Sound the ZoneAlarm -- Extreme Security is back in spiffy 2012 edition
It has been 18 months since Check Point released ZoneAlarm Extreme Security 2010 -- and as it didn't make much impact, and there was no 2011 release, you might have thought the company had given up on security suites altogether.
But you'd be wrong, though. It turns out ZoneAlarm was simply working on a much more interesting Extreme Security 2012 edition, released today, which comes packed with essential functionality.
Kaspersky releases Anti-Virus and Internet Security 2012
Russian security company Kaspersky has dropped the beta tag from Anti-Virus 2012 and Internet Security 2012 products, launching both today. While there are no revolutionary changes on offer, Kaspersky has provided more than enough general improvements and enhancements to justify giving the programs a closer look.
Significant low-level changes sees both Anti-Virus and Internet Security 2012 offering strong protection even earlier in the boot process, for instance, making it harder for rootkits to modify the operating system, and blocking attempts by malware to disable the antivirus engine.
AniTuner 2: Animated cursors made easy
If you're looking to customize the look of your Windows PC, then you might start with wallpaper, icons, sounds maybe -- they're all quick and easy to customize. Animated cursors are more difficult to work with, and so tend to get a little neglected by comparison. But it doesn't have to be that way. Especially if you install a copy of the free AniTuner 2.
The program allows you to work with existing cursors, for instance. In a click or two you might open one, then resize it, change the color depth, the hot spot, or even play around with individual frames (add or remove them, manipulate existing frames and more).
Firefox Plumber plugs memory leaks, with hidden cost
Firefox is a great browser, but it can use a lot of RAM, especially if you have plenty of tabs open and leave it running all the time. Freeware utility developers Rizone say they've come up with a solution, though. Just download, unzip and run their new Firefox Plumber and they claim "it will eliminate all memory leaks in Firefox," right away.
Does it work? A first test showed promising results. Firefox on our test PC required around 120MB RAM (private working set) immediately after launch, and this came close to doubling when we opened five tabs. Launch Firefox Plumber, though, and RAM use dropped to under 1MB, then (with occasional brief exceptions) stayed there, no matter how many tabs we opened.
Tip: Free Opener accesses 75+ file types
Preparing a laptop to handle all the files it might encounter can be a tedious business. You may need to install PDF and Office viewers, graphics programs, a media player, archiving tools -- the list goes on. But maybe there's a simpler way. Download and install Free Opener, instead, and this one program will display more than 75 file formats for you.
You'll be able to open Office documents, for instance (DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, XLSM, PPTX, PPT, and PPS). PDF files. Archives (7z, ZIP, RAR, GZ, TAR, TGZ, JAR). Flash files (SWF), assorted source code formats, a selection of RAW image formats, and many other graphics, video and audio file types.
Can Malware Fighter Free live up to iObit's claims?
If you're looking for free antivirus protection then there's no shortage of products available, each claiming they're the one for you. There's a new addition to the list, as IObit has just released version 1.0 of their new Malware Fighter Free.
The company makes a lengthy list of impressive claims for the product: it's a "one-click solution," offers "complete PC security care," "finds the deepest infections," "works with all antivirus products," provides "enhanced real-time protection," and uses the "latest cloud computing technology" and heuristic analyses to detect even the latest threats.
Malwarebytes 1.51: Faster malware scanning, free 'Pro' trial
It seems like the beta had only just appeared, but the final build of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.51 released to the public today.
Highlights for the free version include "much more efficient" updating, says Malwarebytes, and it does seem noticeably faster in our initial tests.
Get hands on with Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 7
Equipping yourself to deal with all your graphics needs typically requires an entire library of programs: a drawing tool, photo editor, desktop publishing application, web graphics package, Flash animation tool, and so on. Or alternatively you could just install Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 7, which crams all this functionality -- and more -- into a single, easy-to-use package.
Would you like to correct a few photos, for instance? Open the Photos toolbar and you can crop, rotate or resize an image; tweak brightness, contrast, saturation, temperature, blur or sharpness; fix red-eye; adjust levels; apply perspective correction; and more.
Lagarith codec: Preserving video file quality like it was lossless
Video editing can be a destructive business, especially when carried out over multiple sessions. Every time you save your movie with a regular lossy codec, the quality degrades just a little, and it'll only get worse over time.
You could get around this by saving the videos uncompressed, of course, but the resulting files would be huge, and slow to load and save. It's a much better idea to install and work with a lossless codec, instead -- and Lagarith is one of the best.
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