Personal Computer World

FreeCommander 2008.0.6c

Freeware

Windows Explorer replacement that will enable you to work with multiple folders more quickly. For instance, freeCommander has the facility to open a dual-panel window, which means you can have two folders open within both windows, and then simply drag files to and from each window.

Requires: Windows NT, 2000,XP or Vista

Hyperwords for Firefox 5.0

Freeware

New technology that enables you to highlight a word on a web page and find more information. Say you wanted to find out about a town, simply highlight the word on the page, then use your right-mouse menu to select a reference. You can search Wikipedia, Google and many other locations.

Requires: Windows 2000,XP or Vista

Lotus Symphony 1.1

Freeware

Ships with three modules, which means youÆll be able to write documents, produce presentations and calculate your basic finances. Although Symphony supports and pro-actively encourages you to use the new Open Document Format (ODF), all modules enable you to read and write to Microsoft Office documents.

Requires: Windows XP or Vista

Google Chrome 0.2.152

Freeware

The browser itself is based on the Webkit software used by Apple's Safari browser. The Javascript engine (used for Ajax-based web 2.0 websites such as Google's own Googlemail) is all new. A major advance is that each tab can run Javascript without having to wait for the others to finish.

Requires: Windows XP or Vista

IObit SmartDefrag 1.0

Freeware

Defragging tool and worth investigating which is also rather fast. This will move files in to one continuous block and rearrange the space so that it ends up located in one big block of space. It means your files and applications launch much more quickly. This is the final official release version and is now out of beta.

Requires: Windows 2000, XP or Vista

Microsoft IE v8 for Windows Vista

Freeware

Microsoft are still working hard on the next version of Internet Explorer and have not only previewed new features but made the first preview release available to the general public. New features include Activities, which enable you to perform functions based on, for example, an address listed in a web page.

Requires: Windows Vista