Essential Windows apps for Linux developers

Operating System reinstalls have been much more frequent than I wish they were. Regardless of whether I’m using Linux Desktop or Windows, there come times when the OS starts misbehaving and the more straightforward solution is to format the disk and reinstall them.

After so many reinstalls I learned to always keep a copy of all my data on external disks or in the cloud, and then I have to reinstall not only the operating system but all the apps that I need as well.

Whenever I fresh install Windows I need:

• Google Chrome isn’t the most private browser, but the alternatives I tried only slowed me down.
• NanaZip, because WinRAR isn’t free and 7-Zip isn’t as actively developed as it used to be. NanaZip also supports more formats than 7-Zip.
• Ubuntu on Windows Subsystem for Linux 2, because developing on Windows is painful, except when you’re targeting .NET.
• Windows Terminal, a modern terminal that supports all shells including WSL Ubuntu, available on the Microsoft Store

The following apps are installed on Windows but they’re used in the WSL Ubuntu context:

• Git
• Visual Studio Code, for local development.
• Cloud Shell for remote development, a web app that can be installed for better keyboard integration.
• Docker Desktop

There are also apps that I install on occasion, but they’re not essential

• VLC, to watch videos.
• WinSCP is sometimes easier than the command line to transfer files.

And I also would like to remind you that the keyboard shortcut to take partial screenshots on Windows is Winkey + Shift + S

Once I start developing on WSL Ubuntu, there are a myriad of tools and libraries I have to install using apt , but they depend on the programming language and target platform.