If you have decided that you no longer want to use a particular program, you may well head to the Control Panel or the Start menu and run through the installer. In most cases you will find that this gets rid of the program in question in its entirety, but this is not necessarily the case.

There are occasions when an uninstaller files for one reason or another, and this could mean that software you do not want is left untouched on your hard drive, or that remnants of it are left behind. When you have indicated that you want to remove a program, it stands to reason that you would prefer that no traces of it were left behind, and this is something that Avast Clear (Uninstall Utility) can help you with.

This is a very specific tool that have been designed to be used to get rid of , and in the case of avast! Antivirus Free and Professional, or avast! Internet Security. There is no need to install the app as it is a standalone tool – just fire it up and it will quickly remove any files or registry entries that have been left behind.

You should first run through the regular uninstaller for you avast! tool or you will find that this utility has not effect. If you have other anti-malware software installed, it is possible that Avast Clear (Uninstall Utility) will be flagged up as being suspicious, but it is perfectly safe.

If you have decided that you no longer want to use a particular program, you may well head to the Control Panel or the Start menu and run through the installer. In most cases you will find that this gets rid of the program in question in its entirety, but this is not necessarily the case.

There are occasions when an uninstaller files for one reason or another, and this could mean that software you do not want is left untouched on your hard drive, or that remnants of it are left behind. When you have indicated that you want to remove a program, it stands to reason that you would prefer that no traces of it were left behind, and this is something that Avast Clear (Uninstall Utility) can help you with.

This is a very specific tool that have been designed to be used to get rid of , and in the case of avast! Antivirus Free and Professional, or avast! Internet Security. There is no need to install the app as it is a standalone tool – just fire it up and it will quickly remove any files or registry entries that have been left behind.

You should first run through the regular uninstaller for you avast! tool or you will find that this utility has not effect. If you have other anti-malware software installed, it is possible that Avast Clear (Uninstall Utility) will be flagged up as being suspicious, but it is perfectly safe.

Mozilla Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) is, essentially, a slower-moving, more stable version of the regular browser. While standard Firefox sees a major release every 6 weeks or so, Firefox ESR will only move a whole release number every 54 weeks, meaning that you're much less likely to find some new tweak has broken your favourite extensions.

Of course this doesn't mean the browser will see no movement at all for an entire year. Every time standard Firefox is updated, Firefox ESR will incorporate all the latest security updates in its own minor upgrade, so the program will be every bit as safe to use: you just won't have all the latest features.

If you're a home user then this probably means that Firefox ESR isn't for you. Firefox ESR will remain at v60 for many months, so you'll be missing out on all the new interface tweaks, tab options and assorted browser speeds which Mozilla have added in the past few months.

If you're managing Firefox deployment in a business, though, or anywhere else with a large number of users, then it's a different story. You really don't want to have to get into huge firefights because a browser update has caused problems, stability is far more important - and if that sounds like you then opting for Firefox ESR could be a very good idea.

What's new in v68 ESR (see the release notes for more)?

- MSI installer file type is included in this release, helping make deployments in the Windows environment easier and more flexible.
- Configuration profiles in macOS
- The ability to read added certificates roots from the macOS Keychain
- For all operating systems, we have a number of additional policies including:
- New tab page configuration and disabling
- Local file links
- Download behavior
- Search suggestions
- Managed storage for using policies in Webextensions
- Extension configuration (allow/deny) by ID and website
- A subset of commonly used Firefox preferences

Not everyone gets by with the default browser on their computer, and when it comes to picking an alternative, Firefox is one of the most popular out there, having clawed back support from upstart rivals like Google Chrome and Opera in recent years by switching to a rapid release cycle, ensuring major new versions of the browser are released every six weeks.

It’s true to say that individual updates often fail to deliver anything substantial, but cumulatively they roll together to produce a web browser that is radically different to the one – version 4 – that marked the start of a new era back in 2011.

Some of the landmark new features we’ve seen include a per-site Permissions Manager, enhanced Sync options, tabs on demand, silent updates and add-on enhancements. We also saw the launch of specific development branches including UX, which has led to the new Australis user interface, which sees a streamlined tab, revamped menu and customisation features.

One group particularly well served by the rapid release cycle have been developers, and a plethora of tools from Javascript Scratchpad (from Firefox 6) to full-blown Developer Toolbar (from Firefox 16) have worked their way into successive builds as Firefox courts this important community of users.

And underpinning this all are a constantly evolving set of performance improvements, standards support (HTML5 and CSS3 are constantly being added to, for instance) and bug fixes.

Firefox 68 is now in the stable channel. Improvements/changes include:

- Dark mode in reader view expands so that windows are also dark on the controls, sidebars and toolbars
- New reporting feature in about:addons allows you to report security and performance issues with extensions and themes.
- Redesigned extensions dashboard in about:addons provides easy access to information about your extensions, including data and settings access required by each extension.
- Find high quality, secure extensions via the Recommended Extensions program in about:addons, which now displays user count and ratings for each extension. "Recommended” badges for these extensions also appear on AMO. More extensions will be added over time.
- Cryptomining and fingerprinting protections are added to strict content blocking settings in Privacy & Security preferences.
- WebRender will roll out to Windows 10 users with AMD graphics cards.
- Windows Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) update download support, which allows Firefox update downloads to continue when Firefox is closed.
- Access your Firefox Account settings from the hamburger menu
- Added a Firefox shortcut in the Windows 10 taskbar for new installations
- In addition to providing color contrast information for individual elements of a page, Firefox now offers a full page color contrast audit that identifies all element on a page that fail color contrast checks.

If you’re the kind of person who regularly finds themselves switching desktop resolutions, or needs to boot into Safe mode for troubleshooting on a regular basis, it can be incredibly annoying finding all your carefully arranged desktop icons have gone walkabout.

DesktopOK is a powerful – and portable – tool that can store up to 32 different desktop layouts at any one time. Once downloaded and run (make sure you hit the German flag in the bottom left-hand corner to switch language) just click the Save button to save the current layout. This information is stored in a .ini file that’s stored in the same folder as Desktop OK itself – if you’d rather store this information in the Registry, rename the program file to DesktopOK_reg.exe instead.

The program is configured to automatically save the desktop every hour – assuming changes have been made – and will keep the last four desktop configurations. Change these settings from the Settings > Auto-Save sub-menu. The Settings menu is where you can configure save options in terms of the name used for each layout, plus determine if the program starts with Windows, and if the last layout should be restored when shutting down Windows.

The program also features a “Punch the Icons” button, which basically rearranges the icons randomly. Don’t worry though, because the program will automatically back up their location before performing the tweak.

New in version 6.45 (see history for more):

- Improvements in the DesktopOK Windows Tools
- General optimization in DesktopOK
- Important update of DesktopOK language files

One of the limitations of Windows Explorer is its inability to display the contents of more than one folder at a time. While it is possible to open multiple windows to get around this problem, this is something of an inelegant solution and goes some way to explaining the wide range of Explorer replacement tools that are available.

Explorer replacements tend to fall into one of two categories – those that offer dual pane views for working with two or more folders simultaneously, and those that have tabbed interfaces to make it easier to switch between multiple locations. XYplorer offers the best of both world, providing both tabs and dual pane options.

The program includes advanced options for working with files including an undo facility and the ability to queue up a number of file operations for efficient, sequential execution. A unique ‘mini-tree’ view makes it easy to access your most frequently used folders and recently used locations can be accessed view hotkeys.

XYplorer reveals a wealth of information about selected drives, folders and files, and enables files to be previewed with a single click. Files can be categorised and organised using tags , colours, comments and labels and an advanced filtering system is available to make it easy to find a particular file or type of file. This is one of the most comprehensive Explorer replacement tools available which is open to a high level of customisation so that it works the way you want it to.

Version 20.30 brings these core changes (for more info, see entire changelog):

- This Is A BIG Maintenance Release. There have been numerous minor fixes and enhancements since 20.20.
- Compilation Soundtrack. Compiled to the music of Kitty, Daisy & Lewis.