The days when major browser updates were few and far between are over. Nowadays, it’s de rigueur for browser manufacturers to speed up development, which means opening up less stable builds to the masses in order to get them bug-checked as quickly as possible.

Opera is no exception, and Opera Beta (previously known as Opera Next) adopts the same approach to Firefox Beta in providing a completely separate installation of the latest unstable version of Opera for people to road-test without affecting their day-to-day browsing. 

The reasoning is simple: you get to try out the new features without affecting your existing installation, so if the developmental version is too buggy for your tastes, you can use your tried and trusted version, no problem. And because Opera Beta updates as soon as the latest development build is released, you can keep checking back regularly to see what’s up and coming and whether the bugs you’ve encountered have been fixed yet.

You’ll be able to differentiate between stable and developmental build by the colour of the program icon: Opera’s icon remains red, while Opera Beta's icon is silver grey, meaning it’ll be safe for even relatively inexperienced users to try out new features before they become generally available.

This is a beta of the forthcoming v66. New additions/changes since v65, include:

- Updated to Chromium version 79.0.3945.16. 

The days when major browser updates were few and far between are over. Nowadays, it’s de rigueur for browser manufacturers to speed up development, which means opening up less stable builds to the masses in order to get them bug-checked as quickly as possible.

Opera is no exception, and Opera Beta (previously known as Opera Next) adopts the same approach to Firefox Beta in providing a completely separate installation of the latest unstable version of Opera for people to road-test without affecting their day-to-day browsing. 

The reasoning is simple: you get to try out the new features without affecting your existing installation, so if the developmental version is too buggy for your tastes, you can use your tried and trusted version, no problem. And because Opera Beta updates as soon as the latest development build is released, you can keep checking back regularly to see what’s up and coming and whether the bugs you’ve encountered have been fixed yet.

You’ll be able to differentiate between stable and developmental build by the colour of the program icon: Opera’s icon remains red, while Opera Beta's icon is silver grey, meaning it’ll be safe for even relatively inexperienced users to try out new features before they become generally available.

This is a beta of the forthcoming v66. New additions/changes since v65, include:

- Updated to Chromium version 79.0.3945.16. 

It's becoming increasingly easy for a novice user to stumble across a website which looks legit, but if you look more closely, it's obvious to an expert user it's either fake or malicious, designed to scam you or worse. It's far too easy to buy a .com or .co.uk, create a website which looks like a brand and start selling fake or non-existent goods.

Of course, pay by PayPal or your credit card and you're covered, so most people shouldn't worry. But it's still a pain and takes time to resolve. There must be a solution for stopping you from landing on these websites, even accidentally.

Malwarebytes Browser Guard is a simple free extension for Firefox which will work alongside your browser to stop you downloading and installing malicious software, will attempt to block online scams, will offer tracking protection so you can't be tracked across the internet whilst you browse for goods to purchase and protection against clickbait websites, setup to get you to click so the website can make money from your action.

In case Malwarebytes Browser Guard accidentally flags up a website you know is completely safe, you can always add this to the "Allow List" in the settings.

The Malwarebytes Browser Guard claims it can result in pages being loaded up to 3x quicker, but this is because it removes a lot of 'unwanted' content such as ads (which also, we'll add, help pay for the website you are browsing...). We also noticed it blocks RSS feeds and other important content which can provide content to a website. Reviews at this stage are mixed, too, with many users complaining it blocks too many legitimate and even established commercial websites.

IObit Malware Fighter is a straightforward antispyware tool that can protect your PC in several different ways.

For example, you can run an on-demand scan to look for spyware, adware, trojans, bots, and other threats that your regular antivirus software might have missed. The "Smart Scan" checks only the most critical areas of your PC, and runs fairly quickly (around 7 minutes on our test PC); you can run a complete system scan if you prefer, while the "Custom Scan" allows you to choose exactly what you'd like the program to examine.

And Malware Fighter also includes real-time protection in the shape of 5 guards, which variously monitor your startup programs, browser settings, cookies, the web pages you view, and the files you access.

Our first brief tests left some questions over the program's accuracy, with Malware Fighter missing a real threat, and incorrectly warning us of two entirely safe files. And it's also a little short on features. If you want scheduled scans, protection for USB viruses, process scanning or technical support then you'll need to upgrade to Malware Fighter Pro, currently available for $19.95 a year.

Note that IObit Malware Fighter works as freeware unless you choose to upgrade to Pro.

Malware Fighter 7.4 brings these improvements:

+ Optimized program launch algorithm for faster launch.
+ Expanded database to remove more threats including the latest Trojan.Crypt.63, searchguide.level3.com, and beap.gemini.yahoo.com.
+ Fixed the occasional errors when loading skin.
+ Fixed the occasional crashes when uninstalling the program on Windows 10.
+ Fixed other known bugs.

Although ZIP is now regarded as the standard unified format for archive management, it is inevitable that you’ll receive a file archived in another format that you either can’t open within either Windows or Mac, or isn’t supported by your existing management tool.

There are plenty of alternatives available on the market, many of them free. PeaZip is one of the better and more popular archive management tools. As well as supporting the standard ZIP format, it also enables you to create archives using the newer 7z format, which main advantage is to save additional space. Archives in the 7z format can be up to 30% better compressed than ZIP and also much quicker to open on a slow computer.

PeaZip will also enable you to open an archive in just about every other format, including RAR. It doesn’t support the Mac-only Stuffit (.sit or .sitx) format, however, which is still in use, so you’ll need the free Stuffit expander to manage these archives.

PeaZip is a simple well-designed archive management tool for both Windows and Linux computers. There is a portable version which you can take on the road.

See the changelog for update information.

DesktopSnowOK is a tiny tool which can add soft, fluttering snowflakes to your desktop in a click.

Despite being only a 78KB executable, DesktopSnowOK is highly configurable. There are twelve flake styles to choose from, for instance, covering everything from tiny orbs to chunky full-sized flakes. And a host of other options (soccer balls, base balls, tennis balls and more) ensure the program will be useful - if that word really applies here - all year long.

You can also choose the number of flakes you'd like on screen at any one time, their transparency, and how quickly they should fall.

And while DesktopSnowOK isn't a Windows screen saver, you can produce a similar result by setting "Deactivation" to "If pressing a key or mouse events". Leave your PC for a while and the snow will start to fall; come back, start typing or moving the mouse and the flakes will disappear again.

If you're thinking this isn't exactly the most useful program ever, then you've probably got a point. DesktopSnowOK is portable, though, so perfect if, say, you'd simply like to add a little temporary Christmas cheer to your desktop. Just download it, run the executable to apply its wintry effects, and delete the file when and if you've had enough.

What's new in 4.11 (see history for more)?

- Improvement in: Different Performance: CPU Gentle, Balanced and Best Snow Experience.
- Important update of the language files