These are some of the programs and apps i install on a new Windows 10 or 11 system for my daily use. It is neither comprehensive nor complete, i will try to keep it updated as time goes on. Most of these are free, i will indicate when not.
Firefox – keep the web free!
Visual Studio Code – Best stand alone code editor on Windows, runs on Linux and MacOS as well
QTTabBar – Awesome app that adds tabs (and some other toolbars, but i am just here for the tabs.) to File Explorer. been using it since Win 7
Winaero Tweaker – i use it to…uhm…tweak windows. i add a bunch of stuff to explorer’s context menus, disable as many ads and telemetry as i can, and a whole bunch of things to make windows more homey
Paint.net – Great paint app, free for download, or it can be found in the Windows store for a nominal fee. It’s awesome.
Rufus – Great for making bootable USB sticks. Also lets you modify Windows setup to let you install on non supported hardware and create a local account. This can be done manually but it’s nice and easy here.
Filezilla – Nice 2 pane ftp/scp/ssh file copy program. It does that, and it does it very well.
Microsoft Power Toys – a very nice suite of addons for Windows from MS themselves. Lots of goodies here. This one can be installed from the Terminal, or Powershell:
winget install Microsoft.PowerToys --source winget
Gimp – GNU Image Manipulation Program, it’s powerful, free and open source.
Windows Terminal – I love it, a real terminal, finally.
WSL – It’s not perfect, but i love how integrated it’s becoming, and i enjoy the way it works so well with Windows Terminal.
