Note: pricing was accurate at the time of publishing, but may change. Both will pop in to save your passwords, both will add your ID and passwords automatically to your apps, and both will recommend random combinations that will keep bad actors guessing. You can try them both out and pick the one that suits you best. Drive space is limited and can get used up quickly. A handy free app called TreeSize Free is great to have because it helps you find out exactly what is taking up the most space.
Sometimes it tells you things you might already know — for instance, that your photo collection takes up half of your drive. But in other cases, it illuminates some dormant, unnecessary files that, once deleted, can free up several gigabytes of space.
Over the years, this open-source application has become a sophisticated, highly useful word processor that has most, if not all, of the features that more expensive business applications offer. I started it up and yes, it did start up, despite the malware , ran it twice, and it found and completely eliminated the nasty from my system.
In no particular order, let's step through 15 essential apps for Windows 10 that everyone should install right away, along with some alternatives. Unsurprisingly, Google Chrome is still our top browser pick. It's super-speedy, includes little conveniences like letting you instantly search Google for an image, and has a vast library of Chrome extensions. Throw in cross-platform syncing that lets you open your desktop tabs on your phone and vice-versa, and you've got a fantastic browser for all purposes.
Chrome isn't without its faults, however. But the good news is that you have plenty of other fantastic browsers to choose from, like Firefox and Opera. Even the built-in Microsoft Edge is now based on Chromium , so give it a try if you prefer Microsoft's approach over Google's. Download: Google Chrome Free. Download: Firefox Free. Download: Opera Free.
If you only pick one cloud app service, Google Drive is the one you should install. Google Drive offers an app for every major platform, so you can take your files anywhere. In addition to syncing files you place in the dedicated Google Drive folder, the desktop app makes it easy to back up folders on your computer and external devices, too. It's also super easy to share files with others, plus the service plays well with Google's productivity suite.
Whether you use it as part of your backup plan, as a cloud flash drive, or for setting up shared folders with others, Google Drive is an essential Windows 10 app pick.
Paired with OneDrive that comes built into Windows 10 or another free cloud storage provider , you can get plenty of storage space and separate your files logically by service. Download: Google Drive Free, subscription available. Years ago, listening to music on your desktop meant painstakingly importing and organizing a collection of MP3s.
That's no longer the case; music streaming services eliminate the need for buying individual albums physically or digitally. There are many music streaming services in the market, but we think the essential pick for Windows 10 is Spotify. Its ad-supported free plan lets you listen to as much music as you like, and there are several Spotify Premium plans that are worth it for avid listeners.
Spotify is also home to hundreds of podcasts, making everything available in one convenient place. Spotify also has a dedicated Windows app, unlike some of its competitors. If you're already invested in another ecosystem, though, Apple Music or YouTube Music might be a better choice for you.
Download: Spotify Free, subscription available. Visit: Apple Music Subscription required, free trial available. SoundSwitch lets you set basic keyboard shortcuts to swap between audio inputs and outputs. If you tend to swap between speakers and headphones, for example, you can make a shortcut for that, instead of having to open the Windows sound settings.
I also love that it lets you set a pop-up to show which device you've switched to—so if you can't hear anything, you can easily tell which device your PC is trying to output sound to. It's a small utility and a cinch to install. I wrote more about it in a full article here. Whatever gaming mouse you use, it's got software to go with it that will let you bind your keys, adjust the DPI, and more. Download it to configure your mouse to your liking. Our favorite gifmaking tool. Gifcam is a free, very small program that lets you record an area of your screen, edit the gif frame-by-frame, add effects, and export at a nice compressed size.
Or you can go high framerate and upload to a site like Gfycat for a nice smooth webm. Interested in doing any streaming, or just recording your desktop or games on occasion?
OBS is the free, open source software of choice. You can choose how it encodes video and at what quality level and framerate, so you won't overtax your PC while gaming. OBS is as simple or powerful as you want it to be. You can set up loads of different "scenes" to swap between what you're capturing, but you can also just set it to capture your desktop and click a button if that's all you need. If you bought one of the best gaming laptops , or prebuilt desktop, it probably already came with all the basic drivers you need for it to work--network adapter, sound, etc.
Hop on over to the Ninite website, and you're presented with a menu of programs that you might want to install, such as browsers, productivity tools, and media players. Check off the ones you want, and then download the custom Ninite installer, and the app will handle the rest on execution, downloading the latest installer for each app and installing it in the default location with extra crapware and bloatware offers automatically declined.
It's a handy one stop shop for getting your new machine in gear. Comments John Corpuz. Topics Software. See all comments GIMP is another very popular, powerful and free photo editing alternative. Mozilla Firefox going to head against Mozilla Firefox? Try again. Don't care about tweetdeck, etc. This free app is perfect for setups of any price, power, or performance and doesn't need any PC wizardry to run it either.
It will begin enhancing your settings instantly which makes it a wonderful app for your gaming PC, especially if it's your first. The days of Ventrilo and TeamSpeak are essentially long over. Even Skype is not nearly used as much for gaming as it once was. This might be due to many games developing their own chat systems, but the smart money bets on Discord. This likely includes anyone who has ever played Among Us. Its diversity of features, ubiquity and freemium model make it an obvious choice for many.
Like Slack, it also allows for more organization within a single Discord. You can also navigate from one Discord to another seamlessly using the sidebar on mobile and desktop apps. Investing in a super high-end keyboard isn't really necessary these days.
However, many players are also switching to non-traditional keyboards out of necessity or desire. This requires a program like KeyTweak that allows people to remap their keyboard layouts.
The less than kb program doesn't currently have dev support , but it is compatible with Windows 10 PCs. Some alternatives include programs like Autohotkey or Sharpkeys for people who want a supported program. While advanced Windows users can manually configure many of the options found in SSD Fresh, there's no denying how easy the program makes the entire process.
Chances are, they'll be in the red-line when you first start the program up.
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