This week's hottest reviews

This week's hottest reviews on TechRadar

Posted 03/09/2012 at 11:10am | by TechRadar

The beginning of March traditionally marks the start of new products season in the world of tech.
It's the time when all the exciting kit that was announced at IFA at the end of last year and at CES in January starts making its way onto the shelves and into our testing labs.
We probably won't have to tell you that Apple's new iPad is one of these products. It was only announced on Tuesday but it'll go on sale at the end of next week.
You can also expect graphics cards, TVs, Blu-ray players, tablets, phones, cameras... You get the idea. It's the start of the reviews season! Let's go!

Hands on: New iPad review
We're still calling it the iPad 3, how about you? Whatever you end up knowing it as, be it iPad 3 or new iPad, you've not heard the last of it. Not by a long shot. That's because it's the most impressive iPad ever, and it's going to sell more units than an Irish pub on St Paddy's Day.
The stand-out feature is that retina display, which offers up a resolution of 2048 x 1536 at 264 pixels per inch. It's also got more powerful graphics to drive that higher resolution which should lead to some very pretty games and apps. On the downside it's also slightly thicker and marginally heavier than the iPad 2, which can now be had for as little as £329.
AMD Radeon HD 7870 review
The AMD Radeon HD 7870 arrives alongside the Radeon HD 7850 to complete the line-up of AMD's next-gen graphics cards. The 7870 is a step down from the 7970 and a step up from the 7770, theoretically putting it firmly in the performance/price sweet spot.
The fact AMD has included the full Graphics Core Next feature set is something to be applauded. It may not have the straight performance edge over the previous generation, but it's got a lot more extras to back it up. We can't ignore the awesome overclocking potential in the Pitcairn chip either. There's no guarantee all AMD Radeon HD 7870s will be able to clock this high, but there is at least precedence.
Samsung UE55ES8000 review
The UE55ES8000 is Samsung's most uncompromising TV yet. From the moment you first behold its almost sci-fi design and bold, dynamic pictures, you'll be entranced. Crucial to this performance is the introduction of a dual-core processor to the Samsung UE55ES8000, since this makes the smart TV services more comprehensive and slick to navigate and delivers palpable benefits to picture quality.
Admittedly you'll need to calm these pictures for normal domestic viewing, but once that's done pictures still look hugely impressive. And your admiration only grows as you explore the TV's revolutionary interfaces and the depth of its online and multimedia functionality. There are still things Samsung can improve, but as the first true next generation TV of 2012, the Samsung UE55ES8000 throws down a terrifyingly big gauntlet for the following pack to pick up.
AMD Radeon HD 7850 review
The fact AMD has filled out these lower-caste cards with all the same features as their higher-end brethren is refreshing, as is the fact that we'll get all the HD 7850 goodness in such small footprints as 7.8-inches. Again, it's the same Graphics Core Next story – the overclocking headroom is immense. The OC path is the only way to get the most out of these cards. Sadly that's also part of the problem. At stock speeds both the HD 7870 and this AMD HD 7850 are rather uninspiring, and it takes ramping up clockspeeds yourself to get the real performance out of them. That's a bit of a shame as most people probably wont take the risk with their new hardware. These pint-sized cards pack some impressive punch for sub-£200 GPUs, but only if you take the risk overclocking them.
Hands on: ZTE N910 review
Sorry N910 - it's not us, it's you. You feel cheap and insubstantial to hold, you're chunky and you don't even work properly. We're prepared to give you a second chance, but if these annoyances continue in our full ZTE N910 review, then we're sorry but it's over.
Cameras
Hands on: Canon 5D Mark III review
Hands on: Sigma 30mm f/2.8 EX DN lens review
Gamepads
SteelSeries Simraceway SRW-S1 Steering Wheel review
Headsets
SteelSeries Diablo III Headset review
Keyboards
HP Slim Keyboard review
Mice
HP 2.4GHz Wireless Laser Mobile Mouse review
Mobile phones
Nokia Asha 201 review
Hands on: HTC Sensation XE Ice Cream Sandwich review
Sony Xperia S review
Scanners
Doxie Go review
Speakers
Krator Neso N4-20U05 review
Webcams
HP Webcam HD 5210 review

New ZBOX mini-PCs

Zotac Introduces Three New ZBOX mini-PCs

Posted 03/09/2012 at 11:16am | by Brad Chacos

Zotac's ZBOX line of itty bitty mini-PCs must be doing well; new models have been popping up on what seems like a biweekly basis. Nothing changed at CeBIT! The company spent its time at the German tech conference showing off three new ZBOX mini-PCs announced earlier this week -- one standard-sized Sandy Bridge-sporting model, another ZBOX nano offering, and a third with a Blu-ray drive.
The Zotac ZBOX ID82 -- they have to come up with better names for these things! -- sports a Sandy Bridge Core i3-2330M proc, two DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM slots and an open 2.5-inch 6Gbps SATA hard drive bay. Connectivity is handled via four USB 2.0 ports and two USB 3.0 ports.
Meanwhile, the Zotac ZBOX nano ID61 marks the first time an Intel processor has made its way into a ZBOX nano case, the company's press release brags, but it's a Celeron 867 rather than a Sandy Bridge proper. The nano ID61 sports fairly similar specs to the ID82 otherwise, but it only includes a single SO-DIMM slot and cuts the USB 2.0 ports in half -- although it picks up an eSATA port and an IR port in return.
The Zotac ZBOX Blu-ray AD05 moves away from Intel and includes a 1.65GHz AMD E-450 APU with a Radeon HD 6320 GPU. As you might have guessed from the name, the AD05 packs in a 4x Blu-ray/8x DVD read/write drive, but its space requirements cost you some connectivity options; the AD05 includes just two USB 3.0 ports, a single USB 2.0 and a combo eSATA/USB 2.0 port. Two SO-DIMM slots and a 2.5-inch drive bay round things out, but be warned: the AD05's HDD only sports a 3Gbps SATA connection. (The ID82 and nano ID61 both use 6Gbps SATA connections.)
All of the ZBOXes include an Ethernet port and built-in Bluetooth 3.0/Wi-Fi, along with HDMI, DVI-I and S/PDIF ports. Multicard readers are also onboard. Not included: an installed operating system. Preconfigured variants of all three models will be available with 2GB of RAM and a 320GB 5400RPM HDD.
Check out the press release and visit the Zotac site for more information about all three makes. Unfortunately, there's no word on pricing details. Most bare-bones Zotac systems tend to fall between $200 and $300, though.

.Com Domains Belong to US Government

All Your .COM Domains Are Belong to U.S., Government Says

Posted 03/08/2012 at 7:17am 

Do you own a .com domain? If so, the U.S. government can seize it at any time. The same applies to .net, org. .biz, and other top-level domains (TLDs), and it doesn't matter where you live. You could reside half way around the world. You could be hiding out in Vanuatu, an island nation in the South Pacific ocean that you probably never heard of, and the U.S. government could still take control of your .com website.
How is this possible? According to a rather interesting report in Wired, Uncle Sam has done this "hundreds of times" and it's because the companies that administer these websites are based in the U.S., so says Nicole Navas, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman.
According to Navas, the U.S. government typically serves court-ordered seizures on VeriSign, an American company based in Reston, Virginia that operates two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers and is the authoritative registrar for .com, .net, .cc, .tv, and .name. The U.S. government can also seize any .org domain, which are all managed by the Public Interest Registry, also based in Virginia.
Even foreign websites registered with a VeriSign subcontractor aren't safe from seizure. Bodog.com, for example, was registered with a Canadian registrar subcontracted by VeriSign, and that was enough for U.S. authorities to take control of the site without any help from Canadian officials.

How To Build a Gaming PC

Step-By-Step Guide: How To Build a Gaming PC With AMD's Bulldozer CPU

 

Posted 02/09/2012 at 12:57pm | by Nathan Edwards

The Mission

AMD’s Bulldozer architecture finally hit retail in October 2011, and Gordon put the highest-performing chip, the FX-8150, through the wringer. His conclusion: It’s a decent competitor to Intel’s i5-2500K, but no match for the (much more expensive) Sandy Bridge-E or 2600K parts. And that’s OK; there are plenty of reasons to want a solid midrange performer. Maybe you really, really want to be able to say you have an eight-core processor. Maybe you’re opposed to Intel for religious reasons. Or maybe you just want real PCIe x16 lanes without having to put out for the pricey X79 platform.
Whatever your reason, an FX-8150 can be a respectable foundation for a solid gaming rig since modern gaming is still more about the GPU than the CPU. In this article, we'll give you a step-by-step walkthrough of our build--if you're wondering how to build a killer gaming PC of your own, read on!

A previous version of this article incorrectly said we used 38GB of RAM. Maximum PC regrets the error.

Building from the CPU Out

Central to my build, of course, is AMD’s top-tier Bulldozer part, the 3.6GHz FX-8150. It’ll rest in Asus’s Sabertooth 990FX motherboard, which has USB 3.0, six SATA 6Gb/s ports, and plenty of PCIe x16 lanes. The 990FX isn’t markedly different from 890FX except for one glaring change: Board vendors are now offering SLI “support” (read unlock codes) in the BIOS. I was originally going to use Cooler Master’s Hyper 212 Evo CPU cooler, but in the course of overclocking I decided to swap it out for AMD’s Asetek-built Bulldozer FX liquid cooler, which bears a very strong resemblance to Antec’s Kuhler 920.
To keep things in the AMD house and at the $1,500 price point, my graphics card of choice is the Radeon HD 6970. It’s got enough juice to power any game on the market at reasonable settings, and at $330 it fits well with my budget without being a budget card.
NZXT’s just-launched Phantom 410 is a smaller version of the original Phantom, with a few more fans and USB 3.0 support. Corsair’s TX750 v2 PSU is more than enough power for my overclocks and any extra graphics cards I want to add later.
The one wild card in my build is the hard drive. Thanks to the still-ongoing Thailand floods, the price of a 750GB 2.5-inch hybrid drive is (at press time) only a little more than a 1TB 3.5-inch drive. The 8GB of NAND cache on the Momentus XT gives a performance boost to my most frequently accessed sectors of the disk, so boot and oft-used programs will be faster.

Assembling the Hardware

Step 1: Prep the Board

To install the CPU, lift the socket arm and gently lower the CPU into place, making sure the triangle on the CPU’s corner is aligned with the correct corner in the socket. Lower the lever back into place. Install the RAM into the second and fourth slots (the tan ones).

Step 2: Prep the Case and Install Motherboard

Before we start building into the case, it’s time to move some fans. Remove the side, top, and front panels from the case, then remove the rear 12cm exhaust fan and top 14cm exhaust fan. This will involve unplugging them from their fan controller connectors behind the motherboard tray. Use the long screws provided to install the 12cm fan in the front of the case, directly above the existing intake fan. Reconnect it to one of the fan control connectors behind the motherboard tray. Set aside the 14cm fan and its screws for now.

Install the motherboard standoffs in standard ATX configuration, put the motherboard I/O shield in place, then install the motherboard in the case.

Step 3: Install the CPU Cooler

If you’re getting flashbacks to last month, I don’t blame you. AMD’s Bulldozer-branded liquid-cooling system is built by Asetek, the same OEM who makes Intel’s RST2011LC liquid cooler, and is, in fact, nearly identical to the Asetek-made Antec Kuhler 920.
The instructions say to install the cooling fans as intakes, but we’re going to use ours as exhaust. Attach one fan to the inside of the cooler, then attach the other through the exhaust fan mounts to the radiator (image D). Run the radiator fans’ power cables behind the motherboard tray.

Next, assemble the cooler mounting bracket as shown in AMD’s instructions and clip it to the CPU heatsink.

Unscrew the four screws attaching AMD’s cooling mount to the backplate and remove the plastic mounts. Mount the CPU cooler/pump unit to the AMD backplate, tightening the mounting screws in an X-shaped pattern.

Attach the 3-pin pump power cable to the CPU_FAN header and run the radiator fan Y-connector behind the motherboard tray to the radiator fan cables. Run the USB 2.0 cable behind the motherboard tray to the bottom of the motherboard and connect it to a USB 2.0 header).

Install the GPU in to the topmost x16 PCIe slot.

Step 4: Install the Drives

Remove the top optical drive bezel and replace the case’s front panel. Slide the optical drive into that bay and secure it with the toolless mechanism. Add thumbscrews if you like. Take a hard drive tray from the cage and remove the mounting posts from the sides. Install the Momentus XT using the 2.5-inch mounting holes on the bottom of the tray. Replace in bay.

Step 5: Install the PSU

Install the power supply into the case with the fan facing down. Bring the dual-4-pin ATX auxiliary power cable, 24-pin ATX power cable, and two 6-pin PCIe power cables through the cutout nearest the PSU to the back of the motherboard tray. Bring the auxiliary ATX power cable through the opening at the top of the motherboard tray and connect it (image I). Bring the 24-pin motherboard power cable through the top side cutout and connect it, then connect the 6-pin PCIe connectors to the GPU—one will require the use of the 2-pin connector, as well.

Step 6: Finish the Wiring

Replace the top 14cm fan, but flip it around so that it’s used as an intake fan rather than exhaust. This will keep the motherboard voltage regulators under the radiator from overheating.

Connect the fan power lead to one of the fan controller connectors behind the motherboard tray.
Connect the front-panel connector power and LED switches to the board, as well as the HD Audio, USB 2.0, and USB 3.0 connectors. Connect SATA power and data cables to the optical and hard drives, then connect 6Gb/s SATA cables from the drives to the lowest set of SATA ports on the motherboard.
Use zip ties to tie excess fan controller connectors and case wiring to the rear of the motherboard tray. Bundle the unused power connectors here as well, if you can fit them.

Step 6: Into the BIOS

At this point you should connect your monitor, mouse, and keyboard and turn on the rig. Enter the BIOS’s Advanced Mode, go to Boot, and deselect “Wait for F1 on Error.” This will prevent the system from hanging up due to a perceived fan-speed error from the pump. Exit out of the BIOS, and install Windows and your drivers as normal, making sure to install the ChillControl software for the CPU cooler.
Once Windows is set up and working, it’s time to tweak the CPU a little bit. Bulldozer parts seem to vary in their overclocking stability: After many overly ambitious overclocks, I got to 4.2GHz, mostly by upping the CPU multiplier, but I’ve seen overclocks of over 4.8GHz with the same CPU and motherboard, so your mileage may vary.

Middle-Class Dreams Acquired

Given that Gordon had already benchmarked the FX-8150, I wasn’t expecting miracles, and I didn’t get them. The Bulldozer rig pulled down respectable scores for a $1,500 rig, but I didn’t really see any benefit from eight cores at 4.2GHz that wasn’t exceeded by a quad-core i7-920 at 3.5GHz. I was really surprised by both the difficulty of maintaining a stable overclock and the lack of oomph I got when I did manage to overclock.
After spending hours trying to stabilize my Bulldozer system at 4.8GHz and 4.6GHz, both of which I’d seen run on the same motherboard with the same processor, I had to lower my sights a little. I finally settled on a stable 4.2GHz—17 percent faster than stock. On CPU-bound benchmarks, though, like Vegas Pro and MainConcept Reference, I saw less than a 10 percent improvement over the FX-8150 at stock, and the other benchmarks showed even less improvement. FX-8150 chips seem to be variable in their tolerance for overclocks, so you might have better luck.
Of course, the lower scores on encoding tests could also have to do with my boot drive. I normally prefer to run with an SSD boot drive, but I went with a hybrid drive this time. The disk access speed and slower-than-solid-state write speeds doubtless affected the encoding tests, which all involve reading and writing large files to the disk.
That said, Bulldozer does offer better thermal performance. My FX-8150 never got above 55 C, even running Prime95 at 4.2GHz, which is far lower than we’d see from the overclocked i7-920 in our zero-point test bed.
If your budget allows for it, you may want to go for a multi-GPU setup. Unlike Sandy Bridge motherboards, which can run two x16 PCIe videocards but only at x8, the Sabretooth 990FX can run them at their full x16 speed. Does it really make a big difference? In the vast majority of cases no, but hell, you can at least rub it in the noses of your friends running at x8 speeds.
For a $1,500 machine, the Bulldozer rig does offer a lot of performance, although unless you’re running heavily multithreaded applications you probably won’t notice the difference between its eight cores and a decent quad-core—especially if the quad has Hyper-Threading. At this point, diehard AMD fans will probably just be happy to hear that a Bulldozer-powered rig holds its own at its price point. A Bulldozer rig isn’t the fastest money can buy, but for the price, you get a lot of cores, decent performance, and full PCIe lanes to grown into.

Portable Apps

Portable App Directory

The Portable App Directory™ and Portable App Marketplace™ list free open source software and freeware portable apps. As always, the PortableApps.com Platform, menu, backup utility, launchers, installer, format and other utilities are open source.

 Accessibility

•  Firefox Accessibility Extension - Make Firefox more accessible
•  On-Screen Keyboard Portable - Easily access an on-screen keyboard
•  Virtual Magnifying Glass Portable - A full-featured screen magnifier

 Development

•  AkelPad Portable - lightweight plaintext editor
•  Database Browser Portable (Freeware) - Database management utility
•  Frhed Portable - free hex editor
•  Geany Portable - Text editor and basic IDE
•  gVim Portable - advanced, feature-rich text editor
•  HM NIS Edit Portable - NSIS development environment
•  Notepad++ Portable - A full-featured text editor with syntax highlighting
•  Notepad2 Portable - Simple, lightweight text editor
•  Notepad2-mod Portable - Lightweight text editor
•  NSIS Portable - Windows installer and launcher creation
•  Nvu Portable & KompoZer Portable - The easy-to-use Nvu web editor
•  PortableApps.com Installer - the easy way to package portable apps
•  PortableApps.com Launcher - make apps portable without writing code
•  SQLite Database Browser Portable - Simple SQLite database management tool
•  SWI-Prolog Portable - Prolog programming environment
•  XAMPP - Apache, mySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin, etc in one package

 Education

•  BPBible Portable - bible study tool
•  Celestia Portable - portable space simulator
•  FreeMat Portable - scientific prototyping and technical computing
•  GoldenDict Portable - dictionary and encyclopedia lookups
•  Gramps Portable - genealogical research software
•  Marble Portable - virtual globe and atlas
•  Mnemosyne Portable - flashcard memorization tool
•  Stellarium Portable - portable planetarium
•  TIPP10 Portable - touch typing tutor
•  TypeFaster Portable - touch typing tutor

 Games

•  Armagetron Advanced Portable - 3d lightcycle game
•  AssaultCube Portable - fast-paced, online, first-person shooter
•  Atomic Tanks Portable - overly-powerful tanks blow each other up
•  Battle for Wesnoth Portable - turn-based fantasy strategy game
•  Big Solitaires 3D Portable - collection of 40 solitaire games
•  Brutal Chess Portable - 3d chess
•  Canabalt Portable (Freeware) - outrun the demolition of your city with just one button
•  Chromium B.S.U. Portable - fast-paced, vertical scrolling space shooter
•  Cube Portable - old-school first person shooter
•  DOSBox Portable - classic DOS games to go
•  Freeciv Portable - empire-building strategy game
•  Frets on Fire Portable - rock out anywhere with this Guitar Hero™-style game
•  Get Sudoku Portable - interactive sudoku solver
•  Hedgewars Portable - turn-based strategy, artillery and comedy game
•  Hex-a-Hop Portable - hexagonal puzzle game
•  IceBreaker Portable - wall-building-style arcade game
•  Jooleem Portable - simple and addictive puzzle game with great music and visuals
•  Kobo Deluxe Portable - 3rd person scrolling 2D space shooter
•  LBreakout2 Portable - breakout-style arcade game similar to Arkanoid
•  LMarbles Portable - pattern-matching puzzle game
•  Mines-Perfect Portable - a classic hunt-for-mines game with advanced features
•  Monster 2 Portable - retro-style role-playing game
•  NetHack Portable - single player dungeon exploration
•  netPanzer Portable - multiplayer tactical warfare
•  Neverball Portable - 3d rolling ball obstacle course
•  OpenTTD Portable - urban planning simulation
•  Pathological Portable - color-matching puzzle game
•  PokerTH Portable - classic Texas Hold Em style poker at its best
•  Puzzle Collection Portable - dozens of single player puzzles
•  Quick Bridge Portable (Freeware) - play bridge against the computer
•  Quick Cribbage Portable (Freeware) - play cribbage against the computer
•  Quick Poker Portable (Freeware) - play poker against the computer
•  Quick Solitaire Portable (Freeware) - seven classic solitaire games
•  Rocks'n'Diamonds Portable - fast-paced gem collection game
•  Sauerbraten (Cube 2) Portable - first person shooter
•  Scorched 3D Portable - turn-based over-powered artillery in 3D
•  Sudoku Portable - the wildly popular and addictive puzzle game
•  SuperTuxKart Portable - multiplayer cart racing
•  T^3 Portable - 3 dimensional tetris
•  The Mana World Portable - a free, 2D, retro-style MMORPG
•  Tick5 Portable - 5-in-a-row puzzle game
•  Tile World Portable - engaging and fast-paced tile-based puzzles
•  Twin Distress Portable - color matching puzzle game
•  Warzone 2100 Portable - single or online multiplayer real-time strategy game
•  WarMUX Portable - turn-based war of Unix mascots
•  WAtomic Portable - molecular puzzle game
•  WinBoard Chess Portable - advanced chess engine
•  X-Moto Portable - 2D motocross platform game
•  Zaz Portable - color-matching puzzle game

 Graphics & Pictures

•  AniFX Portable (Freeware) - full-featured cursor editor
•  Blender Portable - 3D modelling, animation, rendering, post-production, playback
•  Cornice Portable - image viewer with slideshow
•  Dia Portable - full-featured diagramming tool
•  Fotografix Portable (Freeware) - lightweight image editor
•  Fyre Portable - 2D computational artwork
•  GIMP Portable - Photo and Image Editor
•  Hot Spot Studio Portable (Freeware) - mix light to create art
•  IcoFX Portable (Freeware) - full-featured icon editor
•  Inkscape Portable - vector graphics editor
•  IrfanView Portable (Freeware) - lightweight graphic viewer
•  JPEGView Portable - image viewer and processor
•  K-3D Portable - 3D modeling and animation
•  PhotoFiltre Portable (Freeware) - image editing and effects
•  XnView Portable (Freeware) - view, organize and convert photos

 Internet

•  aMSN Portable - chat and video chat on MSN/Windows Live
•  DamnVid Portable - video downloader and encoder
•  DownThemAll! Extension (for Firefox) - download the files and images you want faster
•  Feed Notifier Portable - RSS/ATOM popup feed notifications
•  FileZilla Portable - the full-featured FTP client
•  FireFTP Extension (for Firefox) - a lightweight extension
•  Google Chrome Portable (Freeware) - fast, simple, themeable browser
•  gPodder Portable - podcast receiver and manager
•  Instantbird Portable - customizable instant messaging on AOL, Facebook, Google, MSN and more
•  Iron Portable - advanced web browser
•  Juice Portable - podcast receiver and manager
•  KVIrc Portable - full-featured IRC chat client
•  Maxthon Portable (Freeware) - fast, powerful browser
•  Miranda IM Portable - chat with AOL, MSN and Yahoo users in a customizable interface
•  Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition - the award-winning web browser that's safe and secure
•  Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition - the handy email client
•  Nvu Portable & KompoZer Portable - the easy-to-use webpage editor
•  Opera, Portable Edition (Freeware) - lightweight, customizable browser
•  PChat Portable - full-featured IRC chat client
•  Pidgin Portable - chat with AOL, MSN and Yahoo users in an easy-to-use interface
•  PopMan Portable - lightweight email notifier
•  Private Browsing by PortableApps.com - enhanced private browsing
•  PuTTY Portable - lightweight telnet and SSH client
•  qBittorrent Portable - lightweight bittorrent client
•  QuteCom Portable - softphone, text, audio and video chat
•  Sage Extension (for Firefox) - A full-featured RSS extension
•  SeaMonkey, Portable Edition - complete internet suite (browser, email, chat, newsgroups)
•  Skype Portable (Freeware) - instant messaging, video chat and phone calls
•  µTorrent Portable (Freeware) - lightweight bittorrent client
•  WinSCP Portable - SFTP, FTP and SCP client
•  WinWGet Portable - take and manage your downloads on the go
•  wxDownload Fast Portable - multi-threaded download manager

 Music & Video

•  Audacity Portable - A simple audio editor and recorder
•  CDEx Portable - cd audio extraction and conversion
•  cdrtfe Portable - CD, DVD, VCD burner
•  CoolPlayer+ Portable - Lightweight, fast, easy-to-use audio player
•  DVDStyler Portable - DVD menu authoring tool
•  fre:ac Portable - extract, convert, and encode audio
•  InfraRecorder Portable - full-featured CD and DVD burner
•  MuseScore Portable - music composition and notation
•  Paul Stretch Portable - extreme audio stretching
•  SMPlayer Portable - Full-featured movie player with support for most video formats
•  Songbird Portable - Full-featured digital media library and player
•  VirtualDub Portable - video processing and capture utility
•  VLC Media Player Portable - Aeasy to use media player that plays many formats
•  XMPlay Portable (Freeware) - Full featured audio player and library

 Office

•  AbiWord Portable - a lightweight word processor compatible with Microsoft Word files
•  Dia Portable - full-featured diagramming tool
•  Evince Portable - document viewer (pdf, ps, djvu, tiff, dvi)
•  Finance Explorer Portable (Freeware) - personal financial management
•  FocusWriter Portable - distraction-free word processor
•  Foxit Reader Portable (Freeware) - small and fast PDF reader
•  GnuCash Portable - accounting, expenses and financial management
•  Gnumeric Portable - full-featured spreadsheet
•  LibreOffice Portable - word processor, spreadsheet, presentations with excellent compatibility
•  Lightning Extension (for Thunderbird) - A lightweight extension for your calendar and tasks
•  Money Manager Ex Portable - easy-to-use personal finance software
•  Mozilla Sunbird, Portable Edition - Calendar and task management with a familiar interface
•  Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition (Address Book) - Email client's built-in address book with import/export functions
•  OpenOffice.org Portable - word processor, spreadsheet, presentations with Microsoft compatibility
•  PDFTK Builder Portable - split, collate, watermark and password protect PDF documents
•  PNotes Portable - sticky notes to go
•  RedNotebook Portable - modern journal and diary
•  Scribus Portable - desktop publishing
•  SpeedCrunch Portable - an intuitive algebraic calculator
•  Stickies Portable (Freeware) - lightweight sticky notes
•  Sumatra PDF Portable - a lightweight PDF viewer
•  Task Coach Portable - to do list and task manager
•  The Guide Portable - two-pane outliner
•  ToDoList Portable - customizable task management
•  WinDjView Portable - a lightweight DjVu viewer

 Security

•  ClamWin Portable - Antivirus on the go
•  Eraser Portable - securely delete files and data
•  EraserDrop Portable - easily secure-erase files and data
•  KeePass Password Safe Portable - Secure, easy-to-use password manager
•  Spybot - Search & Destroy Portable (Freeware) - Spyware detection and removal

 Utilities

•  2X Client Portable (Freeware) - remote server and RDP access client
•  7-Zip Portable - File archiver and compressor
•  Ant Renamer Portable - Advanced file renaming utility
•  AquaSnap Portable (Freeware) - Screen productivity enhancement
•  BleachBit Portable - cache, temp file and history cleaner
•  CamStudio Portable - screen recorder and video producer
•  Checksum Control Portable - create and verify MD5/SFV checksums
•  Command Prompt Portable - Simple link to a customizable command prompt
•  Console Portable - console window enhancement
•  Converber Portable (Freeware) - convert units of measurement
•  ConvertAll Portable - convert units of measurement
•  Cook Timer Portable - simple countdown timer
•  CrystalDiskInfo Portable - disk health monitoring tool
•  CrystalDiskMark Portable - disk benchmark utility
•  CubicExplorer Portable - advanced file manager
•  Daphne Portable - process explorer, killer and debugger
•  Diffpdf Portable - compare PDFs textually and visually
•  Disk Cleaner Portable - cache, temp file and history cleaner
•  Ditto Portable - clipboard manager and extender
•  DM2 Portable - window control enhancer
•  Don't Panic! Portable - one-click application hider
•  DShutdown Portable (Freeware) - remote PC shutdown and wake up
•  DTaskManager Portable (Freeware) - advanced task manager
•  DSynchronize Portable (Freeware) - directory synchronization
•  Explorer++Portable - multi-tab file manager
•  FreeCommander Portable (Freeware) - easy-to-use windows file manager
•  Free UPX Portable (Freeware) - advanced executable compression
•  Ghostscript Portable - Postscript and PDF interpreter
•  HDHacker Portable (Freeware) - MBR and boot sector manager
•  IObit Uninstaller Portable (Freeware) - uninstaller and cleaner
•  JkDefrag Portable - Disk defragmentation and optimization
•  jPortable (Freeware) - Java virtual machine made portable
•  jPortable Launcher - Run Java JARs portably
•  Lightscreen Portable - easy to use screenshot tool
•  Listary Portable (Freeware) - find-as-you-type search for Windows Explorer and more
•  PeaZip Portable - Easy to use file archiver and compressor
•  PortableApps.com AppCompactor - shrink apps without affecting functionality
•  PortableApps.com Backup - integrated backup utility bundled with the platform
•  PortableApps.com Menu - integrated start menu bundled with the platform
•  Regshot Portable - registry and file comparison
•  Revo Uninstaller Portable (Freeware) - easy to use uninstaller
•  SIW (System Information for Windows) Portable (Freeware) - software/hardware info
•  Smart Defrag Portable (Freeware) - disk defragmentation and optimization
•  Synkron Portable - file and directory synchronization
•  System Explorer Portable (Freeware) - task manager and process analyzer
•  TeamViewer Portable (Freeware) - remote PC support and screen-sharing
•  Texter Portable - text substitution utility
•  TinyTask Portable - simple macro record/playback
•  Toucan - backup, sync and encrypt for advanced users
•  UUID-GUID Generator Portable - generate unique identifiers
•  Virtual Volumes View Portable - drive and disk cataloger
•  VirtuaWin Portable - virtual desktop manager
•  WinDirStat Portable - disk usage analyzer and cleanup tool
•  Windows Error Lookup Tool Portable (Freeware) - find windows error code details
•  winMd5Sum Portable - check md5 sums to verify files on the go
•  WinPenguins Portable - penguins running around your desktop
•  WinMerge Portable - file comparison and merging
•  WinMTR Portable - network diagnostic tool
•  Workrave Portable - repetitive stress injury prevention
•  Xenon File Manager Portable - portable file browser
•  XN Resource Editor Portable -lightweight binary resource editor
•  Zint Barcode Studio Portable - barcode generator
•  ZSoft Uninstaller Portable (Freeware) - uninstaller and cleaner