Articles about Free Software

Install software and it’s soon out-of-date. Developers release rapid updates when they find issues, often reported by end users.

Having the latest version can be important. Software can conflict and slow your PC, be compromised, wrongly report information and need to be updated to support the latest operating system patch. Unless you’re prepared to go through every single installed application, it’s tricky to keep on top of the available updates.

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The average Windows 10 user will never be aware of the privacy issues associated with the operating system and with every major update, these privacy rights are amended by Microsoft.

With the release of Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, your privacy is actually improving as apps will now require you to opt-in rather than opt-out of storing your location and other information. The downside is that these new privacy rights apply to apps from the Windows Store, so third-party tools will still abide by their own rules, privacy settings and EULA.

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Softland has released FBackup 7.0 and Backup4all 7.0, major new versions of its free and paid-for Windows backup products.

Both programs, which offer file-based backup and extended functionality via plug-ins, add new cloud backup destinations, while FBackup gains support for CD/DVD backups and a Fast Mirror backup option.

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Three years ago, AOMEI unveiled the first version of PE Builder. We were thrilled, because it provided a simple -- yet flexible -- way of creating the Windows equivalent of a "live" Linux CD, whereby you can run a graphically friendly operating system direct from CD/DVD or USB flash drive.

After a few updates, the software appeared to have died -- with only support for Windows 7 and 8. Imagine our delight, then, when we were informed that AOMEI PE Builder 2.0 had been released.

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Why does anyone need a third-party firewall when Windows offers one of its own? One huge plus for switching firewalls is to provide yourself with two-way protection: the Windows Firewall only monitors inbound traffic from the internet, not traffic that originates on your PC.

The annoying thing is, the Windows Firewall can offer two-way protection, but it’s fiddly to configure and not enabled by default. Enter stage left, the recently updated Windows Firewall Control 5.01.

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We might regard ourselves as advanced web users, but occasionally we still double-take when visiting a new website. Google a search term and you see a whole host possible options, including paid website ads and there’s very little stopping a rogue retailer from popping up and populating their store with known brands.

Anyone can register a .com or .co.uk and you can host one of these domains from any location. There’s simply nothing stopping a company in Asia, from obtaining a .co.uk and then setting up a store with a bunch of fake products.

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Paramount Software (UK) Ltd has released Macrium Reflect Free Edition 7.1, a major new release of its disk imaging backup tool for Windows.

Macrium Reflect 7.1 adds three headline features: integrated viBoot2 providing instant virtualization of Macrium backup images, Task Scheduler 2.0 API use for compatibility with the latest versions of Windows 10, and finally a license for use in a business as well as a non-commercial environment.

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Mozilla has released Firefox 56, with Firefox for Android 56.0 due imminently. Firefox 56’s chief highlight is the rollout of Firefox Screenshots to all users. The built-in tool for capturing, saving and sharing screenshots from the browser was made available to a subset of users with the previous release.

The announcement comes with news of Firefox 57, which has been billed by Mozilla as "our biggest release of the year." It will unveil portions of a new next-generation browser engine as well as a major design refresh to fit in better with modern operating systems.

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Opera Software has unveiled Opera 48 for Windows, Mac and Linux. After the last feature-light release, version 48 adds a number of interesting new features as well as improvements.

Chief among these is a new pop-up search tool, which also doubles as currency, unit and time zone converter. Opera also adds a new screenshot capture tool for web pages, plus widens its bookmark-importing tool to support Edge and Yandex browsers.

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You’re busy using your PC and it’s suddenly 2004 again. Your system is running slowly and your drivers are to blame.

Should you keep your drivers updated? Usually, the rule is "if it’s not broken, don’t try and fix it." It’s simply not true that out-of-date drivers will slow or your hinder your computer. Usually, Windows itself will make sure you have the most relevant drivers for your system and, if you have Windows 10, you’ll usually have the latest drivers. And even if you’re using Vista, and there are newer drivers, it doesn’t necessarily mean your system will be enhanced by installing them.

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It doesn’t seem that long ago that all website editing was made by hand, coded carefully, put live and tested until the page worked as planned. The advantage of producing web pages in this manner is that it developed coding skills and enabled just about anyone to get a basic website live.

Tools such as Dreamweaver came along in the early 00’s and changed everything, offering the ability to create web pages from simple templates, even closing off areas to non-developers so people making site changes could only edit the text components across a site.

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You may ask yourself why on earth would you need a specific tool to create a PDF from an application when Windows 10 has the ability to quickly print as a PDF?

A few years ago, PDF tools were all the rage. You had to spend big bucks for Adobe’s Acrobat and Nitro to generate a document. And business users paid the price, too. For a good reason. You need a commercial-level tool to create documents suitable for a professional environment and, in particular, for printed material.

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WinX MediaTrans is a fast and easy to use iTunes alternative for Windows that lets you manage content on your iPhone/iPad/iPod. No iTunes or Apple ID needed, and no file erasing risk.

The software, from Digiarty WinXDVD, usually retails for $59.95, but BetaNews readers can get it entirely free for a limited time.

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When it comes to protecting yourself online -- particularly when surfing through insecure public connections -- then nothing beats a good old VPN. Virtual Private Networks create encrypted tunnels in which you can surf the web, check your email and connect to remote networks secure in the knowledge you can’t be hacked.

If you’re a Windows user, then the recently released Hotspot Shield 7.1.2 may appeal, offering a free, ad-supported (and bandwidth-limited) way of connecting via VPN.

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Non-profit organization The Blender Foundation has released Blender 2.79, an update to its cross-platform, open-source 3D graphics tool. The new build further improves its Cycles Rendering feature, bringing feature parity with NVIDIA CUDA and improved performance to AMD OpenCL hardware.

Other highlights include additional tools and options being added to the Grease Pencil, Alembic, Mesh Modeling tools, while simplified video encoding and user interface improvements have also been implemented.

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