HyperNet4 for Windows

The publishers of this browser promote it as a free personal search engine and Internet research tool, but it turns out to be a trial version with limited results that aren't very impressive or useful.

Don't let HyperNet Browser's seemingly plain user interface fool you; it's completely unintuitive. The window is split into search and scan sections, although it seems odd that search comes first, since the program will only search the pages in its database. There seem to be more buttons than a user would need for the program's operation, and it isn't clear how they all work together. The Help menu explains the basics of using the program, but it's a bit sparse on why. As directed, we entered a URL to scan and the same link appeared as promised. The program wasn't always successful grabbing other links, so often you'd just get the primary URL you entered and nothing else. Aside from using the simplistic search engine, which lacks any filters, the other features to save pages or sites to a database or use the poorly explained e-mail tool are disabled in this "free" version. A message notes you'll have to purchase an activation key to do anything else but download links. Unlike most programs to save Web content offline, this one doesn't come with its own browser.

HyperNet Browser is presented as freeware, but with the single feature available in this version, the program is useless. It's faster to simply use your browser's search tool. Save your system resources and skip this program's meager feature set.

• Updated scan system