What I use on Windows. Mostly FOSS.
A versatile OS with universal app architecture, free initial year offer, redesigned UI for mouse and touch, virtual desktop, and improved security.
Spent good money on this. Hope my college'd actually pay these for us one day.
Important stuff.
Web browser built on an open-source platform featuring multiple account support, integrated password manager, dark mode, real-time translation, and seamless cross-device syncing.
The new Internet Explorer. Use Chromium if you prefer FOSS, or Firefox maybe. Free.
PeaZip is free file archiver utility, based on Open Source technologies of 7-Zip, p7zip, FreeArc, PAQ, and PEA projects, for Linux, macOS and Windows.
Probably the best compression software around. Use this, or a more user-unfriendly 7zip, and stop clicking on that "your winrar license has expired" message box you urod. FOSS.
A feature-rich, simple-to-use app seamlessly integrated with a clean, minimal and modern user interface.
Beautiful and easy-to-use image viewer. I use this instead of the Windows 10 built-in app because I do not want to wait 5 seconds every time I try to open the tiniest picture. Matches the Windows 10 overall theme quite well, or so I think. FOSS.
Cross-platform, free media player supports multimedia files, DVDs, streaming, offers hardware acceleration, 4K, lossless audio, and more.
Gom and Potplayer are nice, yes, but good ol' VLC comes with no bundleware. FOSS.
What, you have no access to the internet? Lucky you!
Experience instant messaging with remarkable speed and robust security. Join massive group chats or channels. Enjoy free and advanced features.
My family uses Wechat and my friends use LINE so that's basically what I use, but had I got a choice, I'd say Telegram. Free.
Offers high-quality video meetings, screen sharing, team messaging, collaborative whiteboards, support for 100 participants, AI meeting summaries, and seamless device switching.
When I was a grade school kid I wrote in my diary that I hope one day I'd be able to go to school without riding for half an hour on the bus. What a grand-ass dream-come-true. Freemium.
I use it to mount my linux laptop home dir as disk, so I don't need to sftp every time I'm looking for that book report I wrote like 5 years ago. There's also a super user-friendly GUI frontend called SSHFS-Win Manager. Check it out. FOSS.
Hopefully these will make your overall Windows experience a lil more hospitable.
Rejoice, CJK language speakers. Forget about the sh*tty font rendering in Windows; you won't be seeing it from today on. FOSS.
An open-source Windows scripting language enabling task automation through hotkeys, macros, and keystrokes, useful for creating custom forms and automating data entry.
I mapped my keys mac-like with this osftware so that I don't need another 1000 hours to get used to Windows shortcuts (again), but it can do so much more. FOSS.
Snipaste is a simple but powerful snipping tool, and also allows you to pin the screenshot back onto the screen. Snip. Then paste. Free. Customizable. Portable.
Simple screenshot tool with every function I need. Also available on mac. Freemium.
Efficiently uninstall software and remove unnecessary files and registry entries on Windows, offering both free and pro versions with advanced features.
When I was an innocent child I used to install that stupid Qihu 360 antivirus for this one uninstaller function. Now you know the right software to use. Freemium.
Open Shell is a fork of the Classic Shell project for Windows that getting back the classic start menu to modern versions of Microsoft Windows.
Because clicking on that small power-off button in the new start menu is an absolute penance. FOSS.
Atom as the default editor because I have RAM to burn. FOSS.
Startup Delayer is a Windows startup manager that lets you delay applications and control the order in which they launch when you sign in. Spreading out startup activity helps reduce the number of applications competing for resources at once.
A brand new startup experience for that used netbook you bought in 2010. Freemium.
This is a quick look tool for Windows. Acts just like the one in OS X , but Seer is more powerful and faster.
Preview almost any file in like half a sec. Were you a Mac user, you'd feel right at home. Freemium.
Tired of unchecking unrelated offers while installing software?
Have you ever felt, while installing software, that the installer tries to push additional unwanted programs at all cost? Ever missed a checkbox, and spent hours afterwards removing adware? Ever opened your browser.
Unchecks all those bundleware during the installation wizard for you automatically so that your homepage will never be set to hao123 ever again. Not completely useful if you use a package manager, though. Free, discontinued.
Tabby is an infinitely customizable cross-platform terminal app for local shells, serial, SSH and Telnet connections.
For those who need a terminal emulator, this is, uh, probably the cutest one out there, and it has a more active development than hyper. FOSS.
The package manager for Windows, like brew on Mac. *nix users will like this. I perfer this over chocolatey, because reasons. FOSS.
I payed 100% for the computer, I'm gonna use 100% of that computer grump
Office suite offering productivity tools for document creation, collaboration, and AI-enhanced editing across various platforms and devices.
Why not? My college literally pays for it, and I'm paying for college. Commercial.
Free open-source multi-track audio editor and recorder with 32-bit float processing. Supports many formats and plugins for Windows, macOS, Linux.
I use it to edit the recordings that old Russian-teacher lady asks us to do, but it's far more capable than that. FOSS.
Create, notate, and playback music with free, open-source software for Windows, Mac, and Linux supporting MIDI, MusicXML, PDF export, and community sharing.
THE music notation software. It's so good I'd pay for it, and yet it's free. FOSS.
Free image editor for Windows, offering layer support, plugins, special effects, and portable use without installation. Lightweight and ad-free.
Unless you have a crave for that built-in Paint software, then go ahead. Freemium.
Free open-source suite with advanced photo retouching, composition, batch processing, plugin extensibility, custom scripting, and wide file format compatibility.
Photoshop for both the rich and the not-so-rich. FOSS.
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...
Where you buy and manage games. Haha, gaming is for everyone unless you are poor.
This is the end of the list.
No comments so far, maybe you want to be first?
