Uniblue refreshes system tools lineup with Powersuite 2014 and DriverScanner 2014
Windows system software developer Uniblue has released two updates to its system tools collection. Uniblue Powersuite Lite 2014 and Uniblue DriverScanner 2014 come with a handful of new and improved features to help keep Windows systems ticking over.
Powersuite 2014 comes with the promise of better in-product help, a new Scorecards feature and improved tools for speeding up PC performance, while DriverScanner 2014 adds improved restoration of previously installed drivers to its feature set.
Ashampoo releases Burning Studio 14, adds encryption, mobile device backup
German utilities developer Ashampoo has announced the release of Ashampoo Burning Studio 14, the latest incarnation of its disc burning suite.
Top of the new features list is support for AES-256 encryption. The "Crypted disc" project type will encrypt whatever files you burn to CD, DVD or Blu-ray, and only someone who knows the password you’ve chosen will be able to access your data.
Paragon Hard Disk Manager 14: faster, adds Windows 8.1, Bitlocker support
German developer Paragon Software Group has announced the release of Hard Disk Manager 14, the latest edition of its drive partitioning, backup, copying and management suite.
New features this time include the introduction of pVHD, an optimized container format, and its greater efficiency makes for smaller backup files, improved performance and stability.
FastKeys is an ultra-versatile PC automation tool
When writing about new programs we’ll normally start with a general outline of what they do, but FastKeys ($9.99) makes that unusually difficult. It’s a highly versatile Windows automation program with support for several time-saving technologies, but how these are used is very much up to you.
The program could be a simple Start Menu replacement, for instance; move your mouse to the top edge of the screen and a basic Start menu appears. This starts off with just a few links (Office, system applets, Documents folder, a few web shortcuts, shutdown options), but can easily be expanded to add more.
AIDA64 adds new OpenCL GPGPU Benchmark Suite, and dedicated Network Audit product
Budapest-based FinalWire Ltd has launched AIDA64 Extreme Edition 4.00 and AIDA64 Business Edition 4.00, major new builds of its diagnostic and benchmarking tools for Windows PCs.
The new release updates support for the latest CPU, GPU and SSD models, adds a new OpenCL GPGPU benchmark suite and expands its business offering to provide a new dedicated Network Audit tool (users should complete this form to test-drive this new product).
The Bat! gains Unicode, IDN support, 64-bit 'coming soon'
RITLabs has announced the release of The Bat! 6.0, a major update of its flagship email client. Top of the "New Features" list is full Unicode support, which means users should now be able to work with multiple languages simultaneously.
The program now adds support for Internationalized Domain Names (IDN), allowing it to correctly recognize domain names containing Arabic, Chinese, Russian and other characters.
Avast Premier 2014 [Review]
Avast is probably best known for its free antivirus, but if you need more power then the company has plenty of commercial alternatives. Pro Antivirus extends the package with online banking and shopping protection, for instance, while Internet Security further adds a firewall and spam filter.
Top of the consumer range, though, is Premier. Along with the usual antivirus, firewall and browsing protection, this includes a tool which will automatically detect and install updates for key applications. The Data Shredder securely wipes confidential documents, while AccessAnywhere allows you to access and control your PC over the Internet.
East-Tec Eraser 2014 comes with full Windows 8 support, revamped interface
Romanian privacy developer East-Tec has released Eraser 2014 v11.0, a major new update (with facelift) of its online privacy protection tool for Windows.
The app, which promises to securely delete all Internet and computer activity via a series of modules, gets a major new Windows 8-friendly facelift, and promises to be simpler for beginners to use while offering more configurability, power and performance.
O&O DiskImage 8 extends VHD support, adds plug-and-play backups
Berlin-based utilities developer O&O Software has released version 8 of its flagship backup and recovery tool, O&O DiskImage.
One very convenient new feature sees the program able to directly create VHD files. You’ll need to enable this first (Edit > Imaging Options > select "VHD File"), but once that’s done your future images will be saved in VHD, rather than O&O’s own OMG format.
SeriousBit releases EnhanceMy8, digitally signed, adds Windows 8.1 support
SeriousBit has rolled out EnhanceMy8 2.0, the latest edition of its Windows 8 maintenance and tweaking utility.
This release benefits from full Windows 8.1 support (although of course it also runs just fine on Windows 8). EnhanceMy8 2.0 is also the first digitally signed version of the program, which should ensure that it’s properly recognized as a trusted program by your security software.
WinZip extends cloud support, introduces Express Add-Ons
22 years old and still going strong, veteran archiving tool WinZip has today been updated to version 18. And this time, it’s mostly about the cloud.
This starts with support for more services; you can now directly add files from (or save archives to) your Box, CloudMe, Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, SugarSync or ZipSend accounts.
Pixelmator 3.0 FX adds layer styles and liquefy tools, OS X Mavericks support
Lithuanian developer The Pixelmator Team has released Pixelmator 3.0 FX, a major update to its popular Mac image-editing tool. Version 3.0 adds non-destructive Layer Styles, allowing users to apply multiple effects at once, as well as Liquefy Tools that allow users to shape images in multiple ways.
Version 3.0 also adds full support for OS X Mavericks, promising to tap into OS X 10.9’s new features like App Nap and Compressed Memory for faster, more efficient performance.
Nitro Pro 9 [Review]
It’s been a relatively quiet couple of years for Nitro Pro, the chief alternative to Adobe’s Acrobat PDF editing and conversion tool. Last year’s update was a minor one, opting to refine existing tools alongside offering a handful of new features. With the release of version 9, the question is, has Nitro continued to prefer evolution to revolution?
The answer is a qualified yes. It’s worth remembering just how good Nitro 7 was on its release, and version 8 built on that. Helped by a competitive upgrade price, it was a worthy upgrade. Like its immediate predecessor, Nitro Pro 9 doesn’t pull up any trees, but there are some nifty new features to add to an already impressive feature set.
System Mechanic 12 [Review]
If your PC seems slow or unstable, then you might first try to diagnose and resolve the problem yourself. But this often requires considerable time and expertise. And, even if that’s not a problem, you’ll have to start all over again whenever a new issue pops up.
System Mechanic 12 offers another approach. If you’re not a PC maintenance expert -- or just don’t have the time -- then you can have the program clean up and optimize your system entirely automatically, while you get on with more important tasks.
ESET 7 adds exploit blocker, Twitter support
ESET has announced the release of its consumer security packages, ESET NOD32 Antivirus 7 and ESET Smart Security 7, both of which have been enhanced with some major new features.
New real-time memory scanning is a major plus, as it allows ESET to more reliably detect threats, no matter what packing or encryption tricks malware might employ.
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