Even in its basic, most simple version, JetAudio offers loads of nice tools to enjoy your collection of music and videos. It features a nicely designed interface with support for skins and visualizations – though not as many as Winamp. You can also run JetAudio as an extra bar that sits on the Windows taskbar and control its main functions from there without interrupting your work.

The main purpose of JetAudio is obviously playing audio and video files. The program includes elements with which you can improve playback and make it more enjoyable, such as sound effects, cross-fading between songs and support for lyrics.

But that's not all. JetAudio also features a bunch of extra tools that enable you to rip CDs, record sound, convert music files from one format to another, listen to online radio stations and burn your favorite MP3 to CD.

JetAudio is a complete, handy media player for anyone that would like to do more than just play audio and video files.

Download JetAudio Basic 8.0.14 in Softonic

YouTube Downloader is software that helps you download videos from YouTube (and also from other sites) and convert them into other video formats.

YouTube is undoubtedly the biggest video site on the internet and one of the business success stories of the decade. However, with copyrighted content increasingly being removed, a good way to save your favorite clips is to download them onto your hard drive with YouTube Downloader.

Using YouTube Downloader is incredibly easy - just specify the URL for the video you want to download and click the Ok button. It also allows you to convert downloaded videos for iPod, iPhone, PSP, cellphone, Windows Media, XVid and MP3, which is useful for taking your films on the move.

The converter in YouTube Downloader is a bit slow but it's a nice add-on to have. One problem you may have is that when you've downloaded the clip, there may be no sound. This is easily remedied by downloading a codec which can be found on the developer's website.

YouTube Downloader's interface may feel a bit confusing at first, and the design could be improved a bit, but in any case the program works fine and does what it says on the tin.

YouTube Downloader is an ultra-easy to use and efficient option to save your favorite YouTube clips forever.

Download YouTube Downloader 2.7.2 in Softonic

If you're looking for a great alternative to Windows Media Player, iTunes, RealPlayer and others, VLC Media Player is the application you need.

Now in its 1.0 release, VLC Media Player is simply the most stable, flexible and lightweight audio and video players around today. While other media players will play unusual formats after downloading a codec, or simply refuse to play things, VLC Media Player covers tons of formats, from MPEG to FLV and RMBV files. In addition to this, you can also use it to preview files you are downloading, because it will play parts of files. It takes no time to start up either, so opening it up to preview something is no trouble at all.

If you don't have any media to play, then VLC also offers superb integration with video channel streaming services such as Channels.com giving you access to channels such as ESPN, Reuters and National Geographic. Just right-click or CMD-click on the playlist, select Services Discovery and Channels.com. Channels.com will then appear in your VLC Media Player playlist. Click on it to reveal the the different categories of channels available. Click on the category you want and a drop down list of all available channels appears in VLC Media Player. Just click on the channel you want to watch and streaming should begin almost immediately.

VLC Media Player has great hotkey support, if you take the time to learn the shortcuts so it can be controlled without touching your mouse. If you're watching DVDs or video files through it, this is not an issue. For music, it plays more or less any file and features an equalizer and playlist creation. VLC Media Player isn't as intuitive as iTunes as a media manager, but it's a much more flexible player in terms of file formats. You can even use VLC to convert your files, and on top of all the formats and physical media it will play, many streaming protocols and TV capture cards are supported.

VLC Media Player makes it easy to add subtitles to your video files too - just add the SRT file to the folder where your video is kept, and it will automatically play with subtitles. The interface is functional, but by no means attractive - but you can download skins to completely change VLC Media Player's appearance. The preferences menu is comprehensive without being overwhelming, and there is extensive documentation online.

For video, VLC Media Player is the best application you will find. It's minimal interface is great for viewing, it's got excellent tools for effects, and doing things like adding subtitles is easy.

Download VLC Media Player 1.1.9 in Softonic

G-Force includes a host of impressive features such as anti-aliased effects, millions of effect combinations, savable and scriptable effects and video file export capabilities. You can also customize and extend G-Force in various ways.

G-Force is basically a mathematical application which takes sounds and turns them into images. It makes an impressive piece of eye-candy but with one drawback. You have to pay an annual subscription to keep using it which will no doubt put off many users. It's therefore probably more appealing to professional DJs and other performance artists that need a visual display to accompany music.

G-Force is an impressive application but will probably appeal more to professionals than general users.

Download G-Force 4.2 in Softonic

While comparisons with other similar services – such as Last.fm – are inevitable, Spotify has certain characteristics that make it stand out from the rest. You can search the entire Spotify music database in several ways (by artist, album, genre, decade, label brand…), create as many playlists as you want and share them with other users, and learn more about your favorite bands thanks to extensive, highly detailed biographies.

There are two ways to sign-up for Spotify. Either you can wait for one of your friends that use Spotify to send you an invite, or you can sign-up for free using Spotify Open. The only difference is that if you receive an invite, you will be entitled to unlimited free ad-supported music listening. If you sign-up for Spotify Open, you will be subject to 20 hours of free ad-supported music listening per month. Once this limit is reached, you have two options. One is to sign-up for Spotify Premium which costs around $10 a month, contains no ads and entitles you to listen to music on your mobile device as well. The other is to sign-up for Spotify Unlimited which only costs around €5 a month, contains no ads but does not support mobile devices.

Spotify also helps you discover new music through the “Related artists” and Radio service. The first one points you to other bands with similar style to the one you’re currently listening to, while the latter plays a mixed selection of artists and songs, all of them somehow related to the current artist – because they shared active years, label brand or music style.

The one big criticism of Spotify, however, was the lack of social features. Luckily the developers seem to have taken note of this complaint and include a bunch of new social elements in Spotify’s latest version. You can now create a Spotify profile with your top songs and playlists, import your Facebook friends to Spotify, and share songs and playlists on Twitter and Facebook from within the program itself.

Another new feature in Spotify is the so-called Library, a centralized area from which you can manage your music collection – including Spotify’s lists, purchased songs and your own MP3 files, which you can now import into Spotify from your hard drive, your Windows Media Player Library or your iTunes library.

Just like a good wine, Spotify gets better with age. If you don’t mind the ads in the Free version (or you’re willing to pay for the Premium one) it’s probably time to ditch your old desktop music player.

Spotify lets you browse, play and share streamed music for free, including not only your lifelong favorite bands, but also brand new styles and artists.

Download Spotify 0.4.100 in Softonic

Using VDownloader is really simple. Just paste a video URL into the interface and click the download button. The latest version of VDownloader has increased its download and conversion speed, which makes it even a more interesting tool.

You can also search for videos about a specific topic with the program's built-in search tool. The good thing about VDownloader is that you can use it with virtually any video sharing website, just by entering the video URL.

VDownloader features a number of output conversion profiles, so you can make the downloaded videos compatible with your portable device or media player. Alternatively, you can download the files in original format. Bear in mind though that if you choose this option, you won’t be able to convert the file afterwards.

To save you time, VDownloader will batch download up to ten videos at once and features a scheduler so it can be set to download files whenever is most convenient for you. The program includes other extra features, but sadly they’re only available in the Pro version of the program.

VDownloader is a handy, effective video downloader and converter that works with all popular video sharing sites.

Download VDownloader 3.3.833 in Softonic

In fact, FrostWire has more than just a few similarities to Limewire, although unlike the latter, it does not carry advertising and there are no annoying pop-ups. Just as Limewire was, FrostWire is straightforward and easy to use. A simple search bar, divided by category, makes it a breeze to browse for a file, whether it is a video, image, audio, or program. FrostWire also has a What’s New button to check out what popular files users have recently exchanged.

One particularly handy feature of FrostWire is a special direct connect option. If you know the IP address of one of your friends, type it in the box and FrostWire will browse to that user’s files. This is a quick way of sharing files with someone you know although it would be even better if you could enter the username of a user rather than the IP address.

In terms of speed, much will depend on the speed of your own connection. It definitely helps though if you've correctly opened your router's ports and whether you’re downloading a popular file or not. To avoid the risk of downloading copyrighted or adult material, FrostWire also allows you to apply content filters. Another handy feature of FrostWire is a built-in media player. Video and audio can be tested using Frostwire’s media player which gives you an immediate preview of your file.

It should be noted that FrostWire is basically a stripped-down version of Limewire, but is a not-for-profit project. The developer claims it will never support Digital Rights Management (DRM) or any type of advertising. However, the demise of Limewire due to legal issues mean that FrostWire may well be targeted in the future for closure.

FrostWire for Mac is a hugely popular alternative for anyone who misses Limewire.

Download FrostWire 4.21.5 in Softonic

While most media players, even in 64-bit operating systems, use 32-bit media players by default, there are a few 64-bit players around. To make use of every media format out there, you'll need a codec pack, and K-Lite Codec Pack 64-bit Edition has everything you'll need.

When installing K-Lite Codec Pack 64-bit Edition, you choose which components you want which is great, as long as you know what that is! If you're not really sure what a codec is, or what you need, the installer won't help you. However, a solution to this is to simply install them all!

There is little demand for a 64-bit set of codecs at the moment, but as 64-bit systems become more common place, K-Lite Codec Pack 64-bit Edition will become more useful. Be aware that by default, 64-bit editions of Windows still use 32-bit media players, in which case the K-Lite (Mega) Codec Pack should be used.

K-Lite Codec Pack 64-bit Edition has everything you need to get media formats running on your PC

Download K-Lite Codec Pack 64-bit Edition 4.6.0 in Softonic

K-Lite Codec Pack includes all the codecs you need to have on your system if you want to play all audio and video formats without any problems.

Sometimes when you try to play music or a movie in your computer, you may find that either the image or the sound are not being properly played. These issues are probably a question of codecs, and you can solve them all with K-Lite Codec Pack. The full package includes quite a bunch of codecs, but the good thing is that you can choose which ones to install and which ones to leave out during the installation process.

Besides codecs, the K-Lite Codec Pack also includes several utilities that can come in very handy when dealing with audio and video files. Among others, you'll find tools in the K-Lite Codec Pack to tweak and fix codecs, work with subtitles and obtain detailed information about any selected media file.

The only drawback I could point out about K-Lite Codec Pack is that it all may seem confusing for the novice user who doesn't really know what a codec is, and therefore can't really choose which ones to install. My advice here is to simply install the complete K-Lite Codec Pack: it's the only way to make sure you'll be able to play pretty much any audio or video file on your PC.

K-Lite Codec Pack is a full featured collection of codecs that enables you to play just about any audio and video format on your PC without any problems.

Download K-Lite Codec Pack Full 7.1.0 in Softonic

uTorrent is one of the most popular BitTorrent clients out there for several reasons: it's fast, lightweight, easy to use and very efficient.

After a quick installation process (although there are quite a few prompts to install browser add-ons etc) and a handy built-in speed test to make the initial setting much easier, uTorrent is ready. The program takes up minimal hard drive and PC resources, which enables you to have a good amount of torrents downloading and still be able to use your computer without any lag.

uTorrent's lightness and simplicity doesn't necessarily mean lack of features. On the contrary, the program includes everything you would expect from a complete, reliable torrent downloader: highly detailed stats, support for RSS feeds, automatic shutdown, download scheduler and more. There are a couple things that uTorrent is missing though: a full torrent search tool and a built-in player to preview your downloads.

The interface is probably one of uTorrent's greatest assets: the clean, simple design makes it really easy to use and at the same time offers all the information you need about your downloads. You can browse torrents in uTorrent according to their status, organize them with labels and check the current transfer speed in just a few clicks.

This most recent version of uTorrent gives you lots of new tools and features including a UDP tracker, an improved uTP and a completely overhauled setup dialog window with built-in speed test. Most recently, they've also added an Apps Studio which allows you to instantly customise features such as adding protection from BitDefender, social networking functions (such as Twitter) and even games.

If you're searching for a reliable, fast and lightweight torrent client, look no further: uTorrent is what you need.

Download uTorrent (µTorrent) 2.2.1.25130 in Softonic

Firefox 3.6 is finally here, bringing a handful of new features to this already excellent web browser.

First of all, the interface in Firefox 3.6 is now much easier to customize. This version offers seamless integration with Personas, Mozilla's theme gallery for Firefox, which lets you apply new Firefox themes to your browser with a single mouse click. What's more, you can try them on the browser before actually applying them, just by hovering your mouse over the theme's name.

Another impressive new feature is the native support for watching videos in full screen – as long as they've got the HTML5 'video' tag. Simply right click on the video and select the "Full screen" mode to turn the browser into a media player. Also, Firefox has released a new online service called Plugin Check, which helps you check for new updates for your plugins – quite handy, especially if you're as addicted to Firefox addons as I am!

Regarding efficiency and stability, Mozilla states that the new Firefox 3.6 includes the latest version of the Gecko engine and has improved Java performance. These two elements are meant to provide a faster web browsing – which has been its weakest point of late. While I haven't tested the final version long enough, I have to say I've been using the betas and release candidates for a while, and I'm quite happy with the program's response.

In all, the new features included in the latest version of Mozilla Firefox may not be as many or as spectacular as other releases, but they do provide a better user experience in terms of usability, customization and performance.

Firefox continues its steady development and adds interesting new features and improvements in its latest version.

Download Firefox 3.6.16 in Softonic

There are so many video and audio formats that sometimes you need a helping hand just to know which codec you need to play that darn file that won't open up in]]>

This is where MediaInfo comes in handy, by analyzing any media file you open with it and displaying a complete report with all the information available about that specific file. The information displayed by MediaInfo includes basic data such as file name, playtime, file size and the likes, as well as more specific details like used codec, bitrate, channel, sample rate and resolution, among others.

The information provided by MediaInfo can be displayed in a variety of ways, from a basic data sheet or plain text to a tree-like structure or an HTML document. It can also be exported to a file but surprisingly enough MediaInfo doesn't include an option to obtain a printed copy.

Another thing I missed in MediaInfo is the possibility to obtain more information from the Internet (a web link would have been enough) or being able to download the necessary codec if it's not present in the system.

With MediaInfo you can obtain a complete report on any audio or video file, display it in several ways and also export it to several formats though it doesn't support printing and lacks some advanced functionality.

Download MediaInfo 0.7.43 in Softonic

Winamp was born as a very basic media player and has slowly but consistently improving for many years. Its main purpose was to be completely customizable and through the years, many people have contributed to a library that now consists of over 20,000 skins and loads of plug-ins.

When Winamp version 5 was released, Nullsoft redeemed themselves in the public's eyes after producing a much improved player to replace Winamp 3. They didn't need much encouragement as they justified skipping version number 4 by saying that it was such a huge improvement that it deserved to be called 5!

Luckily they are justified in their opinion, as Winamp offers everything you might want in a media player. Using the skins, you can set it to look like the original or the current default which looks great and puts you in control of all your media quickly and easily. I particularly like Winamp's minimized player that consists of a small bar that you can place on the edge of your screen. Of course, if neither of these agree with your taste you can download and try any of the thousands others available on the Winamp website.

Winamp supports a wide range of file formats, and because the program is small and simple, it works quickly on almost all computers. Have a look through the available plug-ins and you will also find that you can hook up your iPod and manage its music library.

Winamp may have been around for ever, but it hasn't been left behind and is a fully featured music player that's really customizable. A good alternative to iTunes.

Download Winamp 5.61 Full in Softonic

The good thing about Tweak Me! is that it gathers tweaks from different system areas and applications, and displays them into a well organized tree-like structure: Windows, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Performance, Security and Windows Update. These settings would be otherwise scattered all over the system and definitely much harder to find.

Tweak Me! is very easy to use. Simply run the program, choose the language and then go over the list of tweaks, ticking those you’re interested in applying. When done, click the Save and Exit button. Note that you may need to restart the system in order for some tweaks to be applied.

While Tweak Me! displays information about the different settings you’re about to change, but we had the impression that it wasn’t enough. Also, it would be nice to have a built-in restore point functionality just in case something goes wrong.

Tweak Me! is a simple tweaking tool that lets you modify hidden settings in Windows, Internet Explorer, security and performance.

Download Tweak Me! 1.2.0.1 in Softonic

Adobe Flash Player 10 includes a range of interesting additions and improvements when compared to previous versions. Top of that list is the inclusion of support for the H.264 video codec and the HE-AAC audio codec, which together offer a much richer, higher-definition picture along with crystal-clear sound. Introducing these capabilities in Adobe Flash Player with only slightly reduced performance looks set to trigger another revolution in web video, as HD movies are already an important element on YouTube - and they look and sound great!

Apart from that, Adobe Flash Player 10 irons out some of the problems that previous versions have suffered from (like security and stability issues), as well including support for ActionScript 3.0. It also makes fantastic 3D graphics possible. This makes for more dynamic and interesting navigation, games and interactivity on websites.

Adobe Flash Player 10 represents a leap forward in terms of quality and also stability and security. It's therefore a highly recommended download for all users.

Download Adobe Flash Player Firefox, Safari, Opera 10.2.152.32 in Softonic

Being part of the Windows Live Essentials suite, Windows Live Movie Maker has to be installed through the Essentials package installer. Also, bear in mind that this version only works in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Windows Live Movie Maker is dead easy to use. All you have to do is import the photos and videos you want to use, select the background music and add some titles and end credits if you want. The program displays extra buttons on the title bar that gives you access to configuration settings for video, music and text respectively. As regards effects, you also have plenty to choose from: transition effects, animations, zoom and pan, and also visual effects that will spice up your images.

When your video is finished, you can save it in different formats and sizes, depending on where you plan to use it on: computer, high-definition TV screen, mobile device, instant messaging client, etc. Windows Live Movie Maker also includes the option to upload it directly to YouTube, Facebook, SkyDrive and Flickr. The only drawback is that Windows Live Movie Maker saves videos to one single format: WMV.

With Windows Live Movie Maker you'll be able to create nice compositions with your favorite photos and videos, and share them with anyone.

Download Windows Live Movie Maker 2011 15.4.3508.1109 in Softonic

The goal with this application seems to be a replacement for various other programs you might use for one specific media type. Why use programs like iTunes, Picasa, and Windows Media Player when you only have to use ArcSoft MediaImpression which does all three? It certainly makes sense from the outset.

Once ArcSoft MediaImpression is installed, you are faced with buttons for music, pictures, video and all media. Clicking any of these opens a traditional pane with a folder tree on the left. In the picture segment you can perform basic edits, such as cutting, removing red eye and face-tagging. In the music and video segments you can listen to and watch any of your files, and reorganize them. You can also hit the easy archive button, which will save any selected files or folders to a CD.

If you want to print your pictures, you can order a variety of different products from ArcSoft MediaImpression, including mugs and books.

While it's potentially a good idea to have a single media application, the execution of ArcSoft MediaImpression is a bit weak. The photo editing options are not sufficient or comparable to competing programs like Adobe Photoshop Elements. ArcSoft MediaImpression's video player is similarly basic.

ArcSoft MediaImpression is a nice idea and a step in the right direction for an all-in-one media hub. Unfortunately, it still lacks some of the features and flexibility of most media players or photo editors.

Download ArcSoft MediaImpression 3.5.255.985 in Softonic

With iTunes 10, the

Syncing iTunes with iPods and other Apple devices is really easy, and there are no longer problems using Mac-formatted devices in iTunes for Windows, or vice versa. Home Sharing is a great way to keep your library across multiple computers at home; it is really easy to set up and means all your computers will automatically have up-to-date libraries.

The biggest change with version 10 is to the iTunes Store. Ping, which is linked to your iTunes account, allows you to create a personal profile and share your purchases and reviews with friends, and artists you like. It looks very much like a basic Facebook News Feed or Twitter, but just about music. At the moment Ping feels underdeveloped. You can't share your listening habits, like Last.fm, and manual sharing is limited to the iTunes Store, not your own library. There's no option to share what you're listening to right now, which is pretty terrible! Ping will surely develop and improve very soon.

The basic library function of iTunes is unparalleled, and syncing with iPods, iPhones and iPads is excellent. iTunes 10’s new social features are interesting, but limited at the moment.

Download iTunes 10.2.1 in Softonic

Free YouTube Download is a simple tool that downloads YouTube videos to your hard drive, featuring several formats namely AVI, 3GP, MP4 and the online native Flash video format, FLV.

Using Free YouTube Download, you can take your favorite videos with you on your iPod, phone or any other portable device and and watch them while on the move. The app is not only simple in design, but also in functionality. Just enter the URL of the video you want to download, select your preferred format and let Free YouTube Download take care of the rest.

The download process only takes a few minutes and you can then enjoy your YouTube videos locally straight away. Free YouTube Download also supports batch downloading so you can create a queue of files to be converted while you do other things. On the downside, you have to copy and paste the video URL addresses manually – it would be nice to have some kind of browser or clipboard integration.

With Free YouTube Download you can download any YouTube video to your hard drive and save it in several different formats.

Download Free YouTube Download 2.10.31 in Softonic

Adobe Flash Player 10 includes a range of interesting additions and improvements when compared to previous versions. Top of that list is the inclusion of support for the H.264 video codec and the HE-AAC audio codec, which together offer a much richer, higher-definition picture along with crystal-clear sound. By introducing these capabilities with only slightly reduced performance, Adobe Flash Player looks set to trigger another revolution in web video, as HD movies are becoming standard on YouTube - and they look and sound great!

Apart from that, Adobe Flash Player 10 irons out some of the problems that previous versions have suffered from (like security and stability issues), as well including support for ActionScript 3.0. It also makes fantastic 3D graphics possible. This makes for more dynamic and interesting navigation, games and interactivity on websites.

Adobe Flash Player 10 represents a leap forward in terms of quality and also stability and security. It's therefore a highly recommended update for all users.

Download Adobe Flash Player IE 10.2.152.32 in Softonic