Windows Firewall Control 5 released, extends protection offered by built-in firewall
Why does anyone need a third-party firewall when Windows offers one of its own? One huge plus for switching firewalls is to provide yourself with two-way protection: the Windows Firewall only monitors inbound traffic from the internet, not traffic that originates on your PC.
The annoying thing is, the Windows Firewall can offer two-way protection, but it’s fiddly to configure and not enabled by default. Enter stage left, the recently updated Windows Firewall Control 5.01.
Macrium Reflect Free 7.1 adds Hyper-V support, now licensed for commercial use
Paramount Software (UK) Ltd has released Macrium Reflect Free Edition 7.1, a major new release of its disk imaging backup tool for Windows.
Macrium Reflect 7.1 adds three headline features: integrated viBoot2 providing instant virtualization of Macrium backup images, Task Scheduler 2.0 API use for compatibility with the latest versions of Windows 10, and finally a license for use in a business as well as a non-commercial environment.
Firefox 56 unveils improved preferences, paves the way for Firefox Quantum
Mozilla has released Firefox 56, with Firefox for Android 56.0 due imminently. Firefox 56’s chief highlight is the rollout of Firefox Screenshots to all users. The built-in tool for capturing, saving and sharing screenshots from the browser was made available to a subset of users with the previous release.
The announcement comes with news of Firefox 57, which has been billed by Mozilla as "our biggest release of the year." It will unveil portions of a new next-generation browser engine as well as a major design refresh to fit in better with modern operating systems.
Opera 48 unveils pop-up search and conversion tools, Snapshot screen-capture utility
Opera Software has unveiled Opera 48 for Windows, Mac and Linux. After the last feature-light release, version 48 adds a number of interesting new features as well as improvements.
Chief among these is a new pop-up search tool, which also doubles as currency, unit and time zone converter. Opera also adds a new screenshot capture tool for web pages, plus widens its bookmark-importing tool to support Edge and Yandex browsers.
O&O Defrag Professional 21 adds O&O DiskStat 3, streamlines performance and improves cleaning
O&O Software GmbH has unveiled O&O Defrag Professional 21.0, a major new build of its renowned Windows drive defragmentation and optimization tool.
Version 21’s headline new feature is that it includes a free version of O&O DiskStat 3, which can be used in conjunction with O&O Defrag’s DiskCleaner component to help clean up hard drives. O&O Defrag 21 also comes with the promise of faster file access and further optimizations to its DiskCleaner module.
Surf the web securely and anonymously with Hotspot Shield 7
When it comes to protecting yourself online -- particularly when surfing through insecure public connections -- then nothing beats a good old VPN. Virtual Private Networks create encrypted tunnels in which you can surf the web, check your email and connect to remote networks secure in the knowledge you can’t be hacked.
If you’re a Windows user, then the recently released Hotspot Shield 7.1.2 may appeal, offering a free, ad-supported (and bandwidth-limited) way of connecting via VPN.
Blender 2.79 adds new and improved tools, enhances cycle rendering feature
Non-profit organization The Blender Foundation has released Blender 2.79, an update to its cross-platform, open-source 3D graphics tool. The new build further improves its Cycles Rendering feature, bringing feature parity with NVIDIA CUDA and improved performance to AMD OpenCL hardware.
Other highlights include additional tools and options being added to the Grease Pencil, Alembic, Mesh Modeling tools, while simplified video encoding and user interface improvements have also been implemented.
Mountain Duck 2.0 adds support for client-side encryption of cloud storage
Bern software developer iterate GmbH has released Mountain Duck 2.0 for Windows and Mac. Mountain Duck is designed to make it easy for users to mount server and cloud storage through File Explorer and Finder.
Version 2.0 adds several new features, most notably support for transparent client-side encryption of data using Cryptomator. It also adds support for Microsoft OneDrive accounts.
Thwart ransomware and protect your data with our O&O Disk Image 10.5 giveaway, worth $49.95
Everybody needs a backup -- with ransomware added to the list of threats to your data, now is the perfect time to take full advantage of our latest Downloadcrew giveaway: a full copy of O&O DiskImage 10.5 Professional, worth $49.95, across this coming weekend.
What makes O&O DiskImage special is that it allows you to back up both individual files and folders as well as take a full drive image, so you can protect key data alongside your fail-safe drive image covering your entire Windows installation -- all from one application.
Novabench 4.0 offers quick and dirty benchmark solution for PC and Mac
Novawave Inc has released Novabench 4.0, a major new update for its Windows and Mac benchmarking tool. Version 4.0 unveils new and updated benchmarks, plus an interface redesign.
The tool opens with updated CPU tests to support the latest processor features, and debuts new graphics tests -- a cross-platform OpenCL GPU compute test, plus Direct3D 11 (Windows) and Metal (OS X) tests. There’s also a new disk read speed test.
Parallels Desktop 13 promises performance boost, extended Touch Bar support
Parallels IP Holdings GmbH has released Parallels Desktop 13, a major new release of its popular Mac virtualization tool.
Parallels Desktop, which allows macOS users to run virtual versions of Windows, macOS and Linux, is fully compatible with the forthcoming releases of Windows 10 Fall Update and macOS High Sierra (10.13). It also adds several new features and promises significant performance improvement in key areas.
Opera 47 (finally) adds bookmarks export, smoother video playback
Opera Software has unveiled Opera 47.0 for Windows, Mac and Linux. It’s a fast turnaround from Opera 46, taking less than the usual six-week development cycle to go from alpha to final release.
As a result, the new release is light on major features, but does boast a number of improvements, including smoother video and exportable bookmarks. It also updates the underlying Chromium engine to version 60.
Firefox 55 unveils performance improvements and new features aplenty
Mozilla has unveiled one of the biggest updates to Firefox yet with its release of Firefox 55.0 for Windows, Mac and Linux. Firefox for Android 55.0 is also due imminently.
Firefox 55’s many highlights include instant restoration of browsing sessions with a large number of tabs, the ability to reposition the sidebar and a feature for grabbing screenshots of web pages direct from the browser itself.
LibreOffice 5.4 adds more new features, improves Office file format compatibility
The Document Foundation has unveiled LibreOffice 5.4 64-bit and LibreOffice 5.4 32-bit. Again, it’s on time, arriving six months after the release of LibreOffice 5.3.
LibreOffice 5.4 is "the last major release of the LibreOffice 5.x family", and like other point releases is a major one, adding features across all components and incrementally improving compatibility with Microsoft Office document formats.
Firefox 8.0 for iOS adds Night Mode, QR Code Reader and improved user experience
These days, it’s Google and Chrome that dominates the web browser market, with even Microsoft slipping behind and everyone else playing the role of also-rans. Mozilla has suffered more than most -- since dipping below Chrome into third place in 2011, it’s never looked like recovering that market share, but the non-profit is attempting to find itself a niche by playing the outsider card.
If there’s one platform where Mozilla has particularly struggled to gain a foothold, it’s iOS. Can the latest release -- Firefox for iOS 8.0.1 -- change that?
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