Why can’t the world just stick to one simple compressed format like zip, we hear you cry. There are all manner of reasons for choosing a different format - .7z is open-source for example – but most OSes can only handle a limited number of compression formats natively. This is where a dedicated archiving tool come into play, and there’s none more comprehensive than PowerArchiver.

It supports so many file formats (over 50 at last count) that it’s pointless to list them all – suffice to say pretty much any archived format can be read, and the key ones (including of course zip, 7-zip, TAR, GZIP and even ISO) can be written to as well.

The app supports high levels of encryption, with multiple methods supported and – as of PowerArchiver 2017 – support for encrypting and signing Adobe PDF and Microsoft Office documents too.

If you're more concerned about the program's practical benefits, there are plenty. It's extremely fast, for instance. VSS and UAC elevation support mean it can cope with problems where other tools fail, compressing files even if they're in use and need administrator access to read. and there are tools to repair archives, convert them between formats, create self-extracting archives and a whole lot more.

All of this is wrapped up in a slick, minimalist user interface that fits seamlessly into the Modern UI design of Windows 10 – yet PowerArchiver 2017 remains backwards compatible all the way to XP too. And if you don’t like the look and feel, you can customise just about every aspect of the user interface to better fit in with your desktop.

PowerArchiver is no longer distributed as an all-in-one app, but has split off key components into separate apps – now you can access its burner, encryption, backup, virtual drive and other tools without invoking the main suite.

PowerArchiver 2018 is a major new update. See the release notes for more info.

Why can’t the world just stick to one simple compressed format like zip, we hear you cry. There are all manner of reasons for choosing a different format - .7z is open-source for example – but most OSes can only handle a limited number of compression formats natively. This is where a dedicated archiving tool come into play, and there’s none more comprehensive than PowerArchiver.

It supports so many file formats (over 50 at last count) that it’s pointless to list them all – suffice to say pretty much any archived format can be read, and the key ones (including of course zip, 7-zip, TAR, GZIP and even ISO) can be written to as well.

The app supports high levels of encryption, with multiple methods supported and – as of PowerArchiver 2017 – support for encrypting and signing Adobe PDF and Microsoft Office documents too.

If you're more concerned about the program's practical benefits, there are plenty. It's extremely fast, for instance. VSS and UAC elevation support mean it can cope with problems where other tools fail, compressing files even if they're in use and need administrator access to read. and there are tools to repair archives, convert them between formats, create self-extracting archives and a whole lot more.

All of this is wrapped up in a slick, minimalist user interface that fits seamlessly into the Modern UI design of Windows 10 – yet PowerArchiver 2017 remains backwards compatible all the way to XP too. And if you don’t like the look and feel, you can customise just about every aspect of the user interface to better fit in with your desktop.

PowerArchiver is no longer distributed as an all-in-one app, but has split off key components into separate apps – now you can access its burner, encryption, backup, virtual drive and other tools without invoking the main suite.

PowerArchiver 2018 is a major new update. See the release notes for more info.

If you have a web site, you are undoubtedly used to using an FTP client to access remote storage in order to upload and download the necessary files. While using such as dedicate tool has certain advantages, there are major differences between working with remote files and those stored locally. NetDrive aims to blur the boundaries between local and remote files so they can be accessed in much the same way.

The program makes it possible to mount a remote storage location such as an FTP or WEBDAV server, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box or AWS account, assign it a drive letter and access it through Explorer. Files can be uploaded and downloaded by simply dragging and dropping, just as with a local drive.

NetDrive can be used to launch remotely stored video, audio and executable files just as though they were stored locally. Remote storage does not just have to be used to host a web site, it can also be used as a backup location or as a temporary store for large files that you want to share with others. NetDrive makes it significantly easier to get files to and from remote locations.

Drive mapping occurs automatically at Windows' startup so there is no need to manually mount drives - they are available for use right from the offset. The program can be used to mount multiple remote locations and each can be assigned it own unique drive letter. Whether you are working on a web site, or just want to make better use of your web space, NetDrive may be the tool you have been looking for.

Version 3.5.434 brings (see changelog for full release information):

- Backblaze B2 storage type added
- Google Drive - Display top folder name in user's language
- Google Drive - Changed to read folder's date from server
- S3 - Now supports uploading large files > 5GB
- Read-ahead block size increased
- Display error message when there is no Internet
- OpenSSL updated to 1.1
- libSSH2 updated to 1.8
- libcurl updated to 7.59.0

If you are looking for the best quality for your video files, there are a number of formats to choose from. One that offers great quality is x264 and Hybrid is a free tool that can be used to convert between formats. There are many tools that do a fairly similar job, but where Hybrid stands out is in the sheer number of options that are afforded you. In many respects this is not a tools for the faint hearted, but if you want control over the encoding process, this is the program for you.

You can convert a wide variety of video types into mp4, m2ts, mkv or webm containers or create a Blue-ray or AVCHD structure ready to burn to disc. The stark tabbed interface may seem slightly intimidating at first, but once you have worked through the conversion process a couple of times, everything will start to make more sense.

Using the program is not quite as simple as using a wizard-based tool, but all that needs to be done is to work through each of the program tabs in turn. After selecting the video file and subtitle track you would like to use, you can specify encoding settings and indicate whether your video should be cropped or resized. If you are creating a disc, you can set up chapters, and if you are looking to convert several videos, you can add them all to a queue to be processed one after the other.

As a standalone program Hybrid is already a powerful piece of software, but there are a number of optional components that can be used to add extra features – again at no cost. The neroAacEnc tool can be used to aac encoding while fhgaacenc is used for not only aac but also alac encoding. If you are not going to be using these features, there is no need to install them, but the option is there if you need it.

Version 2018.05.22.1 (changelog):

- Mac: forgot to rename vsedit to vsViewer
- subitle: Hybrid freezes on ogm subtitle extraction when output already existed
- Vapoursynth: "don't hide defaults"-option
- audio: use FFmpeg for ogm audio extraction
- input: use FFmpeg for ogm subtitle extraction

PortableApps.com Platform is a powerful set of tools which makes it easy to create and manage your own collection of portable applications.

If you're starting with an empty USB stick, for instance, you might first install the Platform there, before using its Directory to find apps of interest. There are games, media players, browsers and internet tools, productivity applications, security tools and more, over 200 apps in total, and downloading and installing the ones you need is as easy as checking a box.

Once the process is complete then you'll have a handy portable toolkit which you can take and run on any convenient PC. Intelligent organisation tools make this easy to navigate (internet-related apps automatically show up in the Internet folder, for instance), but if you do manage to lose something, then just as in Windows, typing a few letters of the missing app will quickly highlight it for you.

Just as with your regular applications, it's important to keep portable tools up-to-date. The Platform helps here with its built-in updater, which can automatically check for and download updates on launch.

And if you don't like some aspect of how the Platform works then you can probably reconfigure it, as there are plenty of tweaks and configuration options on offer here (including multiple themes and colour schemes to customise the look of the Platform menu).

What's new in 15 (see changelog for more)?

- ADDED: Alternate download for Win XP/Vista for TLS 1.1/1.2 hosts
- ADDED: Support for .NET 2-4 apps
- ADDED: High DPI support in platform's menu, options, about, dialogs
- ADDED: High contrast theme detection and passing of that data to apps
- ADDED: Touch scrolling of menu app list
- ADDED: Save What's New seen on window close, prevent re-show after unsafe exit
- ADDED: Platform setting of Documents, Pictures, etc environment vars for apps
- UPDATED: Delphi compiler to 10.2.3, drops Windows 2000 support
- UPDATED: SHA256 handling switched to built-in
- UPDATED: 7-Zip to 18.05
- UPDATED: Compressed platform graphics to save space
- UPDATED: Eject utility with bug fixes and features
- UPDATED: Updater/app store checkboxes to Windows 10 visuals
- UPDATED: Brazilian Portuguese, Croatian, Finnish, French, German, Korean, Portuguese, Turkish locales
- Plus various fixes

ABC-Update is a free command line tool which allows you to take full control of Windows updates.

You can use it to list all your installed updates, for instance. To highlight any that are missing, or to find updates by their KB article number, release dates or category ("Application", "SecurityUpdates", "ServicePacks", more).

Of course the program can install your chosen updates, too. Or uninstall them. It's not particularly difficult. If you're the kind of person who might want to use this type of tool, then you'll immediately understand what a line like  ABC-Update.exe /A:Uninstall /K: KB2631813  is going to do, no need to go looking for help.

It's even possible to control Windows Update's normally automatic reboots. By default they're turned off, so  ABC-Update.exe /A:Install  will install all available updates without rebooting at all.

Or if you're downloading lots of updates, maybe onto a new PC, something like  ABC-Update.exe /A:Install /R:3  will set the total number of reboots you'll allow. Instead of waiting around as Windows Update restarts your system each time, ABC-Update will manage the process itself, installing as many updates as possible in each session, and only rebooting when absolutely necessary.

And there's more. Enter  ABC-Update.exe /?  at the command line to view everything the program has to offer.