Mil Free Internet Eraser 3.1-Wipe away traces of your Internet activity

Want to get rid of any traces of your Internet activity? Not that we’re saying you’ve been up to anything dodgy, but sometimes its useful to be able to cover up what you’ve been doing online. Mil Free Internet Eraser does a cracking job getting rid of your tracks, quickly removing evidence of Web pages you’ve visited, emails you’ve sent and other processes of a confidential nature.

The program gives you the option to clean up trace files either manually or automatically at regular intervals, and sweeps up a wide range of file types, including cookies, temporary Internet files, and the index.dat of your PC. You can personalize the settings to indicate the sort of files you wish to keep and those you want to be removed. This makes the program a great way of preventing any embarassment as a result of your Net activity.

Download Mil Free Internet Eraser 3.1 in Softonic

Alexa Toolbar (Sparky) Firefox add-on 1.4.7-Get Alexa rankings and other data in Firefox

If you own a website you’ve probably heard about the Alexa ranking, a list of Internet sites based on traffic data which measures the popularity of those sites on the Web. This information is mainly obtained through the Alexa Toolbar.

This toolbar is known as Sparky in its version for the Firefox browser and offers pretty much the same functionality as its Internet Explorer equivalent, but with a different design. This means you’ll be able to check all the Alexa data relating to the site you’re currently visiting with Firefox (rank position, domain information) as well as other sites that visitors to that webpage also visited, which is a great way to discover new sites.

The difference between the Internet Explorer and the Firefox versions of the Alexa Toolbar is that in the first one the toolbar is displayed as is (as a toolbar attached to the top area of the browser’s interface) while the second one displays its elements in different areas of the browser: the Alexa ranking appears on the status bar, the Related links section is showed next to the “Help” menu and the Alexa search engine appears in the search engines list in Firefox.

In this sense, while you’ll have to dig a bit deeper to find its tools, the Alexa Toolbar for Firefox offers the same functionality and features as the original Internet Explorer version. That said, bear in mind that this toolbar does collect some data about your browsing habits, but then again, if it didn’t, we couldn’t have the Alexa ranking and information about related sites. In any case, if you’re worried about your privacy, read the Alexa privacy policy before installing this toolbar.

The Alexa Toolbar is a handy add-on for Firefox where you can track your website’s position in the Alexa ranking, keep an eye on competitors and also discover new websites that are similar to yours.

Download Alexa Toolbar (Sparky) Firefox add-on 1.4.7 in Softonic

UltraSurf 9.6-Browse the web without leaving personal traces

After testing the private browsing modes in Google Chrome and Firefox 3.1 Beta, don’t you wish your current browser had the same feature?

UltraSurf can lend you a hand here, as long as you use Internet Explorer as your default browser. This small app works as a secure filter when you’re browsing the web, preventing the browser from saving information such as history of visited sites and cookies.

UltraSurf doesn’t require installation and can be run from a USB memory stick, which makes it perfect to carry around in your USB device and use it in case you need to browse the web from a public computer.

The only and big drawback of UltraSurf, like I said before, is the fact that it only works with Internet Explorer.

With UltraSurf you can now browse the web in a completely safe way without leaving any traces behind you.

Download UltraSurf 9.6 in Softonic

Index.dat Analyzer 2.5-Browse and delete hidden Windows history

Do you worry about the footprints you leave behind while using Windows? Deleting browser history, cache or ‘recent’ lists doesn’t do the job. Index.dat files will still exist on your machine, and it’s surprising how much of your usage history can be found by scanning these files.

According to Wikipedia, some people believe these files, usually hidden, are an invasion of privacy as they maintain a record of activity even after users believe they have cleaned their system. Index.dat Analyzer finds these files and lets you delete them.

The interface is pretty simple. Upon startup it’s not necessary to do anything, as all the .dat files are automatically displayed. You can browse them and delete any you want by checking them and clicking ‘Delete’, or choose ‘Check all’ from the edit menu and get rid of everything.

As there will no doubt be hundreds or thousands of files in the list, you can filter them by text. So, by entering ‘jpg’ you’ll just see all the jpg files (as well as any other files that happen to contain those letters together).

Browsing through the cache can be a real eye-opener to the casual user, as it’s pretty amazing just how much stuff is kept within your system files without your knowledge. If you find anything you want, you can easily extract them to the folder of your choice.

While this may seem like a tool for the paranoid, it is another useful weapon for cleaning your system and making Windows run faster. For people worried about privacy, it offers a useful service.

Index.dat Analyzer is a simple and eye-opening piece of cleaning software.

Download Index.dat Analyzer 2.5 in Softonic

Fresh UI 8.45-Configure and optimize Windows hidden settings easily

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Living Cookbook 2008 2.0.72-Top-class cooking and recipe management

If you like cooking, you’re going to love Living Cookbook, one of the most complete cooking-related programs I’ve ever reviewed.

The thing that really marks Living Cookbook out from its competitors is the sheer breadth of features. It covers just about every aspect of home cooking, from browsing the Internet for new ideas to planning your meals, scheduling your cooking and designing your shopping lists. The whole Living Cookbook is contained in a simple-to-use interface that anyone familiar with the Office Suite of tools should have no problems navigating.

Living Cookbook has a great help file, as well as offline tutorials and a host of online tools to help you get the most out of the program. There are also examples in each feature area, so you know exactly how you should be using the program. It comes bundled with plenty of recipes, sample shopping lists, suggested websites (for use with the in-built browser) and nutritional values, but it goes without saying that you can add or modify any of Living Cookbook’s multiple areas to fully customize it.

Living Cookbook’s configuration options are also very complete, as are the fully customizable display options. Unfortunately, although the program gave me the option to change measurements into metric, the setting didn’t seem to ’stick’, and continued to show me recipes in US measurements and auto-suggest ounces and pounds.

Beyond this little issue, Living Cookbook was a pleasure to use, and is useful even if you never add your own material. The options are so varied that it might take you a while to truly investigate the program, but it a serious piece of software that any enthusiastic cook will appreciate.

If you take your cooking seriously, Living Cookbook is the program for you.

Download Living Cookbook 2008 2.0.72 in Softonic

Freeciv 2.1.10-Can you create the greatest civilization

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Sothink SWF Decompiler 5.3-Extract all the elements inside an SWF movie

Flash is a popular format to publish videos and animations online, so it’s always useful to have a program that can extract all the various elements inside it.

Sothink SWF Decompiler is one of those programs: a tool capable of extracting the diverse elements – images, sounds, texts, sprites, actions, etc. – that make up an SWF file. Sothink SWF Decompiler not only does the job quickly and efficiently, but is also very easy to use.

The program features a user-friendly interface with the popular ribbon-style toolbar and support for drag and drop. After opening a Flash movie, you’ll be able to play it right in Sothink SWF Decompiler (with an embedded player) and see its structure on the right-side pane.

All extracted elements can then be opened up in a Flash editor for further work. Sothink SWF Decompiler also has a handy tool to capture any SWF movies or animations you see on a website, though it only works with Internet Explorer.

Sothink SWF Decompiler is an efficient, easy-to-use tool to extract all the elements inside an SWF movie.

Download Sothink SWF Decompiler 5.3 in Softonic

Notepad++ 5.6-Complete source code editor and Notepad replacement

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ooVoo 2.2.3.24-A new way to do video chats

If you regularly conduct video calls or video conferencing with more than one person, then ooVoo is an elegant and powerful video conferencing and IM client that combines elegance with functionality.

With ooVoo you can talk face-to-face with up to six people, add an ooVoo link to your blog or online profiles (so others can instantly add you to their contacts), send and receive video messages and best of all, it’s completely free. To get started, you need to create an ooVoo ID which is fairly painless although a bit annoying as all registration forms can be. Once you’ve started the setup process, you’ll be asked to create an ooVoo username and password. You’ll also be asked to add a few friends and contacts to your ooVoo account although if like me, you don’t know anyone using ooVoo, you can simply elect to send invites. Unlike some video conferencing applications, it’s very easy to get up and running with your webcam and it can handle very high quality cameras of up to 2 megapixels depending on the speed of your connection. During chats and video calls, you can add effects to video such as sepia, blurring and morphing although it seems to take some time in applying these successfully. ooVoo also serves as a VoIP app although unfortunately, it only serves mobiles and landlines in the USA and Canada at the moment. What’s really nice about ooVoo though is the ability to place your contacts, and their video images, down the side of your screen in a sidebar simultaneously. This way, you can chat away to all of them at the same time and see them at once. This does hog quite a bit of your RAM though if you’re not working on with at least 1GB of RAM or more.

An impressive video conferencing and chat IM although it would be interesting to see how it performs when a maximum of 6 people are trying to conduct a video conference at the same time.

Download ooVoo 2.2.3.24 in Softonic