Softonic > Windows > Latest releases

Firefox 3.6 Beta 2-First beta of the upcoming version of Firefox

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

The guys over at Mozilla continue working on the development of Firefox, adding new features to this excellent web browser and improving the ones it already offers. The latest version that has come out from their labs is Firefox 3.6 Beta 1.

If you prefer using stable releases, you'd better stay away from this one because like with any other Beta version, you can experiment unexpected behavior, bugs and even browser crashes. But early adopters will be happy to take a sneak peek at the new features to be included in the future 3.6.

These innovations include seamless integration with Personas (for a wider, better selection of skins to customize the browser's interface), native support to watch videos in full screen – as long as they're implemented with the HTML5 'video' tag – and a special utility called Mozilla Firefox Plugin Check, which enables the browser to detect new versions for your extensions and makes sure you always have them up to date.

Last but not least, Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 includes the latest version of the Gecko engine and an improved Javascript performance. These two elements are meant to provide a faster user experience when browsing the web with Firefox – which has lately been its weakest point.

If you feel like taking a look at all the new features coming up in Firefox 3.6, give this first Beta version a go. Just bear in mind it's still in development!

Download Firefox 3.6 Beta 2 in Softonic

X-Plane 9.40-The world's most comprehensive and powerful flight simulator

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Have you ever wanted to take charge of a commercial airliner and fly around the world? Well X-Plane is about as close to the real thing as you’re ever going to get on your PC. Claiming to be the world’s “most comprehensive, powerful simulator” it’s so accurate that the US and Canadian aviation authorities have given it official approval to train pilots towards their commercial licence.

Of course, those guys are not sat behind a PC in their bedroom - their training is done in a $150,000 simulator - but what they see is exactly what you get on your PC. What’s more, you’re not limited to Earth – you can even fly around Mars!

Firstly, be warned. This is one MASSIVE program. Don’t be fooled by the 1.8MB file size in the game description – that’s just the installer. Once you’ve installed that, a very swanky download dialogue opens to download the other 1.3 gigabytes of the game. All those scenarios, vectored graphics and flight controls take up a lot of hardrive space. Depending on your bandwidth, you will be looking at hours, if not days to download the whole thing.

In this demo, you are limited to just one aircraft and five minutes of flight but in the full version, you can take control of props, jets, single- and multi-engine airplanes, as well as gliders, helicopters and VTOLs such as the V-22 Osprey and AV8-B Harrier. It also offers subsonic and supersonic flight dynamics, sporting aircraft from the Bell 206 Jet-Ranger helicopter and Cessna 172 light plane to the supersonic Concorde and Mach-3 XB-70 Valkyrie. In all, about 40 aircraft spanning the aviation industry (and history) with several hundred more which can be freely downloaded from the internet. There’s even a plane builder option which allows you to build your own model.

You can pretty much fly to any location around the world and choose from over 18,000 airports to test your landing and take-off skills. You can even test your mettle on aircraft carriers, helipads, frigates that pitch and roll in the waves, and oil rigs. It naturally features the whole range of weather conditions you might face and the plane reacts realistically to them. The graphics are vector based so they’re not exactly brilliant but they’re what you’d expect from a simulator .

The biggest problem you’ll have is working out how on earth to get started. The controls are incredibly complex to mirror a real commercial airliner. I spent the best part of 10 minutes just sat on the runway trying to work out how to start the engines whilst Air Traffic Control went crazy at me. You are prompted with a few guidelines at how to get rolling (such as “hit spacebar to release the breaks”) although you’re not told how to start the engines.

There are so many switches and dials in the cockpit that there’s no knowing what to hit without studying the huge flight manual in detail. In the end, the best I managed was to race around the airport before crashing into and destroying a control tower, killing all on board. For those that do have more patience, they need merely move the mouse cursor to the top of the screen where a drop down menu will present access to preferences, instructions, control configuration and many other options.

For those that just want to fly free as a bird and admire the scenery, X-Plane is not for you. For those that want the challenge of mastering a real airliner or are training for a professional licence, it’s the best programme out there and will have you absorbed for hours.

Download X-Plane 9.40 in Softonic

Mozilla Thunderbird 3 Beta 4-Excellent mail client from the makers of Firefox

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

You may have already switched from Internet Explorer to Mozilla's Firefox. But are you ready to ditch Outlook and try Mozilla's Thunderbird mail client?

Mozilla Thunderbird is Mozilla's award-winning and free solution to manage your mail more efficiently. And there are many advantages to switching to it too. The program can handle virtual identities and create on-the-fly addresses and it's widely regarded as having one of the spam filters out there. The fact that like Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird can be extended with all manner of extensions make it an extremely competitive mail client.

Setting up Mozilla Thunderbird is painless. You can quickly import your mail and contacts from your Outlook or Mail account and set up POP3 or IMAP accounts in a jiffy. To stay well organized, Mozilla Thunderbird offers filters to deliver your mail into separate folders and inboxes. And of course, there's an in-built spell checker to make sure that your mails are professionally crafted.

What makes Mozilla Thunderbird slightly more unusual is the fact that it comes with an integrated RSS reader. Nowadays, this is a little outdated because many people use a separate application - or even Firefox itself - to follow RSS feeds but it may be useful if you only want to mail and follow RSS feeds at the same time when composing mails.

On the downside, Mozilla Thuenderbird is lacking some finesse in certain areas. Thunderbird still doesn't have conversation style email views like in Gmail and there aren't many options for managing attachments and photos. It also doesn't support Windows 7 which seems to be a bit of a glaring error by Mozilla but it will surely be supported in the final rlease.

However, there are so many new added features Mozilla Thunderbird 3 that it's hard not to be impressed. From support for Growl to improved Gmail integration and enhanced search options, Thunderbird 3 is a serious contender for one of the best mail clients out there on.

Download Mozilla Thunderbird 3 Beta 4 in Softonic

Celestia Portable 1.6.0-Real-time space exploration on your computer

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Unless you are a millionaire or an astronaut, space travel is probably out of reach. Luckily you can now bring it a little closer with Celestia Portable.

Celestia Portable is the standalone portable version of Celestia, a powerful real-time, 3D space simulator that lets you fexplore galaxies, checking out all the fascinating things they contain: planets, stars, asteroids, even space stations.

Celestia Portable includes loads of information about each element you may stumble upon during your space trips. Right-clicking an object displays a context menu with various options, while the toolbar on top of the interface lets you access some extra features like a solar system browser, a video recording utility and options to search for specific locations. On the downside, and though the controls in Celestia Portable are meant to be quite intuitive, the truth is that the program sometimes feels a bit jerky.

As you can see, the amount of information included in Celestia Portable requires some dedication. I guess this is one of those utilities that need the user to get seriously involved in order to make the most of it.

Celestia Portable is a complete and fascinating program for astronomy fans.

Download Celestia Portable 1.6.0 in Softonic

Gratuitous Space Battles 1.23-Large scale strategy amongst the stars

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Gratuitious Space Battles is an excellently titles game, as it describes exactly what you get! This demo allows you to play three missions of this large scale strategy game.

This is a one-turn strategy game, in which you assign a fleet of space craft on a map, choose their weaponry and behavior, then let them loose on the enemy. I describe this as one-turn, as once you have set up your fleet, you have no more effect on the game. The Gratuitous Space Battle plays out based upon your strategic decisions.

This is unusual, but the detailed graphics and wealth of information you have during the battle makes it compulsive viewing. You can zoom in and out around the large battles, while your fleet is having constant conversation about your progress. The sound and explosive graphics really are cool, and it's pretty nerve wracking stuff. The setting up of battles offers lots to do for strategy fans and the detail obsessed, but if you don't care you can zip through the set up after simply placing your space craft on the map.

If you're not impressed by lasers and big space explosions, there is pretty much nothing to enjoy about Gratuitous Space Battles. The non-interactive nature of the battles may annoy some people, and perhaps over time they'll lose their attraction to explosion fans too.

Gratuitous Space Battles is an in depth strategy game with some stunning graphics, though it lacks any real time interaction at all.

Download Gratuitous Space Battles 1.23 in Softonic

ControlPad Portable 0.65-Make keyboard commands to start your favorite applications

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Are you a happy user of the numpad on your keyboard? With ControlPad Portable you can execute lots of commands using three digit numbers, and use it from your pen drive.

Once executed, a little icon is added to the system tray. To execute a number shortcut, hold the '*' key for 150 milliseconds (this is definable), then tap in the launch code and hit return. There is an options interface, although its language is very much aimed at the advanced user. If you're up to speed with tech jargon, it's not so bad!

You can set commands by tapping a code, hitting the Numpad '/' key, which then lets you choose an .EXE file to run. You can also set up codes by altering the the command file. This is simply a text file, and you have to manually add commands. The format is simple, luckily, so, for example Firefox might be 11=C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe.

When the activated, as you type your number, a green light appears if a correct command has been entered. It's possible to turn that window off, so ControlPad operates totally invisibly, though it doesn't affect the high speed of the application. This portable version is useful, but obviously some commands may not work on computers with different file paths.

People who use the numpad will find ControlPad really easy to get into, as long as they can remember lots of numbers!

Download ControlPad Portable 0.65 in Softonic

ControlPad 0.65-Make keyboard commands to start your favorite applications

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Are you a happy user of the numpad on your keyboard? With ControlPad you can execute lots of commands using three digit numbers.

People who use the numpad will find ControlPad really easy to get into, as long as they can remember lots of numbers!

Download ControlPad 0.65 in Softonic

NetVideoHunter 0.4.3-Download video and audio files from video sharing sites

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Have you ever watched a video on Youtube that you'd like to save on your hard drive to keep it with you? Now with NetVideoHunter you can.

This handy Firefox extension detects and downloads video clips embedded on websites like Youtube, MySpace, Metacafe or Dailymotion, among others. You can check the number of detected videos on the extension's icon, in the bottom right corner of the browser's window. Then simply click on this icon to open the extension's interface.

NetVideoHunter will display all the detected videos on a list, where you can choose to play them in the program's built-in player or download them straight away. Videos are downloaded in their native FLV format, so you'll need a third-party app to play them – or convert them.

With the NetVideoHunter extension you can download embedded video files from the most popular video sharing sites.

Download NetVideoHunter 0.4.3 in Softonic

ScreenGrab Firefox add-on 0.96.2-Capture webpages from top to bottom with this extension

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

The Screengrab! extension makes your life as web developer much easier by letting you make screenshots of webpages from Firefox itself, without having to install third-party software. Simply right click anywhere on the webpage you want to save and click on the "Screengrab" menu. You can then choose between saving the captured image or copying it to the Clipboard.

Screengrab! can capture a selected region, the visible portion of the website as seen through your browser's window or, what is more interesting, the whole webpage from top to bottom -that is, even the areas that fall beyond the browser's limits. This is probably the fastest and most convenient way to capture a complete website without having to copy different areas and then paste and manually arrange them on an image editor.

The only thing I missed in Screengrab! was the possibility to save images in more than the two formats available (JPG and PNG). Also, I found quite uncomfortable the fact that the program doesn't save the file with the appropriate extension -you have to type it yourself.

Download ScreenGrab Firefox add-on 0.96.2 in Softonic

Wondershare QuizCreator 3.1-Create a huge range of professional quizzes and tests

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

I have to admit, when I saw there was quiz creation software to review, my heart didn't exactly leap for joy. It just goes to show, however, that preconceptions can be misleading, because Wondershare QuizCreator turned out to be some of the most impressive niche software I've seen in a while.

It has to be admitted that Wondershare QuizCreator has a relatively small target public. If you are a teacher, instructor or education provider, however, it has all the potential to be a really powerful tool. Wondershare QuizCreator is basically a comprehensive quiz wizard. You'll have to think up the questions yourself, but as long as you have the material, the program will help you arrange and publish it - either to the QuizCreator Quiz Management System website, on the Internet as a flash quiz, an AICC/SCORM package for learning management systems, an EXE file, to CD or, finally, as a Word or Excel document.

Creating the quiz itself couldn't be easier with Wondershare QuizCreator. You pick the quiz type - multiple choice, fill in blanks, essays, etc. - and write the questions and answer options. You can also add a range of multimedia options to make the whole thing more interesting, or mix and match types in a single quiz.

There are also a great range of configuration options that will allow you to chose everything, from how many attempts your examinees get, the pass rate, time limit and much, much more. Sure, only a few people need to make quizzes on a regular basis, but if you're one of them, then Wondershare QuizCreator is surely the tool for you.

Wondershare QuizCreator will knock your socks off!

Download Wondershare QuizCreator 3.1 in Softonic

The Black Heart 1.0-Fight to the death in a weird nocturnal world

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

The Black Heart is a macabre and dark beat 'em up. Created over 7 years by one developer, it has almost all the options you'll find in a commercial beat 'em up, presented in a completely unique style.

Like any beat 'em up, The Black Heart features different characters, with different sets of fighting moves. Each character has their own back story, and it unfolds in single player modes as you fight the other five opponents. There are a variety of play modes, like versus, team, and survival modes. In terms of organization, it's so far so Street Fighter and Tekken.

It's the graphics and general feel of The Black Heart that set it apart. The characters are very unusual, and may put some players off. But if you can accept the strange cartoon fighters, there's a lot of depth here. Playing through the stories is interesting, as they are really weird!

The actual fighting isn't too bad - the animation is quite simple, and it takes a while to get used to the odd reach of some of the characters. Not learning moves will leave you in trouble, as computer controlled opponents are great at pulling off combos and special moves that will leave you bleeding, and probably randomly stabbing the keyboard! With some skill, the gameplay opens up, although specials are a bit too special, and there is probably too much focus on combo attacks.

The Black Heart is looks unlike any other beat 'em up you'll play, and you get a ton of game for your money (it's free!)

Download The Black Heart 1.0 in Softonic

CuteRank 2.0.1-Keep your keyword rankings under tabs

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

If you have a blog or website, you'll know how important it is to make sure it is performing well in keyword rankings. There are lots of ways to do this, but sometimes you want a simple tool that will give you a basic overview without too much fuss.

CuteRank is a tool like this, an uncomplicated program that will assess your website's keyword performance on 6 search engines - Google, Caffeine, Yahoo, Bing, Ask and AOL. It does this quickly and uses an easily understandable interface to display the results in terms of engine, area, rank, change, time of update and URL.

You can also configure CuteRank to schedule regular updates to see if your keywords position is changing over time. The tool also allows you to keep a record of results over history and export the data in CSV, PDF or HTML format.

Although CuteRank provides a clear interface from which to view your rankings, it doesn't actually offer you anything that you can't get online. Some people will like the history and export options, but I was a little worried by CuteRank's inclusion of Caffeine, a Google development project that is no longer accessible. They explain why on their blog, but not in the program, something that could mislead users.

If you're looking for a clear layout, CuteRank is a good way of viewing your keyword rankings.

Download CuteRank 2.0.1 in Softonic

Toucan 2.2.0-Synchronizes files, makes backup copies and encrypts data

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Toucan is a simple tool with which you can synchronize contents between your hard drive and a portable memory device. Well, in fact you can use it with any other drive –even mapped network drives, as long as the program has support for it.

Toucan's tabbed interface makes it very easy to use. Besides synchronizing with four different methods, the program also makes compressed backup copies (even incremental ones) and allows you to encrypt and decrypt data. These three functions are pretty straightforward, but I couldn't figure out the utility of the fourth tab, "Portable Variables". Only after browsing the program's directory I could find some help inside App\toucan\help.

Download Toucan 2.2.0 in Softonic

Nero Lite 9.4.12.708-Free basic version of Nero

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Nero is the most popular desktop recording suite, but it has been often accused of becoming a piece of bloatware. Now it seems they're trying to make up for it with the launch of Nero Essentials.

Nero Lite is basically a stripped-down version of the original Nero suite. In fact it's so reduced it only lets you burn data discs and also create copies of discs. Nero Lite works with CD and DVD, and offers some basic options such as the ability to simulate the burning process before actually doing it or verify data on disc after burning. Nero Essentials also includes tools to analyze your disc and also erase re-writable discs.

The program features a clear, easy-to-use interface with the burning and copying tools on the left side, and a tab bar on top – which I found a bit misleading because it only shows you all the other great things you could do with the full version of Nero if only you upgraded.

In any case, Nero Lite remains a good alternative for those of you who're looking for a quick, efficient and reliable CD recorder without all the bells and whistles of the complete suite.

Nero Lite is the free version of the well-known Nero suite: a nice, simple tool for the most basic recording needs.

Download Nero Lite 9.4.12.708 in Softonic

TeamViewer 4.1.6911 Portable-Simple, safe desktop sharing tool

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

As soon as your friends and relatives find out that you know a bit about computers, you're lost. They'll be constantly asking you for help with the most varied tech issues, as if you were a permanent, free customer support service.

Luckily you can count on TeamViewer Portable to lend you a hand. This standalone version of the popular desktop sharing tool TeamViewer lets you gain access to your friend's, relative's or customer's computer in a snap and what's more, it doesn't require any technical skills on the remote side.

All you have to do is run the program and ask the other person to run it as well. Each time you run TeamViewer Portable you'll be given a unique session number and password which you can use to enter the other person's PC. This means TeamViewer Portable can be used for both entering a remote computer, or let another person enter yours in case you need remote assistance as well.

Besides viewing the remote desktop just as if you were sitting in front of it, you can also make use of the program's features: embedded chat client, file transfer tool, the possibility of recording the session, support for VNP connections and more.

TeamViewer Portable is a stripped-down version of the paid application and therefore lacks some extra modules and functionality. Nevertheless it's still a great helper when you need to fix small problems in remote systems or show someone else how to do a certain task on the computer.

TeamViewer Portable is an excellent desktop sharing tool that lets you manager remote systems in a safe way and without requiring high technical knowledge.

Download TeamViewer 4.1.6911 Portable in Softonic

FileZilla Portable 3.3.0-Take your favorite FTP client anywhere

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

FileZilla has become one of the most popular FTP clients on the net and with good reason - it's fast, reliable and packed with lots of cool features.

Now things just got better with the introduction of a portable version that you can take anywhere - superb for web administrators of all abilities and backgrounds. Like it's bigger brother, the program supports the resuming of downloads and uploads, detects when a connection has timed out and features support for firewalls, SFTP, SSL and more. Best of all, it's retained the drag and drop functionality of the original too so it's easy enough for use for anyone not familiar with FTP clients. The interface and preferences are a bit limited but you can see at a glance all of your transfers. It also includes a handy "Quickconnect" function which basically allows you to reconnect to your most frequent FTP sites instantly. You'll also be impressed by the general speed of the application although it does tend to drop connections as a security timeout feature which can be annoying. You can also set limits on how much of your bandwidth it uses if you're worried about it hogging it.

The classic FTP client that you can now take anywhere - what more could you ask for.

Download FileZilla Portable 3.3.0 in Softonic

Portable VLC Media Player 1.0.3-Carry the versatile media player anywhere

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

If you want to play video or music files and not worry about format, VLC Media Player is the best application for the job. And now with its portable version, you can take this powerful media player with you anywhere.

Like its big desktop brother, Portable VLC Media Player is simply the most stable, flexible and lightweight audio and video player around today. While other media players will play unusual formats after downloading a codec, or simply refuse to play things, VLC will not complain. In addition to this, you can also use it to preview files you are downloading, because it will play parts of files. It takes no time to start up either, so opening it up to preview something is no trouble at all.

Portable VLC Media Player has great hotkey support - if you take the time to learn the shortcuts - so can be controlled without touching your mouse. The interface is functional, but by no means attractive. If you're watching DVDs or video files through it, this is not an issue.

Regarding music, it plays more or less any file and features an equalizer and playlist creation. It isn't as intuitive as iTunes as a media manager, but it's a much more flexible player in terms of file formats.

For video, VLC Media Player is the best application you will find. Its minimal interface is great for viewing, it's got excellent tools for effects, and doing things like adding subtitles is easy.

Download Portable VLC Media Player 1.0.3 in Softonic

VSO ConvertXtoDVD 4.0.3.313-Burn your Internet movie files to DVD and create menus

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Picture the situation: you have dozens of videos stored on your computer, but rather than watching them on a tiny monitor, you'd prefer enjoying them on your TV. With VSO ConvertXtoDVD now you can!

VSO ConvertXtoDVD is a super easy video converter and burner that lets you record your favorite videos to DVD so that you can watch them on any home DVD player. The program can handle just about any format you throw at it, including AVI, WMV, MKV, YouTube, OGM, MPEG and Quicktime, so you can watch them from the comfort of your couch.

VSO ConvertXtoDVD goes beyond burning and conversion and offers also dozens of readymade templates for DVD menus, lets you tweak playback options and includes a highly customizable subtitle editor with support for all major formats (SRT, SUB/ID and SSA). My only complaint here is the way all these options have been implemented in the program's interface: they're all inside the tree view, instead of being presented in a separate window which would make them easier to use. On the upside, the embedded video preview window lets you have a look at your video before actually burning it.

The encoder in VSO ConvertXtoDVD makes a decent job of converting videos in terms of the output quality, although the conversion can take a while depending on the size of your video.

VSO ConvertXtoDVD is a powerful and easy way to get your favorite movies and video clips onto custom DVDs.

Download VSO ConvertXtoDVD 4.0.3.313 in Softonic

FileZilla 3.3.3-Secure and fast FTP transfers

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

You could pretty much consider FileZilla an open source success story. It's popular, works well and fast, and regularly updated.

If you're looking for a solid FTP client what more could you ask more? In fact, FileZilla is not just limited to FTP, but also handles FTPS and SFTP for secure transfers of multiple files on multiple servers. The interface gives you a quick outlook of all your transfers, sites and disks and makes it easy to drag and transfer. I also quite like the QuickConnect feature to access your favorite server in seconds.

FileZilla is known to be fairly fast, and can also resume downloads and handle very big transfers, I'm talking here higher than 4 GB. You can set both local and remote filters for things like images, explorer files or CVS and SVN directories or even create your own. FileZilla also includes a tool to compare directories in terms of file size or modification time.

The application can guide you when setting up your network and lets you set speed limits in case you don't want to overload your bandwidth.

One thing really missing from FileZilla though is a scheduler to automatically set transfer times.

Despite lacking a scheduler, FileZilla is an excellent open source FTP client. It's stable, fast and very efficient. Highly recommended.

Download FileZilla 3.3.3 in Softonic

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Wallpaper-Official wallpaper of the long-awaited FPS

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Official Wallpaper is a desktop background image designed by Infinity Ward, the developers of the latest installment of this glorious FPS franchise.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the most anticipated game of the year. After a few episodes devoted to the Second World War, Call of Duty has reinvigorated its franchise by bringing players contemporary conflict arenas. The change from past wars to modern battles is represented in this wallpaper, depicting a soldier in a futuristic mask.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Official Wallpaper has plenty of room for your icons and desktop shortcuts. Its dark background makes shortcut names perfectly readable, though some users may find it a bit sinister. Notice that the free download links for this wallpaper offer different resolutions: 1024x768, 1600x1200 and 1920x1200.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Official Wallpaper is simply the perfect wallpaper for all Call of Duty fans.

Download Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Wallpaper in Softonic