Free Software

VirusTotal has released its first VirusTotal Uploader for OS X, a simple tool which scans a file, folder or application for malware with 50+ antivirus engines.

Using VirusTotal Uploader for OS X can be as easy as dragging and dropping a file onto the program window. It’s uploaded, there’s a delay while the site checks your file with all the main antivirus engines, and finally a "Detections" figure gives you the results ("0/53", hopefully).

The Document Foundation has unveiled the first public beta of the forthcoming LibreOffice 4.3. The new 4.3 release branch sees some notable user-interface tweaks, performance enhancements and a number of new and tweaked features.

The word processor Writer is the beneficiary of most changes in this next release, while users should also enjoy better quality imports of PDF files.

ESET SysRescue Live Creator is a handy tool for creating a bootable antivirus rescue CD or USB key.

There’s no shortage of competition in this area, of course, but Live Creator has one or two useful touches that you might appreciate.

CTI Text Encryption is a lightweight, portable text encryption tool. It’s ideal for sending sensitive information via insecure channels (email, online chat, web forums), perhaps from someone else’s computer, although you can also use it to save confidential data in files or elsewhere.

The open source program is a tiny download (827KB), a single executable with nothing else attached. Copy the file to a USB stick and it’s ready to use almost anywhere.

Data organization wars have claimed a victim. Springpad, the notebook service designed to help users "get inspired, get organized, get more done" is to close. After six years of helping people store notes, recipes, project ideas and more, Springpad will close in just over a month. The world of note taking tools, managers and general information organizers has become crowded. The likes of Evernote, OneNote and even Google Keep have all been vying for attention in recent years, and there are only so many users to go around.

The closure rumors started last night with the Verge citing the oft-mentioned "person familiar with the company's plans", but now it has been confirmed. In a blog post the Springpad team confirms what hundreds of thousands of users hoped and prayed would turn out to be untrue -- as of June 25, the service will cease to function. At this stage no reasons are being given for the closure, but it will leave users scrabbling to find a new home for their data.

Australian developer Auslogics has released Auslogics Disk Defrag Touch, a very major touch-oriented revamp of its Auslogics Disk Defrag package.

The most immediately obvious change is the very Windows 8-like interface, and we don’t just mean "it uses a few colorful tiles". The program runs full-screen, has the same bold design, a very similar layout for its controls and options: it actually feels like you’re running a Windows 8 app (although it also runs on Windows 7).

It’s that time of the month when Piriform issues another update to its popular Windows cleaning utility. This time, CCleaner 4.14 focuses on browsers -- and Mozilla browsers in particular -- with its latest release.

Version 4.14, also available in portable form, also improves Unicode support for its Startup tool amid a rash of other improvements.

Clipboard History is a simple clipboard manager which remembers up to the last 20 text items copied to the clipboard, and makes them available for reuse later.

The program only supports text -- not images, files or anything else -- and so can seem a little basic. But don’t be fooled. There’s much more to Clipboard History than you might think.

Curl is well known on Linux as a flexible command line tool which can download files using a wide range of protocols: HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, POP3, IMAP, RTMP, RTSP and many more.

The program is also available on Windows, though (and Mac, iOS, NetWare, Solaris, AmigaOS and more), and is ideal for automating regular downloads in your own custom scripts.

Malwarebytes Corporation has shipped Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 2.0.2, a minor -- but important -- update to its security tool that provides a second layer of protection against malware, potentially unwanted programs and malicious websites.

Version 2.0.2 includes a number of minor improvements, one of which should make analyzing scan results and logs clearer thanks to revised terminology. It also fixes a significant number of issues, one of which could cause a BSOD error when scanning for rootkits.

Valkova Technology has released Quick Crypt 1.0, a tiny, portable and -- above all -- free tool for Windows users looking to encrypt and decrypt files on the fly.

The tool, which requires Windows 7 or later, allows users to quickly select individual files, then encrypt then with a password, optional key file and 256-bit AES encryption. Files can even be tied to a single machine.

If you’d like to know what someone else is doing on a PC then the "Recent Items" (or "Recent Files") folder is a good place to start looking.

Just browse to C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent and you’ll find shortcuts for anything recently double-clicked in Explorer, or that’s been opened by a standard Open dialog box.

If you’re still missing the Start Menu in Windows 8 -- or even the more desktop-friendly 8.1 -- then there are plenty of ways to bring it back (Classic Shell is probably our favorite).

It’s not immediately obvious why we need yet another Start Menu alternative, then. But Spencer (yes, that really is its name) does have one or two differences which help it stand out from the crowd.

Cloud backup provider Dropbox has announced the final release of Dropbox 2.8, its latest major update for Windows, Linux and Mac.

The new release adds Windows and OS X auto sign-in support for easier installation. As long as you're logged into Dropbox already, the installer won’t ask for your credentials again. (This doesn’t work if you’re using two-step verification, or a Dropbox for Business account that uses single sign-on.)

Migrating to a new PC can be a tedious, time-consuming business. There will be applications to reinstall, serial numbers to find, data to move, and that’s before you start reconfiguring everything to try and restore your old settings.

Alternatively, you could just use EaseUS Todo PCTrans to handle at least some of the work for you.