If you've got lots of MSN Live Messenger contacts and sometimes find yourself drowning in multiple conversation windows, then help is at hand. 'Windows Live Messenger On Screen Display' is a great little extension which delivers messages directly to your desktop instead.

You'll be surprised at how much easier this makes life. Instead of flicking through between conversation windows, the chats appear as horizontal strips across your desktop. You can see instantly at a glance what everyone is saying without even touching MSN Live Messenger. Unfortunately, it doesn't allow you to reply but you can at least keep track of conversations in one go.

To install it, make sure you've closed Windows Live Messenger first. Once you've downloaded and installed the plugin, re-open Messenger, go to 'Tools' and click 'Addins'. Simply browse to the location where you installed the plugin and select the WLM_OSD_Plugin.dll. Don't forget to activate the plugin via the status menu and away you go!

Among the multitude of add-ons available for Firefox, there are a handful which change the way you browse the web permanently (Greasemonkey, AdBlock, PONG, etc). Hyperwords definitely deserves a place on that list for the way it adds interactivity to any word on any web page. The plugin works simply: select any word or block of text and you're immediately offered a menu which lets you pick a command to use with that selection.

The list of commands is pretty impressive, ranging from Google searches to in-line translations to a sort of 'Blog This' functionality. These functions are individually available in a multitude of plugins, but Hyperwords brings them all (and a lot more besides) into one simple menu. It also avoids siding with just Google sites by offering a wide range of sources and web apps to choose from.

It has already been backed by some pretty big names but if you're still not convinced, try out the demo page before installing. I reckon that this could be the best extension I've ever tried, in terms of the way it opens up the web in such a simple, usable way. Hyperwords rules.

Are you a twitterholic? If so, then this Firefox extension is for you. TwitBin enables you to send messages to Twitter from your Firefox browser without having to visit the Twitter webpage. The extension displays a sidebar window where you can see other people's messages and also send yours whenever you feel like it. Just logon to your account and start twittering right away!

Do you download torrent files? Is Firefox your default browser? If so, then this program is for you. FoxTorrent is an extension for Firefox that allows you to download and share torrents from your own browser window. Its streaming feature will also enable you to play audio and video as it's downloaded. FoxTorrent doesn't hog your system resources nor bandwidth and requires no configuration at all. Not convinced yet? Give it a try and see for yourself!

While Mozilla developers still have a long way to go (the final version of Firefox 3 won't be released until the end of this year), rumors about the browser's new exciting features keep leaking from the company. A while ago we learnt that Firefox 3 will allow you to save webpages as PDF files. Then we read that it will also be able to work offline with web applications. And while we anxiously wait for more news, we keep on upgrading our Firefox 2 with handy extensions like Save As Image.

Save As Image enables you to save whole websites as an image. That is, it saves not only what you see in your web browser's interface, but also the areas of the webpage that remain hidden beyond the application edges.

You can choose among several graphic formats and image quality levels, and also select between saving the whole webpage or just an area of it, though this last function didn't seem to work properly. Still, it's a nice and useful plugin for those who need to be constantly taking snapshots of websites.

If you have Vista on your computer, you’ll be enjoying all those cool sidebar gadgets. But if you haven't made the switch to Vista yet, you can always make do with software like Thoosje Vista Sidebar. This application allows you to have a gadget sidebar on your desktop, very similar to the one displayed in Windows Vista and also completely customizable. It looks very promising, but don't let yourself be fooled by all the program's bells and whistles.

The first few minutes after installing the program are quite confusing, because it takes quite a while to load. We just kept on clicking on the shortcut icon and almost ended up thinking that it simply didn’t work, only to find afterwards that we had started several sessions. This may also be the reason why we got some error messages during these first minutes of usage.

Being one of the most widely used IM applications, MSN Messenger has always had a large base of users keen on developing plugins with which they could personalize their favorite chat client. Amateur programmers released plugins to discover who had erased you from their contact list, to start more than one MSN session, to log conversations... until MSN Plus! was launched.

MSN Plus! soon became the most popular MSN plug-in, collecting together all the extra options users could ask for into one program. Even now Plus! is still an excellent pack of tools which heavy Messenger users consider as essential and which certainly improves your IM experience. During all these years it has been able to adapt to every new Messenger version, including the name change and the new interface design. In fact, Plus! is now seamlessly integrated into Live Messenger: it launches with the program and the only way you can tell it's there it by two tiny buttons on the main interface.

It’s been a long time in coming but Microsoft has announced it is to launch its own Skype-like VOIP program designed especially to integrate with Office 2007. The company has confirmed that by the end of this month, beta testing will go ahead for its IP telephony software Office Communications Server 2007.

Until now, voice or conference calling within Office was limited to Microsoft's NetMeeting but the new program promises to offer far better integration and quality in calling and video conferencing. The most recent version of Microsoft Office will automatically be able to incorporate the software so users won’t have to resort to third party applications such as Skype to make calls. Microsoft first announced plans for such a service last summer and has since spent the past year developing it alongside Nortel.

The add-on will mean that users can simply click on a name in Word, Excel or Outlook to call them directly. Calls to contacts will also be possible from Sharepoint and MSN Messenger. It will also allow one-to-one, multi-videoconferencing and webconferencing and will be launched in both desktop and Windows Mobile-based versions. The downside however is that it will only work with Office and not any other external programs.

The fact that Microsoft Office is the world’s most widely used business and domestic desktop package means that its certainly going to prove a challenge to VOIP heavywight Skype. However, how many home PC users will be willing to pay to upgrade to the new version of Office just to use something they can already do for free is debatable. The other problem for Microsoft is that many people will be loath to start their contact lists from scratch again. A tool or integrated wizard which would make this process as seamless as possible from Skype would be a wise investment for them if it is to really take-off - at least for home users.

Two of the most common activities when sitting in front of a computer are browsing the web and listening to music. So what about joining both of them into one single interface? If you're a Firefox user, now you can. The only thing you need is FoxyTunes.

This handy extension allows you to control your audio player right from the browser's window. This means that you can actually play, stop, forward or rewind your music without even leaving Firefox interface. FoxyTunes doesn't take up any screen space, as it's seamlessly integrated in the browser's status bar and also lets you choose which buttons to display and which ones to hide. Plus, the extension features a Web search tool with which you can look up information about your favorite artists and songs.

Finally, in case you're wondering whether your player will work with FoxyTunes or not, rest assured that the most popular ones like iTunes, Winamp and Windows Media Player are covered, along with XMPlay, JetAudio, Musicmatch Jukebox, Sonique, MediaMonkey, Quintessential Player and several others.

It’s nice to see that now that Internet Explorer is starting to lose its stranglehold of the browser market, the software is finally embracing some of the standards and ideas pioneered by its rivals. Thanks to the extensibility of the latest version of IE, users of the Microsoft browser can now pimp their software to add new features and customization.

Mouse gestures were one of the innovative features introduced by Opera a few years ago, allowing its users to steer the web using nothing but a few flicks of their wrist. Thanks to the Mouse Gestures plug-in for IE, you can now execute commonly-performed tasks by drawing a simple symbol on the screen. The application includes functions such as user-defined actions and mouse trails, plus support for tabbed browsing. Once you’ve tried it you’ll probably wonder why on Earth you bothered wading through menus and toolbars for so long. You never know, if developers keep producing IE plug-ins as cool as this one, we might see a few Firefox users welcoming that big ‘e’ back to their desktop.

One of the most outstanding features in Firefox is its built-in search engine from which you can conveniently search many websites, depending on how you configure it. Yes, there's more to this search tool than just asking Google. Try clicking on the "G" logo beside the input field and you'll see quite a complete search engine menu to choose from: Yahoo!, Amazon, Answers... Just select any of them and enter your keywords to search that site right away.

If this list is not enough, you can always add new search engines to it. Click on the logo again and select "Manage Search Engines" from the context menu. Firefox will display a window with all the search engines available in your browser, which you can arrange them in any order you like. Click on the "Get more search engines" option and you'll be taken to the Mozilla Add-ons site to download new engines. Also, if you happen to visit a website that has developed its own search plug-in for Firefox, the search bar logo will blink and the new search engine will be then automatically added to the list.

But what if your favorite website is not featured in this search engine menu, nor on the Mozilla site? Well, we still have an ace up our sleeve and it's called OpenSearchFox. This neat extension allows you to create custom search engines from virtually any website, just by right-clicking on its search field and selecting "Add OpenSearch plugin". You'll be able to have search engines just about for anything!

Musestorm is an exciting company working in the fields of dynamic web data, like RSS feeds, web APIs and widgets. It helps developers by aggregating data and creating solid data-driven AJAX applications. Through its MuseStorm analytics service it also provides publishers statistics to analyze the impact of their widgets. Musestorm recently launched a new product, the Widget Syndication Service allowing users to very easily create and distribute widgets to websites, blogs, social networks and mobile phones. We asked Yishay Schwerd, its VP R&D and co-founder, a few questions about Musestorm.

Can you give us an idea of your background and what got you into widgets? Our background is actually from Mobile related companies and technologies. We actually started with the developer SDK – allowing developers to easily access data on the Web. We developed the ability to aggregate and cache data, reformat data (for AJAX, Flash and JSON apps originally) and distribute the data, to applications. Later we understood that the same technology can be easily used to produce widgets and in June 2006 we've launched "Widget Central".

Can you explain the technology behind Musestorm? The technology behind the MuseStorm service enables aggregation and caching of XML based data, re-formatting of data into new formats (e.g. web widgets, desktop widgets), distribution of reformatted data and tracking and analysis of distribution. MuseStorm uses mostly open-source software such as Linux, mySQL, and Java. Our servers are Java based.

Tabs are the greatest invention ever - okay, only after the wheel. Firefox knows this and offers tabbed web browsing for a more comfortable web experience. It just feels so good to be able to open a dozen websites in one single window, without cluttering up your taskbar!

Anyway, did you know you can improve the way Firefox handles tabs? The only thing you need is to install Tab Mix Plus. This extension adds many handy functionalities to Firefox tabs, allowing you to manage them in a more convenient way.

You can decide whether to open links in a new tab or a new window depending on their origin, assign tab actions to mouse clicks, choose which options should appear in tab context menu or even customize tab appearance to distinguish them more clearly. Tab Mix Plus also remembers sessions, something that you will be extremely grateful for in case your browser ever crashes.

If you thought that Firefox was good, just install this extension and see how it can get even better.

If the advent of Widgets (and now, Gadgets for Vista) has proven anything, it is that the customization and extensibility of popular applications represent a huge market: everyone seems to demand a slightly different experience from these ubiquitous, monolithic programs and operating systems. IE, the world's most popular web browser, has long been a base onto which toolbars, mods and skins have been tacked but Microsoft only seems to have embraced this market with the launch of its much-improved version 7.

The cunningly titled 'ieaddons.com' serves as a dedicated home for Internet Explorer add ons, from where users can download, review and purchase extensions for their browser (it's worth noting that many of the extensions here are for sale, in stark contrast to Mozilla's offering). Among our favourites are the astoundingly good FoxyTunes - which allows you to control most desktop media players from your browser window and the essential Google Toolbar which adds a lot of functionality to your IE.

While there are many more free extensions available for Mozilla browsers (such as Firefox), it's worth remembering that many of them are also available for Internet Explorer, where they'll work just as well. As something of an added bonus: Microsoft are offering a cash prize and trip to Mix07 in Las Vegas to the developer who creates the best IE add on before February 9th! Rumour has it that the Pussycat Dolls might be in attendance.

Without doubt, Photoshop is the greatest image editor to grace the screen and on the surface appears to contain everything you need to create web sites, enhance photos and produce stunning graphic designs. However, the power of Adobe’s flagship app can be boosted even further by installing plug-ins that add extra functionality. It’s this extensibility that has helped to make the program so popular, and some of today’s add-ons are so advanced that they match up to the best stand-alone graphics software.

We’ve rounded up the most popular Photoshop plug-ins on Softonic to bring you an essential list of the tools you need to improve your graphical creations and save you time to boot. If you have a favorite plug-in that you couldn’t survive without then we’d love to hear from you.

1. Genuine Fractals: Increase image sizes without reducing quality

2. AKVIS Chameleon: Create image collages without any fuss

3. FocusFixer: Sharpen even the most blurred images

4. Neat Image: Reduce visible noise in digital photos

5. Background Remover: Extract an object within an image

6. PhotoZoom Professional: Enlarge digital images without distortion

7. PTLens: Correct lens pincushion/barrel distortion, chromatic aberration, and vignetting

8. ColourWorks: Modify colour values within photographs to create original effects

9. Topaz DeJPEG Plug-in: Eliminate imperfections caused by JPEG compression

10. Flood: Add realistic 3D effects to your images