Personal Computer World

Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8 Personal SE

Partitioning, cloning, backup, troubleshooting, recovery: keeping your hard drive running smoothly normally requires many different functions, and a whole library of tools. But it doesn't have to be that way. Install Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8 and you'll get just about all the hard drive functions you could ever need, all collected together in a single, easy-to-use interface. If you're thinking about buying Windows Vista, say, but would like to dual-boot with XP for now, then Hard Disk Manager will quickly set up a suitable partition for you. There are also tools to move or resize existing partitions, without losing data. The program can delete a partition, too, or recover one that's been deleted accidentally (and this can even be done from a bootable CD, useful if your PC won't start).

VHS Backup

Use Idigicon VHS Backup to import as many old tapes as you like onto your PC, then either burn them onto CDs in VCD or SVCD format, or save them as AVI files. You'll still need to take care -- CDs have a shelf life, too -- but converting them to a digital format will at least prevent them degrading further. You could then send family complete VCD or SVCD discs that should play on most home DVD players.

Ashampoo Magical Snap

The Windows PrtSc function is a simple and effective way to take screen grabs, but it's not exactly versatile: press PrtSc to get the full screen, Alt+PrtSc to get the active application window only, and that's about it. You can get by with this if you're willing to edit the image later, but that's tedious, and time-consuming. And we have a much better idea. This tool will get your grabbing your screen in no time.

ShopFactory 6 Light

While the High Street struggles, Internet shopping is booming, rising from a feeble 2% of all retail sales in 2002 to a predicted 15% by the end of this year. Millions of households are online every day looking for bargains, so if you'd like a share of their cash then there's no better time to create your own online store. ShopFactory Light makes it much easier than you could imagine.

Internet Cleanup 4

Installing a firewall, antivirus tool and spyware detector will help keep your data safe from snoopers, but there's another avenue of attack you might also want to consider. Anyone who gains access to your PC can learn a great deal about you from your Internet surfing tracks: user names, passwords, credit card numbers used in web forms, cookies, cache, history files, the list goes on.

Ashampoo Magical Optimizer

As a PCW reader you're probably very knowledgeable about Windows, skilled in the art of PC optimisation, and with a wide collection of tweaks you can apply to get your system running at peak performance. But you'll also know that these speed gains won't last for long. As soon as you go back to using your regular applications, or using new ones, so they'll begin to clutter your system with orphaned Registry entries.

Roxio EMC 9 Rollback

Easy Media Creator 9 Suite is one of the most versatile mastering packages around. This special Rollback Edition lets you try out the full feature set for 30 days, then provides a core set of functions that will never expire: audio and data disc creation, and copying. Basic? Yes, but the program is worth a look for these features alone.