Most programs are polite, well-behaved, use only their share of system resources and so make the minimal impact on your PC. But others aren't quite so restrained. At a minimum, they might constantly use a low level of processor time, just enough to stop your laptop ever going to sleep. And at the worst, they'll hog just as much of your CPU's attention as they can get, bringing anything else you're running to a grinding halt.

You might think this is just the way things are, but Process Lasso is specially designed to offer an alternative. This interesting program runs in the background and tries to detect when unruly programs are slowing down your PC, then intelligently adjusts their priorities to ensure your system's responsiveness isn't affected.

If this sounds like it might be complicated, then you're right - the underlying technology really is. However the authors have gone to a great deal of trouble to hide it. You don't have to spend an age configuring complex options and settings before you can get started, just install the program and it'll work reasonably well on its own.

If you're a more experienced user, though, then exploring the menus will reveal all kinds of interesting features. You can give processes standard priorities, for instance, so important programs run at the best possible speeds. It's possible to limit the number of instances of some processes, or prevent others from running at all. And a useful Gaming Mode optimises your PC for full-screen games, while also temporarily placing your PC in the High Performance power scheme for an extra speed boost.

See the changelog for release information.

Most programs are polite, well-behaved, use only their share of system resources and so make the minimal impact on your PC. But others aren't quite so restrained. At a minimum, they might constantly use a low level of processor time, just enough to stop your laptop ever going to sleep. And at the worst, they'll hog just as much of your CPU's attention as they can get, bringing anything else you're running to a grinding halt.

You might think this is just the way things are, but Process Lasso is specially designed to offer an alternative. This interesting program runs in the background and tries to detect when unruly programs are slowing down your PC, then intelligently adjusts their priorities to ensure your system's responsiveness isn't affected.

If this sounds like it might be complicated, then you're right - the underlying technology really is. However the authors have gone to a great deal of trouble to hide it. You don't have to spend an age configuring complex options and settings before you can get started, just install the program and it'll work reasonably well on its own.

If you're a more experienced user, though, then exploring the menus will reveal all kinds of interesting features. You can give processes standard priorities, for instance, so important programs run at the best possible speeds. It's possible to limit the number of instances of some processes, or prevent others from running at all. And a useful Gaming Mode optimises your PC for full-screen games, while also temporarily placing your PC in the High Performance power scheme for an extra speed boost.

See the changelog for release information.

WordPress is an open-source content management system (CMS) that can be used for anything from a personal blog to a full business site.

The program is based around PHP and MySQL, but you don't have to a web development expert to get everything to work. Support for templates and themes mean you're able to customise the look and feel of your site quickly, without complex coding.

An extensive feature list includes full blog post comment support (with Trackback and Pingback), with robust spam protection; a full registration system so you can optionally have people create profiles before they can comment; there's an option for password-protected blog posts that will be hidden from the public; and there's easy importing from other blog platforms, including Movable Type, Textpattern, Greymatter, Blogger, and b2.

Need even more functionality? Take a look at the plugins - there are thousands freely available, many of which are amazingly powerful. BuddyPress is a perfect example. Install this and you can almost immediately create a custom social networking site of your own. Your users are able to register, create profiles, post personal messages, add friends, create and come together in groups, post directly to their Facebook and Twitter streams, and more. It's hugely comprehensive and can be extended further with plugins of its own.

WordPress 5.2, codenamed "Jaco". See full changelog for more.

Microsoft OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) is a powerful tool which makes it easy to sync and store your files online.

The new system offers 7GB of online storage space, a big drop from the previous 25GB. However, you can now synchronise the full 7GB; the desktop app allows you to work with files up to 2GB in size (the web version and other apps restrict file sizes to 300MB); and the whole syncing system is now much easier to use.

Essentially the program takes a Dropbox-type approach, adding a custom OneDrive folder to your PC, Mac or device. If you copy files to the folder, they'll be synchronised. Rename a file on your phone and the change will appear on your PC and Mac, too. Delete a file on the OneDrive.com web interface and it'll similarly disappear from the folder, immediately.

Another useful feature is being able to selectively choose which folders to sync with which computer, allowing you to parcel off separate portions of your storage for different PCs and Macs.

There's even a new Fetch feature, which means that if you've gone somewhere and realised you've forgotten an important file on your home PC, then you can access it through OneDrive.com.

And if you need more than the standard 7GB storage, then don't worry. Even if you didn't qualify for the free 25GB accounts that were on offer to existing users before April 2012, you can now earn up to an additional 8GB: 3GB for using the new camera backup tool on your mobile, and 5GB for referring up to 10 friends or family (500MB per referral). And if all else fails then you can purchase one of their paid plans, which seem fairly reasonably priced (+50GB for $25 per year, +100GB for $50, +200GB for $100).

This latest release follows on from Microsoft's rebranding of its SkyDrive service to OneDrive. Aside from the name change (which is reflected in the fact your SkyDrive folder is now called OneDrive), little else has changed from the previous release.

What's new in 19.070.0401 (see release notes for more)?

- Bug fixes to improve reliability and performance.

While the Notepad tool bundled with Windows is fine for making quick text notes, for anything more than this it is somewhat lacking in features. There is always the option of using a word processor for creating more in depth documents, but sometimes a middle ground is needed - this is the gap that Notepad++ has been designed to fill.

The program has a small footprint and is quick to load, and while it has been designed as a replacement for Notepad, it has a great deal more to offer. The tabbed interface makes it possible to work with multiple documents simultaneously without the need to open several instances of the program and simple touches such as line numbering and syntax highlighting make it ideal for programmers editing code.

Notepad++ can be used to record and playback macros, and sections of large documents can be bookmarked for easy access. The program recognising a range of different coding styles, from C++ and Java to HTML and Perl and multiple documents can be viewed at the same time for the purposes of comparison, or a document can be cloned ready for editing while retaining the original version.

This is a hugely versatile tool which will prove incredibly useful for any coder, but also operates well as a more powerful text editor.

What's new in 7.7?

- A lot of fixes & some new enhancements are included in this release.

64-bit is the future of computing – and one obvious benefit of running a 64-bit version of Windows is the fact it allows you to access more than 3.5GB of RAM, helping speed up your computer. Despite the growing popularity of 64-bit though, we're still in that transitional phase where many applications are still only available in 32-bit builds – they're compatible with 64-bit, but you get none of the performance benefits 64-bit computing can bring.

Firefox is one such example: the latest Nightly build is available in 64-bit, but we're at least six months away from it making the transition through Aurora and Beta to a final release.

For those who can’t wait for Firefox to embrace 64-bit, take a look at Waterfox instead. This is a dedicated 64-bit browser based on Firefox’s open source code, compiled specifically for 64-bit versions of Windows, complete with optimizations to help speed things up a little more.

This makes it instantly familiar to existing Firefox users – Waterfox is based on the current stable Firefox build, which means it functions in exactly the same way. Aside from its name on the menu at the top of the main window, there’s nothing to differentiate it from Firefox.

Note, because the app is 64-bit, you’ll need to have installed the 64-bit version of Microsoft's Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable to avoid an MSVCR100.DLL missing error message when you try to launch the app. You’ll also find handy links to 64-bit versions of Flash, Silverlight and Sun Java on the Waterfox download page too, while all add-ons that work in Firefox should work with Waterfox too.

It’s also important to note that Waterfox shares your Firefox settings, so should you come to uninstall it, don’t select the option to delete all personal information if you’re still using Firefox.

What's new in 56 (see the changelog for more info)?

- Fixed GUI rendering issues on macOS High Sierra
- Fixed search suggestions not appearing
- Enabled e10s by default, some add-ons that aren’t marked as compatible may cause unexpected behaviour.
- Cookie Prompt has been re-implemented thanks to Savarese.Org
- Firefox used to allow you to be notified every time a Web site attempted to set a cookie. You could decide to accept or reject the cookie as well as specify the cookie lifetime and whether to use your choice for all cookies from the Web site, thereby updating your cookie preferences.
- Fix *BSD compilation; white space issues (Pull request #284 and #289