The latest build includes numerous feature additions, performance improvements and bug fixes, plus introduces “partial” compatibility with Windows 8, with full compatibility promised for version 5.4.

Both BoostSpeed and Disk Defrag introduce a new free space availability check before the user creates a Rescue Center backup, allowing them to either abort the entire operation or proceed without the safety net of a backup. The Rescue Center is now also capable of creating and restoring backups that are larger than 2GB in size.

A new 'Forced Remove' option is added to BoostSpeed 5's Uninstall Manager component.

Defrag-specific improvements include improved SSD detection, which helps automatically enable a special defrag algorithm for solid-state drives, plus better use of system resources to boost overall stability.

Other changes are specific to BoostSpeed, starting with the integrated launcher (Integrator), which now offers to make a Restore point when first launched and automatically checks for updates. The Both Startup Manager and Uninstall Manager components feature a tweaked user interface that allows the user to get detailed ratings of individual start-up or application entries simply by hovering the mouse over the respective column. The interface also adds a new ‘Google it’ button to the toolbar for those wishing to learn more about the selected item.

The Uninstall Manager also introduces a new Forced Remove option for viewing – and deleting – a program’s files, Registry keys and system components even when the installer is no longer present.

Other modules also receive minor tweaks – notably the File Recovery tool has an improved search conditions selection wizard to allow the user to jump to a specific part of the wizard using default settings, while the Registry Cleaner has regrouped the categories list to provide a more intuitive presentation.

The latest builds of both BoostSpeed and Disk Defrag also introduce performance improvements via optimized code and algorithms, plus the fixing of various memory leaks. They also claim to fix all known bugs as well as various installer errors.

Auslogic Disk Defrag 3.4.3.0 is a free (for personal) use download, while Auslogic BoostSpeed 5.3.0.0 is also available as a free trial download. Both require PCs running Windows XP or later. A three-PC, 12-month subscription to Auslogic BoostSpeed 5.3.0.0 is currently available for just $14.95 – a saving of 70% on the MSRP – through the Downloadcrew Software Store.

The program has long featured a recommendation engine that can point you in the direction of stories, articles and feed that you might well find interesting, and this has been improved to ensure greater relevance.  When you use the built in browser to view web pages, a new Ctrl+0 keyboard shortcut is available that can be used to revert to a 100% zoom level. If you have the Pro version of the program – as opposed to the free Lite version – you also have a new newspaper style Photo Strip view to make use of.

FeedDemon

If you have found the program has been slow to start you should now find that things are slightly faster, and there are a number of other bug and problem fixes that are worth mentioning. When you opt to hide all of the buttons on a toolbar, that toolbar now becomes hidden itself rather than remaining visible with no buttons, and the new tab page now includes handy Most Visited and Recently Closed options.

Other issues that have been addressed include problems with an incorrectly displayed system tray icon, problems with using the Send to Twitter and Send to Delicious options and more. To overcome compatibility problems with Internet Explorer 9, transition effects have now been removed, and there are the usual range of spit and polish changes that you would expect to find in any release.

You can find out more and download a copy of the app by paying a visit to the FeedDemon review page.

There is support for SoundCloud, NPR (National Public Radio) and PRI (Public Radio International)which gives you the opportunity to listen to a wide variety of podcasts,  radio broadcasts and more. By connecting Flipboard with SoundCloud you can listen to sounds that have been created or shared by your friends. There is a whole new audio category for you to explore and this interesting change in direction for the social networking tool.

Flipboard

Just as with anything else you consume through Flipboard, the sounds you encounter through the app can be shared through the likes of Facebook, Twitter and other services. Just where the audio addition will lead remains to be seen. There is almost undoubtedly be online radio stations that are designed specifically for a Fliboard audience, and it won’t be long before artist start to use the app as a medium for collaborative or crowd-sourced work. The future looks and sounds exciting.

The latest update also improves accessibility options, and it is now possible to use the VoiceOver feature of iOS to listen to articles rather than having to read them. There is also a new fully localized Japanese version of the app as well as support for Readability. This last addition supplements the existing support for Instapaper and provides users with another option for time-shifting their reading.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the app at the Flipboard review page.

Just point the program at a particular TXT file, and in a click it’ll be converted into an executable file. And launching this on any Windows PC will display your file’s contents in a 3D book. Readers can navigate the book via keyboard or mouse, and will see an animated flipping effect as the pages turn.

Exactly how useful this might be is open to question. FlipBook only imports text files, for instance, so your books can never include any graphics (the program doesn’t even allow you to customise the image on the book’s cover). If you want to produce a more engaging document then it might be better to author a PDF file, instead, which will provide far greater scope for creativity than you have here.

You can browse through your book with the keyboard, mouse, or the main navigation menu

FlipBook’s final creations aren’t too impressive, either. The books only have a marginal 3D effect. And the page flipping animation is poorly implemented: run a book on a high-end PC and pages flip so quickly you can barely see it happen.

Toolwiz FlipBook also suffers from a total absence of documentation. What happens if you check the builder’s “Find the chapter automatically” option? Hold down the left mouse button while dragging over a book’s page and you can scribble on it, but is there a way to save these annotations? And is that connected with the mysterious “Comment Mode” menu link, which didn’t seem to do anything when we clicked on it? We’ve no idea.

If you already have a bunch of text files, though – stories you’ve written for your kids, say – then Toolwiz FlipBook does provide a quick and easy way to make them look at least a little more appealing. And who knows? When the Help file finally arrives in some future update you may discover even more useful features just waiting to be accessed.

It didn’t last, of course – the program was essentially killed off by the arrival of Windows Explorer. Which, while nothing like as powerful as XTree, was free and included with every PC. But if you still have fond memories of those early file managers then there could be a way to recapture them, as XTree Gold clone XFile has just been released as freeware.

You’ll have to forget all those Windows and GUI conventions you’ve learned over the past few years, though, because XFile predates them all (and not least in its character-based interface).

XFile isn't quite as basic as it looks. Really.

You can’t multi-select files with the mouse, for example, or by holding down Ctrl or Shift as you click.

There are no context menus, so don’t waste your time right-clicking things.

And it’s not great at allowing you to work in multiple windows at the same time. If you open the Gallery, say, to display thumbnails of images in the current folder, then you have to close that before you can use the File Manager again.

Still, for all that, even now the program has some plus points. It’s optimised for keyboard use, for instance, with a host of keyboard shortcuts supporting just about every file management task. And there’s support for all the regular XTree Gold commands, so if you remember those (or you’ve used an XTree Gold-like file manager) then you could feel at home right away.

There are handy bonus features, too. Like the hex editor, for instance. The PDF and MDB viewers. And the occasionally useful integration with other tools: the Web menu, for instance, provides easy hotkey access to Ping, Traceroute and IPConfig.

And of course the rather basic technology underlying the program means it’s extremely undemanding. XFile can be run from a USB key, requires under 800KB of drive space and even after running multiple operations on our test PC, was consuming less than 16MB of RAM.

The program still has plenty of annoyances, and isn’t something we’d recommend for the typical PC user. But if you’ve used an XTree Gold-compatible file manager before, and remember the keypresses, then it could still be useful for a few file management tasks (and it’s also interesting as a quick PC history lesson). The 736KB XFile download is available now.

This free browser extension can be used to ensure that a secure connection is used whenever available. There are a huge number of web sites that offer support for encrypted HTTPS connections, and yet will default to sending visitors to the regular, unencrypted HTTP version of the sites. HTTPS Everywhere uses a series of specially written rules to redirect your browser – provided you are using Chrome or Firefox – to the secure version.

HTTPS Everywhere

There are number of remade redirection rules included that add support for a number of major web sites, but you can also define your own rules to add support for others that you may make use of. Support is a little hit and miss so you will have to experiment with the XML files used to write rules to see what you can come up with, but this is an easily enough process providing you don’t mind getting a little hands-on.

HTTPS Everywhere is currently available for Google Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox browsers. While Firefox users have a stable version of the extension to work with, the Chrome version is currently in beta but it still a handy tool to have installed. It is not a magic solution that will wipe out all security concerns that are involved in using the web, but it is help additional layer of protection that seems to work well and as compatibility improves, it will only become more useful.

You can find out more and grab yourself free copies of the extension by visiting the HTTPS Everywhere for Chrome or HTTPS Everywhere for Firefox review pages.

This clever and powerful text replacement tool, also available as a portable build, gives you Autotext and Autocorrect functionality – plus a heck of a lot more – across your entire desktop, letting you speed up the way you enter and manipulate text in any program you have installed on your computer, not just Microsoft Word.

PhraseExpress’s Autotext feature – the Text Expander – allows you to create shortcuts for frequently entered text in the form of abbreviations, such as “addr” for full-blown, multi-line address. You can even use macros to insert variables such as the date or ask for user input. You can also build up a library of frequently used phrases and snippets, which can be organised into a folder-like structure using the app’s Text Snippets Organizer. These snippets can also contain images, support Unicode and be formatted using RTF or HTML, and are just a few clicks away via the program’s Taskbar icon.

Build up a library of auto-corrections and frequently used phrases for cross-application use.

For those who’ve diligently built up a legion of AutoText and AutoCorrect entries in Word, the good news is you can easily import them into PhraseExpress via the program’s File > Import menu. There’s even an option to download free collections of text templates via the File > Download phrases option too.

PhraseExpress also offers to auto-complete sentences based on previously entered text, has built-in spelling correction with a new learning feature that sees which typos are most frequently corrected, adding them to a custom-fit spelling database.

Throw in other time-saving tools such as a clipboard manager handling multiple clipboard items, plus pocket calculator and application launcher that can both be triggered simply by typing in text shortcuts (such as ‘exc’ for Excel) and you’re looking at one powerful and versatile app, which explains why the free edition is strictly limited to personal use only (PhraseExpress can even detect if you’re trying to use it for business use and warn you accordingly).

PhraseExpress 8.0.151  and PhraseExpress 8.0.151 Portable are both available free for personal use for PCs running Windows XP, Vista or 7. Two commercial versions are available: Standard ($49.95) and Professional ($139.95) editions.

As ever with NirSoft tools, the program is portable and extremely small (just 219KB including documentation), and it’s very straightforward to use: just type the name in question in the Domain box, click Go, then wait as DomainHostingView uses a variety of DNS and WHOIS queries to assemble the data you need.

The report starts with a detailed summary which covers all the key information: the person who registered the domain, its creation and expiry dates, the domain’s web and mail server hosts, the server’s operating system, and web server and mail server strings. The latter can often tell you a great deal about the system’s setup: as we write, for instance, the Nirsoft.net domain’s web server string is “Apache/2.2.13 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.13 OpenSSL/0.9.8e-fips-rhel5 mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 PHP/5.2.10″.

DomainHostingView quickly returns all kinds of information about your target domain

Next up are the DNS records. And not just the name servers, either: DomainHostingView will also retrieve the details for every DNS record type it can find (MX, A, SOA, PTR and so on).

Does the site have any subdomains? If so you’ll find out in the next report section, which may reveal areas of a site which you never realised existed. (Did you know that Nirsoft.net has a Software Store at softwarestore.nirsoft.net, for instance? That’s just one of the many subdomains supported.)

And the report is completed by IP addresses for the web and mail server, more details about the hosting company, and the raw domain information DomainHostingView has used to assemble all of this.

As usual with NirSoft tools, then, DomainHostingView is well designed, straightforward and genuinely useful. And if you currently find it a hassle to get the domain information you need via web services, the program could be a very effective alternative.

In many regards Chrome is playing catch-up with Firefox here, as Mozilla’s web browser has featured the ability synchronize tabs for some time now. Chrome 19 takes very much the same approach so that whenever you are signed into your Google account any tabs you have open are automatically synced to the cloud. When you switch computers you can then access any tabs you had open on another machine by accessing the Other devices menu of the new tab page.

Chrome 19

The feature works with all flavors of Chrome regardless of whether you are using Linux, Windows, OSX or even Android. You could be working on a project in the office before heading off home to continue working. Rather than remembering the names of the sites you have been looking at, or emailing yourself links, Chrome 19 ensures that you will have the same tabs available on your home computer so you can pick up where you left off.

And while tab syncing is undeniably great, it doesn’t end there. The same sync service is also used to synchronize your browsing history, bookmarks, themes and app settings between devices. It is also possible to synchronize browser extensions, helping you ensure that you have a uniform browsing experience no matter what computer you are using.

If you have been following the development of Chrome through the beta channels, these sync options are nothing new, but it’s great to see such as useful feature making its way out to the stable version. It almost goes without saying that the latest release also includes a bunch of bug fixes so if you have been experiencing problems with your browser, you should find that troublesome issues have been addressed with this release.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the app by paying a visit to the Google Chrome 19 review page.

On the problem fixes front, an issue that saw file and folder filtering check boxes unnecessary checked has been addressed. If you found that backups included unnecessary operation such as the creation and subsequent deletion of empty directories, you should find that this is no longer a problem, and when you view the application history you will now find that the list starts with the newest events rather than the oldest.

SyncBackSE

There are numerous updates featured in this particular release including a redesigned history grid and users who have configured SyncBack to start automatically with Windows will be pleased to find that they are no longer prompted for a password.  If you are creating remote backups via FTP, should a 451 error be encountered, the program will try to establish contact again rather than simply timing out.

Other changes and fixes include addressing a problem with copying open or locked files, along with improved detection of junction or mount points that relate to missing or disconnected. If a backup operation will results in the contents of a folder being wiped out, a warning will be displayed in advance to ensure that this is what is meant to happen. With all of these fixes and changes to an already impressive backup tool, this is one utility that is well worth taking a look at.

You can find out more and download a free trial of the app by paying a visit to the SyncBackSE review page.

Version 2 incorporates the scan engine from Emsisoft Anti-Malware 6, plus promises a 450% speed improvement on the previous build as well as direct disk access for better rootkit detection and removal.

The new scan engine employs Emsisoft Anti-Malware 6’s “dual scan engine framework”, which is designed to utilise multiple processor cores to boost performance, which is probably the prime driver behind Emsisoft’s claim that Emergency Kit 2 averages a 450% speed improvement on its predecessor without a loss in scanning functionality.

You'll need to update to version 2 through Emsisoft Emergency Kit Scanner.

There’s a new direct disk scanning option that promises better rootkit detection, and this is reflected in changed scan presets – in Rootkit scan is added by default, while Cookie scans are excluded.

The application also claims improved false positive handling – an important improvement seeing as it erroneously claimed a Quicken 2002 DLL on our system was a Trojan. Users also gain greater control over what actions should be taken after a scan is complete – click Actions on scan end when setting up a scan to choose what happens by default.

Version 2 also sees a new system for storing settings, which means existing settings are lost when updating from version 1 to 2. Like all Emsisoft beta updates, you need to have installed the previous version of Emsisoft Emergency Kit, then update through the Emergency Kit Scanner’s internal update system: on the main screen, click Updater settings, tick “Install beta updates”, then return to the Security Status menu before clicking Update now.

Emsisoft Emergency Kit 2.0.0.4 Beta is available now as a free download for PCs running Windows.

But wait. There’s much more here than you might think. And on closer exploration, InfoBar just might be one of the most versatile and feature-packed desktop accessories we’ve ever seen.

Launch the program, for instance, and a small horizontal toolbar will appear at the top of your screen, displaying the date, time, free memory, CPU utilisation, power status (mains/ on battery, if applicable), system up time, current weather conditions and scrolling headlines from Reuters.

The weather forecaster is just one of InfoBar's many accessories

That’s not bad – but it’s just the beginning, as you can double-click most of these sections to drill down further. Double-click the weather conditions panel, say, and a pop-up appears with a forecast for the next five days. Double-clicking the free RAM figure displays a breakdown with details for your physical RAM, virtual memory and paging file. And double-clicking the system up-time shows you your system’s network name, IP and MAC addresses, the currently logged-in user, and more.

This is getting to be useful, but we’ve still only mentioned a fraction of what’s available here. If you click the star icon at the far left of the bar then you’ll get easy access to several compact but capable tools.

There’s a smart scientific calculator, for instance. The interface is a little sparse – just a couple of empty panes – but if you start to type an equation – 45* , say – a list appears showing you all the operators, functions and constants you can use.

The Desktop Explorer is a developer’s tool which provides a host of information about your chosen window: class, handle, size, the current mouse cursor position, and the parent process and process ID, and you get a magnifier and colour-picker thrown in for good measure.

The Coding Tools window provides a collection of useful developer tools: you can convert shortcut codes to and from text format; select colour codes in Delphi or HTML format; calculate CRC32 or MD5 values for entered text, detect the SID for specific account names, and more.

There’s also a simple text editor (essentially Notepad with line numbers, right-click in the window for the program’s menu); a basic calendar displays day names and astronomical events (no scheduling of your own events, though); and there’s an ACSII table, a weather forecast viewer, and a basic but usable RSS reader.

By default InfoBar displays the Reuter's RSS feed, but you can change this to whatever you like

All this is reasonably configurable. If you find the RSS feed distracting, say, you can turn off the scrolling. If you don’t like toolbars, you can have InfoBar automatically hide so that it only appears when you move your bar to the top-left of the screen. And all the accessories are available via customisable hotkeys, so if you need the weather forecast, say, just press Ctrl+Alt+W.

And if this appeals then the good news is that you can run InfoBar almost anywhere (there’s support for Windows 2000 to 8), and it’s relatively lightweight, using between 8.5-16.5MB of RAM in our tests.

There are also a few problems here, mostly interface irritations. In particular, if you double-click a panel then InfoBar displays a pop-up with more information, but there’s no way to copy and paste this data elsewhere. Worse still, the pop-up automatically disappears in 5 or 6 seconds, a real problem if you’re trying to copy two MAC and 3 IP addresses (for instance) to some other document. MiTeC really need to rethink how they present these details.

Some of the InfoBar accessories could be a little more helpful, too. You have to start typing in the calculator to understand how it works, for instance, and the notepad has no indication that you need to right-click to access the menu: a few more on-screen hints (if only when users press F1 for help) would be welcome.

These problems aren’t critical, though – the sheer weight of functionality here mean there’s still more than enough useful features to make it worth installing the program, particularly for more technical users. So if you could benefit from this kind of desktop extension, take a look: InfoBar is a surprisingly versatile collection of tools, and we’ll be very interested to see how it develops in future.

DNS Jumper, though, is a free and portable tool which offers a far simpler solution. The program provides a lengthy list of free DNS options, and all you have to do is choose one and click “Apply DNS”. (Although clicking “Flush DNS” to flush your DNS cache might also help, as it’ll allow the new service will take effect right away.)

Unsure which service might be best? Another option is to just click “Fastest DNS”. DNS Jumper will then test each service in turn before recommending the speediest, which you can again apply with a click.

DNS Jumper makes it easy to change your DNS settings

Or, if you know precisely what you’re doing, then you can easily add additional services or edit the existing list (it’s held in an INI file in the program folder), and then use the program to quickly switch to whatever you need.

Playing around with DNS settings can be a risky business, of course. And DNS Jumper recognises that and does its best to help out, by automatically backing up your original configuration when first run (choose “Restore” from the service list later to recover them). But there are still scenarios here where you could end up with faulty DNS settings and effectively a broken internet connection, so this isn’t a program for the networking novice, or anyone else who doesn’t know precisely what to do to restore their default setup, when necessary.

If you already know how to configure DNS, though, and are just looking for a quicker and easier way to do it, then DNS Jumper is ideal: compact, portable and hassle-free. Grab a copy for yourself and take a closer look.

As usual with these particular applications, Xara are aiming for maximum versatility. So both programs can handle most photo editing, illustration, basic Flash animation and web graphics tasks, while Xara Designer Pro X 8 can also create complete websites and online presentations and has support for a stack of high-end design features (PANTONE, colour separation, PDF/X, XPS and more).

And while the “What’s New” list this time doesn’t include any particular standout feature, there are still more than enough interesting additions to justify giving the programs a closer look.

New features in both Photo and Graphic Designer MX 8 and Designer Pro X 8, for instance, start with the new Text Styles option. This provides an easy way to modify the look and feel of the text right across your document, in just a few clicks.

Xara's Designer 8 family provides useful new DTP, illustration, photo editing and web features

Photo editing improvements include powerful colour selection and hue adjustment tools.

The new Share menu makes it easy to share media files with Flickr, Facebook and other Xara/ MAGIX MX applications.

And you get improved image optimisation, enhanced import in many areas (SVG, PDF, RAW, web URLs), faster publishing, and a stack of usability improvements.

Designer Pro X 8 gains various useful web features. These include smart page resizing (objects automatically reposition as you add or remove text); the ability to embed the fonts you need for a website within its pages; an MP3 player, new charting and QR Code widgets, and various web presentation improvements.

Elsewhere, a new Shape Builder tool allows you to paint onto an existing shape to edit and adjust it. Or, if you prefer the easy life, you may be more interested in the new bundled content: clipart, print templates, web themes and more.

As previously, Xara Photo and Graphic Designer MX 8 remains the value offering, delivering a vast amount of functionality for a very reasonable $89. If you need Designer Pro X 8′s web features and extra power, though, the program can be yours for $299, and trial builds of both editions are available now.

TweetDeck

There have been fewer web browser updates than usual this week, but Opera 11.64 FINAL did see the light of day, although there are few noteworthy changes. TweetDeck 1.4 has also received a minor update but Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ 10.1 is a more major release with improvements made to the virus scanning engine, enhancements made to the firewall and changes to the real-time protection feature. Another security tool that has been updated is Bitdefender Total Security 2013 Beta 32-bit and Bitdefender Total Security 2013 Beta 64-bit which are previous version of the suite that includes a firewall, spam filtering, secure browsing and much more.

AirServer

If you use your computer for or working with audio or video, there have been a number of interesting releases this week starting with Ultimate Encoder 7 Free which can be used to rip CDs and convert files between formats. AirServer 0.9.0 is an interesting tool that enables you to stream the output of your iPad to your PC, while SopCast 3.5.0 is a great online media tool that enables you to, amongst other things, create your own online TV station and watch broadcasts from all over the world. To help you to make the most of your media collection, Plex Media Center 0.9.5.2 (beta) is an all-in-one tool that enables you to pull in all your media files from network locations and enjoy them on your PC or TV, and Plex Media Server 0.9.6.1 is available to help you to get everything set up.

Adobe Illustrator CS6

This week also saw the release of trial version of the last CS6 range of applications from Adobe. Adobe Fireworks CS6 is a staggering powerful image editor designed with web creation in mind, while the latest version of Adobe’s flagship image editor, Adobe Photoshop CS6 really needs no introduction. Adobe is famous not only for its image editing tools, but also software for creating content for the web. Adobe Dreamweaver CS6 features the same redesigned and refined interface that can be found across the rest of the CS6 range, while Adobe Flash Professional CS6 is available for anyone who doubts the future of HTML5. For video editing fans, Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 is a staggeringly powerful tool that includes almost everything you could every imagine using, while Adobe Illustrator CS6 is a versatile vector drawing tool that can be put to countless uses.

GIMP

But Adobe is far from being the only company producing image editing software and Pixelitor 1.1.2 is a surprisingly feature-packed editor that is available completely free of charge. Also free is GIMP 2.8.0 FINAL which has undergone a huge makeover and is now more approachable than ever – there’s even GIMP Portable 2.8.0 ready to copy onto your USB drive for use on the move. Topping off this week’s roundup is Apache OpenOffice 3.4.0 which is the latest version of the free office suite that has, amongst other enhancements, been given a speed boost for better performance.

That’s it for this week. There’ll be another roundup in seven days’ time and in the meantime you can keep checking out Downloadcrew for details of all the latest releases.

You’ll know what we mean: click an email link on a web page, or attempt to attach a file to an email directly from another program and you’ll either open an unwanted relic from the past like Outlook, or get some error message. Before throwing your PC out of the window, however, discover how a free software program called Affixa can soothe your furrowed brow.

The problem lies in the fact web-based email has no means of using the Messaging API (MAPI) protocol to communicate with programs like Word that use it to integrate with traditional email programs. Affixa basically acts as the MAPI interface, intercepting calls from programs and redirecting them to supported webmail clients, namely Gmail and Yahoo! for personal users, and Office 365, Google Apps, Outlook Web App and Zimbra for enterprise users.

The hardest part of Affixa is setting it up - and that's not difficult.

The free version is limited for non-commercial use only, and only allows you to use it with a single client. However, it includes an attachment basket that allows you to drag and drop multiple files from different sources into a single place before magically attaching them all to a single email. And it also provides a limited drop service where you can store up to 100MB of files online for up to a month should your file attachment exceed the size permitted by your webmail provider.

All of this is good stuff, but should you shell out the princely sum of two British pounds (around $3.20) for an annual subscription, you’ll get even more goodies: that dropbox service jumps to 1GB and is good for a year, multiple accounts are supported (you can even switch between desktop and webmail accounts on a whim), plus you can compress attachments and resize pictures too.

It all adds up to an essential service for anyone looking to wave bye bye to email clients and hello to pure, unadulterated web-based email.

Affixa is available as a free-for-personal-use download for PCs running Windows XP or later. The .NET Framework 2.0 or 3.5 may also be required, while an annual subscription for £2 (around $3.20) can also be purchased for commercial use or to gain additional features.

Auslogics Disk Defrag

There are plenty of utilities to be found in the store that can be used to help improve the performance of your computer including IObit Advanced SystemCare 5 PRO [3-PC]. This all-in-one system maintenance tool usually costs $39.95, but you could save 70% when you buy it for $11.95. Want to take care of your hard drive? Auslogics Disk Defrag Pro 4 is a half price bargain at just $14.95 which ensures that your drives are kept running at peak performance. Another great performance boosting tool is Auslogics BoostSpeed 5. A 70% reduction in price mean this program can be yours for just $14.95 and you can use it to easily take care of your registry, hard drive, system settings and more.

CyberLink PowerDirector

May also sees plenty of deals for anyone who would like to use their computer for creative ventures. You can save 30% off the regular price of CyberLink PowerDirector 10 Ultra when you buy it for just $69.95 and this immensely powerful suite includes everything you need to create your own stunning videos. In addition to saving $30, you will also receive $69 worth of complementary software. The previous version of PowerDirector, PowerDirector 9 Ultra64 is still available and can be snapped up for the bargain price of just $29.95 – saving your 70% off the MSRP of $99.95. When you have created a video project, or have other files you want to share, you can burn them to disc using Roxio Creator 2012 which is available to buy for 50% of the MSRP for just $49.99. If you are a little more demanding, upi can also save 50% off Roxio Creator 2012 Pro which includes extra audio tracks and video effects, and is availbale for just $64.99. If you feel as though you can live without all of the latest and greatest features, you can make a colossal saving by buying the previous version of the program. Roxio Creator 2011 is available for a staggering $19.99 which represents a massive 80% saving off the MSRP. If you want to make a saving, but still want to be able to work with high definition Blu-ray discs, look no further than Roxio Creator 2011 Pro – and you can save 81% off the MSRP when you buy for just $24.99.

Acronis True Image

The store features a number of great security tools including Webroot Internet Security Essentials 2011. This includes a firewall, antivirus protection and spyware detection, can be installed n three computer and is available for just $4.95 – a saving of 92% off the MSRP. You can get the option of a free upgrade to SecureAnywhere 2012! From the same company comes Webroot Internet Security Essentials 2011 [5-PC] which can be installed on up to five computers and costs just $6.95 instead of $89.95. Other handy utilities to be found in the store include two great backup tools. Acronis True Image 2012 is available for just $29.99 (a saving of 40%), while an even greater saving of 50% can be made on Genie Timeline Professional 2012 which can be bought for just $29.95 instead of $59.95.

Of course, this is just a selection of some of the great offers you can find in the store. To take a look at the full range of what’s available, head on over to the Downloadcrew Software Store.

Setup was extremely straightforward. The program is a tiny 186KB download, and portable, so there are no installation hassles, no browser toolbars or other unwanted extras. You just unzip the file and go.

My Daily Wallpaper sources its images from DeviantART.com, which means there’s plenty of choice on offer (more than 132,000 wallpapers, as we write). Plainly these won’t all appeal, but you can improve your chances of finding images you’ll like by checking only your favourite categories: Landscapes, Animals & Plants, Science Fiction, Minimalistic and so on.

By default the program works as a simple wallpaper browser. Once you’ve chosen your preferred categories, click the Download button, and it’ll grab and display four images. Which maybe isn’t quite enough. Presumably the author is thinking of performance, and certainly downloading 16 (for instance) high-res images might take a while, but we’d at least like to have the option to download and display more.

Click the Download button and the program will grab four random wallpapers for your perusal

Anyway, at the moment you’ll see four wallpapers randomly chosen from your categories. If you like one, click its “Set as wallpaper” button to place the image on your desktop. And if you don’t, click Download once more and browse the next batch.

If that sounds like too much hassle, though, you can alternatively check the “Autostart with Windows and download a new wallpaper” box, and the program will then automatically choose and set a new wallpaper for you every time you log on.

If you don’t like this image then you can still download another by choosing the appropriate right-click option from the My Daily Wallpaper system tray icon, though. And in a nice touch, the program doesn’t waste resources by running there indefinitely. The developer has realised that users will really only need it to replace wallpapers they don’t like, and so if you’ve not used the program after a few minutes then it’ll assume you’re happy and automatically close.

There’s nothing too exceptional here, then, but My Daily Wallpaper does provide easy access to lots of images, and is compact, simple to use and makes minimal demand on your system resources. If your desktop could benefit from a new look then the program should definitely be able to help.

This is a great alternative, or supplement to Windows’ own built-in AutoPlay feature as it enables you to more easily access drives when you want rather than having the contents automatically displayed after insertion. The most common use for the program would be to create desktop shortcuts for CDs and DVDs as they are inserted, but it can also be used to automatically created shortcuts for USB drives.

TweakNow DriveShortcut

TweakNow DriveShortcut runs in the background, constantly monitoring your computer for the appearance of new drives and this also includes removable hard drives and network drives. To make the shortcut icons easier to locate, you can opt to always use the same location for individual icons, and the program can easily set to start with Windows so there is no need to remember to launch it manually.

It is not just removable media that the program can be used with – it also provides a quick and easy way to enable or disable shortcuts to fixed drives that you have installed. While not quite as useful as the way drives are handled in OSX, this is a handy utility that brings an interesting feature to Windows.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the app by paying a visit to the TweakNow DriveShortcut review page.

Update 2 introduces several new features, including Scheduler Smart Start and Archives Scanning Management, plus fixes a number of bugs present in earlier builds.

The Scheduler Smart Start feature basically allows True Image’s Scheduler service to start when it’s required, while Archives Scanning Management allows users to specify whether or not the program automatically scans TIB image files when True Image starts. Both features should lead to performance improvements.

Also added are unspecified improvements to the disk cloning process for those wishing to duplicate or migrate, plus an updated Linux kernel that should improve support for hardware devices when using the bootable Linux rescue disc and other Linux components.

The update – which is likely to require a system reboot when completed – also fixes a wide number of bugs covering various parts of the program, including error handling, installation, backup and restore. A definitive list can be read here, but notable bugs that have been resolved include the Windows Start button disappearing after a file backup has been made, network storage being unavailable as a location for reserve backup copies and the wrong backup being deleted when the user opts to remove one using the Explore and Backup Wizard.

Acronis True Image 2012 Home Update 2 is available as a free trial download for PCs running Windows  XP SP3 or later. The full version can currently be purchased for just $29.99 through the Downloadcrew Software Store, a saving of 40% on the MSRP.

Some applications understand this already. Many backup programs are able to send an email to let you know when a particular job has completed, for instance: very convenient. And Windows Task Scheduler can also send emails for a host of different events. But if that’s not enough then you can always manually extend your system with Blat, a simple command line tool which allows you to send emails as appropriate from your own scripts and batch files.

The process starts by setting up Blat with your core email details. Running the program at the command line will display its various settings and syntax, but in general a minimal setup will look something like this (with the bold text all on one line).

Blat -SaveSettings -f your.address@domain.com -server mail.domain.com -u your.address@domain.com -pw password

Launch Blat at the command line for the full details of its switches and settings

(Replace the first “your.address@domain.com” with your sending address, “mail.domain.com” with your SMTP server, the second “your.address@domain.com” with your account user name, and “password” with, well, your password.)

Next, create a plain text file with the text of whatever email you’d like to send. And it really does need to be plain text, as Blat transmits the contents of the file rather than sending it as an attachment. Call it test.txt for now and save it in the same folder as Blat.

With that done you can then probably send an email with a line like this.

Blat test.txt -to recipient@domain.com

Where “recipient@domain.com” is the email address of whoever you’d like to receive the message.

If that doesn’t work then simply enter Blat at the command line for the details of other switches you can apply (there’s the option to decide the port you’ll use to send the message, for instance).

And once your test emails are being sent correctly then you can begin building the program into your scripts, ready to send notifications of whatever events you like.

Fortunately there are also plenty of image editors which manage to deliver plenty of filtering power, though – and the Java-based Pixelitor is a particularly interesting example. Its compact size (the entire program is contained within a single 1.04MB JAR file) suggested we shouldn’t expect too much, but the reality proved very different – it’s packed with essential filtering functionality.

Click Filter > Blur/ Sharpen, for instance, and you’re presented with no less than seven blur options (Gaussian, Smart, Box, Fast, Lens, Motion, Spin and Zoom). And each of these in turn can be tweaked in various ways. Choose the Lens blur, say, and you’re able to set the radius, sides of the aperture, bloom factor, bloom threshold, or even enable a “high-pass sharpening” option. (And if you’ve no idea what a particular group of settings mean then you can always just keep clicking the handy Randomize button until the preview window shows you results you like.)

It's only around 1MB in size, but Pixelitor still manages to squeeze in a host of powerful image editing tools

There are some useful distortion filters, too. “Pinch, Bulge, Twirl” presents plenty of creative possibilities; “Fisheye” works well; it’s easy to apply ripple or wave effects to an image, and just as with the blurs, everything is very configurable.

And there are plenty of others, from quality edge detection and noise reduction, to photo collages, kaleidoscopes, fancy lighting effects and more. (If all else fails then you can always enter a custom 3×3 or 5×5 convolution of your own.)

Filters are just the start, of course. Pixelitor also has a host of tools to tweak your colour, brightness and levels; you get basic paint tools with various brushes; and the program supports layers, a range of selection tools, and bonus options ranging from a batch image resizer to a simple screen capture utility.

There are also a few issues here. Pixelitor doesn’t have a thumbnail browser to help you locate images; it only supports a few essential formats (BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG); zooming in and out with the mouse could be easier; and the lack of documentation means this isn’t a program for image editing novices.

Still, the program does have plenty of powerful features, and is hard to beat for convenience: it’ll run anywhere Java 6 is available. So if you’re looking for a capable image editor which won’t get in your way then give Pixelitor a try – we think you’ll be impressed.

Version 3.4’s major features can be found under the hood – vastly improved startup times, improved OLEObject handling, better chart rendering and support for scalable vector graphics are the most notable changes in this new release. Also implemented is ODF 1.2 encryption, while the suite is now licensed under the Apache License 2 engine.

Apache OpenOffice 3.4’s headline new features include faster startup, brought about by the fact the application no longer needs to start each component on launch. Improved ODF 1.2 encryption support means documents encrypted using AES256 standard can now be encrypted and decrypted using the program. Users wishing to have this option available when choosing Save with Password can enable the feature via a macro.

ASF has added "Apache" to the OpenOffice moniker.

Other notable changes include the renaming of DataPilot to Pivot Table in Spreadsheet to reflect its usage elsewhere. Pivot Tables are also no longer limited to a set number of fields. The CSV export feature has also been improved. Base users will find Mozilla Address Book support has been removed in favour of its successor, SeaMonkey.

All these features were already part of OpenOffice 3.4 Beta, but new features added specifically for this stable release include support for attributes and transformations to OLEObjects, plus support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and enhanced chart visualization. The old Color Picker dialog has also been replaced with a new version offering a wider variety of colour selection.

Pivot Table is the new name for Data Pilot in Apache OpenOffice

Having lost ground to LibreOffice since development stalled back in 2010, developers initially concentrated on tidying up the code for this version 3.4 release, which has been described as a “solid and stable codebase” by ASF President Jim Jagielski. Now version 3.4 is out, the next six to eight weeks will be spent on sorting out a maintenance (3.4.1) release.

Once OpenOffice 3.4.1 is released, developers plan to start work on version 4, helped in part by code donated from IBM’s discontinued Lotus Symphony office suite, which is also based on OpenOffice.

While there’s little evidence of a code war developing between The Document Foundation and Apache Software Foundation – developers contribute code to both suites, for example – tensions do exist. LibreOffice developer Michael Meeks claims on his blog that the new Apache software license “would break faith with that significant proportion of our large developer community who see enabling non-contribution of core fixes and improvements as anathema, encouraging proprietary software creation.” While conceding LibreOffice’s own licensing model is a “weak-copy-left licensing… compromise” the comments suggest that a future merger of the two projects is unlikely any time soon.

Apache OpenOffice 3.4 is available now as a free, open-source download for Windows, Mac and Linux.

A major concern with any antivirus tool is the impact it has on your system and in the latest release there have been tweak made to the scanning engine that mean that schedule scans are performed faster than in the past. The program has already undergone something of a makeover but there have now been additional improvements made so the app as a whole feels generally snappier – this is in addition to faster scan completion.

Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ 10.1

On the firewall front, programs that have been deemed as trustworthy are now added to the white-list and there is now better support for 64-bit versions of Windows for both the firewall and antivirus side of the application. Users of Windows 2000 will be disappointed to find that their operating system is no longer supported, and this comes as results of changes that have been made to improve the reliability of system drivers.

A problem that meant multi-user systems were plagued with requests for a license key when switching between accounts has been addressed and the program is now able to detect a wider range of tracking cookies. This minor version increase is a great move forward for Lavasoft, as their famous security software makes increasing steps towards catching up with the competition that overtook it in recent years.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the program by paying a visit to the Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ 10.1 review page.

That’s right, from this current release, Plex Server can be used to stream video, photos and music to a host of DLNA-certified devices, from games consoles and media streamers like the WD TV Live to other computers and mobile devices running DNLA media software.

With the release of Plex Server 0.9.6.1, users now longer have to install the free Plex Media Center client on desktop or $4.99 Plex app for iOS, Android and Windows Phone in order to access their media collection. Thanks to its new DLNA capabilities, you’ll be able to access your Plex library from any DLNA-enabled software player, including aVia for Android and Media Link Player Lite for iPhone and iPad.

You can now access your Plex Media Server via DLNA devices and media players.

While it’s fair to say you’ll be missing out on the gorgeous Plex user interface by going down the DLNA route, you will still benefit from one of Plex’s best features – its unrivalled metadata tools. These allow it to provide a wealth of detail about each media file in your library, and often this is added automatically by Plex itself, saving you time and hassle manually tagging your files.

The end result is that browsing a Plex DLNA server is a much easier, quicker and friendlier experience than your current server, with a multitude of different ways to drill through your content, and files displayed according to their title rather than a less intuitive filename, sorted properly where applicable according to episode number.

Plex Server 0.9.6.1 also sees a number of other improvements over the 0.9.6 beta release: this and subsequent OS X releases are signed, ensuring they will be Mountain Lion-friendly when it launches later this year. It also allows iOS users running the latest version of the Plex app (2.3.1) the ability to select higher video quality settings when streaming media over a 3G connection.

Version 0.9.6.1 also sees the first available build of the server for Netgear’s ReadyNAS Duo v2 devices running an ARM processor. Other Network Attached Storage devices are set to follow, which will allow users to install Plex on a NAS drive instead of tying up the main computer.

Fixes include a Webkit crash when playing the Hulu channel, Silverlight channel crashes in OS X and Windows, and incorrect reading of iTunes artist titles by Plex’s DLNA client – a full list of changes can be found here.

Plex Server 0.9.6.1 is available as a free download for Windows, Mac and Linux. Also available are the Plex Media Center client (free), and Plex 2.3.1 app ($4.99) for Android, iOS and Windows Phone.