This is the apps for Windows 11 that I would recommend to anyone who just got a PC !
The same list for https://alternativeto.net/software/mac-os/ : https://alternativeto.net/list/29658/my-macos-setup/ https://alternativeto.net/software/linux-kernel/about/ (GUI apps only) : https://alternativeto.net/list/29661/my-linux-setup/
A curated compilation of Windows system tasks streamline installs, debloat with tweaks, troubleshoot with config, and configure Windows updates. Run it fresh on every new Windows install.
Ninite but better and a great Windows debloater
Ninite is the easiest way to install software. Pick the apps you want, and the Ninite installer will download and install all of your selected apps at once, automatically. It is 100% hands-free; Ninite automatically rejects browser toolbars and other prepackaged junk.
This is really handy if you setup a new Windows machine at it lets you install many software at once without to have to go to every website!
Worth mentioning :
UniGetUI
If you are a more advanced user not afraid of terminal check :
Chocolatey
Modern Windows file manager with tabbed browsing, dual-pane view, column navigation, integrated archive tools, file tagging, QuickLook support, and appearance customization.
I prefer to use this instead of the default File Explorer because it has tabs! Windows 11 File Explorer now has that features built-in, but Files still has many great features!
Worth mentioning :
Explorer++ For nostaligics
Double Commander For nerds
OneCommander For nerds with better UI
Fast, secure browser with built-in ad block, privacy controls, and global tracking protections. Optimizes data, speed, and battery life.
A nice chromium browser with ads and trackers blocked out of the box! Please don't use their cryptocrap and disable sponsored background.
Worth mentioning :
Vivaldi (install
uBlock Origin )
The Mullvad Browser is a privacy-focused web browser developed in a collaboration between Mullvad VPN and the Tor Project. It’s designed to minimize tracking and fingerprinting. You could say it’s a Tor Browser to use without the Tor Network.
Another great privacy browser but based on firefox which is the last free option facing Google's monopoly on web technologies.
Mozilla Firefox (install
Zen Browser Arc Browser but open source and based on Firefox
A feature-rich, simple-to-use app seamlessly integrated with a clean, minimal and modern user interface.
I prefer this one over the default
Microsoft Photos
Worth mentioning :
nomacs
qView minimal af
opti
IrfanView Customizable af
Screenbox is a modern video player that cares about performance and ease of use on a wide range of device types. It features a beautiful, friendly user interface while being fast and lightweight
A modern video player built for Windows, way better than
Movies & TV
Worth mentioning :
VLC Media Player The king
MPC-QT
MPV-EASY Player
Sometimes you might want to open a link in a browser of your choice, instead of the default one. Hurl is used to let you choose the browser everytime you click a link (links outside of browser). So naturally, It acts as default browser to do that.
If like my you use multiple browsers daily this one will be useful. Set it as your browser by default and when clicking on a link it will prompt which browser you want to open.
Dedicated to make your workflow flow more seamlessly. Aimed at being more than an app launcher, it searches, integrates and expands on functionalities. Flow will continue to evolve, designed to be open and built with the community at heart.
To improve search experience on Windows similar to Apple Spotlight for macOS
FluentFlyout is a simple and modern audio flyout for Windows, built with Fluent 2 Design principles.
This will replace pop-up in Windows (such as sound, spotify mini-player, etc...) with more modern looking ones that are in line with Fluent Design introduced with Windows 11!
A powerful audio player for Windows and Android, supporting numerous codecs and audio interfaces, offering customizable skins, plugins, and advanced features.
I prefer to use AIMP instead of
Windows Media Player (Groove)
Worth mentioning :
Museeks
Koodo Reader is a powerful ebook reader designed to provide a simple and easy-to-use reading experience.
If you read ePUB on your PC I would recommend you this one. For manga lovers check :
HakuNeko
Worth mentioning :
Thorium Reader AudioBooks also supported !
YACReader Comics focused
calibre
Free, lightweight PDF viewer available on multiple platforms. Features include annotation, form-filling, signing, cloud integration, and more.
A free PDF reader if you need advanced features ! It will probably try to install McAffe or other stuff SAY NO!!!
Worth mentioning :
PDFsam Basic Basic features on free tier
SumatraPDF Open source
Intuitive interface for managing software via multiple Windows package managers. Supports install, update, bulk actions, backups, metadata review, and notifications.
The better Windows Store support for WinGet, Scoop, Chocolatery, npm, pip, PowerShell and .NET Tools
With this app, you can easily download files from anywhere. Enjoy fast, free downloads with seamless browser extension support.
A download manager for better speed and reliability
Steam is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation. It is used to distribute a wide range of games and related media entirely over the internet, stretching from one-man independent efforts to some of...
If you game on PC you know, it's the monopoly plateform
GOG GALAXY DRM-free games so you own them for real.
Epic Games Store They gives free games every week, and 88% goes to the game editor/dev
EA App If you suck
Ubisoft Connect some games require that shit...
Battle.net Necessary for Activizion Blizzard games
itch.io BE CAREFUL TO DOWNLOAD TRUSTED GAMES BECAUSE SOME UNKNOWN SHITS ARE VIRUSES!!!
Ascendara simplifies your game management experience by providing a seamless way to discover, organize, and test pre-installed games. No more hassle with extracting, installing, or moving files. The game library is powered by a custom webscraper, currently featuring titles...
To test games before buying them. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY COPYRIGHT INFRIGMENT OR PC INFECTION
Worth mentioning :
Hydra Launcher
A portable, fast, and lightweight emulator frontend supporting classic and modern gaming systems with features like real-time rewinding and shader support.
If you want to emulate retro games this one is gold when you know how to use it ! Internet have tons of tutorials so you can master it !
If you want standalone emulators :
GBC :
SameBoy GBA :
mGBA NDS :
melonDS 3DS :
Azahar Gamecube and Wii :
Dolphin Emulator WiiU :
Cemu Switch :
Ryubing (Ryujinx GreemDev)
PSP :
PPSSPP PSVita :
Vita3K PlayStation :
DuckStation PS2 :
PCSX2 PS3 :
RPCS3 PS4 :
ShadPS4 EXPERIMENTAL don't expect much of it for now !
Xbox (OG) :
Cxbx-Reloaded Xbox 360 :
Xenia +
Xenia Manager
Master System :
Mame Saturn : DreamCast :
Flycast
For more check :
Open-source game library manager unifying PC and emulated titles from platforms including Steam, GOG, and Origin with customizable plugins and themes.
On PC you have too many choices for game launchers. Put all your 3rd-parties libraries (Steam, gog, Ubisoft Connect, etc...) in one single beautiful place !
Worth mentioning :
Gavilya
Google Play Games is a multi-platform gaming experience built and operated by Google featuring seamless gameplay across PCs, Chromebooks and mobile.
You can now play most of your Android Games on PC with
Google Play Games
Run Windows Subsystem For Android on your Windows 10 and Windows 11 PC using prebuilt binaries with Google Play Store (MindTheGapps) and/or Magisk or KernelSU (root solutions) built in.
Microsoft dropped support for
Windows Subsystem for Android but you can still use it to install Android APKs with this open source build that is still maintain and support both Magisk and GApps.
Android emulator delivering high-performance emulation, suitable for gamers and developers, allowing seamless app and game execution on desktop platforms.
## These emulators are all somewhat shady to different degrees ! Use them with caution and use debloating guide if available. Prefer options listed above !
Windows 11 have some android app support but if you're on 10 this might be nice if you want android games on your PC !
Debloat guide : https://gist.github.com/TameemS/72c4b92131977aced56e727d51599a48
Worth mentioning :
BlueStacks
MuMuPlayer
GameLoop
LDPlayer Debloat guide : https://gist.github.com/TameemS/894cdb8adae1d6042a5f21c4e80bcd9e/
A versatile platform for text and voice communication, featuring topic-specific channels, customizable moderation, and smooth low latency interactions.
If your friends game on PC, they probably use this one to communicate !
Worth mentioning :
Stoat Chat
TeamSpeak
Steam
Mumble For LAN (UI isn't great but it's a technical gem)
Advanced tool for GPU overclocking, video capture, and screen recording. Supports Nvidia and ATI cards, includes Kombustor stress test, portable and ad-free.
If you use a dedicated GPU this tool is really nice even if you don't have an MSI graphic card. It shows video card stats (temp, GPU usage, etc...). Allows overclocking, controlling of fans, etc... Enable RivaTuner to perform benchmark and see how your CPU and GPU performs, if there is any bottlenecks or anything
Benchmarking Tool - Record Frames per Second (FPS), Frametime and Sensors while running your favourite game. Analyse and plot the results, or share them with friends using our cloud service.
A benchmark tool to better understand your bottlenecks similar to RivaTuner inside MSI Afterburner.
It is based on Intel's PresentMon
NVCleanstall lets you download/update and customize the NVIDIA GeForce Driver package by removing components that you don't need (or want). This not only keeps things tidy, but also lowers disk usage and memory footprint.
For NVidia GPUs only! It let you customize your drivers and NVidia related software, so it allow you to uninstall things you don't need/want ! Worth mentioning :
TinyNvidiaUpdateChecker
RadeonTuner is an easy to use alternative for the AMD Adrenalin Software for users that just want the basics or use the driver only install type.
For AMD GPUs only! An open source tool that has less impact on your performance and give you everything you need to tweak your GPU settings a bit and updating your drivers without all the bloat that the official Adrenaline tool offers.
Open source RGB lighting control that doesn't depend on manufacturer software. For Windows, Linux, MacOS.
If you have RGB on your gaming RIG this helps you manage them for any constructor like Razer, AORUS, ASUS, MSI, etc...
Ludusavi is a tool for backing up your PC video game save data, written in Rust. It is cross-platform and supports multiple game stores.
To manage games backups!
Worth mentioning :
GameSave Manager
A great modmanager and mod downloader with multiple profiles and amazing features
Worth mentioning :
Mod Organizer 2 More suited for Bethesda games
Vortex Peviously known as Nexus Mod Manager
DLSS Swapper is a tool that allows you to conveniently download, manage, and swap DLSS dlls allowing you to upgrade or downgrade DLSS version in a game without the game needing an update.
To tweak DLSS, FSR and XeSS versions.
Translates the inputs from the Dualsense into XInput making it compatible with any PC Game. Compatible with PS4 Dualshock 4 and PS5 Dualsense controllers.
To use Dualshock (PS4 controller) or DualSense (PS5 controller) on PC and make it appear like a xbox controller (for GamePass games or non-Steam games)
Allows the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, Joycons and SNES controller to be used with CEMU, Citra, Dolphin, Yuzu and as generic XInput.
For Nintendo Switch's joycons
Nucleus Co-op is a free and open source tool for Windows that allows split-screen play on many games that do not initially support it, the app purpose is to make it as easy as possible for the average user to play games locally using only one game copy and one PC.
Now that we have 65"+ TV, 4K resolution we don't have split-screen gaming anymore, this fix it at least on Windows and in some games.
Similar to the incredibly useful sleep/suspend function found in consoles like the Nintendo Switch and Sony PlayStation; suspend your game (and its resource usage) at any time, and resume whenever you wish - at the push of a button.
Suspend your gaming sessions.
This modified openvr_api.dll allows you to apply either AMD's FidelityFX SuperResolution or NVIDIA's Image Scaling to many SteamVR games, as long as they use D3D11.
If you're a VR gamer and want to experience better framerate this mod let you use FSR upscalling in your VR library. It does not looks as good as native but in some scenario it can offer a better overall experience !
There is a GUI name OpenVR FSR App avilable here https://github.com/tappi287/openvr_fsr_app
Browser-based editing supports complex layers, masks, and adjustment tools, opens PSD, XCF, Sketch files, and exports in over 40 formats, all client-side for privacy.
Windows image editor with crop, resize, rotate, filters, stickers, frames, drawing tools, photo manager, collage presets, and multi-format support.
Another really good free photo editor for Windows. Simpler.
Open source non-destructive RAW photo editor and image database with lighttable and darkroom views, real-time editing, HDR and scientific image support.
If you do photography this is useful for photo editing !
Worth mentioning :
OM Workspace You need a OLYMPUS camera serial number to download but this can be easily found online
Polarr
Open source vector graphics editor supporting SVG with features like custom brushes, pressure sensitivity, and layer management across multiple platforms.
If you need to draw or modify vector images !
Worth mentioning :
Vectr WebApp
A free, open-source painting program for professional artists offering customizable UI, 9 brush engines, layer support, and color management.
If you want to draw !
Worth mentioning :
FireAlpaca
Pixelorama is a free and open source sprite editor, ideal for pixel art. In this page you'll be learning about the latest added features, as well as its features in general. It's made with 
Godot Engine, using GDScript.
If you want to do pixel art this one is gold !
Worth mentioning :
LibreSprite
Piskel also in WebApp
This free font editor allows creation of vector graphics and exports TTF, OTF, EOT, and SVG fonts, providing multiple formats for your designs.
If you want to create font and make typography !
Worth mentioning :
FontForge 100% free
Glyphr Studio simpler
Free lightweight 8-bit voxel art editor and interactive path tracing renderer.
Worth mentioning :
Goxel
Free open-source 3D software for modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, rendering, compositing, video editing, and simulation.
For 3D render and 3D animation. Nice UI, powerful tool and awesome community !
Worth mentioning :
Blockbench Widely used for Minecraft modeling but it's easy, fast and fun to use but still gives impressive results !
Unreal Engine is a professional suite of tools and technologies used for building high-quality games across a range of platforms. Unreal Engine’s rendering architecture enables developers to achieve stunning visuals and also scale elegantly to lower-end systems.
For making video games or 3D environment !
Worth mentioning :
KIT Scenarist is a free and open source application for creating screenplays on desktops and commercial on mobiles.
For story writing, plot making etc...
Worth mentioning :
bibisco
Comments
Reccomendation for Android emulator to add to the list:
MSI App Player
First of all A great list that you have made here! I love it! I have minor implementation that I want to add. I agree that Nox App Player is a good alternative than the Bluestacks. Just to inform that Nox is running under a Chinese company named Noxgroup. I am not a software engineer but after using BlueStacks for a while, the Nox really looks and interacts the same as an older version of Bluestacks. (Considering it as IP theft,) And if Nox player is sending telemetry to the company servers makes me doubt on how safe the data is stored to the eyes from CCP. So for now I use the WSA (Windows Subsystem for Android) https://github.com/microsoft/WSA
Yeah, honestly Android emulation on Android always has been quite shady I will consider removing Nox. Note that WSA support has been drop from Microsoft recently, I've recently added to AlternativeTo an app called WSABuilds which is an open source build that is still maintained. Once it is approved I'll add it to the list as the main Android Emulation option. I might keep Nox App Player but will add this guide to debloat it : https://gist.github.com/TameemS/72c4b92131977aced56e727d51599a48
Thanks for this comment ! 🫡
What makes Bluestacks shady ooc?
I would like to recommend sumatraPDF. Small, fast and can open almost any file type be it pdf, epub etc.
You can add SimpleWall, it's the most intuitive and lightweight manual firewall i've come across. It gives peace of mind knowing that apps you installed can't phone home all the time without permission
https://www.henrypp.org/product/simplewall
Source: https://github.com/henrypp/simplewall
SimpleWall is on the list for some time now, just click on "Load more apps" ;)
Very good list! I have some suggestions of my own.
Speccy - For a detailed log of your hardware and system specs
TreeSize Free - For knowing what folder is taking up how much space
snap2html - You can create an interactive html file that lists all your folders on your computer and their content. (Useful if you have multiple external hard disks and you're not sure which stuff is on what disc. This way you will save having to plug the disc and searching it.)
PotPlayer - Like VLC but it can also play flash games, plus it has better interface
Resilio Sync - Sync files between devices. It also has an android and mac version and its very easy to set up.
Bulk Rename Utility - As the name suggests it can rename items in bulk. Useful when you're renaming hundreds of files. UI is a bit messy but it has almost everything you might need,
JetBrains Pycharm Community - Python IDE. Very good and its free.
Hi I have some suggestions.
Instead of ShutUp10++ or others use:
WPD
and
Instead of ShareX: 
Flameshot
Never heard of WPD, while it looks super basic it also looks like a nice easy option. I know Flameshot, might give an honorable mention, cuz in my opinion ShareX is far superior.
I'm so happy you mentioned Obsidian, FireAlpaca, and Mod Organizer 2! I love those apps