Each their own, that's mine. Note that this is not a tech user or developper list, but the list of what I install on any new windows pc, including those at work etc ...

7zip (open any archive)

VLC (open any audio/video file)

IrfanView (+ the "all plugins" installer on the same page, open any picture file)

SumatraPDF (read PDFs)

Libreoffice (to open any office files)

NAPS2 (easy scan, and split/merge/... PDFs)

Ditto (give your clipboard a memory)

Everything (an instant file search that works)

TeraCopy (replace windows copy with queue, queues, add files to the queue instead of starting a second parallel copy, pause that works, ...)

Powertoys (so many to list ... mass rename file easily, screen ruler, text extractor ...)

If it's appropriate : Qbittorent (clean torrent client)

Nvidia graphic card ? NVCleaninstall, so you can install just the clean driver you need

Windows 10 or 11 ? O&O Shut Up (to disable all the telemetry and onedrive in one click, there are plenty alternatives but I sort of like this one)

Windows 11 ? ExplorerPatcher to remove suggestions in the start menu and the new and terrible castrated contextual menu

And of course your browser of choice and extensions

In ten minutes you have a computer that feels much more smart and usable. There are plenty of great software out there, but I feel like many what to install lists are very topical or include software you won't use in many cases or once every 6 months, so this is my short list of what you will use essentially every time you use the computer.

I recently started having trouble with 7zip at work due to shared sharepoint folders and the like. I wound up finding ZanaZip which was forked from 7zip but keeps up with modern OS changes.

Do you mean NanaZip?

Yes, I meant NanaZip. Thanks for the correction!

You only left out Bulk Renamed Utility https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk There are many like it but none finer.

Thanks for sharing your list; I already use many of them but learnt about a few new ones that I'll try. I second Everything, the best, nifty little, Windows search utility that is blazing fast.

I find everything is more than just file search. It often works super well as a stand alone file manager.

Not using windows much anymore, but great to hear about O&O and ExplorerPatcher. I notice you don't list an ssh client. I still install cygwin for that. Anything new besides putty?

SSH client is not for non tech users and I tried to keep my list non tech oriented, something you can install on yours, your mom or Janice from accounting and they will all benefit from it.

For SSH I was a die hard team PuTTy for a long time but these days one of the first thing I install on my windows computer is WSL and a Debian inside, that covers all my SSH needs.

Windows now has OpenSSH https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administrat...

Windows now have OpenSSH client (and server) available as optional features. Together with the new terminal the ssh client seems to be working fine. Personally I usually opt in to use the ssh in WSL as I keep it installed on all my Windows machines.

True, right up until you need to use something that must check the SSH_AUTH_SOCK envar and then it's game over man (c.f., Chef Workstation).

If you prefer GUI then bitvise has a solid ssh client

PowerShell. Is there anything that putty do better?

Some alternatives to these items: I like bandizip for zip needs

MPC-BE for video/audio

XnViewMP

Firefox for PDFs

MS office web (no need to install anything)

Windows 10+ includes clipboard history

PowerToys does have a file search, not sure how it compares to Everything

adding mine

TreeSize (to easily find out what is consuming disk space)

picpick/ shareX (screenshotting with annotationsand autosave)

pdftk (pdf merge, split, crop, interleave(

ffmpeg (video trim, split, re-encode, etc.)

Lossless cut (GUI for ffmpeg trim and extract/add tracks)

OpenShot video editor (when DaVinci Resolve is too much for the job and you need simple edits and effects)

OBS Studio (screen record, stream to youtube)

Wiztree is a good alternative to Tree size, it's almost instantaneous

Or the good (old) Scanner from http://www.steffengerlach.de/freeware/ (a <1MB executable)

I'm partial to spacesniffer for that http://www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer/

Not sure why you're being downvoted.

WinDirStat (which used to be my goto) took over 6 minutes and ate 625mb of ram.

TreeSize Free took over 30 seconds, I'm not sure how much ram as it doesn't report it. It also kept trying to upsell me.

WizTree took less than 8 seconds. What's wrong with it?

edit: 2tb nvme ssd, mostly full of rubbish, windows 10.

Directory Report has a 64bit version so that you can scan millions of files without running out of memory

wow it's even fast at samba shares, that's amazing. The NAS did sound like it was having a seizure, though.

I'd love to know what you see in TeraCopy... Doesn't Win11 now do parallel copies?

The reason I started with TeraCopy was that it could to automatic verify after a move but before deleting the originals. Had lots of problems with corrupt transfers and wanted to be certain.

Now it's just what I use, I know it works and my files are safe.

+Autohotkey

>VLC (open any audio/video file)

SMPlayer using mpv on the backend

A worthy competitor to vlc is potplayer

Not the OP but I use a subset of the software available on https://ninite.com/ (IrfanView included)

Used to use that as well, but the selection was too limited for me, so I first switched to chocolatey, and nowadays, winget.

This way I can install almost everything I want with one command.

I'll post my list tomorrow when I'm back on my PC.

This is my list, but it’s pretty opinionated and is missing some pieces: Backblaze Backupper, Canon CaptureOnTouch, YNAB CLassic, and GPSoft’s Directory Opus

https://gist.github.com/Christoph-Wagner/c26ee84105edd12b4d3...