I made this list useful of Windows programs for my own reference, but I thought I'll add a bit more description and share it online in case it helps anyone else. I didn't include programs which everyone knows about (e.g. Microsoft Word, Spotify, various messaging apps...), nor programs for specific things which, if you are into that thing, you most likely know about (e.g. Affinity for photo editing, DaVinci Resolve for video).
Every program on this list is free, some are open-source, and they all work on Windows. Some of them have Mac or Linux versions too, just check their websites to be sure.
Utilities
Flow Launcher: Multifunctional but minimalist search window – this is what the Windows Start Menu could have been. It stays hidden and out of your way, but you can press Alt+Space (or other hotkey of your choice) to launch it and instantly search for installed apps, files and folders. You can also use it as a calculator (it automatically copies the result to your clipboard), for terminal commands (e.g. > regedit launches the Registry Editor), and to directly search bookmarks, Wikipedia, Google Maps, and various other sources. This page lists some of its most useful features, but there are many more. It also has themes, like the translucent theme shown here.
TeraCopy: The native Windows Explorer copy-paste function is good enough for most purposes, but when I need to copy large volumes of data, such as backing up my hard drive to an external SSD, I use TeraCopy. It has some handy features like the ability to pause a transfer, set up a transfer queue, and automatically shut down my PC when the transfer completes. At other times, I deactivate or uninstall it; otherwise each time I paste a file, Windows asks if I want to use TeraCopy or Explorer.
FreeFileSync: Speaking of backing up, FreeFileSync is what I use, every few months, to sync my hard drive to an external SSD. It can be set up to scan and sync only files which have changed, which is faster and cleaner than wholesale copy-pasting or overwriting.
LocalSend: I use this to transfer files from my PC to Android phone, and vice versa. You can open LocalSend and drag-drop files or folders into it. But usually it's even faster to simply right-click on an item, and LocalSend comes up as one of the sharing options.
WinDirStat: I haven't actually used this program, but if I ever need to free up space on my hard drive or external drives, I believe it will be useful. It can scan your drive and display files and folders as proportional blocks (larger blocks mean bigger files). It can even scan for duplicates, though I believe there are other dedicated apps which are more efficient at this particular task.
Docs and media
Foxit PDF Reader: My default PDF reader. It has some basic features like highlighting and comments, but when I want to do more, e.g. merging, deleting or rearranging pages, I use PDF24. There's also a browser-based version, but I prefer the app for privacy.
ExcireFoto 2022 Light: Photo organization and searching. Later versions are paid, but I'm happy with the 2022 free version for now. It lets you create collections, rate and tag photos, search across folders – many of the things that people use a Lightroom catalog for, but at 0% of the price.
HandBrake: Video transcoder for converting video from or to nearly any format. It's also good at compression; I use it to get my DaVinci Resolve exports down to a manageable size before sharing them online.
Snipping Tool: Print Screen on steroids. This comes pre-installed with windows, but I include it here because it does a lot more than just take screenshots. For example, it has a timer if you want to take a screenshot after a few seconds, a text extractor for OCR, and a colour picker which can display the hex value of any on-screen pixels.
Bandicam: Screen recording software. Snipping Tool can capture video too, but Bandicam has some additional features which are good for demos and tutorials. For example, you can customize how the cursor looks, add sound effects for mouse clicks, and display keystrokes.
Plex: Turns your computer into a streaming hub for other devices on the same wi-fi network. I have movie or video files on my computer which I sometimes want to watch on a smart TV. I used to do this via native Windows screen-mirroring, but I recently discovered Plex (thanks, Google AI) and it has been an absolute game-changer. Once you add your media files to the Plex library, it displays them in a Netflix-like interface, and even includes posters, synopses, cast and subtitles. The TV remote can be used to play, pause, skip – basically the experience is just like using Netflix or any other streaming service, but with locally-stored files.
If you have any more recommendations, let me know!
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