Great software can be hard to come by. That is why there are a select few that stand out and become increasingly popular. What defines “great software”? Typically a program should be practical and useful, lightweight – even portable, feature-packed, and to top it all off, free. Fotografix is all of those and that is why it landed a spot in the Image Editors and Viewers category on our Best Of Portable Apps page.

Amazon is, without a doubt, one of the best and most popular places to shop online. It’s got there due to awesome features like Amazon Prime, Super Saver Shipping, the Wish List browser extension, the Kindle reader app for the web, desktop and mobile, and great mp3 prices. But there is a lot more to Amazon than just that. Below are seven Amazon “diamonds in the rough” that you probably don’t know a lot about.

Journaling is an exercise for the mind and it has several proven benefits, but it can also seem difficult to do. This is primarily due to the overwhelming feeling of having to journal – it shouldn’t be like that. Instead, it should be something you look forward to doing every day. It should be a task that inspires you for the day ahead and/or relieves you of the day you have just had.

The Internet and social networks are incredible – they allow us to connect with one another in a way we have never been able to before. But in many instances, they also propose a threat. You see, we trust our friends and contacts. Therefore, whenever a friend shares something they read or use on a social network, we are much more inclined to check it out. So what do you do to prevent becoming infected with malware via social networks?

Being in an relationship is exciting, isn’t it? There is so much to enjoy about being with that special person in your life. However, there might be times (more for some than others) where you are apart – it could be just a week or even several months. It’s not something we like to think about, nor is it very enjoyable. But there are things that you can do during the time to help keep your relationship exciting and help the time pass easier.

With the ever-growing list of threats out there, one can never be too cautious. Sure you can watch what websites you visit and what you download, but even with those precautions, you should have some additional protection to back you up. You might feel that having an antivirus program is enough, but it is often recommended to have an additional program dedicated to scanning for malware.

Security and privacy are becoming more and more important to understand, yet it seems that the methods of understanding them hasn’t really followed. In addition, neither has the ability to easily manage your computer in a way to make it more secure and private. We have a lot of articles here on MakeUseOf that help you with that, however there is also a tool that makes this process much easier to do too.

When was the last time you wanted to uninstall something from your computer? Was it easy to do? Could you find the program to uninstall in the Windows default uninstall tool? Could you even find where the uninstall tool in Windows is? I don’t mean that to insult your intelligence. But the fact is, finding it isn’t the easiest thing to do if you don’t know where to start. And even if you know how to uninstall a program with the native Windows tool, it isn’t always the best way.

When was the last time you read a whole article? Not two or three paragraphs and then clicked on to the next one, but the whole thing. What about an article that was more than 1000+ words? The fact is, it’s difficult to read on the web. A developer by the name of Richard Wallis saw this problem too and he created a solution. That solution is a browser extension and a bookmarklet.

Chrome is, without a doubt, one of the best browsers available. However, one of its drawbacks is the lack of accessibility to its settings. If you’re curious about what I mean, go and find the Chrome Extensions page. Too easy? OK, go try and find the Chrome Memory page….perhaps you know where that is too, but how many steps did you have to go through to find it? If searching Google was one of them, stop counting – that’s too many steps already.

One thing we all use the Internet for is information, and it’s great when we can access it easily. But what happens when you need to access the information again after closing the webpage? Or perhaps you don’t have access to the Internet when you need to read the information again? Maybe you just want to save your “to read” or “read again” articles to Google Drive for access on the go and offline?

Do you defrag your hard drive? If not, you should and you must understand the importance before you read on. There are some excellent articles on MakeUseOf which discuss defragmenting, but perhaps the best and most recent article is 3 Excellent Defrag Utilities & Why You Still Need to Defragment In 2012 by Tina. Smart Defrag wasn’t included in the “3 excellent defrag utilities” in her article, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t excellent.

Before the time of Kindles, we usually read everything solely on our computers. And perhaps you still do this. However, if you own a Kindle, such as the Kindle Touch which doesn’t have the best web interface (and that’s only when you’re around a Wi-Fi connection) you might still be disappointed in it’s reading capabilities. If so, you should consider Send To Kindle by Klip.me.

At one time or another, we’ve all had to refresh a page, whether it was because it crashed, or we needed to update it, etc. And often at times, there is a need to refresh all the pages (or tabs) that are open. And whenever that has to be done, it becomes a cumbersome task of opening each page and clicking the refresh button in Chrome.

Ah! The presentation. Some of us love them. Some of us hate them. But no matter what, we all usually have to give them at one point or another, whether in school, work or even just for enjoyment. Some even choose public speaking as a career. Public speaking and presentations is an art though – have you ever sat through a horrendous talk? I know I have. So what makes the perfect presentation?