Top 9 free must have Windows apps that everyone should have
by Bradley Nice, Content Manager at ClickHelp — all-in-one help authoring tool
Only the best of their class — apps, that should be useful to pretty much everyone.
1.Browser: anything but IE
I didn’t specify which one on purpose, because it’s kind of a holy war material. Of course, Chrome is the most popular and has the biggest market share but some people don’t like its appetite for RAM. Or that it supposedly collects too much user data for Google. So feel free to choose the one you like the best — Opera, Vivaldi or something else entirely. But please, for the love of all humankind, do not use Internet Explorer. It’s not a browser, it’s a torture device for all of the web developers out there.
2. Media Player: VLC
I honestly don’t know how I lived before VLC. It’s a cross-platform monster that eats any format you feed it, including DVD and streams. It has tons of options, even advanced ones that 99% of people will never use. But it’s great out-of-the-box, just install it and start using. What I really dig is that I can control it from my phone — how’s that for remote, huh?
3. Messenger: Skype
From a certain windows version, Skype is not integrated into Windows. So, basically, you can’t NOT have it on your clean install. It’s a pretty decent messenger that has audio and video calls. Well, you know Skype.
4. Graphics editor: Paint.NET
Honestly — stop using that outdated default Paint. It was never good (except for Windows 3.1, maybe — I really enjoyed it back then :D). I know what you’re thinking — why not GIMP? Well, you probably won’t need more than half of GIMP’s features. So that’s why you should use Paint.Net instead. It’s something of a middle ground between. It’s not as overloaded with features as GIMP, but has much better UX and functionality than Paint does.
5. Cloud Storage: Google Drive
So far, GDrive is unmatched for me. The web version does everything I want from a cloud drive, and it does it blazingly fast, adding more and more features with time. And it has a neat desktop client that can sync anything from my PC to the Drive and vice versa.
6. File Archiver: 7-Zip
I don’t particularly like 7-Zip, as I’ve used WinRAR (yes, I did buy it) since I can remember, but we’re talking about free software here, huh? 7-Zip does its job well, letting you extract from and archive into various formats with various settings.
7. PDF-Reader: Foxit Reader
Of course, modern browsers are totally capable of opening a PDF for you to read. But if you deal with PDF files on a regular basis, especially if you read long documents (like I do books), you should have a dedicated software that will let you customize how the document you’re viewing looks. Aside from the standard zoom-in/out features, of course. Besides, Foxit Reader, despite what the name suggests, is a full-featured PDF editor as well. So if you’re working with PDF documents, this one is a must.
8. Antivirus: Windows Defender
Despite the test results that show AVG having the least impact on system performance, I’d recommend sticking with Windows Defender, unless you’re absolutely sure about what you’re doing. If you don’t really trust yourself and afraid that you might download some virus somewhere — then it’s better to install something like Kaspersky AV Free or Avast. But if you’re a pro internet surfer that knows how to dodge potential risks — don’t bother installing antiviruses.
9. Text Editor: Notepad++
It’s free. It’s powerful. It’s better than Notepad. What else do you need?
Have a nice day!
Bradley Nice, Content Manager at ClickHelp.com — best online documentation tool for SaaS vendors
