Tools for Windows: 2019 edition

Tools for Windows: 2019 edition

Despite never speaking very highly of it, Windows is still the OS of choice for my main machine at home, because it's mostly used for gaming and I still find it highly annoying to work on Windows.

I've written about what software I use in 2014 and 2016 and now, with the new computer and using Windows 10 for the first time, it makes sense to update the list.

I guess the overarching theme is that I need less specialized stuff as I have completely moved development off this platform.

  • Browsers:
    • Firefox and Firefox Developer, only because the taskbar stacking/pinning makes it really annoying to just use two profiles at the same time
  • E-Mail
    • Thunderbird for the main account
    • SylpheedPortable for testing stuff
  • IRC
    • Quassel
  • Audio/Video
    • foobar2000 for mp3s
    • VLC for Videos
    • Greenshot for screenshots
    • IrfanView for images, but it's a bit weird on Win10 so far
  • Editors
    • Notepad++ for everything that's not code
  • Voice
    • Discord
  • Passwords and encryption
    • KeePassXC
    • VeraCrypt
  • Networking stuff
    • PuTTY
    • FileZillaPortable
  • Misc
    • CopyQ for clipboard management
    • SharpKeys to rebind CapsLock to F9
    • WinSplit Revolution for window tiling
    • 7ZipPortable
    • Launchy because Linux has spoiled me for launchers
  • Game Launchers
    • Steam
    • Epic Games
    • GoG Galaxy
    • Twitch for free stuff and WoW addons

Then some things I have put off installing for now:

  • Visual Studio Code when I really, really need to develop on this machine
  • f.lux
  • MP3Tag
  • VirtualBox
  • SumatraPDF
  • cmder
  • Audacity
  • Spotify
  • JuicePortable (writing my own replacement)

And stuff that I left out and don't plan on using in the near future:

  • any jabber client
  • Chrome
  • CDEx (no drive anymore)
  • InfraRecorder

So overall I still think that list is too long, but on the other hand compared to the old lists and the dozens of small tools I had installed these are kind of the essentials.