the spokesman said that Microsoft has not ruled out releasing a separate fix before the next monthly release in January 2007.

The Word vulnerability, which affects at least nine Mac and PC versions of Word and Microsoft Works, has been given the highest possible alert rating of 'extremely critical' by security firm Secunia.

The exploit could allow an attacker to remotely execute malware on a user's system. Security firm F-Secure advises users not to open or save any Word files that come from untrusted sources or arrive unexpectedly from trusted sources.

Microsoft's update due on 12 December fixes five vulnerabilities in Windows, some of which are listed as 'critical', the company's highest security rating.

A fix for Visual Studio that addresses 'critical' vulnerabilities will also be included. As a single Microsoft security bulletin can address several versions of the same application, the security rating for a vulnerability will often differ between releases.

Winamp 5.32

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Nullsoft
Size 6.3MB

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Winamp has always prided itself on being free and it has a steady, loyal following as a result. Version 5 is sure to please its current users, and to win it some converts.

It looks good with a completely new interface, and comes with fairly comprehensive file support. Audio support includes CDA, MIDI, MP1/2/3/4, AAC, OGG, WAV, AIF, WMA and more.

Support for video is added in version 5, and currently this stretches to MPG, M2V, AVI and ASF formats.

It packs a good deal into a fairly slim package, with the player incorporating everything you would expect and more: loop, repeat, ID3 tag support, cross-fading between tracks, 2x CD burning/ripping, internet TV and radio support etc.

It has a media manager, 10-band graphic equaliser, visualisations and a playlist editor. Upgrade to the Pro edition to get full support for ripping/encoding audio into the MP3 format, and integrated CD burning up to 48x speed.

Winamp 5.3 adds a new dashboard and a few minor enhancements.

Fresh Diagnose 7.48- Benchmark and diagnose PC faults

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Freshdevices
Size 1.3MB

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Find out exactly what your PC is doing with this diagnosis tool.

It will analyse the PC and the tasks that are currently running, and will benchmark, or speed-test, the computer's performance in several categories.

Much of the information may be of use if your computer is running oddly and you need to call technical support.

Note: This latest version features SM/DMI and CMOS module enhancements and bug fixes.

Mozilla Firefox 3.0 alpha 1

Platform Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Mozilla
Size 6MB

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With the forthcoming release of Mozilla Firefox 3.0, planned for 2007, the web graphics rendering engine will receive a completely new upgrade. Dubbed ‘ Cairo’, the new graphics rendering engine should improve the output across different platforms, as it’s being developed as an open-standard (see http://wiki.mozilla.org/Cairo). Mozilla Firefox 3.0 will also be based around the forthcoming Gecko 1.9 rendering engine.

With other improvements in the way that pages are ‘painted’ onscreen, improved SVG support and CSS enhancements, the general improvements for Firefox 3.0 are based around the way it will render web pages through the browser.

Note that further improvements and new features will be included within Firefox 3.0 as it is being developed. This 3.0 alpha 1 (dubbed “Gran Paradiso”, rather than Firefox) is an early developer preview.

Mozilla “Gran Paradiso” Alpha 1 is being made available for testing purposes only, and is intended for web application developers and our testing community. Current users of Mozilla Firefox should not use Mozilla Gran Paradiso Alpha 1.

The product release notes should be referred to before you download.

Adobe Reader 8

Platform Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Adobe
Size 20.8MB

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Adobe Acrobat Reader is free software that lets you view and print Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files.

Adobe PDF is the open standard for worldwide electronic document distribution. Documents converted into PDF format preserve all the formatting, colours and graphics of the original document, regardless of the application or platform used to create it.

The PDF format is the workflow standard for the publishing industry, and is increasingly being used in financial services, regulated industries and governments.

With Adobe Acrobat Reader you can also complete and submit PDF forms online, a handy tool as more and more companies begin to embrace the technology.

If you wish to create your own PDF files, this can be done using Adobe Acrobat.

The latest Adobe Reader 8 ships with a brand new interface, new tools, and more options for basic PDF viewing and comment-making.

Note the download here is for Windows XP and Windows Vista users only.

AVG Antivirus 7.5.432a861

Platform Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Grisoft Inc
Size 16.9MB

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Split into three sections and a Control Centre, AVG Anti-virus protects against viruses in a number of key areas. The Resident Shield works in the background and checks all files and file types (including floppy disk, CD content etc.) for viruses, whilst the Email Scanner works with Microsoft Exchange and Outlook.

The Boot-up Scanner operates at start-up, and checks the most important areas of a PC before you begin to use it. Every aspect of AVG's virus protection can be configured using the Control Centre, which allows you to modify a number of program settings and to schedule scans, among other things.

When installing there's an option to create a rescue disk for use should any of your key system files become infected. All crucial areas and files on a PC are backed up, and can be restored from this disk.

Note: This download is only valid for private, non-commercial, single home computer use.

Maxthon Standard 1.5.9.30

Maxthon is one of the more popular Internet Explorer replacement browsers and is constantly updated.

It can open multiple tabbed web pages within one window, and uses limited system resources to browse the web. It supports mouse gestures and even enables you to browse news RSS feeds in the same window as you browse the web.

Note: although this is a replacement for Internet Explorer, it still requires Internet Explorer (v5 or higher) to be present on your system.

Download now. (1.87MB)