IE7Pro

Platform Windows XP, Windows Vista

Type freeware
Manufacturer IE7Pro.com
Size 1.28MB
Free Download

IE7Pro is a must have add-on for Internet Explorer, which includes a lot of features and tweaks to make your IE friendlier, more useful, secure and customizable.

IE7Pro includes Tabbed Browsing Management, Spell Check, Inline Search, Super Drag Drop, Crash Recovery, Proxy Switcher, Mouse Gesture, Tab History Browser, Web Accelerator, User Agent Switcher, Webpage Capturer, AD Blocker, Flash Block, Greasemonkey like User Scripts platform, User Plug-ins and many more power packed features.

Opera 9.22

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista
Type freeware
Manufacturer Opera
Size 4.69MB
Free download

Since the release of Opera 9 earlier this year, Opera have been working hard fixing little bugs, making minor improvements and turning Opera in to a serious rival to Internet Explorer. Now at 9.2, it's worth downloading if you've not used this browser before.

The new speed dial feature is a new view in new tabs. It shows live thumbnails of up to nine websites. Click on one to open the site, or enter a new address as normal. It's certainly more useful than a blank tab.

Opera also supports BitTorrent downloads. These type of downloads make best use of available bandwidth by splitting files up and downloading the different bits from several locations at the same time.

The principle of the system is that files downloaded onto your computer should be accessible to others but Opera can turn this off to conserve bandwidth quotas.

An improved content blocker allows individual elements of a webpage to be blocked to avoid adverts. The pop up blocker has also been improved.

Widgets are a small programs for showing news feeds or other information, some of which can be taken from the web. They are accessed with a single keypress and are written by the Opera community rather than the company itself.

The tabbed browsing has also been improved with a small preview of the webpages.

The ability to make a Google search from the address bar is still present but it is now possible to create customised shortcuts.

Opera 9.2 also contains a number of fixes and new features, including a fraud detection module to protect against phishing websites.

Opera 9.1 USB Edition

Platform Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Markus Obermair
Size 5.07MB
Free Download

Ever wanted to take your favourite web browser on the road, so you can access your preferences, bookmarks and your web history?

Portable versions of programs such as Opera have many advantages. You can be sure of keeping bookmarks and emails accessible no matter what computer is being used.

This portable version of Opera has the added benefit of not leaving any traces of the internet session on the computer. To do this set the Tools - Preferences- Advanced - History - Disk cache option to 0MB.

To get started and to use Opera USB from a USB stick, unzip the ZIP file you download from this site onto a USB key.

doPDF 5.2

Platform Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista
Type freeware
Manufacturer Softland
Size 1.3MB
Free Download

Free PDF converter for both personal and commercial use. Using doPDF you can create searchable PDF files by selecting the "Print" command from virtually any application. With one click you can convert your Microsoft Excel, Word or PowerPoint documents or your emails and favourite web sites to PDF files.

doPDF installs itself as a virtual printer driver so after a successful installation will appear in your Printers and Faxes list. To create PDF files, you just have to print your documents to the doPDF pdf converter. Open a document (with Microsoft Word, WordPad, NotePad or any other software), choose Print and select doPDF. It will ask you where to save the PDF file and when finished, the PDF file will be automatically opened in your default PDF viewer.

Note that this free PDF tool does not use Ghostscript. The license will also enable you to produce PDFs for both personal and commercial use.

Mozilla Firefox Portable 2.0.0.5

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista
Type freeware
Manufacturer Rare Ideas LLC
Size 6.06MB
Free Download

If you’re used to working in different departments, you’ll soon find the biggest restriction is that most operating systems are based around multi-user technology and you won’t want to browse personal information, on the web, through someone else’s computer. Sure, you could ask them to set you up with your own account, but if you only want to use their computer for a few minutes, perhaps to check your email, there’s little point.

Mozilla Firefox Portable edition is a transportable version of the popular web browser. You could ‘install’ this to an external USB key and then take this USB key with you, connect to a computer, then use Firefox Portable without leaving any trace of your web use on their machine.

Mozilla Firefox Portable is self-contained software which means that all your browsing history, bookmarks and other cookie information is taken with you, on external USB key. When you browse the web using Firefox Portable, the data is written back to the key. This makes is very useful for taking your own personalised version of the web browser with you, wherever you work or travel.

Flock 0.9.0.1

Platform Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista
Type freeware
Manufacturer Flock, Inc
Size 10.45MB
Free Download

Flock is a new web browser that combines integrated photo sharing with RSS support.

Bloggers are a target audience for Flock, which is based on the Mozilla Firefox, because it has been designed to keep people up to date with news, blogs and when friends appear online.

Favourite websites can be kept up to date with other computers that a user may have access to by using the del.icio.us and shadows services. These websites can then be shared with other users,

Flock organises news from RSS feeds in a pane rather than as bookmarks. Each feed is checked for new stories hourly. Flock shows an incon in the address bar to show that a feed is available from that page. Simply click on that icon to sign up.

Flock can automatically add photos and snippets of other webpages to blogs written with Blogger, LiveJournal, Typepad and WordPress. A special web snippets bar has been added to store quotes from other websites. Users simply drag pictures onto the Photo icon to upload, or drag and drop images which are automatically stored on to a Flickr or PhotoBucket

account.

Search with Flock is slightly different from other browsers because as text is typed in, Flock will start searching from the web as well as a user's favourites and history. These initial results are shown in a drop down menu.

Note that versions for Mac OS X and Linux are available from the Flock website.

Portable Thunderbird 2.0.0.5

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista
Type freeware
Manufacturer Mozilla Corporation & John Haller
Size 6.74MB
Free Download

Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition is the popular Mozilla Thunderbird email client bundled with a PortableApps.com launcher as a portable app, so you can take your email, address book and account settings with you. You can also add in GPG and Enigmail to encrypt and sign your email.

Mozilla Thunderbird is the safe, fast email client that's easy to use. It has lots of great features including quick message search, customizable views, support for IMAP/POP, RSS support and more. Plus, the portable version leaves no personal information behind on the machine you run it on, so you can take your email and address book with you wherever you go.

Firefox Portable 2.0.0.5

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista
Type freeware
Manufacturer Rare Ideas LLC
Size 6.06MB
Free Download

Mozilla Firefox Portable edition is a transportable version of the popular web browser. You could ‘install’ this to an external USB key and then take this USB key with you, connect to a computer, then use Firefox Portable without leaving any trace of your web use on their machine.

Mozilla Firefox Portable is self-contained software which means that all your browsing history, bookmarks and other cookie information is taken with you, on external USB key. When you browse the web using Firefox Portable, the data is written back to the key. This makes is very useful for taking your own personalised version of the web browser with you, wherever you work or travel.

Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.5

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista
Type freeware
Manufacturer Mozilla Corporation
Size 5.55MB
Free Download

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.

You can download other language editions of the Windows Firefox 2.0, as well as Linux and Mac OS X versions from the Mozilla website.

Apple QuickTime 7.2

Platform Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista
Type freeware
Manufacturer Apple
Size 19.1MB
Free download

Apple iTunes 7.3.1

Platform Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista
Type freeware
Manufacturer Apple
Size 47MB
Free Download

Maxthon 2.0.2 RC4

Platform Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista
Type freeware
Manufacturer Maxthon International Limited
Size 2.19MB
Free Download

In the past, Internet Explorer has received a lot of bad press for lack of updates, security issues, poor CSS support and more. However, since the release of Internet Explorer 7, we now have a web browser that offers tabbed browser, a much improved web engine and enhanced security features.

When you install Internet Explorer 7 on your system, the installed HTML web core is built in to Windows (and this element is very hard to remove), there have been a number of attempts to create a replacement for Internet Explorer that take this core HTML engine and add additional features to produce a even better web browser.

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

This is the fourth public preview of the forthcoming Maxthon 2. The new version is far from complete, but contains a brand new streamlined interface, which looks a bit like a mix of the Mac OS X Safari web browser and Firefox. Other features include multi-user support from the same web browser, so each user has their own preferences. There are tons of other minor updates, with more information on the Maxthon 2 preview page.

Ad-Aware 2007 Free 7.0.1.5

Platform Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Lavasoft
Size 17.7MB
Free Download

This free utility scans your PC to identify and remove any adware or spyware components.

For the uninitiated, adware or spyware is unwanted software that can be installed on your PC, either with other software or when you visit websites (cookies etc).

They can track your surfing habits, push aggressive advertising at you, and generally abuse your privacy.

This new version completely overhauls the scanning engine, which results in more accurate scanning methods and an all-new program architecture. This new version now supports the detection of embedded malware, including known and emerging threats.

The new TrackSweep module will control privacy by erasing tracks left behind while surfing the web through Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera, with one easy click.

You decide exactly what is scanned on your PC, from a single folder to the complete system. Files larger than a specified size can be skipped, making for a quicker scan. Flagged components can be quarantined, letting you restore them if their removal causes problems.

Note that the free version is for personal-use only. This is not Vista-ready.

OpenOffice Portable 2.21

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista
Type freeware
Manufacturer John T Haller
Size 69MB
Free Download

OpenOffice is a fully fledged office application suite, complete with a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation graphics program.

OpenOffice will be more familiar to some people as Sun Microsystems' StarOffice, which until recently was a free download.

With the launch of StarOffice 6, Sun changed its policy: the full office application suite would now cost (a still very reasonable) £50, while this completely free version is available to download.

Both share the same source code, with a few differences. OpenOffice does not include the StarOffice Adabas D database, certain fonts (especially Asian language ones), some templates and certain file filters.

This is the portable edition of OpenOffice, so you can take your suite on the road.

CPU-Z 1.40.5

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer www.CPUID.com
Size 448Kb
Free Download

When you’re looking for a new computer – whether you’re planning on building your own or purchasing from an existing supplier – you tend to find out as much as you can about current models, peripherals and the components that you need for your machine. This information includes extensive information about the CPU you’re intending to install and the motherboard required to support the CPU.

However, many of us keep our PCs for at least a couple of years. After this team we choose to either upgrade our existing computer or make a new purchase. If we’re upgrading our PC, we need to work out what’s installed on the PC before we can purchase a better CPU and other components, if required. Can you really remember the CPU installed in your computer that you built a couple of years ago?

CPU-Z is a system tool that will enable you to find extensive information about the CPU installed in your computer. I’ll will give you speed info, installed cache details and more. You can also find out information about components that affect your CPU, such as the motherboard revision, installed memory and more.

Arovax AntiSpyware 2.1

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Type freeware
Manufacturer Arovax LLC
Size 3.33MB
Free Download

After just five minutes surfing only a few pages on the internet, spyware and other parasites which harm both you and your computer are downloaded to your computer and are used to retrieve sensitive data.

If your system is unprotected, spyware and adware can easily infiltrate your system and your system will slow down, internet access might be unavailable, your identity and personal information might be stolen and much more.

More than 90 per cent of computers are infected with spyware and adware. Millions of home and corporate users are left unaware, vulnerable and unprotected. You should not become a victim; you should stop spyware before it's too late.

This version of Arovax AntiSpyware program does not include any advanced features, plug-ins or add-ons, which will be available in final release of Arovax AntiSpyware, as the main goal of this version is to check operability of main engines - Scanner and Remover on all possible PC configurations, OS versions and in different conditions.

FlashGet 1.9

Platform Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista
Type freeware
Manufacturer Amaze Software
Size 4.41MB
Free Download

Whether you download a little or a lot, a Download Manager can offer some advantages over downloading via a browser.

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.

Apple iTunes 7.3

Platform Windows 2000, Windows XP,Windows Vista
Type freeware
Manufacturer Apple
Size 47MB
Free Download

It's been long coming, but iTunes 7 is a major upgrade to iTunes and the iTunes music store. Mainly due to the inclusion of full movie downloads (currently US only) and other improvements.

Video support comes in the form of an embedded QuickTime player which supports all the video formats that QuickTime supports (AVI, MPEG, Flash etc.). Note that QuickTime 7.1.5 is included within the iTunes installer.

Audio can be encoded in the Apple Lossless format, which lets you import music into iTunes at half the original size with no loss of quality. Podcast support is included so that you can subscribe to podcasts from within iTunes and have them automatically synced to your iPod.

Apple iTunes 7.x now supports 'iTunes Plus', songs available for download with no DRM and a higher-quality bitrate.

This is the latest 7.3 which contains support for the new iPhone, amongst other minor fixes and enhancements.

Note that the Mac OS X version is available to download from the Apple iTunes website.