Nick Peers

Hot on the heels of the release of Firefox 22.0 FINAL, Mozilla has released Firefox 23.0 Beta 1, a preview version of the next release that will ship in around six week’s time.

Version 23.0 implements mixed-content blocking for greater security, plus allows plugins to be evoked only when specific websites require them. New consolidated search default preferences have also been implemented that could prove controversial.

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Piriform has updated its free Windows cleaning tool with the release of CCleaner 4.03. The new build, also available in portable form, concentrates its improvements on the four major browsers: Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Opera.

Version 4.03 also improves cleaning for Office 2013 users, extends support to five new programs (including three Windows 8 apps) and also promises new and improved features for paid-for Pro users too.

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Mozilla has released Firefox 22.0 FINAL for Windows, Mac and Linux. The update includes some platform-specific improvements -- Firefox following display scaling options in Windows, and providing download progress indicators in its dock application icon in OS X -- plus a number of other tweaks and improvements.

Other new features include the ability for users to now manage their social API plug-ins via the Add-ons menu (select Services in the left-hand menu to do so), while users can now adjust the playback rate of HTML5 audio and video files (right-click the playback screen and choose Play Speed to do so).

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Open-source image editor GIMP 2.8.6 FINAL has been released for Windows and Linux. This popular -- and powerful -- image manipulation tool, which is also available for Mac, is primarily a maintenance release, but does include some interesting feature tweaks, many of which improve the program’s single-window mode that was introduced in version 2.8.

Chief among these changes is the increase in the supported maximum size of clipboard brushes and patterns to 1,024×1,024 pixels. Also improved is how users switch focus back to the canvas screen in single-window mode, with the [Escape] key now used for that task.

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Maxthon has released a major new update for its self-titled browser. Maxthon 4.1 and Maxthon Portable 4.1 both aim to provide Windows users with a performance-enhanced browser that retains compatibility with Internet Explorer and Google Chrome.

Version 4.1 continues in this vein, delivering a number of performance-related improvements alongside a handful of new and enhanced features, including the support for customising global blocking rules.

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Winamp 5.64 and its more fully functional, paid-for sibling, Winamp Pro 5.64 have been released, with a couple of new features joined by a myriad of improvements and bug fixes.

The latest minor update to Nullsoft’s popular lightweight music player for Windows opens with a new option for simplifying the task of restarting Winamp in Safe mode for troubleshooting purposes: users will find this option under Options > Preferences > Plug-ins. The option was already present via the command line (use the /SAFE=1 command switch).

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Plymouth, MI software developer Stardock Software has released WindowBlinds 8, a new version of its skinning application for radically customizing the Windows desktop. Version 8 extends support to Windows 8, but drops support for Vista and XP in the process.

Version 8 also debuts an all-new interface, while those who pay for the full version will get a complimentary copy of SkinStudio, Stardock’s skin-editing app, for free.

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The Document Foundation has released LibreOffice 4.0.4 for Windows, Mac and Linux. The latest version of this open-source office suite, which includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentations tool and database, as well as drawing and math tools, is primarily a bug fix, but also includes various interoperability improvements with proprietary documents.

The release comes as TDF announces plans to step up its road-testing of LibreOffice 4.1, which is scheduled to appear at the end of July. Version 4.1 will include many new features and improvements, some of which are detailed below.

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Piriform has released Speccy 1.22, a minor update to its free Windows system information tool. Despite the minor version number, version 1.22 contains a number of notable changes and improvements.

Speccy 1.22 -- also available as a standalone portable build -- opens with support for adding the temperature sensor output to the program’s Taskbar Notification Area icon.

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Symantec has updated its suite of Windows security products with the release of Norton Antivirus 2013 v20.4, Norton Internet Security 2013 v20.4 and Norton 360 2013 v20.4. Version 20.4 is primarily a bug-fix release, with some notable fixes, but also tweaks the user interface.

One visible change for users who also have Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free installed as additional protection is a fix that prevents Norton from blocking or flagging up MBAM as incompatible.

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Popular cloud backup and storage tool Dropbox 2.2.4 FINAL has been released for Windows, Mac and Linux. The app, also available on iOS and Android, allows users to backup, sync and share data across a wide variety of devices via a central Dropbox folder.

Version 2.2 comes with a new notifications badge, a refactored core sync engine, improved memory usage, start-up performance improvements and Finder icon overlay enhancements.

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Paramount Software UK has released Macrium Reflect Free 5.2, a brand new version of its free-for-personal-use drive imaging tool for Windows. Version 5.2 makes the tool easier to use from within Windows itself thanks to tighter shell integration, plus updates the recovery builder tool to support the latest version of Windows PE.

Macrium Reflect Free allows users to create, restore and browse disk images of entire partitions or disk drives. Thanks to recently added support for Windows PE, users can also easily use the program outside of Windows, enabling them to recover images even when their computer won’t boot.

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Pablo Software Solutions has released WYSIWYG Web Builder 9, a major new version of its DTP-style web building tool for Windows users. Version 9 debuts a completely redesigned user interface based on the ribbon found in Microsoft Office and other products. It also adds support for Google Web Fonts, bundles new and improved navigation objects, animations and transitions and supports CMS plug-ins for the first time.

The tool, which costs $45, aims to make web design easier by providing a desktop-publishing style approach to building web pages. In all, over 150 new features have been added to this release.

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Freeware digital art creation tool FotoSketcher 2.45 has been released by French author David Thoiron. FotoSketcher, also available in portable form, provides quick and easy tools for Windows users wishing to transform digital photos into virtual works of art.

Version 2.45 introduces a new stylized effect (Emergence 2) and improves on an existing brushstrokes-based effect. It also includes a number of minor bug fixes and coincides with the author making a series of scripts available for download.

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Bilbao, Spain-based Panda Security has released Panda Cloud Antivirus Free 2.2, a major new version of the company’s cloud-based antivirus tool. Version 2.2 adds a number of notable new features, including protection against data theft through malware infection and parental control tools.

The new version also bundles a bootable rescue creation tool and also adds support for access in Safe mode, ensuring it’s more capable of dealing with stubborn malware that proves hard to shift or even cripples the user’s PC entirely.

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