TOP 5 BEST/ POPULAR PROGRAMS BY CATEGORY...

TheMystic · Nov 11, 2021

TOP 5 BEST/ POPULAR PROGRAMS BY CATEGORY

I have compiled a summary of popular programs/ software for Windows, including links to download them.

If you have suggestions (new categories, change of options listed, etc.), please bring them up and I'll modify the post accordingly.

In most cases, I prefer the PORTABLE option for non-essential programs, if available.

*Apps available in Microsoft Store are marked with an asterisk (*) and Store Link is also provided. You can download from Microsoft Store instead of the Desktop version. The Store version of the app may be limited in functionality compared to the Desktop version, due to restrictions imposed by the Store T&C. So choose what works best for you.

Shareware (i.e. time-limited Trial) and paid software are in Italics.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

WARNING

I haven't used/ tested all of the software in the links below. They are a mix of what I use personally and those recommended by members in this forum here.

Some of the programs may be flagged by VirusTotal. It could be false positive, but there is no assurance of that. Be careful, scan all programs on VirusTotal first and make an informed decision.

I have seen that products from Auslogics, IOBit and some others almost always bundle Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) with their software, some of which are even classified as Trojans in VirusTotal. This is also true for some of the products from CCleaner, Glary Utilities, Wise Cleaner, etc. So pay attention to the permissions granted if you must install such products. The flags on VirusTotal need not be false positives, i.e. the programs can indeed be malicious even if just one or two security engine flags them.

Sl.	Category	Option 1	Option 2	Option 3	Option 4	Option 5

01	Archiver	7zip	PeaZip	Power Archiver
02	Browser	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Brave	Vivaldi
03	Bulk File Rename	Bulk Rename Utility
04	Certificate Manager	Kleopatra
05	Clipboard	Clipto	Clipdiary	CopyQ
06	Cloud	OneDrive	Google Drive	pCloud	Mega	Box
07	Customization/ Personalization	8GadgetPackSetup	Folder Marker	IconPackager	qttabbar	RainMeter
08	Data Recovery	AOMEI Partition Assistant	DiskGenius
09	Disk speed monitor	CrystalDiskMark* - Store Link
10	Disk/ Partition Management	AOMEI Partition Assistant	DiskGenius	Gparted	EaseUS	MiniTool
11	Duplicate cleaner	CCleaner Portable	Wise Duplicate Cleaner
12	E-book	Calibre
13	Email client	ThunderBird
14	File Explorer	Explorer++	Free Commander	Total Commander	Directory Opus
15	File Backup	Personal Backup	AOMEI Backupper
16	File Sync	Personal Backup	Resilio Sync	Free File Sync	Synchronize It	GoodSync
17	File System Reader	Linux Reader (Disk Internals) - can read Apple File Systems!
18	Firewall	TinyWall	SimpleWall
19	Hardware Monitor	Speccy	CoreTemp	SpeedFan	HWInfo	HWMonitor
20	Internet Security (Antivirus)	BitDefender	Norton	Kaspersky	MalwareBytes	VirusTotal
21	Music Management	MusicBee* - Store Link	MediaMonkey	Audacity
22	Music Player	MusicBee* - Store Link	MediaMonkey	iTunes	foobar2000* - Store Link
23	Music Tag Editor	MusicBee* - Store Link	MediaMonkey	iTunes	mp3Tag
24	Network File Sharing	WinSCP	FileZilla	CyberDuck
25	Network Monitor	Net Uptime Monitor
26	Office	MS Office 365*	Libre Office	WPS Office	Google Docs
27	Password Manager	LastPass	Keepass	Roboform
28	PC Maintenance	CCleaner Portable	Wise 365	Glary Utilities	Kerish Doctor
29	PDF	SumatraPDF	Xodo*- Store link	WPS Office	Foxit	Adobe
30	Picture Editor	Adobe Photoshop	GIMP	Affinity	Photoscape X
31	Picture Manager	Adobe Lightroom
32	Picture Viewer	IrfanView* - Store Link	XnView	FastStone	qView
33	Privacy Tools	VeraCrypt	O&O Shutup
34	Program Manager	Revo Uninstaller	Ninite	IOBit
35	Remote Desktop	Chrome Remote Desktop	Team Viewer
36	Screenshot/ Screen Recording	ShareX* - Store Link	ScreenPresso	GreenShot	LightShot	OBS
37	Search Engine	Google	DuckDuckGo	Ecosia	Startpage	Wikipedia
38	Software Testing/ Isolation	Sandboxie Plus	Sandboxie
39	Storage Analyzer	WinDirStat
40	System Backup	AOMEI Backupper	Macrium Reflect	AOEMI One Key Recovery (2nd link)
41	Torrent Downloader	qBitTorrent
42	Utilities	Microsoft SysInternals	Microsoft PowerToys	NirSoft Utilities
43	Video Editing	Handbrake	Adobe Premiere
44	Video Player	VLC	PotPlayer	Media Player Classic - BE	SM Player	Real Player
45	VPN	ExpressVPN	SurfShark	PrivateInternetAccess (PIA)	NordVPN
46	Windows Installation	WinToUSB	Rufus	Ventoy

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TheMystic · Nov 11, 2021

Lots of empty boxes above. Please help in filling them if you have a great app not listed in any category. New category suggestions too are welcome.

Other useful software:

01. BleachBit
02. Everything (search)
03. ExplorerPatcher
04. iCaros
05. Link Shell Extension
06. Notepad++ (notepad)
07. Resource Hacker
08. SIV
09. SnagIt
10. sTabLauncher
11. SyncBack Free
12. ThrottleStop
13. TransculentTB
14. Media Player Classic (clsid2)
15. K-Lite Codec Pack Full
16. PDF-XCHANGE
17. Winaero Tweaker
18. CopyTrans HEIC viewer

Hiren's BootCD
EasyBCD
GPU-Z
CPU-Z

BunnyJ · Nov 11, 2021

Nice job and great list.. thanks for sharing.

BunnyJ · Nov 11, 2021

Oh.. think about adding Affinity Photo to that list.. it's amazing and you get get it for around 50 bucks.

Best Photo Editing Software | Affinity Photo

The first-choice photo editor of millions of photographers, artists, and other professionals around the world – try Affinity Photo for free today!

affinity.serif.com

Bree · Nov 11, 2021

TheMystic said:
If you have suggestions (new categories, change of options listed, etc.), please bring them up and I'll modify the post accordingly.

For your CCleaner Portable link you have pointed to the .zip of a specific build, you'd have to update that link for every new build. Consider changing it to the 'builds' page instead: https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/builds

rickhd · Nov 11, 2021

Does Thunderbird work with the Action Centre. I tried it once and liked it except for the lack of that feature.

TheMystic · Nov 11, 2021

rickhd said:
Does Thunderbird work with the Action Centre. I tried it once and liked it except for the lack of that feature.

I haven't used it personally, but I see that it is the most popular email client. So included it.

I personally use Chrome browser.

BunnyJ · Nov 11, 2021

TheMystic said:
I haven't used it personally, but I see that it is the most popular email client. So included it.

I personally use Chrome browser.

I've used it the past and I can attest that it's great.

rickhd · Nov 11, 2021

Yes, I agree. First used it in Ubuntu. At the time I tried it a couple years ago it had no intergration with Windows Action Centre.

Ghot · Nov 11, 2021

@TheMystic

Macrium Reflect is my favorite backup software.

Fabler2 · Nov 11, 2021

CrystalDiskMark and now CrystalDiskInfo available from the Microsoft store. I'm using these apps now as they should auto update.

hdmi · Nov 11, 2021

MPC-BE can on-the-fly transcode audio to Dolby Digital (DD) to allow bitstreaming on older AV Receivers that don't support bitstreaming in another format other than DD─due to having only optical inputs. But MPC-HC, even though it has been abandoned by the original devs, is still being actively developed by clsid2. I prefer the latter choice because I don't need DD, and, MPC-HC (bundled with madVR as part of K-Lite Codec Pack Full) is easier to set up and runs completely stable in addition to having slightly better optimizations IME. As for VLC, it never was the go-to IMO, as it never supported madVR─nothing comes close to madVR.

Sandboxie-Plus/Sandboxie, even though it can certainly be used for that purpose, it should not be labelled "Software testing" IMO. Rather, it is called "isolation software".

TheMystic · Nov 11, 2021

hdmi said:
MPC-BE can on-the-fly transcode audio to Dolby Digital (DD) to allow bitstreaming on older AV Receivers that don't support bitstreaming in another format other than DD─due to having only optical inputs. But MPC-HC, even though it has been abandoned by the original devs, is still being actively developed by clsid2. I prefer the latter choice because I don't need DD, and, MPC-HC (bundled with madVR as part of K-Lite Codec Pack Full) is easier to set up and runs completely stable in addition to having slightly better optimizations IME. As for VLC, it never was the go-to IMO, as it never supported madVR─nothing comes close to madVR.

Sandboxie-Plus/Sandboxie, even though it can certainly be used for that purpose, it should not be labelled "Software testing" IMO. Rather, it is called "isolation software".

I agree that Software Testing isn't the most appropriate term, but since we use it only for testing a software that we don't trust, I think it is acceptable in that context. I have updated it though as per your suggestion.

Sandoxie-Plus and Sandboxie: One is a website in that name and the other is a GitHub link. Are they the same or different software?

cereberus · Nov 12, 2021

This list is very subjective - define term best.

Best can mean cheapest, easiest to use, most reliable etc.

I could produce such a list and it would be totally different.

Title should say "My personal favourite applications by category.

TheMystic · Nov 12, 2021

cereberus said:
This list is very subjective - define term best.

Best can mean cheapest, easiest to use, most reliable etc.

I could produce such a list and it would be totally different.

Title should say "My personal favourite applications by category.

Best is ALWAYS subjective. It is always a preference, an opinion. And always based on personal requirements.

I can't say it is 'my' favourites because I haven't used/ tested all of them. The same has been mentioned in the OP.

I will edit the title though to include a more appropriate term: Popular. But you can argue on that too if that is the intent.

cereberus · Nov 12, 2021

TheMystic said:
Best is ALWAYS subjective. It is always a preference, an opinion. And always based on personal requirements.

I can't say it is 'my' favourites because I haven't used/ tested all of them. The same has been mentioned in the OP.

I will edit the title though to include a more appropriate term: Popular. But you can argue on that too if that is the intent.

I am not arguing. It is just the term best is not the "best" term

hdmi · Nov 12, 2021

TheMystic said:
, but since we use it only for testing a software that we don't trust,

What do you mean, "we"? Personally, I, use it mainly for protecting my browser (Firefox Portable) and to run multiple instances of Firefox Portable, concurrently and in parallel. (This is done by putting AllowMultipleInstances=true in a file FirefoxPortable.ini in the same folder as the file FirefoxPortable.exe and by making sure to delete all occurrences of the Mozilla subfolder in %APPDATA%, %LOCALAPPDATA% and %PROGRAMDATA%.)

TheMystic said:
Sandoxie-Plus and Sandboxie: One is a website in that name and the other is a GitHub link. Are they the same or different software?

Sandboxie has been discontinued and the source code was released to the open source community, after which Sandboxie-Plus and Sandboxie Classic came to existence. They [Sandboxie-Plus and Sandboxie Classic] are both being actively maintained by David Xanatos so the Sandboxie-Plus website is the official website for both, and, they both are available on GitHub, the Sandboxie-Plus website has links that point to the project on GitHub.

The-Hive · Nov 12, 2021

Great list, I shall study it later and see what I am missing out on :ROFLMAO:

TheMystic · Nov 12, 2021

hdmi said:
What do you mean, "we"?

There is no direct reference to either you or me, it is just a way to refer to people to whom it is applicable. In the current context, it refers to people who use the software, no matter their reason. You may use it to run multiple instances of a program in isolation, but I (would) do so primarily to test a software. Others may have other reasons, but that is just not important.

hdmi said:
Sandboxie has been discontinued and the source code was released to the open source community, after which Sandboxie-Plus and Sandboxie Classic came to existence. They [Sandboxie-Plus and Sandboxie Classic] are both being actively maintained by David Xanatos so the Sandboxie-Plus website is the official website for both, and, they both are available on GitHub, the Sandboxie-Plus website has links that point to the project on GitHub.

Thanks for the clarification. The latest builds are having different version numbers on the site and Github, so was not sure.

hdmi · Nov 12, 2021

TheMystic said:
In the current context, it refers to people who use the software, no matter their reason. You may use it to run multiple instances of a program in isolation, but I (would) do so primarily to test a software. Others may have other reasons, but that is just not important.

You said people only use it to test software. I don't want to nitpick or anything, but that just isn't true─in fact it never has been.