The days of Adobe Acrobat ruling the roost of PDF creation and editing are long gone. If you’re looking for a powerful, yet affordable, alternative to Adobe Acrobat, then Nitro Pro 11 has all the tools you need.

Nitro Pro contains everything you need to master PDFs, from viewing and creating to editing, annotating, collaborating and sharing. Version 11 has just been released, and you can grab yourself a perpetual license for an amazing 20 percent off the MSRP.

Avast Software has unveiled its 2017 suite of security programs with the simultaneous release of Avast Free Antivirus 2017, Avast Internet Security 2017 and Avast Premier 2017.

The 2017 releases, all marked versions 17.1, are the first since Avast acquired AVG in September 2016 and includes combined threat detection technologies from both products among numerous other changes and improvements. Read on to discover how to purchase them for 50 percent off the MSRP!

Steganos Tuning PRO is a PC maintenance suite for cleaning, optimizing and securing your PC. It’s a commercial product, and pricey at $49.95 for a year, although that does at least cover you for 3 devices.

The program offers all the core functions you’d expect: junk file removal, Registry cleaning and defragging, startup program control, automatic updates for applications and drivers, tuning of Windows settings, power optimizations, a defragger for your hard drives, and more.

RogueKiller developer Adlice Software has released a beta of UCheck, a simple software update-checker and application manager.

The program supports around 40 packages, including 7-Zip, CCleaner, Chrome, Firefox, Flash, GIMP, iTunes, Java, LibreOffice, Malwarebytes Anti-malware, OpenOffice, Opera, Skype and VLC Media Player.

Parallels Toolbox is a macOS app for power users that provides easy access to dozens of utilities -- like camera controls, screenshot options, archiving and more -- from the menu bar. Now, there is a new version available and it comes with three changes designed to improve the user experience.

Toolbox 1.5 adds the option to drag and drop tools, capture audio from the Mac, and change the sources for the camera and microphone. Let's take a closer look at the latest changes.

Winstep Software Technologies has updated its flagship products, Winstep Xtreme and Winstep Nexus, to version 17.10.

Winstep Xtreme, the company’s powerful set of desktop applications, gains a new Moon Phases module which shows you how the moon will appear on any day of the month.

Acronis has unveiled Acronis True Image Next Generation, a new premium subscription option for Acronis True Image 2017.

The product debuts Acronis Active Protection on the Windows edition. It’s a real-time behavioral monitoring system which looks for ransomware-like activity on your PC, detecting and blocking any attempted file encryption.

It’s less than 120 days since Avast acquired AVG, but the company has just released the first results in the 2017 editions of AVG AntiVirus FREE, AVG Internet Security and AVG TuneUp.

FREE users will benefit immediately with speedy "Pushed Priority Updates", ensuring they get the same immediate protection as users of the commercial products.

As networks evolve, the race is on to create and define the next generation of network infrastructure, one that enables more flexibility, adaptability, and scalability than ever before, underpinned by extreme efficiency.

The software defined network (SDN) has been a hot topic for many years, driving the future of networking by shifting the mind set around, planning, implementing, managing, and using networks. Traditionally, SDN has been an approach to using open protocols, such as OpenFlow, to apply globally aware software controls at the edge of a network to access network switches and routers that typically would use closed and proprietary firmware.

SoftPerfect has updated its network monitor NetWorx to version 6.0. The big change, in line with other recent SoftPerfect updates, is that NetWorx is now only available as commercial software.

The program is still available as an unrestricted 30-day trial, but continued usage requires a license.

PhotoDonut is a powerful cross-platform photo processor which provides a host of interesting ways to enhance and improve your images.

You could use the program as a quick way to enhance any photo. Open the picture, choose a lighting or color effect from options like "Gold Sun" or "Columbian Parrot", and save the result as a JPG, PNG, TIF, PSD and more.

Comodo Group has released Comodo Internet Security 10, Comodo Antivirus 10 and Comodo Firewall 10. Internet Security 10 Free now includes Comodo’s Secure Shopping, an isolated virtual environment which prevents malware intercepting any of your online transactions.

Secure Shopping can now be used to run regular non-internet applications, too -- anything you’ve installed on your PC. You’ll be warned if CIS detects and remote connections by the program, and screenshot protection stops malware taking captures of sensitive data.

IObit has released Advanced SystemCare Ultimate 10, a major new release of its flagship system security and optimization product for Windows. The new release centers around offering a larger anti-virus database through the integration of a new BitDefender antivirus engine.

Elsewhere, the application includes a number of new features already introduced when its little brother, IObit Advanced SystemCare Free, was updated in October. These include a new FaceID feature and component for managing start-up items.

With the world so focused on privacy, Evernote should really not have been surprised when there was something of a backlash at an update to its privacy policy that said company employees would be able to access users' unencrypted notes.

Forced to clarify the situation, CEO Chris O'Neill issued an apology for any "confusion" and "angst" the announcement caused, but this was seemingly not enough. Faced with mounting pressure and criticism, the company admits it "messed up" and has now announced that employees will only be able to access notes if users opt-in to allow this. Furthermore, Evernote "will not implement the previously announced Privacy Policy changes that were scheduled to go into effect January 23, 2017".

Malwarebytes has released Malwarebytes 3.0, a new package which combines its anti-malware, anti-exploit, anti-ransomware and web protection technologies. You won’t see most of these in the free version, unfortunately. That’s still strictly on-demand anti-malware only, although the new product does allow you to check out the new features with a 14-day Malwarebytes Premium trial.

Both the free and Premium builds see major performance improvements, with scan speeds up to 4x faster than the previous editions.