It’s the end of October, but the relentless release rate of software shows no sign of abating. The last seven days have been at least as busy as usual, so it would not be surprising if you managed to miss a few titles here and there. Thankfully, we’ve had our finger on the pulse and have compiled a roundup to help you get up to speed. One of the biggest releases of the week is undoubtedly Google's browser, which has come out of beta with the release of Chrome 15.0.874.106 FINAL. As well as speed and stability improvements, there is also a redesigned tab interface that fans of portable apps can take advantage of.
When online it is important to keep yourself protected and a firewall is a great first line of defense. ZoneAlarm Free 10.1.056.000 can help to control the flow of traffic to and from your computer. There are many types of files you will encounter online, and one of the most common if the humble PDF. If you’d prefer to steer clear of the big names, Foxit Reader 5.1.0 wll cater for your needs perfectly.
For both on and offline music listening on your computer, Winamp 5.622 is an old favorite that has seen something of a resurgence in interest recently. Android users can work with Winamp for Android 1.2 and keep their music collections synchronized between mobile and desktop computers. If you have a Mac, the new WinAmp For Mac Sync 0.7.1.85 Beta brings the same offline music and online radio playback complete with the ability to synchronize wirelessly with other devices and import an existing iTunes library.
When it comes to music, you may decide that you would like to create a more traditional CD from your library, and this is something that BurnAware 4 Free. This free disc burning utility can be used to create audio discs, burn disc images and much more, and there are also two paid-for versions of the program available – BurnAware Home 4.0 and BurnAware Professional 4.0 with the former adding the ability to create copies of discs and the latter adding support for multiple disc burners.
If you’d prefer to work with videos rather than other types of file, DVDStyler v2.0 should be right up your street. There is also a portable version of the app available in the form of DVDStyler Portable v2.0 and both can be used to create impressive looking DVDs from almost any video file you may have on your hard drive. iSpring Free 6.0 is a handy tool that can be used to convert a PowerPoint presentation into a Flash document ready to use online or on a presentation disc.
We’ve already mentioned the somewhat old-school Winamp which is enjoying a revival, and the same could be said of WinZip 16.0. The latest version of the program makes it easier to work with and share very large archives and the new 64-bit engine provides improved performance. A more lightweight zip tool can be found in PeaZip 4.1 (32-bit) andPeaZip 4.1 (64-bit). There are also portable versions of the app available -- PeaZip Portable 4.1 (32-bit)and PeaZip Portable 4.1 (64-bit). For management of other files on your hard drive, for those occasions when Windows Explorer simply doesn’t cut it,Explorer++ Portable v1.3.2 32-bit is a powerful, portable alternative. The tabbed interface makes it easy to work with multiple folders simultaneously and owners of 64-bit systems can take advantage of Explorer++ Portable v1.3.2 64-bit.
If you’re more concerned with improving the performance of your computer and keeping things running smoothly, CCleaner 3.12 is a complete cleanup tool that can help you to keep your system in shape. There’s also a portable version available -- CCleaner Portable 3.12 -- which can be popped on your USB drive to move from one computer to another. Whether you are tweaking your system or not, AIDA64 2.00 is a great tool to help you to benchmark your computer to see how it compares to other setups. Tweaking of a different kind is available in 7 Taskbar Tweaker 3.0 which enables you to make a number of important changes to the way the Windows’ taskbar works, while Windows 8 BluePoison 2.1 is one of the first tweaking tools available for Windows 8.
That’s another busy week out of the way -- the coming seven days are sure to be just as hectic, so there’s lots to look forward to.