Hands-on with Facebook's relaunched Messenger for Windows and Mac
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.
Wipe entire drives quickly, safely and easily with O&O DiskErase
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.
Keep a remote eye on your Windows PCs for free with O&O Syspectr
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.
TinyWall 3.0 comes of age -- relaunches as standalone firewall
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.
PowerArchiver 2021 Preview is available now to test
ConeXware has issued a pre-release version of its trialware archiving tool with PowerArchiver 2021 Preview out now for PCs running Windows 7 or later. It includes news that the final release will be accompanied by a Mac version.
Aside from appearing on the Mac for the first time, PowerArchiver 2021 adds an internal editor and viewer for direct access to files inside archives. It also confirms that the program will skip a 2020 release, jumping directly from the 2019 version on its final release.
Firefox 74 tightens add-on security, simplifies importing data from Microsoft Edge
Mozilla has released Firefox 74.0 for desktop, along with Firefox for Android 68.6.0 and Firefox ESR 68.6.0.
Firefox 74.0 ships with several new features, none of which are jaw-dropping, but all of which serve to further improve the browser’s privacy, security and usability. In addition, the Facebook Container add-on now gives users control over which sites are blocked from reporting back to Facebook.
Bandizip 7 compression tool adds password manager and zip repair tools to new paid-for editions
Bandisoft has unveiled Bandizip 7.0 and Bandizip 7.0 Portable, a major new update of its Windows archiving tool.
The headline change is that Bandzip 7.0 now offers two paid-for versions (Professional and Enterprise) with extra features including password manager and recovery tools plus a zip repair tool. The Standard version doesn’t lose any existing functionality but is now ad-supported.
Opera R2020 debuts new workspaces feature, makes sidebar setup simpler
Opera Software has released Opera 67.0 (also known as Opera R2020), the latest major update to its Chromium-based web browser for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android. The new release focuses on improving user experience.
The headline feature is the introduction of workspaces to help users keep their browser tidy and organized. This is accompanied by the addition of a new Sidebar Setup panel, plus two new tab management tools.
OpenShot 2.5 unveils hardware acceleration support, plus more performance improvements
Open-source video editor OpenShot 2.5.0 has been released, dubbed "our largest release yet" by project creator Jonathan Thomas. Headline new features, which should significantly improve the application’s performance when fully implemented, include experimental support for hardware acceleration alongside a major overhaul of the keyframe system.
Future development should also be simpler now all features and support have been aligned across all platforms: Windows, Linux and macOS.
LibreOffice 6.4 offers better performance, improved help and a QR code generator
The Document Foundation has unveiled LibreOffice 6.4 64-bit and LibreOffice 6.4 32-bit, its popular open-source office suite for Windows, Mac and Linux.
LibreOffice 6.4 is a major point release -- the last in the 6.x product line -- and comes with the promise of improved performance along with several new universal features and the usual mix of minor changes and improvements to individual applications within the suite.
Firefox 72 improves site notifications tool, rolls out picture-in-picture video to Mac and Linux
Mozilla has released Firefox 72.0 for desktop, along with Firefox for Android 68.4 and Firefox ESR 68.4.0.
Mac and Linux users gain the picture-in-picture video feature introduced for Windows in Firefox 71. Fingerprinting scripts are now blocked as standard with this new release, while intrusive pop-up notifications from websites have been confined to the Address Bar to prevent disruption when browsing.
Ashampoo Burning Studio 21 unveils new carousel-style design and navigation
German developer Ashampoo has released Ashampoo Burning Studio 21.2.0, a major new release of its Windows disc-burning software.
Capable of burning all types of optical disc from CD to Blu-ray, and supporting data, audio and video projects, version 21 unveils a major new user interface designed to aid navigation, plus expands its multimedia capabilities.
O&O FileBackup 1.0 is small, portable and surprisingly effective at keeping your key files backed up
They say small is beautiful, and with O&O Software’s latest offering it’s hard to disagree. The German software developer has managed to pack a powerful file backup tool into a tiny 4MB portable application with the release of O&O FileBackup 1.0.
Despite its small size, the app doesn’t just do basic backups of single folders -- there’s a slick user interface, with options for automatically selecting files based on filetype, the ability to update and restore backups with just a few clicks and a built-in scheduling tool for keeping backups updated.
Malwarebytes AdwCleaner 8.0 unveils refreshed UI to better deal with pests
Less than a month after unveiling MBAM 4.0, Malwarebytes has released Malwarebytes AdwCleaner 8.0, a major new version of its standalone adware-cleaning tool.
AdwCleaner 8.0 updates its optional in-app installer to ensure the latest version of Malwarebytes is installed going forward, plus drops support for Windows XP and Vista. Its UI has also been refreshed to chime with MBAM 4.0’s.
TeamViewer 15 rolls out quietly, improves audio transmission quality but little else
TeamViewer GmbH has released TeamViewer 15.0, its remote access tool for Windows, Linux and Mac computers, plus iOS and Android mobiles.
The new release adds very little to the user experience on the major desktop platforms -- better audio transmission quality on TeamViewer-based chats is the main improvement, but Windows users will need to upgrade to maintain full compatibility with the recently released November 2019 release. Once updated on Windows, other platforms must follow suit for compatibility reasons.
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