DVDVideoSoft Ltd has released Free Studio 2013 v6.1, a minor update for its freeware media tools bundle for Windows PCs. The tool, which provides a front end of no less than 48 different tools for recording, downloading, converting and editing both audio and video, comes with the promise of unspecified improvements and new features.

Notable changes include adding Windows XP support to the recently released Free Video Call Recorder for Skype, which is now also available in additional 12 languages, including Chinese, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

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Debenu PDF Tools Pro is a powerful set of PDF tools which can help you to merge and split PDFs, convert them to text or images, edit properties, add or remove passwords and a whole lot more.

Normally $59, the package available for free – but Debenu says this is only for “a few more days”, and the offer could expire at any time, so if you’re interested then we’d grab a copy now.

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Windows X has released updates for its skinning tools, Windows 8 UX Pack 7.0 (for Windows 7) and Windows 8 Transformation Pack 7.0 (for Windows XP, Vista and 7). The programs bring much of the look and feel of Windows 8 to earlier desktops.

One notable change this time around is the inclusion of WinMetro as an alternative Start Screen for both packs. Windows X says the program is stable and not resource hungry, which perhaps is why they’ve made it the “Immersive UI” alternative, but if you prefer the older Newgen, just the charms bar, or nothing at all, then all those options are still available.

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NirSoft has announced the release of JumpListsView, a new tool which displays details of the jumplist records stored on Windows 7/ 8 PCs.

And the end result is a detailed report on many of the files and folders opened on your PC, perhaps going back months.

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You’ve lost that important document you were working on yesterday; you’re wondering which files a program is accessing; or maybe you’d just like to know what someone else has been doing on your PC. There are many reasons why you might want to know which files have been created, modified or accessed on your PC – and Recent Files Scanner is just the tool to help.

To get a feel for how the program works, just launch it and click the green Scan button. By default it will scan your Documents folder and any subfolders, and you’ll quickly be looking at a report listing everything you’ve modified recently.

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You’re at the PC, with lots of important work to do. And you’re going to get started on it – once you’ve checked Facebook. And Twitter. Then watched a YouTube clip someone mentioned earlier, checked what’s happening on eBay, and worked your way through a host of other online distractions.

Sounds familiar? Then you might like Cold Turkey, a simple free tool which can temporarily block access to your favourite web destinations.

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Cloud backup, sync and sharing tool SugarSync 2.0.9 has been released for Windows and Mac. The tool, which provides desktop access to SugarSync cloud storage, has gained three notable feature improvements alongside general performance and stability tweaks.

Chief among these are drag-and-drop improvements alongside better visibility of features for showing folders from a specific computer. Windows users also get to choose which drive letter to assign to the SugarSync virtual drive.

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Microsoft Office has released the Office Configuration Analyzer Tool (OffCAT), a portable utility which can check all your installed Office applications, report on any problems, and provide links to possible solutions.

If you’ve ever tried to diagnose an Office problem yourself then you’ll know it can be difficult, just because there are so many factors to consider (Registry settings, addons, Office policies, installed updates and more). But OffCAT aims to help by quickly locating and highlighting any issues for you.

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OPSWAT has announced the availability of Metascan Client, a lightweight on-demand virus scanner.

The program is extremely basic – there’s no real-time protection or scheduled scanning, and it can’t remove whatever it finds – but could still be useful as a backup to your regular antivirus tool.

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Evernote Corporation has unveiled Skitch for Desktop 2.0 for Windows, a brand new version of its photo annotation and sketch tool. The new version boasts a major update to its user interface, plus offers streamlined sharing options.

Skitch is designed to be used in conjunction with Evernote, allowing users to store annotated photos within their notes for future viewing and editing. Images can also be saved to the user’s hard drive.

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Are you tired of bloated disc burning suites? You’re not alone. Modern burning programs are mostly very overweight, packed with unnecessary functions which you’ll probably never use.

If your needs are very simple, though, there are some effective freeware burning apps around, and Folder SimpBurn is a particularly straightforward example.

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