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:computer: 🎉 An awesome & curated list of best applications and tools for Windows.
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Apr 08, 2021
Utilities
- Sysinternals Suite - Tool suite by Mark Russinovich that provides access to Windows internals for troubleshooting: processes, physical ports, disk activity etc.
Apr 28, 2020
Productivity
- Luna (⭐249) - Automatic dark mode for Windows 10.
Apr 17, 2020
Utilities
- Econap - Prevent sleep mode while your system is busy.
Apr 16, 2020
Customization
- ZBar - If you use multiple monitors, it lets you display a separate taskbar on each monitor.
Mar 20, 2020
- Mailbird - IMAP and POP3 email client, featuring customization, complete touch support and multiple language support.
Feb 25, 2020
Audio
- AIMP - 32 bit audio processing and multi-format playback.
- Audacity - Free, open source, cross-platform software for recording and editing sounds.
- AudioNodes - Modular audio production suite with multi-track audio mixing, audio effects, parameter automation, MIDI editing, synthesis, cloud production, and more.
- CDex - CD Ripper (French site, English program).
- Dopamine - An audio player which tries to make organizing and listening to music as simple and pretty as possible.
- Foobar2000 - Free audio player for Windows, supports a wide range of audio formats and has a lot of cool features.
- Kodi - Free and Open Source home theatre software.
- Mixxx - Free DJ software that gives you everything you need to perform live mixes, veritable alternative to Traktor.
- MusicBrainz Picard - Picard is a cross-platform music tagger that looks up and rewrite metadata tags.
- Qtractor - An Audio/MIDI multi-track sequencer.
- Reaper - Lightweight application with deep feature set and $60 for individual, non-profit, or small business use.
Chat Clients
- Caprine - An elegant Facebook Messenger desktop app.
- Discord - Discord is a free voice and text chat client for gamers and non-gamers alike. You can use it from your browser and it's available on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux.
- Hexchat - IRC client based on XChat
- LimeChat - Instant messaging application.
Compression
- 7-Zip - Open source Windows utility for manipulating archives. Formats 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR are supported fully, other formats can be unpacked.
- Bandizip - A lightweight, fast and free All-In-One Zip Archiver.
- PeaZip - Archiver and file compressor. Extract 7Z CAB ISO RAR TAR ZIP archive files.
- Riot - Compress images either by file size or by many other image attributes.
- WinRAR - A powerful archive manager. It can backup your data and reduce the size of email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files.
Customization
- 7+ Taskbar Tweaker - Allows to customize and extend Windows taskbar functionality with various productivity enhancements.
- Classic Start (⭐26) - Use Start Menu and Explorer like it's 2000.
- Clover - Add multi-tab functionality to Windows Explorer.
- EarTrumpet (⭐6.4k) - Per application volume control from the system tray.
- QTTabBar - Extends Explorer by tabs and extra folder views.
- Rainmeter - Rainmeter allows you to display customizable skins on your desktop, from hardware usage meters to fully functional audio visualizers.
- Search Deflector (⭐878) - A small program that redirects searches made from the Windows Start Menu or Cortana to whatever browser and search engine you prefer.
- TranslucentTB (⭐10k) - Make your Windows task bar transparent.
- Windows 10 Login Background Changer (⭐685) - Lets you change the Windows 10 login screen background.
Data Recovery
- PartitionGuru ｜ Eassos Recovery - Data recovery with partition recovery.
- TestDisk - Powerful free data recovery software primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again.
Developer Tools
- DB Browser for SQLite - High quality, visual, open source tool to create, design, and edit database files compatible with SQLite
- ExtendsClass - Online tools for developers (REST/SOAP clients, SQLite browser, Regex tester, XPath tester)
- FileZilla - FTP, FTPS and SFTP client.
- Fork - A fast & friendly Git client for Windows (and Mac).
- Git Extensions - A powerful and easy to use UI for Git.
- GitHub Desktop - GitHub Desktop is an open source Electron-based GitHub app.
- GitKraken - A beautiful, cross-platform Git client.
- HTTP Toolkit - HTTP debugging & mocking tool.
- I'm Only Resting (⭐169) -A feature-rich WinForms-based HTTP client
- Insomnia - A modern REST client with a beautiful interface.
- Mamp - Local server environment.
- Meld - A visual diff and merge tool.
- NSudo (⭐1.5k) - A Powerful System Administration Tool.
- Open Server - Portable server platform and software environment (like MAMP, XAMPP, WAMP and very user friendly).
- Process Explorer - A powerful task manager.
- Process Monitor- A sysinternal tool shows real-time file system, Registry, network and process/thread activity.
- TailBlazer (⭐2k) - A small fast tool for browsing through logs
- TortoiseGit - Git client with full shell integration.
- Vagrant - A tool for building and managing virtual machines.
- WinSCP - Free open source SFTP, FTP, WebDAV and SCP client.
- Wireshark - A network protocol analyzer.
- WMI Explorer (⭐607) - Provides the ability to browse and view WMI namespaces/classes/instances/properties in a single pane of view.
- Xampp - Apache driven web development environment.
- Xftp 5 - Flexible and lightweight SFTP/FTP client.
- Zsh - A powerful command line shell.
Text Editors
- Visual Studio Code - Build and debug modern web and cloud applications.
- Atom - A hackable text editor for the 21st Century.
- Brackets - A modern, open source text editor that understands web design.
- GVim - (G)Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing.
- Light Table - A customizable editor with instant feedback and showing data values flow through your code.
- Neovim - literally the future of vim
- Notepad++ - A source code editor which supports several programming languages.
- Notepad2 - Tiny and fast Notepad replacement with many useful features.
- Oni - Modern Modal Editing - powered by Neovim
- SpaceVim - A community-driven vim distribution
Documents
- FreeOffice - FreeOffice is a complete office suite with a word processor, a spreadsheet application and a presentation program – all compatible with their counterparts in Microsoft Office.
- LibreOffice - Open source office suite.
- OnlyOffice - The most complete and feature-rich office and productivity suite.
- OpenOffice - Software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more.
- Sumatra PDF - PDF, ePub, MOBI, CHM, XPS, DjVu, CBZ, CBR reader.
- WPS Office - The perfect free office software
E-Book Utilities
- Bookviser - Awesome application for Windows 8 devices to read eBooks in a simple way.
- Calibre - Powerful software for e-book management and conversion.
- kobo - Incredibly ugly but powerful software for ebook management and conversion.
- Mailspring - A fast and maintained fork of Nylas Mail, built on modern web technologies.
- Nylas Mail - An extensible desktop mail app built on the modern web.
- Thunderbird - Email client with minimalistic design.
Games
- 0 A.D. - A free, open-source real-time strategy game of ancient warfare.
- Awesome Games (⭐20k) - List of games hosted on Github.
- Freeciv - A Free and Open Source empire-building strategy game inspired by the history of human civilization.
- Godot Engine - Free and open source game engine. Easy to get started and flexible for intermediate users.
- Itch.io - Install, update and play indie games.
- Steam - Largest online video game retailer. Desktop app allows you to organise your library of games and play them at any time. But you already knew that.
- Warsow - Free & fast-paced FPS game for Windows.
Graphics
- Blender - Fully-featured extensible cross-platform 3D content suite.
- Gimp - Open source image editor.
- Inkscape - Inkscape is a professional vector graphics editor for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
- Krita - Krita is a professional FREE and open source painting program.
- MapTiler - MapTiler generates zoomable raster maps from images in user-defined coordinate system.
- Paint.net - how can you live without paint.net?
IDEs
- Android Studio - The official IDE for Android based on the IntelliJ platform.
- Eclipse - A powerful IDE.
- IntelliJ IDEA - A modern Java IDE with free community edition.
- NetBeans IDE - A free and open-source IDE.
- PyCharm - Python IDE for professional developers with free community edition.
Backup
- Duplicati - Free backup software to store encrypted backups online For Windows, macOS and Linux.
Productivity
- Aperture Control (⭐74) - Windows environment automation tool with a number of premade recipes (⭐18) and examples (⭐25) available.
- AutoHotkey - The ultimate automation scripting language for Windows.
- CommandTrayHost (⭐337) - A Command Line program monitor systray for Windows.
- CopyQ - Clipboard manager with advanced features.
- Executor.dk - A free multi purpose customizable and light-weight launcher.
- f.lux - Automatically adjust your computer screen to match lighting.
- KatMouse - Utility that enables "universal scrolling" in Windows: scrolling does not need the window to be active/clicked first (i.e. how it works in macOS and Linux)
- Keypirinha - A fast launcher for keyboard ninjas on Windows. You can think of Keypirinha as an alternative to Launchy and a cousin of Alfred.
- Launchy - The Open Source Keystroke Launcher.
- MultiCommander - File Manager for Professionals.
- Ninite - The easiest, fastest way to update or install software.
- One Commander - File manager featuring miller columns and dual-pane views.
- Scoop (⭐16k) - A command-line installer for Windows.
- Simplenote - Simple cross-platform note taking app with cloud-based syncing.
- Taskade - Smart task lists with real-time cross-platform syncing and team collaboration.
- WordWeb - A very good English dictionary for windows.
- Wox - An effective launcher for windows.
Terminal
- Alacritty (⭐42k) - A cross-platform, GPU-accelerated terminal emulator
- Babun - Alternative Windows shell based on Cygwin.
- Cmder - Console emulator package with clink shell.
- Hyper - A terminal built on web technologies.
- mRemoteNG - The next generation of mRemote, open source, tabbed, multi-protocol, remote connections manager.
- Terminus - modern, highly configurable terminal app based on web technologies.
- Windows Terminal - Microsoft's official new terminal for Windows.
Utilities
- Acrosync - The only native rsync client for Windows (no cygwin required). It supports automatic uploads on file changes and incremental hourly backups.
- AddToSendTo - This script lets you add your favorite Folder to Send To option, when you right-click.
- Advanced Renamer - Advanced batch renaming program, with support for renaming based on GPS data from images, ID3 tags from music files, TV show data and regular expressions.
- CPU-Z - A free all-in-one CPU monitoring tool.
- Ext2Fsd - Open source ext3/4 file system driver for Windows.
- ExifCleaner - Remove exif metadata from images and videos with drag and drop.
- Far - File and Archive manager. Clone of the Norton Commander.
- GPU-Z - A free all-in-one GPU monitoring tool.
- Greenshot (⭐3k) - Take and crop screenshots directly on the screen.
- HTTrack- Offline browser utility, allowing you to download a website from the Internet to a local directory.
- PowerPlanSwitcher - Provides a quick UI for switching power schemas & automatic switch on AC-plug-in on Windows10.
- Retroshare - A platform for secure communications and file sharing between friends.
- SDelete - A command line utility that can securely delete a file, or clean the slack space.
- SetToStartup - This script will help you to add your favorite programs or self made scripts/folders to startup.
- ShareX- Lets you take screenshots or screencasts of any selected area with a single key.
- SpeedCrunch - The best and only calculator you'll need, completely stripped down of unnecessary UI clutter.
- Windows 10 Login Screen Changer (⭐685) - Changes the Windows 10 Login Screen Background.
winreg-cli- Command line tool with a fluent API for modifying Windows registry.
- WizTree - Excellent, small utility application allows users to quickly find large files on a hard drive.
- Yacy (⭐2.8k) - A general search engine by corporations of people, including the search web page, general crawlers, indexing, and ranking functions.
- ZeroNet (⭐18k) - A decentralized web.
Video
- DaVinci Resolve - Professional video creation software for editing, visual effects, color correction, and audio post production.
- HandBrake - High performance video encoding and conversion tools with a nice GUI.
- mpv - Media player.
- Olive Video Editor - Open source cross-platform non-linear video editor.
- Open Broadcaster Software - Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming.
- ScreenToGif - ScreenToGif allows you to record a selected area of your screen and save it as a gif or video.
- Shotcut - Open source cross-platform video editor.
- SMPlayer - Multimedia player that can save different preferences for any single video.
- VLC - Multimedia player and framework that plays DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.
Windows 10 Setup
- Win10-Initial-Setup-Script (⭐4.6k) - Powershell script to turn off or on various defaults in Windows
Windows 8.1 Setup
Security
- Acrylic DNS Proxy - A local DNS proxy which caches the responses coming from your DNS servers and helps you fight unwanted ads through a custom HOSTS file.
- AdwCleaner - Free removal tool for adware, PUP/LPI, Toolbars and Hijacker.
- Cryptomator - Free client-side encryption for your cloud files.
- Disable Data Logging - Make Windows 10 more private and safe.
- ENCRYPTO - Encrypt your files in an elegant way.
- KeePass - Free, open-source, easy-to-use password manager.
- Malwarebytes - protects from dangerous threats that antivirus doesn't.
- NetLimiter - Internet traffic control and monitoring tool.
- SpyBot - Search and destroy malware, spyware and viruses.
- Tor Project - Enable anonymous communication.
- VeraCrypt - VeraCrypt is a free open source disk encryption software for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux.
- Viscosity - Fully-featured OpenVPN client, ready for enterprise deployment.
Miscellaneous
Discussion Forums / Windows
Discussion Forums / IRC channels
Discussion Forums / Reddit
Feb 23, 2020
Chat Clients
- Franz - A messaging app for WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Slack, Telegram and many many more.
Feb 22, 2020
Utilities
- Snipping Tool / Snip & Sketch - Windows 10 utility to easily capture and edit selected area in screen.
- ueli - A powerful keystroke launcher for Windows.
Feb 21, 2020
Audio
- WACUP - An extension/improvement to Winamp, providing bugfixes and more features such as a better MOD player and YouTube support.
- BlueMail - beautifully designed, powerful and easy to use email app if you're looking for cross-platform functionality.
Proxy and VPN Tools
- Algo (⭐26k) - Personal IPSEC VPN in the cloud.
Jan 12, 2020
Utilities
- FileOptimizer - A lossless file size optimizer supporting a wide array of formats.
Jan 08, 2020
Productivity
- File Juggler - Organize files automatically. Monitor folders and execute actions like rename, delete, unzip and more. Finds dates in PDFs and much more.
Oct 30, 2019
Developer Tools
- Tower - Tower - the most powerful Git client for Mac and Windows.
Oct 05, 2019
Online Storage
- pCloud - A swiss based privacy first cloud provider. Also offers one time payment lifetime plans.
- Sync - Encrypted file storage that stores all files in canadian datacenters
Sep 02, 2019
Video
- Videotape - Video player for windows 10 focused on simplicity with a beautiful and easy to use interface.
Aug 17, 2019
Terminal
- FluentTerminal (⭐8.5k) - A Terminal Emulator based on UWP and web technologies.
Aug 14, 2019
Utilities
- Bandicam - Recording software allowing easy video recording of both desktop and 3D apps simultaneously.
Apr 17, 2019
Utilities
- Process Explorer - Discover which program has a particular file or directory open. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.
Apr 15, 2019
Audio
- Exact Audio Copy - Transfer files from your CDs to your PC in almost every format.Comes with some pretty nifty features too.
- Winamp - Music player capable of playing MP3s, MP2s, WAVs, VOCs and MIDI files.
Chat Clients
- Telegram - A messaging app with a focus on speed and security, it’s super fast, simple and free.
- Waow - Awesome WhatsApp Web Client to deliver you the best WhatsApp experience.
Data Recovery
- Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery - Remote recovery option to recover data from another computer over a network.
Developer Tools
- HeidiSQL - Powerful and easy client for MySQL, MariaDB, Microsoft SQL Server and PostgreSQL.
- Visual Studio - Ultimate Microsoft Developer Tool.
Documents
- NitroPDF - The best PDF Reader you'll ever get.
Games
- Origin - Like Steam, but for EA.
Online Storage
- OneDrive - Best cloud storage solution for Windows users.
Productivity
- Total Commander - The best file manager for Windows.
Terminal
- ColorTool (⭐86k) - Set custom color schemes for the Windows Console with support for iTerm color schemes.
- Kitty - advanced Putty (SSH and telnet client).
Utilities
- rimraf - A deep deletion module for node. Help to delete files and folders with very long paths
Security
- System Explorer - An enhanced task manager with support for monitoring and modifying system processes, start-up programs, system services, drivers, shell extensions, and more.
- UnChecky - automatically unchecks unrelated offers from installers.
Mar 18, 2019
Developer Tools
Utilities
- IrfanView - A very fast, small, compact and innovative graphic viewer for Windows.
Mar 04, 2019
Games
- GOG - DRM-free game store with a lot of old games but also has a rich collection of new games.
Oct 10, 2018
Developer Tools
- Cacher - Cloud-based, team-enabled code snippet manager with Gist sync, VSCode/Atom/Sublime packages and full-featured web client.
Oct 08, 2018
Utilities
- fselect (⭐3.3k) - Command-line tool to search files with SQL-like queries.
May 11, 2018
Games
- LuaStudio - Free game development tool/engine. Create games and other graphic focused apps on Windows using Lua/LuaJIT programming language. Export them to many platforms including iOS, Android and Mac.
May 05, 2018
Chat Clients
- Riot - A decentralised encrypted comms app for the Matrix.org ecosystem.
Jan 11, 2018
Productivity
- Cold Turkey - The only blocker for distracting websites that actually works. (even doesn't let you uninstall it when blocking is active).
Oct 28, 2017
IDEs
- CLion - Smart cross-platform IDE for C/C++ that uses CMake as a build system.
- PhpStorm - Lightning-smart PHP IDE with major frameworks support.
- Rider - A cross-platform .NET/Mono IDE.
- RubyMine - An intelligent Ruby IDE that supports many modern frameworks.
- WebStorm - A smart JavaScript IDE that uses the full power of the modern JavaScript ecosystem.
Oct 26, 2017
Utilities
- LightBulb (⭐1.6k) - Reduces eyestrain by adjusting gamma based on the current time
Oct 20, 2017
Online Storage
- Box - Ability to sync more than 100,000 files and supporting both special characters in file names and file paths longer than 256 characters.
- Mega - Encrypted file storage.
Oct 03, 2017
Backup
- Arq - Backs up your files to your own cloud account (Amazon Cloud Drive, AWS, Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Cloud Storage, OneDrive, and SFTP).
- Bvckup 2 - Light, versatile data replication software.
Oct 02, 2017
Utilities
- qBittorrent - Free and reliable P2P Bittorrent client.
Sep 06, 2017
Productivity
- Easy Window Switcher - Switch between application instances, fast.
Aug 30, 2017
Utilities
- Link Shell Extension - Create symlinks from Explorer.
Aug 29, 2017
Developer Tools
- Postman - REST client with intuitive user interface to send requests, save responses, add tests, and create workflows.
- Robo 3T - A lightweight GUI for MongoDB enthusiasts.
Utilities
- HWMonitor - A hardware monitoring program that reads PC systems main health sensors : voltages, temperatures, fans speed.
- Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way.
Apr 30, 2017
IDEs
- Visual Studio - Microsofts official IDE. Supports a multitude of languages via plugins.
Apr 25, 2017
Developer Tools
- SSLyog - A powerful MySQL administration tool
Apr 23, 2017
Utilities
- Unlocker - Unlock files Windows won't let you delete
Security
- IIS Crypto - A utility for configuring encryption protocols, cyphers, hashing methods, and key exchanges for Windows components (eg TLS/AES/SHA for Remote Desktop)
Apr 20, 2017
Developer Tools
- Pixie - A simple color picker for developers.
Games
- Unity - Free game engine. Easy to pick up and use with a number of tutorials.
Productivity
- Chocolatey - A package manager for Windows.
Utilities
- SpaceMonger - A graphical utility to display folders and files in blocks relative to their disk usage.
- ZoomIt - It is a screen zoom and annotation tool for technical presentations. It runs unobtrusively in the tray and activates with customizable hotkeys to zoom in on an area of the screen, move around while zoomed, and draw on the zoomed image.
Feb 21, 2017
Audio
- Resonic - Fast and free audio player.
- Postbox - The Power Email App
Nov 24, 2016
Chat Clients
- mIRC - An Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client.
Nov 14, 2016
Chat Clients
- Quassel - Quassel IRC is a modern, cross-platform, distributed IRC client.
Oct 19, 2016
Productivity
- Inkdrop - The note-taking app for Markdown lovers.
Oct 18, 2016
Developer Tools
- Fiddler - Web debugging proxy.
- Keylord Cross-platform GUI client for Redis, LevelDB and Memcached key-value databases.
- pngquant - Apply lossy compression on PNG files with or wi
- Process Hacker - Excellent full blown task manager.
- RazorSQL - A GUI for managing SQLite databases which requires major work.
- SourceTree - A free Git & Mercurial client.
- Sql Wave - A MySQL database manager.
Oct 14, 2016
Utilities
- CleanMyPC - A clean computer in no time.
Sep 27, 2016
Security
- GlassWire - Network security monitoring tool and analyzer that visualizes your network activity.
Sep 17, 2016
Video
- PotPlayer - Multimedia player with a wide collection of codecs which also offers extensive configuration options for users.
Jul 03, 2016
Audio
- Musicbee - Like iTunes but better than iTunes.
Games
- Unreal Engine - Another free game engine. Lots of documentation and easier to pick up, but you pay 5% royalties to Unreal when you make money from UE-based games.
Jun 11, 2016
Developer Tools
- PostgreSQL Database - A comprehensive list of tools.
- Redis Desktop Manager Cross-platform open source Redis DB management tool.
- Wamp - Web development environment.
Jun 07, 2016
Documents
- Microsoft Office - Microsoft's own productivity suite.
Online Storage
- Dropbox -Simple, elegant and versatile (PC, Macs, Android...) cloud storage solution.
- Google Drive - Cloud storage solution deeply integrated in the Google ecosystem.
Productivity
- Listary - Keep files at your fingertips. An unique search utility.
Terminal
- ConsoleZ (⭐2.9k) - Modified version of Console 2 for a better experience and a better visual rendering.
- MobaXterm - Xserver and tabbed SSH client.
- MTPuTTY - Multi-Tabbed PuTTY.
- Putty - SSH and telnet client.
Utilities
- Fraps- Video game capture screen recorder that can be used with all games using DirectX or OpenGL technology.
- Glary Utilities - Provides many more advanced features which are non existent in ccleaner.
- Speccy -Detailed statistics on every piece of hardware in your computer.
- Waltr - Transfer any movie or music file to your iPhone w/o iTunes.
- WinDirStat - It is a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup too.
Security
- Bitdefender - Best outright protection against malware.
Jun 03, 2016
Data Recovery
- Data Rescue - Comprehensive and professional Hard drive recovery software that can recover your photos, videos, documents.
- Ontrach EasyRecovery - Has filtering tools to help sort the large amount of data the software can recover.
May 30, 2016
Video
- K-Lite Codecs - Collection of DirectShow filters, VFW/ACM codecs, and tools.
Data Recovery
- Recuva - Recover your deleted files quickly and easily.
Text Editors
- Sublime Text 3 - The sophisticated text editor.
Productivity
- Ditto - Clipboard manager.
- Everything - The fastest file/folder search tool by name.
Terminal
- ConEmu (⭐7.9k) - Customizable terminal with tabs, splits, quake-style and more.
Utilities
- Carnac - The easiest way to record keystrokes during any screen recording.
- FreeFileSync - An easy backup solution for files and folders, It supports mirroring/two way sync/update between source and destination.
- LICEcap - Animated screen captures and save them directly to .GIF