Software : Download guide: Download this free app to get Windows Media Center back in Windows 10

---

• Download guide: Download this free app to get Windows Media Center back in Windows 10
• Round up: The best free download manager 2016
• BBC iPlayer mobile app just got the one big feature it's been missing
• Download guide: Discover Paint.NET - the best free software for retouching portrait photos

Download guide: Download this free app to get Windows Media Center back in Windows 10 Posted: Windows Media Center for Windows 10 With the release of Windows 10, Microsoft waved farewell to Windows Media Center. There are some excellent free alternatives around, but if you miss the classic video recorder and media player there's a free download that brings its suite of streaming and playback tools to the new operating system. Getting Windows Media Center running on Windows 10 isn't as straightforward as using an ordinary software installer, but it's not hard either. You'll be streaming TV and movies to your desktop in just a few minutes. Once you've downloaded the ZIP file, extract its contents to a convenient place on your hard drive. The download contains 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Media Center in separate ZIP files, so select the one that's right for your operating system and extract it. If you're not sure which one you need, open the Settings menu, then select System > About and look under the heading System Type. Now right-click the _TestRights file and select Run as Administrator. A command line window will open and a few commands will run. Once it's finished and you see a blinking cursor beside C:\Windows>, close the window and reboot your PC. Once Windows has restarted, return to the extracted folder, right-click the Installer file and select Run as Administrator. Another command line window will open and the installer will begin copying the necessary files. This will take a moment, so be patient - it hasn't frozen. When it's finished, press any key to exit. A Windows Media Center icon will now appear on your desktop and you can start setting up your media collection as normal. If you can't see a desktop icon, you should be able to find the program using the search box. To make sure you're getting the most from Windows Media Center in Windows 10, check out our list of 15 essential tips and tweaks, including some superb plugins that make it a worthy rival to today's media streaming toolkits.

Round up: The best free download manager 2016 Posted: The best download manager Fast, secure downloads Older internet users will remember the pain of early downloads: you'd spend a few days trying to download a GIF of a cat chasing a laser pointer, only for the connection to drop when someone else picked up the phone. Download managers were essential, because they enabled you to resume broken downloads and make the darn things download faster too. Dedicated managers and accelerators are still relevant today, especially if you're prone to downloading enormous operating system ISOs or trying to get your videos via unreliable Wi-Fi. These are our favorite apps for taming traffic, boosting BitTorrent and managing media downloads. 1. Ninja Download Manager A superb free download manager for saving and converting media files Ninja Download Manger is a relative newcomer to the downloading party, and it looks considerably more contemporary than its, er, contemporaries. The interface is simple and modern, and the download accelerator is capable of grabbing files 10 times faster. It does this by splitting each file into chunks, then downloading each one using a different server connection, making downloads not only faster, but also more reliable. If you're into music and movies you'll be delighted by its sequential setting, which lets you begin playing a file while it's still downloading. There's also a built-in video downloader with support for YouTube and Vimeo, and a video converter that changes the file format automatically once it's finished downloading. There are lots of fantastic download managers around, but if you love music, films and TV then Ninja Download Manager is perfect. 2. Free Download Manager An open source download manager that's packed with bonus media tools Free Download Manager aims to be all things to all people. It's a download accelerator, a BitTorrent client, an audio and video previewer and a traffic management tool, and because it's open source, it's completely free and receives regular updates from its community of developers. There's a portable version that you can run directly from a USB stick, plus powerful scheduling features and a very handy remote control that means you can leave your downloads running and check on their progress from any internet-connected device. It can spider sites to download specific kinds of files, and you can choose to download only the bits of a ZIP file you actually want. It's an exceptional program, and it was tough to choose between this and Ninja Internet Download Manager for the top spot. 3. Download Accelerator Plus A stripped-down version of a premium manager that's superb in its own right The free version of Download Accelerator Plus is a pared-back version of DAP Premium, but it's much more than just a demo and contains all the essential features you need for quick, reliable downloads. The free version lacks the DAP Premium's privacy protection, but it does include a link checker, video previewing, file conversion, safe downloading and multiple connections to boost the speed of your downloads. Download Accelerator Plus is clearly designed for media fans, and can help you avoid irritations such as slow servers and internet congestion. 4. JDownloader 2 An advanced download manager that's optimized for power users JDownloader 2 is a free, open source download manager with a massive developer community, and it's available for Windows, Linux and Mac. It's really one for power users, with support for over 300 decryption plug-ins, automatic RAR extraction, password list searching and OCR to automatically complete some of the CAPTCHA 'I'm not a robot' checks you encounter on download sites. You'll need the Java Runtime Environment to run it, and you'll need to be careful when installing it: the installer contains adware, which will be bundled in with the download manager if you don't specifically deselect it. 5. Free YouTube Downloader Grab multiple videos in moments and save them in resolutions up to 8K Its installer is a little too keen on adding bundled software, but deselect the extras you don't want and you'll discover that Free YouTube Downloader is an excellent download manager. Unlike some of the more powerful options it's designed as a downloader first and foremost, so you get a good multi-stream download manager for grabbing several clips simultaneously, but few file conversion options. Free YouTube Downloader can download files of up to 8K resolution (in MKV) and convert to AVI and MP4 format for playback in your media player of choice. Remember that you should only download videos from YouTube if you have the copyright owner's permission. 6. DownThemAll A free Firefox add-on that grabs all the links and media from a page at once If Firefox is your preferred browser, try DownThemAll - a well-crafted extension that lets you download all the links or images in a webpage at once. Downloads can be paused and resumed, and the integrated accelerator lets you grab files files four times faster through cunning use of multiple server connections. It's a superb addition to an already excellent browser, and unlike some free download managers there are no catches - there's no unwanted advertising and all its features are yours to enjoy completely free of charge. 7. iGetter Find and grab the files you need, whether you're using a Mac or PC Most download managers are for Windows, but iGetter also comes in a Mac OS X version. You can schedule downloads for specific times - handy if the servers you want to use get hammered during peak hours - and find server mirrors. As with most download managers worth their salt, you can resume broken downloads and benefit from accelerated downloading. iGetter also includes a site explorer that you can use to find content on web and FTP sites. It integrates with Safari, iCab and Firefox on Mac and Firefox and Internet Explorer on Windows. 8. Website Ripper Copier Going offline? Download an entire website to view when you're disconnected Sometimes you don't just want to download a few files; you want to download the entire website. And to do that you need two things: permission from the copyright owner, and a website ripper such as Website Ripper Copier. There's a free trial you can use to check it out before spending US$39 (about £30, AU$50) on the full version, and you can set very complex criteria to ensure that the app only downloads the content that you actually want. There's also a clever retrieval history, so the app won't try to re-download an online resource it already has. 9. Internet Download Manager Ignore its ugly interface and you'll find a very capable download manager Internet Download Manager promises to be the fastest download manager around, which hopefully makes up for the unappealing user interface. The free version is a trial, but the paid-for version is hardly pricey at US$11.95 (about £9, AU$16) for a year of speedy, hassle-free downloading or US$24.95 (about £19, AU$32) for a lifetime license. Internet Download Manager integrates with almost every browser imaginable, grabs videos, automatically checks downloads for viruses, accelerates download speeds, resumes interrupted downloads and supports download scheduling. You can also set it to grab all files of a particular type from websites. 10. GetRight A classic tool that's kept up with the needs of today's downloaders We have fond memories of GetRight: it's been kicking around for 14 years, helping people fight the curse of ancient enemies like dial-up internet and more modern horrors such as flaky Wi-Fi. The free edition is a trial and the full version is US$19.95 (about £15, AU$26). The download manager integrates with Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera, and supports torrents as well as the more common http/https and ftp/ftps formats. It accelerates downloads by creating multiple simultaneous connections, and resumes broken downloads where they left off. In short, it's an excellent little download manager and there's a reason over 12 million people have installed it.

BBC iPlayer mobile app just got the one big feature it's been missing Posted: BBC iPlayer for mobile devices is getting a significant update, with the Beeb announcing it will soon begin rolling out live programme restart options to its iOS and Android apps. The ability to roll live shows back to their beginning while streaming is already possible on the BBC's connected TV apps, but it's a first for the company on mobile, letting users restart a live show that's already begun with a single tap. Live restarts come at a particularly busy time for the iPlayer apps – Glastonbury, Wimbledon, the Euro football championship and Olympics drew in an average of 16 million unique viewers a week across June, July and August for the platform. Visually seeking While the mobile apps are getting the headline features, some other updates rolling out across iPlayer are worth noting too. With half-decent broadband now standard up and down the country, and the majority of TVs now supporting at least 720p playback, the 720p HD resolution will now be the default setting for playback on computers and connected TVs. That's provided that your connected TV supports adaptive bitrate streams, which most do. Also on the way is a "visual seeking" scrubber for a snapshot look at moments during a show while rewinding or fast forwarding, offering thumbnail views of the show in the progress bar, as is the norm in Netflix. Dont forget – the iPlayer licence fee loophole is now closed

Download guide: Discover Paint.NET - the best free software for retouching portrait photos Posted: Retouch photos free with Paint.NET Retouch photos for free Photo retouching is often referred to as 'Photoshopping', but you don't need to splash out on Adobe's premium software to make your portraits and selfies look stunning. Paint.NET is a completely free photo editor that's just as capable as many full-price programs.. It was originally created as an upgrade/replacement for Microsoft Paint, but has evolved from those humble beginnings into a powerful tool for editing images and creating your own artwork from scratch. Editing out blemishes is easy with the stamp tool - hold Ctrl and click a nearby area to take a sample, then click and drag to 'paint' over the flaw. Like all the tools in Paint.NET, the stamp is fully configurable and can be adjusted using the options at the top of the main window. For a natural look, enable antialiasing and reduce the hardness of the brush. You might need to take several samples and to make sure the colours line up with the contours of the face. The clone stamp is also very useful for editing out flyaway hair, or specks left by dust on the camera lens. Like Photoshop, Paint.NET supports plug-ins, some of which are specially created for retouching photos. Installing plugins is easy - just download the ZIP archive, then extract the DLL file to Program Files > Paint.net > Effects. One of the best for photo retouching is Liquify, which you can download from the Paint.NET forums. Just like the Photoshop tool of the same name, it lets you distort images by clicking and dragging, and you can use it to smooth out bumps, slim down noses and tighten jawlines. Keep your changes subtle, and bear in mind that the background will also be distorted by Liquify, so avoid using it near any lines or regular patterns. Like any photo editor worth its salt, Paint.NET includes a levels editor (under Adjustments), which you can use to adjust the contrast in your image. Tweaking the diagonal line into a gentle S shape will increase contrast and make your picture look more dramatic, but you might find decreasing the contrast yields a more flattering effect. For a more dramatic change, try the Soften Portrait tool (under Effects > Photo). This softens skintones in your picture and lightens colours to obscure imperfections (a little like deliberately over-exposing a photo). It also adds a flattering warm color cast. The default setting is a bit strong, so tweak the sliders until you're happy with the result. The Vignette effect (also in the Photo menu) is worth a try too - it adds an Instagram-style retro camera effect that draws attention to the subject. With so many dedicated functions and filters, plus user-created plugins that replicate the most popular features of premium retouching tools, Paint.NET is an essential program for tweaking everything from selfies to wedding portraits - and it's completely free.

You are subscribed to email updates from TechRadar: All latest Applications news feeds. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States