What are your Microsoft Windows hidden gem apps
What are your Microsoft Windows hidden gem apps
You know the drill, [M]Lemmings...
I want to share TypingMasterPro cuz it is the program that helped me learn to type 2x over (QWERTY than DVORAK)
Off you go!
I will forever recommend VoidTools' Everything ever since someone first introduced it to me some few years ago.
It indexes your entire filesystem and allows you to search for files by name (and by content for text files!) and even allowing RegEx searching for file names, and filters for certain file types and the like.
Everything is a godsend, I install it on every Windows machine I use. But it always makes me wonder why Microsoft doesn't integrate such search features in their own OS.
I don't know who down voted you, because Everything is really really good.
Quick as a nimble, it instantly finds anything on your drives.
My dear colleague bashed my ears for more than a year about this VoidTools soft before I begrudgingly installed it, lo and behold it's seriously one of the best tools I have ever stumbled upon.
Its very strange, I'm still not convinced we all don't use downvote both punitively and in the curation-sense. I actually like to upvote things that are radically incorrect only if there's a compelling rebuttal existant
I've tried this a bunch of times but I don't really get it tbh.
What sorts of things do you search for?
Everything I need is in an organised structure.
If your shit is organized you probably don’t need to search it. I can see this being useful for finding specific files on an unorganized file system
A lot of the time I need to go digging around in some of my old files from backups to find something (that I remember the file name of, but not the path), so it helps there.
It also helps when I need to find the path of something quickly, as I can just find it by name and use the "Copy as Path" context menu option directly from the results window.
... definitely helps as well when I can't seem to keep my files organised for too long and they get super cluttered quickly, skill issue on my part there.
I work at a computer repair shop, Everything is a game changer
Not sure if a hidden gem or not, but WingetUI is pretty handy. You can manage software in winget, scoop, chocolatey, pip, npm and .net with a graphics interface.
I didn't know that it could do pip, or npm, so it's a hidden gem for me, thanks :)
If I want parameters like silentInstall, can it generate that for me?
Not sure if it can really be considered hidden, but many people don't seem to know about TreeSize. It's an incredibly useful tool to find out what takes up space on your drives.
WinDirStat is a great alternative, and it's FOSS.
Also gives you a nice view illustrating the folder and file sizes
I have used spacesniffer for the longest time, but looking through these to try out later.
Filtering with red color for stuff I know I want to exclude helps.
Definitely PowerToys, there's some great utilities in there like a Spotlight-esque search/launch bar or a tool to rename multiple files at once.
EarTrumpet is great, too, being basically an enhanced version of the standard audio mixer that lets you change audio devices quickly.
My favourite Windows-only app is probably Foobar2000, though, it's an endlessly customisable music player with hundreds of plug-ins for nearly every conceivable use case. It takes a while to set up but once you do there's nothing better.
Deadbeef is getting there, but yeah it is still missing features: https://imgur.com/rBeurjO.png
foobar2000
Strawberry is very similar and is free/open source.
I've used Strawberry before but it didn't really work for me to be honest...
- Autohotkey
- Powertoys
- winget, choco and that other one
- Faststone
- advanced Renamer
- croc
- shareX
- one photo viewer (sadly only on window store)
- everything
I wouldn't consider them hidden gems for the tech savvy community, but for the general community pretty much is.
winget, choco and that other one
Scoop? If so, highly recommend to fellow developers!
Yes, scoop. I still can't remember why I don't like it. I might give it a try when I reinstall windows.
What's oneshot? Besides being difficult to search for.
I ment
one photo viewer. I only like it because it's a very minimalistic photo viewer and also the windows photo kept crashing at some point so I needed a replacement.
Ninite may fit here, to
I was thinking of adding it to my list but I'm trying not to download any software on a browser if I can try because I might click on one of those fake look-a-like site that give you malware like what happened to gimp with google ads a while back.
Another reason for why I didn't added it to my list is that it doesn't have apps that I perfer like ungoogled chromium, brave, Librewolf, MPV, neovim, rustdesk, croc, rust, Gog, vscodium, prism launcher, signal, simplex, tor browser, yt-dlp, and Obsidian.
Package mangers are way better for updating than using ninite so I won't have to deel with an app just sending me to download the newest verson.
I do like using ninite for when a friend or family asking for some help with a file so I send them a ninite with Libreoffice, VLC, and 7-Zip (but now win 11 has native support for winrar and 7z so it isn't need for most users)
And yes I know that ninite is very defferent from a package manager, all i'm try to say is that I would rather sepnd a little more time setting up choco then use ninite.
Not technically a program altho it can be, I recommend Privacy.sexy for mass-configuring the best settings for your respective platform (Windows/Linux/MacOS). And there are LOTS of settings to configure for Windows it seems altho thats the case as well for Mac and I can't speak to Linux
SkiFree
Space Cadet Pinball
TreeSize has saved me a lot of bytes over the years. Performant and visually slick. I would prefer a FOSS utility, though. Apparently, reading other comments here, there isn't an actively maintained one that isn't garbage. Oh well.
Procmon has gotten me out of a couple binds. Task Manager can only do so much for you. I've always been dubious of people who deify Task Manager as some ultimate authority of the OS that kicks ass and takes no prisoners, as I've run into several problems it couldn't solve for me. Procmon feels like the real version of that mythic Task Manager. The main thing it can do which Task Manager (to my knowledge) cannot do that I've needed several times is detect which running processes have a lock on a given file, so I can kill them.
KeePassXC is KeePass2, but not sinfully ugly. It's FOSS and equally functional as the program it aims to supplant, but it's also multiplatform (so I can use it on Linux without Mono!) and it looks like it actually has a design philosophy developed by someone who knows a thing or two about UX design. Also, it lets you auto bulk download favicons for all of your key entries. With KeePass2 I had to do that manually one by one. I was happy to do it then thinking the program was worth it, but now that I know there's a better way I feel like an idiot for putting up with it for as long as I did.
Also, just a short rant: I am so glad Windows finally has a native OpenSSH implementation that ships with the OS. Because that means good fucking riddance to PuTTY and WinSPC. I appreciate them having been there to be our secure and stable options for SSH and FTP/SFTP clients on Windows over the years. But now that I can finally do those things in the terminal with standard cross-platform tools, I no longer have to use their ugly, clumsy GUIs, their stupid .ppk key format, or WinSCP's cryptic command line args ever again, and I couldn't be happier.
I’ve needed several times is detect which running processes have a lock on a given file,
I used to use procman but there is a power toy for that now. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/file-locksmith
DevToys, lots of good tools, handy when you don't want to decode base64 or stuff like that on a website.
This is so good! It replaces so many random websites with one local program.
I've saved so much time reformatting json to make it readable, messy sql before debug etc.
Recently started dabbling with regex and it's nice to test there.
KeepassXC with browser plugins
Notepad++
ShareX for super easy and configurable screen shotting and recording
Espanso text expander
Everything for search
Wox for quick launching
Foobar2000, it is the only windows app that I miss.
Deadbeef is close but it is missing several features, it can't even encode using more than 1 cpu core lol.
TerraCopy and FreeCommander. Fuck Windows Explorer.
I see fuck Windows, I upvote
MobaXTerm.
Makes dealing with lots of servers, be them Linux or Windows, much easier.
Honourable mention to Right PDF reader for helping me with previous study too. It's had a name change but it includes enough features in its free version that makes it very good for reading and marking up longwinded academic studies.
I use IPFilter Updater for Bit Torrent programs.
It updates a block list that blocks out bad actors and trackers, so there's a bigger chance you can sail the seas in peace.
Chocolatey, a command line driven package installer for Windows that works like apt-get for Linux. Replaces thousands of bloated installers with simple commands. My first step with an updated Windows install is to install Chocolatey, open command prompt, and do something like
choco install firefox notepadplusplus gimp zoom windirstat winrarto install them all silently.I also use it to auto update my software every day so i don't have to deal with each application's "There is an update available" prompt on startup.
For video, virtualdub2 and avisynth. Avisynth let's you handle video as if it were a variable in a program. This lets you do things impossible with a regular video editor.
Ooh AviSynth looks really neat, I am definitely going to play around with that. Thanks for the heads up.
Sharex
My favorite hidden gem has to be ear trumpet (https://eartrumpet.app/). It gives you quick access to changing app volume without going through multiple clicks.
I like Joystick2Mouse. It's a very highly configurable program that allows you to use a game controller to emulate mouse and keyboard actions.
Winutil. Makes windows usable.
Startisback++, not tried on Win11.
Firefox/Brave, VLC, 7zip, to replace the garbage apps
Pretty sure WinSCP is the best SCP/FTP client on any platform.
Didn't try it with FTP since I use FileZilla.
Did you compare it and can say why one is superior?
I recently found out about PeaZip, it's a Foss compression tool that can compress and uncompress a wide variety of compression formats. For some formats, like 7z, it also has some pretty advanced options to help maximize compression ratios, if you know what you are doing of course.
What advantages does it have over just 7zip?
Outside of having significantly more formats and methods available (some of which are experimental), the only other thing really notable is that 7zip doesn't seem to have a "tar before" option, like PeaZip does. I can see that in the manual, that 7zip can tar files before compressing but you have to do that manually.
I should probably mention that my original comment was comparing PeaZIp to WinRAR. I actually didn't use 7zip until I tested for the purpose of comparing it to PeaZip in this comment.
Just has to be available for Windows in order to be topical
Ok, I've edited my comment to reflect that.
the Ditto clipboard manager
It lets me keep track of all my clipboard history without having to use microsoft's
only thing is I have to remember to go back and delete a password after I copy it, but luckily bitwarden can autofill most of the time
Baregrep is really great for parsing tons of logs
Notepad++ for syntax highlighting, don't even need to read the words, just look at the patterns of colours to understand the logs
WinMerge for comparing files between folders, I use it often to compare code between deployment versions
Alt+F4 automatically closes any programs wasting your time.
I'll allow it lol
FancyWM
If I absolutely have to use windows it works pretty well in letting me keep my workflow from Linux along with some hotkeys for cycling virtual desktops
Xyplorer. A much better file system
Librewolf - browser Syncthing / synctrayzor - file sync Notepad++ - text editor WinSCP + putty + friends - interacting with Linux Zettlr - knowledge base / markdown editor Keepassxc + browser integrations
Actual Window Manager.
If you have multiple monitors it allows you to have a different virtual desktop on each monitor and jump between them independently.
Balena Etcher, so that you can make a boot able Linux drive 😉 Jokes aside, Windirstat was one of my gems.
f.lux, better than windows built-in function.
Recently discovered subs2srs. Super useful if you are learning a language. It can take a video file of a show or movie, extract the subs, and create Anki flash cards for each line of dialogue. It can even add snapshots, audio, and video clips to the flash cards (though video can have lengthy transcodes, so I just stuck with audio/snapshot on my cards).
For the sysadmins under us (and anyone that needs it): TypeClipboard
It essentially is a sort of auto-typer typing what's in the current clipboard.
Great for remote mangement and typing in the password into a login field because CTRL+V doesnt work.Well the one that keeps me needing a Windows machine for on... Ableton Live + VST plug-ins.
Musicbrains Picard is also the best metadata autotag app I've used.
"Reclaim Windows" type powershell scripts, feel like group policy and powershell are underutilized by average desktop users. A lot of the things people complain about with windows you can control with it. Primarily a debain user myself but I need Windows to run Ableton on custom hardware so it is what it is.
Total Commander, great Norton like file manager
Bulk Rename Utility
Mremoteng
Oh yeah that’s a word 🙄
I could never afford it but Rationale is very cool for the inner logician/thinker/schizo in me
Like mentally I literally consider it a cool gem
