.REG files are a quick way of making multiple changes to the Windows Registry. Double-click one, REGEDIT asks if you’d like to apply its tweaks, and once you’ve said "yes" it'll update every key in the file.

Fast? Yes. Convenient? Certainly. But what if you don’t really want to make perhaps hundreds of Registry changes without having the slightest idea of what they’re doing?

OBS Studio (formerly OBS Multiplatform) is a powerful open-source streaming and recording package, crammed with high-end features, yet also with something to offer almost every level of user.

There’s support for a wide range of sources, including media files, audio input (microphone) and output (whatever’s playing through your speakers), application windows, your desktop, games, webcams and more.

UPX is a popular open source tool which can pack Windows EXE and other executable formats to reduce their size.

The process typically compresses files more than zipping, but otherwise has no apparent effect on the file. Run a packed EXE and it quickly decompresses and launches the original image, with no sign that anything unusual has happened.

Once you’re used to the power of grep, regular Windows text-searching tools can seem a little, well, basic.

Fortunately there some quality alternatives around, and ripgrep is an excellent open-source project with builds available for Windows, Linux and OS X.

Well-chosen hotkeys make a program much easier to use, but there can be problems: you might keep hitting one by mistake, or maybe it gives users quick access to a feature you’d rather restrict.

Simple Disable Key is a free Windows tool which can disable individual hotkeys globally, by program or using a custom schedule.

Gaia Sky is what the developer calls a "real-time, 3D, astronomy visualization" package, which normally means you get to fly around like you’re in Star Trek, but with real-world deep-space images to make it more "educational".

The project is based around the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission to chart around one billion stars of our galaxy.

ScriptSafe is a free Chrome extension which has been helping users manage their web privacy for years, building up a huge list of features along the way.

The add-on can help block various content types, fingerprinting technologies, cookies, web bugs, Google analytics, cross media requests, social media buttons and a whole lot more.

Canadian VPN provider TunnelBear has updated its Windows and Mac clients to version 3.0. The Windows release features a simplified, stripped-back interface and connects and reconnects up to 60 percent faster than before.

There’s a new option to mark networks as "Trusted". TunnelBear then connects to trusted networks rather than others, whenever there’s a choice.

Math is hard to avoid, even if you’re a total mathphobe, and anyone might find they occasionally need to use an equation in a document.

High-end packages like Microsoft Word have equation editors built-in, but if you’re not so lucky then MathMagic Lite is a convenient free-for-personal-use alternative.

Open-source PDF toolkit MuPDF has been under development in one form or another since 2002, and over the years it’s built up a host of document viewing, conversion and extraction features.

The package doesn’t get the attention it deserves on Windows -- probably because the key tools are console-based -- but if you don’t mind spending time at the command line, it’s certainly worth a look.

Opera 40 has been released, bringing an easy, convenient VPN feature to the masses. It’s also reworked the battery saver tool, which was introduced in Opera 38, and adds RSS feeds to personal news.

The VPN server allows users to browse the web securely through an encrypted, tunneled connection on any network (including insecure Wi-Fi open hotspots). It also makes it possible to spoof the user’s location, giving them access to otherwise geo-locked content.

Mozilla has finally released Firefox 49 FINAL for Windows, Mac and Linux. The release has been held back a week due to the need to fix two 'blocker' bugs. The bugs -- which concerned loading Giphly embeds in Twitter, and slow scripts and unresponsive script dialogs when resuming Firefox -- have now been resolved.

Firefox 49 sees the new 'e10' multi-process architecture roll out to more users, plus improves Reader Mode with a new Narrate feature. Fans of the Firefox Hello chat tool will, however, be disappointed to learn that the feature has been decommissioned.

Modern CPUs are powerful devices which can run most applications without difficulty, but run enough processes at the same time and your performance will soon fall away.

Project Mercury (64-bit version) is a freeware tool which automatically optimizes process priorities and RAM usage to ensure your active application always has the maximum system resources.

Switching your DNS servers can improve web performance, enhance security and help you reach some sites you can’t normally access.

It’s awkward to do this manually, but Change DNS Helper is a free tool which makes the process much easier.

Get involved in any graphic design project and you’ll probably spend an age choosing the color scheme -- but this shouldn’t just be about personal taste.

Around 5 percent of the population have some form of color vision deficiency, so it’s important to consider how they might see your finished design.