30 fresh downloads

6. What time is it?
ClocX: http://www.tenzor.cz/clocx
Puts a smart analogue clock on the Desktop, complete with transparency effects, alarms and a simple calendar. There are dozens of styles to choose from, many better looking than their Vista Sidebar or Yahoo Widget equivalents.

7. Bag a nifty program launcher
Rocketdock: www.rocketdock.com
Of all the programs that try to mimic the Apple Mac Dock, Rocketdock is the one that’s had the most fat trimmed off it. The result is small, functional and very good looking, thanks to a wide variety of free icons you can download from the site. Instead of burrowing through the Start menu or squinting at the tiny Windows Quick Launch bar, drag favourite program icons onto Rocketdock and launch them from there.

8. Backup, restore, synchronise
Syncback Freeware: http://tinyurl.com/9mxgp
Although the paid-for SE version has extra features, such as better compression and incremental backups, the freeware version of Syncback is still an excellent product for backing up and restoring large amounts of data, as well as synchronising data between, for example, a desktop PC and a notebook PC.

Syncback works with Windows Scheduler, so it can be set up to run once a week – or once a day for the paranoid. Despite its low profile it is the only backup and synch program that many of us will ever need.

9. Instant Music Making
Acid Xpress: http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/download/freestuff.asp
This is a music maker for people who don’t play any instruments. It works by letting you drag and drop pre-recorded samples onto a grid with the mouse and then move them around to make different arrangements. Acid takes care of the tempo and makes sure that no one can hear the joins. The results can be saved as mp3 files – up to 20 times with the free version.

Obviously, everything relies on the quality of the samples and how they’re arranged together on the grid, but this is a terrific introduction to making PC music. And because the loops are standard Windows wav files, there’s no need for any fancy sound hardware.

10. Keep electronic lists and reminders
Stickypad: www.greeneclipsesoftware.com/stickypad.html
Rarely has a sticky note program been this good-looking and this free. It may lack some of the advanced features found in competitors but when it comes to creating simple, good-looking notes, lists and alarms that can be pinned to the desktop, Stickypad excels. It doubles as a simple program launcher too, and you can pin up to four programs on its pop-up pad.

11. Synchronise folders - and more
Synctoy: http://tinyurl.com/7dlru
Use this neat tool to create pairs of folders and then define how their respective contents should be synchronised, echoed, subscribed, contributed or combined – all subtle variations that ensure that the content is not only where it should be, but that it is also maintained in the correct version. Synctoy is a genuine Microsoft freebie that’s easy to miss out on but incredibly useful.

12. Desktop calendar with a difference
Rainlendar: www.rainlendar.net
A bit of a love-it-or-hate-it program this one. Some people like the way it floats on the Desktop without taking up much space. Others miss the more traditional, open, cell-per-day calendar look.

For those who persist, Rainlendar supports events and to-dos, displays single or multiple calendar months and – thanks to some smashing skins – looks like a Rolls Royce. Some of the bizarre Options dialogue boxes could do with a friendlier face but on the whole, this is a super calendar. The paid-for version can display Outlook events and share calendars over a home network.

13. The Mozilla Calendar Project
Sunbird 0.3.1: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar
This is alpha software but is surprisingly stable for all that. It’s from the community that brought us the Firefox web browser and Thunderbird email program, so it’s got a great pedigree to go with its open, clean design and plenty of features. Version 0.5 should be available by the time you read this and lovers of good free software should definitely investigate. (An aside: fans of the Thunderbird email program should check out Lightning, a calendar that’s similar to Sunbird but that instead of working on its own is tightly integrated with Thunderbird).

14. Come on, you reds
Vista Football Sidebar Gadgets:
Man U: http://tinyurl.com/2hm8xj
Arsenal: http://tinyurl.com/yqtjw9
Part ‘news’ feed, part sales pitch for the teams’ online products and services, this is nevertheless fun and relatively informative for those who can’t get enough football action. You will need Vista and an always-on connection, and the colour scheme’s as red as Fergie’s face on a bad night in Europe. More clubs are planning similar Vista gadgets so check your team’s website for details.

15. What’s that in old money?
Convert: http://joshmadison.com/software/convert
Still thinking in feet and inches in a metric world? Josh Madison’s Convert is the answer. This small program instantly converts popular units of distance, speed, temperature, area, angle and so on. Just type one figure in and the answer comes out at the other end. It looks like it was designed in 1955 but it also does the job.