Software : Download guide: How to build your perfect browser with Vivaldi

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• Download guide: How to build your perfect browser with Vivaldi
• Downloads: Download of the day: System Ninja
• YouTube Heroes to take out the commenter trash
• Round up: The best free PC backup software 2016

Download guide: How to build your perfect browser with Vivaldi Posted: Download Vivaldi free and create your own browser Vivaldi is a free, open source browser that will change the way you surf forever. It's almost infinitely customizable, letting you adjust every link, toolbar, shortcut and gesture to suit you and putting all the sites and tools you need at your fingertips. Vivaldi is built on the same foundation as Google Chrome, so it also supports hundreds of extensions including ad-blockers and YouTube downloaders. Download it free and make the web work for you. Color schemes are Vivaldi's latest addition, and after installing the browser you'll be invited to select a palette (note the Internet Explorer-inspired theme cheekily named Redmond). If nothing here takes your fancy, you can select your own exact shades in the browser's settings later. Theme scheduling is planned for the browser's next release, letting you pick different colors for certain times of day. Next, choose where you want the tab bar positioned. It might seem counter-intuitive to have your tabs along one side if you're used to Chrome, Firefox, IE or Edge (and you can keep them at the top if you prefer) but these extra options give you a live thumbnail preview that makes managing open pages easier. Finally, you'll be asked to pick a background for your start page; there's a selection of tasteful abstract options, or you can use a photo of your own. Your default homepage in Vivaldi is called Speed Dial. It's similar to the bookmarks toolbar, with sites represented by square tiles. Each tile has a refresh button that enables you to check for updates without visiting the site - particularly useful for blogs. Move your cursor over a tile and click the cross to remove it, and use the plus button to add new ones. Beside the Speed Dial heading you'll see a plus icon, which lets you add another page for quick navigation; you might want one page for work, another for social media and another for academic resources, for example. If you're more of a traditionalist, you can set a single site as your homepage and manage your favorite sites using the bookmarks menu. Bookmarks work just like they do in Firefox, Chrome, IE and Edge, and you can add several sites at once by right-clicking the tabs bar. Bookmarks and downloads are accessible via a narrow navigation bar on the left called the Panel, which can be collapsed using a little switch at the bottom. Here you'll also find a notes tool that works much like a text-only version of Evernote, enabling you to jot down thoughts while you browse. You can also add site links to the Panel, which open alongside the main browser window. This is a particularly good way to keep an eye on your Twitter feed. At the bottom of the Panel you'll find Vivaldi's main settings icon. As you'd expect, the options here are extensive. Some of the most significant are: Keyboard, where you can define your own shortcuts Mouse, for setting gestures Privacy, including phishing protection If you're on a slow connection, you can toggle images off using the small picture icon at the bottom left. The double arrow icon beside this offers a range of filters and effects. Some of these (like highlight focus and the CSS debugger) have a clear purpose, whereas others (like the 3D effect that skews the page to create a 'turning' effect) are just for fun. Finally, visiting vivaldi://extensions gives you access to the Chrome web store, where you can install any add-on built for Google's web browser. Extension icons will appear to the right of the browser's search box. Vivaldi has an active and enthusiastic community of developers working to add more features and options, so keep an eye on the team blog to find out what's coming up next. Happy browsing.

Downloads: Download of the day: System Ninja Posted: System Ninja is a neat little optimization utility designed to scour your PC for junk files, resulting in a faster, more stable system. It also deletes browser tracking cookies, preventing unscrupulous advertisers monitoring your online activity. System Ninja's star feature is its Junk Cleaner, but it also includes an extended suite of system-boosting tools to further accelerate your PC's performance. Its Startup Manager lets you stop non-essential programs running when Windows starts so you reach your desktop faster, and its built-in uninstaller is a quick way to remove several programs at once. System Ninja also includes a process manager that lets you select and end multiple processes at once, and its system information tab gives you a thorough description of your PC's hardware and software. Why you need it System Ninja is a worthy rival to leading system speed-up tool CCleaner thanks to its deep cleaning and array of additional optimization options. The program uninstaller is particularly good; unlike many dedicated uninstallers, it lets you select multiple programs with a simple checkbox system and remove them all in a batch. There's no automatic deep clean afterwards, but a quick scan with the Junk Cleaner will erase any leftovers. System Ninja can highlight the software that came pre-installed on your PC – ideal for clearing out the bloatware supplied with a new computer. Delve into System Ninja's settings and you'll find some well thought-out options for customizing its Junk Cleaner. You can select certain directories or drives to scan, or particular ones that should be excluded from a full scan. If that's not enough, System Ninja also supports plugins to extend its already impressive feature set, including a duplicate file scanner, batch file renaming tool and Windows Service manager. Key features Junk file scanner Batch program uninstaller Process manager Support for plugins Works on Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 Price System Ninja Home – free System Ninja Pro – US$14.95 (about £12, AU$20) per year

YouTube Heroes to take out the commenter trash Posted: Scrolling through YouTube comments can sometimes leave you with the feeling that all of the positivity has been snuffed out of the internet, replaced with vitriol and questionable grammar. Don't despair, though – you might not know it, but on YouTube there are volunteer users who seek to do good and make using the site a better experience for everyone. They do this in big and small ways, from subtitling videos, to reporting videos that violate community guidelines and giving useful advice on the site's help forums. And now YouTube is going to give these users more help to keep the video portal a clean and friendly place. Don your cape In an effort to reward these users for what is likely to sometimes feel like fairly thankless work, YouTube has decided to introduce a program called YouTube Heroes. YouTube Heroes has been inspired by, and will expand upon, the success of YouTube's Trusted Flagger program, which gave greater reporting powers to users who frequently and reliably reported community guideline violating comments and videos. Right now YouTube Heroes is only available to a "select group of contributors from across the globe who have histories of high quality community contributions." For anyone that'd like to be a part of the community there's also an application process and YouTube say they will gradually admit more contributors. Meta moderation If you do become a YouTube Hero, what do you get? Well, you get your very own community site, separate from the main YouTube site, where you can track your contributions. (Is anyone else imagining something akin to SHIELD Headquarters?) This is more than a basic forum, though. YouTube Heroes are divided into levels and they can gain points to level up by continuing to accurately moderate and contribute to the site. There are 5 levels of YouTube Hero, and as they level up users are given more abilities such as mass flagging, chatting directly with YouTube team members, and moderating within the Heroes community site itself. Meta moderation. It's important to note that the YouTube Heroes community is only intended to supplement the existing official YouTube moderation team. Heroes are only able to flag up possible community violations, and YouTube still has the final say when it comes to the decision to remove content. Interested in doing your part? You can apply here. Which phone has the best battery for watching YouTube?

Round up: The best free PC backup software 2016 Posted: The best free backup software for Windows The best free PC backup software Regular backups are an essential part of PC housekeeping, but one that's easy to ignore or forget. Windows includes its own backup tools, but they're not all in one convenient place, their scheduling options are limited, and they don't offer encryption or optimization. For hassle-free backups, it's worth installing a third-party program. Before we begin, it's worth understanding the different types of backups. An image is an exact copy of an entire drive or partition, including all installed programs and system files. If you need to reinstall Windows, you can boot from the image file and avoid having to reinstall all your programs and reconfigure your Windows settings. Note that you can't use an image to restore your system on a different PC. Images are very large and take a long time to create, so you won't want to make one every day. For everyday backups, you'll only want to copy the most important data on your PC – your documents, photos and music, for example. There are several types of regular backup: Full backup: a copy of all selected data. Differential backup: a copy of the data that has changed or been added since the last full backup. Incremental backup: a copy of the data that has changed since the last backup, whether that was full backup or incremental. Each differential backup will be larger than the last, but to restore your system you'll only need the full backup and the latest differential one. Incremental backup files are smaller, but to restore your system you'll need your full backup as well as all subsequent incremental ones, which takes longer. With that in mind, here's our pick of the best free backup software available to download today. 1. Easeus Todo Backup Free The perfect balance of automatic protection and manual control Easeus Todo Backup Free is a full backup suite offering both imaging (with optional creation of a Linux-based boot disc) and file backup (full, differential or incremental). It's intuitively designed and packed with advanced features, making it our backup software of choice. When you start Easeus Todo Backup Free, its Smart Backup function kicks into gear, immediately backing up your Documents directory, the favorites from your web browser and any files on your desktop. It makes a full backup once a week by default, with differential backups every half an hour if changes are detected. It's an ingenious feature that immediately takes some of the hassle out of protecting your data, and you can customize it later to back up other files if you like. It's easy to make and schedule your own custom file backups too (full, differential or incremental). Easeus has included some brilliant extra options, such as the ability to run a backup immediately on startup if one was missed while your PC was powered off, and wake it from sleep if necessary. Full system images are easy to create, and can be encrypted for extra security. You can choose a compression level (high compression takes longer, but uses less space) and split the image into chunks rather than one huge file. The Image Reserve option lets you choose when old images should be deleted or merged – another very helpful function that helps conserve drive space. There's also a superb drive-cloning tool with optional SSD optimization – brilliant if you're planning an upgrade. Easeus Todo Backup Free has a couple of limitations compared to the paid-for version: backups can't be triggered by events like logoff and shutdown, and the software won't back up and restore Outlook emails. In all other respects it's superb, and is our number one choice for protecting your system. 2. Comodo BackUp A powerful backup suite with some ingenious hidden extras Comodo BackUp's main draw is its flexibility – you can store your backups on local or network-attached drives, an FTP server or the company's own Comodo Cloud server. The free edition comes with 10GB online storage which is free for 90 days. If you fancy keeping it, prices start at US$7.99 (about £6, AU$11) per month for 100GB once the trial is over. Creating a full drive image and emergency rescue media is a simple process, though it's strange that this feature is accessed via the Settings menu rather than the dashboard. You'll need the Windows Automated Installation Kit to make an image, so make sure you've installed it first, but once that's done the process is effortless. It's strange that Comodo BackUp doesn't come with this tool already included, and that it doesn't run with admin privileges by default (essential for creating system backups). Comodo BackUp offers full, differential and incremental backups of files, directories, partitions and drives. It doesn't automatically suggest particular file types or locations to back up, instead letting you take your pick from files and directories, disks and partitions, registry files and registry entries. It's fine for users who know precisely what they should keep, but not the most intuitive system for new users. Backups can be scheduled for regular intervals and, like Easeus Todo Backup Free, Comodo BackUp lets you choose what should happen if it misses a backup. There's also support for file compression and splitting, encryption and email notifications. Interestingly, there's also a hidden tool that lets you scan for junk and malware before backing up – presumably a little add-on originating from Comodo's Internet Security suite. Comodo BackUp uses Windows' Volume Shadow Copy function to make backups while files are in use, enabling it to run quietly in the background. It's undoubtedly a powerful backup tool packed with useful functions for protecting your data, but its slightly awkward interface and lack of guidance for new users put it just behind Easeus. 3. AOMEI Backupper Standard An easy, wizard-based system for creating images and file backups AOMEI Backupper Standard includes a simple wizard that makes creating images straightforward, even for complete beginners. It suggests which drives to back up and where to store the resulting image – whether it's a local drive, an optical disc or network attached storage. Give the image a name (ideally including the date) so you can find it easily later, create a schedule so the process is repeated at regular intervals, and click 'Start backup'. This can take a long time, depending on the amount of data on your drive, so the option to shut down the PC automatically once it's complete it a thoughtful touch. You can then restore your system from within Windows, or by booting from the image. For day-to-day backups, AOMEI Backupper lets you save whole partitions or selected directories, with a simple drop-down menu enabling you choose between full, differential or incremental backups. Again, these can be scheduled to take place at regular intervals, making it a simple set-and-forget affair. The process is incredibly straightforward, and there are also a few handy extras including password-protection and encryption to secure your data, but not as many as you'll find in Easeus and Comodo's backup software. 4. Personal Backup No imaging, but ideal for off-site backups of important files One-man project Personal Backup is small and easy to use, but only creates regular data backups – not images. As an indie passion-project it lacks the gloss of its commercially-driven competitors, but is nevertheless great for saving copies of your most important data. Personal Backup offers both a straightforward wizard and manual options for more advanced users. The wizard begins by asking you to select a destination for the backups. This can be local or network-attached storage, or an FTP server. The latter option is ideal for off-site backups. Next, you're prompted to select the data to be backed up, whether it should be compressed, and whether to apply encryption. It's advisable to select the option to verify your completed backups. Backups can be scheduled to take place daily, weekly, or when an event is triggered (such as logon or shutdown). The advanced tool is where things get really interesting – you can create a desktop shortcut for a backup task, enabling you to run it with a simple double-click whenever you like, decide which file types should be compressed, set filters so only files containing a certain string are backed up, and decide whether backups are full, incremental or differential. The restore options are equally detailed; you can select the type of files to be overwritten or kept, whether to keep file permissions intact, and the age of files to be restored. 5. Genie Timeline Free A simple file backup tool for beginners, though lacking advanced options If you're a little daunted by the prospect of making your own backups, Genie Timeline Free is as user-friendly as they come. Its wizard (there's no manual mode for fine-tuning your backups) takes you by the hand, suggesting the drive to be used for storage and making a folder for you automatically, then showing you various file types that can be stored (emails, pictures, videos, documents, music and the contents of your desktop are selected by default). Sneakily, Genie Timeline Free lists drive images among the file types it can back up, but you can only create them using the premium version of the software. Compression and encryption are also unavailable unless you open your wallet, which pushes this otherwise great backup tool down to fifth place. Genie Timeline Free backs up your files quietly in the background – an unobtrusive approach that's welcome, but wouldn't be possible if it was creating an image. It's not mentioned in the interface, but all backups are incremental, making them as fast as possible. The restore tool is similarly straightforward – simply select the backed-up files to restore, choose where to restore them to (and whether to overwrite existing files with the same name) and click 'OK'. Uniquely, Genie Timeline Free has its own iOS app, which provides status updates on your scheduled backups. It would be handy to be able to start backups manually via the app as well, but it's a welcome addition for those of an anxious disposition, and a modern alternative to the email notifications offered by some other backup tools.

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