My Must-Haves for Windows
Stuff that I have on every Windows computer. These complement Windows and some of them should be included with Windows. Many of these are both Free and Open Source, too. Most are free or freemium.
Header Image by nanoagency https://iconscout.com/illustrations/interface-research
Must have utilities
Clipboard manager with searchable and editable history.
It's possible to save plain text, images, HTML and other formats, use plugins, filter out content by text, data format or window from which it is copied, use multiple tabs, control application using command-line interface and scripting, assign system-wide shortcuts, paste item into application just by selecting it in tray menu and more.
FOSS simple keyboard mapper for windows
pops up a window with searchable shortcuts relevant to the current window
multi-OS synced password vault, can back up on cloud
Simple
syncs between encrypted (for cloud storage) and original, working unencrypted original folders.
Notepad3 is a lightweight text editor with the many features: code folding, bracket matching, automatic indentation, word auto-completion, convert character encoding between various formats (ASCII, UTF-8, and UTF-16), newline format conversion (between DOS (CR/LF), Unix (LF), and Macintosh (CR) formats), multiple undo or redo, bookmarks, and regular expression-based find and replace. Multi-language, dark mode and color preview many features have been added. Custom grepWin is also bundled.
Although the Windows operating system was updated significantly over the past years. However, the default Windows Notepad has very simply features since the 1980s. If you need a text editor for simple programming tasks, using the vanilla Windows Notepad just does not cut it. Enter Notepad3! Scintilla-based Notepad2, its successor Notepad2-mod, its successor Notepad3.
Therefore, we created Notepad3 with all the features that the default Windows Notepad currently lacks. Notepad3 is a fast and light-weight Scintilla-based text editor with syntax highlighting. It has a small memory footprint, but is powerful enough to handle most programming jobs.
Previously we mentioned that Notepad3 can handle almost any programming job and we are not lying. Just take a look at the list of supported programming languages below and spot your favorite.
Syntax highlighting support for over 50 languages: ASP, assembly language, AutoHotkey, AutoIt3, AviSynth, Bash, BAT, C, C++, C#, CMake, CoffeeScript, Common Gateway Interface (CGI), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), DIFF, HTML, INF, INI, Inno Setup, Java, JavaScript, LaTeX, Lua, Markdown, NSIS, Pascal, Perl, PHP, Python, REG, Ruby, SQL, Tcl, Visual Basic (VB), VBScript, VHDL scripts, XHTML, XML, YAML, D Source Script, Go Source Script, JSON, Makefiles, MATLAB, Nim Source Code, Power Shell Script, Resource Script, Shell Script, R, S, S-Plus, Kotlin, Windows Registry files, configuration files, and improved support for NFO ANSI art.
It's the best archiver for the past 25 years
easily analyze folder structure
Fantastic screeshot taker and editor with lots of functionality built in
PhotoDemon provides a comprehensive selection of photo editing tools in an 8 MB download. It runs on any Windows machine (XP through Win 10) and does not require installation. It can easily be run from a USB stick or SD card.
PhotoDemon is completely open-source and available under a permissive BSD license. Outside contributions from coders, designers, translators, and enthusiasts are always welcome.
It is lightweight and completely portable, integrates macro recording and batch processing, provides a comprehensive selection of pro-grade features and tools:
- Extensive file format support, including all major RAW formats
- Powerful selection tools, with support for antialiasing, feathering, and on-canvas sizing/moving
- Color-managed workflow, including full support for embedded ICC profiles
- Non-destructive editing for select features, including resizing and common adjustments
- 2D transformations: advanced rescale operators (Sinc, Catmull-Rom, etc), content-aware scaling (seam carving), crop, rotate, shear, zoom, tiling
- Pro adjustment tools: levels, curves, HDR, white balance, split-toning, sepia, full-featured histogram, green screen, Wratten filters, and many more
- Filters and effects: perspective correction, edge detection, noise removal, content-aware blur, unsharp masking, lens diffraction, vignetting, film grain, and many more
- 150+ tools are provided in the current build.
standalone executable capable for analyzing the USB ports
computer maintenance tool package
Gpg4win enables users to securely transport emails and files with the help of encryption and digital signatures. Encryption protects the contents against an unwanted party reading it. Digital signatures make sure that it was not modified and comes from a specific sender.
Gpg4win supports both relevant cryptography standards, OpenPGP and S/MIME (X.509), and is the official GnuPG distribution for Windows. It is maintained by the developers of GnuPG. Gpg4win and the software included with Gpg4win are Free Software (Open Source; among other things free of charge for all commercial and non-commercial purposes).
Creation of Gpg4win was supported by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).
Gpg4win Components Gpg4win is an installer for Windows and contains several Free Software components:
GnuPG The backend; this is the actual encryption tool.
Kleopatra A certificate manager for OpenPGP and X.509 (S/MIME) and common crypto dialogs.
GpgOL A plugin for Microsoft Outlook 2010/2013/2016/2019 (email encryption). With Outlook 2010 and higher GpgpOL supports MS Exchange Server.
GpgEX A plugin for Microsoft Explorer (file encryption).
GPA An alternative certificate manager for OpenPGP and X.509 (S/MIME).
Planning and storing information
I am currently in transition from Notion to Obsidian, as the former is limited to online-use only and the latter is way faster
Great task manager, works on every platform and really easy to use and sort
Personal information vault. amazing UI
Windows 10 settings backup
Finally, a way to save the Start Menu Layout for when migrating or re-installing windows
Customizing the user experience
keeps your desktop organized on any screen with Fences and folder portals
easily customize folder icons from the context menu. add your own libraries too !
Tweaks many annoyances out and suggests things that you didn't know are possible.
extends your context menu with a customizable set of built in and personal commands
simple task bar volume controller, better than the one included with Windows10
“Types” is a free and lightweight utility for Windows that allows you to edit program associations, icons, context menus and other properties of various file types displayed in Explorer.
The software licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2. source code avaliable by link: https://github.com/ystr/ystr.github.io/blob/master/types/Types.7z
simple and easy file previewer extensible by plugins
Great and lightweight image viewer
Removes Edge results fom search
Media Players
VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.
Features:
Simple, fast and powerful media player. Plays everything: Files, Discs, Webcams, Devices and Streams.
Plays most codecs with no codec packs needed: MPEG-2, DivX, H.264, MKV, WebM, WMV, MP3...
The best Media Center out there by far
I use it for playing audio files
I use this mostly for video files
The rest
These are useful on any personal computer
The best browser that doesn't follow you everywhere. lots of plugins
The qBittorrent project aims to provide a Free Software alternative to µTorrent. Additionally, qBittorrent runs and provides the same features on all major platforms (Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, OS/2, FreeBSD).
qBittorrent is based on the Qt toolkit and libtorrent-rasterbar library.
Features:
• Polished µTorrent-like User Interface
• Well-integrated and extensible Search Engine Simultaneous search in most famous BitTorrent search sites Per-category-specific search requests (e.g. Books, Music, Movies)
• All Bittorrent extensions DHT, Peer Exchange, Full encryption, Magnet/BitComet URIs, ...
• Remote control through a Web user interface Nearly identical to the regular UI, all in Ajax
• Advanced control over trackers, peers and torrents Torrents queueing and prioritizing Torrent content selection and prioritizing
• Natively integrated: When Downloads Completes Options (no need for additional script or plug-in) Exit, Suspend, Hibernate, Shutdown
• UPnP / NAT-PMP port forwarding support
• Available in ~41 languages (Unicode support)
• Torrent creation tool
• Advanced RSS support with download filters (inc. regex)
• Bandwidth scheduler
• IP Filtering (eMule and PeerGuardian compatible)
• IPv6 compliant
• Sequential downloading (aka "Download in order")
• Available on most platforms: Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, OS/2, FreeBSD
Free community support by volunteers:
• https://forum.qbittorrent.org • https://wiki.qbittorrent.org • https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/issues
The best PDF editor not owned by Adobe
