Software : Downloads: Mozilla releases experimental new Firefox features

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• Downloads: Mozilla releases experimental new Firefox features
• Download of the day: FreeMind
• Downloads: The best free video editor 2016
• Downloads: The best free music player 2016
• Downloads: The best free screen recording software 2016
• Downloads: The best free PDF editor 2016
• Downloads: The best free PDF to Word converter 2016
• Downloads: The best free uninstaller 2016
• Downloads: The best free system utilities 2016

Downloads: Mozilla releases experimental new Firefox features Posted: Firefox Test Pilot The Firefox Test Pilot program lets you experiment with new features that Mozilla is considering adding to the browser. The program has been running since May, and Mozilla has just added three new tools for you to experiment with: Min Vid, Page Shot and Tracking Protection. Test Pilot lets you muck in and have your say in the future of Firefox. You can do this by testing prototypes, giving feedback, or even submitting your own idea. You don't have to be technically-minded – the only requirement is enthusiasm. To get started, install the Test Pilot add-on and submit your email address, then select the experimental feature you'd like to sample. Min Vid Min Vid lets you play videos in a small window that floats over your other tabs, complete with mini controls for playback, pause and scrubbing. Depending on your priorities it's either wonderfully convenient or terribly distracting. You can position the video to avoid obscuring what you're (supposed to be) working on, adjust its size, and send it to its own tab. The prototype works with YouTube and Vimeo - just load a video, then click the Min Vid icon in the top left corner. Page Shot Page Shot is an amped-up screengrab tool with built-in sharing and archiving. Its main advantage over dedicated screen capture apps is that saved grabs are searchable by the text on the page. This makes it particularly useful for capturing booking confirmations and activation codes that you'd normally have to save as an HTML document, or jot down on a sticky note and then lose. Tracking protection The final tool in the latest Test Pilot update is Tracking Protection – something that's currently only active in private browsing mode. It identifies and blocks cookies that track your activity across sites to protect your privacy. These three tools join the four experimental add-ons included with the program's launch – Activity Stream, Tab Center, No More 404s, and Universal Search – which are still available for testing. The best web browser 2016

Download of the day: FreeMind Posted: Download of the day: FreeMind FreeMind is a brilliantly simple mind-mapping tool that can be used to plan just about anything – from a novel to a dream holiday. You can even use it to create a database or manage a major project. At its most basic, it uses the familiar system of points (or nodes, as they're known in FreeMind) branching out from a central topic, with further nodes splitting off each of these. However, FreeMind really comes into its own with its click-and-drag interface for quick editing, plus HTML support that makes sharing and navigating your maps a piece of cake. Why you need it The basics of FreeMind are simple, but it's surprisingly powerful when you delve a little deeper. Branches shift automatically to ensure your nodes are presented in a logical order, or you can also move them manually if you prefer. You can also organize your map by editing nodes in batches, and collapse branches quickly with a single click. Nodes can be copied and pasted, and moved by clicking and dragging – all while preserving their formatting. FreeMind supports HTML links so you can easily add references to online material, and you can export your maps in HTML format too. FreeMind also lets you link to files elsewhere on your PC, which is very useful for planning a novel, essay, or other longform writing. FreeMind includes DES encryption, which can be applied to the whole map or individual branches, and an automatic backup function to protect your map from accidental data loss while you're working. If all that isn't enough, you can expand FreeMind further with plugins. These include an excellent time-management add-on that lets you add reminders to nodes – ideal for large projects that need to be split into multiple tasks. Key features Drag-and-drop interface HTML support Secure encryption Expandable via plugins Works on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 Price Free

Downloads: The best free video editor 2016 Posted: Free video editors Video editing software is generally seen as being expensive – and not without reason. There are certainly lots of costly editors out there, but there are also free options for amateur movie-makers of all levels. Our top-rated video editor is packed with professional level features and is astonishingly easy to use, but all the software we've rated here does a good job of balancing power, flexibility and convenience. Perhaps your needs are very basic and you simply want to trim unwanted sections out of footage you record. Alternatively, you might like the idea of getting a little more adventurous and playing around with filters and special effects in a bid to create a masterpiece. We've got both scenarios covered – and everything featured here is free. 1. Lightworks Professional results for everyone – the best free editor around In the world of photo editors, GIMP is held up as the finest example of free software in existence, and when it comes to video editors the same accolade could be given to Lightworks. This is far much more than just a free, basic video editor – it's been used to create real, big-name movies. It really is that impressive and powerful. As you would expect for such a powerhouse, this is not an application you are going to learn or master overnight, but that's certainly not something you could hold against it. Lightworks is described as the professional editor for everyone, and we reckon that's a fair summary. Despite its power, it will run well on fairly modest hardware, and it handles video capture and editing with aplomb. If you've tried other editing tools you'll probably find that the interface is a little different to anything you're used to, but you can arrange the various controls and windows to create something that suits your way of working. 2. VideoPad Video Editor Simple to use, even for complete newcomers to the art of movie-making Video editors have a tendency to be either simple to use and limited in terms of features, or powerful and time-consuming to learn. VideoPad Video Editor does an excellent job of straddling both camps, falling into the rare category of being a powerful video editor that you can easily find your way around even if you've never used anything similar in the past. This ease of use plays a very big part in the program's appeal, but it also comes highly recommended because of the sheer range of tools it has on offer. VideoPad Video Editor may not be quite as feature-packed as Lightworks, but it's much easier to just jump straight into. You can work with video footage that's already on your hard drive, or capture from your connected camcorder, and you then have access to a plethora of video and audio editing tools (effects, transitions, sequencing and more), the likes of which would not be out of place in a professional tool. 3. Shotcut Less accessible than some free editors, but your patience will be rewarded Shotcut is another professional-feeling editor that requires a little patience if you are achieve the results it is so capable of delivering. The slightly unusual interface can be put down to the fact that this started life as a Linux application, and little has changed in its conversion to Windows. To start with, the layout of the interface may seem a little stark as you will need to not only load a video, but also choose which editing mode you would like to work in and which tools you'd like to use. There's no getting away from the fact that Shotcot has a steep learning curve. It's possible to achieve some impressive results by simply applying one of the many available filters to your video, but the real rewards will only be reaped by those willing to invest the time and energy in fully getting to grips with what's on offer. 4. VSDC Free Video Editor A non-linear editor stacked with tools and filters Despite VSDC Free Video Editor's proclamation that it features a "modern and highly intuitive interface", you might feel slightly intimidated by it at first. There's a huge array of effects and filters to work with to enhance your footage, and while there's a wizard on hand to help you to import footage into the program, you're soon left on your own. This is a shame because VSDC is highly capable, and can yield superb results. As a non-linear video editor, it works in rather a different way to many other similar tools, letting you position video clips and other elements on the timeline wherever you like and edit them there. This approach makes VSDC incredibly powerful and enables you to achieve results that would be impossible with other software, but a little guidance or better labelling would be welcomed. With the ability to not only work with multiple scenes and transitions, but also to add sprites and text to videos, you can create a professional-quality movie if you're willing to stick with VSDC's slightly odd way of working and unusual interface. 5. Avidemux An accessible collection of all the most important editing tools One thing to understand about Avidemux from the outset is that it is not going to help you create the next Star Wars or to become a master movie producer. Rather it's a set of essential tools for everyday editing covering all of the basics such as converting between formats, trimming footage, appending one clip to another, and applying filters and effects. While Avidemux doesn't offer the most extensive feature set, it's not a pared-back Windows Movie Maker style affair either. You might have to go hunting for some of the more advanced options, and using them may require you to look at some of the many online tutorials written by its community of users. There's also a handy quickstart guide to get you rolling if you're totally new to video editing. If you can't see a tool you need, Avidemux is also expandable via plugins that add features like subtitles and watermarks. Avidemux takes some getting used to, but the results are well worth it,

Downloads: The best free music player 2016 Posted: The best free MP3 software for Windows The best free music player All music libraries are different, and a dedicated music player can help you get the most out of yours. If you're still using a general purpose media player, you're missing out on a wealth of features that can make organizing, expanding and enjoying your music a breeze. A clear winner emerged in our tests, but the other four options are all superb in their own right and well worth a look – especially if your music collection is fairly small, or you really need software that can handle video as well. 1. MusicBee Easy to use and feature-packed – easily the best free player around MusicBee is a music player created for serious music lovers and includes everything you need to manage and enjoy your collection, no matter how large (it's reportedly handled a library of over 500,000 tracks without a hiccup). Switching to MusicBee is easy. The first time it runs, the app scans your PC for music and lets you import your files from Windows Media Player or iTunes. Tracks are catalogued, but aren't moved unless you've checked that option under Library Preferences so there'll be no surprises. Once your songs are imported, tagging them is a piece of cake; simply hit Shift+Enter to open the tag editor and go to work. MusicBee's automatic tagging is superb, but you can update each track's metadata yourself using industry-standard tags for each file format. As in Windows Media Player, adding artwork is as simple as copying and pasting, and it isn't limited to the album cover – you can also add pictures of the artist, lead singer, band logo, and photos from live performances. These additional pictures are used throughout the player as navigation aids, and as visualizations while tracks are playing. MusicBee also searches for song lyrics to display as each track plays. The player is designed to make the most of your PC's hardware, including top-end soundcards and surround-sound setups, with upmixing for stereo sound. Continuous playback eliminates silences between tracks (ideal for Pink Floyd fans), and you can choose to add silences or fades, normalize volume, and experiment with the equalizer. MusicBee is also great for streaming from internet radio stations and listening to podcasts, and supports both SoundCloud and Last.fm. You can even link it to VLC Media Player to stream video podcasts. The player supports almost every audio format around and converting files is simplicity itself, with presets for different playback devices (though for MP3 encoding you'll need to download the LAME codec). If all of that isn't enough, there's even an Android app for controlling MusicBee remotely, and support for WinAmp plugins. You won't find a more comprehensive free music player, and although it's not open source, it's completely free to use and tinker with for personal use. 2. AIMP A well-designed app to manage even the messiest music library Like all the best free music players, AIMP makes organizing your songs a breeze – even if your collection is currently a sprawling, disorganized mess of tracks in different formats and locations, with incomplete or missing metadata. Your AIMP library can be built using files from multiple directories and ripped from CDs, with automatic track numbering and tag filling to help you get it in shape. AIMP supports a huge number of formats, and additional encoders are available as user-created add-ons. Most music player extensions are extra visualizations and skins that, although cool, have little practical use. By contrast, AIMP's plugins include some real gems. Some of the highlights are a YouTube extension that lets you build playlists from multiple videos, an add-on for streaming music from a SoundCloud account, and an extension for controlling AIMP remotely via a web browser. The app also features some unusual built-in tools, including an alarm clock function that starts playing at a certain time, a wind-down setting that shuts down your PC at the end of a playlist, and a voice remover for making your own karaoke tracks. It's not as feature-filled as MusicBee, but its thoughtful design and carefully curated feature-set earn it a respectable second place. 3. MediaMonkey Great automated tagging and organization for a hands-off approach MediaMonkey plays and organizes both music and video, and unlike some dual-purpose media players, it does an excellent job of both. It identifies tracks with missing metadata and searches for the information online, and like MusicBee, its superb tagging tool lets you tag files using industry-standard formats. You can also tag music during playback, which is a great option that avoids the need to preview snippets of tracks before labelling them with a mood or genre to generate playlists. MediaMonkey organizes your musiclibrary in a logical hierarchy, and its File Monitor ensures everything is kept up to date as you add, edit and remove files. It works well, but if you want total manual control you'll need to install a third-party plugin. As a slightly trimmed-down version of a premium product, MediaMoney's interface has a little more gloss than its open-source competitors, but at the expense of some features. The paid-for Gold version includes a party mode that locks the interface to prevent guests messing with your carefully curated playlist, built-in conversion for TVs and mobile devices, and MP3 encoding for ripped CDs. None are essential, but their absence pushes MediaMonkey's free music player to third place. 4. foobar2000 A modular music player and manager suited to small collections foobar2000's advanced tagging tool makes light work of cleaning up a messy library, with options including batch processing, automatic metadata completion and track numbering, and copying and pasting data between fields. This free music player will look up metadata for untagged tracks when you rip an audio CD, and can identify and erase duplicated tracks. foobar2000's library doesn't update in real time, but it can detect changes and remove dead links. foobar2000 supports all common audio formats, and includes a Quick Convert tool with various presets and options for creating your own profiles. If you encounter a file that it can't open, extra codecs are available as user-created plugins, which are installed via the Preferences menu. Rather than flashy skins, foobar2000 features a customizable modular interface that gives you the information you want in a format that's convenient for you. Modules include album art, search box, playlist manager and various visualizations, with optional tabs for easier navigation. Custom layouts can be saved as themes for future use, and you can experiment with different settings using a built-in scratchbox. All in all, foobar2000 is an extremely lightweight and adaptable option that suits smaller music libraries. 5. VLC Media Player Primarily a video app, but also a capable free music player Open source VLC Media Player is best known for its video-handling chops, but it's also a superb music manager that can play almost any format without installing any additional codecs – and convert between them, too. VLC can also stream music from a local network or the internet, including internet radio stations, which you can set up as a playlist for quick access. Managing your music is easy – just drag files and directories into the Media Library, and VLC Media Player will sort them all into folders. You can organize tracks by album, artists, genre of any other metadata, and use the built-in search tool to find the song you want. VLC also supports extensions. Most of these are designed to optimize video playback, but a few – including ones for silencing ads on internet radio stations – are specifically for music-lovers. VLC is lightweight and works happily on all versions of Windows from XP onwards. Versions for Mac, Linux, Android and iOS are also available. If you're looking for a single app to handle both music and video then it's hard to beat, but for music alone, the dedicated tools above will serve you better.

Downloads: The best free screen recording software 2016 Posted: Screen recorders Fancy becoming the next PewDiePie, showing other people how to play big name games on YouTube? Would you like to make demos to show off your apps, or to teach others how to use specific software? Then you need a screen recorder. The simplest screen recorders simply capture what's on your screen and save it in AVI format, but the more advanced free tools also offer editing, additional audio, picture-in-picture and on-screen drawing. These are our favorites. 1. CamStudio An open source screen recorder more flexible than most paid-for tools Many free screen recorders are very limited in what they do, because they're intended as adverts for paid-for products. Not CamStudio. This open source software is completely free to download and use for whatever purpose you see fit. CamStudio is designed to record in AVI format, which you can also convert to Flash video, and you can adjust the video quality and choose between capturing the entire screen or just part of it. The app also offers picture-in-picture video and anti-aliased captions. This flexibility and absence of watermarks or time restrictions makes CamStudio the best free screen recorder around. 2. FRAPS With high-resolution recording, FRAPS is the go-to choice for gamers Designed specifically for recording games, FRAPS is free to use if you don't need your clips to be longer than 30 seconds. That's not enough for a Minecraft tutorial, of course, but it's fine for shorter clips - and with a maximum possible resolution of 7,680 x 4,800 it's capable of recording even cutting-edge graphics. It's the most popular screen recorders for Let's Play videos, but its developers recommend using Windows Live Movie Maker to convert your clips into a web-friendly format, which is an extra step we'd rather avoid. 3. Bandicam Another recorder targeted at gamers, with hardware acceleration built in Another screen recorder aimed primarily at gamers, Bandicam boasts an interface reminiscent of 2001 A Space Odyssey's HAL and is packed with features including hardware acceleration and an optional overlay showing frames per second. It's a shame that the free version can only record 10 minutes of footage at a time and the resulting recordings are watermarked. Bandicam is otherwise superb and you'd be hard pressed to find a superior screen capture tool for games. A worthy rival to FRAPS. 4. ezvid Record, annotate and upload directly to YouTube without leaving the app The marketing for this screen recorder is a bit excitable - it compares ezvid's video editing tools to expensive paid-for packages without mentioning that free apps like Avidemux boast the same options - but if you're looking for a straightforward screen recorder then ezvid is very easy to use. It enables you to edit your recordings, add slides, change the speed and upload directly to YouTube, and you can draw on screen or turn typed text into spoken audio. This screen recorder is particularly popular with Minecraft players. 5. Rylstim Screen Recorder Not ideal for gamers, but a great screen recorder for software tutorials Screen recording doesn't get much simpler than this: launch Rylstim Screen Recorder, click 'Start record', and press F9 when you're done. It's not one for would-be games vloggers - there's no support for sound recording - and it doesn't include any editing tools, but there's a good range of export formats and you can always add audio later in another free app. Rylstim Screen Recorder is ad-funded, but the advertisements are just small ones at the bottom of the options window. 6. FlashBack Express Capture what you want, when you want with scheduled recording FlashBack Express is free to use, but you need to request a registration key from its developer to download it. Scheduled recording is the main attraction here, enabling you to start capturing your screen at a certain time or (more usefully) when you open a particular program. It doesn't restrict on the amount of footage you can capture at once, but you can set your own maximum time or file size to avoid creating huge, unwieldy videos. You can also break a long video into manageable chunks. Not all of FlashBack's features are included in the main screen recorder – its batch converter and player are bundled in the same download as standalone apps. 7. Icecream Screen Recorder Save your recordings in a format of your choice, or upload to YouTube Like all of its developer's free software, Icecream Screen Recorder is beautifully designed and a piece of cake to use. You can record footage from a webcam as well as your screen, add annotations and doodles, and upload the resulting videos directly to YouTube. Some functions (like the ability to record the area immediately around the mouse pointer) are only available in the premium version, but there's more than enough in the free edition for most purposes. It's a shame that the premium-only features aren't highlighted in the interface – you only find out they're restricted when you try to select one and are presented with a nag screen. 8. eLecta Screen Recorder Put yourself in the frame with eLecta's picture-in-picture recording eLecta Screen Recorder's killer feature is picture-in-picture recording, enabling you to capture your jumps and screams as you make your way through the latest survival horror title, or calmly walk new users through your newly developed personal finance app. You can also watermark your recordings with a custom image, and choose whether to include the cursor and taskbar. eLecta's only drawback is its shortage of export settings; you can only use AVI format and there's no choice of encoding options. If you want a different format, you'll need to convert it using a video editing app like Handbrake. 9. TinyTake Easy to use for quick and simple screen recording tasks TinyTake is a little screen recorder that makes some big promises: not only is it free, it claims to be the best of its breed. It enables you to capture the whole screen or just a region for up to 120 minutes, to annotate the video and to share the results online - provided you have a MangoApps account. It's a well crafted app, but it's best suited to educational and business use where the lack of export options isn't an issue. 10. HyperCam An older version of a premium screen recorder, now yours free HyperCam 4.0 is a premium product, but its developer has generously decided to make HyperCam 2.9 available to download free. The older edition is a simple little screen recorder much like eLecta, which captures the action from your screen and saves it in AVI format. Unlike eLecta, however, picture-in-picture recording isn't an option. Version 4.0 can be downloaded as a free 21-day trial. It has a more modern interface than its predecessor, neatly minimizing itself to the taskbar while it's active, and supports input from your PC's microphone. It's not aimed at gamers, but works well for software tutorials thanks to its support for text annotations and on-screen doodles. What's the best monitor you can buy in 2016?

Downloads: The best free PDF editor 2016 Posted: Free PDF editors The best PDF editor Adobe describes PDF as "three letters that changed the world", and it has a point: the Portable Document Format, to give it its Sunday name, was invented by Adobe to make it easy to share electronic documents. It's now an open standard used in everything from publishing to public bodies, and there are stacks of tools to create, edit, annotate and organise PDFs. But which is the best? We've sorted through the options and picked out the very best PDF editor you can download. If you're a Mac user, don't forget about the Preview app - it's a very useful PDF editor in its own right, although some other programs can do even more. 1. Foxit Reader Flexible and powerful, Foxit Reader is the best free PDF editor around Of all the free PDF tools available for Windows, Foxit Reader is our favorite. It looks and feels rather like Microsoft Office so it's instantly familiar, it has a tabbed interface for working on multiple PDFs simultaneously, and it enables you to complete forms and annotate documents. It also includes security tools for protecting your PDFs. It's expandable via a bunch of add-ons and if you find yourself needing even more power its paid-for sibling, PhantomPDF, has extensive organisation, sharing and document tracking features for a very reasonable US$109 (about £80, AU$140). 2. Adobe Reader Adobe's cross-platform PDF editor is superb for marking up documents Yes, Adobe Reader on the desktop has a reputation for being overly complex and overly needy - but the iOS and Android editions haven't inherited its flaws and stand on their own virtual feet as fast, flexible and lightweight PDF editors. Some of the best features require an Acrobat Pro subscription, so for example editing text isn't possible without Pro, but you can sign and fill forms and export Office documents to PDF. There's support for Dropbox too. 3. PDF24 Creator A printer driver with added editing features for perfect conversions One of the simplest ways to create PDFs in Windows is to install a PDF printer driver. Windows sees it as a printer driver, but instead of controlling hardware it actually converts documents to PDFs. That's what PDF24 Creator offers, but it also adds its own Assistant that can split or merge PDF files, adjust document properties, re-order pages, password protect PDFs and add digital watermarks or signatures. It's hardly the prettiest PDF editor around but it gets on with the job and doesn't require loads of system resources. 4. Adobe Acrobat DC (trial) Edit text, replace and tweak images, add signatures and much more besides The DC stands for Document Cloud, and Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is designed to cover every eventuality - for a price. You can try out the software for free, but the license is an annual subscription that works out at £11.42 (about US$15, AU$20) per month for the Standard editor and £13.33 (about US$18, AU$20) per month for Pro. The Standard edition gives you online access via Adobe's Document Cloud, the ability to create PDFs from almost any source, to work on PDFs via the mobile apps and to electronically sign documents. Going Pro adds multimedia support, the ability to edit scanned documents and the option to request electronic signatures. 5. Nitro PDF Reader Surprisingly powerful, with support for both image and text editing Here's another free PDF editor that looks awfully like Microsoft Office, and once again that's no bad thing. Nitro PDF Reader has a feature set that shames some paid-for apps: despite a price tag of zero it offers document to PDF conversion, annotation and highlighting, image extraction, text editing and e-signatures. It's definitely one to try before you consider paying for a PDF app. 6. PDF-XChange Editor A free PDF editor with OCR for converting image-based PDFs Tracker's PDF-XChange Editor comes in three and a half flavors: a free Lite version for non-commercial use, two paid-for versions at US$43.50 (about £30, AU$60) and US$54.50 (about £40, AU$70) respectively, and stripped-down version of the less expensive premium edition. The free version is quite limited - it's a print-to-PDF app to create searchable PDFs from pretty much any Windows app - but it also has has OCR scanning, Google Drive and Office 365 support, commenting and annotation, markup and file conversion. Paying for a license adds the ability to create forms, more advanced organizational tools and more extensive editing options. 7. SlimPDF Reader A tiny tool that's lacking features, but won't stress underpowered PCs The name should set expectations here: SlimPDF Reader promises to be "10% of the size of Adobe Reader but views 100% of PDFs". It's microscopic by app standards - just 1.43MB - and that's largely because it doesn't really do anything other than view PDFs. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though: its tiny footprint means it doesn't drag your system down like more advanced PDF editord often do, and it's ridiculously fast on even the most modest PCs. 8. Icecream PDF Converter Split hefty documents into manageable sections before conversion Icecream PDF Converter comes from the same developer as the useful Icecream Ebook Reader (which also doubles as a good-looking PDF viewer). This PDF editor and reader is all about the file formats, though. You can drag and drop PDFs onto the app and convert them to JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, GIF, EPS, HTML or WMF format, and you can also convert ebooks and Microsoft Office documents to PDF. It can also run batch conversions and partial conversions for when you only need a few pages of a huge document. That's the good news. The bad news is that you're limited to 10 page PDFs when you export and five files per conversion to PDF unless you buy the Pro version for £14.95 (about US$20, AU$30). 9. AbleWord Convert documents from text format to PDF, and vice versa Here's a blast from the past: AbleWord looks very like an old version of Microsoft Word or a recent OpenOffice app. It works like those apps too, but the unique selling point here is that it supports PDF files as well as the usual DOC, DOCX and RTF formats, and that means it's a handy PDF editor for anybody who needs to create documents in PDF format or convert between Word and PDF formats. OpenOffice can export text documents in PDF format too, but reading them requires installing an extension. AbleWord, by contrast, has PDF import built-in. 10. PDFsam Basic A versatile tool for merging and splitting PDFs in multiple configurations PDFsam is an acronym of PDF Split and Merge, so you can probably guess what it does. Yep, it splits and merges PDFs. You can use this free PDF editor to combine multiple documents or break a single document into multiples, you can merge alternate pages - handy if you're trying to turn single-sided scans of double-sided documents into something readable - and you can split by size, which is useful if you're splitting a huge document across USB drives or other small storage options. There's also a handy tool for rotating pages across multiple documents. The best monitors you can buy in 2016

Downloads: The best free PDF to Word converter 2016 Posted: Convert PDFs to Word format If the precise formatting and fonts of a document are essential, PDF is the perfect format. It requires nothing more than a competent PDF reader for documents to display precisely; everything's packaged in and ready to go. Which is all lovely until you need to extract some of that information. PDFs, if you're using software like Adobe Reader, are usually a one-way street, consigning you to look and not touch. Unless you possess the original document used to generate the PDF in the first place, editing is going to be out of your reach. Or is it? We're here to look at the solution: PDF to Word converters. These tools will analyse PDF files, extract the text and images, and make the best stab they can at creating a Microsoft Word-compatible file that replicates the source. Results are unlikely to be absolutely perfect – particularly if the text in your PDF has been scanned or flattened to an image. Look for a converter with OCR (optical character recognition) if you do have flattened documents. We tested using a sample magazine page from our chums at Computer Arts, and opened the results in Microsoft Word 2010. Note that LibreOffice's much looser interpretation of the DOCX standard will likely lead to quite poor results. 1. Foxyutils A wily utility that copes well with unusual fonts Foxyutils' PDF to Word converter takes the top spot in our test for several reasons. First, it was by far the cleverest when it came to picking a font similar to that of our test document, outputting a Word file very close to the original PDF. Second, it did well with the images in our document, recognising that there was more than one and breaking them up appropriately. And third, when you use Foxyutils' tools, you contribute to the company's tree-planting efforts. Isn't that nice? There are slight restrictions – a lack of OCR chief among them - and obviously you'll need internet connectivity to get the job done. But the lack of a dedicated software package to install, Foxyutils' use of SSL, and its promise to delete files as soon as they're downloaded means you could use this in a business situation if required. 2. Nitro PDF to Word Converter Quick, solid PDF conversion with a couple of niggles You'd be forgiven for missing the free online version of Nitro PDF to Word Converter when visiting its site, given that it's so smothered in adverts for its paid-for desktop app, but this is a perfectly competent free tool – no OCR though, sadly – suitable for occasional use. Upload your PDF, give it an email address to send the results to, and it'll transform that PDF into Word, Excel or Powerpoint files and vice versa; we wouldn't recommend using the Excel converter for mission-critical work, however. We were impressed with its attempt at converting our test document. There was a bit of text cleanup required, possibly as a result of the unusual font, but it separated the page's images into individually editable boxes, got the layout perfectly correct, and even managed to replicate the drop-cap, a feature that's often missed. Overall, not a bad job at all – we'd have preferred a direct download rather than it being delivered via email, but that's a small gripe. 3. UniPDF Great for batch processing but not compatible with all files UniPDF is a completely free Windows desktop PDF to Word converter (unless you're using it commercially) but one which fell over for an unspecified reason when converting our test PDF to Word format. But let's not be hasty here: UniPDF happily extracted the raw text, had no problem converting the PDF to a pixel-perfect PNG file, and did an good job of converting that very same PDF to HTML format, which we'll count as at least a partial pass. Although UniPDF doesn't support OCR (so flattened PDFs won't convert to editable text) we were impressed with its ability to translate our document's mildly unusual fonts into similar examples. It's also an easy app to use if you're doing batch processing – just drag in a folder full of PDFs, hit 'convert' and it'll go through each automatically. Considering the long-winded limitations of many online tools, this is a reason to try UniPDF. But if you absolutely must have a Word document? Maybe not. 4. Free File Converter Quick, easy and dirty converter that does more than just Word Free File Converter couldn't be simpler: upload your PDF, select an output format (everything from doc to ebook formats like EPUB and MOBI) and click the button to get a download link to your converted file. As you might expect, it offers a number of different format conversions besides just PDFs, although there's no OCR to be seen. PDF to Word conversion was okay, but not exceptional. Some of the text formatting Free File Converter gave us was a bit off, with certain headlines running over from one line to two, and it rendered all of the images on the page as a single background graphic, limiting flexibility. But there's one huge upside: Free File Converter can handle PDFs up to 300MB in size, so if you've got a huge, simple PDF to process it could be just the trick. 5. OnlineOCR An OCR specialist – as long as you feed it the right file Our sole OCR-only tool in this test, but there's a reason: OCR works well in certain circumstances, and very poorly in others. Our magazine page, when flattened and run through OnlineOCR's converter, did not fare well. Whether this is a limitation of the unusual fonts or the background images we're not sure, but the mess it made of the boxes at the bottom of the page suggest it's just not great at this sort of complex PDF to Word conversion. That's not to say it's a poor tool. Far from it; this outperforms a number of competing sites in its class, so much so that we've actually used OnlineOCR here at TechRadar to pull text from magazines so old that their archive discs have crumbled – although this required a lot of preprocessing to improve the clarity and contrast of text. Scanned PDFs of black text on white background tend to work perfectly without any fiddling, so if you've got a suitable source you'll get on well with this tool.

Downloads: The best free uninstaller 2016 Posted: The best free software uninstaller Software installers are rarely tidy - they spread files throughout your system, and their built-in uninstallers don't always clear it all away afterwards. Sometimes you'll be informed that "some elements could not be removed" as the uninstaller effectively shrugs its shoulders and leaves the mess behind - whether it's temporary files, old shortcuts or broken registry entries. All this detritus builds up over time, and can slow down your system or cause conflicts further down the line - particularly in the case of security software, which won't run properly if it detects files associated with another tool. Third-party uninstallers can clear up the mess in moments. If you're already having trouble with a program you thought you'd removed, the tool can scan your drives for files and broken links left over. If you want to uninstall a program thoroughly, the tool will run the program's own uninstaller, then perform a cleanup scan immediately afterwards. More advanced tools will monitor what happens when you install a new program - what files are created and changed - so it can rapidly reverse those changes when you want to remove it. 1. IObit Uninstaller Thorough and thoughtfully designed - IObit is the best around IObit Uninstaller gets right down to business, scanning your system for installed software the moment it starts. Its smart, clear interface displays a list of all your installed software, with extra tabs if you're only interested in the newest programs (if you've tried something new and don't like it), and the biggest ones (which will have the greatest impact on system performance). There's a batch processing option for removing multiple programs at once. If you've already uninstalled a program but suspect it's left mucky footprints across your drive, IObit's deep scanner can hunt down junk including broken shortcuts and caches created when installing software updates. IObit Uninstaller also takes a look at your web browsers to identify any plugins that could be uninstalled to speed up your surfing. It currently supports Firefox and Internet Explorer, but not Chrome or Edge. Each extension is accompanied by a user rating to help you decide whether to keep it. There's a file shredder thrown in too, which doesn't really fit with the premise of an uninstaller, but all the other tools are relevant and useful. IObit Uninstaller is the best free uninstaller you can download, and its thorough scanning makes it the equal of many premium programs. 2. Wise Program Uninstaller Light as a feather, but less thorough than IObit Wise Program Uninstaller is a portable app, so you don't have to worry about it leaving mess of its own, though it offers you a free trial of a product called Spyhunter that you might prefer to decline. It's a very quick and lean little uninstaller that scans your system for already installed programs and displays ratings to show you how other users feel about them. You probably already know what you want to erase, but it's a thoughtful touch. Your choices for each program are Safe and Forced uninstall (some also have a Repair option, but only if it's part of the software in the first place). Safe uninstall is simply a way to access the program's own uninstaller, whereas Forced performs a deep scan to track down scrap files and broken registry entries. It shows you everything it's identified before deleting them, but this doesn't serve much purpose; you're unlikely to be able to pick out an individual Registry entry and say "Hang on, I need that!" The main downside of its small size is that it can't log new programs as you install them, but as a program uninstaller it's well designed and not bulked out with unecessary system tools. 3. GeekUninstaller A streamlined little app to mop up messy software GeekUninstaller is another free portable uninstaller, weighing in at just 2.5MB. Although a 'Pro' version is advertised on developer's site, this is actually a completely different program called Uninstall Tool - GeekUninstaller is completely free, It performs a speedy system scan and provides the usual options: regular or forced uninstall. If you don't recognize something, GeekUninstaller will Google it for you - a simple but welcome addition that saves you loading up a browser. That's pretty much it - there's no deep scan for remnants of previously uninstalled programs, and no monitoring for new installations, but if you're simply after something to clean up as you go, uninstallers don't come smaller and simpler than this. It comes in over 30 languages too, which is undoubtedly a bonus. 4. Ashampoo Uninstaller (trial) A premium trial to give your system a thorough scouring This is a time-limited trial of Ashampoo Uninstaller rather than the full program, but is well worth considering if you need to purge your PC of one particularly stubborn piece of software, or want to give it a thorough spring clean. The basic trial lasts 10 days, but you can extend for an extra month by signing up for an account (a standard requirement with Ashampoo's free software). The uninstaller itself is impressive, as you'd expect from a premium product - it can remove existing applications, and log new ones as you add them. You can set it to start automatically at the same time as Windows, though your startup time might take a knock as a result. There are also system optimization tools like a file shredder, file restorer, disk defragmenter and even a font manager, but Ashampoo Uninstaller is an excellent tool without these - they are just padding. 5. Revo Uninstaller Free Effective, but bloated with strange and unnecessary extras Revo Uninstaller Free's icon-strewn interface is colorful but cluttered, and includes tools like a startup program manager, plus links to Windows' own system tools (including defrag and on-screen keyboard). These really aren't necessary, and just distract from an otherwise solid free uninstaller. There are four uninstall options: built-in, safe (built-in with additional registry scanning), moderate (with extra scanning of common locations for leftover files) and advanced (moderate mode, followed by a thorough scanning of your whole system). There's also a strange 'Hunter Mode', which lets you uninstall programs by dragging their icons onto a crosshair on your desktop. It's much more work than selecting the program from a list - a metaphor gone rogue. Unlike some uninstallers, Revo begins by creating a system restore point, which is reassuring. It can't log new installations, though - if you want that, you might like to give Revo's Pro version a whirl for 30 days. It's worlds away from the free edition's late-90s styling, and will give your drives a good scrubbing.

Downloads: The best free system utilities 2016 Posted: Free system utilities A PC or Mac is rather like a car. That showroom-fresh saloon doesn't seem so sleek and shiny once road film, suicidal insects and evil supermarket car park users start ruining it, and that speedy new computer soon begins to sag under the stress of unnecessary apps, unwanted add-ons and other irritations. Thank crikey, then, for system utilities and tools: the right ones make your PC or Mac feel brand new, or at least an awful lot faster and a lot less crashy. There are thousands of system utilities out there, but these are our favourites - although as with any freeware, be very careful when you're installing any of them. Many free apps' installers are awfully keen on giving you extra software, toolbars or changes to your search engine that you might not want - see our guide to avoiding potentially unwanted programs. 1. CCleaner Remove unneeded files for a quick and easy speed boost CCleaner has been around for a long time, and part of the reason for its ongoing popularity is that it cleans the parts of your PC that many other free system utilitites don't. There are paid-for versions that add real time protection and cleanup scheduling, but the free edition covers the important stuff such as removing temporary files, getting rid of browser caches, removing unwanted cookies while keeping the useful ones and so on. If your PC feels slow or sluggish then this is the system utility to try first, and thanks to its huge array of features and deep scans, it's our favorite free system speed-up tool. Have we missed a system utility you rely on to keep your PC in top shape? Let us know in the comments below. 2. PC Decrapifier Uninstall the junkware that comes with a new PC Like CCleaner, PC Decrapifier's job is to remove unnecessary files and programs for your PC. It's particularly useful on brand new PCs, which are often either full of exciting opportunities to discover new apps or stuffed to the gills with a load of preinstalled junk, depending on your point of view. Free system utility PC Decrapifier analyses your system, shows you the apps it thinks you should get rid of - based not just on its developers' opinions, but on other users' feedback - and then removes the ones you choose. It's so focused on cleaning PCs it doesn't even install itself. One of the tidiest system utilities around. 3. Autoruns Stop unnecessary startup processes to speed up boot times We don't normally quote former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, but when he said "There are known knowns. These are things that we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know," he could have been describing the apps you know you're running - the known knowns - and the ones you don't. The latter category of software runs when you boot Windows, or log in, or launch certain system tools. You can find and get rid of the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns with the superb system utility Autoruns. 4. Recuva An essential system utility for recovering lost or accidentally deleted data There are lots of data recovery tools out there, but Recuva is our favorite. Not only can it recover files that have been deleted but not overwritten, this free system utility can recover files from removable media such as USB drives and memory cards. It can even get data off damaged discs, although naturally the success rate depends on the kind and extent of the damage. The paid-for Pro version adds support for virtual hard disks and offers technical support too, but the free one is worth sticking on a thumb drive as part of your emergency toolkit. 5. 3DP Chip A convenient tool to keep your hardware drivers up to date The near-infinite variety of possible Windows PC configurations is a great thing, but it can also lead to a great big pain in the backside: ensuring that the device drivers, the bits of software that Windows uses to communicate with your various bits of hardware, remain up to date. It's worth doing because driver updates banish bugs, vanquish vulnerabilities and fix flaws, but it's not remotely quick or fun. Enter 3DP Chip, a free system utility that can do the dirty work for you - and unlike some other driver update programs, it doesn't try to install a whole bunch of nonsense on your PC either. 6. SpaceSniffer Find out what's taking up so much space on your hard drive or SSD You're running out of space but you've no idea why. Does that sound familiar? Then you need free system utility SpaceSniffer, which enables you to see what's taking up space via a format known as a Treemap. It's a very immediate way to understand where the space hogs are on your system, and the filtering means you can limit the visualisation to certain kinds of files or to exclude certain kinds of files. You can also combine filters to look for space hogs of a particular kind or vintage. 7. Auslogics Duplicate File Finder Delete redundant files to free up space on your hard drive or SSD One of the downsides of digital media is that it's very easy to end up with multiple copies of the same thing taking up valuable storage space. That's bad enough on a hard disk, but on the more limited space of an SSD it's even more of a problem - or at least, it is if you don't have Auslogics Duplicate File Finder. This free system utility scans your PC for duplicate files and enables you to restrict the search to specific file types or sizes, and you can specify whether duplicates should be binned or placed in a holding area for you to check them out. This is a great and genuinely useful app for Windows users of all kinds. 8. Revo Uninstaller Free Remove all traces of uninstalled programs to avoid junk buildup If you like trying new apps you'll be horribly familiar with the joys of built-in software uninstallers, which all too often leave bits and pieces everywhere. It's a particular pain when a program comes with additional tools like browser toolbars and unwanted 'helper' apps, which then have to be removed separately. Revo Uninstaller Free is a free system utility that solves the problem by scanning for the bits the standard uninstaller often leaves behind, and its multiple uninstall option means it's a big time saver too. The free version can't uninstall apps that were on your PC before you installed it, but it does a good job of getting shot of anything added since. 9. Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) Keep your software up to date with the latest bug fixes and security patches Secunia PSI solves one of the biggest headaches for Windows users: keeping software up to date in order to keep your system secure. The free system utility knows about thousands of different programs and can scan your system to identify whether you have the most up to date versions. And here's the best bit: if you don't, this free system utility can usually download and install the necessary updates and/or patches without any further intervention from you. The combination of PSI and Windows Update should ensure that malware can't exploit any vulnerabilities in unpatched software. 10. OnyX A system cleanup tool to keep Macs running quickly and smoothly The majority of system tune-up and cleaning apps are for Windows, but Macs get messy too - and on OS X, the evergreen OnyX is often the solution. It can get shot of bulging system logs and clean up files that are no longer needed, it can turn on hidden features in OS X itself and you can use it to schedule dull but useful maintenance tasks. It has two companion system utilities, both also free: Deeper is purely for personalisation while Maintenance covers - yep - maintenance. For most people OnyX offers the best of both.

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