WiseCleaner software has unveiled Wise Disk Cleaner Free 8.03, a major new update of its Windows disk cleaning and defrag tool. Version 8’s most notable improvement is a revamped user interface that’s less cluttered and easier to follow than previous versions.

Version 8 also adds a new module that ensures all future updates -- which tend to be delivered at least once a month -- are installed automatically, plus promises customized configuration options via a user-created INI file.

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If you need to find out more about your PC then you’ll probably turn to a system information tool. That will then access various low-level technical details about your computer, pick out the most important, and try to present them in a readable and accessible way.

Usually this works very well, but sometimes your chosen tool may strip out too much information, or perhaps miss the data you need altogether. And that’s when you might want to turn to RWEverything, a powerful program which doesn’t try to second guess what you might want to know: it just gives you absolutely everything, often in its most raw and basic form.

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IObit has launched Smart Defrag 3.0, a major new version of its Windows defragmentation tool, which promises to improve performance by preventing fragmentation of the user’s hard drives.

Version 3.0 comes with a new defrag engine, adds a Defrag & Prioritize Files option for boosting overall performance and revamps the user interface to fit in the Windows 8 look.

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Organizing icons on your desktop can be as simple as dragging and dropping them into their new positions. Keeping this new layout is usually more of a challenge, though. Other users of your system can also rearrange the icons at any time, and running an application which changes your screen resolution may cause a similar desktop disaster.

ReIcon is an interesting free tool which offers a straightforward solution. Launch the program and click the Save button to save the current icon layout, or use the Restore option to reload it: easy.

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Thilmera7 is a PC monitor which can help you track CPU and RAM usage, processes, threads, network traffic, hard drive activity, hardware temperatures and more, all in a free and portable desktop tool.

Launch the program and a tiny window appears with basic system details: free RAM, CPU usage, the number of processes/ threads/ handles, disk and network activity. This is presented in a horribly basic way, mostly text with a few feeble graphical touches, but it does at least give you some useful feedback on what your PC is doing.

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Google has released Google Chrome 32 FINAL for Windows, Mac and Linux, a worthwhile update with a good mix of new and extended features.

Chrome’s tabs can now include indicator icons to let you know when they’re playing audio, using your webcam or being cast to your TV. And so the next time a Flash video ad kicks in, you’ll be able to see at a glance where the noise is coming from.

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Adobe has unveiled three major updates with the release of Adobe Flash Player for Other Browsers 12.0, Adobe Flash Player for Internet Explorer 12.0 and Adobe AIR 4.0.

The new versions of Adobe’s cross-platform web media playback and runtime tools will initially appeal more to developers, but should have benefits for end users going forward when apps are released that take advantage of some of the new features.

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Resizing one image is easy -- even Windows Paint can do it -- but working with multiple images is a little more challenging. Even specialist batch processing tools can require a little work to get them set up correctly.

VarieDrop tries to simplify this process by allowing you to define up to four "drag and drop areas", each of which have their target size, file format, output folder and so on. Once it’s set up, just select your target images, drag and drop them onto that area, and they’ll be converted and resized accordingly.

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If you have a website then you can spend a very long time optimizing it to get the best possible search engine rankings. But it’s a complicated process. Other sites will be doing the same thing, and search engines are tweaking their algorithms all the time, which makes it difficult to assess how well you’re really doing.

Rankaware is a free tool which can help by checking your site’s rankings for multiple keywords on Google, Yahoo and Bing, compiling an attractive report to show how this is changing over time.

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If you need to know more about your PC’s hardware then running any system information program -- or even just Device Manager -- will usually point you in the right direction. But sometimes it doesn’t quite work, and you’ll find some devices are referred to as "unknown", or perhaps by their PCI identifier ("PCI\VEN_1B21& DEV_1080& SUBSYS_78161462& REV_03", or something similarly cryptic).

PCI-Z is a tiny portable tool which tries to get around this problem by querying the PCI ID Repository -- a public database of device ID codes -- and returning readable names, rather than meaningless codes.

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The Windows clipboard makes it very easy to transfer data; Ctrl+C to copy here, Ctrl+V to paste there, and you’re usually done. But there are also has plenty of limitations. In particular, the clipboard can hold only one item of any given type: copy in something else and the previous item will be lost.

We’ve covered various clipboard managers which can help you get around this problem -- Save.Me is an especially powerful example -- but these usually require that you learn a new way of working, a significant issue with something as fundamental as the clipboard.

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You need to quickly check a map? It’s never been easier. Launch the relevant app -- or just open a browser on any device -- and you’ll have all the information you need, within seconds.

Maybe your needs are a little more complex, though? Perhaps you want to compare maps from different providers; convert them from one format to another; add tracks, or waypoints? Then you may get better results from the open source Terra Incognita.

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The Enterprise edition of Windows 8.x has a feature called Windows To Go that lets you create a working version of Microsoft's tiled operating system on a USB memory stick. You can boot into this and be instantly up and running in the new OS from any computer. Which is great -- provided you have the Enterprise edition of the OS and a "certified" USB drive. If you only have the standard version of Windows 8.x then the option isn't available to you.

But there is a very easy way you can build a personalized and bootable copy of Windows 8 or 8.1 on a USB drive, for use anywhere. All you need is a USB 3.0 device with at least 13GB capacity (it will run on a USB 2.0 memory stick, but slowly), a copy of Windows 8.x (either an installation disc or an ISO -- you can get the Windows 8.1 ISO by following these instructions but you will need a Windows 8.1 key), and a free partitioning program. Here's what you need to do.

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Screen recorders are great for creating tutorials, saving streaming videos and otherwise recording your desktop activities. There are plenty to choose from, each with their own advantages, but if you’re new to the technology then oCam could be a very good way to start.

After a simple installation (just look out for the option to change your browser homepage, and clear that checkbox), the program launches with a floating, re-sizable frame, and a toolbar. At its simplest you can manually reposition the frame to whatever area you’d like to record, then click Capture to grab a single image, or Record to begin recording a desktop video (clicking the button again to stop). Clicking Open then opens the Explorer folder containing your captures, ready for review.

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Avira has announced the availability of the Avira PC Cleaner, a simple stand-alone antivirus scanner.

The program is a mere 2.17MB download and doesn’t require any installation, reducing the chance of any conflicts with existing security tools. It scanned our test system quickly, detecting and removing a malware sample.

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