Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit available in Free, Premium, Business editions
Malwarebytes has announced the first full public release of Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit, a powerful tool which protects against many zero-day exploits. It’s now available in three editions.
A basic Free version shields some browsers (IE, Chrome, Firefox, Opera), their addons, and Java, on Windows XP or later.
Encrypt, decrypt and process your PDFs with QPDF
If you need to process your PDFs then there’s no shortage of free options. JPDF Tweak alone can crop or rotate pages, apply text and image watermarks, encrypt, decrypt them, and so on. You’ve probably come across similar toolkits yourself.
Even the best of these programs will have some gaps in its functionality, though: some security options missing, limited batch processing, inflexible split or merge tools, maybe can’t create linearized (web-friendly) PDFs. And so sometimes, just occasionally, you’ll need a heavy-duty solution like the command line QPDF.
Securely archive your images with WinTrezur
WinTrezur looks at first much like any other image viewer. There’s a folder tree on the left, a set of thumbnails on the right. Double-clicking any image displays it full-screen; pressing Esc returns you to the thumbnail viewer again, and you can view everything as a slideshow.
So far, so very standard. But explore a little further and unusual extras begin to appear.
WinRAR extends BZIP2, LZMA, PPMd support
RARLab has updated its archive manager WinRAR to version 5.10 with a small selection of improvements and new features.
Top of the list must be the extraction support for ZIP and ZIPX archives using BZIP2, LZMA and PPMd compression.
Move and copy files more easily with MyFolders
MyFolders is a free Windows shell extension which makes it easier to copy or move files to any folder, or to open common folders in a couple of clicks.
The program installs quickly and easily. There’s no obvious interface, so to see how it works, select a file in Explorer, right-click and choose the new MyFolders menu.
Troubleshoot Windows 7 and 8 service triggers with Service Trigger Editor
If you’ve ever spent time troubleshooting low-level PC problems then you’ll know that understanding Windows services can be very helpful. The standard Services applet (Win+R > services.msc) tells you a lot about what’s happening on your system -- but there is one important exception.
Windows 7 and 8 support service "triggers", a mechanism which allows Windows services to start when a particular event occurs (a device is plugged in to the computer, say). The Services applet highlights these by listing their Startup Type as "Manual (Trigger Start)" or "Automatic (Trigger Start)", but double-click a triggered service and it won’t tell you anything more.
G'MIC: the world’s most flexible image processor?
G’MIC (GREYC’s Magic for Image Computing) is an exceptionally powerful image processing tool for the command line (or via GIMP, if you install it via a plugin). It’s aimed very much at experts, but has features which can be used by just about everyone.
At its simplest, you might use the program to view a series of images (gmic pic1.jpg pic2.jpg pic3.jpg) or convert an image from one format to another (gmic ThisPicture.png Output.png).
Change your DNS server, MAC address and proxy with Smart DNS Changer
Changing your DNS servers can be a smart way to block phishing scams, protect your children from inappropriate websites, maybe even improve your browsing speed.
Figuring out how to do this can be a challenge, at least if you’re a network beginner. Fortunately tools like NirSoft’s QuickSetDNS and ChrisPC DNS Switch can help to simplify the process, and Smart DNS Changer extends the idea further with some clever touches of its own.
Analyze files for malware and more with Safer Computing’s FileAlyzer
FileAlyzer is a file analysis tool from Safer Computing, the developer of Spybot -- Search & Destroy. Its focus is on helping experts check unknown executables for signs of malware, but has many other uses and applications.
Launch the program, open an EXE and FileAlyzer opens a report window with no less than 21 tabs. It’s a little intimidating, but the initial "General" tab is gentler, focusing on a few basic details: location, size, version, create/ last access/ last write times, attributes, and a few hashes (CRC-32, MD5, SHA-1).
Control web access across your network with NxFilter
Install most security suites and you’ll get some form of web filter, blocking sites according to their content, a blacklist, or both. This works well enough on a single PC, but performance can be an issue, and it’s not going to help if you need to protect your whole network.
NxFilter is a DNS-based web filter, so there’s no text-based content filtering. But the program can block access to websites based on domain, category, user, time, quota and more. There’s built-in phishing protection, updated every two hours, while packet inspection can detect malware and bots. One installation can protect your entire network -- and it can all be yours for free.
Jovial Notepad is a very lightweight Notepad replacement
Jovial Notepad is a portable Notepad replacement, exceptionally small (32KB download, a single 64KB executable) yet still managing to cram in plenty of interesting features.
The program looks at first much like the standard Notepad, but you’ll soon spot some differences. URLs become highlighted and clickable as you type them; the status bar displays the date, a character and line count; and a Symbols menu allows you to enter useful symbols (copyright, pi, degrees, various currencies) in a couple of clicks.
XXCopy is a backup, sync and cloning tool -- for the command line?
XCopy is one of the most useful Windows command line tools, an easy way to copy files, folders, folder trees and more. There’s support for copying only files which have changed, and if a network connection fails then XCopy can even resume later, just where it left off.
The program is still a little basic, but if you need more power then there’s always XXCopy, a free-for-personal-use tool which supports all the usual XCopy features, and then adds a whole lot more.
Strip metadata from your photos with JPEG & PNG Stripper
Digital photos often include metadata, hidden tags which hold more information about them: camera name, model, date taken, maybe the place (if the camera was GPS-enabled), the flash mode, ISO speed, image thumbnail and more. Add others – title, author, comments -- and these can be a great help when organizing and searching for photos later.
These tags also increase your image size, of course (if only by a few bytes), and can include personal information. If you’re thinking of sharing any photos with others then it could make sense to remove them with JPEG & PNG Stripper, first.
FileSearchy is a fast desktop search tool for Windows
FileSearchy is a free-for-personal-use desktop search tool with one or two interesting and unexpected features.
After a quick and easy installation, launching FileSearchy displays a very straightforward interface. Enter part of a file name in the Search box, and the results are updated instantly, just as fast as you can type. You can then double-click any file to view it, or right-click for the usual Explorer context menu.
Menu Uninstaller Pro: an easier way to uninstall software
Uninstalling programs in Windows is a very common task for most people, yet can still require a little effort. Just finding the Uninstall option might take a moment as you check the Start menu first (if you have one), before heading off to Windows' "Programs and Features" applet.
Menu Uninstaller Pro is a free alternative which could help save you time, by providing several new ways to manage and remove installed applications.
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.