Nick Peers

The Document Foundation has released the first public beta of its upcoming LibreOffice 7.0 office suite for Windows, Mac and Linux. Users are encouraged to download and test the software -- which installs alongside any existing production release -- ahead its final release, expected to be in August.

The new release doesn’t boast any major new features, but does update ODF support to 1.3, plus unveils improvements both major and minor to the suite’s major components -- in particular Writer.

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In computing terms, a sandbox is an isolated environment inside which you can safely run operating systems and software without risking your data, privacy, or security. Therefore, the Windows Sandbox does exactly what it says on the tin: provides a lightweight desktop environment inside which you can safely test programs.

Why would you do this? The primary reason is security: you don’t know whether you trust a program or file, so by launching the Windows Sandbox tool in Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise you’ll create a Windows within Windows. If you’ve been experimenting with Hyper-V, you’ll see it shares the same underlying virtualization technology, albeit with some crucial differences.

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Hyper-V is Windows’ built-in virtualization technology, hard-wired into Windows 10 Professional to allow you to easily run multiple operating systems on a single PC. You can use it to resurrect old programs and hardware no longer compatible with Windows 10, explore alternative operating systems such as Ubuntu or use it as a test environment.

"But I can do all this for free with VirtualBox!" you’ll say. And you’d be correct -- to a degree. There’s one critical reason why Hyper-V is a better option than VirtualBox, and that’s raw performance. VirtualBox is a software emulator, which means that it sits on top of Windows and can never match native performance, whatever tweaks you perform.

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Business communication tool Slack has just released a major new update to its iOS app for iPhone and iPad. Slack 20.05.10 sees the app get ready for more than a simple facelift, with a complete redesign that brings it into line with improvements unveiled back in March on the desktop.

Be warned though: the user interface is actually a server-side update, which means not all users will immediately feel the benefit of updating -- nevertheless, install the app now and when the new UI is switched on, you’ll be able to use it.

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Foxit Software has unveiled landmark updates across its range of PDF viewing and editing tools for Windows PCs. There’s the brand-new free Foxit Reader 10.0 for those who simply need a fast, lightweight PDF viewing tool with handy extras like basic annotation and editing tools.

For those looking for more functionality, Foxit Phantom Standard 10.0 offers more advanced tools for editing, creating and converting PDF files to other formats.

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Mozilla has released Firefox 76.0 for Windows, macOS and Linux, the latest in its long line of major updates to the venerable open source browser.

The chief focus in this new release is the further development of Mozilla’s Lockwise password manager. Users gain several enhancements including alerts of website breaches with prompts to update all online accounts that share the same password.

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The end of Wunderlist is nigh: from tomorrow, Microsoft will finally kill the brilliant task-management app in favor of its own Microsoft To Do application, which while introducing many of Wunderlist’s features has retained a distinct identity of its own.

If you’ve tried To Do and not liked it, then here’s the good news: you don’t need to put up with Microsoft’s replacement. Thanks to the good folks at Zenkit, an app exists that succeeds in retaining the Wunderlist look, feel and core feature set. That app is Zenkit To Do, and if you’re quick, you can transfer your data directly to it from Wunderlist.

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It’s a day of double celebration for fans of the Vivaldi web browser. Not only does Vivaldi 3.0 get released for Windows, Mac and Linux, but the company -- led by Opera co-founder Jon S von Tetzchner -- unveils the first stable release of Vivaldi for Android.

Both releases come with a brand new feature in the guise of built-in ad and tracker blockers. The desktop release also unveils a new clock for its status bar, plus improvements to its pop-out video feature.

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Today is the day that Office 365 is rebadged Microsoft 365, complete with several new features as Microsoft moves to give its favored subscription model a wider appeal.

Existing Office 365 subscribers need do nothing -- as of today, your plan seamlessly switches to the equivalent Microsoft 365 plan. But the rebadged service also launches with several new features designed to tempt more subscribers. But if you remain unconvinced by the subscription model, we’ve got two great deals for Office 2019 and Windows 10, offering licenses that won’t expire.

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Ahoy family historians! Chronoplex Software has released a landmark version of its free family history app for Windows users. My Family Tree 10.0, also available in 32-bit form, adds a brand-new interactive fan view that can also be used as a printable or shareable chart.

Other highlights include a new tool to resolve duplicate entries, various improvements to the user interface, a brand new progeny report and the ability to create placeholder entries in the tree for filling out later.

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Windows 7 is no more -- or, more accurately, no longer supported. That means no more bug fixes and more crucially, no more security updates. If you’re still running a Windows 7 PC, it’s time to move.

What are your options? You could buy a brand-new PC, but the truth is that your current PC is probably more than capable of running Windows 10. If you’ve no need, desire or budget to buy a whole new computer, then discover how to upgrade to Windows 10 for as little as $29.99 with two fantastic deals.

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As the world goes into lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic, staying in touch with loved ones both near and far has never been more important. The explosion in popularity for video chatting makes it entirely appropriate that Facebook should relaunch Messenger on the desktop platform with support for video group calling.

In addition, brand new versions of Facebook Messenger for Windows and Facebook Messenger for Mac finally bring all Messenger features to the platform along with some major new video-chat features.

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Berlin developer O&O Software has launched O&O DiskErase, a brand new tool for securely wiping entire partitions and drives on Windows PCs.

The program, spun off from the company’s SafeErase, focuses on providing users with a reliable, safe and simple way of erasing hard disks and even entire PCs before passing them on or disposing of them.

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Great news for both sysadmins or anyone looking to keep a remote eye on multiple Windows PCs -- O&O Syspectr is now completely free for both commercial and personal use.

The software, a mere 6MB download, installs as an invisible service on each client PC and sits unobtrusively in the background. Users can then log onto their Syspectr accounts online to access a wide range of monitoring, maintenance and management tools.

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Károly Pados has released TinyWall 3.0 for 64-bit versions of Windows 7 or later. The big change is that TinyWall is now its own independent, standalone firewall. Previously it was a companion app for controlling the main Windows Firewall.

The switch to a separate app is accompanied by numerous improvements -- previous annoyances have been resolved, plus the app is able to increase user security with new features like boot-time filtering.

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