Essential Software for Windows 10
The following guide lists essential software that you may want to install on a a Windows 10 system. This is particularly useful for systems that are set up anew as programs are carried over if you upgrade your system.
Generally speaking, if a program runs on Windows 7 or windows 8, it should run fine on Windows 10 as well. There may be a few exceptions to the rule but the vast majority of programs will run fine on Microsoft's newest version of Windows.
Essential software in the context of this guide refers to programs that the majority of Windows 10 users will find useful. It comes down to your use of the computer in the end though.
Tip: You may want to check out our best of Windows software guide as well which highlights even more programs.
Essential Software for Windows 10
Another web browser
Windows 10 ships with Microsoft Edge, a modern browser, and legacy Internet Explorer. While some users may find Microsoft Edge sufficient for their activities, others may discover that it lacks features that they require.
For instance, Microsoft Edge does not support extensions and limits what you can customize significantly as well.
I recommend Mozilla Firefox as it gives you the best mix of privacy, features and customization options but other browsers such as Google Chrome work fine as well.
Tip: Check out our best Firefox add-on and best Chrome extension guides to get the most out of your browser.
Antivirus Software
Windows 10 ships with basic protection against threats. While this may be sufficient on the first start of the system, you may want to upgrade the system defenses as soon as possible to better protect it.
If you check recent test results on AV Comparatives and AV Test, you will find the following antivirus companies listed at the top (only those with free programs listed here)
- Avira Antivir
- Bitdefender Antivirus Free (appears to be incompatible right now)
In addition to that, you may want to consider adding the following specialized security programs as well to the Windows 10 PC.
- Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit - Mitigates exploits.
- Malwarebytes Anti-Malware - A second opinion scanner that you may want to run regularly.
- Microsoft EMET - Microsoft's exploit mitigation software.
- Sandboxie - A sandboxing solution for Windows that allows you to run programs in a safe environment on the system.
Backup Software
Backup software comes in many flavors, from programs that back up or synchronize files to full disk imaging programs that copy an entire partition or hard drive for backup purposes.
There are many free backup programs for Windows, but the two that you may want to consider first are Acronis True Image and Macrium Reflect Free.
You need storage space to store the backups on another hard drive.
Windows 10 can unpack zip archives natively but lacks support for other popular formats such as rar. While you may find 7-Zip mentioned in recommendations most of the time, the slow pace of development and resulting lack of support for new formats has made it second choice to Bandizip.
Bandizip is a free program for Windows that supports a massive amount of formats and excellent functionality on top of all that.
CCleaner is the go-to file cleaning program for Windows. While there are other programs available that do a similar job, CCleaner's combination of an easy to use interface with impressive cleaning capabilities ensure that it keeps the crown on Windows 10 as well.
Piriform, the company behind the product, has updated it recently to improve Windows 10 compatibility.
Apart from removing temporary files, CCleaner supports Registry operations, may be used to manage startup items or wipe disk space on a select drive to make data on it unrecoverable.
Tip: Download CCEnhancer as well which adds support for more than 1000 new programs to CCleaner.
Desktop email programs have several advantages over online services. For one, you can configure them to have access to all emails at all time.
They do allow you to backup emails regularly and make it easier to export/import them as well.
Thunderbird is a popular free desktop email client that ships with an impressive set of features. In addition to those, you may extend the client with extensions.
Media Player
Windows 10's media playback capabilities are not as good as those of Windows 8. Microsoft removed Windows Media Center from the operating system and cut DVD playback as well.
Check out our list of Windows Media Center alternatives for Windows 10, there are a few that you can install that add similar functionality to the operating system.
Please note that Windows Media Player remains a part of the operating system.
Third-party media players add capabilities back to Windows 10 and are generally the better alternative as they offer better support for formats and ship with extras that the default Windows programs don't offer.
Probably the most popular of them all is VLC Media Player. It supports most media file formats out of the box and can play media that you insert into the PC as well (DVD and Blu-Ray playback supported).
VLC plays audio files as well but you may prefer a dedicated program for audio playback. AIMP3 is a popular audio player for Windows that supports all popular audio formats, Internet radio playback, recording, and lots of other features.
Misc Software
The following selection may or may not be useful depending on your needs.
- f.lux or Sunset Screen to adapt the brightness of the display to the time of day.
- Irfanview or XnView are two popular image viewers.
- KeePass is an excellent local password manager that supports plugins and global hotkeys.
- Nirsoft has created dozens of excellent programs for Windows that you may find useful.
- Notepad++ replaces the plain text editor Notepad. It supports text formats, plugins and other features.
- Revo Uninstaller is a software uninstaller that removes leftovers from the system after you remove programs.
- Sysinternals Software offers several great advanced tools such as Autoruns to manage startup items or Process Explorer to get detailed information about running processes.
Office programs
There is Microsoft Office and the free alternative Libre Office that you can install on Windows 10. The choice depends largely on your requirements and whether you have an Office license already or don't mind paying for it.
Apart from an Office suite, you may also want to install a PDF reader on your system. This depends again on your needs. If you only need a reader application, then I recommend Sumatra PDF for that as it is lightweight and does not expose your system to security threats.
If you require it, Adobe's PDF reader or even Acrobat may be the programs you want to install on your Windows machine.
Windows 10's image editor is basic and needs to be replaced. Two popular alternatives are Paint.NET and Gimp.
Now You: Did we miss a program?
How about screenshot choices?
I’d recommend ScreenshotCaptor (if you need more advanced software) or Lightshot if you need just fast as simple, or Jing if you need quick sharing out of the box.
Tip: in every screenshot software turn off sounds. Usinп sounds with screenshot software just makes capturing slow.
For me: http://www.faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm Screen capture and Video recorder; one time fee $ 19,90
I’m not sure if Chrome of FF will be available for 10, but if they are, I highly recommend Nimbus Screenshot extension.
Definitely ShareX. Makes alternatives like puush, SreenshotCaptor and others look like crap. Even has a screen recording option. Bonus, it’s open source. And its free.
A built-in Windows 10 feature:
WindowsKey + PrtSc
Instant screen capture saved to Screenshots folder is user’s picture folder.
^_^
If you have OneDrive installed, you can save a plain PrtSC directly there, and get a pop out confirming that it happened. Thus as usual in Windows, you get to choose how you want things to work.
– I find that Sysinternals and Nirsoft software do better united under WSCC installer/updater from the start. Using WSCC you can setup, use and later update them all in most convenient matter. Address is http://www.kls-soft.com/wscc/
– Irfanview and XnView are not free for commercial environments. When I looked for something I may use on my workplace, I found Imagine by Chun Sejin {there is other viewer with this name} http://www.fosshub.com/Imagine.html
– same “non-free for workplace” story is with CCleaner, not to mention that it started to become bloatware with all that monitoring options. I’d recommend Bleachbit http://bleachbit.sourceforge.net/
– no file manager was mentioned at all. I’d recommend Double Commander — familiar to experienced guys 2-panel style, tabs etc http://doublecmd.sourceforge.net/
or you may want to use Q-Dir
– there are more alternatives to MS Office (some free office suits like Kingsoft office)
– I don’t see any firewall option (while I don’t know what may be good for Windows 10)
For backups, Windows 10 is more complete than is Windows 8.1: it allows system images, and reintroduced the Windows 7 backup system that had been abandoned.. Of course, it is less flexible and efficient (no compression) than a true backup utility, and I prefer EasUS ToDo Backup but for non-advanced users, that’s fine.
You can also use Ninite to save some time installing most of the software listed here. Ad/Crapware free too.
Ditto for Ninite!
For screen shots, http://www.picpick.org/en/
Its a fantastic free option with tons of features (no I am not affiliated with them in anyway). Even hot keys.
I have found impression:eyes superior to any other photo/image viewer I’ve ever used. The author died afaik, but the application is very small, portable, and feature complete. Only 1 known bug (crashes when scroll clicking an image placed in a folder with a very small number of images) but you would almost never need do do something like that anyway, so you don’t really notice the bug.
I’ve recently switched to Baka MPlayer:
http://bakamplayer.u8sand.net/
https://github.com/u8sand/Baka-MPlayer
It has a panel on the right (that you can remove or reduce) showing all other videos in the same folder as the playing video, and it has an exceptional speedup+slowdown function (I’ve assigned to the keys [ and ]) I’ve tried this function in Windows media player classic (Home Cinema), and it can become very laggy in MPC-HC despite MPC-HC being lightweight. In Baka MPlayer on the other hand, there is no lag whatsoever. You can right click to pause vids, and has other useful functions which you can custom keybind.
Props on selecting Avira as the best antivirus. It’s also my current choice of AV.
CCleaner however…… well anyone who uses this crap deserves what they get (eg. data loss, unresponsive system, lost critical system files, corrupted registry, pc going into automatic repair loop, etc.)
While in the early days of PC Cleaners I had experiences like those you mention, I have never experienced anything like that with CCleaner. In fact a lot of tech savvy people recommend it.
I’ve been using CCleaner and Defraggler for years, never had a single issue with a Piriform product. Ever.
CCleaner does NOT cause any of those issues you mentioned. You’ve got far more serious issues with your system if using it did any of the above. Like the other’s said, it’s registry cleaner is the safest one available. Period. I use it on both my machines, as well as countless other people’s systems, and never once has it hosed any of them.
Used Sumatra for years here but as “Edge” is setup to read PDF’s by default on Windows 10 I haven’t really found any need to replace it.
My Choices:
Chrome (Stuck with it due to bookmark syncing for the Mrs.) + LastPass
CCleaner – Outlined by Martin
Tixati : Swiched to this torrent client after utorrent started to lose it’s way. At the time of switching it was also much better, no idea how it compares today as I haven’t looked back since.
Bandzip – (Outlined by Martin)
MusicBee – Awesome music manager/player that pretty much wants for nothing.
Plex: Great media server that can potentially stream to all your devices.
Teamviewer – To enable me to remote desktop into my Stream 7 Tablet so that I can change settings on non-touch apps more easily.
There are other software that I find the need to install sooner or later but those are my essentials.
Musicbee is cool, But I’m really liking AIMP3 as far as audio player’s go. And I just recently discovered the two most user friendly media convertors of all time. MediaHuman’s Audio & Video convertors. My 3 year old could use them both and they’re very fast.
There are extensions on firefox to sync bookmarks across many different browsers.
I strongly recommend PDF X-Change Viewer. It has a great set of annotation tools. PDFill PDF Tools is also useful for splitting, merging, and reformatting PDF files.
Have you ever tried Foxit Reader??? It has everything you need…..
Foxit Reader, like CCleaner, decided it *had* to use the butt-ugly Windows 8/Metro style flat, white title bars and all-caps menus. Ditched them in favor of Sumatra and BleachBit, respectively.
I always install WinPatrol on any PC I use to monitor system changes that other software may try to make to the basic Windows setup, especially programs that don’t need to start automatically with Windows.
As for backup, Macrium Reflect, EaseUS ToDo Backup and AOMEI Backupper all offer very good free versions.
And while I have been a Thunderbird user for years, I also find the Opera Mail client to be quite capable.
For Clipboard – Clipjump
For CD/ DVD Image work – WinCDemu
For FileSync- FreeFileSync
For Ebook Mgmt- Calibre
For Ebook Reading – Cool Reader
For notes making – OneNote
For managing Auto runs- Autorun Organizer
For Downloads- Free Download Manager
For Searching- Everything
Portables apps- SyMenu and Portableapps.com
For Timers and Countdown- WatchMe by Flamebrain
For Network management related- Glasswire
For Todo list mgmt- Swift To do
For Copying/Moving Data- TeraCopy
For Making Laptop WifiHotspot – mHotspot
FreeFileSync??? Someone on another site tried to tell me how great that app is. And then I scanned it @ Virus Total. I just downloaded it again to show you why I immediately deleted it. Here’s the results for that ‘wonderful’ piece of Mal-Ware. I’m not trying to tell you what to do, but seriously, whatever security/anti-virus software you’re using, you need to dump it and install something that actually works at protecting your system. Mind if I ask what you do use? I personally swear by Kaspersky Internet Security, it consistently scores in the 99 percentile with the lowest false positives. But my 2nd and 3rd choices would be Avira and BitDender.
Have a look at June’s real world test result’s:
http://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart1.php?chart=chart2&year=2015&month=7&sort=0&zoom=0
File name: FreeFileSync_7.3_Windows_Setup.exe
Detection ratio: 14 / 55
Analysis date: 2015-08-02 07:38:11 UTC
AVG OpenCandy.ADF 20150802
Baidu-International Adware.Win32.OpenCandy.C 20150801
Bkav W32.HfsAdware.DF4D 20150801
CAT-QuickHeal (Suspicious) – DNAScan 20150801
DrWeb Adware.OpenCandy.164 20150802
ESET-NOD32 a variant of Win32/OpenCandy.C potentially unsafe 20150801
GData Win32.Application.OpenCandy.O 20150802
Ikarus Trojan.Crypt 20150802
Jiangmin Adware/iBryte.hccs 20150731
Malwarebytes PUP.Optional.OpenCandy 20150802
McAfee Artemis!7B77375EE6FC 20150802
McAfee-GW-Edition Artemis 20150802
Panda PUP/OpenCandy 20150801
Sophos Generic PUA FK 20150802
It’s Opencandy which is adware. If you ‘de-click’ the “offered” install during the time you are installing FreeFleSync, it will not get installed. Furthermore, if you are paranoid, you can always do a scan with Malware Bytes to be sure.
That said, FreeFileSync is absolutely fantastic! It does what commercial products do and its free for life! Just be careful when you install.
My choices:
* Antivirus – Eset NOD32
* File Manager – Directory Opus. Expensive, but worth every penny for a power user, IMO. It’s ridiculously powerful.
* Editor – Notepad++
* PDF – Sumatra
* mind-mapping/organization – X-Mind
* automation/macros – Autohotkey
* screenshots – Snagit (payware), and Greenshot (freeware)
* image viewer/mgr – Faststone
* backup tools – Macrium Reflect (imaging), and Syncback Free (individual folders)
* hdd usage viewer – Wiztree
* video playback – SMPlayer (much better than VLC, IMO. Supports resuming)
* music playback – Musicbee (one of the best applications of any kind, period)
* ebook mgt – Calibre 64 bit
* comics (cbr/cbz) reader – ComicRack for Windows
Since version 2.2.0, VLC supports resuming.
I just tried it, and it does not resume. I looked through the options and found nothing to turn on resuming.
SMPlayer resumes where you left off by default, natively, and without any need of 3rd party add-ons. You should give SMPlayer a look it’s much better than VLC!
According to the changelog, it does support resume: http://www.videolan.org/press/vlc-2.2.0.html
I never could get it to work though and the extensions that promise resume don’t work as well on my system.
@Martin, exactly, VLC’s resume has always been a half-assed effort and doesn’t work for most people.
Refrain from installing any software on any version of Windows. Use only portable applications. The best source is http://portableapps.com/.
The only exception are Security/anti-virus apps that require real-time defense.
http://www.pendriveapps.com/ is another excellent repository for portables.
Haven’t run some of these under WIN10, but other items that I install on all my systems:
Unchecky (but modifies Hosts file)
CryptoPrevent
AdBlock Plus (allow on Ghacks.net)
Belarc Advisor
Bullzip PDF Printer
DesktopOK
CPUID CPU-Z
EasUS Partition Master
FastStone Image Viewer
FileHippo App Manager
FolderSize
FreeFileSync
Geeks3D GPU Caps Viewer
MS Image Composition Editor
Picasa
Registrar Registry Manager
Revo Uninstaller
The Best Firefox Add-on list is excellent, but could use a couple of edits:
– History Deleter has been removed by its developer.
– RequestPolicy could be updated to RequestPolicyContinued. https://requestpolicycontinued.github.io/
Yeah it needs constant updating but I don’t have the time currently for that. I have updated it with your suggestions.
What I always have on my PC…
1- Avira Free
2- Ditto clipboard manager (free)
3- CintaNotes (free)
4- Desktop Calendar (free)
5- NexusImage / my default image viewer (free)
6- Search Everything (free)
7- Light Alloy multimedia player (free)
8-Wins Patrol / Scotty (free)
9- System Explorer (free)
10- WPS Kingsoft Office (free)
11- Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (free)
12- IObit Uninstaller (free)
13- LastPass (free)
14- Spyware Blaster (free)
15- Macrium Refect (free)
16- Ccleaner (free)
17- Zoner Photo Studio 17 photo editor(free)
18- Defraggler (free)
19- Wondershare Filmora video editor (free)
20- ScreenPresso screen capture tool (free)
… and a few others but basically this is what I have on my computer and recommend…
Any recommendations anyone???
Why not just run Linux? (free)
I don’t have much knowledge of Linux and what I do know is that there are many different OS options to chose from. I’ll have to inform myself better….
Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit and Unchecky are 2 of my “must haves”. And Bitsum’s Process Lasso is an excellent alternative to Process Explorer imo.
Maybe in the office programs you could use a mention of the free office program office suite who was especially created to fulfill a niche market in the laptop, tablet, and Ultra-Book computer segment. SSuite Office – Premium HD (also freeware) is also available for laptops and desktops. This because now even with the windows 10 the integration of software for all purposes is going further on than ever for phone, tablet — , desktop – , laptop computers
Each application has a very easy to use menu structure and its listed features are limited to just 3-levels deep for quick access, unlike most new ribbon interfaces. Also included is a professional peer-to-peer video phone for LAN and internet communications.
The tabbed document interfaces also make it easier to find your opened documents with a single view. The thumbnail previews enhances the user-interaction further by displaying the whole document layout, whether you are creating pdfs, image documents, or simply displaying the print preview as you create your important document, thesis, letter, or birthday card.
The world’s first free HD optimized office software.
Features are:
Custom auto fill lists
Multi-Display compatible
Custom Text and Phrases lists
Envelope Printer has return address position feature
Create WordArt and Math Equations / Expressions in WordGraph
Create custom templates and add them to the “Template Library”
Optional extras for exporting to presentation format – SSP format
Export your documents to PDF, PNG, GIF, JPG, BMP, EMF, TIFF and SSP
Create presentations in WordGraph – {Viewable in any web browser and EZPhoto album viewer}
Application’s List for SSuite Office – Premium HD:
WordGraph HD
EZPhoto Editor HD
Accel Spreadsheet HD
Extra Applications:
Tetris 2D
System Monitor
CleverNote PIM
Envelope Printer
Year and Day Planner
Recent Documents Viewer
EZPhoto Album and Presentation Viewer
Best media player by far is MPC HC, and you really do not need that anymore with Windows 10 supporting HEVC, FLAC, and MKV right out of the box.
MPC HC requires a codec pack be installed to use while VLC has its codecs built in. I wouldn’t recommend MPC HC for most users because codec packs can cause more problems than they solve.
I am using Bitdefender Total Security 2015 on Windows 10 build 10240.Absolutely no problems.
As for file manager, I’ve always been using and still use Total Commander (previously Windows Comander): http://www.ghisler.com/
It’s one of the first tools I install on every new PC.
There’s plenty of classic ‘must-have’ software among that little lot,namely:
Avira,
Malwarebytes(Anti-Exploit & Anti-Malware)
CCleaner
Sunset Screen
Revo
Sumatra
Bandizip
& XnView which,of course,is perfect for screenshots too!
I also recommend you add the listing of office suites that are available from SSuite Office. They have a whole range of free office suites that will meet anyones needs.
Best part is that they are all compatible with any Windows system too!
for email I use emClient is free up to two accounts.
and for screenshots I use Greenshot
Firefox, Chrome, MS Office, LibreOffice : what a revolution !!
Agree on Firefox, but Chrome is almost unusable with the amount of process instances it runs. At a minimum it always runs at LEAST 6 to 8 processes. And I choose Google Doc’s/Sheets and Slides over the bloated Office and LibreOffice also. You can’t beat Google’s synchronization across multiple devices and no 200mb install files. Lately though, I’ve found Slimbrowser to be just as fast as FF. (with some very handy built-in tools)
Every 3rd article I see about Windows 10 prominently mentions VLC as an alternative to the missing Media Center software. That’s some great press for an open source media player.
One that nobody’s mentioned: the also open source ShareX. Includes screen capture tools (both video and images), color tools, uploader, image editor, lots of batch tools, and much more. Martin did an analysis back in 2012: https://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/24/sharex-take-screenshots-and-upload-local-data-to-remote-locations/ Although I haven’t seen anything in the changelog about Windows 10, it’s being actively developed: http://www.softpedia.com/progChangelog/ShareX-Changelog-216421.html
I would also recommend Kingsoft Office as an alternative to Microsoft Office
KingSoft Office….. now WPS Office is an excellent alternative to Microsoft Office. It’s Windows Office compatible and they have a FREE version which is what I’ve been using for the past 2 years and only have praises for this software. If you have been using Windows Office you won’t be lost with KingSoft for it’s very similar to Windows set-up… What can I say but give it a try… enjoy … Just in case you ask, I don’t work for KingSoft…. enjoy ….
Be aware, Windows 10 does not have Easy Transfer anymore. If you buy a new computer and you want to move all your existing apps, data, and settings to it from your old PC, you will need a tool such as PCmover from Laplink.
Or you could just make an image with Reflect or Backupper. ;)
Thanks for this nice list of softwares…
I prefer Avast Free for antivirus. Also, Foxit is pretty good for a PDF reader, including an Microsoft Office-like ribbon. However, if all one needs is a PDF reader and nothing else, one could probably even forgo dedicated software and use a web browser.
Lastly, I think the vast majority of IE users will be satisfied by Edge, since IE really didn’t support extensions, and Edge should be faster. I haven’t tested Edge for RSS functionality, which is the only thing I use IE for now. But definitely download and use Firefox. Besides being way prettier than Edge, it is just a better browser.
I’m a software developer so I use custom developed solutions such as my Dual Pane Explorer (ExplorerX2), KeePass Web (an ASPNET port of KeePass), Encrypted notepad (CryptoPad), etc but generally speaking these are those core apps that I have to have installed in addition to stuff I developed in house or with the help of my team
Uninstaller: Geek Uninstaller
Cleaner: CCleaner w/ CCEnhancer
Image Viewer: FastStone Image Viewer
Bulk Image Cropping: XnConvert
Flac2mp3 conversion: foobar 2000 w/lame
Music Player: VLC streaming from MPD server
GameSaves: GameSaves Manager
CD-DVD burning: ImgBurn
MP3 Tag Editor: Mp3Tag
Insecure Text Editor: Notepad++
Secure Shell: PuTTY
SSH File Transfer: WinSCP
XServer for Windows: Xming
Encrypted partitions: TrueCrypt
TCPView: TCP/UDP Ports watchdog
Autoruns: Autorun auditing
Process Explorer: enhanced Task Manager
Disk Space Usage: WinDirStat
Developer Tools (not all are free)
Visual Studio (C++, C#, ASPNET)
ReSharper for Visual Studio (code refactoring)
NetBeans (Java)
Komodo IDE (Python, PERL, BASH)
WinMerge (file comparison)
TortoiseSVN (subversion)
WiX (Windows Installer)
NDoc (custom branch – code documentation)
The Regex Coach (regular expressions editor)
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head.
I would install Glary Utilities over CC Cleaner. My experience with CC Cleaner in Windows 7 and Windows 10 is that it is way too aggressive with its registry cleaning and frequently causes unintended problems. I have never had that happen with Glary Utilties which sticks to files that are safe to clean. Anyone using CC Cleaner should be very careful and always do a registry back-up before doing a clean with that utility.
Both Acronis True Image 2015 and 2016 are reported to have problems with Windows 10 on their support forum.
I find ashampoo zip free a better alternative than bandizip for opening compressed files. I didin’t checked the compatibility, I just wanted a soft that had a better looking UI, similar to metro, and till now works fine, the only problem I noticed is that it can take up to 5 seconds to open its main page, unlike bandizip or winrar that need up to 2 seconds (depending on PC resources)
and, I have to tell that download managers are missing, my best bet goes to Internet Download Manager, it is really worthy paying the price, but if people don’t want to pay for it, I would recommend a new download manager called eagleget (still in beta), that has UI personalization for example, not like IDM that you need to manually modify the program archives…
overall, the essential software is here on the post, very good information, I didin’t knew some of the soft published here :)