Before a PC can access a drive, it must first read various disk structures: the boot sector, master boot record (MBR), partition table, and so on. Normally you don’t have to care about any of that, but if these structures are corrupted, and the drive becomes unreadable, then you might want to know more.

HDHacker is a tiny tool which can read, display, save and restore a drive’s master boot record, boot sector, or just a defined number of continuous sectors. This is potentially very dangerous -- choosing the wrong drive or sectors could trash your system -- but it can sometimes be helpful.

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Cloud storage provider Dropbox has released a new stable build for desktop in the shape of Dropbox 3.0.3 for Windows, Linux and Mac.

The interface has been rewritten, bringing high DPI support on Windows, a revamped setup wizard for Linux, improved performance, and reportedly fixing "a large number of issues/ glitches" reported over the years.

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It may be very old, but Microsoft's Compiled HTML Help (CHM) is still a common format for software documentation, as well as the occasional e-book.

Windows has a standard HTML Help viewer which should be able to display most files, but it’s a little fragile (just search the web for "regsvr32 hhctrl.ocx"). It may not work well if you need to display files in various character sets. And even if there are no problems, it's still a very basic viewer.

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PhotoStage Slideshow Producer is a free-for-personal-use video slideshow creator with plenty of unusual extras.

Installation is quick and easy. We politely declined the bundled Google Toolbar, and a few seconds later the program launched.

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dotPDN LLC has released Paint.NET 4.0.5 FINAL, a minor update that follows swiftly on the heels of a more significant update at the end of last month.

Version 4.0.4 introduced one major new feature and promised performance improvements, while 4.0.5 squashes a number of significant bugs that emerged after the previous update.

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It’s generally very easy to work with ISO files on a modern PC. Archiving programs can extract their contents, mastering software will burn them to disc, even Windows has offered basic support since Windows 7.

If you sometimes work on other people’s PCs, though, it’s wise to bring your own ISO application with the portable Passcape ISO Burner.

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Famatech has announced the yearly update for its network detection tool, Advanced IP Scanner 2.4.

The program now uncovers more details about all network devices, including device type (router, printer, more) and the operating system of remote computers.

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If you’ve tried a few Notepad replacements you’ll know they typically look and feel very similar. There are the core Notepad functions for quick and easy text editing, an expanded interface (tabbed, drag and drop editing) to make life easier, and any menus and dialogs are then expanded with useful extras.

The free-for-personal-use jane (Just Another Nasty Editor) takes a very different approach, ignoring many standards to go its own way. This can be frustrating, and it’s certainly not for everyone, but the program does also have some interesting features to explore.

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At first glance, Light Alloy looks and feels much like any other free media player. Drag and drop your source files, open discs, play and pause individual tracks, manage playlists, all the usual core basics.

The program handles this well, too, with strong support for just about every format you’ll ever need (and plenty you won’t). But that’s just the start. For us, Light Alloy’s real highlight is its interface.

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Cofeshow is a free Windows and Mac program for converting your chosen images into full HD animated video slideshows.

It’s a familiar idea, but Cofeshow is a little different, and that became obvious from the moment we realized it was a 250MB+ download.

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TeamViewer GBMH has released TeamViewer 10, its free-for-personal-use remote control software for Windows, Mac and Linux. Also available in portable form for Windows users, the new app boasts a host of new features, improvements and a redesign for good measure.

Chief among the changes are performance optimizations designed to take full advantage of multi-core processors. These include the promise of faster login times, better HD voice transmission quality and improved performance overall.

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Adobe’s Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) is a powerful graphics format which first appeared almost 30 years ago, so you might have expected there to be plenty of viewers around by now. But no: it’s so horribly complex that most image viewers either ignore the format entirely, or offer basic support, but with very unreliable results.

There are specialist tools which claim they’re different. The free EPS Viewer not only displays EPS/ PS files, but can also convert them to a few bitmap formats (JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF). Is it really better than the leading image viewers, though? We grabbed a test copy.

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Rain? Wind? Ice? Snow? Just about everyone needs to know what’s happening next with the weather, and there are a vast number of tools and websites to keep you up-to-date.

Most weather monitors try to win you over by piling on the features: multiple locations, detailed long-term graphs, customized alerts, whatever it might be. The results can be very powerful, but also bulky and complex.

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If your PC is always running, even when you’re not around, then you might want it to alert you about important events. Some backup programs have an email notification feature, for example, which keeps you up-to-date with backup progress.

Alternatively, you could use the free SendSMTP to send emails and files directly from your own scripts, perhaps alerting you when a PC is turned on or off, an application is launched, maybe sending you a daily copy of a text log.

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Anvisoft has released PC Plus, a simple tool which provides one-click solutions for 30 common PC problems.

The issues include missing desktop icons, Internet Explorer crashes, assorted DLL error messages, can’t run Task Manager or Regedit, 3D games not running full screen, and more, all organized across five categories: Desktop, Network, System, Software, Games.

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