Windows 10: Looking for 'must have' programs - All suggestions welcome!!

I would disagree with Exploder's suggestion of Thunderbird for email.
Thunderbird is slowly dying, few updates etc.
A far better email solution is Mailbird. I've tried most email applications over the years & Mailbird is the best I've found so far

 

i have wise registry cleaner, wise force deleter and wise disk cleaner. plus peazip to unzip all kinds of formats. i trust these apps and recommend using them. and lets not forget irfanview image and video viewer, great program.

 

Any must have software list is going to have software that each person uses on a daily basis. I don't think that there is a true , One list for everyone.

I for one use this, 7zip. Is it needed. No, you can unzip files just fine with the one built into Windows.

One tool that's a must have for me is a PDF reader. Edge just doesn't cut it,
Registry cleaner.. no. Doesn't do much if anything to justify it's use anymore.
Office tools.. for me yes but I mostly use a spreadsheet tool.. Excel.

A few programming tools.. but not much really.

DVD, CD burner...

 

forgot to add, best browsers so far, chrome, brave and UCweb browser which uses chrome platform. not so much FF, its quirky. don't rely on portable browsers that operate on flash, very unstable. try to avoid stock browsers that nobody ever heard of.

 

I've tried brave and while it's nice it's not ready for prime time.

 

well its better than edge, based on my own experience. -other folks will beg to differ

 

I use Edge on a daily basis and really find it to fit my needs but I understand how others feel about it.

 

at least on edge, the no track option does work. on "what is my referrer" it doesn't show previous sites. but on brave, the option still shows where ive been recently.. odd.

 

If you enjoy tinkering, you might consider setting up GODMODE. If you Google it you will get lots of choices. I have provided one of many below:

Activate GodMode in Windows 10 - CNET

TA Breslin

 

They do find exploits in Flash Player on a weekly basis so it seems. *Rolleyes The problem is, not all websites have updated to HTML5, so if you don't have flash player, you may not be able to view/interact with some sites. So it's your personal choice on if you want to have flash available for non HTML5 sites you may encounter.

 

How about QTTabBar? It adds tabs to Windows Explorer *Biggrin





It makes working with Windows Explorer way more efficient *Smile

Get it for free from here: QTTabBar download | SourceForge.net

 

7-Zip
Thunderbird
Aimp
Firefox
Foxit Reader
Kauna
Gimp
Avira
Notepad++
Calibre
Irfan view
Oracle virtual box
Windirstat

 

Have you tried eM Client? I really like it for my purposes.

 

I have two suggestions: one is to look at the download tool Ninite, because it lists the most commonly installed Windows programs. Here's the pick list from its home page:



The second thing is to provide some recommendations for must-have or sometimes-must-use tools not yet already mentioned:
1. NirSoft NirLauncher: Nir Sofer has been building outstanding software tools of all kinds for over a decade. NirLauncher lets you grab most (or all) of them in one go.
2. DriverStore Explorer: great for cleaning up/removing duplicate device drivers
3. Uncleaner: handy little cleanup tool that gets stuff other programs (including CCleaner) miss
4. HomeDev PatchCleaner: cleans out obsolete files from your WinSxS hierarchy
5. Windows Update MiniTool: a capable and helpful Windows Update replacement/alternative
Great question, with a lot of great answers all over this thread.
HTH,
--Ed--

 

I use MalwareBytes Pro (PAID) and it runs all the time in the background. Catches Malware IMMEDIATELY and closes that page.