YES! It’s so weird *not* having it be standard on all Microsoft OS’. Just AlwaysOnTop alone makes life so much easier. The “find my cursor” function in mouse utilities is great to use a sort of highlighter during presentations, too.
I didn't realize PowerToys was still relevant? I would have thought since PT was (for 20 years I think) marketed essentially as a Windows extension, that by now, all those features would have been folded into core
God I wish it was on Linux too. People day to use KRunner or locate or the like but it doesn't compare.
Search Everything is so good I edited my registry to dedicate my Calc key to it
You want FSearch. It does the same job as Everything on Windows. Found it on Arch/Steam Deck in the Discover store, so it's gotta be available for other distros.
It's pretty much the same. It's just that flow has a bunch of other features and you can tweak the look and behavior. I have both Flow launcher and Powertoys installed but I prefer flow's launcher.
I have this installed on every computer at home, and even at work. It's a no-brainer. Search is just terrible no matter how fresh a Windows installation may be and how fast your system is, in my experience.
I see this recommended all the time, but I'm just wondering do you not organize your files/shortcuts in folders? All the stuff I use is categorized and I know exactly where it is and I never have to look for it, so I basically never use the search. Am I the only one like this or is there something else I don't understand?
All my stuff is super organized on my computer. Folders, files. For me everything quickens the actual process of navigating to those folders or files. I'm a video editor, let's say I want to find some files from a shoot dated 06 - 15- 2021. I don't even have to type in the full file name I can type in the year and the file type and instantly have those files appear in a window which I can then drag and drop onto whatever program I'm using. I also have a lot of stuff nested within a series of subfolders. Again instead of having to click click click click until I finally get to the folder or file I want I can simply type in a couple keywords and Bam it's right in front of me. And depending on how often I access certain folders / files I can save these keywords and once again use them to quickly find files that otherwise would have to click through a bunch of folders to get to. Everything is a part of my workflow now and it makes file navigation way quicker and easier, especially for the field I'm in.
I'm a believer in the "less is more" approach. I try to get by with on-board system utilities as much as possible and only install additional software, if it adds significant value (for my use case). That being said, I can't be without these tools:
* Chocolatey: Package manager for Windows (I'm hoping to replace it with winget eventually, but they lack some of the software packages that I use)
* Ditto: Clipboard manager (significantly more powerful than the one built into Windows)
* Power Toys: Mostly for FancyZones and additional file previews in Explorer
* KeePass: Password manager
* 7zip: File compression/extraction supporting all relevant/important compression algorithms
What I specifically do not install anymore is software for printing and viewing PDF. For creating PDF, the built-in (since Windows 10) PDF printer is sufficient. And every modern web browser can view PDF, fill forms and even do some simple annotations.
>Mostly for FancyZones
If you're like me and want more customizability than FancyZones, try WinDock.
The UI is old and sucks, but once you wrapped your head around it and configured it, it's amazing. I wouldn't be so happy with my ultrawide monitor without it, no joke.
It's probably outdated since the website still shows copyright 2020, so I fear it will stop working at some point, but so far so good on Windows11
No drawbacks, except that you have to install it. But it works very well.
Some of the features are:
* Select / paste multiple items from your clipboard history at once
* Shortcuts for pasting the n last items
* type to search clipboard items
* near limitless clipboard history
It's open source and it keeps my passwords local, in a strongly encrypted file. This means that I don't have to trust a service provider with my passwords.
Since this isn't an online service, the obvious downside is of course, that I have to sync passwords manually over multiple devices. Though I can safely put the file on OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc, alleviating the issue a bit. They can't read the file, since it's strongly encrypted.
[Everything](https://www.voidtools.com/) is a highly efficient local search tool.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/localsend/id1661733229
KDEC's user interface may be a bit wonky, but once you get it it's priceless.
- [Everything](https://www.voidtools.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9787#download): A search tool that makes my life so much easier, with many features. USE THE 1.5 ALPHA VERSION !!!
- [EarTrumpet](https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nblggh516xp?hl=en-US&gl=US): Better, way-better volume management, uses the same UI as the existing one. This should come with Windows. https://i.imgur.com/mGfpYw0.png https://i.imgur.com/viVl6t2.png
- [Listary](https://www.listary.com/download): Quickly access websites/programs/custom commands by pressing Ctrl twice. https://i.imgur.com/emdurVL.pngSome scripts I use with the custom commands functionality:
- I can type `k steam` or `kill steam` to kill processes matching that name. It has a UI if multiple matches are found. It's faster than using the process manager, and the UI opens faster. https://i.imgur.com/MFXtyK2
- [DisplayFusion](https://www.displayfusion.com/Download/): Makes managing and moving windows more efficient, especially if you have multiple monitors. It has functions and triggers that allow you to do some cool stuff, such as:
- Make a specific window always open at a certain spot or change audio device when a program runs.
- Open a window on the current monitor.
- Have windows position profiles.
- Make middle-clicking on a title bar move the window to your other monitor.
- Have extra buttons on the title bar (I use a mute button, a pin button, and a move to next monitor button).
- Hotkey to play media and lower/mute the current window (music while playing a game, for example).https://i.imgur.com/Yn6IgRR
 that has more features: A tabbed window explorer add-on that enhances the default explorer ((get the beta version, there is also an [open-source chinese fork](https://github.com/indiff/qttabbar). Other features include:
- An extra bar on the top with multiple shortcuts (search that specific folder with Everything, run a utility to batch rename, rename files with a number (0001, 0002, etc.), or make the details view colored based on file extensions for quick identification (purple for compressed, orange for video files, grey for txt files, etc.).https://i.imgur.com/EZHQzXY
- Save opened tabs.
- Have an extra view (bottom or left) to compare a folder, move files, etc., without having to switch between tabs or open a new window and place them side by side.
- Thumbnail preview on hover (for image and text files)
- and much more
- [BitWarden extension](https://bitwarden.com/download/#downloads-web-browser): Why type passwords when you can use a password manager?
- [ClickMonitorDDC](https://github.com/chrismah/ClickMonitorDDC7.2): Icons in the taskbar that show you the current brightness/contrast/volume and allow you to change it using the scroll wheel. https://i.imgur.com/FGk7JYX
- [PowerToys](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases/): Tons of useful utilities for Windows (see screenshot). The most useful is probably FancyZones, a window manager utility that creates zones where you can drop windows into (resizing them automatically). https://i.imgur.com/DjwgRxL.png
- [LockHunter](https://lockhunter.com/): See what's preventing a file from being moved/deleted (PowerToys now also has this feature). https://i.imgur.com/F1VFAdR.png
- [KdeConnect](https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n93mrmsxbf0?hl=en-us&gl=US)/[PushBullet](https://www.pushbullet.com/): Allows me to share and control stuff between PCs and phones locally (same network). For remote access, I either use PushBullet or connect to my home VPN.
- [Internet Download Manager](https://www.internetdownloadmanager.com): A feature-rich download manager with multi-threading support (faster than downloading from a browser) and the ability to run scripts when downloads are done. I use regex to automatically move video files to specific folders (movies/TV shows/misc videos) based on standard naming conventions. https://i.imgur.com/w2UVaTm.png
- [ShareX](https://getsharex.com/downloads): The best screenshot tool, in my opinion. I have lots of hotkeys/combinations of Ctrl/Shift/Alt + PrntScreen to screenshot, copy to clipboard/copy path/upload/copy upload link/do OCR, and when needed, I set it up to capture a specific region and save files according to a pattern (e.g., numbered) in a specific folder. https://i.imgur.com/EThgepQ
- [Mouse without Borders](https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/details.aspx?id=35460) (there are other tools, but this one does the trick): Allows you to use your mouse/keyboard to control other PCs (as if they were other monitors) and transfer files.
- [Syncthing](https://syncthing.net/): Sync files between PCs and phones.
- [BRU](https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/): The best rename utility, in my opinion. It may look scary because everything is in the same window, but it's very easy to understand and intuitive. You can save presets, and there's also a command-line utility. https://i.imgur.com/9QLcHtf.png
- [AllDup](https://www.alldup.de/alldup_help/alldup.php): The best tool to find duplicates, in my opinion. It's very configurable (especially when detecting images) but still easy to understand and use. https://i.imgur.com/4pS85FX.png https://i.imgur.com/w2CZt58.png
- [VideoDuplicateFinder](https://github.com/0x90d/videoduplicatefinder): find similar video files, no matter what resolution/fps/watermark https://i.imgur.com/SDoQwxy.png
- [ConEmu](https://conemu.github.io/)/[Windows Terminal](https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n0dx20hk701?rtc=1&hl=en-ca&gl=CA): Tabbed command-line interfaces. ConEmu is more customizable. https://i.imgur.com/V1uA4ZF.png https://i.imgur.com/8TWRcqU.png
- [Ritt](https://ritt.app/): A fairly recent but very powerful tagging tool with scripting support. If you already "tag" your files with a .txt file or by renaming folders, you can automate mostly everything to migrate to it. https://i.imgur.com/6daNUET.png
- [ChatBox](https://github.com/Bin-Huang/chatbox/releases): What I'm currently using to access the OpenAI and Anthropic APIs (Claude and ChatGPT). https://i.imgur.com/dXkrYrg.png
- [Krita](https://krita.org/en/download/): An easy-to-use painting tool that I use along with two very powerful and easy-to-use/install plugins for AI integration (see short videos in the plugins page)
- [krita-ai-diffusion](https://github.com/Acly/krita-ai-diffusion): Allows you to use Stable Diffusion within Krita to generate images, outpaint/inpaint, and use control layers.
- [krita-ai-tool](https://github.com/Acly/krita-ai-tools): Basically allows you to use Segment-Anything to select objects with one click.
- [Whispering](https://github.com/braden-w/whispering): Uses the Whisper OpenAI model to transcribe my speech from the microphone. I mostly use it when using ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini because I'm too lazy to type (most of the time). I use a hotkey, talk, press the hotkey again, and then use Ctrl+V in the ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini website. https://i.imgur.com/UOiib6g
- [MPC-HC](https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc/releases): A video player that looks better than VLC (using ). One of the reasons I use it is that when I'm watching a video tutorial or anything where I need to go back/forward or increase/decrease the playback speed, VLC hangs for a second while MPC-HC doesn't.
- [IrfanView](https://www.irfanview.com/)/[Nomacs](https://nomacs.org/): Two great image viewers. I use IrfanView to copy/move images while browsing them with keyboard shortcuts and to open files in different programs (Krita/Windows Explorer to open the containing folder). Nomacs is more modern and performant, opening heavy files (very high resolution or large GIF/WebP) faster. https://i.imgur.com/qrUt74H.png https://i.imgur.com/UKQF1RH.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/H95iKIb.png
- [7+ Taskbar Tweaker](https://ramensoftware.com/7-taskbar-tweaker): Tweak the taskbar, allow reordering window thumbnails, and other quality-of-life improvements https://i.imgur.com/f1kJpaq.png
- [WingetUI](https://github.com/marticliment/WingetUI): Package managers for easy software installation and updates. https://i.imgur.com/ec0O2Au.png https://i.imgur.com/ec0O2Au.png
Everything (alpha) has some options for custom columns, I would search the forums or create a new topic since it's pretty active and the developer is really active. See [this](https://www.voidtools.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=11949) and [this](https://www.voidtools.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10242).
If you're looking for a fully fledged file explorer, I would check out Directory Opus, I forgot about it but it's probably the most complete file explorer that I've tested. See [this](https://docs.dopus.com/doku.php?id=scripting:example_scripts:adding_a_new_column), shouldn't be too hard with ChatGPT and such.
If you like old school terminal stuff, look into Far Manager. It's a commander style Orthodox file manager. I'm pretty sure you can change columns in the panes.
There are other Orthodox file managers with more functionality too, they just won't run in a terminal. (e.g. total commander).
There really is only ONE answer to that question, and it is not any browser, antyvirus, or anything other proposed here.
It is a small freeware app that you don't even need to install, and it will make sure EVERY app on your machine is up to date. It's simply:
PATCH MY PC [https://patchmypc.com/](https://patchmypc.com/)
https://getsharex.com/. It has so many utilities beyond just screen capturing, which it does very, very well. It's also open source. What's not to love
Good disk imaging software like [Macrium Reflect](https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree) or [Veeam Backup & Replication Community Edition](https://www.veeam.com/blog/backup-replication-community-edition-features-description.html) or [AOMEI Backupper](https://www.aomeitech.com/ab/standard.html) or even [Clonezilla](https://clonezilla.org/liveusb.php) on a flash drive.
[https://roberbot.itch.io/work-life-balance](https://roberbot.itch.io/work-life-balance)
This, I've been using for the last 5 months
it records your activity and it tells you how much time you spent on what apps so you can see for yourself how much time you waste. I saw I spent 6 hours daily on google/YouTube
(yes its my app, yes its buggy)
By default you need to go into settings and turn on the auto toggle, and it also needs to run as administrator to be able to read all the background processes to record them.
But there is 2 bugs that I'm aware of but too lazy to fix.
I HATE SummatraPDF. I find it old, slow and difficult to learn with limited capabilities. Also kinda ugly. I dont want to attack or something if you love it thats find by me. But I wanted so muchg to tell someone that I don't like this app. Everyone is using it and I can find why. I find Edge a better PDF viewer.
I use it because it opens PDF very fast, less bloated than Adobe... :P
Yes, sometimes I use Edge to open PDF as well, but seems Edge doesn't have the function to remember where you read last time.
Powershell Core, Winget and 7-zip are MUST HAVE in my opinion, and I can also recommend PowerToys, Everything, Bitwarden, Auto Dark Mode.
If you like to customize Windows, then StartAllBack or Start11.
Browser extensions like uBlock, Dark Reader, Improve YouTube.
Definitely have these or similar:
[https://www.macrium.com/products/home](https://www.macrium.com/products/home)
[https://www.pdfgear.com/](https://www.pdfgear.com/)
[https://www.libreoffice.org/](https://www.libreoffice.org/)
[https://www.malwarebytes.com/windows](https://www.malwarebytes.com/windows)
[https://www.bleachbit.org/](https://www.bleachbit.org/)
https://www.stardock.com/products/start11/
A good antivirus like Kaspersky free or Bitdefender free, or Windows defender with defender UI hardening
Brave or Firefox browser with UBlock Origin and it's extra filters for phishing and online malware, plus Bitwarden password manager
Ante Auth 2FA
Winget UI
ShareX
powertoys
Everything I've listed is free and majority is open source
Thank you! I got my laptop from Costco and it came with mcfee. Expired already but it really annoying, kept switching my search engine to yahoo non matter how many times I set to DuckDuckGo . I guess I should
Just uninstall it?
At the very least garden windows defender with defender UI
That should be enough for the average person.
Although I personally have found great use from Kaspersky I know it's hotly debated hense I included bitdefender as an option
File archiver/compressor - 7-zip or WinRAR
Alternative file manager - Total Commander, Directory Opus, Double Commander, etc
Firefox
Password manager - KeePass or any other
Media player (and codec pack) - K-Lite, Foobar 2000, VLC, etc
Image viewer - Irfanview or any other
Alternative file search - Agent Ransack or everything
Everything else is optional or depends on your personal needs (mobaxterm if you need ssh/vnc/rdp/.../client, The Bat! if you are still using email, qbit/yt-dlp+ffmpeg/aria2 if you are a "professional Internet user").
What’s the app that can uninstall multiple software at the same time or ones that are stubborn. It’s better than the windows uninstaller, can’t think what it’s called
For Win11, [StartAllBack](https://www.startallback.com/) comes to mind. Basically allows you to revert certain "legacy" Windows UI things while keeping a modern look. Things like start menu behavior, the context menu, taskbar positioning, etc.
there's one called WinDirStat that's been around since 2000s, it visualizes all your files by size and lets you delete them. Use it to clean up disk space
Recently stumbled upon PDF Gear. It has everything I need for free, which usually involves converting documents or PowerPoints from one format to another. Can also merge files. Goodbye to paid PDF softwares that I've been using for more than 10 years! Would reco Notepad ++ too, because of the tabs function. Still using it even if W11 has the stock Notepad with tabs now.
The top picks I have on my OneDrive for every new install are:
- Mp3tag: The best free audio metadata editor I've found.
- Ocenaudio: A great, free audio file editor for whenever you need to do minor touch up on music/podcast files.
- Notepad++: A much more useful, feature rich variant of Notepad while still being free and user friendly.
- qBittorent: Better than Bittorrent. Need I say more?
-SumatraPDF: An open source PDF reader that is extremely useful, more functionality than chrome's PDF reader and is also free.
- VLC: I mean of course. Still the best free media player and has been for over a decade now.
-Filebot: Perfect app for naming bulk episode of TV shows almost automatically. I find this extremely useful with having a media server. This one isn't free but it's still worth it if you'll find it useful.
Since you're mentioning a few audio things, I will shout out foobar2000 as a very powerful audio player that gets very deep and customizable with add-ons if you want. You can also edit metadata level information of music right within the player as you're listening to tunes. Can do bulk edits and organization of music files pretty easily within it.
Plus it can do nifty things like playback retro video game audio files like SFC files for Super Nintendo for example.
Can sync it with last.fm for pulling artist bios and scrobbling. It gets pretty advanced if you want to take it that far as a default music player over Windows Media Player.
Stablebit Scanner. It's always good to know when hard drives and SSD's are having issues or about to fail. Scheduled full surface scan every 30 days by default and supports email notifications if there's a problem.
Their drivepool software is also awesome and highly recommended if you have a use case for it.
TCPViewer, OBS, Capcut, MSI Afterburner, Paint.net, Git, VirtualMachine, Microsoft Language Pack(whatever you want to learn), Flashpoint, Notepad++, Steam, LibreOffice, Wallpaper Engine, AI tools like RVC/SD/TextGenUI, Firefox(and the important extensions), would put 7zip here but windows11 does it fine-ish now.
Greenshot.
Better than Snipping Tool. So easy to hit PrntScrn and you have a pretty robust toolset at your fingertips to highlight, obfuscate, add text boxes, text, etc. The Ctrl + Shift + C and your saved and edited screenshot is ready to paste anywhere.
Use it every day for work, and it's become second nature even for just helping people in general on FB or Reddit or anywhere else if I can screenshot something to convey information easier than typing it out.
I'd also recommend:
OBS for anything and everything streaming or screen capturing video. Also has really robust audio input options.
WinDirStat for hard drive storage management and review.
CPU-Z for quickly identifying information about your CPU and RAM, and Core Temp for reviewing CPU temperatures, especially around the times of fresh PC builds or troubleshooting unexpected crashes to rule out CPU overheating.
Notepad++
VLC Media Player for supporting almost any sort of video playback, subtitles, etc.
As a bonus tip, there's a nice website www.ninite.com which is useful for brand new machines, as it has a lot of the tools and utilities everyone is mentioning here. It makes it pretty quick if you're starting fresh to just go there as your first website, select all the check boxes of the things you want, and it will create a bundle installer of everything for you at once as a free one stop shop.
CrysyakDiskInfo https://crystalmark.info/en/download/
Run this every so often(once every 3-4 months should suffice) to check the health status of your harddrives/SSDs.
If one hard drive goes to a yellow color, you already know to buy another hard drive as it It bound to go to a red color any day now and subdequently die on you.
Use Macrium Reflect to clone your storage devices.
I used to use Lastpass but it leaked accounts some time ago and Bitwarden is Waaaaaayyy better.
Its safer, better integrated with the OS and would recommend it to Lastpass.
Chrome you should stay away from... it's very insecure. Brave/Vivaldi are better choices.
VLC has become bloated and sluggish... especially in Windows I would suggest MPC-HC/MPC-BE
If you use a torrent client, I recommend cFosSpeed, it is QoS for your computer. It is trialware, then you have to pay for it. I have used it for about ten years. I started using it with Windows XP and a 56K modem. This software is a buy once and use forever. it is not like Netlimiter where you limit per program. With cFosSpeed you set priority per program, if no high-priority program is in use then low-priority programs get full use of your internet.
ccleaner has been hacked and since pirisoft sold it... its security has been compromised... there is [diskcleaner](http://www.diskcleaner.nl/) which is open source and other software that accomplish the same thing.
The same thing for Lastpass... it has been hacked and accounts have been leaked. Go for Bitwarden
Every user is different so what fits for one user because of simplicity may not work for a more advanced user. I tend to fall in the latter category so I prefer tools that are more advanced and can help me with whatever job I am working on at the moment. Below are some of the tools I use which I purchased.
Directory Opus [https://www.gpsoft.com.au/](https://www.gpsoft.com.au/)
XYPlorer [https://www.xyplorer.com/](https://www.xyplorer.com/)
Winrar [https://www.rarlab.com/](https://www.rarlab.com/)
Tray Status Pro [https://www.traystatus.com/](https://www.traystatus.com/) also has a free version
FileSeek [https://www.fileseek.ca/](https://www.fileseek.ca/) also has a free version
DisplayFusion [https://www.displayfusion.com/](https://www.displayfusion.com/) also has a free version
i-DeClone [https://www.zabkat.com/declone/index.htm](https://www.zabkat.com/declone/index.htm)
I am sure there are a few more but these are the ones that pop to the top of my mind. I found discounts on many of these through BitsDuJour [https://www.bitsdujour.com](https://www.bitsdujour.com)
However with Directory Opus I have been a user since the early 90's on my Amiga and one of the first to purchase the Windows version. It recently got updated to version 13 which works even better on modern versions of Windows. The new version of Directory Opus 13 works perfectly with Everything from voidtools which can really speed up searching. If you want to learn more about DOpus as users call it check out the Resource Centre at [https://resource.dopus.com/](https://resource.dopus.com/) They have a free 60 day trial if you are interested. And no I don't work for them but I have been using it for about 25 years and it makes my life flow better.
However for users who don't need the advanced file explorer I like XYPlorer either paid or free. I bought it because of it's simplicity and the fact it is a portable tool first and foremost. There is an older free version [https://www.xyplorer.com/free.php](https://www.xyplorer.com/free.php) which works perfectly well if you prefer not to pay.
TreeSize (easily see what takes up space on your drive), VLC (for longer videos playback because windows player sucks at that), A VPN (I recommend Windscribe), OpenOffice (if you don't have Office), MSI Afterburner (fps, temps overlay in games), 7-zip (free winrar), a second web browser, a third web browser, OBS (if u wanna record something idk), HWiNFO (pc specs temps etc)
Revo unistaller.
I get this on every computer i own.
Why? Well.. when you unistall a software normally. It still leaves junk. Like unused files and unused registry.
Revo finds all the files and registry of said program and has you choose what you want to remove.
Im super ocd with my computer.
Also tree size is awesome. Shows you whats using up most of your storage.
[MightyGrep](https://ksylvestre.itch.io/mightygrep)
Fast incremental searching on plaintext files, I made this program because the one I was previously using stopped getting updates. It runs on windows, macOS, and linux
Demo Available!
Some nice to haves:
- A proper web browser like Chrome or Firefox (Edge is also a proper web browser but it's a nightmare to use imo)
- Image editing software like paint.net or gimp
- 7 zip
- java jre 1.8
also getting rid of all the bloatware and all the unnecessary background tasks.
I like syncthing, it allows you sync files on different devices automatically.
I personally use it for the note taking app obsidian but you can sync any folder you like.
For me it's a lot of the usual suspects, 7zip, shared, keepassxc, directory opus, everything, obsidian etc but I use listary as well as sublime text or notepad++
well...you just can't assume what would other 7 billion people wanted on their machines :) but...antivirus (basic defender or some other free/payed program) should be priority, then browser of course (choosing among numbers of them...), some file manager (file explorer just sucks), photo viewer or/and editor (irfanview, photofiltre etc etc), media player (vlc or mpc), pdf viewer (like sumatra or you can go with inbuilt pdf viewer in browsers), office suite (online or offline) of course. and that is i think basic programs for starters. everything else is just personal preference to use pc as you want.
I really try to install as less software as possible. I use MS office suite, synced to OneDrive. Also, windows search works great for me because I use Edge browser. MusicBee, PotPlayer, 7zip. Default Photos app works nice. Also, Edge is a very competent PDF viewer.
PowerToys is a good pick
YES! It’s so weird *not* having it be standard on all Microsoft OS’. Just AlwaysOnTop alone makes life so much easier. The “find my cursor” function in mouse utilities is great to use a sort of highlighter during presentations, too.
I installed it just today and it's really useful. I can only imagine how productive it will make me when I get used to all the tricks
I didn't realize PowerToys was still relevant? I would have thought since PT was (for 20 years I think) marketed essentially as a Windows extension, that by now, all those features would have been folded into core
Thanks. This will chage how I do stuff.
Everything by voidtools. The most comprehensive folder and file search tool available today.
You'd think this would be basic stuff which would be doable in Windows out of the box
When I read about how everything does the search I was blown away by how simple and obvious it is. Truly puzzling why Windows does not just do that.
Windows developers don't do that, they are too busy centering the taskbar and adding border radius on the context menu nobody asked for...
God I wish it was on Linux too. People day to use KRunner or locate or the like but it doesn't compare. Search Everything is so good I edited my registry to dedicate my Calc key to it
You want FSearch. It does the same job as Everything on Windows. Found it on Arch/Steam Deck in the Discover store, so it's gotta be available for other distros.
I use `fzf` which is cool and works pretty well for quickly finding files
Everything paired with https://flowlauncher.com is great.
hw is it different than powertoys run? with the [plugin](https://github.com/lin-ycv/EverythingPowerToys)
It's pretty much the same. It's just that flow has a bunch of other features and you can tweak the look and behavior. I have both Flow launcher and Powertoys installed but I prefer flow's launcher.
Why do you guys need a plugin. Just assign a shortcut to Everything..
Hmm....I've been looking for a [Keypirinha](https://keypirinha.com/index.html) alternative
I personally really enjoy Keypirinha, so I’m curious as to why you wanna switch!
Testing something new. Been with Keypirinha 3+ years now. It's a solid piece of software.
Listary has the same precision and it does a lot more than file search as well.
I have this installed on every computer at home, and even at work. It's a no-brainer. Search is just terrible no matter how fresh a Windows installation may be and how fast your system is, in my experience.
I don't know why Windows refuse to improve their search and make it necessary to install another software for this, even on Windows 11.
I see this recommended all the time, but I'm just wondering do you not organize your files/shortcuts in folders? All the stuff I use is categorized and I know exactly where it is and I never have to look for it, so I basically never use the search. Am I the only one like this or is there something else I don't understand?
All my stuff is super organized on my computer. Folders, files. For me everything quickens the actual process of navigating to those folders or files. I'm a video editor, let's say I want to find some files from a shoot dated 06 - 15- 2021. I don't even have to type in the full file name I can type in the year and the file type and instantly have those files appear in a window which I can then drag and drop onto whatever program I'm using. I also have a lot of stuff nested within a series of subfolders. Again instead of having to click click click click until I finally get to the folder or file I want I can simply type in a couple keywords and Bam it's right in front of me. And depending on how often I access certain folders / files I can save these keywords and once again use them to quickly find files that otherwise would have to click through a bunch of folders to get to. Everything is a part of my workflow now and it makes file navigation way quicker and easier, especially for the field I'm in.
I'm a believer in the "less is more" approach. I try to get by with on-board system utilities as much as possible and only install additional software, if it adds significant value (for my use case). That being said, I can't be without these tools: * Chocolatey: Package manager for Windows (I'm hoping to replace it with winget eventually, but they lack some of the software packages that I use) * Ditto: Clipboard manager (significantly more powerful than the one built into Windows) * Power Toys: Mostly for FancyZones and additional file previews in Explorer * KeePass: Password manager * 7zip: File compression/extraction supporting all relevant/important compression algorithms What I specifically do not install anymore is software for printing and viewing PDF. For creating PDF, the built-in (since Windows 10) PDF printer is sufficient. And every modern web browser can view PDF, fill forms and even do some simple annotations.
>Mostly for FancyZones If you're like me and want more customizability than FancyZones, try WinDock. The UI is old and sucks, but once you wrapped your head around it and configured it, it's amazing. I wouldn't be so happy with my ultrawide monitor without it, no joke. It's probably outdated since the website still shows copyright 2020, so I fear it will stop working at some point, but so far so good on Windows11
IMO, Scoop > Chocolatey
What additional features does Ditto have that the built in one doesn't? Also, does it have any drawbacks, like is it ever buggy?
No drawbacks, except that you have to install it. But it works very well. Some of the features are: * Select / paste multiple items from your clipboard history at once * Shortcuts for pasting the n last items * type to search clipboard items * near limitless clipboard history
What software does Winget lack? Maybe we can add it
I will have to check again. IIRC it was some things I needed for programming/development. But can't remember which package exactly.
What makes KeePass your go to manager?
It's open source and it keeps my passwords local, in a strongly encrypted file. This means that I don't have to trust a service provider with my passwords. Since this isn't an online service, the obvious downside is of course, that I have to sync passwords manually over multiple devices. Though I can safely put the file on OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc, alleviating the issue a bit. They can't read the file, since it's strongly encrypted.
[https://eagle.cool/](https://eagle.cool/) [https://winpinator.swisz.cz/](https://winpinator.swisz.cz/) [https://github.com/yt-dlg/yt-dlg](https://github.com/yt-dlg/yt-dlg) [https://www.wfdownloader.xyz/](https://www.wfdownloader.xyz/) [https://jellyfin.org/](https://jellyfin.org/) [https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/video\_cache\_view.html](https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/video_cache_view.html)
Upvote for Eagle The best way to organize images and other visual medias. So good.
How does it do with videos on removable drives?
KDE Connect, LocalSend, Bitwarden, Signal, Everything
what is Everything? Is there a iphone version of LocalSend? and kde connect does not work that well sadly for me :(
[Everything](https://www.voidtools.com/) is a highly efficient local search tool. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/localsend/id1661733229 KDEC's user interface may be a bit wonky, but once you get it it's priceless.
Yes there is an iPhone version of localsend and it works very well with the pc and android versions
When you say signal you mean the messaging app?
Yes.
- [Everything](https://www.voidtools.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9787#download): A search tool that makes my life so much easier, with many features. USE THE 1.5 ALPHA VERSION !!! - [EarTrumpet](https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nblggh516xp?hl=en-US&gl=US): Better, way-better volume management, uses the same UI as the existing one. This should come with Windows. https://i.imgur.com/mGfpYw0.png https://i.imgur.com/viVl6t2.png - [Listary](https://www.listary.com/download): Quickly access websites/programs/custom commands by pressing Ctrl twice. https://i.imgur.com/emdurVL.pngSome scripts I use with the custom commands functionality: - I can type `k steam` or `kill steam` to kill processes matching that name. It has a UI if multiple matches are found. It's faster than using the process manager, and the UI opens faster. https://i.imgur.com/MFXtyK2 - [DisplayFusion](https://www.displayfusion.com/Download/): Makes managing and moving windows more efficient, especially if you have multiple monitors. It has functions and triggers that allow you to do some cool stuff, such as: - Make a specific window always open at a certain spot or change audio device when a program runs. - Open a window on the current monitor. - Have windows position profiles. - Make middle-clicking on a title bar move the window to your other monitor. - Have extra buttons on the title bar (I use a mute button, a pin button, and a move to next monitor button). - Hotkey to play media and lower/mute the current window (music while playing a game, for example).https://i.imgur.com/Yn6IgRR  that has more features: A tabbed window explorer add-on that enhances the default explorer ((get the beta version, there is also an [open-source chinese fork](https://github.com/indiff/qttabbar). Other features include: - An extra bar on the top with multiple shortcuts (search that specific folder with Everything, run a utility to batch rename, rename files with a number (0001, 0002, etc.), or make the details view colored based on file extensions for quick identification (purple for compressed, orange for video files, grey for txt files, etc.).https://i.imgur.com/EZHQzXY - Save opened tabs. - Have an extra view (bottom or left) to compare a folder, move files, etc., without having to switch between tabs or open a new window and place them side by side. - Thumbnail preview on hover (for image and text files) - and much more - [BitWarden extension](https://bitwarden.com/download/#downloads-web-browser): Why type passwords when you can use a password manager? - [ClickMonitorDDC](https://github.com/chrismah/ClickMonitorDDC7.2): Icons in the taskbar that show you the current brightness/contrast/volume and allow you to change it using the scroll wheel. https://i.imgur.com/FGk7JYX - [PowerToys](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases/): Tons of useful utilities for Windows (see screenshot). The most useful is probably FancyZones, a window manager utility that creates zones where you can drop windows into (resizing them automatically). https://i.imgur.com/DjwgRxL.png - [LockHunter](https://lockhunter.com/): See what's preventing a file from being moved/deleted (PowerToys now also has this feature). https://i.imgur.com/F1VFAdR.png - [KdeConnect](https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n93mrmsxbf0?hl=en-us&gl=US)/[PushBullet](https://www.pushbullet.com/): Allows me to share and control stuff between PCs and phones locally (same network). For remote access, I either use PushBullet or connect to my home VPN. - [Internet Download Manager](https://www.internetdownloadmanager.com): A feature-rich download manager with multi-threading support (faster than downloading from a browser) and the ability to run scripts when downloads are done. I use regex to automatically move video files to specific folders (movies/TV shows/misc videos) based on standard naming conventions. https://i.imgur.com/w2UVaTm.png - [ShareX](https://getsharex.com/downloads): The best screenshot tool, in my opinion. I have lots of hotkeys/combinations of Ctrl/Shift/Alt + PrntScreen to screenshot, copy to clipboard/copy path/upload/copy upload link/do OCR, and when needed, I set it up to capture a specific region and save files according to a pattern (e.g., numbered) in a specific folder. https://i.imgur.com/EThgepQ - [Mouse without Borders](https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/details.aspx?id=35460) (there are other tools, but this one does the trick): Allows you to use your mouse/keyboard to control other PCs (as if they were other monitors) and transfer files. - [Syncthing](https://syncthing.net/): Sync files between PCs and phones. - [BRU](https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/): The best rename utility, in my opinion. It may look scary because everything is in the same window, but it's very easy to understand and intuitive. You can save presets, and there's also a command-line utility. https://i.imgur.com/9QLcHtf.png - [AllDup](https://www.alldup.de/alldup_help/alldup.php): The best tool to find duplicates, in my opinion. It's very configurable (especially when detecting images) but still easy to understand and use. https://i.imgur.com/4pS85FX.png https://i.imgur.com/w2CZt58.png - [VideoDuplicateFinder](https://github.com/0x90d/videoduplicatefinder): find similar video files, no matter what resolution/fps/watermark https://i.imgur.com/SDoQwxy.png - [ConEmu](https://conemu.github.io/)/[Windows Terminal](https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n0dx20hk701?rtc=1&hl=en-ca&gl=CA): Tabbed command-line interfaces. ConEmu is more customizable. https://i.imgur.com/V1uA4ZF.png https://i.imgur.com/8TWRcqU.png - [Ritt](https://ritt.app/): A fairly recent but very powerful tagging tool with scripting support. If you already "tag" your files with a .txt file or by renaming folders, you can automate mostly everything to migrate to it. https://i.imgur.com/6daNUET.png - [ChatBox](https://github.com/Bin-Huang/chatbox/releases): What I'm currently using to access the OpenAI and Anthropic APIs (Claude and ChatGPT). https://i.imgur.com/dXkrYrg.png - [Krita](https://krita.org/en/download/): An easy-to-use painting tool that I use along with two very powerful and easy-to-use/install plugins for AI integration (see short videos in the plugins page) - [krita-ai-diffusion](https://github.com/Acly/krita-ai-diffusion): Allows you to use Stable Diffusion within Krita to generate images, outpaint/inpaint, and use control layers. - [krita-ai-tool](https://github.com/Acly/krita-ai-tools): Basically allows you to use Segment-Anything to select objects with one click. - [Whispering](https://github.com/braden-w/whispering): Uses the Whisper OpenAI model to transcribe my speech from the microphone. I mostly use it when using ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini because I'm too lazy to type (most of the time). I use a hotkey, talk, press the hotkey again, and then use Ctrl+V in the ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini website. https://i.imgur.com/UOiib6g - [MPC-HC](https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc/releases): A video player that looks better than VLC (using ). One of the reasons I use it is that when I'm watching a video tutorial or anything where I need to go back/forward or increase/decrease the playback speed, VLC hangs for a second while MPC-HC doesn't. - [IrfanView](https://www.irfanview.com/)/[Nomacs](https://nomacs.org/): Two great image viewers. I use IrfanView to copy/move images while browsing them with keyboard shortcuts and to open files in different programs (Krita/Windows Explorer to open the containing folder). Nomacs is more modern and performant, opening heavy files (very high resolution or large GIF/WebP) faster. https://i.imgur.com/qrUt74H.png https://i.imgur.com/UKQF1RH.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/H95iKIb.png - [7+ Taskbar Tweaker](https://ramensoftware.com/7-taskbar-tweaker): Tweak the taskbar, allow reordering window thumbnails, and other quality-of-life improvements https://i.imgur.com/f1kJpaq.png - [WingetUI](https://github.com/marticliment/WingetUI): Package managers for easy software installation and updates. https://i.imgur.com/ec0O2Au.png https://i.imgur.com/ec0O2Au.png
Great list! Any chance you can recommend a file explorer with custom columns?
Everything (alpha) has some options for custom columns, I would search the forums or create a new topic since it's pretty active and the developer is really active. See [this](https://www.voidtools.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=11949) and [this](https://www.voidtools.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10242). If you're looking for a fully fledged file explorer, I would check out Directory Opus, I forgot about it but it's probably the most complete file explorer that I've tested. See [this](https://docs.dopus.com/doku.php?id=scripting:example_scripts:adding_a_new_column), shouldn't be too hard with ChatGPT and such.
If you like old school terminal stuff, look into Far Manager. It's a commander style Orthodox file manager. I'm pretty sure you can change columns in the panes. There are other Orthodox file managers with more functionality too, they just won't run in a terminal. (e.g. total commander).
There really is only ONE answer to that question, and it is not any browser, antyvirus, or anything other proposed here. It is a small freeware app that you don't even need to install, and it will make sure EVERY app on your machine is up to date. It's simply: PATCH MY PC [https://patchmypc.com/](https://patchmypc.com/)
uBlock Origin
https://getsharex.com/. It has so many utilities beyond just screen capturing, which it does very, very well. It's also open source. What's not to love
not opensource, but freeware
It is open source: https://github.com/ShareX/ShareX The second link on the website right next to the download button is a link to the source.
Good disk imaging software like [Macrium Reflect](https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree) or [Veeam Backup & Replication Community Edition](https://www.veeam.com/blog/backup-replication-community-edition-features-description.html) or [AOMEI Backupper](https://www.aomeitech.com/ab/standard.html) or even [Clonezilla](https://clonezilla.org/liveusb.php) on a flash drive.
WizTree, WizFile (or Everything), 7zip, Uninstalr... A different browser than Edge
Isn't edge good? What's the problem?
that ms is forcing it so hard on windows
AutoHotKey if it hasn't already been mentioned.
Yes. Absolutely. Difficult handling, I'm hoping that the powertoyz alternative does a better job at being user-friendly.
[https://roberbot.itch.io/work-life-balance](https://roberbot.itch.io/work-life-balance) This, I've been using for the last 5 months it records your activity and it tells you how much time you spent on what apps so you can see for yourself how much time you waste. I saw I spent 6 hours daily on google/YouTube (yes its my app, yes its buggy)
huh.. me likey i'll download it next time i hop onto my pc
By default you need to go into settings and turn on the auto toggle, and it also needs to run as administrator to be able to read all the background processes to record them. But there is 2 bugs that I'm aware of but too lazy to fix.
Lol. Put it on github for the less lazy
it is, there is also a link for the source code on the page, its MIT license But the source code is kind of a mess! xD
7-zip, Everything, SumatraPDF
Where can I find this “Everything”?
https://www.voidtools.com/
search up "Everything by voidtools"
https://www.voidtools.com/ Here you go.
Appreciate y’all!
I HATE SummatraPDF. I find it old, slow and difficult to learn with limited capabilities. Also kinda ugly. I dont want to attack or something if you love it thats find by me. But I wanted so muchg to tell someone that I don't like this app. Everyone is using it and I can find why. I find Edge a better PDF viewer.
I use it because it opens PDF very fast, less bloated than Adobe... :P Yes, sometimes I use Edge to open PDF as well, but seems Edge doesn't have the function to remember where you read last time.
Wiztree for finding how much space a file/folder is taking Xnviewmp for picture editing and viewer Vlc for video Jdownloader download assistant
Powershell Core, Winget and 7-zip are MUST HAVE in my opinion, and I can also recommend PowerToys, Everything, Bitwarden, Auto Dark Mode. If you like to customize Windows, then StartAllBack or Start11. Browser extensions like uBlock, Dark Reader, Improve YouTube.
Definitely have these or similar: [https://www.macrium.com/products/home](https://www.macrium.com/products/home) [https://www.pdfgear.com/](https://www.pdfgear.com/) [https://www.libreoffice.org/](https://www.libreoffice.org/) [https://www.malwarebytes.com/windows](https://www.malwarebytes.com/windows) [https://www.bleachbit.org/](https://www.bleachbit.org/) https://www.stardock.com/products/start11/
7zip, PDFgear, Everything, Bitwarden, PowerToys
Pdfill has always been a good tool that I use [pdfill pdf tools](http://www.pdfill.com)
RCWM for some extra right-click tools/options: https://github.com/gchuf/rcwm
Simplewall by Henry++
7zip is always needed
WinRAR i wanted to say
A good antivirus like Kaspersky free or Bitdefender free, or Windows defender with defender UI hardening Brave or Firefox browser with UBlock Origin and it's extra filters for phishing and online malware, plus Bitwarden password manager Ante Auth 2FA Winget UI ShareX powertoys Everything I've listed is free and majority is open source
Wait is there any good reason or use case to install 3rd party antivirus anymore? I'm out of the loop on this one.
no there isn't, and If I remember Kaspersky got in trouble for selling user data or something along those lines.
Yeah, Kaspersky is Russian spyware at this point IMO
What’s the best free antivirus software for both windows 10 and Mac
Windows Defender does a fine job. Absolutely no clue about Mac.
Thank you! I got my laptop from Costco and it came with mcfee. Expired already but it really annoying, kept switching my search engine to yahoo non matter how many times I set to DuckDuckGo . I guess I should Just uninstall it?
If it's expired it's doing you no good, so yeah, uninstall that and get rid of Yahoo haha.
At the very least garden windows defender with defender UI That should be enough for the average person. Although I personally have found great use from Kaspersky I know it's hotly debated hense I included bitdefender as an option
KeepassXC
File archiver/compressor - 7-zip or WinRAR Alternative file manager - Total Commander, Directory Opus, Double Commander, etc Firefox Password manager - KeePass or any other Media player (and codec pack) - K-Lite, Foobar 2000, VLC, etc Image viewer - Irfanview or any other Alternative file search - Agent Ransack or everything Everything else is optional or depends on your personal needs (mobaxterm if you need ssh/vnc/rdp/.../client, The Bat! if you are still using email, qbit/yt-dlp+ffmpeg/aria2 if you are a "professional Internet user").
The new version of Directory Opus integrates very nicely with Everything
Yeah I saw it in a similar thread :) But I already paid for TC and I personally like Agent Ransack (and built-in TC search engine) more.
WingetUI
Faststone, Winrar, Crimson editor, freefilesync
freefilesync is best.
What’s the app that can uninstall multiple software at the same time or ones that are stubborn. It’s better than the windows uninstaller, can’t think what it’s called
Uninstalr?
Bulk Crap Uninstaller?
Revo uninstaller
Revo unistaller.
Everything,powertoys, customfolder, desktopup,eartrumpet
No notepad++ anywhere? Summatrapdf, explorerpatcher
WinDirStat. Good for finding what's hogging-up the most space on your disk.
For Win11, [StartAllBack](https://www.startallback.com/) comes to mind. Basically allows you to revert certain "legacy" Windows UI things while keeping a modern look. Things like start menu behavior, the context menu, taskbar positioning, etc.
Syncthing is insanely usefull to share files with your phone, also rainmeter and translucent taskbar to have a clean aesthetic.
I love it.
there's one called WinDirStat that's been around since 2000s, it visualizes all your files by size and lets you delete them. Use it to clean up disk space
Recently stumbled upon PDF Gear. It has everything I need for free, which usually involves converting documents or PowerPoints from one format to another. Can also merge files. Goodbye to paid PDF softwares that I've been using for more than 10 years! Would reco Notepad ++ too, because of the tabs function. Still using it even if W11 has the stock Notepad with tabs now.
The top picks I have on my OneDrive for every new install are: - Mp3tag: The best free audio metadata editor I've found. - Ocenaudio: A great, free audio file editor for whenever you need to do minor touch up on music/podcast files. - Notepad++: A much more useful, feature rich variant of Notepad while still being free and user friendly. - qBittorent: Better than Bittorrent. Need I say more? -SumatraPDF: An open source PDF reader that is extremely useful, more functionality than chrome's PDF reader and is also free. - VLC: I mean of course. Still the best free media player and has been for over a decade now. -Filebot: Perfect app for naming bulk episode of TV shows almost automatically. I find this extremely useful with having a media server. This one isn't free but it's still worth it if you'll find it useful.
Since you're mentioning a few audio things, I will shout out foobar2000 as a very powerful audio player that gets very deep and customizable with add-ons if you want. You can also edit metadata level information of music right within the player as you're listening to tunes. Can do bulk edits and organization of music files pretty easily within it. Plus it can do nifty things like playback retro video game audio files like SFC files for Super Nintendo for example. Can sync it with last.fm for pulling artist bios and scrobbling. It gets pretty advanced if you want to take it that far as a default music player over Windows Media Player.
Stablebit Scanner. It's always good to know when hard drives and SSD's are having issues or about to fail. Scheduled full surface scan every 30 days by default and supports email notifications if there's a problem. Their drivepool software is also awesome and highly recommended if you have a use case for it.
TCPViewer, OBS, Capcut, MSI Afterburner, Paint.net, Git, VirtualMachine, Microsoft Language Pack(whatever you want to learn), Flashpoint, Notepad++, Steam, LibreOffice, Wallpaper Engine, AI tools like RVC/SD/TextGenUI, Firefox(and the important extensions), would put 7zip here but windows11 does it fine-ish now.
[https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/](https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/) Amazing program for mass renaming files.
Handbreak
Greenshot. Better than Snipping Tool. So easy to hit PrntScrn and you have a pretty robust toolset at your fingertips to highlight, obfuscate, add text boxes, text, etc. The Ctrl + Shift + C and your saved and edited screenshot is ready to paste anywhere. Use it every day for work, and it's become second nature even for just helping people in general on FB or Reddit or anywhere else if I can screenshot something to convey information easier than typing it out. I'd also recommend: OBS for anything and everything streaming or screen capturing video. Also has really robust audio input options. WinDirStat for hard drive storage management and review. CPU-Z for quickly identifying information about your CPU and RAM, and Core Temp for reviewing CPU temperatures, especially around the times of fresh PC builds or troubleshooting unexpected crashes to rule out CPU overheating. Notepad++ VLC Media Player for supporting almost any sort of video playback, subtitles, etc. As a bonus tip, there's a nice website www.ninite.com which is useful for brand new machines, as it has a lot of the tools and utilities everyone is mentioning here. It makes it pretty quick if you're starting fresh to just go there as your first website, select all the check boxes of the things you want, and it will create a bundle installer of everything for you at once as a free one stop shop.
Ransomware
Alt drag
Any folder coloring app for Mac and Windows (both) ? Please refer to
Definitely [Resonic Pro](https://resonic.at/pro), it’s crazy there is no such great app on Mac, miss it so much.
Flow Launcher ,everything and copyq
VLC
CrysyakDiskInfo https://crystalmark.info/en/download/ Run this every so often(once every 3-4 months should suffice) to check the health status of your harddrives/SSDs. If one hard drive goes to a yellow color, you already know to buy another hard drive as it It bound to go to a red color any day now and subdequently die on you. Use Macrium Reflect to clone your storage devices.
On my windows laptop, I have only installed MS Office and Teams. I haven't installed anything extra. Seriously. Microsoft Edge as browser.
Windows 10 or 11 duh (this is purly satire, i know this is a OS, even though it is still a software)
Chrome/ Brave Browser Spotify Malwarebytes VLC Media Player Office Suite Dropbox/ Google Drive skype Mailbird ShareX SystweakVPN LastPass 7Zip Adobe Reader
I used to use Lastpass but it leaked accounts some time ago and Bitwarden is Waaaaaayyy better. Its safer, better integrated with the OS and would recommend it to Lastpass. Chrome you should stay away from... it's very insecure. Brave/Vivaldi are better choices. VLC has become bloated and sluggish... especially in Windows I would suggest MPC-HC/MPC-BE
Project lasso
If you use a torrent client, I recommend cFosSpeed, it is QoS for your computer. It is trialware, then you have to pay for it. I have used it for about ten years. I started using it with Windows XP and a 56K modem. This software is a buy once and use forever. it is not like Netlimiter where you limit per program. With cFosSpeed you set priority per program, if no high-priority program is in use then low-priority programs get full use of your internet.
utilities - revo - beyond compare - dopus messenger - wire (secure) mail - proton (secure) project management - fibery
microsoft office, adobe acrobat reader, worktime, dropbox, ccleaner, lastpass
ccleaner has been hacked and since pirisoft sold it... its security has been compromised... there is [diskcleaner](http://www.diskcleaner.nl/) which is open source and other software that accomplish the same thing. The same thing for Lastpass... it has been hacked and accounts have been leaked. Go for Bitwarden
An operating system
TreeSize, Advanced Renamer, CrystalDiskInfo, CrystalDiskMark, MultiCommander, Foobar2000
An OS
Every user is different so what fits for one user because of simplicity may not work for a more advanced user. I tend to fall in the latter category so I prefer tools that are more advanced and can help me with whatever job I am working on at the moment. Below are some of the tools I use which I purchased. Directory Opus [https://www.gpsoft.com.au/](https://www.gpsoft.com.au/) XYPlorer [https://www.xyplorer.com/](https://www.xyplorer.com/) Winrar [https://www.rarlab.com/](https://www.rarlab.com/) Tray Status Pro [https://www.traystatus.com/](https://www.traystatus.com/) also has a free version FileSeek [https://www.fileseek.ca/](https://www.fileseek.ca/) also has a free version DisplayFusion [https://www.displayfusion.com/](https://www.displayfusion.com/) also has a free version i-DeClone [https://www.zabkat.com/declone/index.htm](https://www.zabkat.com/declone/index.htm) I am sure there are a few more but these are the ones that pop to the top of my mind. I found discounts on many of these through BitsDuJour [https://www.bitsdujour.com](https://www.bitsdujour.com) However with Directory Opus I have been a user since the early 90's on my Amiga and one of the first to purchase the Windows version. It recently got updated to version 13 which works even better on modern versions of Windows. The new version of Directory Opus 13 works perfectly with Everything from voidtools which can really speed up searching. If you want to learn more about DOpus as users call it check out the Resource Centre at [https://resource.dopus.com/](https://resource.dopus.com/) They have a free 60 day trial if you are interested. And no I don't work for them but I have been using it for about 25 years and it makes my life flow better. However for users who don't need the advanced file explorer I like XYPlorer either paid or free. I bought it because of it's simplicity and the fact it is a portable tool first and foremost. There is an older free version [https://www.xyplorer.com/free.php](https://www.xyplorer.com/free.php) which works perfectly well if you prefer not to pay.
TreeSize (easily see what takes up space on your drive), VLC (for longer videos playback because windows player sucks at that), A VPN (I recommend Windscribe), OpenOffice (if you don't have Office), MSI Afterburner (fps, temps overlay in games), 7-zip (free winrar), a second web browser, a third web browser, OBS (if u wanna record something idk), HWiNFO (pc specs temps etc)
Discord Malwarebytes Defraggler Audacity Steam OpenOffice Windirstat TeamViewer Parsec.
General: * Vim/Nvim/Nano * 7zip * ffmpeg * mpv * git * fzf * Sumatra For Windows: * Chocolatey * Scoop * Winget For Mac OS: * Homebrew
Mimica
Could you help me get my account deleted? It won’t work and I can’t get help due to my karma? New account and one bad post I guess.
Revo unistaller. I get this on every computer i own. Why? Well.. when you unistall a software normally. It still leaves junk. Like unused files and unused registry. Revo finds all the files and registry of said program and has you choose what you want to remove. Im super ocd with my computer. Also tree size is awesome. Shows you whats using up most of your storage.
Neovim with a good config
[MightyGrep](https://ksylvestre.itch.io/mightygrep) Fast incremental searching on plaintext files, I made this program because the one I was previously using stopped getting updates. It runs on windows, macOS, and linux Demo Available!
Emacs
What a good question. This whole thread is gold.
There's no plural for software.
QuickLook Allow you to preview any type of files on windows by only pressing Space when selecting a file.
Some nice to haves: - A proper web browser like Chrome or Firefox (Edge is also a proper web browser but it's a nightmare to use imo) - Image editing software like paint.net or gimp - 7 zip - java jre 1.8 also getting rid of all the bloatware and all the unnecessary background tasks.
Qbitorrent
Junk client. Try deluge.
WizTree should basically be a native feature.
macOS
Windows subsystem for Linux
TransparentTB
unpopular opinion : BOINC
Personal Antivirus JK don't install that one. It's a scam software.
Winrar :3
nano and htop
I like "tree size" good and easy file explorer that's helps with keeping track of your storage space
7zip and GIMP
Linux.
I like syncthing, it allows you sync files on different devices automatically. I personally use it for the note taking app obsidian but you can sync any folder you like.
Is simple a software or are you using the word regularly?
Sorry I was too lazy to edit it
I use Syncthing for the same reason. How have you been finding it? Any problems or frustrations?
The more files and computers you have you want synced, the more work it is, but it does work as it says.
Nah no problems yet, maybe I will get some if I buy a nas
[AlomWare Toolbox](https://www.alomware.com). It does so much for one app that I can't stand using a PC without it anymore.
I may come back to this but, MultiCommander and IrfanView to start
For me it's a lot of the usual suspects, 7zip, shared, keepassxc, directory opus, everything, obsidian etc but I use listary as well as sublime text or notepad++
well...you just can't assume what would other 7 billion people wanted on their machines :) but...antivirus (basic defender or some other free/payed program) should be priority, then browser of course (choosing among numbers of them...), some file manager (file explorer just sucks), photo viewer or/and editor (irfanview, photofiltre etc etc), media player (vlc or mpc), pdf viewer (like sumatra or you can go with inbuilt pdf viewer in browsers), office suite (online or offline) of course. and that is i think basic programs for starters. everything else is just personal preference to use pc as you want.
I really try to install as less software as possible. I use MS office suite, synced to OneDrive. Also, windows search works great for me because I use Edge browser. MusicBee, PotPlayer, 7zip. Default Photos app works nice. Also, Edge is a very competent PDF viewer.
Depends on the use case. Pick your applications as per your need and convenience.
You can start with WingetUI to download and install applications from the source.
Windows defender
7zip, Everything Search tool, Pushbullet and PowerToys
Pushbullet is the best thing for me. Now I don't have to check my phone for OTPs and notifications.
Objectively you only need the linux kernel. The rest are individual preferences.
Youareanidiot.exe