Free Software

At the moment, thanks to COVID-19, more and more people have been forced to work remotely, but it is a work practice that is being coming increasingly common regardless of whether there is a pandemic or not. But it can be difficult to find a remote access tool that provides everything you need, particularly if you are working across multiple platforms.

NoMachine 7 goes far beyond the capabilities of many remote desktop tools in being available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Raspberry Pi, Android, iOS and ARM. With just about all bases covered, this latest version introduces not only an updated look, but also makes setting up remote sessions easier than ever.

It's a sad fact of life that the lightning-fast computer you bought recently will slow down. But the fact that things are feeling more sluggish than they used to does not mean that you need to rush out and buy a new computer, or even upgrade your hardware -- a little software-driven optimization may be all you need.

With the newly launched BoostSpeed 12 and Defrag 10, you have everything you need to give your computer the injection of speed it needs. Both have a great range of new features and options that will prove tempting to existing users and new ones alike.

Blender 2.91’s many sculpting updates includes support for collisions in the cloth sculpting tool.

"Fourth time's also a charm", says The Blender Foundation as it releases Blender 2.91, the fourth major release of the open-source 3D graphics tool in 2020.

The latest release promises further improvements to the user experience along with a range of new features including new Booleans, collision support for cloth sculpting and volume objects modifiers. There’s also the promise of improved animation tools.

PowerArchiver 2021 adds a brand new internal editor and viewer tool.

ConeXware has unveiled a major new version of its trialware archiving tool for Windows users with the release of PowerArchiver 2021. For the first time, PowerArchiver 2021 is also available for macOS too, although this release does not (yet) boast all the features of its Windows cousin.

Version 20.0.58 for Windows unveils tools to help view and edit files within archives without extracting them, plus promises improvements to its Pro edition-only PowerArchiver Cloud feature, and adds some welcome new tools to the Action menu.

IObit Advanced SystemCare is back with a big update that brings not only a new look, but also a number of new and improved tools, and also the addition of AI to automate the optimization of your computer.

The updated look is what you'll notice first about IObit Advanced SystemCare 14, but the latest version is about much more than a fresh coat of paint. As ever, there is a free version and a paid-for professional edition, and this time around the powerful Internet Boost tool is available to users of the free version.

Paramount Software UK has unveiled Macrium Reflect Free 7.3, a major new update of its Windows drive-imaging backup tool.

Version 7.3 unveils a new integrated task scheduler to address increasing frustration with problems scheduling backups using the previous system, which tied into the Windows Task Scheduler. Paid-for editions also gain improved protection against ransomware thanks to tweaks to the Macrium Image Guardian feature.

The Evernote Corporation has unveiled Evernote 10.0, a landmark new release of its cross-platform note-creation and organization tool. The free and paid-for service allows users to create, organize, share, and view notes across all major platforms, including the web, Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android.

Version 10 sees the app completely rebuilt on a new codebase, with the promise of better stability and reliability. It also promises a cleaner UI that’s consistent across all platforms, coupled with additional formatting tools to provide more control over how notes look, plus an improved -- and faster -- search tool.

It used to be that creating PDF files required expensive software, but this is no longer the case. Things have changed so much that even Windows 10 includes the option to turn documents into PDFs and there are numerous other more feature-packed PDF printers out there as well.

One such free tool is Bullzip PDF Printer which is free for not only personal use, but also in commercial operations with up to 10 users. The newly released version 12 of the software now includes support for multiple printer ports, meaning concurrent printing of multiple documents is possible.

Popular ebook management (and creation) tool Calibre 5.1.0 has been released, just one week after version 5.0 made its debut. The open-source tool, which is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, fixes several bugs while adding a couple of minor new features.

The main highlight is the ability to use templates in search expressions, while a new checkbox gives users the ability to disable automatic update of lookups when text changes in the Viewer lookup panel. The Viewer also now supports the skipping of a confirmation when the remove highlight button has been used in the popup bar.

Keeping drives up to date is an important part of system maintenance and optimization, and a recent update to Windows 10 removed a useful driver updating option. The newly released Driver Booster 8 is here to help, making it easy to keep all of your drivers up to date, even when you do not have an internet connection available.

The driver database has been massively expanded, and IObit says that the software now provides access to more than 4.5 million drivers and game components. The updated version of the software also gives two possible routes for updating drivers depending on whether you like to live life on the cutting edge or not.

Ransomware is a persistent problem, with cybercriminals always looking for new ways to evade detection and infect systems. Attacks have increased 20 percent in the first half of this year.

Endpoint detection and response company Nyotron is launching a new, free online tool called Ransomwiz that allows allows security professionals to check their defenses by generating actual ransomware samples using a variety of real-world attack techniques.

VMware has released major updates to its virtualization software products in the form of VM Workstation 16.0 for Windows and Linux, plus VM Fusion Player 12.0 for Mac.

Mac users gain a free 'player' version of VMware Fusion for personal use, while both products gain support for Kubernetes clusters, allowing users to run multiple app containers at once in specialized 'nodes'. Support for Windows DirectX 11 apps and games has also been added to virtual machines.

Uniquely customizable browser Vivaldi gets another major update with the release of Vivaldi 3.3 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The new release adds a major new Break Mode feature to encourage regular screen breaks.

The new release also offers users the ability to create and apply custom themes to their Private Windows sessions -- a first among web browsers -- as well as several improvements to the Address Bar to improve security and navigation. Full-Page blocking is now supported in the Tracker and Ad Blocker tools, while users can now drag and drop Speed Dials to folders on the Vivaldi 'desktop' on the user’s home page.

Google has released Google Web Designer 9.0, the third major update of its HTML-5 content-producing tool for Windows, Mac, and Linux in just over a year. The tool is particularly popular among web advertisers thanks to its user-friendly WYSIWYG user interface and time-saving tools such as syntax highlighting and code auto-completion.

Version 9.0 introduces a host of useful new tools, including an eyedropper for easy color picking, several image-processing tools, support for masking, and the ability to set up custom keyboard shortcuts.

IObit has released IObit Uninstaller 10, major new update of its uninstall tool for Windows. IObit Uninstaller aims to clean programs (including Microsoft Store apps) more thoroughly from your PC than the apps' own uninstallers by detecting leftover files and Registry entries.

Version 10 promises vastly improved uninstall speeds and better leftover detection, plus improvements to its Install Monitor component. In addition, Pro users gain better bundleware detection, and newly added support for removing over 40 stubborn programs.