A recent report by the AV-Test Institute, found that 66 percent of affected Windows systems are victims of malware that took advantage of exploits found in Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash, and Java.

In a ten plus year study AV-Test uncovered that one exploit for Adobe Reader alone had nearly 37,000 recorded variants that exploited user machines with high levels of precision; users with outdated or known versions of susceptibility stood no virtual chance without some form of protection software.

The biggest offender? Java -- with a whopping 82,000 attacks spread across different versions, making it one of the most vulnerable magnets for exploit.

Though the race to secure Java remains ongoing, users can at least take better precautions to protect themselves from PDF exploits by using the following alternatives to Adobe Reader:

1. PDF-XChange Viewer

PDF-XChange Viewer is a free, lightweight alternative to Adobe Reader that lets you modify and annotate PDF files. It also comes with a built-in PDF Converter.

2. Sumatra PDF

Cannonball for iPad pulls the junk mail out of your inbox but keeps it grouped for easy viewing.

Think about how you process your daily snail mail. If you're anything like me, you separate the important items -- bills, letters, cards, and so on -- into one pile and the fliers, catalogs, magazines, and other stuff into another.

Free iOS app Cannonball applies that same concept to managing e-mail on your iPad, automatically separating the wheat messages from the chaff messages and presenting them in a visually appealing format. It also incorporates a few handy elements from popular e-mail client Mailbox.

The app supports Gmail, iCloud, Outlook.com, and Yahoo, and offers a unified inbox for users with multiple accounts. To add accounts from any of these services, you simply enter your e-mail address and password. In short order it starts downloading and dividing messages, listing the important stuff on the left in a fairly traditional scrolling inbox. Your newsletters, promotional mail, and the like appear on the right, but Cannonball cleverly employs thumbnail previews for these so you get ... [Read more]

The Mint app for Windows Phone

Following in the footsteps of Vine and Instagram, another well-liked Android and iOS app has made the leap to Windows Phone. This time it's Mint, which makes its debut on both Window Phone 8 and Windows 8 today.

If you're not familiar, Mint is an online service that pulls in transaction data from your bank accounts, credit cards, and loans to help you keep track of your spending and create financial goals, such as paying down debt or saving for a new home.

Related stories

• Instagram, Waze land on Windows Phone
• Flipboard, Instagram coming to Windows Phone (finally)
• Flipboard releases app for Windows 8.1

The Windows Phone... [Read more]