It’s amazing how quickly manufacturers abandon support for older hardware devices. This is nowhere more evident than when it comes to scanners. The gradual shift from 32- to 64-bit computing threatens to leave even more perfectly serviceable scanners in the box marked “obsolete”, but there may be a future for your old machine yet – at a cost.

VueScan works with just about every computer out there, supporting Linux, Mac and all versions of Windows up to Windows 10. More importantly, it supports 1,500 flatbed and film scanners, even if drivers are no longer available for the computer you’re running. Consequently, it enables you to dust down your trusty old scanner and continue using it despite the manufacturer’s attempts to force an upgrade.

It’s incredibly simple to use, with a neat wizard-based approach to scanning for the novice, and an Advanced button for those with a bit more experience. The results are impressive, and it’s worth considering even if your scanner is currently supported by Windows. You can output to JPEG, TIF, PDF and even access OCR-capabilities for extracting text from scanned images – English is provided by default, download other language files from here. VueScan can also output your scan directly to your printer, effectively turning your existing equipment into a serviceable photocopying machine.

The trial version is fully functional, although watermarks are placed across any scanned images, so you’ll have to buy it before you can get the most out of it. A four-computer licence costs US$40 for the Standard Edition or US$80 for the Professional Edition.

Version 9 introduces both 32- and 64-bit builds, and promises to be faster and more responsive than previous versions. The user interface has also been revamped to make it easier to use, giving up more screen space for the scanner preview and consists of a single file, which can be copied on to USB flash drive for running as a portable application if you wish.

Version 9.6.10 (see complete changelog):

Significantly improved automatic cropping
Faster startup on Mac OS X

It’s amazing how quickly manufacturers abandon support for older hardware devices. This is nowhere more evident than when it comes to scanners. The gradual shift from 32- to 64-bit computing threatens to leave even more perfectly serviceable scanners in the box marked “obsolete”, but there may be a future for your old machine yet – at a cost.

VueScan works with just about every computer out there, supporting Linux, Mac and all versions of Windows up to Windows 10. More importantly, it supports 1,500 flatbed and film scanners, even if drivers are no longer available for the computer you’re running. Consequently, it enables you to dust down your trusty old scanner and continue using it despite the manufacturer’s attempts to force an upgrade.

It’s incredibly simple to use, with a neat wizard-based approach to scanning for the novice, and an Advanced button for those with a bit more experience. The results are impressive, and it’s worth considering even if your scanner is currently supported by Windows. You can output to JPEG, TIF, PDF and even access OCR-capabilities for extracting text from scanned images – English is provided by default, download other language files from here. VueScan can also output your scan directly to your printer, effectively turning your existing equipment into a serviceable photocopying machine.

The trial version is fully functional, although watermarks are placed across any scanned images, so you’ll have to buy it before you can get the most out of it. A four-computer licence costs US$40 for the Standard Edition or US$80 for the Professional Edition.

Version 9 introduces both 32- and 64-bit builds, and promises to be faster and more responsive than previous versions. The user interface has also been revamped to make it easier to use, giving up more screen space for the scanner preview and consists of a single file, which can be copied on to USB flash drive for running as a portable application if you wish.

Version 9.6.10 (see complete changelog):

Significantly improved automatic cropping
Faster startup on Mac OS X

If you're wondering whether a file is malware then you could upload it to VirusTotal.com, where it'll be scanned with more than 40 of the best antivirus tools - GData, Kaspersky, Avira, AVG, they're all here - and the results displayed.

Uploading can take time, though, especially with larger files. And so you may prefer to use VirusTotal Scanner, which calculates a hash (a digital fingerprint) for the file and sends that to VirusTotal.com instead, for a near instant verdict.

The program is extremely easy to use. There's no installation required; just choose your file, click the "VirusTotal Scan" button and you'll get the usual verdict almost immediately.

Hopefully you'll be told "0/41" - no-one has detected malware - but if there is a problem then you'll be able to scroll down and see who is raising an alert.

You do need to be careful how you interpret these results, of course. Checking a file with so many antivirus tools increases the chance of detecting a threat, but it also means you're much more likely to encounter false alarms.

If you find a brand new tool from a trusted site such as NirSoft is rated as dangerous by 3 or 4 tools, then, it's likely that this is simply a mistake.

But if you're not 100% sure about the file's source then of course it's safer to simply delete it for now (or move it somewhere safe). If it's a program you really want to try, scan it again a week or so later and see if the site can give you a more unanimous verdict.

Version 7.5 adds (see release notes for more):

- New improved web browser control, should work without crashes.

Avast! Internet Security 2018 is the company's next generation security suite, and includes an antivirus engine, firewall, browsing protection, a software updater, browser cleanup tool and more.

Installation is simple and straightforward. Compatibility seems good, too, with the package running happily alongside Bitdefender Internet Security on our test PC.

The program interface is clean and very easy to use. Just click "Run Smart Scan" and Avast immediately runs a quick check for malware, missing software updates, network vulnerabilities, even looks for weak passwords and junk files.

When it's finished, clicking "Resolve all" allows you to review the results and fix whatever the program has found.

The 2017 version extended the package with a new password manager. This generates strong passwords on demand, stores and fills them locally, and syncs them with free iOS and Android apps.

The network security scanner detects more router vulnerabilities and displays extra details.

WebShield has switched to a smarter and more compatible system of HTTPS scanning, as used in Firefox, Chrome and Opera.

The interface has been optimised and improved.

A new SafeZone browser does an even better job of protecting your web transactions from keyloggers and other malware, and has some useful extras thrown in (ad blocker, video downloading for offline viewing).

Please note, the program will by default install Google Toolbar. If that's not what you want, pay attention during setup and clear the relevant checkbox when it appears.

What's new in 2018 v18.5?

- Notification alerts! A blue dot now appears on our systray icon when you have a notification
- Restore anywhere! Restore files from the Virus Chest to any location by clicking “Restore as”

When it comes to ripping DVDs to your hard drive, Handbrake is one of the best known open-source tools there is. One small problem if you're a Windows user: the GUI was designed for the Mac, and the Windows build sometimes feels like an afterthought, particularly with the slightly cluttered GUI.

Enter, stage left, VidCoder. It takes the underlying code behind Handbrake, and overlays its own specially designed user interface that's simpler and more intuitive to use. Like Handbrake it'll only output to MP4 and MKV file containers, and it won’t rip encrypted DVDs, which covers most commercial discs. If you want this functionality, try DVD Decrypter, available as part of the Free Studio suite, or as a standalone download.

The interface is definitely easier to navigate than Handbrake’s: everything you need is accessible from a single screen, and when you click Settings to tweak the various presets, these appear in their own window beneath the main one, ensuring you don’t lose sight of where you’ve been. You can tweak just about every aspect of the conversion process, so advanced users will be pleased, while novices can restrict themselves to one of the available presets: normal or high profile for most, with various Apple-related options also available.

Conversion isn’t particularly quick, but the end results are suitably impressive, just as they are with the program that inspired VidCoder.

What's new in 3.15 (see the changelog for more)?

- Updated HandBrake core to 1.1.1.

It's a fundamental law of computing: multimedia files are never in the format you need. And so while in theory something like an iPhone is great for watching videos on the move, in practice they'll need to be in something like M4V, MP4 or MOV formats, and getting your files converted can be a problem. But that's where HandBrake comes in.

The program accepts video data in just about any source format, including DVDs (as long as they're unencrypted: commercial DVDs can't be imported unless you install extra libraries).

You can then choose your output format (MP4 or MKV), and apply whatever additional tweaks you might need. Videos can be resized or cropped, for instance, filtered in various ways (deinterlace, denoise, deblock, more), you're able to choose the destination frame rate, or even set a target size for the converted file so you can be sure it'll fit on your target device.

If you prefer a simple life, though, you can just choose one of the conversion presets like iPad, iPad or AppleTV. HandBrake will automatically set all its other options, and all you have to do is click Start and wait for your new video or audio file to arrive.

It's worth adding that HandBrake is 64-bit-only.

Version 1.1.1 changes include (see full changelog for more)

- Fixed a potential crash in the comb detection filter
- Fixed a potential crash in the padding filter
- Fixed decoding certain very high bit rate ultra-high definition sources with extra large packets
- Fixed last frame in source video missing in output
- Fixed crash when decoding an empty audio track
- Updated mac-toolchain-build script Nasm url and improved curl parameters for robustness