Download of the Week

FastStream is an open-source extension available for Chrome and Firefox that replaces the video player on YouTube and other platforms, providing additional features such as accelerated downloads and minimal buffering on most video formats.

OBS Studio's latest release comes with UI improvements, a new YouTube streaming control panel, a new 'Safe Mode' for troubleshooting, and improved codec support on Linux.

The latest version of Microsoft Edge brings some new security features to the table. Despite not appearing in the changelog, the release also reintroduces the Mica effect for improved visuals.

Kali Linux's last release for the year adds Vagrant offerings to Hyper-V, Raspberry Pi 5 support, an updated UI to GNOME 45, and various new network tools.

If you've been experiencing muted colors while streaming gameplay in Discord, or intermittent stuttering when V-Sync is enabled, Nvidia's latest GeForce Hotfix promises to fix those issues.

AIDA64's latest version has added AVX-512 accelerated benchmarks for Threadripper 7000 CPUs, AVX2 benchmarks for Intel Meteor Lake, and support for the latest AMD and Intel CPU platforms and the incoming RTX 4080 Super GPU.

Open-source text editor Notepad++ is releasing a new milestone version for its 20th anniversary with multi-edit capabilities, multi-select background, and numerous bug fixes.

WhatsApp has added a new 'secret code' privacy feature for locked chats. Typing your secret code in the search bar will reveal the otherwise hidden conversations.

Google has released a critical security update on the Chrome stable channel. According to the notes, an active exploit exists for CVE-2023-6345 that could allow an attacker to steal sensitive data and other cyber attacks.

FFmpeg 6.1 is a major release that includes Vulkan decoding for H.264, HEVC and AV1, extended support for RivaTuner, Playdate, Microsoft RLE, as well as numerous filters.

GameMaker is a cross-platform 2D game engine that lets you create your own titles with a drag-and-drop visual programming language. It's now free for non-commercial use on all platforms except consoles. And there's a new one-time fee for a commercial license.

Firefox is adding new privacy tools, such as "Tell websites not to sell or share my data" and "Copy Link Without Site Tracking" context menus to copy a link without any tracking information.

CoreDirector allows you to control which processes and applications run on P-cores and which run on E-cores. CoreDirector is a free application, compatible with any 12th-gen Intel CPU and above.

Blender 4.0 features new Node tools, AgX for better color handling, a new HDR option as well as light and shadow linking for illuminate specific objects

HandBrake 1.7.0 adds support for AMD VCN AV1 and Nvidia NVENC AV1 encoders, as well as faster HEVC decoding. There are improvements to video conversion speeds, Dolby Vision, and HDR10+ dynamic range.

Microsoft's latest open-source framework just hit version 8, introducing a new code generator (PGO) that promises up to 20% faster app performance, as well as .NET Aspire.

OneNote is a free to download digital notebook app that can be used independently of Microsoft Office. Microsoft recently updated OneNote for Windows with an improved meeting selection experience, with more upgrades to come soon.

The open source Files app is solid Windows File Explorer replacement with this new version introducing a complete UI refresh, Office docs preview, support for more file formats and more.

The latest version of Windows PowerToys add a new environment variables utility for configuring profiles. Also a new Dashboard gives you quick access to enable modules. Worth checking out.

Through debloating and improved compression Tiny11 Core manages to reduce the Windows 11 installation footprint to just 2GB, making it an ideal option for VMs and testing environments.

qBittorrent 4.6 has launched with experimental BitTorrent over I2P (Invisible Internet Protocol) support, enabling encrypted and anonymized torrenting. For those unfamiliar with I2P, it utilizes destinations instead of IP addresses and ports.

WinRAR 7 beta improves compression and handling of multi-gig archives through compression dictionaries of up to 64GB.

WhatsApp is rolling out the option to run two accounts simultaneously on the same mobile device. A second phone number via multi-SIM or eSIM is required. Head to Settings, Account and Add Account.

Tor Browser 13 renovates icons, and gets bigger new windows with a more refined design. Also the ability to "onionize" DuckDuckGo search, all based on Firefox ESR 115.

Raspberry Pi OS "Bookworm" now includes the Firefox browser, a new network manager, and improved audio support. This is also the first release to officially support the latest Raspberry Pi 5 board.