Synching can complement or even replace backup for regular but relatively small jobs, especially between multiple PCs and devices. For larger jobs, backup might be a better idea. Ignore Windows Sync Center, another piece of Vista ‘uselessware' as it excludes server folder synchronisation from all but the Business and Ultimate editions, and in any case lacks enough configuration.

Of the two partition managers we've reviewed recently, Paragon's is by far the easiest to use and most feature rich, and is also preferred over Easus Partition Manager Professional, at a similar price. However, it is hard to justify the extra expense for Paragon’s Professional instead of Personal versions and, as such, for the majority of users Paragon’s Personal edition of Partition Manager 9.0 may be the better option.

Although Paragon Partition Manager is the program we would prefer to use on a daily basis, if you can do without the migration and backup tools then Easus offers much better value for money – especially so if you can get by with the free Home version. Indeed, for experienced personal users, the Home edition is an excellent free utility and highly recommended.

Nero 9 is definitely a better product than version 8, and for new users it's a great tool. Versus the similarly priced Roxio Creator 2009, the story remains largely the same: Nero is less friendly, slightly more powerful in audio and encoding, and decidedly faster. Roxio still provides better templates. Both suites support Blu-ray BD-MV authoring with menus through additional plug-ins.

If you have a lot of pictures and need to free up some hard drive space, or if you need to shrink giant, photo-laden e-mail messages, WinZip 12 is a tempting way to make it happen. If you don't, it's still a handy program to have around.

If you like jv16 PowerTools but you don't need the extra functions — and you want to save some money, RegSupreme could be perfect for you.

Like RegSeeker, we'd recommend Advanced WindowsCare only to advanced users.

It's free and useful, but Registry cleaners aren't exactly expensive, and RegSeeker is definitely not for beginners.

Registry First Aid is about as good a Registry cleaner as you can get — but unfortunately, you have to pay for it.

jv16 PowerTools will tell you all you ever wanted to know about Windows Registry, but you probably won't need all of its tools.

Registry Mechanic does what it claims to do — clean up your registry — but don't expect your PC to go faster because of it.