Software : Round up: The best free Windows Media Player alternatives 2016

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Round up: The best free Windows Media Player alternatives 2016 Posted: Download the best free media players The best free media players After 25 years of development, you might think Windows Media Player should have the power to handle all your video and audio needs. And yet, as you've probably noticed, it's still extremely limited, and won't even play some common file types without downloading extra components. Downloading an alternative media player can put an end to file compatibility woes; the best packages support just about every format, and some can even convert them to something more widely used. Problems with the video or audio file itself? Good media players can help there too, offering equalizers, compressors, color adjustments, video sharpening and a host of other tricks to improve playback. If you like to customise every element of a program then you'll love a tool like VLC - our top pick - which supports multiple interfaces and allows you to configure all of them, right down to the finest detail, without becoming cumbersome to use. 1. VLC Media Player Flexible, customizable and entirely free - the best media player around VLC Media Player is a classic media player that plays from every source (files, discs, stream, webcams and other devices) and is entirely free. No ads, no spyware, no catches at all. It's all very easy to use. Double-click just about any file and it'll play immediately, with all the core controls where you'd expect them to be. Browsing the menus reveals all kinds of additional goodies that you won't find in Microsoft's player: special effects that enhance your audio and video files, custom bookmarks to save and recall your favorite playback moments, and even a module to batch convert media files into a more convenient format. VLC Media Player is supremely configurable, too. The interface can be entirely redesigned with a host of optional skins (iPhone, PSP, OS X, Nintendo, QuickTime, Winamp, even Star Trek's fictional operating system LCARS), and experts can dig into low level details like video processing options, or customising any of the 100+ hotkeys. VLC Media Player is also a available as a portable app to run from a USB stick. There really is something here for everyone, which makes VLC our favorite free alternative to Windows Media Player. Read on to discover four more of the best media players, and why they're worth your consideration. What's your player of choice? Let us know in the comments below. 2. AIMP A dedicated audio player for managing and controlling your music All the top media players have a capable set of audio features, but opt for a specialist music player like AIMP and you'll get much, much more. With support for over 30 audio formats and a host of internet radio streams, you'll be able to play just about anything, and the 32-bit audio processing and output support delivers the best possible quality for your system. AIMP's configurable sound engine gives you great audio control. There's an 18-band equalizer, an array of effects (including reverb, flanger, chorus, pitch, tempo, echo, speed, bass, enhancer and voice remover), normalization, and support for DSP plug-ins (a format originally designed for Winamp). With so many features, it's closer to an audio editor than a simple media player. AIMP's powerful media management tools also make it easy to keep your songs in order, with smart playlist tools and a tag editor that's better than some stand-alone equivalents. Throw in a pile of extras including internet stream capture, audio conversion and a scheduler that enables you to use the program as an alarm clock, and you've got a truly remarkable player. All this functionality might seem intimidating, but spend an hour exploring and you'll begin to feel at home. 3. foobar2000 An intuitive audio player with plug-in support for extra features Free and feature-packed, foobar2000 is a likeable audio player - simpler and more straightforward than AIMP, but still with plenty of music-playing power. The configurable interface is a major plus. Launch the program and it presents you with a range of layouts, colors and playlist formats. Click an option and the interface updates immediately to show you the results. Basic operations are straightforward, with just about everything working as you would expect. Point the program at your music folder and it'll build your library automatically. Then you can drag and drop files to play them, open individual files or folders, view tags and audio information, manage playlists and more. Right-clicking various objects in foobar2000 reveals many more advanced features, including an 18-band equalizer, DSP plug-in support, automatic freedb-based file tagging, a file format converter, possible fixes for broken MP3s, and lots of low-level configurability for those who need it. 4. GOM Player A very capable media player, but watch out for the adware GOM Player might not make a the best first impression. You need to watch for adware during setup (clear the relevant checkboxes to avoid it), and more ads are displayed in the player window when you open the program. Explore the interface, though, and GOM Player begins to get interesting. As well as the usual playback buttons, there are quick controls to apply video and audio effects, change playback speed, tweak subtitles, take screenshots, create and manage playlists, make the player window transparent, keep it always on top, and more. More unusual (but very welcome) features include the ability to open YouTube URLs and play 360-degree VR videos. A well-designed interface walks you through most of this. Click buttons, explore, and you'll be familiar with the basics in a few minutes. There are also lots of expert-level power; the 'Playback' right-click menu helps you set up bookmarks, looping, voice adjustment, repeat points, frame skipping and more. 5. PotPlayer A great player that sadly hides some of its impressive features After a quick, easy and adware-free installation, PotPlayer opens with a simple, stripped-back interface. Drag and drop a file in just almost any format (there's even 3D video support) and playback starts immediately. It's just as easy to play entire folders, DVDs or Blu-rays (discs or files), FTP/ WebDAV/ HTTP links, and input from webcams and other devices. You can save whatever you're viewing as a Favorite and bookmark the best scenes, making it simple to recall them later. Potplayer gives you remarkably granular control over your media. The Video menu alone has options to sharpen, de-noise, rotate or tweak picture levels, resize, rotate or crop, adjust brightness, contrast, hue and saturation, configure 3D playback, capture and record video, and much, much more. This power does bring some complexity, but most of the advanced features are kept out of the way. Learn the bits you need, like pressing [W] or [E] to increase/ decrease brightness, and you can forget about everything else.

Round up: The best free file recovery software 2016 Posted: Download the best free recovery software Restore lost or deleted files Data recovery can be an expensive business, which is why it's no substitute for backing up your key documents, photos and other data on a regular basis. But that's of little comfort to anyone – even those with good backup regimens – who suddenly find themselves confronted by the stomach-churning feeling of data loss. As soon as you've become aware of data loss, it's critical you stop using the drive affected immediately. Whether the drive itself is failing or you've simply deleted a file accidentally, this is the golden moment when you may be able to get your data back without an expensive purchase or trip to a data recovery specialist. We've cherry-picked five of the best free data recovery tools in the business. Just pick the one closest to your requirements and with a bit of luck (and no small measure of help from the app involved), you could yet save your files. 1. DMDE Free Edition The most effective way to recover files from a dead hard drive Our favourite free data recovery tool is often overlooked. DMDE Free Edition scores major points because it's capable of recovering data from a wide array of drives, including 2TB+ drives rescued from a fried external drive enclosure with proprietary formatting (it's a long story). DMDE may not be the simplest tool to use, but it's one of the most effective, and our step-by-step file recovery guide will help you with the basics. DMDE works by letting you select a drive and then identifies all mountable partitions, with the most obvious choices highlighted. If successful, you're then shown a File Explorer-like view to browse the drive and recover what data you need from it. There are restrictions on the way you can recover data from the free version, but there's no limit to how much you recover. If you want a simpler and faster recovery process, just upgrade to the Express or Standard edition. Read on to discover four more of our favourite tools for recovering lost data in an emergency. Have we missed a program that's saved your skin in a near-disaster? Let us know in the comments below! 2. Recuva Recover files accidentally deleted from your Recycle Bin, quickly and easily Recuva is purely concerned with helping you get accidentally deleted files back, but to this end it makes things as easy and stress-free as possible. It opens by default to a wizard, which advanced users can subsequently skip: from here, choose the type of file you're trying to recover (picture, documents, compressed, emails and all files are among those on offer) and it'll focus its search accordingly. You can target your search to a specific location or search all your drives, and you can opt to choose a quick or deep scan. The latter takes much longer, but flushes out more results. Then click 'Start' and wait for the scan to complete. Once done, your results are presented, with each recovered file given a rating depending on its condition. You can recover files direct from here or switch to Advanced Mode for a frankly better view, offering file preview, information and a peek at the file's header. Recuva is also available as a portable app - essential for any emergency toolkit. 3. PhotoRec Recover lost files from any media, with support for hundreds of file formats Don't be fooled by the name, PhotoRec recovers far more than just photos. It works with a wide range of file systems and media, from hard drives to CD/DVD, USB flash drives and memory cards, and there are builds for Mac and Linux, giving you flexibility to recover data from a different computer if necessary. It also has deep knowledge of over 200 file formats, which helps with reconstructing lost files, and comes packaged with TestDisk, which can be used to recover partitions. The main complication is the user interface – it's a command line affair, with no mouse support. At first glance this appears complicated, but the program steps you through the process via a series of menu screens, and because it mounts the target drive in read-only mode, there's no danger of data being lost if you take a wrong turn – you can't write data to the drive you're recovering from, for example. 4. MiniTool Partition Recovery Free Lost a whole partition? MiniTool's excellent recovery software can help One of the most frightening data loss experiences is when an entire drive or partition goes missing. Often this can be traced to an accidentally deleted partition or one where the partition header has corrupted. If the issue is this simple, getting the partition back can be done quickly and easily without leaving Windows using MiniTool Partition Recovery Free. Just fire it up, select the drive containing your lost partition, then choose whether to scan the entire disk or just a portion of it (say the part where your missing partition should be). Choose between full and quick scans, then sit back and let the program do its work. Don't panic if it appears to become non-responsive, just be patient and eventually it'll list all detected partitions on the drive. Select all of them – including your missing partition – and click 'Finish' to restore it. You can also double-click a partition to view its file contents – perfect for verifying it's the one you're after. 5. Paragon Rescue Kit 14 Free Edition Can't boot into Windows? All is not lost with Paragon Rescue Kit All of the recovery tools we've covered so far assume you're able to boot into Windows to use them. But what happens if Windows won't boot at all? This is where Paragon Rescue Kit comes into play. The best time to install it is now while your PC is running, otherwise you'll need to do so on a working Windows PC. Once done, you'll need a blank CD/DVD or flash drive (512MB or larger – if you're planning to recover data to this drive, go for the biggest drive you can) – the setup wizard does the hard work. Now insert the disc or flash media into your non-booting PC and restart, selecting said media from the boot menu. You'll find yourself at a menu offering a multitude of options from recovering lost partitions, fixing boot issues and – crucially – a file-transfer wizard for getting data off a target drive. If all else fails, this could be a lifesaver.

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