I’ve been building my personal Windows-toolchain for more than 20 years, and that is why people approach me frequently to ask for tools for this and tools for that. Find here my toolchain, which should make things easier for everyone.
In general, I will prefer open source or freeware tools, unless a commercial solution is clearly superior in my eyes. For most of my recommendations, there are also versions for Mac, and Linux.
Administration
- Remote Desktop: TeamViewer | AnyDesk
- System Cleanup (Files & Registry): CCleaner | BleachBit
- Microsoft Outlook Data Backup & Settings Migration: MObackup
- Storage Space Analysis: WinDirStat
- Volume Backups: Acronis TrueImage | CloneZilla
- File Backups: Duplicati | Backup Service Home | AllSync
- Volume & Partition Management / Recovery: GParted | PartedMagic | TestDisk
- Virtual Machines: Oracle VM VirtualBox | VMware Workstation Player
- Local Webserver & MySQL Environment: XAMPP (Apache)
Security
- Anti Virus: according to recent test results, you don’t need a dedicated anti virus tool beyond what Microsoft Windows already includes (Defender)
- Password Management: BitWarden | KeePass
- VPN Client: OpenVPN
- VPN Providers: NordVPN | Private Internet Access
- Full-Disk-Encryption: VeraCrypt | Windows BitLocker (included in Windows 10 Professional only)
- File Encryption (Single and/or Container): VeraCrypt | AES Crypt | 7-ZIP
- Cloud Storage Encryption: BoxCryptor | Cryptomator
Files & Folders
- ZIP: 7-ZIP
- Cloud Storage: Dropbox | Microsoft OneDrive | GoogleDrive
- Desktop Icon Organisation: Fences | Desktop Restore
- File Recovery: Recuva | TestDisk
- File Renaming: Bulk Rename Utility | FileBot
- File Attribute Manager: Attribute Changer
- File Synchronisation: AllSync | Duplicati | Free File Sync
- File Comparison: AllSync | BeyondCompare
- File Duplicate Finder: AllDup | DupeGuru | BeyondCompare
- File Download Tool: Free Download Manager
- PDF: Adobe Acrobat Reader | Foxit PDF Reader
- PDF Creation / Manipulation: Adobe Acrobat | PDFsam | PDFcreator
- BitTorrent Client: qBittorrent | Free Download Manager
- MP3 Tagging: MP3tag | MusicBee
- Path Length: Path Length Checker | Path Scanner
Office
- Texts: Microsoft Word
- Spreadsheets: Microsoft Excel | Google Spreadsheets
- Presentations: Microsoft PowerPoint
- Notes & Information Management: Microsoft OneNote | Evernote
- Outliner: Simplenote | Microsoft OneNote | Evernote
- E-Mail: Microsoft Outlook | Mozilla Thunderbird
- Reference Management: Citavi | Mendeley
- To-Do-Lists: Microsoft Outlook (Tasks) | Trello
- Project Management / KanBan: Trello | ZenKit
- Text-Editor: Notepad++ | Sublime Text
- Mindmapping: FreeMind | MindManager
Internet & Communication
- Browser: Google Chrome | Mozilla Firefox | (Browser Add-Ons for Chrome | Firefox > tbd later)
- Messaging: Signal | Threema | Telegram | Tox
- VoIP Calls: Skype | Dischord (and also most messengers, see above)
- Multi-Messenger Frontends: Rambox | Franz
- FTP Client: FileZilla
- TOR: TOR Browser
Images & Graphics
- Screenshots: PicPick | ShareX | SnagIt
- Image Viewer & simple editing & batch conversions: FastStone ImageViewer | XnView | IrfanView
- Advanced Image Editing: Adobe Photoshop | GIMP
- Vector Graphics: Adobe Illustrator | Inkscape
- Mosaic Images: Andrea Mosaic | Edda Mosaic
- UI & Diagram Sketch: Pencil | yEd Graph Editor | Microsoft Visio
- Desktop Publishing: Adobe InDesign | Scribus
Video
- Video Editor: OpenShot VideoEditor | kdenlive | ShotCut
- Video Encoder / Converter: HandBrake
- Video Players: VLC MediaPlayer | MPC-HC
- Screen-Recording: SnagIt | Open Broadaster Software
Audio
- Audio Recording & Editing: Audacity
- Audio Players: MusicBee | Clementine
- Audio Converters: fre:ac
Multimedia
- Animated Photo Shows: Aquasoft DiaShow
- TV Program (Germany): TV Browser
- TV Media Download (Germany): MediathekView (WebVersion)
- CD Ripping: ExactAudioCopy | fre:ac
Hardware
- Hardware Information & Monitoring: HWinfo | Speccy | AIDA64
- CD burning: CD Burner XP
- USB-Stick / Flash Memory Management: Rufus | H2testW
- HDD/SSD Management: Crystal DiskInfo | AS SSD Benchmark