Author: Mike Williams

Launch an application on the Windows desktop and you have complete freedom to position and size its window however you like (as long as it’s resizeable, anyway). But while this is all very flexible, it also brings management problems when you need to position windows precisely, set and restore a particular window size, and so on.

There are some keyboard shortcuts which might help, just a little (press Win+Shift+the up or right arrow to maximise the current window vertically or horizontally, for instance). If you need more control, though, you might like to try Gridy, which provides plenty of useful windows management features in a very compact and convenient package.

The program is portable, so it’s easy to try: just download, unzip and go. Then try dragging and dropping a desktop window with the mouse, and you’ll notice the first Gridy feature — your windows now snap to a grid. It’s quite fine (32 pixels by default), but if you’re trying to align windows then it should be enough to make your life much easier.

Or maybe you’d prefer to move your window from the keyboard? Just hold down the Win key, press one of the arrow keys, and the current window will snap from one grid position to the next. (You can do something similar anyway by pressing Alt+Space, then M, but Gridy’s approach is a little more straightforward.)

And if you have a situation where you need to position a window outside of the grid, that’s possible too. Simply hold down the Shift key and drag with the mouse.

This would be useful in itself, but Gridy is just getting started. The program can also store the size of the current window (Win+Shift+Home) and restore it later (Win+Home). Or you can store the size and position of up to 9 windows (Win+Ctrl+Numpad 1-9), then recall them as required (Win+Numpad 1-9).

Elsewhere, pressing Win+F10 toggles transparency for the current window.

Win+F12 toggles “always on top”.

And there are plenty of configuration options on offer. You can change the grid resolution, the transparency level, the hotkeys, how the program treats the screen edge (whether it lets windows moves past the edge, or not), and more.

This isn’t bad at all for a free tool which normally requires less than 3MB RAM. And so if you’re looking to bring a little order to your desktop, give Gridy a try – it’s capable, configurable and extremely easy to use.

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If you’ve built up a large MP3 collection over the years, then fitting everything you’d like onto your phone or MP3 player could now be a challenge. You could just try to be a little more selective in what you transfer, of course, but MP3 Quality Modifier offers another option, quickly changing the quality of your MP3 files to save disk space.

Just as you’d hope from a program designed to save resources, MP3 Quality Modifier is itself very efficient. There’s no adware, no installation required, it’s just a 726KB download which you can unzip and launch immediately.

Your first step is to import whatever files you’d like to work with. The program is able to import individual files or entire folders, and you can then select whatever tracks you’d like to process from that list.

Next, you’ll need to think about your preferred audio quality. There are several presets to choose from — “Best Quality”, “High Quality”, “Portable”, “Compromise”, “Very Low Quality” — but, if you prefer, you can also manually set your bitrate, sample frequency and other key details (MP3 Quality Modifier displays the current bitrate of your imported audio files as a guide).

With that done, tell the program where to save the finished files (you can point it at a folder, ask it to create one, or replace the original MP3s), click Process, and then just watch as each track is tweaked to suit your needs.

Exactly how much you’ll save will depend on the original file quality and the options you’ve selected, but taking a look at the bitrate of each will give you a good idea. We reduced 10 tracks with a bitrate of 320kbps down to 128kbps, for instance, and the disk space required dropped similarly from 138 to 55.4MB. We thought the sound quality remained acceptable, too, although of course this depends very much on personal taste, the type of music, and the device where you’ll be playing it back.

Still, if you’re looking for an easy way to cut your MP3 disk space requirements then MP3 Quality Modifier is a great way to get the job done. Give it a try.

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It’s no secret that keeping your installed software up-to-date is a very good idea, for a lot of reasons (improving security, fixing bugs, boosting performance and more), but if you don’t have the time to regularly visit developer’s websites then individual updates are easy to miss.

Install Soft4Boost Update Checker, though, and the program can check your PC on demand, alerting you to any new updates in just a few seconds: much easier.

Update Checker is free, though with the usual adware offered during installation. But they’re not trying to hide anything, it’s all up-front, so as long as you’re paying attention you can clear the appropriate checkboxes and install only what you need.

Launch Soft4Boost Update Checker and it’ll quickly scan your PC, checking your installed applications with a server list of the current versions, and displaying a list of any available updates. If you see something of interest, select it, click the globe icon and you’ll be taken to the program’s home page.

And that’s about it. There’s no automatic installation, no new system tray icons, no component running all the time to give you immediate update alerts — just basic on-demand checks only.

How effective is this? The Soft4Boost site doesn’t provide a list of the programs it supports, or even give an idea of how many there are, which made us a little suspicious. So we decided to compare its performance with FileHippo.com Update Checker on a Windows 7 test PC, and our worries turned out to be groundless. FileHippo reported 10 available updates for our system, but Soft4Boost Update Checker uncovered 19, an easy victory.

The program does still have some small issues, mostly related to its interface. When you’re viewing a list of items on a grid you’d expect to be able to use the cursor keys to scroll, right? Not here: they do nothing at all (you can spin the mouse wheel instead, but that won’t help if you don’t have one).

And we thought double-clicking should open a browser window at the application site, but no — that doesn’t work, either.

Still, it only takes a moment to figure out what you need to do instead, and once you’ve done that Soft4Boost Update Checker works very well: it’s lightweight and simple, a hassle-free tool which quickly alerts you to plenty of application upgrades.

Photo Credit: alexmillos/Shutterstock

GIMP is the most powerful free graphics editor around but you can extend it even further with the right extensions. You’ll need to find them first, of course, because GIMP doesn’t have any built-in mechanism to show you what’s available. But if that’s too much trouble then you could always install GIMP Extensions for Windows, which gives you more than 50 in a single package.

You’ll get GIMP Paint Studio, for instance, which equips the program with additional brushes, patterns, palettes and more.

Plugins include Adaptive Contrast Enhancement, BIMP (Batch Image Manipulation Plugin), Cartoonizer, Focus Blur, GIMP Mask, Image Registration, Liquid Rescale, PAL & VHS, and Save for Web.

Bundled scripts include AnimStack, Fake HDR Effect and Split Studio 3. While GIMP FX Foundry adds more than 100 new options all on its own.

There’s more file format support (APNG, DDS, JPEG XR, WebP).

And you even get animation options via GIMP Animation Package. (The full list is available at the GIMP Extensions page.)

You don’t have to install all of these, fortunately. If you have some already, or just want to decide for yourself, then the setup tool allows you to select the extensions you need, and the ones you really don’t. Whatever you’ve chosen will then be added to your system with a click.

Launch GIMP and you’ll probably find it’s now quite slow to start. Much of this is a one-off, though, as GIMP Extensions’ new tools are installed and initialised. And once the program appears, you can begin exploring its extra powers — the new FX-Foundry menu is a great place to start.

The standard Windows taskbar clock is small, simple and efficient, but also a little dull. And there are no significant options to change how it looks or behaves, either, so if you’d like to customize this part of your desktop then you’ll need a little assistance from the Talking Desktop Clock.

We were initially a little suspicious of the program, as it has a fairly small installer, but then downloads several additional files as setup progresses. Was this going to be adware? Fortunately the answer was no, the program really is free with no catches, and on first launch it immediately displayed an attractive analogue clock in the bottom right corner of our desktop.

And while this probably won’t be precisely what you want, don’t worry — the strength of this program comes in its extreme configurability, and just about everything can be changed.

To get started, right-click the Talking Desktop Clock system tray icon, and select Options > Clocks. Here you can change the clock style to another analogue option, perhaps a simple digital clock, maybe with or without the time. If you don’t like the position of the clock then it can be dragged and dropped wherever you like. And while by default it’s displayed in front of other windows, you can set it to stay behind them, or make it partly transparent.

Many people won’t like having this size of clock on their desktop at all, of course, but that’s not a problem. The program can alternatively replace the standard Windows clock, so you might have a tiny analogue clock displayed in the bottom right of the taskbar. This won’t display the date (unless you’ve chosen a clock style which includes that), but just hover your mouse cursor over the clock and it’ll display the current date, the local time, and even the time for any other Windows clocks you might have set up.

As you might guess from the name, Talking Desktop Clock can also say the time (or play a custom sound) every 15, 30 or 60 minutes, or at some other preferred interval. Conveniently, you can restrict this to a particular time of day only, perhaps 8:00am to 6:00pm. The program would then remind you of the time during the working day, when you most needed it, but be quiet at other times.

Just in case this versatility isn’t enough, clicking View > Settings reveals even more options. There are configurable hotkeys you can use to say the time, or show and hide the clock, for example, as well as several useful mouse settings (double-clicking the taskbar clock can open the Options window).

And all of this comes in a surprisingly compact package, which can require less than 3MB RAM when running in the background (although this does depend on your settings).

There are a few small issues here. Some settings are displayed inconsistently, for instance, while others require a little thought before you’ll get the program behaving as you expect.

For the most part, though, Talking Desktop Clock works very well: it’s fun, lightweight and highly configurable, and an excellent replacement for the standard Windows clock.

Photo credit: xc/Shutterstock

Windows 8 has several annoyances, but perhaps one of the most notable is its requirement to run apps full screen, or in an ugly 2/3, 1/3 mode. When you’re used to being able to position and arrange application windows just as you like, this seems like a significant backward step: we have far less choice then we did before.

But ModernMix, the latest release from Stardock, changes all that. Because this simple $4.99 program allows you to run Windows 8 apps in a resizable window on your desktop, just like anything else.

Getting hold of the beta build is a little awkward right now, as you have to provide your email address and wait to be sent a link. But with that out of the way, the program downloads and installs quickly, before presenting you with a basic settings dialog. Just clear that for the moment (the default settings are fine), and you’re ready to go.

Now launch an app from the Start Screen, and it’ll appear in a window on the desktop, where you can use it as normal. The window can be freely resized and positioned to suit your needs, and has a regular Close button in the top right corner, so you can shut the app down like any other program.

The app also has a button on the taskbar, of course, and clicking there will bring it to the foreground. Right-click, though, and you’ll find an option to pin your favorite apps to the taskbar, so avoiding the need to switch to the Start screen at all. (And if you do launch an app that way, it’ll relaunch with whatever window size and position it had last time, so you only need set it up once.)

While this all worked very smoothly for us, it’s possible that some apps might not work so well in a window. Or perhaps you’ll just want to switch back to the Start screen for some other reason. Either way, pressing F10 while running an app will switch you from a desktop window to the start screen, and back again. Or, if you prefer to use the mouse, ModernMix adds a tiny overlay to the top right corner of the app which allows you to do the same thing.

And if you’re unhappy with any of this, a settings box makes it easy to change. You can turn off the window overlay, say; disable or change the F10 hotkey; or maybe set things up so that apps run full screen when launched from the Start screen, but in a window when launched from the desktop.

Despite being a beta, all this worked very well for us, with no noticeable problems or issues at all. And so, if you spend more time on the desktop than the Start screen, ModernMix comes highly recommended: it’s the best Windows 8 extension we’ve seen to date, and at $4.99 is an absolute bargain.

Launch Windows, open a folder or file, install, remove or run a program — just about everything you do on a PC results in Windows writing to the Registry. And over time that means the Registry files will grow, as they contain more and more “slack space”, gaps where old entries used to be.

This isn’t particularly harmful, but it does waste a little memory and hard drive space. And so you might like to try Tweaking.com’s Registry Compressor, a small and simple tool which can defragment your Registry, removing this slack space (nothing else — this isn’t a Registry cleaner) and cutting the files down to size.

The defragmentation process isn’t particularly difficult or dangerous, but plainly if there is a problem, and the Registry is corrupted, then it could trash your PC. And so we’d recommend caution. Only run Registry Compressor on a system which has been fully backed up. And close down all running programs before you launch it, too (you’ll want to minimize Registry activity while the program runs).

With that done, fire up Registry Compressor, click Analyze, and after a few seconds it’ll present some figures on how bloated your Registry files might be. This can deliver some apparently dramatic results, with for instance some of the smaller files on our test PC being anything up to 9 times larger than necessary. Overall, though, fragmentation wasn’t a major problem: the total size of our Registry was currently 172MB, and Registry Compressor claimed it could reduce this to 168.99MB, a 1.75 percent saving.

Still, if your system shows a larger figure — or you’re just thinking that “every little helps” — then all you have to do is click “Compress”. After a second or two (it’s very quick) the program will tell you it’s done, and recommend you reboot. And as we’re not quite sure how this defragmentation will affect processes which are currently accessing the Registry, it’s probably a good idea to do this right away.

Once our system had restarted, we ran Registry Compressor again, just to see what its analysis revealed now. And sure enough, it seemed to have worked, as our fragmentation had dropped to 0.1MB, or about 0.06 percent.

Is this worth the effort? We saw no obvious performance improvement, but perhaps that’s because our test system wasn’t too badly fragmented in the first place.

If you’d like to try Registry Compressor on your own system, though, it’s very quick and easy (a 335KB download, no installation required, no adware), and simply seeing a report on the degree of Registry fragmentation could be interesting. Just be sure you use it with care; backup your system and close programs beforehand, and reboot your system immediately afterwards.

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When you’re troubleshooting a network problem then it often makes sense to take a look at your network adapters, and all their associated details. But Windows doesn’t make this nearly as easy as it should. The information is available, but very fragmented, so you’ll probably have to browse various Control Panel applets and run a few command line tools to get the details you need.

Fortunately there now an easier way, though, in the shape of a new tool from NirSoft, NetworkInterfacesView.

Just launch the program and it immediately list all your network interfaces, both active and inactive, along with all their basic details: the device and connection name, IP address, default gateway, name servers and MAC address.(“USB\VID_050D&PID_2103\00E04C000001” is a typical example) but can still provide helpful information. Physical adapters built into your PC will probably begin with PCI\; removable USB adapters start with USB\, while virtual (software-based) interfaces typically begin ROOT\.

There are also details like the adapter’s DHCP server (if appropriate), interface GUID and MTU value.

And the program also includes interesting items such as “Registry Time”, which presumably relates to the time when an interface Registry key was last written or modified. Although as we’re not sure which keys, or what might cause these to be written or modified, this information is tricky to interpret.

That’s just the start, though. NetworkInterfacesView also provides an Instance ID, which looks cryptic Still, even without these extras, NetworkInterfacesView does provide a great deal of data which could be very helpful when you’re troubleshooting network issues. As usual with NirSoft tools, these details can be exported as a report for analysis later. And the program itself is a tiny (56KB) portable executable which should run on any edition of Windows, from 2000 through to 8 (and both 32 and 64-bit).

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Bitdefender has released the first public beta of Bitdefender Total Security 2014, its high-end security suite. And while the new edition doesn’t offer any revolutionary changes, there are enough additions and enhancements to make it interesting.

Bitdefender themselves are highlighting the suite’s “adaptive scanning technology”, which apparently “visibly improves speed and performance in a matter of hours by gradually molding to your PC”. The new Wallet fills a gap in the previous editions by storing your user names and passwords, then automatically filling them in for you.

A weekly Security Report sums up what’s happened in the past seven days, highlights anything you need to do, tells you about unused modules, and more.

The spam filter is now fully cloud-based, cutting system impact and improving detection rates. Or so Bitdefender claim; the filter didn’t appear to be working at all on our system, although whether that’s a genuine bug, a local issue for us, or we’re just missing something, isn’t yet clear.

Parental controls are significantly enhanced (you get full HTTPS as well as HTTP coverage, for instance), while the Safepay online banking environment stores your logons even more securely via the new wallet.

And of course you also get all the features from previous editions: the antivirus engine, smart firewall, browsing protection, privacy tools, online backup system, anti-theft service, and more.

The beta comes in the form of a very small download, which insists that you remove any other antivirus packages you might have installed, and then scans your PC, while simultaneously downloading and scanning the rest of the package. This took a very long time for us, but be patient, it does complete eventually.

Once the program fires up you’re prompted to register. Just select “I don’t have a key, I want to try the product for free” and Click Next.

The “Configure Behaviour” dialog gives you a chance to turn the program’s “Auto Pilot” and “Automatic Game mode” off. Essentially this just means you’ll get more prompts, though, so for now we’d accept the defaults and click Next.

Next, you’re prompted to activate the installation via your Bitdefender account. If you have one, enter your details as usual and click “Login to MyBitdefender”. If you don’t, either click “Create a new account” and follow the instructions, or sign in via your Facebook, Google or Microsoft accounts.

With that done, click Explore on the beta dialog box and you’ll be able to set up the new Bitdefender Wallet feature. Which isn’t exactly difficult: all you have to do is set up a new database, and enter a password.

And, finally, that’s it. If you tried Bitdefender 2013 then you’ll recognise the interface, which hasn’t really changed, so just click the various icons on Bitdefender’s gadget and give the system a try.

Please note, though, this is a beta and there are some significant bugs. As we write, for instance, the Auto Update button gets turned off when the system performs an update. Check the beta home pagefor more, but just keep in mind that you shouldn’t use the suite as your main security for long – it’s just not reliable enough yet (which is also why the build will expire after 60 days).

Still, if you do stick with Total Security 2014 then Bitdefender are offering a few prizes for the most active beta testers, including an HP Envy dv6 laptop, Samsung Galaxy S3 and Google Nexus 10 tablet. Again, the beta page has more.

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AVAST Software has announced the public availability of avast! 8, which now comes in four main flavors: avast! Free Antivirus, avast! Pro Antivirus (from $39), avast! Internet Security (from $49) andavast! Premier (from $69).

The suites all have a new touch-optimized, Windows 8-style interface. And they also include Software Updater, a tool which automatically checks for updates of the most commonly-exploited apps (Adobe Reader, Adobe AIR, Flash, Java, browsers and so on), as well as a simple Browser Cleanup app to help you review your browser add-ons, and remove or disable any you don’t want.

Improvements behind the scenes see avast! 8 better able to detect and block not just one the one particular sample you’ve encountered, but also many similar files, and even entire malware families.

AVAST’s Ondrej Vlcek claims this new technology “helps create much more efficient definitions, which can often protect against vast sets of malware, including unknown ‘zero-day’ malware, without the risk of generating false positives.”

Avast! 8 also introduces a new detection engine which monitors suspect files in an isolated environment before you’re able to execute them, is better able to monitor what they’re doing, and, avast! says, will “help users make more intelligent decisions, whether files running in the sandbox are malicious or not”.

And also new this time is the avast! Premium suite, which has all the regular avast! Internet Security features (antivirus, browsing protection, firewall, antispam) and adds additional tools of its own. So your money gets you extras like the automatic installation of any Software Updater upgrades; AccessAnywhere (remotely control your PC from across the internet); an ad blocker, and a Data Shredder to securely wipe confidential files.

Will these features really be enticing enough to tempt the masses? We’re not quite sure, but even if you’re sticking to avast! Free Antivirus 8, there’s plenty to explore. We like the new interface, the Software Updater is useful, Browser Cleanup is helpful for beginners, and it’s still one of the best free antivirus tools around.

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Download an ISO disc image onto a brand new PC and you probably won’t need any third-party software to handle it. Windows 8 makes it easy to mount the image as a virtual drive, so you can access the contents without needing to burn them to a physical disc.

This option isn’t exactly configurable, though. It offers no support for the many other disc image formats out there. And it’s not much help if you don’t have Windows 8, either — which is why you might prefer to install VirtualDVD.

The program is a simple free tool which can mount CD, DVD and Blu-ray images to a virtual drive. It’s a small download (under 3MB), and installs quickly with no adware to avoid.

Once running, VirtualDVD can be accessed via its system tray icon. Right-click it, select Virtual Devices, choose the virtual drive, click Mount Image, and point the program at the image you need (B5T/ B6T, BIN, BWT, CCD, CDI, CUE, DVD, IMG, ISO, ISZ, LCD, MDS/ MDF, NRG and PDI formats are supported so you shouldn’t have any problems).

The disc then becomes available in Explorer just as though it was a physical drive.

This can be customized to a degree via the usual Windows tools (you can change its region, drive letter and so on).

And you’re also able to add further virtual drives, if necessary. Right-click the system tray icon, select Preferences, and set “Count” to the number of devices you need (up to a maximum of 24).

The program is a little on the basic side. It doesn’t have the configuration options you’ll get with some of the competition (or any significant settings at all, really). And there’s virtually no documentation, either. There’s nothing provided with the program itself, and the online help currently has a single page listing the supported image formats only.

To be fair, though, VirtualDVD is extremely simple, and you’re most unlikely to need any assistance. So if you need easier access to disc images beyond just ISO files, the program could be worth a try.

Kaspersky Labs has released Kaspersky PURE 3.0 Total Security, the latest edition of their extremely comprehensive security suite.

And although you might have thought the package already included just about every security option you could possibly want, the company has found several ways to improve the new build.

Safe Money detects when you browse to banks, payment providers and other sensitive sites, and offers to access them in a secure and isolated browser.

A “secure keyboard input” layer combined with easier access to the virtual keyboard helps to keep you safe from keyloggers.

The backup tool can now store your data online; it’s only to a Dropbox account, but that’s still a worthwhile improvement.

Password Manager now maintains its database online, making it easier to synchronise credentials across all your Kaspersky PURE 3.0 installations.

There’s a new exploit protection layer, easier installation, an enhanced interface, more accurate phishing detection, smaller updates, and more.

And of course you still get all the previous features, like a strong antivirus engine, lots of browsing protection tools, capable parental controls, a spam filter, vulnerability scanner, encryption tool, ad-blocker, data shredder and more.

All this functionality has a down side, of course. The suite comes in a chunky 179MB executable. It then downloaded another 80MB in the first update on our test PC. It adds plenty of extras to your PC, including for example five Firefox addons. And there are all kinds of configuration issues to confront in your first hour or two with the program.

You’ll need to pay close attention to the small print, too, as there are some important issues to consider. Password Manager doesn’t work on 64-bit Windows, for instance. While Safe Money doesn’t run in the Metro version of IE10, or even the desktop version if IE’s “Enhanced Protected Mode” is turned on.

And there are so many modules here that they can occasionally clash in unexpected ways. Here’s a genuine example of a warning in the Help file: “Safe Run for Websites cannot be run if the Enable Self-Defense check box is cleared in the Advanced Settings section, the Self-Defense subsection of the application settings window”. Which may not be so obvious to everyone.

Still, while Kaspersky PURE 3.0 Total Security takes a while to set up and figure out, there’s still a vast amount of functionality here, and it’s still one of the most comprehensive security suites around.

If you’d like to edit an audio file then there’s plenty of free tools around to help, however most of them are prone to altering your files in unexpected ways. To test this yourself, just open any file, save it with a different name, and compare that file with the original. Even though you’ve not performed any operations on the second file at all, you’ll still often find there are differences, and inevitably that’s going to mean some compromise in sound quality.

WaveShop takes an alternative approach. The program is specifically designed to be bit-perfect, only altering your audio when it’s absolutely necessary. So if you open a file and then save it immediately, there will be no changes. And if you carry out some editing task on one area of the file — fade it out at the end, say — everything else remains exactly as it was.

The program is open source, and comes in a variety of forms: portable, 32-bit, 64-bit and so on. For performance reasons it’s designed to process audio files entirely in memory, so where possible you should always opt for a 64-bit build.

Whatever you choose, though, the download will be relatively small (just over 1MB). Installation is quick and easy, and on launch you’ll find a very familiar interface — there are no great surprises here and you’ll know immediately what to do.

Specifically, open an audio file (WAV, AIFF, AU, AVR, CAFF, FLAC, HTK, IFF, MAT4, MAT5, MPC, OGG, PAF, PVF, RAW, RF64, SD2, SDF, VOC, W64, WVE and 6I formats are supported), it’s presented in a standard waveform-type display, and you can zoom in, select whatever area you like, and delete or copy and paste it wherever you need.

The program has some effects you can apply, too. You’re able to amplify audio, for instance, fade it in or out, or scan your file for clipped audio.

A “Change Format” option adjusts the sample rate, sample size and number of channels.

There are Reverse and Invert tools; you get simple Peak and RMS statistics, and there are a host of ways to work with channels. You can insert, delete or swap them, for instance; extract channels to mono files; even edit surround sound audio to decide which channel is assigned to a particular speaker.

And if you’ve problems with any of this then an excellent Help file (a real Windows Help file, not a PDF or a link to some inadequate web page) does a good job of explaining what you need to know.

WaveShop doesn’t have a lot of processing options, then, but there’s a reasonable selection for version 1.0, and its non-destructive nature means there may be already good reason to use the program for simple editing tasks. So if you’d like to preserve your audio quality, as much as possible, then it’s definitely worth a try.

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If your PC has multiple drives – or even just several USB keys — then you’ve probably already decided exactly how each drive is going to be used. But are you sure that decision is correct? Do you know which drive is the fastest, for instance? If that might make a difference, then BenchMe is a simple and free device benchmarking tool which may be able to help.

The program comes in a very small download (703KB), which unfortunately then requires installation. We’re not quite sure why — it looks like the kind of tool which could very easily be portable — but at least there’s no adware or other dangers to worry about.

On launch BenchMe presents you with an extremely basic interface, which essentially consists of 5 buttons and an (initially blank) report screen. And so, while we’d normally complain about the lack of documentation — there’s no Help file, no Readme.txt, not even any tooltips — in this case you really don’t need any at all.

All you really have to do is click the arrow to the right of the Start button, and choose the device or drive you’d like to benchmark. And that’s it, your work is done — you can now sit back and watch as BenchMe begins its checks.

This simplicity doesn’t mean the program is short on features, though. It’ll start by giving you the model name of your drive, for instance. And then it’ll itemize your drive’s capabilities, so if you need to know whether it supports S.M.A.R.T., Automatic Acoustic Management, Native Command Queuing, Tagged Command Queuing, TRIM and so on, you can find out at a glance.

BenchMe measures some values, too. It’ll tell you the drive’s minimum, maximum and average access time, for example. And you’ll see the number of IOPS (I/O Operations Per Second) the drive can handle, for both a queue depth of 1 and 32.

Perhaps most usefully, you’ll also get a graph which shows you the linear read speed and how it varies across the surface of the drive, with the minimum and maximum speeds highlighted.

And when it’s all done, you’re able to print the results immediately, or copy them to the clipboard (in various sizes) for further processing elsewhere.

We did have one problem with BenchMe. For some reason it was unable to detect our drive capabilities, and so they were all greyed out on the report screen.

We’re not sure whether that’s a general issue, though, or just something specific to our hardware setup. And even without that feature, BenchMe is a handy benchmarking tool, straightforward and easy to use.

Photo Credit: Sarah Cheriton-Jones/Shutterstock

If your browser has been taken over by an aggressive addon then you can try the standard routes to remove it (the “Manage Addons” dialog in IE, for instance). These can be confusing for beginners, though, and may not always work, so avast! has developed a custom Browser Cleanup tool as a simpler alternative.

The program is portable, a compact 1.75 MB download which runs on Windows XP, 7 and 8, so it’s generally convenient to use. It supports IE, Firefox and Chrome, and on launch checks each of these to evaluate your browser addons.

If any of your extensions are particularly dubious then they’ll be highlighted on a Summary screen which is displayed first. On a test PC, for instance, one addon was reported as either “having a poor reputation” with avast! users, or engaging “in aggressive tactics to manipulate your settings”. If you also have something listed on this page then clicking its “More details” link explains why.

If the extensions on the Summary page are unnecessary, then you can remove them all with a click. But if you don’t agree with avast! Browser Cleanup’s report then you also have the option to remove highlighted addons individually, or maybe do nothing about them at all.

It’s quite possible you might have nothing listed on the Summary page, of course, and in that case you can just click one of the left-hand tabs to view the addons for a particular browser. As we’ve mentioned, this can be done from within the browser anyway, but the Cleanup tool does have a small advantage: by default it excludes add-ons with a “good” rating, so cutting the list down to size and helping you focus on any potential threats.

Spot a potential problem here and clicking Disable will disable that addon completely. There’s no “Remove” option, unfortunately, but presumably avast! think it’s safer to do this from your browser (and if the addon is disabled then maybe the browser’s own uninstall tool will be more reliable).

And if your browser’s home and search pages have been hijacked then there’s a “Reset browser settings” button to restore their default values.

Avast! Browser Cleanup isn’t exactly the most powerful of aware removers, then. But PC novices will appreciate its ease of use, and the program’s “user rating” for extensions could be a helpful way to highlight any addons you need to check. If your regular extension management tools don’t work then this may be worth a try.

Accidentally deleting a partition seems like a major disaster when it first happens. Not only have all of its files disappeared, but you can’t even see that drive any more.

The situation may not be as bad as it seems, though. Your data is unlikely to be erased, just yet (other programs will generally write only to their own partition). And missing partitions are relatively easy to recover, as long as you have access to something like the free (for personal use) MiniTool Partition Recovery.

The program works with regular hard drives, USB and other removable storage devices. And it covers most of the file systems you’re likely to encounter on a PC, including FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 (although not exFAT, unfortunately).

A wizard-based interface means MiniTool Partition Recovery is generally very easy to use, too. There are only a few steps: select the drive you’d like to browse; choose the area to check (the entire disk, its unallocated space, or whatever range of sectors you need); accept the default Scan mode, and you’re done. The program scans your drive, hopefully finds any missing partitions, and you can restore them in a couple of clicks.

Of course life isn’t always so straightforward, but if you do encounter any problems then MiniTool Partition Recovery has a few extra options which just might help.

If it can’t find your partition with the default settings, for instance, choosing the Full Scan Mode rather than the default Quick Scan will run a more thorough check. It’s also considerably slower, but there’s a better chance of finding your files.

Or, if the program thinks it’s found more partitions than you’ve actually lost, just double-click each one to explore its contents and you’ll quickly find your data.

There is a significant limitation here, in that you don’t get a bootable version on a disaster recovery disc. Which means that if your PC won’t boot because the system partition is damaged then you’ll have no way to restore it.

MiniTool Partition Recovery does deliver plenty of functionality for a free tool, though, and if you don’t have something similar to hand already then it might be worth installing a copy — just in case.

Photo Credit: Zadorozhnyi Viktor/Shutterstock

If you’re bored with the regular Windows wallpaper then there’s no shortage of software which can help. But much of it will just download fairly random images from a variety of online sources. And even if you can select a theme which appeals to you – “landscapes”, “animals” or whatever – there’s no guarantee that you’ll like everything the program selects.

Livecam Wallpaper, though, is different. As you might guess from the name, the program allows you to set images from your choice of internet webcams as wallpaper, so you can be sure the picture will be something you like. But it can then update the images as often as every 10 seconds, a very interesting way to bring your desktop to life.

We were initially a little wary of the program, as it sounds like just the kind of tool which comes bundled with ten toolbars. But no. The download is a compact 834KB, and it only includes the core program files. Even the Livecam Wallpaper licence is only 168 words long, a refreshing change these days.

The core interface is very simple, too. There are no menus, no hidden settings – everything you need is accessible from one dialog. And so you’ll start by setting the number of webcams you’d like to use (1, 4 or 9). There’s the refresh time to decide (10 seconds, then 1, 3 or 10 minutes). And after you’ve chosen whether Livecam Wallpaper should load from the desktop, that’s your basic settings completed.

All you have to do now is choose your webcams, and that’s just as easy. Choose a category, first: “HD”, “City”, “Mountains”, “Tech” and so on. Then click the default image, select your preferred camera and the desktop will be updated right away.

There are some limitations here. The webcam categories don’t all offer a lot of choice, for example — “City” has 45, but “Forest” has only 3. And while the program includes webcams from all over the world, there’s a considerable bias towards Europe.

This kind of idea may not be too practical in some cases, either. If you display icons on your desktop, the regularly changing images may make them hard to view sometimes. And there’s the resource usage to consider. Memory requirements are impressively low at under 9MB when minimised, but if you’re updating 9 pictures regularly then that’s going to generate plenty of network and hard drive activity.

Overall, though, Livecam Wallpaper remains a very likeable program. It’s easy to use, looks great, has some spectacular webcams, and does its best not to be too demanding (you can always turn off the “Run on startup” option and run it just occasionally). So if you’re bored with normal wallpaper then this makes a great alternative.

If you regularly work with PDF files then you might occasionally need to compare two documents, just to see how (or if) they differ. You could try to do that manually, but it’ll be a tedious process, and probably not very accurate. Downloading a copy of DiffPDF is a much better idea.

The program is open source and portable, so it’s straightforward to get started. Just unzip the download, launch DiffPDF.exe and you’re ready to go.

And the core interface isn’t exactly tricky, either. Click “File #1″ and point the program at your first document; click “File #2″ for the second; then click Actions > Compare, and within a moment or two you’ll see both documents with any differences highlighted.

If you need to know exactly how your documents vary then clicking the Next button will take you to each page where there’s a difference, so you can manually review it. If you just want to find out whether the documents vary at all, though, click the Log tab for a brief report. Or you can alternatively use the “Save As” option to save a PDF with only the pages which vary, again with the differences highlighted.

These default settings generally work well, but there are more options available if you need them. Normally the program compares documents by word, for instance, but you can change this and compare by character, or even appearance, which will capture reformatted paragraphs, edited images and other issues.

If you know that the two files vary in some places, and only want to compare a particular page range, then you can do that, too. Just specify the pages to check — 1-3, 5-13, say — in the box to the right of each file name.

This could lead to another issue, of course — what about the page numbers? Click the Margins tab and you can define page margins which DiffPDF then ignores.

Command line support helps you automate the comparison process, very handy if you’ve a lot of files to check.

And there are several other useful options, including various settings which provide a great deal of control over how any file differences are highlighted.

Put it all together and DiffPDF is an excellent tool: fast, configurable, and generally very easy to use. Try it!

Enhancing a regular digital photo isn’t too difficult, at least at a basic level. Even an editing newbie will quickly get used to tweaking brightness, contrast, color balance and so on, and these image-wide adjustments alone will often be enough to make a huge difference.

Scan some old photos, though – maybe some ancient family shots which have been in someone’s attic for 50 years — and you’ll face a very different challenge. Issues now are likely to include spots, scratches, dust and other defects. And while you could in theory clean these up with just a basic paint tool, life will probably be very much easier if you install Retouch Pilot Lite.

The program installs easily (it’s adware-free), and on launch displays a panel with links to tutorials for various tasks. This may be useful if you’re a beginner, but otherwise isn’t necessary, so it’s generally best to click “Close” and move on to the main interface.

This is fairly basic, though more or less as you’d expect. There are menus where you can open and save files, zoom in and out, undo your various actions and so on. A toolbar on the right gives access to some basic image editing features (resize, crop, rotate, brightness and contrast adjustments, and so on). But the real value here is the Scratch Eraser, which will help you to clean up your image.

Select this tool, move your mouse cursor over the image, and it’ll change into a small circular brush. Move this so that it surrounds the spot or scratch you’d like to eliminate, then either just click, or click and drag, and the defect should disappear while everything else remains intact.

Does it work? We tried it on a few old black and white images with lots of tiny spots, and the results were generally very good. Zoom in on an area, adjust the Scratch Eraser brush to an appropriate size, and we really could eliminate a huge number of defects at very high speed.

If you try to work on photos that are more detailed, though, or have larger defects, then problems appear. Retouch Pilot Lite becomes less and less able to generate an image which matches with its immediate surroundings, and the results quickly become entirely unusable.

If you’re already an experienced graphics editor, then, familiar with a clone brush and used to repairing minor problems, Retouch Pilot Lite has little to offer.

But, if you’re not sure how you’d remove tiny spots and scratches from an image, or you’re going to have to remove a lot of them and need a quick way to do it, the program may prove useful, and it’s certainly worth a try.

If the latest Java security scares have persuaded you to ditch the technology forever, then removing it from your PC is normally straightforward. Java’s regular uninstaller should do the job in just a few seconds.

If this doesn’t work, though — or you just want to remove and reinstall Java, because of problems with your system — then it might be worth trying JavaRA, a compact tool that can help you to update or cleanly uninstall the Java Runtime Environment.

The program comes in a compact package (a 139KB zip file), with no unwanted extras. And launching it presents a simple and straightforward interface, with just four large buttons (and only two of those are particularly important).

This doesn’t mean that JavaRA is lacking in options, though. So click “Update JavaRA Runtime”, say, and the program provides no less than three ways to proceed. It can open a web page to perform an online version check; use another executable to do this for you; or download and install the latest version, regardless of what you have got installed right now.

If you click “Remove Java Runtime” then that will first prompt you to run the official uninstaller, before itself trying to clear up any files, folders and Registry keys associated with Java.

And there are a few other settings which might be helpful. Click “Additional Tasks”, say, and there’s an option to “Remove outdated JREF Firefox extensions”.

For all this, JavaRA didn’t always quite work as we’d like.

The program needs to run as an administrator, for instance, but doesn’t prompt for that — you’ll need to remember.

You have to click “Update JavaRA Definitions” to make sure it has the latest information about which files and folders to remove; again, this should happen automatically (by default, at least).

And the program didn’t detect the regular Java uninstaller on our test PC.

Still, JavaRA did correctly update our test Java installation, and then correctly and cleanly remove it. So while we’d always try the normal Java uninstaller first, if that’s not working for you then JavaRA provides a quick, easy and effective alternative.