Nick Peers

Once upon a time Google Chrome was considered the go-to browser for those looking for a fast, speedy browser, even on low-powered computers. These days, however, those running older 32-bit OSes with 4GB or less than RAM might struggle to reconcile the sluggish performance they witness on a day-to-day basis with the supposedly nimble Chrome.

The problem with Chrome -- and Firefox too -- is that the more tabs you have open, the more memory Chrome gobbles up. It doesn’t take much to assign gigabytes of RAM to Chrome, which may leave your computer creaking at the seams. Short of closing down those tabs, what can you do? The solution lies in a tiny, elegant add-on called OneTab for Chrome 1.3, which has just been launched.

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Bopsoft has released Listary 4.0 and Listary Portable 4.0, the latest builds of its lightweight, ultra-compact search add-on for Windows users. The new release has been rewritten from scratch, and simplifies browsing and searching for files from a number of locations, including Windows Explorer, Open/Save dialog boxes and various third-party tools.

Version 4.0 includes a number of major new features, including disk and sub-folder search, fuzzy navigation, History, Actions and Projects. It also comes with a number of notable improvements, including enhanced search performance and ranking.

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There are many reasons why you’d want to hide your internet IP address. The most common one is that you’re trying to access services or web sites restricted to a specific country or territory -- this might be to catch up with UK BBC TV’s shows via iPlayer or for more fundamental reasons, such as bypassing a country’s censorship restrictions.

Spoofing your IP address so you appear to come from another country than the one you’re residing in isn’t by itself a difficult task -- all you need is a decent VPN service. But when it comes to simplicity and decent performance, you can’t beat a service called Hideman, available on Windows and Mac via the free Hideman 2.0 tool, and Hideman VPN 1.9.7 for Android.

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The Document Foundation has released LibreOffice 4.0.1, a primarily maintenance release for its open-source office suite. Comprising word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentations, drawing and maths tools, LibreOffice 4.0.1 has one notable update, cross-platform support for its LibreOffice Impress Remote app for Android.

LibreOffice Impress Remote allows users to control Impress presentations over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi using their Android phone or tablet. Only Linux builds of LibreOffice 4.0 supported the app, but as of version 4.0.1, Windows and Mac LibreOffice users can also control presentations using the Android app.

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Berlin software developer Ashampoo GmbH has released Ashampoo WinOptimizer 10.1.0, the latest version of its Windows system optimization tool. WinOptimizer 10, which provides one-click tools for privacy, cleaning and optimizing PCs, debuts four new modules, plus a brand new user interface.

The tool, which is available as a 10-day trial by default (users can extend this by a further 30 days by registering for a free key), also comes with four updates for existing modules, enhanced Windows 8 support and user-definable favorites.

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Norton has refreshed its entire 2013 security range with the release of Norton Antivirus 2013 v20.3, Norton Internet Security 2013 v20.3 and Norton 360 v20.3. The update should be applied automatically to all existing Norton 2013 users. Version 20.3 is a maintenance release fixing a number of known issues, but also comes with improvements from the previous release, including enhanced Windows 8 compatibility, better overall performance and improvements to Norton Identity Safe.

Highlighted bug fixes include one resolving issues where the Norton program service ccsvchst.exe doesn’t shutdown properly, plus another that led to blue-screen issues when both Norton and Nero products are installed on the same computer. Another corrected issue saw users complain about other products being uninstalled during the Norton installation process leading to junked Windows installations, while problems with key components like AutoProtect and AntiSpyware getting switched off without being resolved by the Fix Now tool have also been fixed.

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Open-source Windows defrag tool UltraDefrag 6.0 FINAL has been released along with a 64-bit build and portable editions. The new build promises optimized disk processing algorithms for speed and efficiency, support for optimizing FAT disks and the ability to minimize the main window to the Taskbar Notification area.

Ultra Defrag comes with a graphical interface for less experienced users as well as options for defragging individual files, folders and drives from the Explorer context menu, but power users can also control it via a console, with options for batch processing and setting up scheduled tasks available. It also comes with boot-time options for defragging system files and Registry hives.

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Oracle has released VirtualBox 4.2.8, a maintenance update for its open-source, cross-platform virtualisation tool that should improve stability and fix various regressions. Notable changes include a fix that caused guests to crash when using a huge amount of guest RAM on machines with Intel Virtualisation (VT-x) technology.

Aside from bug fixes, there is one minor performance tweak of note, which sees the time for merging snapshots reduced under certain conditions. Users can now also change VRDE settings for saved VMs under Settings.

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Amazon has launched Amazon Cloud Player 2.0 for iOS. The app, which lets users stream or download music from their Amazon Cloud collection, has been revamped to support the iPad and iPad mini for the first time, in addition to previous support for iPhone and iPod touch.

Version 2.0 also debuts a revamped user interface and adds a new setting that allows users to configure the size of the offline cache used for storing streamed music for access while offline.

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Plymouth, MI-based Stardock Software has released Stardock DeskScapes 8.0, a brand new version of its Windows desktop and screensaver animation tool. Version 8.0, which costs $9.99 after the intial 30-day trial expires, adds full Windows 8 compatibility to the tool’s roster, plus debuts a brand new user interface that’s designed to be easier to use.

DeskScapes 8.0 allows users to customize existing desktop wallpapers with animations and over 40 special effects. Users can also apply, and create, specially animated desktops created using Stardock’s own proprietary Dream format. A number of examples are provided with the program, but dozens more are available to download via wincustomize.com. Stardock, which specialises in desktop customisation tools, is celebrating its 20th year.

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Astonsoft Ltd has released EssentialPIM Free 5.5 and EssentialPIM Pro 5.5, major new versions of its Windows personal information manager. Highlights in this new release include support for iCloud synchronization, native Dropbox support and improved CardDAV tools.

Also updated are EssentialPIM for iOS 2.6 and EssentialPIM for Android 1.8.2, mobile apps designed to give users access to their EssentialPIM data while on the move. While iOS users only see minor bug fixes in this update, Android users will enjoy major improvements to the Calendar and Contacts modules.

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Microsoft has released the first stable version of Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 (32-bit) and Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 (64-bit). The latest version of the browser -- which comes pre-installed in Windows 8 -- promises improved performance, better privacy and supports the latest web standards, plus adds integrated spell-checking and auto-correct tools.

Internet Explorer 10 in itself isn’t new -- it was bundled with Windows 8 on its release on October 26. However, it’s only now that Windows 7 users have been able to install a stable version of the software, although a Release Preview has been available since mid-November. Just as Internet Explorer 9 dropped support for Windows XP, so IE10 drops support for Windows Vista.

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Piriform Software has released CCleaner 3.28 and CCleaner Portable 3.28, updated versions of its popular freeware Windows cleaning tool. Version 3.28 is a minor release, promising better performance and compatibility, plus support for cleaning up behind two new programs.

Piriform has also announced that the release of CCleaner 3.28 will be the last of the 3.x branch, with CCleaner 4.0 the next release slated. It also hints that this is the first of a number of major updates to its product line planned over the coming months.

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Moonchild Productions has launched Pale Moon 19.0 and Pale Moon x64 19.0 for Windows. Pale Moon is a customised build of popular web browser Firefox, with the developer making no attempt to keep pace with Mozilla’s six-weekly development cycle in favour of applying security updates and concentrating on delivering improved performance.

This release marks the first major update since Pale Moon 15.0 -- based on Firefox 15 -- was released last August, but while Pale Moon 19 utilizes the brand new Gecko 19 engine found in the latest version of Firefox, don’t expect to see all the functionality in Firefox 19 making an appearance here.

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Mozilla has released Firefox Beta 20.0b1, the first public beta of a landmark release. Like its predecessor, Firefox 19 FINAL, which debuted the new inline PDF viewer, version 20 looks set to unveil another major new feature to the Firefox armoury: a redesigned, panel-based download manager.

Version 20 also includes a major refresh of the Developer toolbar, providing tweaked and redesigned access to all of the major components, plus an option to view the tools in a separate window. A new Javascript benchmarking tool has also been added.

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