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Hard drives are larger and cheaper  than ever before, meaning there is less of a need to reclaim disk space for reasons of capacity. But there is still a market for disk cleanup and uninstaller software. It's a perception thing: switching from the idea of looking at such tools as freeing up megabytes to instead regarding them as clearing up the mess left behind by other programs;  it’s then easy to see their worth. One such utility is IObit Uninstaller 2.0, which comes with the added benefit of having being free.

Windows includes a dedicated section of the Control Panel to help make it easier to remove software you have decided that you no longer need, and used in conjunction with an application’s own uninstaller things generally go smoothly. But can you really be sure that all traces of the program you just nuked has been completely wiped out? The obvious program folder may have disappeared, but what about entries that may have been added to the registry, or files that have been added to system folders?

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German developer O&O Software has announced the immediate release of O&O DiskImage 6, its drive backup tool. DiskImage 6, which is also available as a separate 64-bit build, allows users to take exact byte-for-byte images of their hard drives, adds a plethora of new features, including the ability to back up individual files and folders.

Other new features include the ability to mount standard ISO image files as virtual drives as well as DiskImage backup images, plus a revamped user interface designed to make the backup process simpler and clearer for less experienced users, which includes a one-click backup option.

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MiniTool Solution Ltd has released a brand new version of its non-destructive partitioning software. MiniTool Partition Wizard 7.0, available as a free-for-personal-use Home Edition, is also can be had in a  number of paid-for editions, with prices starting from $30 for Partition Wizard 7.0 Professional.

The biggest update in Partition Wizard 7.0 is actually restricted to paid-for editions of the program, namely the added support for Simple, Spanned, Striped, Mirrored and RAID-5 volumes, with the addition of a brand new Dynamic Disk menu offering a host of new options for handling such volumes.

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It’s a strange quirk of OS X that it boasts not one, but two separate screen-capture utilities. One is triggered simply by pressing [Cmd] + [3] or [4] depending on whether you want a full-screen shot or a portion of the screen. While configurable, you’ll need to fiddle about with the command line each time you want to change a setting.

Open the Applications > Utilities folder and you’ll find the other: Grab. It allows you to take timed grabs, place your choice of cursors on the screen and save the finished output with your choice of filename in your chosen location. Each tool has its own pros and cons, but what if you could combine the best of them into a single free utility for your Mac? The good news is you can, in the form of InstantShot! 2.5 for Tiger, Panther and SnowLeopard, or InstantShot! 2.6b for Lion.

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Irene's assault on the Eastern Seaboard earlier this week is just the beginning of what is expected to be another heavy season of hurricanes and tropical storms. What happens to your data if raging rains or flooding waters damage your computer? The electronics may be gone but your precious files are likely recoverable.

It’s tempting to turn that water-logged computer back on and see if anything can be saved. Don’t. The disk drives contain contaminants that can destroy the drive and all the data on it. You pose the greatest risk to your valuable data. Here's what you should or should not do instead:

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The choice of browsers for iOS is hardly overwhelming, so any new additions are always welcome. Dolphin Browser is the latest contender to vie for mobile Internet users’ attention and it has a number of unique features that make it well worth a look. The headline feature is support for gestures, but there is also desktop style tabbed browsing, an impressive smart address bar and space-saving sidebars that can be used to access bookmarks and app options.

There are already a handful of Safari replacements available, including the iOS version of Opera, so Dolphin is going to have its work cut out for it to stand out from the competition. The fact that the app is available free of charge certainly works in its favor, but it is the way the interface has been implemented, particularly the way in which you interact with it, and the intelligent use of available screen space that makes Dolphin Browser interesting.

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Windows 8 is just around the corner and it seems that almost every week there details emerge about just what can be expected from the latest version of Microsoft’s operating system. With every new Windows that is announced, there follows a rush to mimic the look and features long before the software hits the shelves, and things are no different with Windows 8.

There are a number of skins and customization packs available that can be used to get the Windows 8 look, including  Omnimo for Rainmeter, but if you prefer the idea of getting a little more hands on, there are a range of tools you can use to mimic the elements of Windows 8 you most like the look of.

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At first glance, DiskLED doesn’t exactly appear to be the most interesting of programs. Flashing a system tray icon to indicate hard drive activity can be useful, but it’s nothing new and there are plenty of other tools that do the same thing.

What makes DiskLED a little different, though, is that it’s not tied to highlighting hard drive accesses alone. The program can also monitor any Windows performance counter in the current PC, enabling you to keep a close eye on whatever activity you like.

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Panda Security has released Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.9.1 Beta, a preview of its forthcoming 2.0 release. The beta sees Panda’s lightweight free cloud-based antivirus tool add firewall protection for the first time.

The new firewall is community based, which means it’s capable of detecting known processes and settings appropriate levels of protection for them without bothering the end user with a pop-up alert. The new firewall is visible from a new tab on the Panda Cloud Antivirus interface.

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Mortal Universe Software has updated its free email preview tool, POP Peeper, to version 3.8. The latest version, the first update for almost a year, includes a number of major new features as well as the expected slew of minor tweaks and bug fixes.

POP Peeper is designed to allow users to safely preview mail while it’s still on the mail server, allowing them to cut download time and improve security by deleting unwanted messages, including spam and virus-laden emails, before they’re downloaded to the user’s computer.

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Austrian security company Emsisoft has launched a public beta test of Anti-Malware 6, its flagship antivirus tool. And the focus this time around has clearly been performance, with the company claiming a new multi-core optimised scanning engine is on average 450-percent faster than the previous version.

The next benefit comes from a new scheme for identifying trustworthy files. These then don’t have to be scanned in the future unless they’ve changed, providing another speed boost. And, the company claims, further optimizations have “drastically” reduced Anti-Malware’s impact on the boot process.

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Piriform Inc has released version 3.10 of CCleaner, its popular free cleaning tool for Windows-based PCs. CCleaner 3.10, which is also available as a portable version, adds support for Internet Explorer 9.0.2, Firefox 6.0 Final and Firefox 7.0 Beta.

Version 3.10 also adds a number of new and improved cleaning options, plus promises better accuracy and reliability when wiping free disk space as well as entire drives.

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Internet security company Trend Micro Incorporated has released its Titanium 2012 range of products, which have been extended with a variety of new features.

Malware detection has been improved with some interesting new technologies. Perhaps the most useful of these allows Titanium 2012 products to detect applications that have been packed (encrypted), in an effort to bypass your defenses; once the file has been unpacked, it’s then scanned in real time using file-based signatures, which greatly improves the chance of detection.

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Antivirus and anti-malware software are essential for any computer users, but there are times when your defenses are down. You may have reinstalled your operating system or had to disable your security software for some reason. If you find that for these or other reasons your computer has become seriously infected with malware, perhaps to the point that it will not boot, Dr Web LiveCD is on hand to help you to get things back in order.

As the name suggests, this is a live CD that can be used to boot an otherwise inaccessible computer with a view to retrieving files and fixing problems. Dr Web LiveCD downloads as a disc image that needs to be burned to CD and once this disc has been created it can be used to boot into a Linux environment that can be used to remedy a range of computer problems.

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Wake-on-LAN (WOL) is, in theory, a very convenient technology, able to wake up a sleeping PC on your local (wired) network just by sending it an appropriately formed “magic packet”.

The reality can be rather different, though, as WOL only works if your PC, BIOS and network card all support the technology and have it enabled (and even then you may run into issues with your router). Still, if you’d like to give it a try then NirSoft’s latest, WakeMeOnLan, is an easy way to get started.

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