Free Software

Javier Gutiérrez Chamorro has released the first public beta of his one-stop lossless compression tool, FileOptimizer 7.0.

The major new feature is support for optimizing FLAC files. Our first tests suggest this is going to take a long time (minutes per file) and achieve maybe 2 or 3 percent savings, but it’s still a welcome addition to the package.

ChrisPC has released the latest edition of its free-for-personal-use online privacy tool, ChrisPC Free Anonymous Proxy 5.50.

The upgrade seems to have concentrated on the fundamentals, now extending the anonymous proxy list to 1,000+ from more than 50 countries.

Opera has released Opera Beta 25, which sees the Opera Next channel renamed as part of what could be a landmark release for the alternative web browser when it hits final release next month. The headline new feature is the overdue implementation of bookmarks into the browser.

It’s also joined by the first Linux beta build since Opera relaunched last year, plus offers a redesigned Start page, integrated PDF viewer and support for web notifications direct from the Windows or Mac desktop.

Almost three years on from its first release, BlueStacks is probably still the easiest way to run Android apps on your Windows desktop. But it also has issues: performance can be a problem, and you don’t get full control over your virtual device.

Andy is a new contender which takes a different approach, running an Android image with VirtualBox. It can be much more awkward to configure, but performance is great, and every aspect of the system can be tweaked to suit your needs.

If you need a free editor for Windows then checking out a few Notepad replacements is a good place to start: EverEdit, TotalEdit Professional, FXiTE are just a few we’ve covered in the past.

But if plain text editing isn’t enough then you might be interested in RichEdit, a portable WordPad replacement which supports both plain and rich text files.

RAW image formats may have been around for a very long time (Adobe’s DNG is 10 years old this month), but they’re still not widely supported. Most graphics software handles one or two file types at best, or ignores them entirely.

Photo Browser is a little more ambitious. Once a commercial product, now freeware, this capable image viewer supports the popular RAW file types DNG, CRW, CR2, RAW, NEF, PEF, RAF, SRF, SR2 and ARW files, as well as the usual JPG/ GIF/ PNG/ TIFF and others.

You’ve taken some great new photos, finished your best-ever presentation, achieved total mastery of some major game -- whatever the reason, it’s now time to share your talents with the world.

If your needs are simple then you could take a few screenshots. Run a screen capture tool. Send a few emails. And maybe that’ll be enough.

Use Outlook for a while and it’s all too easy to let the messages pile up. Soon your inbox is a bloated mess, too large to tackle easily, and so you just try to ignore everything older than the last week or so.

NirSoft’s OutlookStatView helps out by drilling down into your accounts and producing some detailed reports. Who’s sending you the most emails? The bulkiest attachments? How many messages are you handling each hour, day, week, month, year? It’s all just a click or two away.

Oracle has released VirtualBox 4.3.16, the latest in a series of maintenance fixes for its cross-platform, part-open-source virtualization program.

The most notable fix in the new build affected a number of Windows hosts, which found themselves unable to open VMs. The only workaround had been to revert to the previous build (4.3.12).

AVG Technologies has updated its entire range of PC products, launching AVG AntiVirus Free 2015, AVG AntiVirus 2015, AVG Internet Security 2015 and AVG PC TuneUp 2015.

After the relatively major changes introduced in the 2014 versions, this year’s updates are restricted to a redesigned user interface and new Outbreak Detection feature, which helps block zero-day malware exploits.

Running a batch file in Windows can be as easy as a double-click, and if the script is simple then the command window might open, run your file and disappear again in a fraction of a second.

Of course, if your script has a problem then this might be an issue, as error messages will pop up and vanish before you have time to notice anything at all.

Finding a particular torrent isn't always easy, and you might have to visit several search engines before you spot the one you need.

Bit Che is a free PC program which offers an interesting alternative, quickly running searches on 50-plus torrent sites in a single operation.

Trying out a new video player might get you a better interface, wider format support, more tools and extras. But the core video quality will be essentially the same, just a faithful rendering of your source footage.

SmoothVideo Project (SVP) goes a step further by using frame interpolation to perhaps double your video frame rate, delivering noticeably smoother, crisper pictures.

WordPress.org has launched WordPress 4.0, named “Benny” in honor of the “King of Swing” Benny Goodman.

The new release doesn’t stand out in quite the way that Goodman did -- WordPress.org plays it down, in fact, saying “4.0 is just another number for us after 3.9 and before 4.1″ -- but there are still some worthwhile new features here.

Finding a new file hosting site sounds easy in theory -- there’s certainly no shortage of options -- but it  can take some thought. Just tracking down key details like the maximum file size or how long files are kept often takes longer than you expect.

All this research is important if you're hosting mission-critical work documents, of course, or anything similarly important: you need to be sure you’re making the right choices.