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It's a nightmare, the frightening scenario that scares every Microsoft Office owner: one of your most important Word, Excel or PowerPoint files has somehow been corrupted. And now it either won't open at all, or you're able to view some of the content - but the rest seems to have disappeared.

The sight of hours, days, maybe weeks of work apparently gone forever is enough to ruin anyone's day, but don't give up just yet. The situation may not be quite as bad as it seems.

Office itself can fix some broken files; there are free plenty of tools around that can achieve even better results; and even if they fail, applying a few simple, straightforward manual tricks could be enough to recover your lost work, and in just a few minutes.

Make a copy of the faulty document before you do anything else: our techniques aren't destructive, but it's best to be safe. And then you're ready to begin. Here's what you need to know.

1. Volume Shadow Copy

If you're using Windows 7, or the Business, Enterprise or Ultimate edition of Windows Vista then the built-in shadow copy centre may have an older and uncorrupted version of your file.

To find out, launch Explorer, right-click the folder that contained the document and select Properties. If you see a Previous Versions tab then click that. And if all is well then you'll see a list of entries for the folder, going back days, or maybe weeks.

SHADOW: Windows may have made a backup copy of your document. How thoughtful

Double-click one with a date when you know the document was readable, and try opening this older version. If it works, save it with a new name, then repeat the process with later folder entries until you reach the point where the file became corrupted.

This will get you a baseline version of the file, but you may still have lost plenty of work: if so, don't stop here. Keep trying the following steps and you may be able to recover the latest copy of the file, too.

2. Undelete

Depending on your Office setup and the history of this document, you may have backup, autorecover or other temporary copies of the file. If this is a Word document, for instance, try searching for *.WBK or *.ASD files of the right size and date, opening likely matches in Word to see what turns up (more on that topic at the Microsoft site).

In addition, Office apps will generally create a hidden temporary file with a copy of your document, as you work on it, so locating this file can be useful. The copy is deleted when you close your Office application, though, so you'll need an undelete tool. Grab a copy of Recuva (www.piriform.com/recuva) if you don't have one already.

RECUVA: Undelete tools like Recuva may help you find old Office temporary files

Now ask the program to search the folder where your document is stored for all files (or *.TMP files if you can filter by extension).

If a deleted file of around the right date and size is available, then recover it, ideally to a different drive (a USB flash drive will be fine). Rename the TMP extension to match the real document format, then try opening it to see what you've recovered.

3. Test your assumptions

If Office tells you that a file is corrupt and can't be opened then you'll probably believe it - but there could be other explanations. Your Office app may be having some fundamental problems of its own, for instance.

So if you have a problem opening one document, then confirm the results by opening others, or creating a new document, saving and reopening that.

If the application works fine with other files then you've shown that the original document is most likely at fault.

REINSTALL: If the problem is with Office itself then a repair installation may fix the problem

But if there are problems elsewhere, as well, then perhaps the issue is with Office. You might try repairing the current installation (in Windows 7, go to Control Panel, Uninstall a Program, choose Office, click Change and select the Repair option), or reinstalling the entire package. Now try opening the document again, and you may well have better luck.

4. Open and Repair

Office can fix some corrupt documents on its own. And this will often happen automatically. You'll notice a longer pause than usual while Office is working on the file, then your document will either open as normal, or you'll see an error message describing the problem.

If Office doesn't try this itself, though, you can manually ask that it fix a specific document. Just go to open a file as normal, choose the document in question, then click the arrow to the right of the Open button and select Open and Repair.

If the corruption is relatively minor then this may be enough to restore your work. But don't expect too much: the Open and Repair option doesn't seem particularly smart, and in our tests, damaging just a byte or two in keys areas of a document would prevent it from opening at all.

REPAIR: Office's own Open and Repair function is enough to repair some documents

Should you still be having problems, there's a second, very much bare-bones Word option.

Go to open a file again, choose your damaged document, and select "Recover Text from Any File" in the "Files of Type" box. This should be able to recover any raw text from the file, but images and raw formatting will be lost .

Save this version anyway - it may be the best you'll get - but there are techniques that may be able to achieve more complete results.

5. Replace your template

While we've ruled out major Office-wide problems as the cause of your document difficulties, there could be more minor issues. Word could be affected by a faulty template, maybe; a dubious addon; possibly even a printer issue.

TEMPLATE: A change of template could make a Word document viewable again

You could address each of these points individually. Or you might opt to tackle several of them in one go, for example running Word in Safe Mode (a bare-bones launch that disables all installed add-ons, amongst other things). Read Microsoft's official guide to troubleshooting damaged documents in Word 2007 and 2010 to help you decide.

6. Office Visualisation Tool

Microsoft's Office Visualisation Tool (OffVis for short) is a highly technical utility which allows security researchers to take a close look at the structure of DOC, XLS or PPT files.

It also includes a useful Repair option, though, so if your document is saved in the older binary formats (not the later DOCX, XLSX or PPTX) then Offvis may allow you to recover at least something from the file.

VISUALISE: If looks horribly technical, but actually Microsoft Offvis includes a very quick and easy Office file repair feature

The program is extremely easy to use.

Just click File > Open, and choose your broken document. You'll see its raw contents displayed in the left hand side.

Click Tools > Repair and Defragment. There's no dialog box, no progress bar, no sign that anything has happened at all, but OffVis is busy working in the background.

Then click File > Save Data File As (not "Save Data File" as you don't want to overwrite the original file), save the document with a new name, and try opening it. While the results aren't perfect (and in theory they be worse than the original document), we found OffVis was able to recover files where Open and Repair failed miserably, so it's definitely worth a try.

7. Alternative applications

Opening Office documents is a complicated business. And in software development terms, there are many possible ways to get the job done.

So just because, say, Word displays an error message when you open a particular file, doesn't mean other apps that can read that format will behave in the same way. They may be able to cope with whatever the problem is, and give you access to at least some of your work.

Windows WordPad can open .DOC files in Vista and XP, for instance. In Windows 7 it only appears to support the .DOCX format (and then only partially), but choose a .DOC file anyway and you may at least be able to view any text it contains.

WORDPAD: WordPad can open .DOC and some .DOCX files

For wider and more reliable opening of Office files (all formats) you could try installing a copy of OpenOffice. Many people report that this provides reliable access to damaged files.

And any other programs that can read your document format might be useful. AbiWord is a powerful little editor that can read DOC and DOCX files, for instance - let it try importing your broken document and see what happens.

8. Recovery tools

As you might expect, there are a whole host of programs designed to bring back corrupt Office files from the dead. Most of the best are commercial, some very expensive, but there are also plenty of freebies and good value deals available.

It may not have been updated in a long time, for example, but Repair My Word can still repair many damaged .DOC files.

S2 Services has free tools to recover the text from DOCX, XLSX and many other file types, as well as general recovery advice.

FREE TOOLS: S2 Services provide free tools to recover content from DOCX and XLSX files

And Cimaware's commercial range of products (there are separate tools for Access, Excel, Word and Outlook) was very effective in our tests, and supports just about every Office version and file type. Prices start at £69 for WordFix, and that's a special offer, but there is a free trial version that will display a partial preview of the recovered file, so you're able to check the program's abilities before you buy.

9. DIY

If nothing else can recover your DOCX, PPTX or XLSX document, then you can always take a closer look for yourself.

These formats are actually ZIP files, so a good place to start is to rename a copy of the document to have a ZIP extension, then use your archiving tool to extract its contents.

If this doesn't work then you may have discovered the core problem: your document is so damaged that it's not recognisable as ZIP file any more. Try specialist repair tools like Object Fix Zip or DiskInternals ZIP Repair to see if they can help, and anything they can do may allow Office to properly open the file.

ZIP: DOCX documents are actually ZIP files, and may be viewable in archiving tools like 7-Zip

If you can at least unzip the file, though, then you'll unpack XML files that describe the document. In the case of a Word .DOCX file, for instance, browsing to the Word folder will display a Document.xml file which should contain the raw document text, as well as other files covering headers, footers, footnotes, endnotes and more.

Double-clicking these won't give you the full formatting, of course, but at least you'll have the core body text, with images in the Media folder. And if nothing else has managed to recover even that much then then this is still very good news, enough to save you a great deal of time and hassle.

1. AirDisplay - £5.99

I'm a firm believer that multiple medium-sized monitors make you more productive than one big one – we humans seem to work well with compartmentalised tasks – and if you have an iPad or even iPhone, you can add AirDisplay to turn it into an extra screen for your Mac.

It works over Wi-Fi, and I've found myself using it often at home when I just want a separate space to look at grabs, say, while I'm writing. It's not a permanent solution, but it's a handy thing to have. That iPads/iPhone are battery-powered is a bonus.

2. Artrage studio - £29

For all but the most dedicated – or especially solvent – graphic artists, the natural media application Corel Painter is an expensive luxury when the ArtRage range exists. Its watercolour is a bit disappointing, but the acrylic paints look good, and there's enough flexibility here to work with.

I love that the interface can easily be shoved to the perimeter so that I can concentrate on my drawing or painting – my background's in design – and the way I can have source images pinned to the screen. The tracing feature is a really great way to get a head start on a piece if you're in a hurry.

3. BOINC - £FREE

In the old days, if scientists wanted to crunch a bunch of numbers, they'd have to build or rent space on a supercomputer, one single, monolithic, terrifyingly expensive cluster of processors. The advent of the internet, however, has given rise to a new kind of computing: distributed computing.

The basic idea may be simple – an organisation parcels up little bundles of work, and sends them out to millions of computers all over the world to do then report back on – but the results can be extraordinary.

Though there are a few different distributed computing frameworks around, BOINC is particularly worthwhile as it enables lots of different research institutes to run their projects on a common system; install BOINC, and you can choose to participate in projects looking for cures for cancer and AIDS, looking for models that will help predict climate change, or even just looking for extraterrestrial life with the venerable SETI@home project.

Install BOINC, sign up for one or more projects, and decide how you want it to run. You could run it constantly in the background or just as a screensaver. Either way, this app offers a great way to put your Mac's spare processor cycles to good use.

4. Candybar - $29

CandyBar helps you organise icons that you've downloaded from sites such as http://iconfactory.com – iPhoto for icons, if you like – and lets you apply them individually or in sets to specific items or system-wide. It also doubles up, for me, as a quickand- dirty way to apply ICNS files to folders, or convert Photoshop sketches to icons that can be applied.

5. Carbonite - £41.95/year

I'm paranoid about backup – as everyone ought to be! – so as well as using Time Machine, SugarSync and SuperDuper, all for different reasons, I also bought a subscription to Carbonite as it enables me to back up everything on my MacBook Pro to a secure, offsite, properly managed server system. Even if my flat was razed to the ground, my data – irreplaceable photos, never mind work stuff – is safe.

6. Cocktail - $14.95

I fire up Cocktail every once in a while to clear out some of the background detritus that accumulates on any modern computer; blitzing log files and the like, and running a permissions check. It does more, though, offering simple checkboxes to help configure hidden options on your system. Exhaustive to the point of baffling, but worth the poking around.

7. Delivery Status - £FREE

This lovingly crafted little widget for Mac OS X's Dashboard layer tracks deliveries though all the big courier companies, including City Link, FedEx, Parcelforce, the Royal Mail, TNT, UPS and USPS. Delivery Status also ties directly into some stores' order and delivery systems, most notably Amazon and, of course, Apple.

Entering delivery details is easy, and the fact that it's a Dashboard widget means you only have to tap a single key to take a quick glance at how your delivery is coming along.

Of course it's only as good as the data the courier provides, but it's undeniably more convenient, especially if you're tracking multiple deliveries. I love, too, that it syncs with a service in the cloud that can also push delivery notifications to a £2.99 iPhone/iPad app.

8. Disc Cover 2 - $34.95

The software from Ukrainian company BeLight Software is clean, friendly, very Apple-like, and often criminally ignored by other Mac-centric magazines and websites. Its Pages-like desktop publishing package Swift Publisher 2 won our group test in issue 222, and Disc Cover 2 is not only instantly familiar to anyone who uses Swift Publisher, but is equally intuitive for any Mac user.

It's an app, as the name suggests, for creating labels and cases for CDs and DVDs, and it works very well indeed. Launch it and it opens with a blank document for a CD or DVD face; when you can drop in graphics, Disc Cover crops them down to fit the circular shape automatically, and lets you move, rotate and scale at will.

What I really love is that there are hundreds of presets for lots of different types of CD label systems from Avery, Fellowes and many more besides, and if you're printing onto sheets of labels, it's easy to tell the software which of the labels on an A4 page, for example, you want to print to. Of course, you can set up custom layouts, and manually nudge the printout if alignment is a little off.

Best of all for me, I can use Disc Cover to create designs that I can send wirelessly to print directly onto the face of printable discs on my Canon Pixma MP640. And it's so quick and easy to use that I'm happy to throw together a design for compilation CDs to keep in the car, never mind crafting covers for personal and professional projects.

It can also do layouts for tray and cover inserts, and import track information directly from iTunes. If you own a recent version of Roxio Toast, you'll actually find a 'lite' edition of Disc Cover in the same folder.

9. EyeTV - From £49.95 with tuner

The current incarnation of this app is nicely evolved, but it's functionally very similar to how it's always been – EyeTV is still the nicest way to watch, record and edit TV on your Mac. I use it on my Mac mini media centre all the time; I particularly like setting up a Smart Guide to list all upcoming films that I can just scroll through and record, later trimming and exporting to Front Row. It has broadened my taste in movies, and boosted my iTunes collection.

10. HandBrake - £FREE

Handbrake is basically a transcoder; it converts digital video files into a different format. Sounds dull, but one of its best uses is to convert almost any movie into a file that can play on an iPod, iPhone or iPad.

It comes with a slew of different presets, but it's hugely configurable as well, so that with sufficient experimentation, you can balance quality and compression to suit you. It hooks up with VLC for codec help and some other naughtiness that lets it convert commercial DVDs.

11. iPlayer Desktop £FREE

Yes, it's an AIR app, and yes, its use of Flash for the video player means iPlayer Desktop is really demanding on your CPU, but the ability to download BBC programmes for later watching is terrific.

12. iStat Menus $16

As you'd expect, I'm forever working on fresh Macs, or setting up new systems. Literally, the first thing I do – before I even open Software Update to patch the system – is go to bjango.com and download iStat Menus.

Without it installed on a Mac, I feel blind; is that site loading slowly because the server is having problems, or is it my internet connection? Why are my MacBook Pro's fans suddenly spinning up; what app's gobbling up CPU cycles? Hey, that Time Machine backup seems to have stalled; is there actually any data flowing on the FireWire 800 bus? Do I have enough space on my internal SSD to download that HD programme on iPlayer?

iStat Menus puts a series of highly configurable status icons in my Mac's menubar that I glance frequently to check what my Mac's up to; if I want more detail, I can click on the various icons to drill down into richer info. And even though, in Snow Leopard, the Mac can display the date beside the clock in the menubar, I much prefer the smart black icon that iStat Menus can use.

Oh, and the second thing I do is open Terminal and write defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES to disable that visually cluttered 3D Dock.

13. Last.fm £FREE

Spotify? Whatever. I still love the (ad-free) service from Last.fm. Give it the name of an artist, a genre or a tag, and it will create a unique radio station for you, playing similar music in a never-ending stream over the internet. It's terrific for discovering new artists, and really superb on the iPhone. And as a geek, I particularly like that it optionally tracks what you're listening to in iTunes, and lets you review your habits.

14. LogMeIn From £FREE

I like the promise of Back to My Mac, the bit of my MobileMe subscription that lets me connect to my Mac at home, say, from the office, and control it as if I were sitting in front of it. In my experience, though, it's unreliable; LogMeIn always works, and there's an iPhone/iPad app as well.

15. MacUpdate Desktop $20/year

Keeping your software up to date is usually a good idea; not only do updated versions sometimes add new features, but they also bring with them fixes for bugs and often stability and security advances as well. It can be a pain to have to check the sites of dozens of developers on the off-chance that an update is available, but MacUpdate checks them all for you; it can update most apps itself, so you can do everything with one click.

16. NetNewsWire £10.62

RSS feeds, those content-only, stripped-down versions of websites that get piped automatically to you whenever new content is added, are the best way to keep yourself in the loop. I have a very carefully selected list of a little over 150 feeds managed in a system of folders in NetNewsWire that help keep me informed and entertained.

Because NetNewsWire syncs with the free Google Reader online service, I can view and read my feed items on my iPhone, iPad, PC – yes, I have one! – and both my personal and work Macs. When I read an item on one, it's marked as read on others.

17. Nisus Writer Pro $79

I do most of my writing for MacFormat in Nisus Writer Pro. For me this word processor offers the perfect balance of simplicity and flexibility. It's more powerful than this, but you can think of it a bit like TextEdit with a fly-out drawer on the right with a bunch more options.

It supports styles, of course, can do footnotes and tables – and tables of contents – and some basic layout things such as changing margins and creating multi-column layouts and sections.

Most importantly of all it shows a live word and character count, and through its support for all the standard Mac OS X text-ending shortcuts, I can quickly select blocks of text to see if I'm writing to fit. And I am.

18. Plex £FREE

Nobody has been able to make the perfect interface for watching TV and movies. But, the best option we have is Plex. It's a brilliant open-source project and as well as giving you a great interface to local files and streaming services, it packs lots of codecs to help play most files.

19. RipIt $19.95

There are lots of legitimate reasons to want to rip DVDs – though this software has other uses too – and RipIt does it with aplomb. Stick in a disc and RipIt will save it to your hard disk without compression (it does basic compression if you want) as a .dvdmedia file that you can double-click to watch in DVD Player.

20. Socialite £20.60

Sick of logging into twitter.com, facebook.com, flickr.com, google.com/reader and digg.com, trying to work out what you've seen already? Socialite puts them all into one app, and lets you reply to and interact with updates, photos and more. It takes a while to set up, but it's worth it.

21. Spotify £FREE

We're banned from using Spotify at work, and you can understand why; if hundreds of people were using this free music streaming service, our bandwidth would plummet! At home, though, it's a fantastic way of checking out bands; if you decide to buy an album or track, be sure to do it through Spotify so they get a kick-back.

22. Scrivener $39.95

Most Apple-using folks, when comparing Mac and PC, will talk about the fact that there exists for Mac OS X an equivalent of pretty much any app Windows users will be familiar with. What they often fail to mention, though, is that the Mac boasts a handful of applications that have no equivalent on Windows, and that are so wonderful, they are reason enough to buy a Mac.

Scrivener is one such app. It's a word processor, but one focussed on the task of writing complex, structured documents such as novels or, in my case, features and group tests for MacFormat. (It also has a range of presets for writing screenplays, and so is a legitimate competitor to the heavyweight Final Draft app.)

Rather than creating one hugely long, linear document in Nisus Writer or (shudder) Word, Scrivener lets me create a raft of discrete, re-orderable documents that I can focus on one at a time. Each document can have a word or character count associated with it, as well as a notes field that is invaluable when writing group tests.

The Research folder can hold webarchive files from Safari – a terrific way for me to refer to products' spec sheets or Wikipedia references, for example – as well as PDFs. (After we've decided on a layout for a complex feature, Alex, our art editor, creates a rough layout and outputs this as a PDF, so it's great to have as reference.)

And because you can split the writing view horizontally or vertically, it's easy to write while keeping an eye on your notes and reference. Documents can be exported in a range of formats, and Scrivener documents themselves are just a special kind of folder; right-click on one to Show Package Contents and you'll see that they just consist of a series of nested RTFs.

Your writing isn't locked away in a dangerously proprietary format. The developer himself is actually a writer who, when he realised there was no software that did what he actually wanted it to, took time out, taught himself how to code, and created Scrivener.

It shines through; this really is a writer's tool, and I'm delighted not only by Scrivener's fantastic abilities, but also by the fact that whenever I discover a new ability, it works in exactly the way that I'd want it to.

23. SugarSync From $49.99/year

I bought a subscription to SugarSync because it acts not just as an offsite backup – copying essential work files to its servers – but because it syncs files across multiple computers, even those running Mac OS X 10.5 or Windows XP and later.

Unlike Dropbox, which currently mandates that you put the files you want to sync into a specific folder, SugarSync just asks you what folders from your existing folder hierarchy you want to sync.

I especially love that if I have to put my MacBook Pro in for repair, I can just use another of my computers; all the files will be there, and any changes I make will be synced back when I open up the laptop again.

24. SuperDuper! £19.85

If the SSD in my MacBook Pro failed, I have to give all the other backup systems I use time before I could actually start working again. With Time Machine, I'd have to reinstall and start to copy everything back to a new disk, and Carbonite and SugarSync would take an age to download.

SuperDuper!, though, creates a bootable backup. I just have to restart and hold down å , pick the SuperDuper backup volume, and I'm working again. The paid version does incremental backups, so the clone is updated at 16:45 every work day.

25. Things £44.95

Forty-five quid? For a to-do manager? Yeah, I know, it seems like – and, frankly, is – a lot, but, although I'm late to the party, I'm a total Things convert. The beauty of the system, for me, is that once I've taken a little time to set up areas of responsibility, projects, tags and deadlines, I can throw stuff I need to do into the app, and each day check it to see what I need to do.

It syncs with the iPhone and iPad – though each edition is a separate app – over a local network (cloud sync is coming soon), and though the system isn't perfect, it's a great de-stresser; I don't have to worry about remembering stuff any more.

26. Transmission £FREE

There are lots of clients for the Mac that hook into the world of BitTorrent, but Transmission is the one I use; it's clean, simple-yet-configurable, and Mac-like. BitTorrent is a system for downloading files that are held not on a central server, but on the hard disks of many thousands of ordinary users like you and me all over the world.

Though it has a murky reputation, BitTorrent can be used for good; Linux distros, for example, many of which work on Intel or even PowerPC Mac hardware, are often distributed using it. I like the web interface, too, which lets me add torrents to my Mac mini at home from my iPhone when I'm away.

27. Transmit $34

It will come as no surprise to learn that I'm forever shuttling huge files – podcast recordings, high-resolution graphics, InDesign files and more – around the world, especially as we have a sister magazine, Mac|Life, in San Francisco. And I also, because of the way our networks are set up at Future, use FTP to transfer stuff to and from our corporate servers from the personal MacBook Pro on which I do all my work.

Transmit is a lovely client for FTP, SFTP, WebDAV (the protocol iDisk uses; Transmit is a brilliant, fast, front end to iDisk) and other standards, and the new version even lets you mount remote servers as disks in your Finder sidebar, making it easy to open files live from remote servers. Its developers are gratifyingly passionate about the Mac, too; the attention to detail, even just in the order page online, is staggering.

28. VMware Fusion £53.95

I always have to keep the occasional Windows machine around to check stuff, and Fusion is my favourite way to do it. I keep virtual machines for every major version of Windows since 3.1 as virtual machines on a big external disk. Ironically, perhaps, our sister PC magazines often come to me for grabs.

29. Wallet $20

It's fitting that the last app in this feature should be Wallet, as without it, I'd lose all the serial numbers for my app. Wallet lets me keep them, with login details and other notes, all secure and synced via MobileMe to my iPhone using a separate £2.99 app.

30. iSale €39.95

Last time I went to sell something on eBay, I was working on a clean system and didn't have any eBay apps installed. The online process was horrible, however, so I installed iSale quick-smart.

If you've been wondering when theOffice 2010 beta expiry date is, wonder no more. Your copy of Microsoft Office 2010 Beta is set to expire on 31 October 2010.

Microsoft is still taking feedback on the Office 2010 beta as well as Microsoft Office Online.

The public beta became available last November as Microsoft sought widespread public testing of its new version of Office in the wake of a successful Windows 7 beta program. Office 2010 was fully released in June.

However, as with all beta software, it only has a limited life - in this case, you'll have been able to use it for nearly a year for free.

• Read our full Microsoft Office 2010 review

The versions of Office 2010 available in the shops are: Office Home and Student Edition, Office Home and Business version.

Price-wise, the cheapest version of the software – other than the free web version – is Office Home and Student which retails for £109.99. This includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

The Professional suite is £429.99 and includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, and Publisher.

Microsoft's browser is 15 years old today. The browser's roots are far older though. Development at the National Center for Super Computing Applications (NCSA) produced 1987's Mosaic browser. The tech was transferred to a company called Spyglass which in turn licensed it to Microsoft.

The browser wasn't launched with Windows 95 (which launched 15 years ago next week) but was part of the Windows 95 Plus Pack. This included a component called the Internet Jumpstart Kit now replaced by the Internet Connection Wizard.

An interesting fact is that a lot of the team that created Mosaic went on to develop Netscape Navigator, the forerunner to Firefox.

Let's take a quick look at how the browser has evolved over the last decade and a half.

Internet Explorer 1.0 - 1995

The original IE was just 1MB in size but was extremely limited in functionality. Version 1.5 was released several months later for Windows NT, the business version of Windows that went on to become Windows 2000 before being adopted as the codebase for Windows XP.

Internet Explorer 2.0 - 1995

Version 2.0 added support for web technologies such as SSL, cookies and newsgroups. Web pages remained very, very grey.

Internet Explorer 3.0 - 1996

When the OEM version of Windows 95 was updated in 1996, it was shipped with IE3. As Microsoft made no money from IE, it was still only paying Spyglass a nominal fee. Internet Mail and News was also included.

Internet Explorer 4.0 - 1997

Another revamp of the Windows 95 OEM version resulted in IE4 and overlapped into the Windows 98 era. The rubbish Active Desktop was included (so you could embed a webpage on the desktop). DHTML was also supported and Outlook Express 4.0 was included with the download.

Internet Explorer 5.0 - 1999

CSS Level 1 and 2 support joined some text enhancements on the feature list for IE5, which was superseded by verison 5.5 when the truly woeful Windows Me hit the shelves in July 2000.

Internet Explorer 6.0 - 2001

The Windows XP browser IE6 remains a staple on many desktops, much to the annoyance of many a web designer. It was a long-lasting version, thanks to the longevity of XP and the antitrust battles that Microsoft had to face.

• How to encourage your site visitors to upgrade from IE6

Internet Explorer 7.0 - 2006

Microsoft had to respond to increased competition, originally from Mozilla. Indeed, IE7 saw the light of day in October 2006, when Firefox 2.0 was also released. The browser became a standalone application from the OS for the first time.

Internet Explorer 8.0 - 2009

Offering increased standards support for web standards, IE8 was beta released in March 2008 and also introduced some new features such as Web Slices and anti-phishing tech.

Internet Explorer 9.0 - 2010

IE9 will be faster, smoother and better at CSS, says Microsoft. Get the lowdown on the new version of the browser.

It's the first law of video: no matter which file format your clip is using, it never seems to be quite compatible with the software or device where you'd like to use it. And

that could mean anything from missing or out-of-sync audio, to picture problems, or perhaps a movie that won't play at all.

Fortunately there's a simple solution. Just equip yourself with a video conversion tool that will re-encode your file into the format you need, or even for the exact device where you'd like to play it (iPhone, iPod, whatever it might be).

This doesn't have to cost you anything, as there are a host of excellent freeware tools that provide all the functionality you'll ever need - and we've uncovered five of the very best.

1. SUPER

SUPER (the Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer) uses several open-source tools to support a huge array of file conversion functionality.

The program is able to import all the main video formats, of course: 3GP, 3G2, AMV, ASF, DAT, DVR-MS, FLI, FLC, FLV, M2TS, MPG, MKV, MOV, M4V, NSV, OGM, QT, RM(VB), STR, SWF, TS, TRP, TY, TY+, TMF, VIV, VOB and WMV.

But SUPER can also record streaming internet videos. It's able to import sequences of images. And there's excellent support for audio file formats, too.

Output options include all the main PC video and audio formats, and the program also supports creating 3GP and 3G2 files for mobile phones, along with clips for the iPod or iPhone, Sony PS3 and PSP, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Zune, and more.

Figuring out how to do all this can take a while, as SUPER's interface comes packed with complex options. It's worth investing the time, though, because once you're familiar with how SUPER works then you'll be prepared for just about any file format conversion task.

2. Format Factory

Format Factory has a good list of output formats, being able to convert almost any video to MP4, AVI, 3GP, RMVB, WMV, MKV, MPG, VOB, MOV, FLV or even SWF files.

The program comes with a huge selection of device presets, too. So if you're not quite sure how your video should be configured, just choose the "All to Mobile Device" option and you'll find built-in settings for the iPhone, iPod and iPad; Sony PSP and PS3; Xbox 360; Microsoft Zune; and mobiles and other devices from companies like Archos, ASUS, Creative, HTC, iRiver, LG, Nokia, Philips, BlackBerry, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and more.

That's just the start, though. Format Factory can also convert audio files and images, join videos and audio files together, repair corrupted video files, rip CDs and DVDs, create ISO images - there are useful capabilities everywhere you look.

The program is a little buggy, crashing a few times in our tests. But if you can avoid these traps then Format Factory is effective, and fairly easy to use. Drag and drop a file, choose an output format and settings, and the program will usually be creating your video in just a few clicks.

3. Handbrake

Handbrake started life as an open source DVD ripper, quickly converting the disc of your choice into a more convenient video file. The program no longer provides any means of decrypting commercial DVDs, but by way of compensation it can now import just about any video format, thanks to the inclusion of some libraries from the FFmpeg project.

Export options are rather more limited, however. You can convert to MP4, or MKV, and, well, that's it.

If all you need to do is create videos suitable for your iPod or iPhone (or anything else that requires those formats), though, Handbrake will prove an excellent choice. The program provides a lengthy list of advanced options to control the final results, for instance.

But if you prefer a simple life, then you can ignore all these and have the program working in seconds. Just specify the source and destination file names, choose one of the presets (iPod, say), then click Start, and watch as your movie is converted.

4. HAMSTER Free Video Converter

HAMSTER Free Video Converter is a well-designed conversion tool that manages to include plenty of powerful features, without compromising on ease of use.

Importing files is as easy as dragging and dropping, for instance. Batch file conversion is possible so you can drop as many files as you like, and all the usual formats are supported.

Videos may be exported as AVI, MPEG, WMV, FLV, 3GP or MP3 files (if you only need the audio). Or you can choose predefined formats that will work on particular devices: iPods, the iPad or iPhone, or hardware from BlackBerry, HTC, Nexus, Nokia, iRiver, Creative, Zune, Archos, Xbox, the PSP or PS3.

It's then easy to customise your movie by choosing a video or audio codec, setting your file resolution, deciding whether you want to deinterlace the video, and more. Your preferred settings can then be saved in a list of Favourites for easy recall later, before you launch the conversion with a click.

5. Miro Video Converter

While most conversion tools have focused on adding more and more features, Miro Video Converter has moved in the other direction, stripping away every setting and option to make the program as simple as it can possibly be.

The process starts by dragging and dropping your video onto Miro Video Converter (it can handle almost every format).

Next, you're able to choose your output type. There's specific support for the iPhone, iPad and various iPods, the Sony PSP and a range of Android phones. Or you can do a simple format conversion to an MP4, Ogg Theora or WebM video.

Finally, click Convert and the program will create a new video in the same folder as the source file (though with a new name, fortunately).

There's no scope for customising your movie in any way, then - you can't change the resolution, frame rate, bit rate or anything else. This makes the program extremely simple to use, though, so if you're put off by the more intimidating interfaces of our other tools then Miro Video Converter could be worth a look.

Discovering that a favourite program won't start is generally enough in itself to spoil your day, but unfortunately the real frustrations begin later, when you try to figure out why.

You shouldn't expect the application itself to offer much help. If you see an error message at all it'll generally be overly technical, or impossibly vague ("a module could not be found") - in most cases you'll be left on your own.

If you're a Windows expert then you could run something like Sysinternals Process Monitor, which will record everything your app is doing and may highlight the problem. But this requires some expertise. It might take a while. And there's a much more straightforward alternative that could point you in the right direction.

Just download, unzip and launch the free Microsoft Dependency Walker, then drag and drop an executable file onto it, and the program will immediately list all the DLLs and other supporting files it requires. If any particular files are missing or have other issues then they'll be highlighted at the top of the Module list - and these could be the cause of your problem.

We only say "could be the cause" here because diagnosing these errors is an uncertain business. Applications can run normally even when Dependency Walker reports a few apparent issues.

But just having a list of suspect files may provide the clues you need, and if you head off to Google and search for each file name in turn (focusing first on any files that aren't a Windows component) then you may find others reporting similar problems. And, with any luck, some answers.

Missing DLLs

You need to be careful about any solutions you might see recommended, though, because some can cause more issues than they solve. Don't start dragging and dropping DLLs around on your own PC, for instance - that can be dangerous. And it's also a bad idea to download a replacement DLL from some random website. Even if it's not infected with malware, there's no guarantee you'll be getting the version you need.

A better answer will explain how you can get this DLL (or other file) by installing some component from a trusted source: Microsoft's Visual C++ redistributable files, for instance.

If Dependency Walker doesn't provide any useful information from the initial drag and drop, then you could allow it to profile your application.

This runs the program and monitors what it's doing more closely, and can provide valuable extra details. These can also be extremely complicated, but if you'd like to give it a try, then drag and drop your program onto Dependency Walker, click Profile > Start Profiling > OK, and check its report for further information on your startup troubles.

The web browser is becoming the single most important piece of desktop software, if it isn't already. Not only is the web a huge source of information, but also the conduit to a huge world of hosted apps and interconnected cloud services covering a range of new computer-based experiences.

When you're shopping, you want security; when you're working, you want reliability; and when you're being entertained, you want speed and compatibility with many different types of media.

On top of this, most websites employ client-side JavaScript and Ajax technologies, placing an extra processing burden on the browser. Building a browser that can cope with all this and be easy to use while offering a great experience is quite a tall order.

Our rules of testing only stable, released software have to be suspended in this case, because many of the browsers are in permanent beta. Improvements are constantly being made to loading times, JavaScript engines and such. Therefore, we have used the latest publically available version.

This mainly affects Chrome, Opera and Firefox. The way we chose which applications to include in this Roundup was quite simple – they're the most popular Linux browsers currently developed and in use. We're including only proper versions of the browsers available now, with no pre-alpha or nightly builds allowed.

Firefox

Once the poster child of the new web revolution, but is Firefox past it?

There is a description of Firefox as a flashy sports car, hampered by all sorts of esoteric hardware welded to the outside. As analogies go, it isn't a bad one. The original impetus for developing Firefox was to create a sleek, fast and efficient browser that didn't carry a lot of complicated UI features and speed-hogging code that only a minority would use.

Of course, the outcome of that is that the browser soon garnered itself a gazillion extensions. The meteoric rise of Firefox (it managed to get around 20% of browser share in the first year, and is now thought to be the client of choice for nearly half of the web traffic in the world) shows that the sleek and unfussy style was a good call on behalf of the authors.

Firefox's popularity was down to more than just speed, though – it innovated too, and strove for real standards compliance, in a world where browsers like Internet Explorer wanted the web to work their way. But that was in the past – what has Firefox done for us lately?

Most of the recent changes seem to be in terms of customisation, but there are also technical innovations. Support for the Web Open Font Format, for example – a recent development that simplifies embedding downloadable typefaces in a way that keeps font developers happy and reduces bandwidth.

Firefox is also pretty hot on the new HTML 5 technologies, with support for OGG containers and Google's WebM format, MathML and more. Certainly there's no sign of Firefox resting on its considerable laurels.

Coupled with an excellent security record and an amazing amount of customisation potential, Firefox makes a solid browser choice.

Verdict

Firefox
Version: 3.6.3
Website: www.getfirefox.org

Solid and reliable, configurable and surprisingly nimble.

Rating: 9/10

Flock

The so-called social browser throws up some surprises

Flock began life around the same time as Firefox, but the rationale behind the two is very different. Flock concentrates on what many people actually use the web for, so its world-view is centred around Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, MySpace and various webmail services.

The idea was to build in the kind of tools you would need – a blog editor app, a photo uploader – and also to provide a way to consume this media alongside 'normal' websites. At first glance, this gives it the appearance of some sort of multimedia command centre, which isn't too far from the truth.

Unfortunately, running the sidebar to keep track of Twitter or Flickr causes the responsiveness to drop as CPU power (and bandwidth) are drawn off to make sure you're seeing the latest tweets or pictures. Of course, there is no way around the fact that if you want to see web pages and Twitter feeds side by side, the information has to be downloaded and processed.

Maybe the priorities could have been adjusted better, but for a user on a 1Mb link or slower, this is a poor compromise. In terms of its rendering performance and compliance, Flock seems to be at the rear of the pack on many occasions.

Although ostensibly still in development and using the same Mozilla codebase as Firefox, a year of standing still has left it suffering. Flock is neat if you spend your day worrying about what's happening on Facebook, but much of the functionality of Flock can be replaced by add-ons (albeit just as painfully slowly) or perhaps by dedicated apps. It does have some interesting, and even innovative, UI features, but is also more than a little out of date.

Verdict

Flock
Version: 2.5
Website: www.flock.com

It does have a different take on the web, but it's a little sad and neglected.

Rating: 5/10

Midori

It uses WebKit, borrows ideas from everywhere, and is named after a drink

Calling a browser after a liqueur commonly found in holiday tipples might seem a little oddball, but perhaps the unintentional cocktail reference stands up to scrutiny. Midori is a browser designed primarily to be light on resources, but still have plenty of the modern world's essential features.

To this end, some of the headline features of other browsers have been thrown into the mix – Opera's Speed Dial feature is here, the obligatory Google search bar and Firefox-like extensions (although nowhere near as many). Can a melange of borrowed ideas produce the ultimate browser experience?

Well, it does deliver on the lightweight aspect, at least. The memory usage may not be quite minimal, but it's no processor or bandwidth hog.

The page rendering is based on WebKit, so it performs as well as other browsers using this engine. There are a selection of add-ons for the browser, to do things like increase customisation options, as well as support for Netscape-style plugins for supporting different media through Totem and Rhythmbox.

One curious thing is that the URL bar has implemented the 'type anything and if it isn't a URL then search for it' behaviour, but there's still a separate web search gadget.

One very handy feature is the trash icon on the main toolbar – this enables you to see tabs you've recently closed and just re-open them by selecting from the list. Many browsers allow you to re-open URLs from the history, but few as easily as this.

While it does perform reasonably well all-round, there is no compelling reason to choose this browser over the default Gnome browser, Epiphany, or indeed any of the bigger boys.

Verdict

Midori
Version: 0.2.2
Website: www.twotoasts.de

A pretty average performer, though it's light on resources.

Rating: 5/10

Epiphany

The almost anonymous Gnome browser shouldn't be overlooked

Those using a Gnome desktop probably have Epiphany and hadn't even noticed. As the default web browser for this desktop, it usually resides in the menu as 'web browser' and even calling up the 'About' box would give you little clue as to its origins.

Epiphany used to make use of the Gecko rendering engine, but one of the benefits of being open source is that you can switch back-ends if you feel like it.

The main reason for the Midori browser popping up as an alternative to Epiphany for Gnome purists was that it implemented WebKit. Epiphany may have taken a while to catch up, but it now sports WebKit too, and there's little to choose between them in terms of speed or compatibility.

Epiphany very much subscribes to the 'less is more' concept of desktop software, and thus there aren't pages and pages of configuration options or user-tweakable parts. This does make it simpler to use, but also a little more frustrating for those who actually would like to, for example, specify pop-up preferences on a site-by-site basis.

The power of WebKit shines through, and although Epiphany has nowhere near the number of people tweaking and refining its performance as some of the other browsers in this Roundup, it performs admirably well in the tests and by no means feels sluggish when viewing pages.

Although Epiphany occasionally seems to score slightly higher than Midori in certain tests, in effect these two browsers are pretty much the same speed-wise (as you might expect since they're close to identical under the hood) and the results are well within the margins of error.

Verdict

Epiphany
Version: 2.28.2
Website: http://projects.gnome.org/epiphany

Just because it's basic doesn't mean it's pointless.

Rating: 5/10

Konqueror

The only practitioner of the read-write web, Konqueror soldiers on

For a long time, Konqueror was just about the best thing in KDE. Not only was it a capable, standards-compliant browser (although at the time nobody had worked out how to support all those proprietary extensions), but it was also an awesome file manager.

The two functions sat side by side, and the implementation of KParts means that, in Konqueror, pretty much everything is just an object to be rendered and interacted with, whether it's a local directory, a remote FTP site, a Samba share, a website or whatever.

Times change and, although old Konqy is still the default browser for KDE, its filesharing function has been hijacked by Dolphin. Its rendering engine is another story – that was used by Apple to produce the WebKit library, powering Safari and a great number of other browsers.

Konqueror is just about the only browser still sticking to the KHTML renderer, but why not? It may not be the fastest tool in the box anymore, but it still does a reasonable job of supporting standards and supports a great amount of HTML 5 already.

Raw speed in downloading and rendering pages is one thing, the speed at doing the things you want to do is another. Konqueror's KIO and ability to run as a file manager make it much more efficient if you're uploading files to FTP sites or WebDav shares, because the interaction is seamless.

Most browsers are designed as consumers of the web, but Konqueror treats the web as just another resource to be read from or copied to.

Konqueror also has a pretty low footprint on the KDE desktop, because so many of the resources it needs are already loaded, in comparison to the likes of Firefox or Chrome.

Verdict

Konqueror
Version: 4.4.2
Website: www.konqueror.org

Slightly left behind in the speed stakes, but still a versatile tool

Rating: 6/10

Opera

Opera stands out with an unusual take on what a browser should be

Being closed source (though free to use), Opera has its own rendering engine (Presto) and JavaScript engine, accounting for the more varied performance in some of the tests we subjected it to. Opera also has different ideas about the user experience and how the web should work.

Opera Turbo is a nifty compression technology that could boost the speed of many websites, for example (though it's impossible to really empirically test this, it does seem to work for some sites).

Opera Unite is another interesting feature, which builds a kind of personal network between the user and friends (who also use Opera) to share files, links and other information. In short, there's plenty of thinking about the user experience going on here.

This is a very able browser with all the security, personalisation and privacy features you would expect. For plugins, it relies on loading your Netscape-style libraries, and features widgets rather than extensions. The difference? Widgets are less like alterations to the browser, and more like specific tools or clients for web services, such as the weather.

Despite the makers' assertions, it seems from our tests that Opera isn't the fastest browser available. In use, though, it seems very fast and responsive. The JavaScript stress tests may show the efficiency of the underlying engines, but in reality you are unlikely to visit many websites that use so much intensive JavaScript as to notice the difference.

The 10.50 release for Linux has been a long time coming, but you can download a beta version for testing now.

Verdict

Opera
Version: 10.10
Website: www.opera.com

Great web experience, though the speed claims are unfounded.

Rating: 8/10

Google Chrome

It isn't without flaws, but is it close enough to awesome?

Let's be clear – it is not surprising that Chrome is fast. Almost all the development effort on Chrome since it was first launched has focused on this, from endless tweaks to the JavaScript engine to adding new technologies like pre-fetching DNS.

Sometimes these are not all-round benefits – pre-fetching DNS is a good example. In this case, the browser sees what links are on the page and pops out a process to request a DNS lookup. When you come to click on such a link, it means that the result should already be in the cache. No lookups is good, but it also results in a bit of wasted internet traffic and bandwidth. Generally though, most users aren't worried about this, or just don't know that it's happening.

Anyone who has had 250 tabs open and had Firefox crash on the very last one will know how painful it is to get everything back. That's why Chrome spawns a new process for each tab, so when something goes wrong, you don't lose everything. It's a system that works well, and avoids catastrophes when it does struggle.

Chrome is not the greatest ever browser. There are times when tabs seem to fail for no adequate reason. There are issues with ease of use. The scope of plugins is not as vast as Firefox, and you could argue that it is wasteful with resources.

It does deliver on being a slick, fast, secure and usable browsing tool. And when we say fast, we mean very fast. It may have been optimised to do well in most of the tests, but in everyday use, it is also very, very fast.

The minimalist interface maximises your useable web viewing area, and while it does take a bit of getting used to – with the menus being many times more fiddly to deal with – that's a fair compromise for many users.

Verdict

Google Chrome
Version: 5.0.375.55 beta
Website: www.google.com/chrome

It isn't perfect, but it is moving towards it.

Rating: 10/10

SeaMonkey

The idea that just wouldn't lie down and die.

The original Netscape browser was an 'internet suite', which combined the functions of web browser, mail client and HTML editor. SeaMonkey continues that ambition, and adds more in the form of IRC chat, news reader, feed reader and additional development tools.

As it's built largely from the Mozilla codebase, it does benefit from the same technical and performance advances. As with Flock, there is a theoretical compatibility with Firefox for extensions, but the same limitations apply – many extensions target specific Firefox functionality or UI features that SeaMonkey doesn't have.

SeaMonkey's performance results should be viewed with the caveat that, as we write this, a 2.1 version is nearing release, which is likely to include more up-to-date Mozilla code, with increases in speed and compatibility.

The user interface is chunky, but very workable, and all the features are easy to find. In some ways it's like stepping back a few generations in terms of design, but many people liked the easy-to-understand large icons and the simplicity of tab handling, so that may not be a disadvantage.

The strategy behind SeaMonkey does seem to be sound, though. For many people, using the internet is a functional thing rather than a form of entertainment. Gluing together all the tools you'll need in one package is actually a pretty good idea.

The email component is good, and while the page composer may lack some of the more helpful tools of a standalone editor, it is simple to use and works well enough. For web developers it also has the JavaScript console and debugger.

Verdict

SeaMonkey
Version: 2.0.4
Website: www.seamonkey-project.org

A great all-rounder – looks dated, but works fine.

Rating: 8/10

The best Linux web browser is...

Chrome: 10/10

Like most software categories, there will never be any one browser that suits absolutely everyone. Some may demand the flexibility of Konqueror and its excellent KIO system. Some will no doubt prefer something simple, like Midori and Epiphany, while others will want something all-inclusive, like SeaMonkey.

Opera has been running on Linux since version 4.0 back in 2000. It's probably the most different of the browsers on test simply because it has been in closed development since then. There was a time when Opera offered the best browser experience, but the Linux versions lag behind a little, which makes it hard for it to compete.

Firefox is obviously a great browser and still the most popular choice for Linux users. If you're completely happy with Firefox and would find it a wrench to leave all your favourite add-ons, then there is no great need to change.

The outright winner has to be Chrome. Not only did it blitz everything else in the speed tests, but it holds up in the compatibility stakes too. Although we were amazed by the speed of Chrome, we shouldn't forget the wonderful array of developer tools that are also embedded.

They may not be a sellable feature to mainstream users, but for anyone developing complex websites, the timing graphs and profiling tools are a real help. The really interesting thing will be, considering the Chromium project is open source, whether any of these technologies will be assimilated into other projects.

What we have seen in the last few years is that the battle of the browsers is probably more intense now than it has been for a few years. With the transition to HTML5 and the explosive appearance of Chrome on the scene with its aggressive speed increases, the pace of innovation and change in browser technology won't be slowing down any time soon.

There's a tool for just about anything you can think of in Windows. And if you look hard enough, you'll find a freebie is more than capable of doing the job you want – in some cases, free tools outclass their shareware or commercial rivals.

The trick is knowing what's out there and where to find it, which is where we come in. We've done the hard work for you, trawling the web for hundreds of free Windows tools and selecting the finest 100 to include in this feature.

You'll find programs to help you fix problems, speed up the way you use Windows, and unlock cool and exciting features you never knew existed. You'll save money in many ways too.

We're not going to pretend you need to download all 100 of these tools and install or run them all simultaneously; that's a recipe for disaster. Here's one tip, however: if you're in the mood to experiment with a selection, install Comodo Time Machine first, so you can undo any changes you make to your PC if you discover a program isn't to your tastes or doesn't meet your needs.

We'd also recommend backing up your computer before you begin – as you'd expect, we've highlighted a number of free backup tools in the System health section to help you here too.

One thing we will guarantee you: there will be at least one tool in this collection that – if you haven't already discovered it – will become indispensable. We predict you'll find at least ten tools to revolutionise the way you use your PC.

Now that's got to be worth an hour or two of your time…

System health tools

Monitor the status of your hard drive, CPU, memory and software

CrystalDiskMonitor
http://crystalmark.info/?lang=en

Your hard drive is arguably the most important component in your PC, seeing as all your precious data and settings (never mind Windows and programs) are stored on it. Knowing when a hard drive is about to physically fail could save you heartache, as well as hundreds of pounds in expensive data recovery fees.

CrystalDiskMonitor enables you to keep an eye on your hard drives' health in the background, providing you with a health rating based on its SMART status, as well as information about each drive's temperature.

If a drive is running too hot – over 50-55 degrees Celsius in a desktop or over 60 degrees in a laptop – you'll need to invest in cooling measures to reduce its stress and lengthen its life.

What gives CrystalDiskMonitor the edge over similar products is the fact it can also monitor external USB and FireWire drives, so your essential backup device is also covered.

FixWin
Website

This handy – and portable – utility can fix common Windows problems in a single click. Over 50 issues – such as a missing Recycle Bin – are covered, and although it's designed for Windows 7, many fixes work in Vista and XP too.

Partition Wizard
www.partitionwizard.com/download.html

Create, resize, move and recover partitions without data loss, thanks to the free Home Edition of this powerful partition manager. We've picked it over other similar offerings as it also works in 64-bit versions of Windows.

Microsoft FixIt Center
Website

This centralised tool gives access to all of Microsoft Support Center's automated fixes in a single tool. Select your problem to download and apply the fix.

SystemRescueCD
www.sysresccd.org

A customised boot Linux disc that gives you access to your hard drive and PC, even when Windows won't boot. Burn the CD using ISO Recorder.

Windows Memory Diagnostic
Website

A downloadable boot disc (burn with ISO Recorder) to test for memory errors. If you have a Windows 7 or Vista install disc it's under "Repair your computer".

Belarc Advisor
Webiste

This useful system information utility lists your PC's hardware spec, installed software, product keys and Microsoft updates, on a web page to save or print.

HWINFO32
www.hwinfo.com

This is a detailed hardware system information and diagnostics tool – frequently updated to work with the latest chipsets, motherboards, and processors.

CPU-Z
www.cpuid.com

Another system information tool, CPU-Z focuses on core components (with CPU, memory and graphics). Again, you can save reports to give to others or print.

GFI Backup Home Edition
http://gfi.com/backup-hm

Currently the best free files and settings backup tool, this is essential if you use XP or if you want more control over your Vista or Windows 7 backup.

ERUNT
Website

This backs up your Registry each time Windows starts. It's invaluable if you use XP, as you can easily fix a corrupt Registry from the Recovery Console.

DriverMax
Website

Easily back up, restore, and find updates for your drivers with this free tool. It also identifies unknown hardware devices – a free subscription is required.

AmpSoft WinOff
Website

This will set Windows to shut down, restart, log off, hibernate, or lock at a certain time or after an interval. Great for file servers and non-attended PCs.

AutoPatcher
www.autopatcher.com

This stores all Microsoft updates and certain system components offline, enabling you to quickly bring your PC back up to date after reinstalling Windows.

SpeedFan
www.almico.com/speedfan.php

You can monitor the temperature of your PC and – if supported – adjust fan speeds, to give better cooling or less noise directly from within Windows itself.

Comodo Time Machine
Website

A life without System Restore is unthinkable, and Comodo Time Machine offers something even better – instead of only monitoring certain changes on your system, it monitors every file and setting, enabling you to roll back your PC to a working state quickly, easily and with complete confidence!

Step 1. Take snapshots

Like System Restore, Comodo Time Machine can take both automatic snapshots and manual ones; take one before installing a new program, for example.

Step 2. Reverse changes

Select Restore System to roll your PC back to a previous state. Remember though, all changes (such as data stored on monitored drives) will be rolled back.

Step 3. Individual files

You can also restore lost, deleted or changed files and folders: choose Recover Files and enter all or part of the filename you want to restore.

CacheMyWork
http://cachemywork.codeplex.com

Frustrated by Windows' inability to retain your open programs and documents after a restart? CacheMyWork solves this, so you can restart after updates without having to start from scratch.

TeamViewer
www.teamviewer.com

Quite simply, this is the simplest and most effective free tool for connecting remotely to another PC, whether that's your home machine from work, or a friend's PC that's been playing up. You can even use it from your iPhone.

Registry Tweaker
www.registrytweaker.net

This handy tool gives access to key Registry tweaks for a more user-friendly experience, by describing what tweaks do rather than listing Registry keys and values. It's a good substitute for the Group Policy Editor.

CS Fire Monitor
www.pcwintech.com/cs-fire-monitor

This freebie has a whopping 11 monitors, to keep a beady eye on everything from hardware to software and the internet. Once set up it monitors in real-time, with a graphic display in the guise of a line graph and it also stores the results in a database to output as reports.

Its monitoring tools include NetStats, which doesn't just track your network and internet activity, but also identifies which programs are hogging your bandwidth. It can track processes, services and installed software too.

The program also has a built-in screensaver, which feeds data from the program into a series of graphs that display when the screensaver kicks in.

Buddy Backup
www.buddybackup.com

Do you want the security of an online backup program, but can't afford the monthly cost? Buddy Backup enables you, and like-minded individuals, to back up to each others' PCs over the internet for free. The new version now also backs up to external devices such as a hard drive, for when your buddies aren't online.

Partition Find and Mount
http://findandmount.com

If you lose access to non-Windows partitions, this recovery tool fi nds them. It can mount the partition and transfer the data off it to a more reliable source.

Zero Assumption Recovery
www.z-a-recovery.com

This commercial program gives one component for free in its trial version: the ability to recover lost and deleted image files from a camera's memory card.

ISOBuster
www.isobuster.com

Data recovery from damaged CDs can be tricky, but ISOBuster is one of the best tools. Some functions are free but others require registration (US$29.95).

Unknown Device Identifier
www.zhangduo.com/udi.html

This useful freebie helps you identify hardware that shows up as "unknown" when detected by Windows. Once identified, you can source the correct drivers.

Recuva
www.recuva.com

Data recovery used to be an expensive business, but Recuva is the best in the growing number of data recovery tools that don't cost a bean. It enables you to recover your deleted and lost files with the help of a user-friendly wizard.

Windows Registry Recovery
www.mitec.cz/wrr.html

This handy free tool enables you to recover the Registry settings from files stored inside a drive image (such as that taken by Macrium Reflect Free). It's perfect if you've forgotten to export a key setting prior to reinstalling Windows on your PC.

EasyBCD
http://neosmart.net/

Vista and Windows 7 use a different bootloader to XP. Therefore if you have two or more Operating Systems – including Linux – installed on your hard drive using this alternative bootloader, you'll need this to manage them all.

Customise how Windows looks and works with these unmissable desktop customisation tools

Fences
www.stardock.com

It doesn't take long for the average desktop to become cluttered with shortcuts, folders and files. Fences is designed to bring order to chaos, by turning your desktop into a series of fenced-off areas, into which you organise your desktop icons any way you want.

Once created, fences can be reshaped, moved and resized, and if you want clarity of thought for a moment, just double-click on the desktop to hide everything from view (double-click again to bring the corrals back).

Once it's installed, reboot your PC and the setup wizard will guide you through the process of setting things up. You can back up your existing desktop settings too – so if you don't like what you see, you can return to the familiar cluttered mess in no time at all.

Windows DreamScene Activator
Website

Vista Ultimate supports DreamScene, so you can use animations and video on desktop backgrounds. This tool enables it in all versions of Windows 7 too.

Seven Transformation Pack
Website

If you can handle potential instability, you can get much of the look and feel of Windows 7 in XP and Vista with this collection of tools in a single installer.

Yahoo! Widgets
http://widgets.yahoo.com

If you use XP and are jealous of the Desktop Sidebar – or use Vista or Windows 7 and want something different – try this free sidebar tool from Yahoo!

Kludgets
http://kludgets.com

This is another desktop sidebar tool, but uniquely supports Apple Mac gadgets, as well as those used to extend the functionality of the Opera browser.

Litestep
www.litestep.net

If you want to step out on a limb, take a look at this free tool; it replaces the entire Windows desktop shell with a radically different user interface.

LogonStudio
www.stardock.com

Change the Windows logon screen to any image you like, with this simple-to-use freebie from the makers of ObjectDock.

Stardock ObjectDock
www.stardock.com

Similar to the "dock" Taskbar replacement found on an Apple Mac, this dock is attractive and easy to use. And the good news is you can easily augment (or even completely ditch) the Windows Taskbar in favour of something similar thanks to this fabulous free tool. Download and install the free version, and read on to find out how.

Step 1. First steps

Once the installation is complete, double-click the desktop shortcut and the dock will appear at the bottom of the screen above the Taskbar.

Step 2. Configure dock

Some shortcuts are built-in, but you can drag and drop others from the Taskbar or desktop onto the dock. Click "Configure Dock" to make changes.

Step 3. Hide the Taskbar

Switch to the General tab and tick "Hide the Windows Taskbar" – it'll disappear from view, and your new dock will take its place permanently.

Switcher
www.insentient.net

This handy little tool enables you to view thumbnails of all open windows and programs side-by-side on the desktop, so it's easy to switch between them.

Launchy
www.launchy.net

Launch programs and access files from your desktop with this floating widget – enter a few letters to see programs and files for those search terms.

IcoFX
http://icofx.ro

The best free tool to design icons from scratch or convert existing image files. It supports icons up to 256x256 in size, perfect for Vista and Windows 7.

DeskSave
www.desksave.de

This simple tool creates a backup of the current icon layout on your desktop. If it changes – such as switching screen resolution – it's quick to restore it.

MultiMonitor Taskbar
Website

If you work with a multi-monitor setup, you'll want this free tool, which extends the Windows Taskbar to all of the additional screens you've got set up.

VirtuaWin
http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net

You don't need a second monitor to take advantage of extra desktop space: VirtuaWin enables you to set up, customise, and work on nine virtual desktops.

Right Click Extender
http://snipurl.com/rcextender

Customise and manage the context menu when you right-click with this. It works perfectly in Windows 7, but is semi-compatible with XP and Vista too.

Google Desktop
http://desktop.google.com

Google's Desktop tool has an indexed search engine to provide lightning-fast searches of your hard drive (as well as the web via Google itself). This is combined with a Sidebar application that can be customised with standalone gadgets, in much the same way as Windows 7 and Vista's built-in Sidebar.

If you're using Windows XP you'll get the most from this utility; if you use Vista and Windows 7 you may prefer to stick with what's already provided in the Operating System.

Standalone Stack
www.chrisnsoft.com/standalonestack

This tool creates a desktop shortcut that – when double-clicked – displays a tiled stack of the items in the folder. You can even pin the shortcut to the Taskbar to use from there, keeping your pristine desktop as uncluttered as possible. Think of it as Jump Lists on steroids.

BioniX Wallpaper
www.bionixwallpaper.com

Bored with staring at the same wallpaper day in, day out? Desktop Wallpaper Changer enables you to cycle between different background images of your choice, at a time that suits you. The program is packed with options, making it perfect should you tire of looking at the standard Windows desktop.

Keep Windows running smoothly with these streamlining tools

CodeStuff Starter
Website

As programs are added to your PC, Windows takes longer to boot and your computer feels more sluggish in operation. Much of this is down to the number of programs that start with Windows – not only do they add seconds to the startup time, they also use valuable resources, hampering performance as a result.

You can disable startup items using Windows' own MSconfig tool, but CodeStuff Starter is vastly superior; you get a more verbose description of each startup entry, can delete as well as disable unwanted entries, and quickly search the web for more information on any unknown items.

MSconfig Clean
www.get-in-control.com/msconfig-cleanup

If you've used MSconfig to manage your startup items, you may wonder how to permanently delete entries you've previously disabled. Simple: use this.

Startup Delayer
Website

This program enables you to introduce timed delays for specific startup programs, so resources at startup time are shared more efficiently.

Windows SteadyState
Website

This tool for Vista and XP will restrict access to your PC based on user profile, plus undo system changes at every reboot with Windows Disk Protection.

PageDefrag
Website

This tiny little tool defrags the paging file and Registry hives in XP, so you can defrag these key system files and give your system a speed boost.

AntiFreeze
www.resplendence.com/downloads

If Task Manager won't respond, this might enable you to recover your system. But only use it in an emergency – otherwise it can crash a functioning PC.

Ultimate Windows Tweaker
www.winvistaclub.com/uwtf.html

Dubbed "TweakUI for Windows 7 and Vista", this handy tweaking tool is packed with optimisation and customisation features.

Auslogics Disk Defrag
www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/

Why choose this over the defragmentation tool built into Windows?

First, unlike the XP tool, it runs on a schedule. Better still, it can be configured to run in the background, defragging your drives when your PC is idle, thus keeping performance at top notch.

It can also be used to defragment individual files and folders too, making it your perfect one-stop defrag shop.

TweakUI
Website

Microsoft's unofficial PowerToy is packed full of handy system optimisations and tweaks, making it an essential tool if you use Windows XP.

Free Registry Defrag
www.registry-clean.net/

Free Registry Defrag skips the "search and delete supposedly useless Registry entries" part of Registry cleaning – where most problems occur. Instead it simply compacts and defrags the Registry itself, which is where the actual optimisation takes place.

Start Menu Cleaner
www.iceview.com/start-menu-cleaner

Some program uninstallers leave Start menu shortcuts behind: this free tool searches it for redundant shortcuts, so you can clear them out.

Tidy Start Menu
www.tidystartmenu.com

Take control of your Start menu with this tool: once installed you can filter programs into a number of set categories, making them easier to find in future.

AM-DeadLink
www.aignes.com/deadlink.htm

AM-DeadLink supports all major browsers, to search for duplicates and non-working bookmarks. You can clean out your favourites and ensure they work.

Eraser
http://eraser.heidi.ie

Simply deleting files isn't enough to ensure they're destroyed – you need this tool to securely wipe files, folders or free space, manually or on a schedule.

PC Decrapifier
www.pcdecrapifier.com

If you bought your PC from a major manufacturer, this free tool enables you to quickly get rid of the bundled extra software you don't want.

Driver Sweeper
Website

This thoroughly removes drivers and hardware devices. Remove a driver in the usual way, then boot into Safe Mode and let it clean up any leftovers.

Revo Uninstaller
www.revouninstaller.com

When uninstalling software from your PC, you may be surprised by how much detritus is left behind. Revo Uninstaller can perform a more thorough uninstall of programs by searching for leftover files and redundant Registry entries from the program's own uninstaller.

The program also features a Hunter mode for those applications that don't have their own uninstaller, enabling you to remove hard-to-shift software too.

CCleaner
www.ccleaner.com

It doesn't matter how diligent you are, rubbish builds up on your hard drive in the form of leftover files, Registry entries and more besides. CCleaner makes it incredibly easy to search for and remove these unwanted items, freeing up space and resources.

OOLauncher
www.bitsum.com

Some programs you install are more demanding than others, which is where Process Lasso comes in. This free tool sits quietly in the background, monitoring running processes, reining in the more demanding ones, and so ensuring your PC is swifter and more stable to boot.

Process Explorer
Website

This freebie enables you to keep a beady eye on which files and folders have been opened by all your running programs, and you can uncover which processes are using which DLL files. In terms of spying on the inner workings of Windows, there's no equal.

KillProcess
Website

A process assassin, this tool should be used with care – it's capable of killing any running process, even your protected ones. And unlike Task Manager it can kill multiple processes at once. When it's appropriate, however, this is the perfect response to unwanted programs on your PC.

Protect yourself and your PC with this collection of useful free security tools

Panda Cloud Antivirus
www.cloudantivirus.com/en

When it comes to protecting your computer from the latest malware, why should you pick this relative newcomer to the freebie scene? Is it easy to use? Check – the user interface is one of simplest we've seen. Is it light on system resources? Check – it only uses around 10MB of memory, meaning it won't slow down even low-specced PCs.

Ah, but what about the essential protection? Check, check and check. When it comes to malware detection and blocking, Panda is up with the very best, and only loses a little of its sheen when it comes to cleaning up already infected systems.

Even here, however, it's on a par with most other freebies on the market. The program utilises an online database ("Cloud Intelligence") for its AV scans, which is updated hundreds of times a day to keep it ahead of the latest threats. All in all, Panda has raised the bar for free anti-virus, so you should definitely take advantage – if you haven't already.

Malwarebytes
www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

No security tool is infallible, which is where Malwarebytes comes in. The free version has no real-time protection, so won't interfere with existing protection, but it can scan and remove threats missed by other programs. It's an essential addition to any armoury.

Threatfire Free
www.threatfire.com

Threatfire bends the rules of security software: despite its real-time protection against malware, it won't conflict with any anti-virus tool already installed on your PC.

It's designed to sit alongside existing security software, to strengthen your protection by flagging up what it considers suspicious behaviour. Review the details in the dialog, then either allow or deny the action based on whether you trust it.

TrueCrypt
www.truecrypt.org

If your computer is vulnerable to outside use or even theft, you owe it to yourself to make sure any important data is encrypted, so thieves can't steal your personal information as well as your laptop.

TrueCrypt is the best free tool for the job: not only can it encrypt individual files and folders inside a special encrypted container, you can use it to encrypt your entire hard drive too, preventing people from using your computer when you're not around.

If you want to protect your data, create and mount your container. Once done, you'll see a new drive appear in Windows – just drag your sensitive files into here, and you can edit and open them like any other.

The difference is, when you click Dismount or restart your computer, your files will be safely hidden and encrypted from prying eyes. Just open TrueCrypt and follow step four again when you want to regain access.

Step 1. First steps

Click "Create Volume", tick "Create an encrypted file container", and click Next. Leave "Standard TrueCrypt volume" selected, and click Next.

Step 2. Create container

Click "Select File" to pick a folder and unique filename for your container. Click Next, tick the default encryption options, and click Next.

Step 3. Select properties

Make the container big enough to hold your files, click Next, assign a password, and click Next. Change the file system to NTFS and click Format.

Step 4. Access container

Click Continue if prompted, then OK > Exit. Click "Select File", browse to your file, and select a drive letter. Click Mount and enter your password.

AppRemover
www.appremover.com

Switching from one security app to another can be problematic. AppRemover recognises a wide variety of security tools, and ensures all traces are wiped before you install your new tool to prevent possible conflicts.

ZoneAlarm
www.zonealarm.com

Free firewalls are less common than anti-virus tools, and they're not as good as their paid-for cousins. ZoneAlarm is by far the most popular of those available, and offers superior protection to that offered in Windows.

HijackThis!
http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis

To scan your PC for the effects of malware, HijackThis! can generate a log of areas commonly infected. It also has tools to fix malware problems.

Virus Effect Remover
www.virussecurelab.com/VER.html

An essential tool in your security armoury, VER enables you to undo any lingering effects of malware infection.

KeePass
http://keepass.info

Rather than a single password for all your accounts, KeePass can manage multiple logon details with just one master password, beefing up your security.

KillBox
http://killbox.net

This tiny tool specialises in deleting files that are in use, and therefore protected – many malware infections protect themselves in this way.

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer
Website

Malware infections often exploit security holes in Windows and other Microsoft products; MBSA will quickly scan your PC and verify you're fully protected.

PopTray
www.poptray.org

Prevent spam and virus-laden email by vetting all new mails while they're still on your mail server. Just select any dodgy mail, click Delete, and you're done.

File and folder apps

Manage your files more efficiently with these useful freebies

SyncToy 2.1
Website

Microsoft's handy free tool enables you to keep the contents of two folders (also known as folder "pairs") perfectly in sync. Just select the two folders in question – one of which can be a shared folder on another networked PC – and then choose how you want the files to be kept in sync.

Once done, click Preview, check which changes will occur, and then click "Run" to update your two folders.

SyncBack Freeware
Website

SyncToy is simple and easy to set up, but if you need more options – including automatically syncing two folders – then SyncBack Freeware is without doubt the best free synchronisation tool.

Rename Master
Website

If you're ever faced with the unappealing task of renaming dozens of files, Rename Master makes it as simple as possible. There's a powerful set of options including MP3/JPG tag support.

DupKiller
www.dupkiller.net

Duplicate files can quickly clutter up your hard drive, but it can be a dangerous game if you start deleting what appear at a superficial glance to be identical files.

DupKiller will hunt for replicate files in locations you may not consider, and does more than simply search by filename or file-size. You can also search by date stamp and even content, and you can even set a percentage match to ensure that only identical files are picked.

MagicDisc
www.magicdisc.net

This enables you to create virtual CD and DVD drives on your PC. You can then mount special ISO fi les and access them as if they were actual physical discs.

ISO Recorder
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com

ISO Recorder can burn discs directly from ISO images by double-clicking an ISO file; you can also rip CDs and DVDs to ISO images for use with MagicDisc.

CDBurnerXP
www.cdburnerxp.se

This CD and DVD-burning application is lightweight, with all the features to burn audio and data discs. And it behaves nicely with other CD-burning utilities.

WinDirStat
http://windirstat.info

If you need details of a specific folder or drive, this displays its content in interesting ways. Perfect for finding out what's taking up all that space.

NoSleepHD
http://nosleephd.codeplex.com

Frustrated by your external hard drive powering down to save energy? This tool prevents it, by writing a small, empty file to the drive every few minutes.

FolderSize
http://foldersize.sourceforge.net

This tiny program adds an additional column to the Explorer window, enabling you to see the size of a folder without opening it. It runs in Windows XP only.

AppSnap
http://appsnap.genotrance.com

This handy free tool simplifies the process of installing and updating your software – just tick the program you wish to download or update. The program will tell you what version is available, and then enable you to easily download and install it.

Universal Viewer
www.uvviewsoft.com

This handy tool enables you to view a large number of different file types without having to open the parent application, including image files, text and Office files, and many more. Plus you can add additional types with the help of free plug-ins.

ArsClip
Website

Frustrated by Windows' inability to store more than a single item in the Windows clipboard? ArsClip enables you to store multiple entries in a wide variety of formats – including HTML, RTF, plain text and images.

These can be catalogued permanently if you frequently have to perform repetitive tasks such as form filling, and the bonus is that the program requires no installation, so won't bog your system down unduly.

Lock Hunter
http://lockhunter.com

Do you ever run into an error message telling you that a file or folder can't be deleted or moved because it's locked, or still in use?

The solution is to install this handy free tool; you can then simply right-click any file and choose "What is locking this file?" A dialogue box will pop up revealing what's locking the file or folder – just click "Unlock It!" and it will be freed up for whatever you need to do.

FileTypesMan
Website

This handy little tool provides an alternative to the confusing Windows file type manager, enabling you to quickly edit and view current file associations.

Zamzar
www.zamzar.com

This is actually a free online conversion service, so you can convert files up to 100MB in size between a variety of image, office and other file formats.

TeraCopy
www.codesector.com/teracopy.php

Speed up copying large files from one folder or drive to another using TeraCopy; it provides quicker file transfers than the Windows file manager.

The File Splitter
www.dekabyte.com/filesplitter

This tiny program enables you to split large files into smaller chunks, making them easier to transfer using floppy disks and other media, or via email.

IZArc
www.izarc.org

This comprehensive file archiving tool will compress files to save space, and has a mind-boggling array of obscure archives: there's RAR and LZW, as well as ZIP.

JDisk Report
www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport

Want to find where all that free disk space has gone? JDiskReport enables you to view a pie chart showing the largest folders or files in a selected directory or disk, plus you can view a selection of bar and pie charts (and top 100 lists).

These can be based on criteria such as when files were last modified, or what file types are taking up most room; it's perfect for managing your cluttered drive.

The first time I looked at the rear display of a camera that had face-detection software, it was an interesting experience. Point it at a person, and the software would superimpose a coloured square over that person's face.

This would enable you to more easily frame the photo, ensure correct exposure for the face compared to the rest of the scene and make sure that the face was properly focused. So how did it manage it?

What's so special about a face that enables the camera to identify that this set of pixels is a face, but that set isn't? And in real-time too?

The camera doesn't have a chip with great processing power, either, so the algorithm must be extremely efficient. We should also remember that over the years, camera face-detection software has become pretty advanced. You can now expect the software in your point-and-shoot camera to work out not just the location of a face but also whether the person is smiling, and to take the photo automatically if so.

Back in 2001, Paul Viola and Michael Jones invented a new framework for detecting arbitrary objects and refined it for face detection. The algorithm is now known as the Viola-Jones framework. The first thing to realise is that face detection, whether by Viola-Jones or not, is not an exact science.

Just like we humans can be fooled by images that seem to contain a face when in reality they do not, so face-detection software can be hoodwinked. This phenomenon is known as pareidolia: the apparent recognition of something significant (usually a face or a human form) in something that doesn't have it naturally.

There are many examples of this, the most prominent being perhaps the Face on Mars – a photo taken in the Cydonia region of Mars that appeared to contain a human face in the rock – or the image of the Virgin Mary that an American lady found in a grilled cheese sandwich.

Face detection software can be fooled too, so we talk about the algorithm's rate of false positives (detecting a face when there is none) or false negatives (not detecting a face that's present).

A good guess

The Viola-Jones method has a very high accuracy rate – the researchers report a false negative rate of less than one per cent and a false positive rate of under 40 per cent, even when used with the simplest filter. (The full framework uses up to 32 filters, or 'classifiers'.) But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

The breakthrough for Viola and Jones came when they didn't try to analyse the image directly: instead, they started to analyse rectangular 'features' in the image. These features are known as 'Haar-like features', due to the similarity of the analysis of complex waveforms with Haar wavelets. These are simple square waveforms, and are named after Alfréd Haar, a Hungarian mathematician whow as working at the turn of the 20th century.

The first thing to do is strip colour from the image and work with a simple greyscale colour space. A simple way of doing this is to transform the image to the 'YCbCr' colour space, where the Y component is a measure of intensity or luminance in the original image (the other components can be ignored for now, although they could be used to distinguish flesh tones at a later detection stage).

To calculate the Y component (the luma) of a pixel, use the formula Y = 0.299R + 0.587G + 0.114B, where the values R, G, B are the red, green and blue components of a pixel's value.

Now that we have an image defined as a set of intensity values (from 0 to 255), we can use them to look for large-scale rectangular features in the image. We do this by summing the intensity values in various rectangular blocks.

Using these sums we can detect 'darker' blocks adjacent to 'lighter' blocks since the sum of the intensity pixels in a dark block will be less than the sum in a light block. These adjacent blocks are known as 'features'. (Note that, despite the fact we're using Viola-Jones to detect faces, the word 'feature' does not pertain to facial features in any way.)

Viola-Jones defines several different types of features (see Figure 1). The first feature is a light block next to a dark one, vertically. The second is the same but horizontally. The third is a light block sandwiched between two dark blocks (or vice versa). The fourth is a four-rectangle feature as shown.

FIGURE 1: Types of features used in Viola-Jones

Note that in a feature the rectangular blocks are the same size. The features can be at any scale or at any position in the image, so the features shown in Figure 1 are just examples at an arbitrary size. A particular feature can be positioned and scaled onto the original image.

The feature value is calculated as the sum of the pixel intensities in the light rectangle(s) minus the sum of the pixels in the dark rectangle(s). The value of the feature is then used in a filter to determine if that feature is 'present' in the original image.

It still sounds computationally expensive (that is, slow). To improve the speed of summing the intensities of the pixels in a given rectangle, we make use of a trick. For a given image we can calculate what's known as the integral image at every point.

This is merely the sum of the pixels of the rectangle from the upper-left corner to the given point, and it can be calculated for every point in the original image in a single pass across the image. The word 'integral' comes from the same meaning as 'integrating' – finding the area under a curve by adding together small rectangular areas.

Intense calculations

Once we have the integral image for every point, we can calculate the sum of intensities for any arbitrary rectangle by using the identities shown in Figure 2. We want to calculate the sum of the pixels for the rectangle abcd.

FIGURE 2: Calculating sums of intensities using integral images

We start off with the integral image for point a, and then subtract the integral images for points b and d. This unfortunately takes off too much (as shown by the double hatching) and so we add back in the integral image for point c. As you can see, it's a very quick calculation once we have generated all the integral images, presumably stored in an array.

We now have in place all the requisites to calculate the summed intensity values for a set of features. But what are we going to do with them? Compared with analysing the pixels directly, features provide a coarse, low-resolution view of the image. They're good at detecting edges between light and dark, bars, and other simple structures.

What we do is to implement a learning system. We give the face detection routine a set of 24 x 24 images of faces (and another set of 24 x 24 images of things that are not faces) and train the routine to recognise faces and discard non-faces. Viola and Jones used a database culled from the internet of about 4,000 faces and 10,000 non-faces to do the training. What's involved in the training?

Using 24 x 24 images, there are some 45,000 different ways to place one of the four types of feature onto the image. For example, for the first type of feature, you could have rectangles one pixel wide by two pixels deep, all the way up to 1 x 24, then 2 x 2 to 2 x 24, and so on. These different-sized features would be placed in various positions across the image to test every possible feature for every possible size at every possible position.

Note that the number of possible features, 45,000, is far greater than the number of pixels in a 24 x 24 image (a mere 576 pixels) and so you must reduce the number you use. Remember, you're calculating the difference between the pixel sum for the light and dark parts of the feature.

You could decide on a threshold for difference (which could be tweaked during training) whereby a feature is assumed to be detected or not. Using this, you would then apply every one of the 45,000 possible features to your training set.

What you'd find is that certain features are worthless at determining whether an image is a face or not – that is, there would be no correlation between the feature identifying a face and it not being one, and vice versa. These would be rejected.

However, some would have a high success rate at rejecting non-faces, and this is where the training comes in.

Face or not?

Viola and Jones then experimented with the remaining features to determine the best way of using them to classify an image as 'face' or 'non-face'. After experimentation they decided to use a training system called AdaBoost to build a classifier.

AdaBoost is an artificial intelligence (AI) technique similar to a neural network, devised to combine 'weak' features into a 'stronger' classifier. Each feature within a classifier is assigned a weighting (tweaked during training) that defines how 'accurate' that classifier is. Low weighting means a weak feature, high weighting a stronger one.

Add up the weightings of the features that test positive for a particular image and if that sum is above a threshold (again, tweakable during training) then that image is determined to be a face.

As it happens, during this training they found that there were two features that, when combined and properly tuned by AdaBoost into a single classifier, would pass though 100 per cent of the faces with a 40 per cent false positive rate (60 per cent of the non-faces would be rejected by this classifier).

Figure 3 shows this simple classifier in action. It uses two features to test the image: a horizontal feature that measures the difference between the darker eyes and the lighter cheekbones, and the three-rectangle feature that tests for the darker eyes against the lighter bridge of the nose.

FIGURE 3: The first classifier on a 24 x 24 image of the author's face showing the two features in use

Although they had been trying to implement a strong classifi er from a combination of 200 or so weak classifi ers, this early success prompted them to build a cascade of classifiers instead of a single large one (see Figure 4).

Each subwindow of the original image is tested against the first classifier. If it passes that classifier, it's tested against the second. If it passes that one, it's then tested against the third, and so on. If it fails at any stage of the testing, the subwindow is rejected as a possible face. If it passes through all the classifiers then the subwindow is classified as a face.

FIGURE 4: The Viola-Jones cascade of classifiers

The interesting thing is that the second and subsequent classifiers are not trained with the full training set. Instead they are trained on the images that pass the prior classifiers in the chain.

The second and subsequent classifiers are more complex and have more features than the first one, so they require more computational time. It seems remarkable then that there is such a simple classifier that will reject so many sub-windows without having to go through the calculations required for the more complex classifiers.

Remember that it's far more likely that a random image contains no face at all, and so being able to reject the majority of sub-windows with as small a set of calculations as possible is a good thing.

Final reckoning

The eventual cascade developed by Viola and Jones had 32 stages and used a total of 4,297 features (out of the original total of 45,000). The first classifier uses the two features described above, the next uses five further features and rejects 80 per cent of the non-faces. The next three use 20 features and subsequent ones even more. The whole training took several weeks.

Finally, when presented with an actual image, the face detector scans the complete image at multiple scales and with multiple locations per scale. The researchers found that scaling the image by a factor of 1.25 each time produced the most accurate results. They also discovered that they didn't need to test each individual location: they could skip a couple or so pixels each time and still get good results.

The overall result is that the Viola-Jones method produces accurate results very quickly, and certainly fast enough for the limited processing power of the average point-and-shoot camera to cope with.

Thanks to the ubiquity of internet access, web-based applications are taking off like never before. Beyond the realms of Twitter and Facebook lurks a fresh and vibrant world of online software that's designed to run anywhere on our connected planet.

As the distinction between computers, mobile devices and the internet continues to blur, web applications are coming into their own, becoming globally important services. These are sites that do one useful thing and do it well.

But sites promoting applications have been around for donkey's years, you might say. What's the difference between a web app and an application that's available for download on the web?

Well, web apps are applications that run over the internet. So unlike the free utilities hosted on Sourceforge or similar, there's no download, installation or configuration to carry out, nor hours of frustration to endure while you try to find the right libraries to compile them. Just point your browser at the relevant website and it will do the rest.

Outside of the box

Freed from the restrictions of an operating system's windowing subsystem, software designers can allow their imaginations to run riot. Interfaces that owe more to high-tech thrillers than to Windows, Linux or Mac OS X are beginning to appear.

Also emerging are more intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces that require at most a few seconds of exploration to get you going. Software use is slowly evolving and becoming as much about discovery and experimentation as it used to be about reading manuals and clicking options.

In this special roundup, we bring you 10 cool web apps that all share these traits. It's a diverse bunch, ranging from future essentials to those that you'll need infrequently. They all exhibit the sort of rich functionality that is beginning to appear through the medium of web browsers, and remove the need to download and install an application suite.

If you want something, it's probably already been written, and so we've also included a site that will help you to find other incredible web applications. Happy browsing!

1. Newsmap

Newsmap is a global news aggregator site like no other, and it's almost guaranteed to get people peering over your shoulder as you use it. The app presents a page covered in blocks of different sizes. Each represents a story, coloured by subject.

Newsmap takes input from news feeds and then gives the stories that are more prominent bigger boxes on-screen, a little like a tag cloud. Simply move your mouse over a story to see its details and a link to the original article.

Verdict: 4/5

2. Instapaper

Instapaper is a way of bookmarking long web pages so that you can read them when you have time later on. The URLs are stored in Instapaper's central database, so you can access them from anywhere.

A range of iPhone apps support it, as does the Kindle, making it flexible and a great way of keeping hold of interesting things to read on long journeys.

To use Instapaper, drag and drop the 'Read Later' icon onto your toolbar. When you subsequently find a page you want to save, just click the icon.

Verdict: 4/5

3. Lovely Charts

There are plenty of times when you need access to some good chartdrawing software for just half an hour. However, it's usually supplied as part of a far larger application. Lovely Charts is different. It's a free web app that creates some very lovely charts indeed.

After signing up and creating a new document, you simply drag and drop symbols and connectors from a range of predefined types to create the chart you want – anything from a simple flowchart to a complex route map.

Verdict: 4/5

4. Picnik

Picnik is an innovative online photo editing tool that allows you to grab your images from wherever you store them and radically modify them to create stunning visual effects. More advanced filters cost money, but you can access the basic ones for free, and these cover most of the essentials.

The service also allows you to use your imported images to create collages, greeting cards, scrapbooks. You can also make a widget that runs a slideshow of your images to send to friends.

Verdict: 5/5

5. Bing Visual Search

Bing Visual Search is still in beta, but it's already showing promise as a new way to search the expanding universe of information out there. On the main Bing page, click the 'Visual Search' link.

Search categories are organised into galleries, and everything is point-and-click. Instead of typing in your search term, you simply click the relevant picture. The list of galleries is still small, but it's an interesting glimpse of what could be to come.

Verdict: 3.5/5

6. Fonolo

Calling Fonolo a work of genius is perhaps a little strong, but if you're heartily sick of wading through phone menus to talk to a human being then it probably comes close. Fonolo walks you through company phone systems to find a human voice.

If a company isn't listed, you can add your own, and test the service by calling special test hardware set up by the developers. Ideal for Skype users, Fonolo's is also available for the iPhone, which should see its popularity rise further.

Verdict: 4/5

7. Netvibes

Netvibes allows you to create what it calls a dashboard for your interests. Unlike a simple RSS feed reader, the app has a large number of widgets that present feeds from your favourite sites in a highly editable form, making it very customisable.

Netvibes is also partly a social networking service. People can follow you and read your public page if their interests are the same as yours. For the sake of privacy, you can also set up a private page with feeds that only you can see.

Verdict: 4/5

8. Floor Planner

People are crazy about home improvement at the moment, but good, free planning software is hard to find.

The free version of Floor Planner allows you to create a plan, make specific rooms and then decide where to place the windows, doors and any of a large number of items of furniture.

You can inspect your work in 3D from any angle to see exactly how your ideal home would look. You can then save your work and send it straight to your architect – easy peasy!

Verdict: 4/5

9. Wakoopa

The brainchild of Dutch founders Wouter Broekhof and Robert Gaal, Wakoopa is a social networking site that is designed to help its users discover new web apps and other software they might enjoy. It does so by first searching for people that use the same apps and installed software as you do. It then finds the software they use but you don't, and which they rate highly. These it recommends to you.

But how does Wakoopa know what software you and others use? A downloadable tracker monitors the sites you visit and the installed applications you use. Every 15 minutes, it sends this information to your Wakoopa profile for those on your contacts list to take a look at.

When your contacts search for new apps, this information is cross-matched with their own to generate a selection of software recommendations picked especially for them. It's a simple idea, and one that lets you explore an ever-expanding universe of web apps and installable applications and utilities without ever having to spend hours scouring the web for information – plus you know that none of the programs will turn out to be malware.

Explore and amaze

Once the tracker is installed, right-clicking on the Wakoopa icon in the system tray enables you to suggest a new application that others may like to try. To keep the underlying database free of spam, any suggestions you make that aren't either installed apps or something that runs in your browser will not be accepted.

When you find a particularly intriguing application in Wakoopa that you've never heard of before, clicking on its symbol opens a page giving its details, alternatives that you might like to try and – perhaps most importantly – both good and bad comments from its existing users. This enables you to quickly make decisions about whether to use the app without the frustration of downloading and installing it, only to later discover that it's not for you.

As well as relying on custom recommendations generated via your contacts list, you can also use the Wakoopa search box to simply enter an application fi eld, making software experimentation as easy and hassle-free as it could ever possibly be.

Verdict: 4/5

10. RescueTime

You're in the middle of writing an important email but the right words won't come, so you decide to spend a couple of minutes reading your friends' statuses on Facebook to clear your head. By the time you're finished, you fancy having a look at what the celebrities on Twitter are up to.

News doesn't read itself, so it's off to the RSS feeds next, stopping on the way back to drop by a hobby forum. Armed with more coffee after posting a detailed rebuttal of another forum member's argument, it's time to check Facebook again for any replies, and perhaps to glance at Twitter again to make sure that Stephen Fry hasn't unexpectedly returned.

What began as a break to clear your head has somehow blossomed into over an hour of wasted time. With so many cool new web apps appearing, distractions can only get worse. Some are great for getting things done, but without that vital pinch of self-control, we risk becoming ever busier while paradoxically achieving far less.

RescueTime promises to show you how you spend your time online, and also to help you develop the increasingly important skill of self-control.

After installing a Data Collector plug-in, you tell RescueTime the three most distracting and three most productive things you do online. Data Collector then logs the time you spend using your local apps as well as the websites you visit, and can even monitor which of your browser tabs is active.

You can also tell it to ignore the time you spend away from the PC so that you get an accurate view of your working day. Once the Data Collector plug-in has gathered enough data, you can go to your RescueTime account and view detailed reports containing information on everything from the sites you visit to how efficiently you use your time based on how you categorise your activities.

The personal Solo Lite version of the service is free. The paid-for Solo Pro edition ($6 to $9 a month) allows you to block unproductive websites when you visit them too much, and alerts you when Data Collector notices you're spending too much time dodging work.

But you don't need to splash out: the free service provides a fascinating insight, and helps you to learn a skill that will surely become as essential as using a search engine.

Verdict: 4/5

AppleScript is something of an unsung hero. It provides scope for automating repetitive tasks, but few users ever go near it.

If you're an iTunes power user, scripts are a must, but you needn't hack away in AppleScript Editor — many pre-built iTunes scripts are available online. All you need to do is download them, plonk them in the iTunes Scripts folder, wait a second or two, and extra functionality is yours.

All of the scripts mentioned are available for free from the Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes website. If you're using iTunes on a PC, check out these Windows Solutions at the same site.

Track management

If you've a pretty big music collection, keeping it in good shape can take time, and with thousands of tracks things can slip through the net. Scripts can assist you with management tasks, taking minutes or seconds to do what would usually take you hours or more.

One of the best 'house cleaning' scripts is Super Remove Dead Tracks. This finds songs in your library that are no longer available on your Mac. Every 500 tracks it throws up a dialog box to inform you of its progress, and you also get an optional text-based log file at the end, telling you which entries have been deleted. On our 13,500-track test library on a bog-standard 24-inch iMac, this entire process took under a minute.

Tracks Without Artwork to Playlist is in a similar space. It enables you to select a library, playlist or an arbitrary bunch of tracks and copy songs without artwork to a new playlist. On activating the script, all you need to do is click Proceed, choose a name for your playlist and wait for a bit. On our iMac, the script took about five minutes to churn through our 13,500 tracks, finding about 1,500 that lacked artwork.

With a 'no artwork' playlist in place, it's a simple process to send these tracks to Album Artwork Assistant in order to grab artwork online.

TAKE A SHORTCUT: If you regularly use a script, apply a keyboard shortcut via Keyboard Shortcuts in System Preferences

On the playlist front, another great script is Gather Up the One-Hits. It collects tracks where the artists are each represented in your library by just a single song. Chances are this will mainly comprise content from compilations, but we found a bunch of one-offs we'd grabbed from the iTunes Store and subsequently forgotten about.

Track info and playback

Along with rapidly cleaning up your library, scripts can be used to deal with metadata issues, without you having to open a single Get Info window.

Quite often, the data iTunes downloads when you import tracks from CDs by fairly obscure artists isn't accurate. A common error is the artist and track name fields being reversed. The Swap This With That script from the This Tag, That Tag Scripts compilation can deal with this.

Launch the script, select a tag to swap from and another to swap to, and your songs' data is amended. However, be aware that there's no undo.

If your niggles with track data are subtler, investigate Track Names to Sentence Caps and Track Names to Word Caps — both of which reformat cases in track names — and Remove n Characters From Front or Back.

The last of those enables you to remove a specific number of characters from the start ('front') or end ('back') of a selection of song titles. So if some song titles have track numbers at the start or the likes of '[disc 1]' at the end, this script helps remove that information quickly and easily.

Once your track data is in order, scripts can also assist with playback controls. Needle Drop enables you to audition a selection of tracks in automated fashion, after defining playback length and an intro point. For example, you can play ten-second bursts from two-minutes into every track from a specified playlist.

Another favourite is Make Bookmarkable, which attempts to turn the file type of selected AAC tracks into M4B, thereby making them 'bookmarkable', so playback resumes where you left off. Make UN-Bookmarkable reverses the process.

External considerations

Our final set of scripts involves taking your experience outside of iTunes in various ways. The first pair deals with discovering more about what you're listening to.

Search Wikipedia and Google Video Search work in similar ways: select a script and a dialog appears asking whether you want to make a search based on the currently playing track or currently selected track. You're then asked to select a category to base the search on.

INSTANT INFO: Search for an artist or album on Wikipedia directly from within iTunes simply by using a little script

For Wikipedia, you can select the artist, album or composer. For Google Video, you choose between song, artist and album. The dialogs aren't pretty, but they get the job done and save time.

Another set of scripts enables you to export track information from iTunes. Although this can be done using File > Library > Export Playlist, the resulting text file is complicated, huge and unwieldy. Instead, we recommend Album-Artist to HTML Table, which exports a list of your artists and albums (and, optionally, associated tracks, although processing that information takes a long time, so we don't recommend it) to an HTML document that you can open in a web browser.

The script has a couple of quirks: you need to reorder your track list to Album by Artist for best results, and don't let the script open a browser when it's finished or you'll likely get an error. Instead, click Done and manually open the file it outputs.

Another export option worth a look is Playlist to papercdcase.com. This enables you to export up to 28 tracks from a playlist to papercdcase.com (the site opens in Safari), which cunningly formats the data into a PDF file that can then be turned into a CD case, if you get your origami skills in order.

iTunes is a fantastically fully-featured piece of software, but it can easily frustrate. So we've found six great add-ons you can use with iTunes for OS X.

Whatever Mac you use, whatever the size of your music collection, we're sure you'll find something of interest here - you can access all the niggly options Apple tries to hide, perfect your album artwork and constantly see what you're playing. Talking of which, here's the first in our list.

1. iTunesMenu - Free/$1.99

Although there are plenty of iTunes notification apps, they mostly take up valuable space on your computer's screen or get hidden by other windows. However, with modern Macs having widescreen displays, you often have space to spare in the menu bar along the top.

iTunesMenu makes use of this space by enabling you to display the name of the song currently playing in iTunes, along with other information, such as the artist and album.

The application's drop-down menu also provides access to basic iTunes controls, although we recommend your Mac's keyboard for those.

2. iTunes Preference Pane - Free

As with Mac OS X itself, Apple 'hides' a number of preferences from iTunes users, not making them accessible via a graphical user interface.

iTunes Preference Pane installs into System Preferences and provides a number of options for tweaking iTunes. Perhaps the most useful setting is Invert Library Links, which turns the library arrows into links to your own library rather than the iTunes Store (Option-click for the default functionality).

The ability to apply halfstar ratings will benefit anyone who considers Apple's out-of-five system too restrictive. Note: change settings when iTunes isn't running.

3. I Love Stars - Free

Even if you've only a modest music collection, the thought of rating all your tracks might seem overwhelming. However, a rated collection provides more scope for smart playlists, and I Love Stars enables you to rate as you go.

Launch the app and it sits in the menu bar, showing the currently playing track's rating. To change the rating, click on the relevant star. Ctrl-click to access the app's preferences, which enable you to define system-wide rating shortcuts.

You can also optionally activate alerts, so I Love Stars flashes and plays a sound when an unrated song is almost done playing.

4. Bowtie - Free

Bowtie is conceptually similar to iTunesMenu, but instead of showing the name of the current track in text form, it displays the parent album's artwork. Via Bowtie's preferences, the artwork window's depth can be defined (Desktop level, Normal, or Always on top).

Bowtie also includes two alternate themes: one is purely text-based, while the other shows a tiny vinyl record poking out from behind the artwork (and utilises a popup to access track info).

Additional themes can be downloaded (search Google for 'bowtie theme'), or if you have knowledge of HTML and CSS you can make your own.

5. Lounge - $9.95

Lounge is an interesting mix of screensaver and iTunes kiosk, perfect for parties or just as a good-looking screensaver for any Mac.

Instead of iTunes-style visualiser pyrotechnics, Lounge displays the current track's artwork and information. Options enable you to toggle keyboard control for skipping tracks and adjusting volume without exiting the screen saver, and you can also set the screen to flip periodically, to reduce the chances of screen burn.

Another option enables you to define an alternate screensaver to switch to when the current playlist ends.

6. Album Artwork Assistant - Free

Various widgets exist for finding artwork for iTunes tracks sporting the default musical note cover. Album Artwork Assistant beats its rivals by being comprehensive and offering plenty of choice regarding potential artwork to import.

Usefully, the application also provides a queuing system for when you'd like to work through a bunch of albums, rather than immediately applying new art every time.

To use this feature, switch Add Immediately for Add to Queue in our walkthrough, and when you're done open the Queue draw and click Process Queue. There's a handy walkthrough below.

Most PCs have a recordable optical drive installed, especially since floppy disks all but went the way of the dodo.

More often than not, these drives get occasional use for backup purposes and then languish mostly unused. You can do a whole lot more with a CD/DVD-RW drive than simply back up a few files, so we've scoured our memories, racked our brains and come up with a host of projects to keep your burners busy.

Some may require a specialised drive such as a Blu-ray-compatible one or one that handles dual-layer discs, but even if all you have is a humble CD rewriter, you'll find some handy projects here.

Before you start, it's worth checking the capability of your drive and ensuring you have the correct media for it.

Drive types

Recordable CDs come in the write-once format CD-R or rewritable format CD-RW. Very old drives only handled the recordable format.

DVDs are a little more complex with several formats; most new drives work with a range of different ones, but you may still find discs your drive doesn't handle. Recordable DVDs come in + or – format and DVD-RAM.

Each of these can be recordable (write once) or rewritable (write, erase, rewrite). You can also find dual-layer discs in each format.

Check the documentation to see what discs your drive will work with, and only buy good-quality ones.

Project 1: Make a bootable ISO disc

You can write any bootable ISO image to disc to get a bootable disc (as you'll see later), but what if you want to create a boot disc from scratch? You might want to create a DOS boot disc if you have old games that only ran under DOS.

You need a PC with a floppy drive and a DOS boot disk, which you can download from www.bootdisk.com. You also need a disc-burning program such as ImgBurn.

Open ImgBurn and choose Mode > Build. Put your DOS boot floppy into the floppy disk drive. Choose Advanced > Bootable Disc, and select "Make Image Bootable".

Choose "Floppy Disc 1.44MB" as the emulation type, and under Extract Boot Image select your floppy drive. Add any other files you want on the disc. Insert your CD and then click the Burn button.

Boot from this disc, and it behaves as the A: drive.

Project 2: LightScribe

Direct Disc Labeling is a system that enables your CD/DVD rewriter to etch labels onto your discs. You need a LightScribe compatible drive and special LightScribe discs that include ink in the upper layer.

This reacts when the laser hits it, to create an image and text that won't peel or smudge. You burn your disc in the normal way and then flip it over in the drive and run a LightScribe labelling program to create the label.

There are various labellers available, but the simplest combination of free software is the LightScribe system and LightScribe Simple Labeler.

When you're ready to produce your label, insert the disc the correct way up in the drive and launch LightScribe Simple Labeler to enter your label details.

Project 3: Burn a secure disk

The simplest way to encrypt files on a disc you record is to use the free TrueCrypt utility. When you launch the program, choose Create Volume > Create a file container > Standard TrueCrypt volume.

Click "Select File" and browse to where you want to store the container file. Enter a filename for it and save it. Type in the password you want to use and opt to format the volume. You can mount this as a drive by using TrueCrypt with your password, and store sensitive files here.

Once you've added your files to this volume, burn the container file you created to a disc using your disc-burning software.

Project 4: Burn a dual-layer disc

Burning your data to a dual-layer disc works in much the same way as creating a data disc. You'll need to use a disc-burning program that supports dual-layer burning, and you must have both a dual-layer capable disc and drive.

If you want to create a video disc, however, you'll need to decide where the layer break comes, because there'll be a slight pause at that point during the video playback.

In ImgBurn, choose Build mode and add the DVD video files you need for your project. Click the Burn button and provide a name for your disc (known as the volume label). ImgBurn will then show you some suggestions for the layer break position.

Select the one you're most happy with, and click OK to proceed.

Project 5: Overburn a standard CD/DVD

1. Add files

Launch CDBurnerXP from your Video Disc. Insert the disc you want to record to and add the files or folders you'd like to include.

2. Opt to overburn

If the data size exceeds that of the disc by only a small amount, click Burn and then choose to Overburn when you're warned about the mismatch.

3. Test the disc

If the disc burns successfully, test it to see that each of the files has been transferred. The smaller the overburn, the more likely all will be fine.

Project 6: Make a data disc

Data discs can include MP3 files or compressed AVI files using the DivX or Xvid codecs. They'll then play on suitably equipped CD or DVD players, so they can be of greater use than simple backup and transfer purposes.

In these cases you should avoid long filenames because some devices will have problems with them.

Launch CDBurnerXP from your Video Disc, choose Data Disc, and click OK. Browse to the files or folders you want to include and drag them onto the lower pane. Check the indicator to see how full your disc is.

When you're finished, click Burn to write your files to the disc.

Project 7: Burn a Blu-ray disc

To burn a Blu-ray disc, you'll need a Blu-ray recordable disc and a drive capable of writing to it. You also need to use software that supports Blu-ray recording, such as ImgBurn.

Launch ImgBurn and choose "Write Files/Folders to disc". For a data disc, add the files you want to the Source box. If you have a video Blu-ray disc authored, you'll have folders labelled BDAV or BDMV and one called CERTIFICATE.

Find these and add them to your compilation. Now select Options on the right, and pick "Data Type MODE1/2048". For file system, choose UDF and for UDF revision, select 2.50. Tick the "Recursive subdirectories" box.

On the Information tab, click Calculate to ensure you have enough space. Click the Build button on the left and provide a volume label when prompted. You'll see a progress indicator during the burn.

Project 8: Make a PAR protected disc

1. Add files

In your disc-burning program, create a new data project, and add the files you want. Try to leave about a quarter of the disc free.

2. Redundancy level

Launch QuickPar. Click Add Files and add all those on your disc. Set Redundancy so the data size matches the spare space.

3. Create PAR2 files

Click Create to produce the PAR2 files. Once complete, return to your disc-burning program, add the PAR2 files and burn the disc.

Project 9: Use parity files

When you burn a data disc, you're likely to have some space left over. You could use this to store other files to ensure each disc is full to capacity. Alternatively, you can put this space to better use by using it to store parity files.

These are created alongside data files, and are used to help in recovering the data you've already burned onto your disc.

We used QuickPar, which is a data verification and recovery tool that enables you to check whether your files are corrupted, and to create recovery files from the originals.

If anything goes missing, you can use these recovery files and what's left of the data to reconstruct the missing bits and restore your files to their former glory.

Project 10: Test a Live CD image with VMware Player

1. VMware Player

Install and launch VMWare Player. Choose "Create a new virtual machine", "Install later", and "Other" for the OS. Save the machine.

2. ISO image

Download your live CD as an ISO image and click "Edit virtual machine settings". For CD/DVD choose "Use ISO image" and browse to your CD.

3. Boot the machine

Click "Play virtual machine" and it should boot using the ISO image. You can test the Live CD here to make sure it works before burning it to disc.

Project 11: Restore from PARs

If your data files become damaged, you can use your QuickPar parity ones to restore the missing parts of data.

Launch QuickPar from the Video Disc and click Open. Browse to one of the PAR2 file that's saved alongside the data you copied from your damaged disc. It will detect any missing or damaged files, and show them as it scans the data.

As long as not too much data has been damaged, QuickPar can recover the parts that have been lost. You'll be told whether a repair is possible in your case. If it is, simply click Repair, and wait for the program to restore the damaged files to their rightful place.

Project 12: Read a damaged disc

If you find that a CD or DVD no longer reads properly on your PC – and you've checked there are no detectable fingerprints or scratches on the surface – you may be able to rescue some or most of the data on it by using the ISOBuster application.

Insert the damaged disc into your PC and launch ISOBuster. Click Refresh if it isn't immediately detected. You'll see each session that's been recorded onto the disc.

Choose File and pick the session you want to restore, then choose Extract Session > Extract User Data. Tell it where you'd like to save the data.

When it's finished, you can then open the saved image and restore your precious files intact.

Project 13: Convert a disc to an ISO file

1. Load ISO Recorder

Install ISO Recorder on to your machine. Once it's all done, insert the disc you'd like to convert, right-click it in the My Computer window and select "Create Image from CD/DVD".

2. Image location

In the resulting dialog, ensure the right drive is selected and browse to the location you want to save the image file. Give it an appropriate name.

3. Finish off

Click Next and wait as the ISO image is generated. When it's complete, click Finish. You can now browse to, and use, your ISO image file.

Project 14: Polish out a scratch

A scratched disc can be unreadable, but as long as the scratch isn't as deep as the foil, you can polish it out.

Use cotton wool and a fine metal polish such as Brasso, and gently polish the scratch using a circular motion. Wash the disc in mild soapy water and dry it with a soft cloth. Make sure it's completely dry before putting it in your PC.

If your polishing makes the disc readable again, use your disc-burning program to make a copy, because the disc won't be as strong as it once was.

Project 15: Slipstream Windows disc

If you reinstall Windows fairly regularly, produce an install disc that includes the latest service packs and updates. You can do this for Windows XP in nLite.

Rip your Windows installation files to your hard drive and download the full versions of each service pack, then create a slipstreamed disc.

In Vista you can use vLite. There's currently no similar tool to slipstream updates in Windows 7.

Project 16: Create a virtual drive

When is a disc not a disc at all? When it's a disc image! Not only can you store ISO files and other disc image files on your hard drive, but you can also use software to mount them as virtual drives.

Windows will then treat them as if they were stored on CDs or DVDs, but with the added bonus that they will run at the faster speeds of your hard disk.

Daemon Tools enables you to set up virtual disc drives and load ISO images. Install the Lite version, but avoid the toolbar or resetting your browser home page.

Once you've rebooted your computer, launch the program and click Add to insert a new ISO file into its list. Select the one you want and click Mount to begin using it as a drive. Open Computer to see the virtual disc mounted in Windows alongside your hard disks and CD/DVD drives.

To stop using an image, simply select it and click Unmount to make it disappear.

Project 17: Get a Live CD

Live CDs contain a full operating system on a bootable disc. You can use them to start up your PC without making changes to the hard drive. Live CDs are often used to help you diagnose and fix problems from outside Windows, or to perform operations such as partitioning your hard drive.

Some Live CDs simply give you a taster of a new Operating System without affecting your existing setup. You can find a huge list of available Live CDs at www.livecdlist.com.

Download the ISO images you want to try out and then use CDBurnerXP to burn each one to a separate disc. When your discs are ready, restart your computer to boot from the CD.

Project 18: Create disc labels

If you don't have a LightScribe drive, you can still make your discs look good with CD/DVD labels. These are available from most stationery stores, and it's best to go for a brand name. It's more costly, but you won't have to waste labels with trial and error because most software supports popular branded labels.

CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs all have the same dimensions, so one size label fits all. Labels generally come in self-adhesive A4 sheets that feed into standard printers.

By using a template that matches the label, you can set up the design and print it without hassle. Most label suppliers offer Word templates with the labels or provide them on their websites for download.

Word templates for standard CD labels are available at www.office.microsoft.com. Follow the link to templates, and type "CD labels".

Project 19: Produce an ISO file from data

Most disc-burning programs enable you to produce a disc image file instead of burning their output to disc. Here's how the process works in CDBurnerXP.

Launch the program and choose to create a data disc. Add the data files you want in your compilation by dragging them into the lower pane.

When you're done with this, rather than opting to burn the data, choose File > Save compilation as ISO file. Browse to the file location you want to use, type in a filename and click Save.

You can also use CDBurnerXP to burn an ISO image to a disc. Launch the program and choose "Burn ISO image". Browse to the image file you want to burn and click Open. Insert the correct type of disc for the image size into your drive, and click Burn Disc. Once it's complete, exit the program.

Project 20: Add Office updates

You can slipstream updates into Microsoft Office too, using Office Integrator from Signet Software. It's easy to use. Simply copy your Office setup files to a location on your hard drive and download the full network install of the latest service pack to integrate. You can also include Hotfixes in your slipstream disc if you wish.

Launch Office Integrator and direct it to your Office setup file. Set a location for the completed slipstreamed files and select the service pack file you want to include. Click Integrate and then simply follow the wizard.

Project 21: Improve Autoplay

You can nominate a particular program to run when you insert a DVD into your PC by using DiscInsert. This tool also enables you to rip a disc automatically if it's unprotected.

Once you've installed and configured it, you'll be given two options when you insert a disc: Rip or Play. Click the appropriate button to watch or copy the disc.

You can set it up so that your preferred option is selected even if you don't click Rip or Play.

Security firm Sophos has urged Adobe to disable Javascript by default in its PDF products, Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat.

Sophos believes that Adobe needs to 'overhaul its approach to building security in its products' and could start by ensuring that users decide if Javascript is enabled.

"The common thread in most, if not all, Adobe exploits is the requirement for JavaScript – as exploits will work correctly only if JavaScript is enabled," said Vanja Svajcer principal virus researcher at Sophos.

"This is why we recommend all users disable JavaScript in Adobe Acrobat and Reader."

Doing more

"The company's regular security updates show that Adobe is now doing more to address vulnerabilities, but the high number of patched vulnerabilities indicate that it may be a good time for Adobe to overhaul its approach to building security into its products," continued Svajcer.

"If nothing else, JavaScript should be disabled by default in Adobe Reader."

It certainly isn't the first time that Adobe has been criticised, but the company has at least fixed the latest flaw, something which Sophos acknowledges.

"The vulnerability – named CVE-2010-1297 – involved a booby-trapped PDF file which would contain a Flash animation and relied on Javascript for the exploit to work," explained the security experts.

"The exploit is more complex than previous Adobe exploits, potentially marking a new trend in the development of Adobe exploits."

We're in the middle of a mobile app boom, with thousands upon thousands being released every week.

Some are silly, some are serious, and some just plain suck.

But there are a few that web designers and developers simply can't do without. Here we unveil the cream of the crop: the time-savers, the speed-boosters and other mobile web design tools that will make your working life a whole lot easier – whatever your mobile platform.

20. WhatTheFont
Website: new.myfonts.com
Price: FREE
Platform: iPhone

Apps like WhatTheFont are more proof we're living in the future. While we can't yet point at something and have our robot butler tell us riveting facts about it, we do have apps that attempt to figure out what they're seeing to save us time.

With WhatTheFont, you take a photo of some text, confirm the characters and wait for the app to identify the font. Unsurprisingly, it's not always accurate, but it's often close – and for those times when it's bang-on, it'll save you hours, despite costing you nothing.

19. PHP Cheat Sheet
Website: concentricsky.com/products/palm
Price: 59p
Platforms: Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm Pre

Concentric Sky offers a small pile of code-oriented cheat sheet apps for a range of devices. While they are, according to certain experts, rather variable in terms of quality, they also happen to be cheap (typically 59p), accurate enough, and can prove useful in certain situations.

Karl Stanton, a developer at Fi New York, is pretty happy with PHP Cheat Sheet: "It's handy when you're developing and don't have an internet connection – on a plane or a train – and you need some PHP help."

18. Convertbot
Website: tapbots.com/software/convertbot
Price: £1.19
Platform: iPhone

There are two reasons why Convertbot is worth installing on your iPhone. First and foremost, designers often have to juggle units, and Convertbot happily enables you to convert data rates, lengths and units relating to typography.

Secondly, as Kicker Studio's principal Dan Saffer says, the app offers a major additional draw: "I'm a big Convertbot fan, not only for its practical use, but also for its example that there are ways of manipulating data in a small space that don't have to be boring." That sounds pretty good to us.

17. ConnectBot
Website: code.google.com/p/connectbot
Price: FREE
Platform: Android

For developers at the more technical end of the spectrum, tools tend to veer away from the graphical and towards the practical. An app in this area recommended by a couple of contributors is ConnectBot.

According to its web page, this app aims to "create a secure connection through which you can use a shell on a remote machine and transfer files back and forth to your phone". Yup, it's a Secure Shell Client, but it's a good one and it happens to be free.

Unfortunately it turns out that iPhone users are somewhat out of luck regarding the free aspect, but we hear good things about TouchTerm for Apple users wanting some SSH goodness. There are two flavours of the app available – the basic one is £2.39; the pro release is £5.49 and it adds a slew of extra features.

Visit jbrink.net/ for more info.

16. Sherpa
Website: wiredthing.com/sherpa.html
Price: £2.39
Platform: iPhone

Basecamp, from 37signals, is a web-based project collaboration tool that's hugely popular among designers and developers.

Many iPhone clients accessing Basecamp have sync issues, but Sherpa is robust. You get access to projects, messages, to-dos, milestones and contacts, and your information is secured using SSL.

15. Creative Whack Pack
Website: creativethink.com
Price: £1.19
Platform: iPhone

Occasionally, apps are worthy of note not because they're useful tools or powerful programs, but because they can inspire you. Amy Hoy, Webnographer for slash7, is a big fan. "It's a deck of cards with the creative principles from Roger von Oech's book, A Whack on the Side of the Head," she explains.

"When you're stuck or want a dose of inspiration, you pick a card and apply that rule to your thinking." She has a pack of the physical cards, but, "with this app, I can use them whenever I want – and the descriptions are even fuller than those on the real cards."

14. View Web Source
Website: jimmithy.tumblr.com/
Price: FREE
Platform: Android

Most web users don't care about source code, so it's perfectly understandable that mobile browsers don't shoehorn a View Source option into streamlined user interfaces.

For developers, though, the ability to peek under the hood is of paramount importance. On Android, View Web Source enables you to load the source of any URL of your choosing, search the resulting text, and also copy and paste the code.

The free HTML Viewer does broadly the same thing if you've got an iPhone.

13. Reeder
Website: reederapp.com
Price: £1.79
Platform: iPhone

Web designers and developers like to keep track of what's going on in the industry, and most of that information comes from blogs. To that end, RSS is a huge time-saver, meaning you needn't visit dozens of sites daily.

Reeder is a Google Reader client that you probably don't need, but once it's installed you'll wonder how you ever did without it, thanks to the app's great interface, offline caching and excellent sharing features.

Android users should check out Feedr.

12. Dolphin Browser
Website: sites.google.com/a/mgeek.mobi/browser
Price: FREE
Platform: Android

Android users who feel restricted by their default browser could do worse than check out Dolphin Browser, which emphasises speed and the social aspect of the web.

The browser offers multitouch pinch-zooming where possible, and you also get gesture-based commands, tabs, the ability to save cache to an SD card, YouTube video downloads, and easy share with the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

RSS feeds are detected and easy to subscribe to, and there's also integration with Read It Later. The lack of location awareness is a pity, but otherwise this is a great alternate browser.

11. Hipstamatic
Website: hipstamaticapp.com
Price: £1.19
Platform: iPhone

Hipstamatic makes our list because of its potential to inspire you, although it also has the ability to provide interesting photography for your websites once you've mastered its nuances. It essentially turns your iPhone's ropey camera into a decent digital Lomo.

The tactile nature of the application's interface is a major plus point, although it's also just one of many great iPhone toy-camera apps – we also recommend checking out QuadCamera and Toy Camera (both by artandmobile.com).

10. SketchBook Pro
Website: itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sketchbook-pro/
Price: £4.99
Platform: iPad

Although Adobe Ideas (see number five in our list) is the sketching app that's most caught the imagination of iPad owners, illustrator Michael Heald has fallen for Autodesk's professional-grade painting tool, SketchBook Pro.

"Lugging a laptop around can be a pain, so having a competent iPad sketch tool is a no-brainer. Once I got SketchBook Pro, I instantly fell in love," enthuses Heald. "Initially, painting with your fingers seems strange and archaic compared to a stylus, but you soon enjoy it.

Precision was my initial worry, but once you take into account that the iPad can zoom in and out very quickly using multitouch, the accuracy issue fades. It's also a brilliant tool for throwing down rough concepts in front of clients, since it's often easier to sketch out an idea than explain it."

9. AndFTP
Website: lysesoft.com/products/andftp
Price: FREE
Platform: Android

If you're caught short while out and about and need to make a swift change to a website, AndFTP provides you with a capable FTP client.

You get upload, download and resume support, the ability to open files on your device and all the usual important features you'd expect from a desktop FTP client – including the ability to rename files, copy and paste, and set up permissions.

Jealous iPhone and iPad users should skip immediately to number three on our list for a nice surprise.

8. Opera Mini
Website: opera.com/mobile
Price: FREE
Platform: Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile

Having mobile browsers that render web pages in the same way as desktop browsers is great until you find yourself with a slow data connection. In such situations, its worth having Opera Mini installed.

In layman's terms, it shoves pages through Opera's own servers, compresses them, and then flings them back at your phone faster than downloading the same pages using your device's native browser.

The app also includes features from its desktop cousin, including tabs and Speed Dial. Due to iffy JavaScript support and questionable security it's unlikely Opera Mini will usurp your primary browser, but in those situations where 3G and Wi-Fi are conspicuous by their absence, it's a great app to have.

7. Color Expert
Website: code-line.com/software/colorexpert
Price: £5.99
Platform: iPhone

Unless you're one of those rare people who has a perfect eye for colour, it's a good idea to have some kind of colour wheel lurking. Of late, digital colour wheels have become somewhat rare and are often pricey if they offer more than a basic feature set.

Color Expert for iPhone somewhat bucks the trend – it only costs six quid and yet it's packed with features. You get an interactive colour wheel with multiple schemes, an image picker that draws a palette from any photo on your device, a basic swatch book and the ability to export palettes.

The latter is a little slice of magic – the palette email you receive from the Color Expert app is beautifully laid out, and you also get an Adobe Swatch Exchange (ASE) file to drop into your design app of choice.

6. WordPress
Website: android.wordpress.org, blackberry.wordpress.org, iphone.wordpress.org
Price: FREE
Platform: Android, BlackBerry, iPhone

Plenty of designers and developers have been bitten by the WordPress bug and use the tool for a blog – or even to deal with client website content management.

Although you can use their dashboard via your mobile device's browser, that's a route for masochists only. Instead, if you've a WordPress blog and an Android, BlackBerry or iPhone, download the relevant app to write and edit posts, and manage comments and images.

5. Adobe Ideas
Website: itunes.apple.com/gb/app/adobe-ideas-1-0-foripad/
Price: FREE
Platform: iPad and iPhone

Despite the ongoing spat between Apple and Adobe, the latter company has created Adobe Ideas for the iPad and iPhone. Adobe refers to the app as "your digital sketchbook, letting you capture and explore ideas anywhere you go".

It's essentially vector finger painting, enabling you to add an optional photo layer to sketch on top of. Designer and developer Dan Rubin has certainly found the app useful:

"It makes a great sketchbook for quick ideas, without having to scan or photograph them to send to people. I've used it quite a bit to jot down rough wireframes while on conference calls, and then email them to everyone for confirmation. It works like a dream."

4. Things
Website: culturedcode.com/things
Price: £11.99/£5.99
Platform: iPad/iPhone

We like Things a lot, but we only recently realised just how popular it is within our industry. This innovative to-do manager was propelled to its lofty position in our list by enthusiastic cries from a number of designers.

For example, Keith Robinson, calls it "the best to-do and productivity app I've used", adding that it's "well designed, works well in conjunction with the desktop and iPad versions and is one of the apps I use most on my iPhone".

Designer Jonathan Snook agrees, saying that "Things is simple and straightforward and I often find myself using it to keep track of notes as well as to-do items."

Much of why Things excels is down to a well considered workflow model. You can tag items or make them part of a larger project, but the main benefit is its ability to help you focus. New to-dos are collected in the inbox, and you define what you want to achieve today, soon (via the Next category), soonish (via Scheduled) or at some point in the distant future (Someday).

It's a simple, effective means of organising tasks and your time.

3. FTP On The Go
Website: ftponthego.com
Price: £5.99/£3.99
Platform: iPad & iPhone/iPhone-only

Picture the scene: you're on the train and a client calls. They're in a right old state – their website's broken, and you, the designer, are at that very moment the subject of their ire.

With your iPhone, you can use Safari to check out the site in question and maybe figure out why it's not working, but with FTP On The Go, you can access servers, download files, poke around with them, make edits and upload changes.

The app also includes built-in backup and local storage, the ability to upload images from your device's Photos app, a browser for previewing changes you've made, and a master password feature for protecting server login info.

The new Pro version on the iPad also makes use of that device's extra screen space, and comes across a little like Coda Lite rather than the kind of simple app you might expect to get in return for the small sum of six quid.

2. Dropbox
Website: dropbox.com
Price: FREE
Platform: iPhone, web

Although a number of online storage services exist, Dropbox is the one that's most transformed the life of web designers and developers. Many use Dropbox to seamlessly sync files between a number of Macs or PCs.

However, the service's online component means documents can potentially be accessed via any mobile device as well. If you've got an iPhone, the free Dropbox app enables faster access to your files, although it doesn't automatically download them.

Instead, you browse them online and mark items as favourites for offline use. Many file types can be browsed on-and offline – the latter being handy for catching up with reading proposals. "On the iPhone, I do find myself using Dropbox to interact with files while on the go," says Rubin. "It's just a viewer, and an editor would be useful – although I think I'd mostly wait to work on documents until I got back to my desk."

If you only use Dropbox for basic syncing of the odd document, the 2GB free service should be more than enough. But you can also upgrade to 50GB ($9.99 per month) or 100GB ($19.99 per month) of storage.

The winner: Remember everything, all the time

1. Evernote
Website: evernote.com
Price: FREE
Platform: Android, BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone, Palm Pre, Windows Mobile (premium service $5 p/m)

If you're a designer or developer, chances are that you spend a lot of time inside your head, thinking about stuff and coming up with ideas. Although this is a key part of day-to-day creative work, ideas are often lost because there's no easy way to record them for later retrieval.

Evernote is therefore a perfect service for people in the creative web industry, as it enables you to collect, store and access all manner of things – web pages, photos, ideas, chunks of code, screen grabs and sounds. It then organises them all automatically, and you can further refine your notes by tagging and placing them into notebooks.

But what makes Evernote take pride of place at the top of our list is the company's understanding that people want to take their ideas anywhere and access them on the move.

So along with enabling access to your notes via the web and desktop apps for Mac and Windows (and Web Clipper for Safari/Mac, Internet Explorer/Windows, Chrome and Firefox, which provides a quick way to store chunks of websites), Evernote provides clients for iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Palm Pre, Windows Phone and Sony Ericsson X1.

Therefore, regardless of which mobile device you favour, chances are you'll be able to use it. Evernote's chosen a freemium model. This means that for free you get a basic service, which should be fine for most users – a 40MB per month upload allowance, sync of images, audio, ink and PDFs, and text recognition inside images.

Pay $5 per month and your limit is upped to 500MB, plus you get sync for any file type, search within PDFs, SSL encryption, optional collaborative note editing and a bunch of other benefits.

We're in the middle of a mobile app boom, with thousands upon thousands being released every week.

Some are silly, some are serious, and some just plain suck.

But there are a few that web designers and developers simply can't do without. Here we unveil the cream of the crop: the time-savers, the speed-boosters and other mobile web design tools that will make your working life a whole lot easier – whatever your mobile platform.

20. WhatTheFont
Website: new.myfonts.com
Price: FREE
Platform: iPhone

Apps like WhatTheFont are more proof we're living in the future. While we can't yet point at something and have our robot butler tell us riveting facts about it, we do have apps that attempt to figure out what they're seeing to save us time.

With WhatTheFont, you take a photo of some text, confirm the characters and wait for the app to identify the font. Unsurprisingly, it's not always accurate, but it's often close – and for those times when it's bang-on, it'll save you hours, despite costing you nothing.

19. PHP Cheat Sheet
Website: concentricsky.com/products/palm
Price: 59p
Platforms: Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm Pre

Concentric Sky offers a small pile of code-oriented cheat sheet apps for a range of devices. While they are, according to certain experts, rather variable in terms of quality, they also happen to be cheap (typically 59p), accurate enough, and can prove useful in certain situations.

Karl Stanton, a developer at Fi New York, is pretty happy with PHP Cheat Sheet: "It's handy when you're developing and don't have an internet connection – on a plane or a train – and you need some PHP help."

18. Convertbot
Website: tapbots.com/software/convertbot
Price: £1.19
Platform: iPhone

There are two reasons why Convertbot is worth installing on your iPhone. First and foremost, designers often have to juggle units, and Convertbot happily enables you to convert data rates, lengths and units relating to typography.

Secondly, as Kicker Studio's principal Dan Saffer says, the app offers a major additional draw: "I'm a big Convertbot fan, not only for its practical use, but also for its example that there are ways of manipulating data in a small space that don't have to be boring." That sounds pretty good to us.

17. ConnectBot
Website: code.google.com/p/connectbot
Price: FREE
Platform: Android

For developers at the more technical end of the spectrum, tools tend to veer away from the graphical and towards the practical. An app in this area recommended by a couple of contributors is ConnectBot.

According to its web page, this app aims to "create a secure connection through which you can use a shell on a remote machine and transfer files back and forth to your phone". Yup, it's a Secure Shell Client, but it's a good one and it happens to be free.

Unfortunately it turns out that iPhone users are somewhat out of luck regarding the free aspect, but we hear good things about TouchTerm for Apple users wanting some SSH goodness. There are two flavours of the app available – the basic one is £2.39; the pro release is £5.49 and it adds a slew of extra features.

Visit jbrink.net/ for more info.

16. Sherpa
Website: wiredthing.com/sherpa.html
Price: £2.39
Platform: iPhone

Basecamp, from 37signals, is a web-based project collaboration tool that's hugely popular among designers and developers.

Many iPhone clients accessing Basecamp have sync issues, but Sherpa is robust. You get access to projects, messages, to-dos, milestones and contacts, and your information is secured using SSL.

15. Creative Whack Pack
Website: creativethink.com
Price: £1.19
Platform: iPhone

Occasionally, apps are worthy of note not because they're useful tools or powerful programs, but because they can inspire you. Amy Hoy, Webnographer for slash7, is a big fan. "It's a deck of cards with the creative principles from Roger von Oech's book, A Whack on the Side of the Head," she explains.

"When you're stuck or want a dose of inspiration, you pick a card and apply that rule to your thinking." She has a pack of the physical cards, but, "with this app, I can use them whenever I want – and the descriptions are even fuller than those on the real cards."

14. View Web Source
Website: jimmithy.tumblr.com/
Price: FREE
Platform: Android

Most web users don't care about source code, so it's perfectly understandable that mobile browsers don't shoehorn a View Source option into streamlined user interfaces.

For developers, though, the ability to peek under the hood is of paramount importance. On Android, View Web Source enables you to load the source of any URL of your choosing, search the resulting text, and also copy and paste the code.

The free HTML Viewer does broadly the same thing if you've got an iPhone.

13. Reeder
Website: reederapp.com
Price: £1.79
Platform: iPhone

Web designers and developers like to keep track of what's going on in the industry, and most of that information comes from blogs. To that end, RSS is a huge time-saver, meaning you needn't visit dozens of sites daily.

Reeder is a Google Reader client that you probably don't need, but once it's installed you'll wonder how you ever did without it, thanks to the app's great interface, offline caching and excellent sharing features.

Android users should check out Feedr.

12. Dolphin Browser
Website: sites.google.com/a/mgeek.mobi/browser
Price: FREE
Platform: Android

Android users who feel restricted by their default browser could do worse than check out Dolphin Browser, which emphasises speed and the social aspect of the web.

The browser offers multitouch pinch-zooming where possible, and you also get gesture-based commands, tabs, the ability to save cache to an SD card, YouTube video downloads, and easy share with the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

RSS feeds are detected and easy to subscribe to, and there's also integration with Read It Later. The lack of location awareness is a pity, but otherwise this is a great alternate browser.

11. Hipstamatic
Website: hipstamaticapp.com
Price: £1.19
Platform: iPhone

Hipstamatic makes our list because of its potential to inspire you, although it also has the ability to provide interesting photography for your websites once you've mastered its nuances. It essentially turns your iPhone's ropey camera into a decent digital Lomo.

The tactile nature of the application's interface is a major plus point, although it's also just one of many great iPhone toy-camera apps – we also recommend checking out QuadCamera and Toy Camera (both by artandmobile.com).

10. SketchBook Pro
Website: itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sketchbook-pro/
Price: £4.99
Platform: iPad

Although Adobe Ideas (see number five in our list) is the sketching app that's most caught the imagination of iPad owners, illustrator Michael Heald has fallen for Autodesk's professional-grade painting tool, SketchBook Pro.

"Lugging a laptop around can be a pain, so having a competent iPad sketch tool is a no-brainer. Once I got SketchBook Pro, I instantly fell in love," enthuses Heald. "Initially, painting with your fingers seems strange and archaic compared to a stylus, but you soon enjoy it.

Precision was my initial worry, but once you take into account that the iPad can zoom in and out very quickly using multitouch, the accuracy issue fades. It's also a brilliant tool for throwing down rough concepts in front of clients, since it's often easier to sketch out an idea than explain it."

9. AndFTP
Website: lysesoft.com/products/andftp
Price: FREE
Platform: Android

If you're caught short while out and about and need to make a swift change to a website, AndFTP provides you with a capable FTP client.

You get upload, download and resume support, the ability to open files on your device and all the usual important features you'd expect from a desktop FTP client – including the ability to rename files, copy and paste, and set up permissions.

Jealous iPhone and iPad users should skip immediately to number three on our list for a nice surprise.

8. Opera Mini
Website: opera.com/mobile
Price: FREE
Platform: Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile

Having mobile browsers that render web pages in the same way as desktop browsers is great until you find yourself with a slow data connection. In such situations, its worth having Opera Mini installed.

In layman's terms, it shoves pages through Opera's own servers, compresses them, and then flings them back at your phone faster than downloading the same pages using your device's native browser.

The app also includes features from its desktop cousin, including tabs and Speed Dial. Due to iffy JavaScript support and questionable security it's unlikely Opera Mini will usurp your primary browser, but in those situations where 3G and Wi-Fi are conspicuous by their absence, it's a great app to have.

7. Color Expert
Website: code-line.com/software/colorexpert
Price: £5.99
Platform: iPhone

Unless you're one of those rare people who has a perfect eye for colour, it's a good idea to have some kind of colour wheel lurking. Of late, digital colour wheels have become somewhat rare and are often pricey if they offer more than a basic feature set.

Color Expert for iPhone somewhat bucks the trend – it only costs six quid and yet it's packed with features. You get an interactive colour wheel with multiple schemes, an image picker that draws a palette from any photo on your device, a basic swatch book and the ability to export palettes.

The latter is a little slice of magic – the palette email you receive from the Color Expert app is beautifully laid out, and you also get an Adobe Swatch Exchange (ASE) file to drop into your design app of choice.

6. WordPress
Website: android.wordpress.org, blackberry.wordpress.org, iphone.wordpress.org
Price: FREE
Platform: Android, BlackBerry, iPhone

Plenty of designers and developers have been bitten by the WordPress bug and use the tool for a blog – or even to deal with client website content management.

Although you can use their dashboard via your mobile device's browser, that's a route for masochists only. Instead, if you've a WordPress blog and an Android, BlackBerry or iPhone, download the relevant app to write and edit posts, and manage comments and images.

5. Adobe Ideas
Website: itunes.apple.com/gb/app/adobe-ideas-1-0-foripad/
Price: FREE
Platform: iPad and iPhone

Despite the ongoing spat between Apple and Adobe, the latter company has created Adobe Ideas for the iPad and iPhone. Adobe refers to the app as "your digital sketchbook, letting you capture and explore ideas anywhere you go".

It's essentially vector finger painting, enabling you to add an optional photo layer to sketch on top of. Designer and developer Dan Rubin has certainly found the app useful:

"It makes a great sketchbook for quick ideas, without having to scan or photograph them to send to people. I've used it quite a bit to jot down rough wireframes while on conference calls, and then email them to everyone for confirmation. It works like a dream."

4. Things
Website: culturedcode.com/things
Price: £11.99/£5.99
Platform: iPad/iPhone

We like Things a lot, but we only recently realised just how popular it is within our industry. This innovative to-do manager was propelled to its lofty position in our list by enthusiastic cries from a number of designers.

For example, Keith Robinson, calls it "the best to-do and productivity app I've used", adding that it's "well designed, works well in conjunction with the desktop and iPad versions and is one of the apps I use most on my iPhone".

Designer Jonathan Snook agrees, saying that "Things is simple and straightforward and I often find myself using it to keep track of notes as well as to-do items."

Much of why Things excels is down to a well considered workflow model. You can tag items or make them part of a larger project, but the main benefit is its ability to help you focus. New to-dos are collected in the inbox, and you define what you want to achieve today, soon (via the Next category), soonish (via Scheduled) or at some point in the distant future (Someday).

It's a simple, effective means of organising tasks and your time.

3. FTP On The Go
Website: ftponthego.com
Price: £5.99/£3.99
Platform: iPad & iPhone/iPhone-only

Picture the scene: you're on the train and a client calls. They're in a right old state – their website's broken, and you, the designer, are at that very moment the subject of their ire.

With your iPhone, you can use Safari to check out the site in question and maybe figure out why it's not working, but with FTP On The Go, you can access servers, download files, poke around with them, make edits and upload changes.

The app also includes built-in backup and local storage, the ability to upload images from your device's Photos app, a browser for previewing changes you've made, and a master password feature for protecting server login info.

The new Pro version on the iPad also makes use of that device's extra screen space, and comes across a little like Coda Lite rather than the kind of simple app you might expect to get in return for the small sum of six quid.

2. Dropbox
Website: dropbox.com
Price: FREE
Platform: iPhone, web

Although a number of online storage services exist, Dropbox is the one that's most transformed the life of web designers and developers. Many use Dropbox to seamlessly sync files between a number of Macs or PCs.

However, the service's online component means documents can potentially be accessed via any mobile device as well. If you've got an iPhone, the free Dropbox app enables faster access to your files, although it doesn't automatically download them.

Instead, you browse them online and mark items as favourites for offline use. Many file types can be browsed on-and offline – the latter being handy for catching up with reading proposals. "On the iPhone, I do find myself using Dropbox to interact with files while on the go," says Rubin. "It's just a viewer, and an editor would be useful – although I think I'd mostly wait to work on documents until I got back to my desk."

If you only use Dropbox for basic syncing of the odd document, the 2GB free service should be more than enough. But you can also upgrade to 50GB ($9.99 per month) or 100GB ($19.99 per month) of storage.

The winner: Remember everything, all the time

1. Evernote
Website: evernote.com
Price: FREE
Platform: Android, BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone, Palm Pre, Windows Mobile (premium service $5 p/m)

If you're a designer or developer, chances are that you spend a lot of time inside your head, thinking about stuff and coming up with ideas. Although this is a key part of day-to-day creative work, ideas are often lost because there's no easy way to record them for later retrieval.

Evernote is therefore a perfect service for people in the creative web industry, as it enables you to collect, store and access all manner of things – web pages, photos, ideas, chunks of code, screen grabs and sounds. It then organises them all automatically, and you can further refine your notes by tagging and placing them into notebooks.

But what makes Evernote take pride of place at the top of our list is the company's understanding that people want to take their ideas anywhere and access them on the move.

So along with enabling access to your notes via the web and desktop apps for Mac and Windows (and Web Clipper for Safari/Mac, Internet Explorer/Windows, Chrome and Firefox, which provides a quick way to store chunks of websites), Evernote provides clients for iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Palm Pre, Windows Phone and Sony Ericsson X1.

Therefore, regardless of which mobile device you favour, chances are you'll be able to use it. Evernote's chosen a freemium model. This means that for free you get a basic service, which should be fine for most users – a 40MB per month upload allowance, sync of images, audio, ink and PDFs, and text recognition inside images.

Pay $5 per month and your limit is upped to 500MB, plus you get sync for any file type, search within PDFs, SSL encryption, optional collaborative note editing and a bunch of other benefits.

Programs regularly display useful information that they won't let you access.

The file lists in an Explorer folder or an archive, for example, the text of an error message, the list of emails or contacts in your email program, the Windows event log – you may want to take a note of any of these, but in many cases you can't even copy them to the clipboard.

And so you probably waste time taking screen grabs, or spend an age retyping the text you need. It doesn't have to be this way, though. Install NirSoft SysExporter and you can access, save and then print data from almost any application, often in just a few clicks.

No hassles, screen grabs or retyping, it just works.

1. Investigate your desktop

You've extracted a large number of files to your desktop, and would like to make a note of their names. Windows provides no way to copy them to the clipboard, though, so normally you'd have to laboriously retype them.

Fortunately, SysExporter offers a much easier solution. Close all other applications, then launch it.

2. Find the data

SysExporter immediately displays a list of all the windows it can find that might hold data.

Click the Title column header to sort the windows by their title, then scroll down, find and click on the window with the title 'Program Manager'. That represents your desktop, and you'll see the files it contains in the lower pane.

3. Copy to the clipboard

Select the file names you'd like to save (rightclick the lower pane and choose Select All if you want everything).

Right-click one of the files, and choose Copy Selected Files (Regular) to copy their details to the clipboard. You can now paste them into Notepad, Word, or anywhere else you like.

4. Saving Explorer data

Windows XP and Windows Vista users can save data from Explorer windows, too – the folders in a selected file, for instance, or results of a search (Windows 7 users can't extract data from Explorer yet, though they can use SysExplorer with other programs). Open Explorer and browse to any folder.

5. Easily target a folder

SysExporter has an icon of a target at the far left of the toolbar. This is another, easier way to identify the folder you'd like the program to access.

Drag the target over your Explorer window (or any other application window), and if SysExporter can access its data, it's automatically selected in the list.

6. Save a report

Select the file names you'd like to save in the lower SysExporter pane. You could copy them to the clipboard, as before, but the program can also directly save a report based on these items.

Right-click a selected file, then choose HTML Report – Selected Files to open a full report in your web browser (use File > Save As to create a permanent copy).

Or choose Export – Selected Files to save the details of your chosen files as a TXT, CSV or XML file instead.

7. Works almost everywhere

SysExporter won't work with every program – Windows 7 Explorer windows are an issue – but in most cases you won't have any problems.

We tried extracting file lists and other data from Windows Media Player, Nero Burning ROM, Orbit Downloader, SmartFTP and many other apps, and were successful every time.

8. No more retyping

The next time you need to make a note of text-based data, but the app concerned won't let you, there's no need to waste ages with tedious retyping.

Launch SysExporter, drag and drop its target on to your data, and you'll be able to save the information you need in seconds – far more convenient.

With more and more countries implementing varying degrees of restrictions on content access, internet censorship has become a hotly debated topic.

When implemented by ISPs on behalf of the government's, without offering end users any option in the matter, internet censorship is a curb on your freedoms, but in the hands of a home user or system administrator, the same web content filters become a powerful tool to protect your children and even machines from harm.

Web filters use various tricks to restrict access to content. While some use whitelists and blacklists to govern what websites users can browse to, others are designed to block content based on keywords, while others still can be configured to weed out various scripts and file formats.

There are commercial solutions on offer, but most tools offer free licences to home users and the thriving communities provide an excellent support system via mailing lists, forums and wikis.

While we prefer tools that can do more than just block a list of websites, we really want applications that aren't too complicated to setup and would satisfy the needs of most home users. This is why DansGuardian makes the list: even though it's perfectly at home on a large network, it's just as comfortable on a standalone machine and can handle your daily gripes using its default settings.

FoxFilter

The first tool on our list is also perhaps the easiest to install and setup and fall in love with. This Firefox add on supports every Firefox variant from 3.0.0 up, and should satisfy the needs of cautious parents. All you need to do to get a functioning content filter is to click on the shiny green install button.

While FoxFilter is free to use, and all filtering features are available at no cost, there are some Premium features that can be enabled by paying a small support fee. You can click on the small green icon at the bottom-right of the Firefox window to launch the FoxFilter settings.

The configuration options are split across a series of tabs at the top of the FoxFilter Settings page. There are two filtering options under the General tab: one that only allows access to the websites you specify in the Allowed list, and the other to filter the content-based blocked sites list, keywords and sensitivity settings.

Additionally, there are four sensitivity options to choose from. You can make FoxFilter examine the metadata of the title, the URL and even the content of the page. These are important options, because FoxFilter will look for each of the listed keywords in each of these, and weed out all objectionable content.

The default keyword list accessible from the Blocked tab is not large, and it's up to you to fill it out with terms you want to block. You should be careful though, because some words, such as 'lust' can become completely innocent when part of 'illustration', for example, and the onus is on you to add such words to the ignore list to prevent false positives.

There isn't a separate list of blocked sites, but you can add either a word such as 'YouTube', or the exact URL into the keyword list itself.

FoxFilter 7.6.1
Price: Free
Website: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4351

Rejecting content based on a superficial inspection, which can be painfully slow at times.

Rating: 5/10

WebCleaner

For those of you who want a very precise tool that will remove all offensive advertisements from the moment it's installed, with a default setting for just about all manners of inappropriate content, WebCleaner is the tool to use.

Installing WebCleaner, if you follow the instructions on the official website, may not always go smoothly, so we suggest that after downloading the source tarball, you follow these steps: decompress the tarball, run ./configure, run make, and then run the python setup.py build command. Finally, run the command python setup.py install --home $HOME.

You'll need to start the WebCleaner service from the terminal with webcleaner start. The next step is to configure your browser to use the proxy at localhost and port 8080. Point your browser then to http://localhost:8080 to start configuring WebCleaner.

The odd thing about most of WebCleaner's enabled-by-default filters is that you're recommended not to edit them. However, the filters can be updated by clicking on the Update Filter Configuration button from the Filter Update page.

While the browser interface for WebCleaner is easy to navigate, it's difficult to add custom rules and create your own filters. Some rules, such as bad words in the URL, can be easily modified. Click on 'Erotic' on the left pane under Filter configuration, choose Bad words in the URL in the middle pane and scroll down to the bottom of the left-hand pane until you see the Attributes field. You can now add keywords to the existing list.

Webcleaner 2.41
Price: Free under GPL
Website: http://sourceforge.net/projects/webcleaner

Difficult to create custom rules, but most will be satisfied with the defaults.

Rating: 8/10

DansGuardian

Unlike the tools we've discussed so far, DansGuardian relies on a separate proxy server (usually Squid) to function. Many proxies offer some manner of filtering capabilities themselves, so choose carefully.

Apart from blocking the list of specified URLs, DansGuardian also supports matching words and phrases in the page content and filtering based on file and MIME types. Also, like WebCleaner, it too can work with ClamAV to protect users from viruses, and remains one of the most trusted content filtering tools on offer after years in business.

With the extensive official and unofficial documentation, wikis, mailing lists et al, configuring DansGuardian and tweaking it to best serve your environment shouldn't be a problem, if you're willing to invest some time.

DansGuardian is very peculiarly set up, and with the default configuration you're bound to run into more false positives then you'd expect. Browse into the /etc/dansguardian/lists/ directory and go over each of the files in each of the subdirectories. Thankfully, the files are well commented and you won't be lost.

There are lists that cover all sorts of offensive material including sex and nudity, violence and gambling. You can easily configure DansGuardian to prevent users from downloading certain types of files, either by using a whitelist or blacklist.

The lists directory is a massive collection of banned items, and there's a corresponding exceptions file for most. Tread carefully here, or you can easily render the system useless – whether it's because of an overzealous content filter or one that's too lax depends on how well you perform surgery on the configuration files.

Dansguardian 2.10.1.1
Price: Free under GPL
Website: http://dansguardian.org

Takes time to configure, but can handle all types of material and is ideal for all environments.

Rating: 7/10

Gnome Nanny

Although still in its infancy, Gnome Nanny has already attracted much attention. In addition to blocking content, you can even time-restrict the users' browser, chat and email tools, effectively controlling how many hours they spend on the internet each day.

It's the only tool on our list with a graphical interface independent of a browser and designed especially to serve as a parental control system. Once installed, you can launch Nanny by clicking System > Administration > Parental Control.

From the PC Use Time tab of the Nanny Admin Console window, you can restrict the computer access of logged in users to a specified number of hours or even split the hours throughout the day if you want. There's a similar option under each of the remaining three tabs that let you limit the number of hours users can spend browsing using the mail client or on the IM clients.

Clicking the Use Web Content Filtering checkbox under the Web Browser tabs enables filtering, and you can click on Configure to define some of the sites you wish to block.

You can also download the Nanny blacklist from here. Unfortunately, Nanny comes with very limited documentation, and although the tool is easy enough to use, the lack of any documentation mentioning how to create your own blacklist, or adapting a blacklist to the Nanny format, is disappointing.

The blacklist is made up of many categories. You can choose to enable only certain categories, but Gnome Nanny doesn't let you examine any of the rules or modify them in any fashion.

Gnome Nanny 2.29.3
Price: Free
Website: http://projects.gnome.org/nanny

No documentation, impossible to create new blacklists or modify others

Rating: 5/10

SafeSquid

We're now getting down to the big hitters in the list – tools that can not only block content but also manipulate it at will as if webpages were putty.

But before we can get into the juicy business of blocking ads and banners, forcing YouTube Safety Mode and Google/Yahoo SafeSearch and rewriting content on the fly, we must handle the somewhat tricky and long-winded installation process.

Chances are, SafeSquid isn't on offer via the software repositories of your distribution, so the first step is to download one of the many free versions available. For most users, the all-purpose SafeSquid Free Composite Edition Version SR.4.2.2 will do just fine.

While on the SafeSquid website please also register on the forum boards. The installation process makes this a necessity – you'll need to use your registered email after installation for the one-time SafeSquid activation.

When SafeSquid is installed, point your browser to http://safesquid.cfg/ to begin configuring it to filter content. You should review each of the tutorials listed on the Documentation page for SafeSquid, otherwise you'll have difficulty creating your own filters.

The Downloads page lists various sample rules for filtering keywords, blocking ads and such, and you can easily import any of these using the Load Settings option from the http://safesquid.cfg page.

If you wish to impose time restrictions on the users, select Limits from the Select A Section To Configure drop-down list and click Submit. You can then specify month, day, hour and even minute ranges. You can also limit upload and download speeds and the tooltips explain each of the options, so you can't go wrong.

Unless you're absolutely sure of what you're doing, it's best to steer clear of the Rewrite Document section. If misconfigured, instead of blocking pop-ups, and Java scripts, you may well make pages unreadable.

SafeSquid SR.4.2.2
Price: Free
Website: www.safesquid.com

Despite a browser interface, for certain types of rules you're required to create entire files from scratch.

Rating: 7/10

Privoxy

Of all the tools we've covered thus far, Privoxy makes it the easiest to modify and add new filters. Most distributions provide Privoxy through their software repositories.

Once installed, you can start the privoxy daemon with: etc/init.d/privoxy start

After some configuration you'll be able to access Privoxy's user interface by pointing your browser to http:// config.privoxy.org or http://p.p/. From this page you can look up the current configuration settings and also read the Documentation file. We recommend that you browse this to get a hang of just what all Privoxy can do.

Configuration files

There are three main configuration files stored in the etc/privoxy/ directory, which regulate how Privoxy modifies the content on the pages you browse. The main configuration file is called config.

Of all the settings within, you need only be concerned with a few, such as enforce-blocks, enable-editactions etc. Privoxy lets you control web pages in two ways: actions and filters.

Filters can be used to rewrite page content, HTML or any JavaScript active on a webpage. The rules that define what action is to be taken for cookies, banner-blocking, images, pop-ups and so on are defined in the action files.

The default.action file covers the rules for just about everything and shouldn't be modified. You only need to interact with the user.action file, which takes precedence over the other action files because it gets loaded last. You can turn actions on and off using the + or the - signs. A +block for instance means 'block the following' and a -block means 'allow the following'.

Edit files via a browser

Privoxy enables you to edit its configuration files via the browser interface itself. This feature is disabled by default but can be easily enabled by editing the config configuration file.

Browse to section 4.5 of the config file, titled – enable-edit-actions – and change the enable-edit-actions 0 line so that it reads enable-edit-actions 1. Save the file when you're done.

When you now access the http://config.privoxy.org/show-status page, you'll notice an Edit button next to the files currently in use. Needless to say, users on the network shouldn't be allowed to edit the configuration files.

The default.filter file describes many kinds of filters, most of which are easy to interpret and understand. The jumping-windows filter prevents windows from resizing. The all-popups filter prevents all HTML and JavaScript filters.

The following code snippet is all it takes for Privoxy to rid you of popups:

# Kill OnUnload popups.
#
s/(]*)onunload/$1never/siU
s|(
script>)|$1never|sigU

Perl's s /// operator in operation here can be used in similar fashion to effectively substitute words from a page if you so wish.

Bypass censorship

One of the most popular setups is using Privoxy with Tor. The Tor network is a network of relays run by volunteers spread across the world. You access the network by installing an onion proxy software (also called Tor) on your own machine.

The idea is to use many different nodes in the network before messages finally reach the destination. Tor uses encryption to protect the data and its origin from each of the nodes in the network. Effectively, from the final destination's POV, the traffic originated at the exit node.

The reason Tor and Privoxy chaining is popular is because it allows you to bypass censorship. If websites have blocked your ISP or if your ISP has blocked some websites, this setup can provide you access regardless of the block. Fight the power!

Privoxy 3.0.16
Price: Free under GPL
Website: www.privoxy.org

Privoxy is highly customisable, easy to set up, has good documentation and is fun to work with. Use it!

Rating: 9/10

The winner: Privoxy - 9/10

It's difficult to name the winner of this Roundup a tool that few people use – fewer than the numbers rallying behind DansGuardian, at least. Unfortunately, an alarming number of false positives on the default configuration make it only the last of the podium finishers.

Considering that WebCleaner and Privoxy are both nearly perfect in their default configuration, it seems unfair to guide home users and concerned parents to the relative complexity of DansGuardian, which requires the configuration of a separate proxy.

FoxFilter is the most surprising member of the list for many reasons, but primarily because it's a Firefox extension. None of the other tools in the list are bound to a browser except for Gnome Nanny, which only supports Firefox, Epiphany and Konqueror, which means that Chrome users are forced to ignore it.

So, despite showing promise, it can only muster a 5 on our rating, which is neither here nor there. Plus, pages render very slowly while it inspects them, and this is quite a dampener too.

Now we come to one of the more complex tools – SquidSafe. In our initial assessment we considered SquidSafe a potential winner. It soon fell out of the running though because of WebCleaner, which stole the second spot from SquidSafe, which had until then seemed like a certainty.

There's a bunch of things wrong with SquidSafe, but the most appalling of is the fact that for certain types of filters you need to create files from scratch while others can be managed from the interface, yet the documentation makes no mention of how to decide between the two competing methods.

Old dogs, old tricks

Most of these tools have seen users come and go over the years. Adapting suggestions and supporting requests over time has allowed them to carve a safe niche for, and they aren't concerned about losing their userbase.

However, Gnome Nanny, a desktop parental control system with a slick GUI that can within minutes be set up to keep away objectionable content, may upset the playing field. But that's still a somewhat distant dream, since Gnome Nanny falls severely short.

It can't filter out keywords, it can't import blacklists unless they're in the Nanny format, there's no documentation, and although the blogosphere is excited, there doesn't seem to be a flurry of movement to produce a quality product that will have everyone from the manager of a busy librarian to harassed parents itching to try it out.

Ultimately, it's only Privoxy with its easy to remember + and – signs and heavy reliance on regular expressions that wins. It ensures that only the safest and the most harmless of content makes its way to you, so it wins the day without even breaking a sweat.