Backup is a lot like flossing: no matter how frequently you do it, some expert is going to say you should be doing it better or more often. That's why HP's SimpleSave is among the easiest back-up drives to use.

Feeling the need for a second screen? This little gadget allows you to add a second screen to your computer over USB rather than D-SUB or DVI

The Xerox Phaser 3125N isn’t much to look at, with a design not unlike business lasers from the early nineties. Unlike its ancestors, however, it’s only a fraction of the size and significantly more powerful.

The Maxtor Blackarmor has one thing that other USB hard drives don’t - military grade data security in a very stylish package

Solid client security applications, though lack of centralised management puts Kaspersky Small Office Security in a different league.

Not a great performer in testing, but a firmware update that delivers the performance we saw with the TL-WR841ND would make it great value.

An older router missing a couple of key features, but worth considering for a small office equipped with older and slower Wi-Fi and Ethernet equipment.

Plenty of features, but printing and scanning results proved average at best

Interesting design and plenty of features, but it takes an age to produce mediocre results

A complex but powerful tool that’s made simpler by its new Dashboard interface

Excellent support for PDF files, an intuitive user interface and a low price make Readiris the best choice for the majority of people.

A decent compromise between OCR value and features – especially as you can upgrade from the Sprint version.

A worthy update to the most underrated of the Office applications — OneNote is now a must-have.

Behind-the-scenes changes make a huge difference, even if the interface is inconsistent.

A few usability niggles don’t detract too much from this great-value OCR package.

Like a project management tool for your brain.

PVX is designed as an office application but could as easily appeal to people wanting to make personal video calls.

Don't confuse Microsoft Works with a slimmed-down version of Office, because Works is for the home productivity market.

The Ultimate Reference Suite is the latest digital edition of the Britannica. Consisting of three encyclopaedias, numerous dictionaries, thesauri, timelines and even an atlas, it's just as exhaustive as its predecessors, covering mountains of topics in impressive detail.

ViaVoice Web is a voice recognition package designed especially for Internet users. It links into email programs, both Netscape and Microsoft Web browsers, chat programs and includes special Web oriented jargon to make it much easier to take voice recognition onto the Internet.