Avast Free Antivirus

Looking to compete with both paid and free security suites, Avast wants to create a unified approach to your computer security. Long gone are the days of the quirky interface. Avast is accessible and robust, with an impressive list of free features and strong, though hardly stellar, performance benchmarks.

Avast 8 fixes browsers, out-of-date apps

Installation
Avast has improved its installation process so it's faster than before. It's not the fastest on the market, not by a long shot, but a standard installation took us about three minutes -- around the same as last year.
Some items of note during the installation that will come up later in the review: To avoid the Windows 7 and Vista desktop gadget, or the WebRep browser add-on, you must choose the Custom install option and uncheck those here. Firefox and Internet Explorer will all block WebRep from installing by default, but it may be easier for some to cut it off here.

New interface, features capstone Avast 8 (pictures)

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Automatic installation of these features is frowned upon, although Avast does provide a clear method for uninstalling them. It's just not as simple as a check box that gets its own installation window, since you have to go through the Customize menu, which makes the auto-install sort of surreptitious.
Also during the install, you are opted into Google's Drive desktop manager. If you're a Google services addict, this is a good reminder to get the client app. If not, well, it's a small piece of bloatware to uninstall later. Such are the installation blues.
Unlike last year, installing Avast once again requires a reboot. Still, the uninstallation process left no detectable traces on the desktop or in the registry.
One installation option, available only from the custom install menu, lets you sideload Avast as a secondary security program to supplement your main one. We're not big fans of this option from a security point-of-view, because it can bog down your system resources without actually making you safer. However, as a way to see if you like Avast, it's not a bad thing as long as you remember to choose one security suite to go with.
Interface
After three years of nearly identical interfaces, Avast 8 brings an entirely new suit of clothes with it -- sort of.
While the underlying submenus and settings screens look and feel similar, there's a new home screen that emulates the Windows 8 blocky tile-and-icon style. A colored status box on the left lets you know in green or red whether you are secured or not, while six tabs to its right give you access to the suite's security features.
These tabs provide quick access to specific features: Scan, Software Updater, SafeZone, Browser Cleanup, AccessAnywhere, and the Market. With two direct links from the home screen, Avast is really pushing the market idea, which is basically a landing page from which you can purchase additional Avast-branded tools such as a password manager, data backup, or download the free Android and Mac suites.
At the top of the home screen are links to Security, Maintenence, Market, Recommend, and Support. Account and Settings access lives to the far right of them. The Security tab is the most important one, and gives you access to Avast's numerous shields, as well as a list of subcategories on the left nav: antivirus, anti-spam, firewall, software updater, and tools.

Avast's changes its design and its color scheme. While the paid versions retain a dark theme, Avast Free goes back to basic white. The interface across all four versions is now much simpler, with big tiles and easier-to-reach advanced settings.

(Credit: Avast)

One smaller but noticeable change is that the free version now decorated with a white background, to separate it from the dark-themed paid upgrades. Yeah, it's a color scheme change, but since most of Avast's customers use the free version, it's a noticeable one.
Overall, the new interface is more user-friendly, and that's a plus. The workflow behind the touch-friendly large icons makes it easier to go directly to key features, such as Avast's popular shields, and much of the jargon has been replaced with more easily understandable terms.
It still runs in Windows 8's desktop mode, so it's not a true Metro-style app, but it has that look.
Features and support
Avast 8, comparable with the 2013 version of competing suites, includes several new features that directly affect your security. Changes to existing Avast features include increasing the number of virus definition file updates per day, from 20 or so in the previous version to more than 70 per day in version 8. When running on battery on laptops, Avast will automatically disable scans until the device is plugged in, and the suite now offers full IPv6 support.
Like both the paid and free competition, Avast has a file reputation system for evaluating downloads. The browser add-on WebRep for on-the-fly site evaluation that also checks for fake site certificates is lighter on your browser than competitors' heavyweight toolbars.
The free version of Avast is arguably the most comprehensive set of freely available security features on the market. There's a reason these guys have more than 170 million active users (at the time this review was written). The antivirus, antispyware, and heuristics engines form a security core that also includes multiple real-time shields. Along with the new features, it's got Sandbox for automatically walling off suspicious programs; a full complement of shields that guard against scripts, P2P networks, instant messaging, and potentially dangerous program behavior; a silent/gaming mode; on-demand boot scanning; and a healthy output of statistics for the data nerds.
Avast's Sandbox, by the way, automatically places programs in a virtualized state when it suspects them of being threats. It walls off suspicious programs, preventing them from potentially damaging your system while allowing them to run. As the program runs, the Sandbox keeps track of which files are opened, created, or renamed, and what it reads and writes from the registry. Permanent changes are virtualized, so when the process terminates itself, the system changes it made will evaporate.

Avast's new browser cleanup tool would've been killer a few years back, but it's still useful for keeping your browser ship-shape. It's available in all four versions.

(Credit: Avast)

The company hasn't said whether the virtualized state begins after the program already has access to your system, so it's theoretically possible that it could be compromised. There's not a single security feature in any program that hasn't been been compromised at some point, though, so "theoretically hackable" is true of all security features.
But it's the new features that drive interest in the suite, and this year's got some very interesting improvements and one dud. The new Software Updater tells you when your programs are out of date, but it doesn't leave you hanging. It provides links to update them directly from within Avast.
This includes known security vectors such as Java, Flash, QuickTime, and PDF readers. In the free version, the updater will automatically download the software update, which then opens its installer. It still relies on user interaction to complete the install, though. In Pro and Internet Security, you get a one-click update that downloads and silently installs the update. The Premier version removes the requirement for any user interaction whatsoever -- updates happen automatically and silently.
The new Browser Cleanup tool is available as a standalone download that doesn't require you to use Avast, but it also comes baked into all versions of the suite. It checks the internal storage and registry of Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome, searches for plug-in and toolbar references and helps you uninstall them.
Two entirely new features do the most to differentiate Avast Premier from its siblings. The suite includes a Data Shredder to ensure that deleted files and folders are unrecoverable using "conventional" techniques. It offers the industry standard three shredding options: a random overwrite, which overwrites files a user-specified number of times with semirandom bytes; a Department of Defense standard of overwriting; and the Gutmann method, the slowest of the three but the most secure.
You'll also be able to wipe only free disk space of remaining instances of data, or wipe an entire partition including on solid state drives, creating some nuance to its deletion options.
It looks like last year's Remote Assistance feature, for single-instance, friend-to-friend remote tech support, has been overhauled and turned into the new AccessAnywhere feature, the second Premier-only feature. It requires you to have Avast on both ends, which wouldn't be so bad, but the installation process for Avast is not as simple or fast as the installation for programs that focus on remote access, like LogMeIn or TeamViewer. Avast's installer alone runs more than 100MB, and the Avast requirement -- as opposed to gaining access through your browser -- hamstrings its utility.

Avast now comes with a software updater, which tells you when an installed program is out of date. It's available in all four Avast versions, although it comes with more options in the paid suites.

(Credit: Avast)

Data shredding and remote access are interesting, but just not enough to get us to shell out for Premier. And sadly lacking from Avast 8 are any tools to directly address privacy concerns, a security issue which will only continue to grow as advertisers, network providers, and browser makers squabble over personal data collected and collated on people using the Web.
Avast also doesn't offer an on-demand link-scanning feature, as AVG and Norton do, although the company says that the way that Avast's Web shield behaves ought to protect you automatically from any malicious URLs by automatically preventing the URL from resolving in-browser. A page will appear letting you know that Avast has blocked the site because it is suspected to contain a threat.
Avast has plenty more nifty extras to help you out. The Troubleshooting section now comes with a "restore factory settings" option, which makes it easier to wipe settings back to a familiar starting point, and comes with the option to restore only the Shields settings, leaving other changes untouched, like permanently running in silent mode.
While these tools are clearly nonessential, and some of the prices struck us as high -- $10 for a Rescue disc? $50 for an annual backup service? -- we like that Avast gives its fans a chance to stay in its ecosystem. The Avast EasyPass, for example, is an Avast-branded version of RoboForm's premium password manager and is well worth the $9.99 annual fee.
In a day's worth of testing, none of the new features appeared to cause any negative impact on computer or browsing performance. Assuming these technologies work as advertised, your computer ought to be a fair bit safer from malware than it would without them.
Performance
Avast was generally well-received by the independent testing organizations, AV-Test and AV-Comparatives.
AV-Test.org gave the previous version of Avast a passing rating in its most recent test, on a Windows 7 computer from December 2012. Avast 2013, the suite's name for version 7, passed handily with a total score of 14 out of 18. A year before, Avast 6 struggled to pass, hitting the bare minimum of 11. Avast 2013 reached 4.5 out of 6 in Protection, 4.5 out of 6 in Repair, and a 5 out of 6 in Usability, for a total of 14. Usability includes testing for false positives.
AV-Comparatives.org also saw room for improvement in Avast during December 2012. The suite blocked only 95.5 percent of threats tested during that month, but then you could kick those up to a more respectable 98.7 percent with some settings tweaks by the user. This user-dependent margin of around 3 percent to 3.5 percent was consistent throughout the year.

Avast has finally put all of its "shields" in one management pane, to decrease your pain. They're available in all versions of the suite, depicted here in the Pro version.

(Credit: Avast)

Basically, AV-Comparatives found that Avast will keep you reasonably safe, but significantly safer when you turned detections and blocks up high. The testing organization gave Avast its Advanced certification in both the first half of 2012 and the second half, a marked improvement from the lackluster Standard certification in the second half of 2011.

Security program	Boot time	Shutdown time	Scan time	MS Office performance	iTunes decoding	Media multitasking	Cinebench
Unprotected system	47.5	7.8	11.5	n/a	412	124	344	17,116
Average of all tested systems (to date)	59.9	13.7	12	1,008	413	125	345	17,147
Avast Free Antivirus 8	61.6	12.3	18.6	669	401	125	345	17,199
Avast Pro Antivirus 8	67.8	10.7	10.2	671	404	126	344	17,066
Avast Internet Security 8	61.3	12.6	16.6	686	411	125	344	17,067
Avast Premier 8	63.9	18.7	16.8	705	414	124	347	16,959

Note: All tests measured in seconds, except for Cinebench. On the Cinebench test, higher numbers are better.
CNET Labs system performance benchmarks show Avast 8 as being fairly middle-of-the-road. It's weak on startup time, generally adding 10 more seconds than average. Shutdown time impact was a bit faster than average, while virus scans were quite speedy and faster than many paid-suite competitors. Avast 8's footprint during common-use tasks such as MS Office performance, iTunes decoding, and media multitasking was average, as well. We'd like to see a much smaller hit on startup times, but other than that Avast 8 Free offers a reasonable trade-off. Avast 8's paid upgrades, however, could do much better.
As far as Avast's impact on system performance goes, in a real-world test Avast completed its scans in a timely yet not blazingly fast manner. A Quick Scan averaged about 28 minutes, slower than last year. The Full Scan averaged to 73 minutes. RAM usage was surprisingly light, with Avast only eating up about 16MB when running a scan.
Judging from these results, Avast has righted some of its benchmarking wrongs from the previous version, but we may adjust that judgment when CNET Labs' scores come in.
Conclusion
When it comes to your security, Avast 8 gets a lot right. It's got a usable, uncluttered interface, solid although not stellar benchmarks, and a set of features that keeps it at the forefront of Windows security.
We'd like to see the innovators at Avast HQ in Prague tackle the real privacy concerns of the modern Web, and the unimpressive AccessAnywhere keeps us from giving the Premier suite stronger marks.
Avast Antivirus 8 Free, on the other hand, continues to be a stellar choice for free Windows security, and we enthusiastically recommend it. Few people want security that turns a good machine into the malware equivalent of Swiss cheese, and on that count, Avast has your back.
Avast 8 fixes browsers, out-of-date apps:

Publisher's Description

From AVAST Software:

Our flagship Avast Free Antivirus is here again. We've made improvements to its Behavior Shield and Remote Assistance, improved the cloud technologies and the energy-saver settings. And we've simplified the UI and added a Software Updater for easily keeping the eye on all your potential vulnerabilities. Plus, there's an optional Browser Cleanup tool for removing pesky toolbars and plugins.

What's new in this version:

• Fixed issues related to Win 8 & Win 8.1 (avast! is now fully compatible with these operating systems)
• Fixed issues in virtualization module (including other x64 platform fixes)
• Fixed issues in Script shield
• Outlook plugin fixes

Mozilla Thunderbird Portable

Publisher's Description

From PortableApps:

Mozilla Thunderbird Portable is the Mozilla Thunderbird email client packaged as a portable app, so you can take your email, address book and account settings with you. Portable Thunderbird is the safe, fast email client that's easy to use. It has all the same great features as regular Thunderbird including quick message search, customizable views, support for IMAP/POP, or RSS support. Plus, it leaves no personal information behind on the machine you run it on, so you can take your email and address book with you on your iPod, flash drive or other portable storage device.

 

Microsoft Outlook 2013

Publisher's Description

From Microsoft:

Microsoft Outlook 2013 is designed to help you focus on what's important with a clear view of email, calendars, and contacts. It includes many features to enhance your communication abilities. Respond faster with inline replies, flag, delete, or mark your messages read or unread with handy commands in the message list, and quick glance at your schedule, an appointment, or details about someone you're emailing. See all your contact details in one place with a people card which collects all the key details about a contact in one place: phone, email, address, company info, social media updates, even whether they're available. Microsoft Outlook 2013 includes built-in support for Exchange ActiveSync, which can synchronize Hotmail contents with Outlook to put all those together. It also has a local weather forecast because in Calendar view, along with current conditions.

Microsoft Office Outlook 2007

Publisher's Description

From Microsoft:

Microsoft Outlook provides a single, integrated solution for organizing and managing your digital communication tools such as e-mail and instant messaging, along with all your day-to-day information--from calendars and contacts to task lists and notes. Outlook controls the deluge of e-mail, appointments, and contacts, helping you manage your time and tasks more effectively, while making it easier to synthesize information and share it with others.

EmailAny Sender

Publisher's Description

From EmailAny:

EmailAny Sender is a leading generation email marketing tool which specializes in creating stunning newsletters with multiple business templates, high-speed newsletter mailing and easy-to-use user interface. This professional newsletter marketing software helps you in every aspect from mail list collecting to sending personalized e-mail messages, user group management and getting E-mail Sending Reports. Compared with other related email marketing softwares, EmailAny has the following great features which make it so popular: 1)Validate e-mails before sending, Spam content checker to check probability of your e-mail being considered as spam. 2) Integrated with landing page, provides pre-coded sign-up forms which can be easily integrated with your landing page, blog, and Facebook fan page to collect new subscribers. 3)Video Mail, give your customers the experience of a face-to-face communication. 4)Autoresponders, get full control with email marketing automation by sending follow-up cycles, birthday emails, 1-to-1 communications, customized offers and more. Refine your relevancy, timing and accuracy with simple yet powerful new time-based and action-based messages that respond perfectly to your subscribers' needs and interests. 5)Detailed Statistics, Maximize the effectiveness of your campaigns by keep refining the cycle of monitoring-evaluation-melioration, tracking, gauging and analyzing real pleasure. Make smart decisions within minutes: compare follow-ups, measure site conversions, segment subscribers with one click or view hourly fluctuations. 6)Email Creator, Experience the creative power you never had before with our easy-to-use editor, multiple email templates and limitless editing options are provided. 7)Email Extractor, extracts email addresses from webpages and text files, help you can grow your subscriber list by hundreds or thousands - automatically - in just a few seconds. 8) Auto Synchronization with Other Mail List Database, Provides the option of maintain the same mail list with your SQL servers, and automatically do synchronization with your database, a very useful function for advanced users and companies who have their own mail list database.

Mozilla Thunderbird

Publisher's Description

From Mozilla:

Mozilla Thunderbird makes e-mailing safer, faster, and easier with such features as intelligent spam filters, a built-in RSS reader, and quick search. Thunderbird was designed to prevent viruses and to stop junk mail. Thunderbird includes tabbed e-mail, new search tools and indexing, smart folders, support for Firefox's Personas, a simplified setup wizard, and robust junk protections that include phishing and spam filters. Thunderbird has a junk mail tools have been updated to stay ahead of spam and features Phishing protection.

What's new in this version:

Message threads can now be ignored or watched.

Emails can now be sent to IDN based email addresses

Zoom functionality is now available in the compose window

In Twitter, replying to a tweet now replies to all users, just like on the Twitter website

Various security fixes

New search and tabs take flight in Thunderbird 3:

eM Client

Publisher's Description

From eM Client:

eM Client integrates email, calendars, tasks and instant messaging in a single modern desktop application. Easily synchronize with Gmail, Outlook.com, Hotmail, Yahoo, iCloud or any other service provider and have all your data always available. Switching to eM Client from other software is easy. You can import everything from Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird. Thanks to our data backup, staying safe is easy as well. eM Client has a powerful but efficient user interface that boosts your productivity. You can seamlessly manage your email communication as well as events, contacts and tasks. You can even use eM Client to chat with your friends on Facebook and Google. Integrated search will always help you find what you're looking for. The innovative sidebar further improves work efficiency by providing an agenda of upcoming events, showing communication history with individual contacts and chat. To personalize the client, you can choose from multiple themes.

What's new in this version: Version 5.0.17595:

Full support for Windows 8

Easy mail backup and restore

Office XP Service Pack 3 (SP3)

Download this file if you do not have access to your installation source or if you experience problems installing the Office XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) Client. There is no uninstall feature for this download.

Publisher's Description

From Microsoft:

Office XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) provides the latest updates to Microsoft Office XP. SP3 contains significant security enhancements, in addition to stability and performance improvements. This service pack applies to any level of Office XP. It contains all updates included in Office XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Office XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), and updates released after SP2. Microsoft recommends that you use the Office Update site to determine if your computer requires this update before installing it.

Microsoft Visio Premium 2010

Publisher's Description

From Microsoft:

Microsoft Visio Premium 2010 takes diagramming to a new level with dynamic, data-driven visualization tools and templates, enhanced process management capabilities, and advanced Web sharing. Bring real-time data together from multiple sources, including Excel and Microsoft SQL Server, in one powerful diagram using vibrant graphics like icons and data bars. Manage processes with sub-processes and rules and logic validation to ensure accuracy and consistency across the organization. Create SharePoint workflows and export them to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for real-time execution and monitoring.

Microsoft Visio Premium 2010 (64-bit)

Publisher's Description

From Microsoft:

Microsoft Visio Premium 2010 (64-bit) takes diagramming to a new level with dynamic, data-driven visualization tools and templates, enhanced process management capabilities, and advanced Web sharing. Bring real-time data together from multiple sources, including Excel and Microsoft SQL Server, in one powerful diagram using vibrant graphics like icons and data bars. Manage processes with sub-processes and rules and logic validation to ensure accuracy and consistency across the organization. Create SharePoint workflows and export them to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for real-time execution and monitoring.

Softi Scan to PDF

 

 

Publisher's Description

From Softi Software:

Scan to PDF is a easy to use PDF scanning app it can create single and multi-page Pdf,s even with a flatbed scanner. Scan to PDF works with most Twain compatible Scanners and has superior image compression.

Vodigi Open Source Interactive Digital Signage

Vodigi is a free, open source, interactive digital signage software solution that offers all the features you need to promote and advertise your products and services. With Vodigi, you can have a virtual sales team dedicated to promoting and advertising your products and services. a team that knows your products and services inside and out, can provide detailed interactive information about your products and services, and is available any time - day or night. - to help you succeed. Vodigi gives you what you need to display image slide shows, display video play lists, allow customers to interact with product web sites, allow customers to browse and watch product images and videos, provide interactive buyer's guides, provide detailed product information, and offer interactive product demonstrations. Vodigi gives you a virtual sales force to engage your customers like never before. And best of all, it's free, open source, and easy to implement. So go ahead and get started today. The possibilities are endless.
Vodigi includes touch-free interaction. When the Vodigi Player is paired with a Kinect for Windows device, viewers can control the interactive features using hand gestures and voice commands.

What's new in this version: Version 5.5 includes the ability to add music to slide shows and post system messages to Vodigi Administrator users when they log in. Numerous Vodigi Player enhancements have also been made.

Microsoft OneNote

This program organizes project information, but it takes time to master its many functions. The tabbed interface is intuitive with a mix of information panels and note-entry areas. Readability is good with full control of screen color and fonts. The program takes input in many forms such as documents, onscreen handwritten notes, and media files. Microsoft OneNote's outline and search functions collate and outline the project data. This program doesn't have a particular method of use; you are expected to build your project in a way that fits your method of organization. To help new users, Microsoft includes an introductory guide, which explains most functions. This program does require immediate registration to use and some functions are disabled until purchase. An irritation is that disabled functions can be selected, which forces users to cancel numerous registration dialog boxes. Though it is an 82MB download, this program is worth a look. Novice users and those with small projects would do well with a basic word processor, but anyone looking to take notes and collate research will find this a worthy program.

Publisher's Description

From Microsoft:

Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 gives you an easier way to take, organize, and find your notes and information. Like paper, you can take notes anywhere on the page. Like a binder, it lets you organize your information into sections. But with OneNote 2003, you get the flexibility to do even more. Capture virtually any type of information and share it easily. And because all your notes are in one place, find what you need with just a few clicks anywhere--at your desk, in meetings, or on the road.

You'll need to receive a trial key for Microsoft Office here to be able to try this program.

OpenOffice.org Portable

OpenOffice.org Portable (formerly Portable OpenOffice.org) is the complete OpenOffice.org office suite, including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package, and database - packaged as a portable app, so you can take all your documents and everything you need to work with them wherever you go.
This full-featured office suite is compatible with Microsoft Office, Word Perfect, Lotus, and other office applications. It's easy-to-use and feature-rich, performing nearly all of the functions you'd expect in an office suite, but at no cost.

All-Business-Documents

All-Business-Documents helps you create nearly any imaginable piece of professional business paperwork. With a simple interface and impressive templates, this could be an essential tool for any office.
The program's interface looks a lot like a cluttered version of traditional word-processing software. With three separate screens squeezed below the editing command icons, you may need to close one or two boxes before feeling comfortable. Fortunately, navigation and operation are easy enough not to require a trip to the Help file. Creating a document was mainly a matter of surfing through the file tree of templates provided. Topics range from human resources, accounting, legal, sales and marketing, and technology. Within each topic are dozens of templates for every conceivable document, from an offer letter to a patent license. All are laid out professionally, with obvious spots into which you input your information, quickly converting an item from a template to a corporate document. This will undoubtedly save time and headaches for anyone previously lacking the capability to create such works. The program also provides great features, such as single button commands that run spell checks, grammar checks, and a thesaurus.
The only things we weren't thrilled about were the program's short, 10-use trial period and the enormous black watermark on each document that made it hard to read the text. But thanks to its simple operation and an impressive bank of templates, we still feel All-Business-Documents is a great download for any businessperson.

Publisher's Description

From Infordesk:

All-Business-Documents helps you create nearly any imaginable piece of professional business paperwork. With a simple interface and comprehensive library of over 6000 professionally written business documents/letters & writing guidelines, this is an essential tool for any office.

What's new in this version: Version 6.2 includes updates and enhancements.

Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007

Microsoft Visio is a professional drawing tool for creating charts, graphs, diagrams, engineering drawings, networks, layouts, and schedules to use in reports, documents, and presentations. With an extensive array of top-quality templates, Visio is both easy to use and sophisticated enough for professional applications, much like Microsoft's other Office tools. Visio is part of the Office suite and integrates with it in Windows, but it's not included with most Office editions; it comes in separate releases in several versions. Visio Professional is available in a free but limited trial version. All of Visio Pro's features work, but you can't save or modify files. The trial is only active for a limited time, and a nag screen asks for a Product Key every time you open it. But if you're wondering if this fairly expensive tool is worth the cost, start with the trial version.
Visio Pro's interface resembles earlier Office layouts rather than the newer ribbon look, but it's still functionally and stylistically up-to-date. We mentioned that, like other Office apps, Visio Pro is capable of a lot in experienced hands, but unfamiliar users will nevertheless be able to start building diagrams almost immediately, thanks largely to the extensive selection of Template Categories such as Business, Engineering, and Flowchart in the left sidebar. Each Template Category offered a selection of basic charts, diagrams, and drawings that we could customize with our data as we built them up. For example, under Engineering, we found templates for Basic Electrical, Circuits and Logic, Fluid Power, Part and Assembly Drawings, and other mechanical and physical process and control drawings and diagrams. Clicking Basic Electrical opened a dotted-grid field with a sidebar displaying objects for Shapes, Symbols, Semiconductors and Tubes, and other components and design features. Dragging each component onto the circuit board and linking them together in a variety of ways yielded a basic circuit diagram.
There are free tools that do much of what Visio Pro does, though none does near as much near as well. With Visio Pro's free trial, you'll be able to see that you're getting what you pay for.
Editors' note: This is a review of the trial version of MS Office Visio Pro Trial 12.0.6423.1000.

Publisher's Description

From Microsoft:

Office Visio Professional 2007 is helping IT and business professionals worldwide visualize, analyze, and communicate complex information, systems, and processes. Extend Office Visio 2007 programmatically or integrate it with other applications to fit your industry-specific scenarios. Develop your own custom solutions and shapes, or use those from Visio Solution Providers. Embed and program the Visio drawing environment to include the power of Visio in any smart client application.

PDF Creator

Tools for creating PDF documents tend to fall somewhere between do-it-all packages with big names (and price tags to match) and freeware stripped down to the basics. But simple is good, which is why PDF tools that install themselves as print drivers may be our favorite of all. That's how PDFCreator from Pdforge works, though that's not all it does.
PDFCreator's optional server installation mode can act as a network printer, but we chose the standard installation, which includes some optional downloads such as Images2PDF and PDFArchitect, plus some sample files and our choice of language and Help files. We chose all the extras and opted to add the tool to context menus as well as the Print menu. If you can print a document, you can use this tool. The steps are the same, with a screen full of fields to let us easily add Title, Author, Keywords, and more. You can also edit a document's Creation and Modify dates or instantly add the current date and time. Once you're finished, you can save, print, or e-mail your newly created PDF. PDFCreator creates more than PDFs, though, with the option to convert and save files in 13 formats, including bitmap, PostScript, and others.
PDFCreator is easy to use yet creates high-quality PDFs and many other document types from the Print command or shell menu for free. If that sounds like a recommendation, it is.

Publisher's Description

From Pdfforge:

PDFCreator is a tool to create PDF files from nearly any Windows application. With PDFCreator, you can create PDFs from any program that is able to print, encrypt PDFs and protect them from being opened or printed, send generated files via e-mail, create more than just PDFs: PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP, PCX, PS, and EPS, and autosave files to folders and filenames based on tags like username, computer name, date, and time, merge multiple files into one PDF. PDFCreator also runs on terminal servers without problems.

What's new in this version: Version 1.7.1 added new functions to pdfforge.dll and fixed bugs in pdfforge.dll in the function MergePDFFiles and printing after saving was not working anymore.

Advanced Word to Pdf Converter Free

Advanced Word to Pdf Converter Free promises to convert Word documents (DOC, DOCX, and DOCM) as well as text and rich-text documents into searchable PDFs, as the name suggests, for free. We assume it's intended for users who lack Word, since Word can save Word, text, and rich-text documents directly as PDFs. And "free" in this case means it's a restricted version of a premium tool. That wouldn't matter so much if it actually converted files in its default mode, without the paid version's settings and options. Unfortunately, it didn't.
Advanced Word to Pdf Converter's simple user interface is divided into three sections: an upper main window with a list view of selected files, a central Save Folder section, and a lower section labeled Output File Type: PDF File. Most of the features in the lower section are disabled in the freeware. A nag message in red informed us that the paid version could access the parameters, and did we want to upgrade? We didn't, and more nags told us (in essence, though not in so many words) to browse to a destination in which to save our converted file. We never got the chance, though, because the program first crashed our open copy of Word and then issued a series of error warning messages, including one that had something to do with our printer and another that simply advised us to reinstall the software. We tried to convert a text file next, with virtually identical results. Or, to be more specific, an identical lack of results; the Output Files folder was empty.
We've tested freeware that can convert just about any kind of document you could think of into a PDF, and vice versa, and with no fuss or muss. Even if it had simply worked properly, we'd still say there's no reason to buy Advanced Word to Pdf Converter, or any PDF converter, until you've explored some of the freeware PDF utilities available. Many do the job well, and quite a few of them do more, such as converting more file types or performing two-way conversions. Keep looking.

Publisher's Description

From Office Document Convert Software:

Advanced Word to Pdf Converter Free is a document to pdf converter, the converter allows you to convert hundreds of windows printable documents, such as word (doc, docx, docm), txt, rtf to searchable pdf (as default format, as image format)document. The converter can be used as a PDF writer or PDF creator from multiple applications. Advanced Word to Pdf Converter Free supports the fast, affordable way to create professional-quality documents in the popular PDF file format. Version 5.0 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, and bug fixes.

What's new in this version: Update the info 'Short Description'. Add info to 'Product Information URL' and 'Search Keywords' for the new upload.com

All-Business-Letters

All-Business-Letters offers a vault of professional writing templates that are sure to save time. While the interface is crowded, this program overcomes any issues with a simple operation and a vast number of templates.
The program resembles other word-processing software with its commands, but has a cluttered collection of three screens. Thankfully, you can quickly decide what needs to remain open and likely skip visiting the Help file. Creating a letter consists of browsing the file tree of templates and selecting one. These templates are broken down into topics, like Business Transactions, Goodwill, Human Relations, Personnel Issues, Routine Customer Transaction, Sales and Marketing Management and the Sales Cycle. The templates are well laid out, and are written in a declarative, professional voice. There are obvious spots into which you input data to personalize the letters. These foolproof templates are sure to save time and effort in the office. The program offers spelling and grammar checks, a thesaurus, and a search option that lets you skip the file tree and find exactly what you need.
While its interface is initially confusing, you will quickly create excellent business letters with this intuitive program. Our only real gripes concern its short 10-use trial and the large black watermark on each document, but we still feel it's a great download for any office.

Publisher's Description

From Infordesk:

Over 4500 high-quality and effective business letters that nearly cover every business situation imaginable. All-Business-Letters offers a comprehensive and categorized library of business letters that are sure to increase productivity.

What's new in this version: Many updates and enhancements.

Microsoft Office Word 2010

Microsoft Word 2007's document types, interface, and some features--very nearly every aspect of this word processor--have changed. With this update, Microsoft Word 2007 becomes a more image-conscious application. New picture-editing tools help you deck out documents and play with fancy fonts. Bloggers and researchers may also benefit. It's easier to get a handle on document security, but those who only need basic typing features may not want to relearn the interface or deal with the new file formats.
Our installation of various Office suites on Windows XP computers took between 10 and 20 minutes, which was quicker than prior editions of Office. You'll have to be online to access services later, such as Help and How-To as well as Clip Art and document templates. Our reviews of Microsoft Office 2007 detail the installation process and the ingredients of each edition.

Word 2007 will operate in Compatibility Mode, shutting off some of the new graphics-rich features, should you, for example, open a Word 2003 DOC file without converting it to the new DOCX format.

Interface
Once you have Word 2007 running, you will notice a completely redesigned toolbar, now known as the Ribbon, with many familiar commands in new places. Instead of the old, gray drop-down menus atop the page, Microsoft's new and very colorful Ribbon clumps common features into tabs: Home, Insert, Page Layout, References, Mailings, Review, and View. Some tabs don't show up until you might need them; for example, you must select a picture to bring up its formatting tab. At first, you'll need to wander around to find what's moved from prior versions of Word. Clicking the Office 2007 logo in the upper-left corner drops down a menu of staple functions--such as opening, saving, and printing files--that were under Word 2003's File menu. We had the hardest time locating commands from Word 2003's Editing and Tools menus. To insert a comment in Word 2007, for instance, you must look under the Review tab instead of the Insert tab. Prepare to relearn Word. Alas, there is no "classic" view to help you make the transition to the 2007 version.
While it's a challenge to upgrade, those learning Word for the first time may find its features easier to stumble upon than they would have with Word 2003. For instance, the new interface better presents page view options that used to be a hassle to get to. From the View tab, now you can simply check a box to see a ruler or gridlines, or click the Arrange All button to stack various open Word documents atop each other. Although we sometimes mixed up the placement of commands within the Review and References tabs, those features were still easier to find than in Word 2003.
Microsoft placed a lot of emphasis on the wow factor of Office's galleries of graphics, which share the Aero look of Windows Vista and are found throughout the Office applications. Pull-down menus of fonts, color themes, and images let you preview changes on the page before making them. And thankfully, Microsoft killed Clippy, the cartoonish helper. Now a less-intrusive quick formatting toolbar shows up near your cursor. Keyboard shortcuts remain the same; pressing the Alt key displays the corresponding quick key for each Ribbon command. A running word count is always present in the lower-left corner, and the new slider bar for zooming in and out is a terrific, no-brainer improvement, particularly for the vision impaired.
Features
Aside from the interface, the other radical change in Word 2007 is its new file type. For the first time in a decade, Microsoft foists a new file format upon users, and old Word DOC files make way for the new DOCX type of Word 2007. Microsoft has taken steps to ease this transition, but we anticipate that it will not be smooth for many users.

Word 2007's new Picture Tools options let you hover over galleries of changes to preview how they'll look. In the past, you may have applied a change out of curiosity, then hit Undo when it didn't meet your expectations.

What happens when you're sharing work with people who use an older version of Word? Word 2003 and 2000 are supposed to detect when you first try to open a DOCX file, then prompt you to download and install an Office 2007 Compatibility Pack. After you've done this, the older Word should convert your Word 2007 files and remove incompatible features. When you reopen that same DOCX file again in Word 2007, the file's original elements are supposed to stay intact. On the other hand, if you open an older DOC file within Word 2007, it will also run in Compatibility Mode, shutting off access to some of the newer program features, which explains why two documents within Word 2007 may display different formatting options.
Among the small tweaks in Word 2007 that make formatting easier, rollover style galleries let you preview the changes. However, the constant shape-shifting of the galleries can be distracting. And some options, such as for adjusting margins, use an older-style dialog box rather than the live preview menus.
Still, it takes just a couple of clicks to insert a JPEG, a GIF, a BMP, a PNG, or another image type. Click the graphic, and the Picture Tools Format tab lets you tweak the brightness, the color mode, and the contrast of a picture. You can also rotate it, crop it, skew its angle, add 3D effects and shadows to its borders, and convert it to all manner of shapes, such as a thought bubble, an arrow, or a star. Options for positioning an image and wrapping text around it are also front and center, which should be helpful for creating professional-looking business documents, as well as casual party invitations. You don't get nearly the amount of control offered by Microsoft Publisher, QuarkXPress, or Adobe InDesign, but Word 2007 may do the trick for ultrabasic desktop-publishing needs.
For those who don't need all the formatting choices, we're glad that Word 2007 doesn't apply a complex style to our text by default. In Word 2003, we'd have to highlight all the text, and then Clear Formatting to remove unwanted indentations and bold letters. In Word 2007, Calibri, a crisp, default font, replaces the standard Times New Roman from Word 2003. You can choose from galleries of text styles, such as Emphasis, Strong, or Book Title, and easily create your own styles and set them as a default.

The Prepare menu offers choices for inspecting, encrypting, and restricting access to your Word files in addition to checking to see how its elements will appear in older versions of Word.

While Corel WordPerfect has traditionally offered better features for managing longer documents, Microsoft Word 2007 has improved a bit in this regard. For those working on a dissertation or book report, the References tab lets you manage citations and bibliographies in styles from APA to Turabian. Just click Next Footnote, and the cursor takes you there. However, the Table of Contents feature still isn't easy to figure out.
Editors who collaborate on documents with others can make use of the Review tab. The new Compare pull-down menu lets you look at two versions of the same document side by side, as well as merge changes from several authors and editors into one file. Administrative assistants and those charged with mass-mailing tasks should find those features much easier to access than in Word 2003. Bloggers can now compose and post entries to their Web sites without leaving Word.
If you deal with sensitive information--in a private diary entry, a resume, or a company financial statement, for example--Word 2007 allows more control over buried data, such as the original author's name or your supervisor's cursing comments. Office 2007's Prepare options step you through inspecting that metadata, as well as adding a digital signature and encrypting a file. You'll also find some of these options under the Review tab's Protect button. However, should you plan to black out text, you'll have to turn to Adobe Acrobat 8 to make secure redactions (highlighting the font in black within Word won't do it).
As integration has improved throughout Office 2007, you can click Send from the Office logo menu to attach a Word document to an e-mail message through Outlook's composition window. A message recipient using Outlook 2007 can preview that Word document within the e-mail message pane. And if you paste an Excel 2007 chart into a Word 2007 file, just right-click the chart and select Edit Data to launch Excel in split-pane view. When you change the source data within Excel, the chart adjusts in Word.
Unfortunately, Microsoft isn't providing an option for storing or editing Word files online to most users who buy below the $679 Ultimate edition of Office, and there's no browser-based version of Word. Need to collaborate on a file with specific people or take work on the road? At this time, you may have to e-mail those documents. Alternately, you could upload a Word file into one of the many free, Web-based word processors served up by other companies, including Zoho Writer, which offers a free upload add-in for Word 2007.

Options for blogging include an editing interface that lets you insert art and charts and lets you post entries without leaving Word.

Service and support
Boxed editions of Microsoft Office 2007 include a decent, 174-page Getting Started guide. During the first 90 days, you can contact tech support for free, and help at any time with any security-related or virus problems also costs nothing. Beyond that, paid support costs a painfully high $49 per telephone or e-mail incident. Luckily, Microsoft's online help is excellent, although we're displeased that Microsoft and other software makers are increasingly promoting do-it-yourself assistance. We especially like the Command Reference Guide for Word, which walks you through where commands have moved since Office 2003. You can also pose questions to the large community of Microsoft Office users via free support forums and chats. Microsoft Office Diagnostics tool, included with the Office 2007 suites, is also designed to detect and repair problems if something goes haywire.
Conclusion
Is Word 2007 worth the upgrade? If you primarily work with plain text and don't need to pretty up reports and newsletters and the like, then it might not be right for you. For our purposes as editors, for instance, Word 2007 doesn't introduce must-have goodies, although commenting commands are within easier reach. At the same time, Word 2007 handily presents options for footnotes and citations under its References tab, which researchers should appreciate. Mail-merge functions are also easier to reach. Bloggers might use Word's posting tools in a pinch, but we found Word 2007's rebuilt HTML to be clunky still. Above all, Microsoft's new word processor is most upgrade-worthy if you want to play with pictures, charts, and diagrams in addition to text.

Publisher's Description

From Microsoft:

Welcome to Microsoft Office Word 2007, included in the 2007 release of the Microsoft Office system. Office Word 2007 is a powerful authoring program that gives you the ability to create and share documents by combining a comprehensive set of writing tools with an easy-to-use interface.
Office Word 2007 helps information workers create professional-looking content more quickly than ever before. With a host of new tools, you can quickly construct documents from predefined parts and styles, as well as compose and publish blogs directly from within Word. Advanced integration with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and new XML-based file formats make Office Word 2007 the ideal choice for building integrated document management solutions.
This document provides an overview of Office Word 2007, with an emphasis on new and improved features. It also covers Office Word 2007 in action to demonstrate its exciting new capabilities.

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack makes files created with Office 2007 and later work seamlessly on earlier versions of Office. If you're using an unpatched version of Office, this download will fix it. However, before you install this pack, make sure to download and install all of the latest updates from Microsoft.
If you're still using Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, then this patch will help you easily open, edit, and save files created with newer versions of Office. It's a surprisingly big download -- checking in at 37MB. That means you should set aside some time to download it if you're on a slow connection. Once you install this pack, you don't have to do much to make it work. It automatically repairs the issue. It also adds support to the Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2003 to open DOCX, XSLX, and PPTX files.
While it's surprising that Microsoft Office Compatibility pack is as big as it is, it's not loaded down with unnecessary extras, and it solves compatibility issues with older versions with little effort on your part.

Publisher's Description

From Microsoft:

By installing the Compatibility Pack in addition to Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, you will be able open, edit, and save files using the file formats new to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. The Compatibility Pack can also be used in conjunction with the Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2003 to view files saved in these new formats.

Apache OpenOffice

Apache OpenOffice.org is the free open-source productivity suite that rivals Microsoft's Office suite, the business world's standard. OpenOffice.org is compatible with most Office documents and many other file types. Like Office, it's a collection of powerful tools, but you don't have to install all its modules. The latest version of OpenOffice.org supports Windows 8.
The OpenOffice.org installer's custom option lets users choose which Program Modules to install from Writer, Calc, Draw, Impress, Base, and Math, plus shared Optional Components. During setup, we chose to make OpenOffice.org our default program for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents. OpenOffice.org comes with a lot of support in the form of Help files and other documentation as well as a huge community of users and developers. And, while its tools aren't Office clones, users who are familiar with Word, Excel, and other Office tools will find their OpenOffice.org counterparts easy to understand.
Clicking the OpenOffice.org icon produced a quick-start page that let us open documents, spreadsheets, formulas, and databases. We started with a new document in Writer, the suite's word processor. We quickly created a document and clicked Save to see our options. Writer offered 12 choices, including its proprietary ODF file format (.odt) as well as four Word standards, HTML, text, text encoded, and rich text. Not every format is completely compatible, though. Nevertheless, Writer offers as much as any top word processor. Impress is a presentation wizard, while Draw is a capable graphics editor. Calc is OpenOffice.org's Excel-compatible spreadsheet tool, and Base generates and accesses databases via the Database Wizard. Math is one of OpenOffice.org's advantages over Office: it's a standalone equation editor that can also insert formulas as objects into Writer.
One thing OpenOffice.org lacks that Office has is an integrated e-mail client like Outlook. But OpenOffice.org is compatible with a wide range of e-mail clients, including Mozilla Thunderbird, which many OpenOffice.org users recommend for use with the suite. Still, count us among those who'd like a fully integrated OpenOffice.org e-mail client. In any case, it's hard to find fault with anything OpenOffice.org does, especially since every bit of it is free.
OpenOffice.org:

Publisher's Description

From OpenOffice.org:

Apache OpenOffice is both an open-source product and a project. The product is a multiplatform office productivity suite. It includes desktop applications such as a word processor, a spreadsheet program, a presentation manager, and a drawing program, with a user interface and feature set similar to those of other office suites. Apache OpenOffice also works transparently with a variety of file formats, including those of Microsoft Office. Localizations of Apache OpenOffice are available in 27 languages, with more being constantly added by the community. Apache OpenOffice runs on Solaris, Linux (including PPC Linux), and Windows. Written in C++ and with documented APIs licensed under the LGPL and SISSL open-source protocols, Apache OpenOffice allows any knowledgeable developer to benefit from the source.

What's new in this version: Apache OpenOffice 4.0.1 is a maintenance release which fixes critical issues and improves the overall quality of the application.

Internet Explorer

Publisher's Description

From Microsoft:

Windows Internet Explorer 9 makes Web sites look and perform as if they were native to Microsoft Windows. Internet Explorer 9 lets you tap into the power of your whole PC so your Web sites shine. Taking full advantage of your PC's hardware through Windows, IE9 lets you enjoy graphically rich and immersive experiences that are as fast and responsive as native applications installed on your PC.
Internet Explorer is in the Web Browsers category of the Browsers section.
With a new, streamlined user experience, you can focus on the Web sites you love with a clean look that integrates seamlessly with Windows 7. A robust set of built-in security, privacy, and reliability technologies keep you safer and your browsing experience uninterrupted. For Web developers, support for HTML5 and modern standards architected to take advantage of the graphics processing unit (GPU) means that the same markup not only works across the Web, but runs faster and delivers a richer experience through Windows and Internet Explorer 9.

What's new in this version:
Internet Explorer 9 includes a host of new features, including:

• Streamlined design
• Pinned Sites
• Download Manager
• Enhanced tabs
• New Tab page
• Search in the address bar
• Notification Bar
• Add-on Performance Advisor
• Hardware acceleration
• Tracking Protection
• ActiveX Filtering

Apple Safari

Safari is Apple's stylish, easy-to-use Web browser for its Mac OS. Safari for Windows lets PC users try Safari for themselves. Safari is a great way for Windows users to take a bite of the Apple since, as a Web browser, it can only be so different from the Big Three; IE, Firefox, and Chrome. We tried Safari 5 in Windows 7. Its new features include the Reading List, which collects Web links and bookmarks that you want to check later.
Safari's page layout shows how much Web browser functionality dictates form these days. Safari for Windows is plain but clean and intuitive, with many similarities to other popular browsers as well as some differences. For instance, the address bar searches the History rather than using your default search engine. Safari has a separate search field instead. The Settings icon opens an extensive menu that includes private browsing, pop-up blocking, Extensions, and customization buttons. One feature we really like is the Page icon that displays a menu just for the current page. The Bookmarks bar holds icons to show the Reading List, Top Sites, and All Bookmarks. Clicking Preferences under Settings opens a tabbed dialog with many more options, including Appearance, Tabs, Security, Privacy, Extensions, and RSS.
Safari has a good reputation, and we found it to be quick and stable. We started with some news sites, moving through some of our imported IE Favorites and finishing with some random searches. Unlike some of Apple's software, Safari is more like the competition than unlike it, with tabbed browsing, a customizable toolbar, and security and privacy options. Some things are missing; for instance, Safari for Windows can import Favorites from Internet Explorer into its bookmarks, but apparently the same isn't true for Firefox or Chrome bookmarks. You can always export your Firefox or Chrome bookmarks to IE and then into Safari, but being able to import them directly would be a better option.
At any rate, if you've wondered about Safari, here's your chance to see it for yourself.

Publisher's Description

From Apple:

With a simple, elegant interface, the Safari browser gets out of your way and lets you enjoy the Web. Features include: fast performance; an elegant user interface, easy bookmarks, pop-up Blocking, inline find, tabbed browsing, SnapBack, automatic form filling, built-in RSS, resizable text fields, private browsing, and security.
Apple Safari is in the Web Browsers category of the Browsers section.

What's new in this version: Version 5.1.7 has added new features in Safari make everything you do on the web more fascinating, more secure, and more fun.