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List of recommended Windows software: Difference between revisions

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{{warning|[[Windows 10]] is not recommended due to the fact that it has been designed to datamine and steal its users data. [[Windows 7]] is considered safe if you remove the telemetry updates provided by Microsoft. Not only this, but the existence of a suspicious registry item known as the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY "NSA key"] has existed since Windows NT 4. Because of these issues, use all [[Windows]] systems with extreme caution.}}
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This page is for good quality software on [[Windows]], based on the contributions of /g/ users. This page is not for solidifying preferences or ideology; it is considered to be "value-free" and thus permitting of both reference to open source software and closed source software, for-profit and not-for-profit. This is not your soapbox, your ballot box, or pulpit. Stay constructive and avoid politics and arguments.
This page is for good quality software on [[Windows]], based on the contributions of /g/ users. This page is not for solidifying preferences or ideology; it is considered to be "value-free" and thus permitting of both reference to open source software and closed source software, for-profit and not-for-profit. This is not your soapbox, your ballot box, or pulpit. Stay constructive and avoid politics and arguments.


== Package manager ==
==Package manager==
You can (and should) install a package manager. It gives you the benefit of being able to download and install a lot of popular software via a single command on the command line, instead of
Windows 10 and 11 come with [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/ WinGet], the Windows package manager. Using a package manager gives you the benefit of being able to download and install a lot of software via commands rather than having to navigate to a website, download it and run an installer. If you don't want to use the Microsoft Store, take a look at [https://chocolatey.org/ Chocolatey] or [https://scoop.sh/ Scoop].
having to navigate to a website, download it and run it. Take a look at [https://chocolatey.org/ Chocolatey NuGet] and [http://npackd.appspot.com/ NPackd] for more info. This is an advantage that OSX and Linux users have been enjoying for years, and now you should too.


For an all-at-once installation to install all of your selected favourite software in one go (useful on a fresh install of Windows), check out [https://ninite.com/ Ninite].
For an all-at-once installation to install all of your favourite software in one go (useful on a fresh install of Windows), check out [https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil winutil].


== *nix environment on Windows ==
==*nix environment on Windows==


If you're feeling a bit limited or alienated with Windows' command line tools, you can set up a native *nix environment on Windows.  
If you're feeling a bit limited or alienated with Windows' command line tools, you can set up a native *nix environment on Windows.  


* [http://www.cygwin.com/ Cygwin] is a good choice to "''Get that Linux feeling - on Windows''." It is basically the Wine of Windows, but without recreating system libraries and such. GOW is considered an improvement on it.
*The [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/ Windows Subsystem for Linux], allows you to run a Linux container inside Windows. Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and OpenSUSE are officially supported, but there's a [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/use-custom-distro guide for using a custom distro].
* [https://github.com/bmatzelle/gow/wiki GOW] is GNU on Windows. It's like a much lighter Cygwin, it comes with a terminal option in Windows explorer, and also comes with over Linux 100+ binaries natively compiled for Windows.
*If you don't feel comfortable with containerization, [https://www.cygwin.com/ Cygwin] is a good alternative. Cygwin offers a large selection of GNU coreutils and extras, natively compiled for Windows.
* [http://www.mingw.org/ MinGW] is another minimalist set of *nix binaries natively compiled for Windows.
*[https://www.mingw-w64.org/ MinGW-w64] is a port of the GNU Compiler Collection and it's utilities for Windows.
* [https://msysgit.github.io/ Msysgit] is not as big of a *nix environment as the others. It is the native Windows build of git, which also provides a shell with simple *nix utilities with cp, mv, rm, etc. and other basic coreutils you might need. Read the page for details.
*The native Windows build of [https://gitforwindows.org/ Git] provides a shell with simple *nix programs like cp, mv, rm, etc. and other basic coreutils you might need. Read the page for details.
* If you're running Windows 10, there's the [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/commandline/wsl/install_guide/ Windows Subsystem for Linux], which allows you to run an Ubuntu environment natively in Windows (think Wine but in reverse).
* [[SSH]]


== Communications ==
*[https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/install/installing-powershell-on-windows?view=powershell-7.4#install-powershell-using-winget-recommended Powershell 7] is ''not'' POSIX-compliant but it is adopting increasingly ''POSIX-like'' syntax, so if you want to tough it out, consider updating to the newest version. Additionally, [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dev-home/ Windows Dev Home] adds native sudo for Windows.
 
==Communications==


[[File:People_ChrisHansen.png|200px|thumb|right|Before being v&, weeaboo nonces often use communications software to exchange nude images with police officers posing as kawaii lolis.]]
[[File:People_ChrisHansen.png|200px|thumb|right|Before being v&, weeaboo nonces often use communications software to exchange nude images with police officers posing as kawaii lolis.]]


=== Web browsers ===
===Web browsers===
 
{{Main article|Web browsers}}
''See also: [[Web browsers]]''


[[File:Firefox.png|48px]] '''Firefox'''
[[File:Firefox.png|48px]] '''Firefox'''
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[[File:Software_Chromium.png|48px]] '''Chromium'''
[[File:Software_Chromium.png|48px]] '''Chromium'''


[https://www.chromium.org/getting-involved/download-chromium Chromium] builds are based off the underlying code of Chrome. While nearly identical to Google's browser, they lack proprietary components like automatic updating and flash player. However, Chromium still [https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=498272 phones home] to Google.
[https://chromium.woolyss.com/ Chromium] builds are based off the underlying code of Chrome. While nearly identical to Google's browser, they lack proprietary components like automatic updates and Widevine DRM. However, non-Ungoogled Chromium still [https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=498272 phones home] to Google.


[[File:Software_Iridium.png|48px]] '''Iridium'''
[[File:Otter-browser-icon.png|48px]] '''Otter Browser'''


[https://iridiumbrowser.de/download.html Iridium] is a FLOSS fork of Chromium stripped of as many botnet and proprietary [https://iridiumbrowser.de/faq.html "features"] as possible. It [https://archive.is/VQ2I9 used to phone home to Iridium's servers] for development purposes, but [https://github.com/iridium-browser/iridium-browser/issues/55 it no longer does that]. Nonetheless, it is still as fast as a Chromium fork is expected. Use at your own risk.
[https://otter-browser.org/ Otter Browser] is a FOSS web browser that aims to recreate the best aspects of the classic Opera (12.x) UI using Qt5.


[[File:Opera.png|48px]] '''Opera'''
[[File:Palemoon.png|48px]] '''Pale Moon'''


[http://www.opera.com/ Opera] is a proprietary web browser that has pioneered open web standards for over two decades. It is notable for being the first web browser to sport a tabbed interface. It is developed and maintained by Opera Software.
[https://www.palemoon.org/ Pale Moon] is a fork of Firefox that maintains support for the older XUL addon/theming standard. It retains the "Australis" UI, and uses its own "Goanna" rendering engine, forked from Gecko, which performs poorly with some CSS/JS-heavy sites. Does not support current Firefox addons, and has its own [https://addons.palemoon.org addons] (see also: [https://justoff.github.io/ JustOff addons]).
 
[[File:Qupzilla-icon.png|48px]] '''QupZilla'''
 
[http://www.qupzilla.com/download QupZilla] is a FOSS web browser, built on the Qt and QtWebEngine (based on Chromium's rendering engine) frameworks. It supports extensions, ships out of the box with AdBlock, Mouse Gestures, GreaseMonkey, Speed Dial, Click2Flash, and more. It provides seamless integration with most desktop environments, and has several other distinguishing features. QupZilla is licensed under GPLv3.


[[File:Torbrowser.png|48px]] '''Tor Browser'''
[[File:Torbrowser.png|48px]] '''Tor Browser'''


[https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en Tor Browser] (formerly known as Tor Browser Bundle) is a package of a modified Firefox extended support release, NoScript, HTTPS-Everywhere, Tor, TorButton and TorLauncher. It automatically routes traffic through the Tor network and deletes history and cookies when closed.
[https://www.torproject.org Tor Browser] (formerly known as Tor Browser Bundle) is a package of a modified Firefox extended support release, NoScript, HTTPS-Everywhere, Tor, TorButton and TorLauncher. It automatically routes traffic through the Tor network and deletes history and cookies when closed.
 
[[File:Palemoon.png|48px]] '''Pale Moon'''
 
[https://www.palemoon.org/ Pale Moon] is a fork of Firefox under a proprietary open source license. It has a familiar UI without the "Australis" redesign, but at expense looses compatibility with newer Firefox addons. Pale Moon tends to be behind on security updates, so use with caution.


[[File:Seamonkey-icone-6933-128.png|48px]] '''SeaMonkey'''
[[File:Seamonkey-icone-6933-128.png|48px]] '''SeaMonkey'''


[http://www.seamonkey-project.org/ SeaMonkey] is a continuation of the Mozilla suite. Unlike most modern web browsers, it is an Internet suite, complete with bundled programs for email, IRC, and web design. It is compatible with most Firefox add-ons.
[https://www.seamonkey-project.org/ SeaMonkey] is a continuation of the Mozilla suite. Unlike most modern web browsers, it is an Internet suite, complete with bundled programs for email, IRC, and web design. It is compatible with most XUL add-ons.
 
[[File:Midori.png|48px]] '''Midori'''
 
[http://midori-browser.org/ Midori] is a fast, lightweight, LGPL licensed browser using the WebKit rendering engine. It is the default browser in Elementary OS, Raspbian and Trisquel Mini.


[[File:Kmelogo.gif|48px]] '''K-Meleon'''
[[File:Kmelogo.gif|48px]] '''K-Meleon'''


[http://kmeleonbrowser.org/ K-Meleon] is a FOSS web browser for Windows. It uses the Gecko rendering engine just like Firefox, but sports a native Windows UI. It is absurdly configurable.
[http://kmeleonbrowser.org/ K-Meleon] is a FOSS web browser for Windows. It uses the Gecko rendering engine just like Firefox, but sports a native Windows UI. It is absurdly configurable. Also very suitable for resurrecting Pentium M and older systems because of it's speed.


[[File:Otter-browser-icon.png|48px]] '''Otter Browser'''
===Email clients===
 
[http://otter-browser.org/ Otter Browser] is a FOSS web browser that aims to recreate the best aspects of the classic Opera (12.x) UI using Qt5.
 
=== Email clients ===


Desktop email clients provide off-line email storage and additional features over most web-mail clients.
Desktop email clients provide off-line email storage and additional features over most web-mail clients.


[[File:ED_logo.png ‎|48px]] '''EverDesk'''
[[File:Betterbird.png|48px]] '''Betterbird'''


[http://www.everdesk.com/ EverDesk] is the first and only email client which stores email messages as individual files together with your other files and documents in regular Windows folders, so you can keep all the information related to the same subject together and work with it in a simpler, more flexible, and more powerful way. EverDesk combines the best features of an Email Client, File Manager, Address Book and Calendar into one integrated interface, making it the most unique and comprehensive personal information manager on the market.
[[Betterbird]] is a fork of the more well known Thunderbird. After Mozilla followed in the inglorious footsteps of GNOME where features are removed and bugs closed as <code>wontfix</code>, Betterbird stepped up and delivers fixes and features. It is compatible with most Thunderbird addons.


[[File:Icon_Thunderbird_small.png|48px]] '''Thunderbird'''
[[File:Icon_Claws-Mail.png ‎|48px]] '''Claws-Mail'''


[https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/ Thunderbird] is a free and open source email client based upon the Gecko rendering engine. Like its sibling Firefox, it offers the user extensive customization options via third-party add-ons.
[https://www.claws-mail.org/ Claws-Mail] is a lightweight FOSS (GPL) email client based on GTK+. Supports PGP, vCalendar (Outlook compatible), RSS/Atom feeds, spam filtering and more via a well-maintained collection of first party [https://www.claws-mail.org/win32/ plugins]. Sending HTML emails is not supported. Reading HTML emails is usable but much improved by enabling WebKit or LiteHTML rendering engines.


[[File:Opera_Mail.png|48px]] '''Opera Mail'''
===Instant Messaging (IM) clients===
'''Element'''


[http://www.opera.com/computer/mail Opera Mail] was formerly a component of the Opera browser, but now a separate free product. This is based on Opera 12.6 and still uses the Presto rendering engine. [http://www.opera.com/help/tutorials/mail/ Getting started]. It doesn't have IRC and XMPP for whatever reason.
[https://element.io/ Element] is a free and open source cross-platform instant messaging client and the flagship implementation for the Matrix protocol. It's a solid Discord alternative, with support for voice and video calling. DMs are end-to-end encrypted by default. Bridges to other messaging services, such as Discord, Jabber, iMessage and more are available with [https://matrix.org/ecosystem/bridges/ third party bridges]. Unfortunately, however, it is an Electron app.


Opera Mail is bundled in Opera 12.16 and several prior versions.
[[File:Icon_Pidgin_small.png|48px]] '''Pidgin'''
 
=== Instant Messaging (IM) clients ===


[[File:Icon_Pidgin_small.png|48px]] '''Pidgin'''
[https://sourceforge.net/projects/pidgin/ Pidgin] is a free and open source instant messaging client developed in C. It is based upon [https://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/WhatIsLibpurple Libpurple] and offers support for Jabber (XMPP), Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, GroupWise, Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE and Zephyr out of the box. Support for additional protocols like Matrix and Signal is offered through [https://www.pidgin.im/plugins/?publisher=all&query=&type=Protocol third-party plugins]. Plugins are available for [https://www.pidgin.im/plugins/?publisher=all&query=&type=Security+and+Privacy OTR, OMEMO] and [https://www.pidgin.im/plugins/?publisher=all&query=&type= many other features]. Beware it [https://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/PlainTextPasswords stores passwords in plain text by default].


[http://sourceforge.net/projects/pidgin/ Pidgin], formerly known as GAIM, is a free and open source instant messaging client developed in C. It is based upon [https://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/WhatIsLibpurple Libpurple] and offers support for the AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, Groupwise, ICQ, IRC, MSN, MXit, MySpaceIM, SILC, SIMPLE, Sametime, XMPP, Yahoo!, and Zephyr chat networks out of the box. Partial or complete support for additional networks like Xfire is offered through third-party plug-ins like [http://gfireproject.org/ Gfire]. It can support OTR with a plugin. Beware it stores passwords in plain text.
[[File:Discord.png|48px]] '''Discord'''


[[File:Retroshare.png|48px]] '''RetroShare'''
[https://discord.com Discord] is a non-free VoIP and instant messaging client, widely used for gaming. [https://stallman.org/discord.html It is absolutely chock-full of spyware] but it is the main platform that normies use.


[http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/ RetroShare] is an open source decentralized communication platform. It provides secure chat, photo and video sharing using OpenPGP to authenticate peers and OpenSSL to encrypt all communication.
[[File:Gajim-logo.png|48px]] '''Gajim'''


[https://ricochet.im/ Ricochet IM] is and end-to-end encrypted instant messages which uses [[Tor]] hidden services.
[https://gajim.org/ Gajim] is a FOSS cross-platform GUI Jabber client written in Python. It supports OMEMO [https://dev.gajim.org/gajim/gajim/-/wikis/help/gajimfaq#does-gajim-support-off-the-record-encryption-otr and not OTR].


=== Internet Relay Chat (IRC) clients ===
===Internet Relay Chat (IRC) clients===
==== Graphical User Interface (GUI) ====
====Graphical User Interface (GUI)====


[[File:HexChat.png|48px]] '''HexChat'''
[[File:HexChat.png|48px]] '''HexChat'''


[http://hexchat.github.io/ HexChat] is a popular replacement for the XChat IRC client, a client which offered a free binary for Linux but charges money for the Windows version. HexChat is a continuation of XChat and makes both its source code and binaries available to users of all platforms it's created for. Like its parent software, HexChat is licensed under the GNU GPL. It includes all the basic features one would need, and can be ideal both for new users and IRC veterans.
[https://hexchat.github.io/ HexChat] is a continuation of XChat and makes both its source code and binaries available to users of all platforms it's created for. Like its parent software, HexChat is licensed under the GNU GPL. It includes all the basic features one would need, and can be ideal both for new users and IRC veterans. Has built-in plugins for Lua, Perl and Python scripting.


[[File:Smuxi.png|48px]] '''Smuxi'''
[http://chatzilla.hacksrus.com/ ChatZilla] is an IRC client addon for XUL clients such as SeaMonkey and Pale Moon. Great for people who want basic IRC features without having to install an additional application.


[https://www.smuxi.org/ Smuxi] is another crossplatform IRC client and uses the GTK. It has some scripting capability and looks about the same on all systems. It doesn't have many features but it does those that it has well.
====Terminal/Command prompt====
 
[[File:ChatZilla.png|48px]] '''ChatZilla'''
 
[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/chatzilla/ ChatZilla] is an IRC client addon for Firefox. Great for people who want basic IRC features without having to install an additional application.
 
==== Terminal/Command prompt ====


[[File:Irssi.png|48px]] '''Irssi'''
[[File:Irssi.png|48px]] '''Irssi'''


[http://www.irssi.org/ Irssi] is the father of [[Windows_ricing|rice]] clients and easily accessible for all systems. The author of the Metacity window manager for Linux describes his software as follows: "Boring window manager for the adult in you. Many window managers are like Marshmallow Froot Loops; Metacity is like Cheerios." Irssi is the terminal IRC client equivalent of that sentiment. Irssi is extensible through plugins.
[https://irssi.org/ Irssi] is the father of [[Windows_ricing|rice]] clients and easily accessible for all systems. The author of the Metacity window manager for Linux describes his software as follows: "Boring window manager for the adult in you. Many window managers are like Marshmallow Froot Loops; Metacity is like Cheerios." Irssi is the terminal IRC client equivalent of that sentiment. Irssi is extensible through plugins.


[[File:Weechat.png|48px]] '''Weechat'''
[[File:Weechat.png|48px]] '''Weechat'''


[http://weechat.org/ Weechat] is Irssi with more rice, scripting languages, ideal defaults and development. It is rising in popularity as a preferred client on /g/. Weechat also includes plugin functionality.
[https://weechat.org/ Weechat] is Irssi with more rice, scripting languages, ideal defaults and development. It is rising in popularity as a preferred client on /g/. Weechat also includes plugin functionality.


==== Support by browsers and mail clients ====
====Support by browsers and mail clients====
* Thunderbird has support for IRC and other IM services.
* Opera had similar chat support which was dropped in 10.10.
* As mentioned above, Firefox can support IRC through an addon.
* Chrome can also support IRC through extensions, although some of them are actually websites; 'CIRC' and 'Byrd IRC' appear to be native clients, but I have not tested them as you must be signed into Google in order to install them. They might be usable by loading their source. ''I'll test them eventually''.


=== Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) clients ===
*Thunderbird has support for IRC and other IM services.
*Opera had similar chat support which was dropped in 10.10.
*As mentioned above, SeaMonkey can support IRC.


[[File:Mumble.png|48px]] '''Mumble'''
===Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) clients===


[http://mumble.sourceforge.net/ Mumble] is free and open source audio chat software. It is superior in audio quality and latency by always being the first client to use latest technologies, such as the Opus audio codec.
[[File:Jitsi.png|48px]] '''Jitsi'''


[[File:Teamspeak.png|48px]] '''TeamSpeak'''
[https://meet.jit.si Jitsi Meet] is a Discord/Skype alternative using standards compliant FLOSS. It supports text encryption with OTR and audio/video encryption with ZRTP. The downside is it is a web app.


[http://www.teamspeak.us/ TeamSpeak] is non-free and widely used for gaming. It has lots of permissions/ACL tuning available. Servers must be often licensed to use without restrictions. Servers under the free license allow up to 32 clients. The client has a backdoor that allows TeamSpeak Systems GmbH. to blacklist any server and take full control.
[[File:Mumble.png|48px]] '''Mumble'''
 
[[File:Skype.png|48px]] '''Skype'''
 
[http://www.skype.com/en/download-skype/skype-for-computer/ Skype] is botnet mode in full effect. No seriously. It is also closed source and susceptible to state snooping. Skype is not only bloated, buggy, and resource intensive, but the bloat and resource hogging only goes up with each major update. It is absolutely not recommended for privacy, and only recommended for normal non controversial conversations with your friends and family who won't settle for anything else.


[[File:Jitsi.png|48px]] '''Jitsi'''
[https://www.mumble.com/ Mumble] is free and open source audio chat software. It is superior in audio quality and latency by always being the first client to use latest technologies, such as the Opus audio codec.
 
[https://jitsi.org/Main/Download Jitsi] is a real Skype alternative using standards compliant FLOSS. It supports text encryption with OTR and audio/video encryption with ZRTP. The downside is it being bulky Java.


[[File:Google_Voice.png|48px]] '''Google Voice'''
[[File:Google_Voice.png|48px]] '''Google Voice'''


[https://www.google.com/voice Google Voice] runs in a web browser and requires a plugin for full functionality. There does not appear to be official desktop software for this. The botnet never felt so good. Free phone numbers, calling, texting, and integration into Gmail.
[https://voice.google.com/about Google Voice] runs in a web browser and requires a plugin for full functionality. There does not appear to be official desktop software for this. The botnet never felt so good. Free phone numbers, calling, texting, and integration into Gmail.


[[File:Ekiga.png|48px]] '''Ekiga'''
==Search utilities==
 
[http://ekiga.org/download-ekiga-binaries-or-source-code Ekiga] is an open source SIP client. It is not entirely clear to what extent encryption is possible.
 
[[File:Tox.png|48px]] '''Tox'''
 
[[Tox]] is a decentralized open source alternative to Skype. It is in early alpha stage and almost has VOIP working.
 
== Search utilities ==


[[File:Everything.png|48px]] '''Everything'''
[[File:Everything.png|48px]] '''Everything'''
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[[File:Launchy 001.png|48px]] '''Launchy'''
[[File:Launchy 001.png|48px]] '''Launchy'''


[http://www.launchy.net/ Launchy] helps you navigate your start menu, programs, folders and more, amazingly fast, simply by typing in the name of your program and folder. Loads instantly by simply pressing a hotkey (default is alt+space). Customizable and allows you to add other things like website bookmarks and commands. The perfect program to replace windows search with.
[https://www.launchy.net/ Launchy] helps you navigate your start menu, programs, folders and more, amazingly fast, simply by typing in the name of your program and folder. Loads instantly by simply pressing a hotkey (default is alt+space). Customizable and allows you to add other things like website bookmarks and commands. The perfect program to replace windows search with.


== File compression utilities ==
==File compression utilities==


File compression software is widely used by various software distributors and archives to mitigate bandwidth and storage space requirements.
File compression software is widely used by various software distributors and archives to mitigate bandwidth and storage space requirements.


[[File:Icon_7zip_small.png|48px]] '''7zip Archiver'''
[[File:Icon_7zip_small.png|48px]] '''7zip'''


[http://www.7-zip.org/ 7zip] is a free and open source file archiver developed in C++ by Igor Pavlov. Its primary feature is lossless compression in the 7z format, based upon the [[Wikipedia:Lempel%E2%80%93Ziv%E2%80%93Markov_chain_algorithm |Lempel–Ziv–Markov chain algorithm]]. In addition to the handful of formats it is capable of creating new archives in, 7zip can retrieve files from archives in virtually any format that one is likely to encounter.  
[https://www.7-zip.org/ 7zip] is a free and open source file archiver developed in C++ by Igor Pavlov. Its primary feature is lossless compression in the 7z format, based upon the [[Wikipedia:Lempel%E2%80%93Ziv%E2%80%93Markov_chain_algorithm |Lempel–Ziv–Markov chain algorithm]]. In addition to the handful of formats it is capable of creating new archives in, 7zip can retrieve files from archives in virtually any format that one is likely to encounter.  


[http://www.e7z.org/ Easy 7-Zip] is an alternative build of 7-zip which has some extra features like icons on the context menu, extra options in many dialogs and the ability to minimize to tray while extracting. It's licensed under the same license too.
[https://github.com/M2Team/NanaZip NanaZip] is a derivative of 7zip which has some extra features like icons on the context menu, extra options in many dialogs and the ability to minimize to tray while extracting.  


[[File:Icon_PeaZip_small.png|48px]] '''PeaZip Archiver'''
[[File:PeaZip.png|48px]] '''PeaZip'''


''The PAQ and LPAQ methods are capable of an impressive degree of lossless compression, but the time and system resources required are equally impressive.''
''The PAQ and LPAQ methods are capable of an impressive degree of lossless compression, but the time and system resources required are equally impressive.''


[http://sourceforge.net/projects/peazip/ PeaZip] is a free and open source archiver developed in free Pascal by Giorgio Tani. It is notable for its native PEA format and its support of cutting-edge compression technologies like [[Wikipedia:PAQ |PAQ and LPAQ]] that are not supported by other popular archivers. Like 7zip, it is capable of retrieving files from virtually any archive that one might encounter.
[https://peazip.github.io/ PeaZip] is a free and open source archiver developed in free Pascal by Giorgio Tani. It is notable for its native PEA format and its support of cutting-edge compression technologies like [[Wikipedia:PAQ |PAQ and LPAQ]] that are not supported by other popular archivers. Like 7zip, it is capable of retrieving files from virtually any archive that one might encounter.


[[File:Icon_WinRAR_small.png|48px]] '''WinRAR Archiver'''
==File sharing==


''Unless one has some specific purpose in mind, the use of WinRAR is not recommended.''
===BitTorrent clients===
 
[http://www.rarlab.com/ WinRAR] is a proprietary shareware archiver developed by the brothers Eugene and Alexander Roshal. Its once ubiquitous RAR format is still used almost universally by the Warez Scene, although it has falling out of favour with many other communities due to the growing popularity of 7z. Although it is only capable of creating new archives in the RAR and ZIP formats, WinRAR is capable of extracting files from archives created by many other compression tools. Scene releases are known to be troublesome to extract using extraction tools ''other'' than WinRAR.
 
== File sharing ==
 
=== BitTorrent clients ===
 
[[File:Halite-200.png|48px]] '''Halite'''
 
[http://www.binarynotions.com/halite-bittorrent-client/ Halite] is a FOSS, Windows-only BitTorrent client, based on the excellent libtorrent library developed by Arvid Norberg. The program also relies heavily on the Boost libraries. It is a fantastic replacement for the botnet client uTorrent, and shares many of the same features.


[[File:Icon_qBittorrent_small.png|48px]] '''qBittorrent'''
[[File:Icon_qBittorrent_small.png|48px]] '''qBittorrent'''


[http://www.qbittorrent.org/index.php qBittorrent] is a libtorrent-based free and open source BitTorrent client written in C++. According to its developers, the aim of the client is to provide a free software alternative to µTorrent.
[https://www.qbittorrent.org/ qBittorrent] is a libtorrent-based free and open source BitTorrent client written in C++. According to its developers, the aim of the client is to provide a free software alternative to µTorrent.


[[File:Icon_Deluge_small.png|48px]] '''Deluge'''
[[File:Icon_Deluge_small.png|48px]] '''Deluge'''


[http://deluge-torrent.org/ Deluge] is a libtorrent-based free and open source BitTorrent client written in Python. It is highly extensible via its plug-ins system. Deluge is notable for having originated the particular method of protocol encryption that is currently in use by every major BitTorrent client. It can be a bit of a resource hog on Windows compared to other clients.
[https://deluge-torrent.org/ Deluge] is a libtorrent-based free and open source BitTorrent client written in Python. It is highly extensible via its plug-ins system. Deluge is notable for having originated the particular method of protocol encryption that is currently in use by every major BitTorrent client. It can be a bit of a resource hog on Windows compared to other clients.


[[File:Icon_Transmission.png|48px]] '''Transmission'''
[[File:Icon_Transmission.png|48px]] '''Transmission'''
Line 215: Line 163:
[https://transmissionbt.com/download/ Transmission] is a popular free and open source client that is easy to use and lightweight. For years it has been the preferred BitTorrent client on macOS and GNU/Linux, and it finally has received an official release on Windows.
[https://transmissionbt.com/download/ Transmission] is a popular free and open source client that is easy to use and lightweight. For years it has been the preferred BitTorrent client on macOS and GNU/Linux, and it finally has received an official release on Windows.


[[File:Utorrent_2_logo.png|48px]] '''μTorrent 2.2.1'''
===FTP clients===
 
[[File:Icon_WinSCP_small.png|48px]] '''WinSCP'''
 
[https://sourceforge.net/projects/winscp/ WinSCP or Windows Secure Copy] is a free and open source FTP, SFTP, and SCP client written in C++.


[http://www.oldapps.com/utorrent.php?old_utorrent=8134/ μTorrent 2.2.1] is outdated, unmaintained and proprietary. However, it is generally recommended as the only acceptable version of μTorrent for Windows. It stays true to μTorrent's original bloat-free philosophy, remains free of advertisements, and is accepted at nearly every private tracker.
'''TermSCP'''


=== FTP clients ===
[https://termscp.veeso.dev/ TermSCP] is a cross-platform free, open source TUI file transfer utility written in Rust.


[[File:Icon_FileZilla_small.png|48px]] '''FileZilla'''
===Direct Connect===
'''FlyingCarpet'''


[https://filezilla-project.org/ Filezilla] is a free and open source FTP, SFTP, and FTPS client written in C++. Sourceforge downloaders should be advised that the installer offered there potentially contains adware.
[https://github.com/spieglt/FlyingCarpet FlyingCarpet] is an open-source AirDrop clone, Written with Rust.


[[File:Icon_WinSCP_small.png|48px]] '''WinSCP'''
'''Sharedrop'''


[http://sourceforge.net/projects/winscp/ WinSCP or Windows Secure Copy] is a free and open source FTP, SFTP, and SCP client written in C++.
[https://sharedrop.io/ ShareDrop] uses WebRTC to share files between two devices. Can be used in any web browser.


=== Direct Connect ===
[[File:Eiskalt.png|48px]] '''EiskaltDC++'''
[[File:Eiskalt.png|48px]] '''EiskaltDC++'''


[http://code.google.com/p/eiskaltdc/ EiskaltDC++] is a cross-platform program that uses the Direct Connect and ADC protocols. It is compatible with DC++, FlylinkDC++, LinuxDC++ and other DC clients.
[https://github.com/eiskaltdcpp/eiskaltdcpp EiskaltDC++] is a cross-platform program that uses the Direct Connect and ADC protocols. It is compatible with DC++, FlylinkDC++, LinuxDC++ and other DC clients.
 
===XDCC===
Filesharing over IRC; IRC Clients with support for XDCC include HexChat and irssi. See also: [[XDCC]].


== Maintenance ==
==Maintenance==


=== Disk cleaners ===
===Disk cleaners===
{{warning|Most, if not all "PC cleaner" programs are at best, [https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/ccleaner snake oil], and at worst, [https://www.howtogeek.com/162683/pc-cleaning-apps-are-a-scam-heres-why-and-how-to-speed-up-your-pc/ malware]. Cleaning the registry [https://www.windowsbbs.com/threads/xp-fixes-myth-1-registry-cleaners.61015/ does next to nothing]. Any app that claims to "speed up your PC" by removing junk files is almost guaranteed to be predatory in some fashion. Steer well clear!}}


[[File:Icon_CCleaner_small.png|48px]] '''CCleaner'''
===Storage management===
[[File:Bleachbit.png|48px]] '''BleachBit'''


[http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download/ CCleaner] is a proprietary freeware disk clean-up utility developed by Piriform. Its features at the time of this writing include automated deletion of unnecessary files, automated deletion of unnecessary registry entries, secure data erasure, program removal, system restore point management, start-up entry management, scheduled task management, context entry management, and web browser plug-in management. [http://www.tomsguide.com/answers/id-2459034/ccleaner-good.html Avoid using the registry cleaner] unless you know what you are doing; there is a low chance you might muck up your computer.
[https://www.bleachbit.org/download Bleachbit] is a lightweight free open-source disk cleaner that can manage deletion of unnecessary files.


[[File:Icon_Revo_small.png|48px]] '''Revo Uninstaller'''
[[File:dupeguru-logo.png|48px]] '''dupeGuru'''


[http://www.revouninstaller.com/download-freeware-version.php/ Revo Uninstaller] is a proprietary freeware uninstaller tool that calls the uninstaller for programs and scans and prompts for the deletion of file and registry remnants of said programs.  
[https://github.com/arsenetar/dupeguru dupeGuru] is a FOSS program for finding duplicates in your computer. Supports images, audio and other multiple scan types such as filename, content and tags.


'''Wise Registry Cleaner'''
'''Bulk Crap Uninstaller'''


[http://www.wisecleaner.com/wiseregistrycleanerfree.html Wise Registry Cleaner] is a great tool that cleans the registry. When combined with other software like Malwarebytes and Wise Disk Cleaner it can do a ton to help a slow computer be less slow.
[https://www.bcuninstaller.com/ Bulk Crap Uninstaller] is a FOSS uninstaller tool that calls the uninstaller for programs and scans and prompts for the deletion of file and registry remnants of said programs. It aims to be an open-source version of the popular "Revo Uninstaller" tool.


=== Disk defragmenters ===
===Disk defragmenters===
{{warning|Only use these programs on your hard disk drives. [https://www.howtogeek.com/855293/should-you-defrag-your-ssd/ Defragmenting can shorten the lifespan of your SSDs]}}


[[File:Icon_Defraggler_small.png|48px]] '''Defraggler'''
'''Windows Disk Defragmenter'''


[http://www.piriform.com/defraggler/ Defraggler]
Windows comes with a proprietary defragmentation tool that should cover most typical use cases.


[[File:Icon_MyDefrag_small.png|48px]] '''MyDefrag'''
[[File:Icon_MyDefrag_small.png|48px]] '''MyDefrag'''


[http://www.mydefrag.com/ MyDefrag] is a proprietary freeware disk defragmenter based on the standard defragmentation API by Microsoft. It also optimises file locations.
[http://www.mydefrag.net/ MyDefrag] is a proprietary freeware disk defragmenter based on the standard defragmentation API by Microsoft. It also optimises file locations.
 
'''Wise Disk Cleaner'''


[http://www.wisecleaner.com/wisediskcleanerfree.html WiseCleaner] is great at removing a lot of unnecessary clutter on your install that tends to slow things down.
===Disk image and back-up tools===


=== File recovery tools ===
[[File:Macrium_Reflect.png|48px]] '''Macrium Reflect 8'''


''See also: [[Data recovery]]''
[https://archive.org/details/Macrium_Reflect_Free_Latest Macrium Reflect 8] is the last free version of Macrium Reflect. It can schedule full backups as well as incremental ones, with the paid version offering a second increment for storage saving. Versions newer than Macrium Reflect 8 no longer offer a free indefinite trial.


===File recovery tools===
{{Main article|Data recovery}}
[[File:Icon_TestDisk_small.png|48px]] '''TestDisk'''
[[File:Icon_TestDisk_small.png|48px]] '''TestDisk'''


[http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk/ TestDisk]
[http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk TestDisk] was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table).


[[File:Icon_Recuva_small.png|48px]] '''Recuva'''
[[File:Icon_PhotoRec.png|48px]] '''PhotoRec'''


[http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download/ Recuva]
[http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec PhotoRec] is file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video, documents and archives from hard disks, CD-ROMs, and lost pictures (thus the Photo Recovery name) from digital camera memory. PhotoRec ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's file system has been severely damaged or reformatted.


=== File syncing tools ===
===File syncing tools===


[[File:FreeFileSync.png|48px]]
[[File:FreeFileSync.png|48px]]


[http://www.freefilesync.org/ FreeFileSync] compares your files and folders with other files and folders from target locations, and adds or updates them accordingly
[https://freefilesync.org/ FreeFileSync] compares your files and folders with other files and folders from target locations, and adds or updates them accordingly


=== System information tools ===
[https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/robocopy Robocopy] is the built-in Windows file sync utility. It functions similarly to rsync.


[[File:Icon_CPUZ_small.png|48px]] '''CPU-Z'''
[https://syncthing.net/ Syncthing] is a cross-platform file-syncing utility.


[http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html CPU-Z]
[https://winpinator.swisz.cz/ Winpinator] is the unofficial Windows port of the popular Warpinator file sync utility.


[[File:Icon_GPUZ_small.png|48px]] '''GPU-Z'''
===System information tools===


[http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/ GPU-Z]
[[File:Icon_CPUZ_small.png|48px]] '''CPU-Z & GPU-Z'''


[[File:Icon_HWMonitor_small.png|48px]] '''HWMonitor'''
[https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html CPU-Z] and [https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/ GPU-Z] are proprietary freeware that provide detailed information about your CPU and GPU, respectively.


[http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html HWMonitor]
[[File:Icon_HWMonitor_small.png|48px]] '''HWiNFO'''


[[File:Icon_Speccy_small.png|48px]] '''Speccy'''
[https://www.hwinfo.com/HWiNFO HWiNFO] is proprietary freeware that provides overall system information and a litany of temperature and fan sensor readouts.


[http://www.piriform.com/speccy/ Speccy]
'''Fastfetch'''


== Multimedia ==
[https://github.com/fastfetch-cli/fastfetch Fastfetch] is a cross-platform TUI system information utility written in C. Use it to look cool in desktop threads.


=== Video players ===
==Multimedia==


[[File:mpv-logo.png|48px]] '''mpv (mpv plays videos)'''
===Media players===


[http://mpv.io/ mpv] is an incredibly powerful and widely-used fork of mplayer2 and MPlayer. It features ffmpeg playback, high quality scaling algorithms, OpenGL output, proper color management, and is completely free and open-source. With youtube-dl, it can also play video and audio streams, and even .gif files!
[[File:mpv-logo.png|48px]] '''mpv'''


[[File:bomi_logo.png|48px]] '''bomi'''
{{tip|''The majority of configuration for this application is done manually by editing its configuration file.''}}


[https://bomi-player.github.io/ bomi] is a multimedia player formerly known as CMPlayer, which is aimed for easy usage but also provides various powerful features and convenience functions.
[https://mpv.io/ mpv] is an incredibly powerful and widely-used fork of mplayer2 and MPlayer. It features FFMPEG playback, high quality scaling algorithms, OpenGL output, proper color management, and is completely free and open-source. With yt-dlp, it can also play video and audio streams, and even .gif files!


[[File:mpc-hc.png|48px]] '''MPC-HC (Media Player Classic)'''
'''mpv.net'''


[http://mpc-hc.org/ MPC-HC] (main article: [[MPC-HC]]) is an open source media player on Windows with extensive file support, and no bloat or harmful software. Different renderers and shaders are also available from the community.
[https://github.com/mpvnet-player/mpv.net mpv.net] is an mpv derivative that uses more native Windows components for theoretically better performance and aesthetics.


[[File:kcp.png|48px]] '''KCP (Kawaii Codec Pack)'''
[[File:vlc-logo.png|48px]] '''VLC'''


[http://haruhichan.com/forum/showthread.php?7545-KCP-Kawaii-Codec-Pack KCP] is a codec pack. It's basically a fork of MPC-HC, instead of manually installing the recommended filters, this does it all for you.
[https://www.videolan.org/vlc/ VLC] is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.


* [[PotPlayer]]
[[File:mpc-hc.png|48px]] '''MPC-HC (Media Player Classic)'''


==== Media center and HTPC ====
[[MPC-HC]]  is an open source media player on Windows with extensive file support, and no bloat or harmful software. Different renderers and shaders are also available from the community. Development is currently in maintenance mode.
 
====Media center and HTPC====
[[File:Kodi.png|48px]] '''Kodi'''
[[File:Kodi.png|48px]] '''Kodi'''


[http://kodi.tv/ Kodi] (former XBMC) is a free and open source GPL software media center featuring a 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remote controls. It is highly customizable via skins and addons. There are even addons available for streaming from internet services like YouTube and Twitch.tv. It plays nearly every video and music format out of the box. The built in scrapers can pull data from sites like IMDB and thetvdb to allow sorting media by actor, genre, rating, etc. It can export this data to local files for offline use.
[https://kodi.tv/ Kodi] (formerly known as XBMC) is a GPL-licensed software media center featuring a 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remote controls. It is highly customizable via skins and addons. There are even addons available for streaming from internet services like YouTube and Twitch.tv. It plays nearly every video and music format out of the box. The built in scrapers can pull data from sites like IMDB and thetvdb to allow sorting media by actor, genre, rating, etc. It can export this data to local files for offline use.


[[File:Plex.png|48px]] '''Plex'''
[[File:Jellyfin.png|48px]] '''Jellyfin'''


[https://plex.tv/ Plex] is a fork of the former XBMC (now Kodi). It has separate front-end (player) and back-end (server) components. Plex Media Server, unlike the free frontend, is a combination of free and proprietary software, with the majority of the code being proprietary. It has many of the same features as Kodi, but focuses more on its web interface. It also excels at on the fly video transcoding to allow playback over slow connections.
[https://jellyfin.org/ Jellyfin] is a free and open source media server based on the last FOSS version of Emby. It does not require any online accounts or come bundled with any free IPTV garbage unlike Plex, whilst retaining excellent performance.


[[File:Emby.png|48px]] '''Emby'''
===Media converters and rippers===
 
[http://emby.media/ Emby] is another media server solution that is very much like Plex, however is FOSS. Unlike Plex, Emby stores user accounts locally, meaning that there is absolutely no external based authentication. Emby focuses on customization, giving users the ability to rice their server with custom CSS, creation of local user accounts, feature/parental access control, media metadata configuration and plugins. Many Kodi users use Emby as server side back end.
 
=== Media converters and rippers ===


[[File:Handbrake.png|48px]] '''HandBrake'''
[[File:Handbrake.png|48px]] '''HandBrake'''


[http://handbrake.fr/ Handbrake] is a free and open source video transcoder with an easy to use GUI. It can rip and convert a variety of video formats, but can not break DVD or Blu-ray copyright protection.
[https://handbrake.fr/ Handbrake] is a free and open source video transcoder with an easy to use GUI. It can rip and convert a variety of video formats, but can not break DVD or Blu-ray copyright protection.


[[File:Makemkv.png|48px]] '''MakeMKV'''
[[File:Makemkv.png|48px]] '''MakeMKV'''


[http://www.makemkv.com/ MakeMKV] can convert video from proprietary (and usually encrypted) discs into a set of MKV files, preserving most information but not changing it in any way. It can instantly stream decrypt video without intermediate conversion and decrypt Blu-rays and protected DVDs.
[https://www.makemkv.com/ MakeMKV] can convert video from proprietary (and usually encrypted) discs into a set of MKV files, preserving most information but not changing it in any way. It can instantly stream decrypt video without intermediate conversion and decrypt Blu-rays and protected DVDs.


[[File:Mkvtoolnix.png|48px]] '''MKVToolNix'''
[[File:Mkvtoolnix.png|48px]] '''MKVToolNix'''


[https://mkvtoolnix.download/ MKVToolNix] is a set of FOSS tools by Moritz Bunkus for working with Matroska files. It can mux, split and merge mkv files with no transcoding or loss of quality. It can also add or remove audio and subtitle tracks, change track order and edit metadata.
[https://mkvtoolnix.download/ MKVToolNix] is a set of FOSS tools by Moritz Bunkus for working with Matroska files. It can mux, split and merge mkv files with no transcoding or loss of quality. It can also add or remove audio and subtitle tracks, change track order and edit metadata.
*[http://project-x.sourceforge.net/ ProjectX] can resync DVB (Digital TV broadcasts) ready for encoding.
 
*[https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/ Youtube-dl] is a command line program for downloading videos from Youtube and similar sites.
'''yt-dlp'''
 
[https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp yt-dlp] is a command line program for downloading videos from YouTube and similar sites.


[[File:EAC.png|48px]] '''EAC'''
[[File:EAC.png|48px]] '''EAC'''


[http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ Exact Audio Copy] is a proprietary freeware CD ripper written by a German university student. It is preferred by what.cd and other audiophile communities because of its accuracy and ability to rip slightly damaged discs. It can output a detailed log file specifying the position any errors occurred. It also supports AccurateRip, cue sheet generation and ID3 tagging via freedb.
[http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/ Exact Audio Copy] is a proprietary freeware CD ripper written by a German university student. It is preferred by what.cd and other audiophile communities because of its accuracy and ability to rip slightly damaged discs. It can output a detailed log file specifying the position any errors occurred. It also supports AccurateRip, cue sheet generation and ID3 tagging via freedb.


=== Audio players ===
===Audio players===


[[File:foobar-logo.png|48px]] '''Foobar2000'''
[[File:foobar-logo.png|48px]] '''Foobar2000'''


[http://foobar2000.org/download Foobar2000] (main page: [[Foobar2000]]) is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include ReplayGain support, low memory footprint, and native support for several popular audio formats. It supports ASIO output.
[[Foobar2000]] is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include ReplayGain support, low memory footprint, and native support for several popular audio formats. It supports ASIO output.


[[File:musicbee-logo.png|48px]] '''MusicBee'''
[[File:musicbee-logo.png|48px]] '''MusicBee'''


[http://getmusicbee.com/ MusicBee] is basically a souped version of Foobar2k. It supports everything that you want in an audio player plus more! The GUI is very different than most, but can be customized to your will. It supports ASIO output and provides some level of compatibility with WinAmp input plugins. It is free as in free beer.
[https://getmusicbee.com/ MusicBee] is basically a souped version of Foobar2k. It supports everything that you want in an audio player plus more! The GUI is very different than most, but can be customized to your will. It supports ASIO output and provides some level of compatibility with WinAmp input plugins. It is free as in free beer.


[[File:musicpd-logo.png|48px]] '''MPD (Music Player Daemon)'''
[[File:musicpd-logo.png|48px]] '''MPD (Music Player Daemon)'''


[http://www.musicpd.org/ MPD] is a flexible, powerful daemon for playing music. While mpd doesn't directly play music to you, it provides a stream of it (locally or over the internet) to which you connect to with a client (as it's a server, not a music player). It is the mpd client that provides you with all the functionality you expect from a music player. The advantage here is that you can have multiple clients connected and listening to one instance of mpd, or you can stream over the internet. Some music players listed below will be mpd clients, which means that you may need to install mpd as well (if it doesn't come included) for them to work.
[https://www.musicpd.org/ MPD] is a flexible, powerful daemon for playing music. While mpd doesn't directly play music to you, it provides a stream of it (locally or over the internet) to which you connect to with a client (as it's a server, not a music player). It is the mpd client that provides you with all the functionality you expect from a music player. The advantage here is that you can have multiple clients connected and listening to one instance of mpd, or you can stream over the internet. Some music players listed below will be mpd clients, which means that you may need to install mpd as well (if it doesn't come included) for them to work.
* [http://www.musicpd.org/clients/mpc/ mpc] is a minimalistic terminal MPD client.
 
*[https://www.musicpd.org/clients/mpc/ mpc] is a minimalistic terminal MPD client.
 
[[File:Icon_Strawberry_Player.png|48px]] '''Strawberry'''
 
[https://www.strawberrymusicplayer.org/ Strawberry] is a continuation of the aforementioned Clementine aimed at music collectors and audiophiles.
 
===Audio editors===
'''Tenacity'''


[[File:Icon_Clementine.png|48px]] '''Clementine'''
[https://codeberg.org/tenacityteam/tenacity Tenacity] is an easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder made as a replacement to Audacity which now includes telemetry. It has support for LADSPA, Nyquist, VST, Audio Unit effect and VAMP analysis plug-ins.


[https://www.clementine-player.org/ Clementine] is a great music player with many options and plugins available. It plays all the file types you might need.
'''FFMPEG'''


=== Audio editors ===
[https://ffmpeg.org FFMPEG] is ''also'' the gold standard for audio encoding and editing, command line based.


[[File:Icon_Audacity.png|48px]] '''Audacity'''
[[File:Picard.png|48px]] '''Musicbrainz Picard'''


[http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Audacity] is an easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder. It has support for LADSPA, Nyquist, VST, Audio Unit effect and VAMP analysis plug-ins.
[https://picard.musicbrainz.org/ Picard] If you've got a collection of <s>legally obtained</s> music that you want organized in an acceptably uniform way, then you need to get an mp3 tagger to parse mass edits to the filenames and ID3 metadata. There are several out there, but the only one you should be using is Picard. Developed by the Musicbrainz community, Picard has been around for years and it's a feature-rich solution with a whole shitload of tools that will make organizing your hoard of mp3s easy.


=== Image viewers ===
[[File:Icon LMMS.png|frameless]] '''LMMS'''


[[File:ImageGlass-logo.png|48px]] '''ImageGlass'''
[https://lmms.io/ LMMS] is a free and open source DAW that allows you to create melodies and beats, synthesize and mix sounds, and arrange samples. You can have fun with your MIDI keyboard and much more – all in a user-friendly and modern interface. Furthermore LMMS comes with many ready-to-use instrument and effect plugins, presets and samples. Compatible with many standards such as SoundFont2, VST(i), LADSPA, GUS Patches, and MIDI.


[http://www.imageglass.org/ ImageGlass] is a small FOSS image viewer. It has support for 19 formats and plugins. However, it has few manipulation tools compared to similar software.
===Image viewers===


[[File:nomacs-icon3.png|48px]] '''nomacs | Image Lounge'''
[[File:ImageGlass-logo.png|48px]] '''ImageGlass'''


[http://nomacs.org/ nomacs] is a free and open source image viewer, which supports multiple platforms. You can use it for viewing all common image formats including RAW and PSD images. It can browse images in zip or MS Office files which can be extracted to a directory. It also has support for plugins and batch processing.
[https://imageglass.org/ ImageGlass] is a small FOSS image viewer. It has support for 70+ formats and plugins. However, it has few manipulation tools compared to similar software.


[[File:honeyview-logo.png|48px]] '''Honeyview'''
[[File:nomacs-icon3.png|48px]] '''nomacs'''


[http://bandisoft.com/honeyview/ Honeyview] is a very fast image viewer supporting various formats. It also supports viewing the images in compressed ZIP, RAR, or 7z files without extraction.
[https://nomacs.org/ nomacs] is a free and open source image viewer, which supports multiple platforms. You can use it for viewing all common image formats including RAW and PSD images. It also has support for plugins and batch processing.


[[File:irfanview-logo.png|48px]] '''Irfanview'''
[[File:irfanview-logo.png|48px]] '''Irfanview'''


[http://irfanview.com/ Irfanview] is a very fast, small, compact and innovative freeware graphic viewer for Windows. It features an inbuilt ''editor'' along with many other extra tools that you may need or require.
[https://www.irfanview.com/ Irfanview] is a very fast, small, compact and innovative freeware graphic viewer for Windows. It features an inbuilt ''editor'' along with many other extra tools that you may need or require.


[[File:xnview-logo.png|48px]] '''XnView'''
[[File:Icon_XnViewMP.png|48px]] '''XnViewMP'''


[http://xnview.com/en/ XnView] is freeware that allows you to view and convert graphic files. It features image manipulation tools, a batch renamer utility and support of over 400 image file extensions.
[https://www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/ XnViewMP] is the enhanced version to XnView. It is a powerful media browser, viewer and converter. It is compatible with more than 500 image formats. XnViewMP also comes with an easy to use yet powerful batch conversion module.


[[File:Jpegview-logo.png|48px]] '''JPEGView'''
[[File:Jpegview-logo.png|48px]] '''JPEGView'''
Line 406: Line 372:
[https://sourceforge.net/projects/jpegview/ JPEGView] is a lean, fast and highly configurable viewer/editor with a minimal GUI.
[https://sourceforge.net/projects/jpegview/ JPEGView] is a lean, fast and highly configurable viewer/editor with a minimal GUI.


=== Image editors ===
===Comic and manga viewers===
; Raster art
 
[[File:Icon_GIMP.png|48px]] '''GIMP'''
[[File:cdisplayex.png|48px]] '''CDisplayEX'''
 
[https://www.cdisplayex.com/ CDisplayEX] is a freeware comic book archive viewer that supports reading from CBZ/CBR/CB7/PDF/EPUB format with many features. It also provides native cover thumbnail in Windows Explorer, color filters, Leap Motion support and many more.
 
[[File:ahoviewer.png|48px]] '''Ahoviewer'''
 
[https://github.com/ahodesuka/ahoviewer/releases Ahoviewer]is Free open source Booru browser and Manga reader and also an image viewer, it supports CBZ,CBR, RAR and other common extensions, it also supports webms and it lets you Browse different boorus and download images and videos from there.
 
===Image editors===


[http://www.gimp.org/ GIMP] is a very powerful image editor with many advanced features, a steep learning curve, and a wide array of plugins.
;Raster art


[[File:Icon_Krita.png|48px]] '''Krita'''
[[File:Icon_Krita.png|48px]] '''Krita'''


[http://krita.org/ Krita] is a user friendly program for sketching and painting, offering an end-to-end solution for creating digital painting files from scratch.
[https://krita.org/en/ Krita] is a user friendly program for sketching and painting, offering an end-to-end solution for creating digital painting files from scratch.


[[File:PaintDotNet.png|48px]] '''Paint.NET'''
[[File:PaintDotNet.png|48px]] '''Paint.NET'''


[http://www.getpaint.net/ Paint.NET] started as an MS Paint alternative. It now integrates plenty of features such as layers and effects.
[https://www.getpaint.net/ Paint.NET] started as an MS Paint alternative. It now integrates plenty of features such as layers and effects.
 
'''Photopea'''
 
[https://photopea.com Photopea] is a free clone of Adobe Photoshop CS6 that works in-browser. All photo processing is done on device. The software is closed-source and ad-supported. The app can be "installed" from Chromium-based browsers to provide an Electron-app like experience. Ads can be disabled with [https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/by-site/photopea.com userscripts]


[[File:Icon_Pinta.png|48px]] '''Pinta'''
'''Affinity Photo'''


[http://pinta-project.com/ Pinta] is a relatively simple image editor with an interface inspired by Paint.NET.
[https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/ Affinity Photo] is a paid, proprietary, non-destructive photo editor that provides excellent Photoshop compatibility and a similar workflow - $35
 
;Vector art


; Vector art
[[File:Icon_Inkscape.png|48px]] '''Inkscape'''
[[File:Icon_Inkscape.png|48px]] '''Inkscape'''


[http://www.inkscape.org/en/ InkScape] is a vector graphic editor.
[https://inkscape.org/ InkScape] is a vector graphic editor.


=== Video editors ===
'''Vectorpea'''


[[File:Shotcut-logo-64 400x400.png|48px]] '''Shotcut'''
[https://vectorpea.com Vectorpea] Adobe Illustrator CS6 clone. Same developer and caveats as Photopea.


[http://shotcut.org/ Shotcut] is a free and open-source cross-platform video editing app for Windows, OS X, and Linux. Shotcut supports many video, audio, and image formats via FFmpeg and screen, webcam, and audio capture. It uses a timeline for non-linear video editing of multiple tracks that may be composed of various file formats.
===Screenshot Handlers===


=== 3D modeling ===
[[File:Greenshot.png|48px]] '''Greenshot'''


[[File:Icon_Blender.png|48px]] '''Blender'''
[https://getgreenshot.org/ Greenshot] Is a free program which allows you to save images of your desktop, or a selection of your desktop. Highly customizable, as it allows users to use custom hot keys to trigger screen captures, save files in custom file destinations, and many other options.
 
'''ShareX'''
 
[https://getsharex.com/ ShareX] is pretty much the same thing, although it's been in development for much longer, it's open source and there's way more lightweight tools. Plus you have workflowing options to upload your screenshots to different image hosting sites.
 
===Video editors===
 
[[File:kdenlive.jpg|48px]] '''Kdenlive'''


[http://www.blender.org/ Blender] is a 3D animation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation.
[https://kdenlive.org/en/ Kdenlive] is a free and open source multi-track video editor made by the KDE Team. it's based on FFMPEG and is compatible with a variety of video and audio formats.


== Office ==
'''Olive'''


=== Document readers ===
[https://www.olivevideoeditor.org/ Olive] is a free, open source video editor currently in beta seeking to provide a more modern editor workflow. it's one of the most promising free (as in freedom) video editors currently.


[[File:Icon_SumatraPDF_small.png|48px]] '''Sumatra PDF'''
'''FFMPEG'''  


''The majority of configuration for this application is done manually by editing its configuration file.''
[https://ffmpeg.org FFMPEG] is the gold standard for video encoding and editing. Olive and Kdenlive are pretty much just wrappers around FFMPEG and you can do everything they can do, without bloat, using just the terminal.


[http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/free-pdf-reader.html SumatraPDF] is a free and open source PDF, ePub, Mobi, XPS, DjVu, CHM, CBZ, and CBR reader. Unlike most competing products for Windows, it is extremely fast and lightweight, now with 64 bits binaries.
'''Pikimov'''


[[File:Evince.png|48px]] '''Evince'''
[https://pikimov.com Pikimov] is a freeware video and motion graphics editor web app with a very similar workflow to Adobe After Effects. Everything is processed on-device. It currently does not support Firefox


[https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince/Downloads Evince] is a free and open source PDF, PostScript, DjVu, TIFF, XPS and DVI reader. While it is better known as a component of GNU/Linux's GNOME desktop environment, a Windows build is available.
'''Davinci Resolve'''


[[File:Adobe_Digital_Editions.png|48px]] '''Adobe Digital Editions'''
[https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve Davinci Resolve] is a proprietary, professional colour grading tool and video editor. It is free, with a paid version available.


[http://www.adobe.com/products/digital-editions.html Adobe Digital Editions] is a god-tier book-reading application. It displays ePub, PDF and more. It is meant for reading books and does not serve well as a conventional document viewer for other purposes. Since it's Adobe, you shouldn't be surprised to hear that it sends metadata of every single book in your computer to Adobe's server.[https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/10/adobe-spyware-reveals-again-price-drm-your-privacy-and-security]
===3D modeling===


=== Word processors ===
[[File:Icon_Maya.png|48px]] '''Autodesk Maya'''


[[File:Icon_LibreOffice-Writer.png|48px]] '''LibreOffice Writer'''
[http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-maya/overview Maya] offers a comprehensive creative feature set for 3D computer animation, modeling, simulation, rendering, and compositing on a highly extensible production platform. Maya now has next-generation display technology, accelerated modeling workflows, and new tools for handling complex data.  


[https://www.libreoffice.org/ LibreOffice Writer] is the word processor in the LibreOffice suite. After Oracle acquired OpenOffice, it asked community members to GTFO [https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Community_Council_Log_20101014]. Since everyone despises Oracle, the developers all jumped ship as well [http://digitizor.com/2010/11/01/and-so-the-exodus-begins-33-developers-leave-openoffice-org/] and started LibreOffice.
[[File:Icon_Blender.png|48px]] '''Blender'''


== Programming ==
[http://www.blender.org/ Blender] is a free and open source 3D graphics suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline; modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation.
==Office==


=== Text editors ===
===Document readers===


Using a command prompt text editor on Windows is a bad idea if the language you write in has accents because Windows’ command prompt still uses an old code page ([[Wikipedia:Code_page#IBM_PC_.28OEM.29_code_pages |OEM]]) which is not compatible with UTF-8. This basically means ugly code and text that will show up differently depending on the OS and language.
[[File:Icon_SumatraPDF_small.png|48px]] '''Sumatra PDF'''


[[File:Notepad++.png|48px]] '''Notepad++'''
{{tip|''The majority of configuration for this application is done manually by editing its configuration file.''}}
 
[https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/free-pdf-reader.html Sumatra PDF] is a free and open source PDF, ePub, Mobi, XPS, DjVu, CHM, CBZ, and CBR reader. Unlike most competing products for Windows, it is extremely fast and lightweight, now with 64 bits binaries.


[http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ Notepad++] is free software written in C++ for Windows. It is fast, efficient and customizable.
[[File:Okular.png|48px]]'''Okular'''


[[File:Icon_Sublime-Text.png|48px]] '''Sublime Text'''
[https://okular.kde.org/ Okular] is the default document viewer for the systems that are bundled with the KDE environments. It supports PDF, PS, Tiff, CHM, DjVU, epub and many other common extensions, it also has some nice features such as annotations, drawing, highlighting and it's completely free and open source.


[http://www.sublimetext.com/ Sublime Text] is a closed source, but sophisticated text editor for code, markup and prose.
===Word processors===


[[File:Icon_GVim.png|48px]] '''GVim'''
[[File:Icon_LibreOffice-Writer.png|48px]] '''LibreOffice Writer'''


[http://www.vim.org/ GVim] is a graphical frontend for Vim. An extremely feature-rich programmer's text editor with extensive plugin support.
[https://www.libreoffice.org/ LibreOffice Writer] is the word processor in the LibreOffice suite. After Oracle acquired OpenOffice, it asked community members to GTFO [https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Community_Council_Log_20101014]. Since everyone despises Oracle, the developers all jumped ship as well [https://digitizor.com/and-so-the-exodus-begins-33-developers-leave-openoffice-org/] and started LibreOffice.


[[File:Icon_Emacs.png|48px]] '''Emacs'''
'''OnlyOffice'''


[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ Emacs] is an extensible, customizable text editor and more. At its core is an interpreter for Emacs Lisp, a dialect of the Lisp programming language with extensions to support text editing.
[https://www.onlyoffice.com/ OnlyOffice] is a free and open source document processing suite focused on Microsoft Office compatibility. It can either be hosted as a web service or run locally.


[[File:Icon_Spacemacs.png|48px]] '''Spacemacs'''
'''WordTsar'''


[http://spacemacs.org/ Spacemacs] is a community developed configuration for Emacs that makes it easier for anyone to use this amazing developer tool. Spacemacs is a well thought out way to apply the vast and diverse power of Emacs, making it more accessible especially to those who are used to using Vi.
[http://wordtsar.ca/ WordTsar] is an open-source clone of the extremely popular DOS word processor, WordStar. Comes with an optional GUI and the ability to save in some slightly less antiquated file formats (like .docx)


[[File:Icon_Atom.png|48px]] '''Atom'''
'''Obsidian'''


[https://atom.io/ Atom] is a free and open source, cross-platform text editor. It is developed by GitHub and has embedded Git control. It is billed as "a hackable text editor for the 21st Century." Upon first launching the program, you will be prompted to consent to telemetry services, which you can opt-out of.
[https://obsidian.md Obsidian] is a free and open source Markdown editor designed for note-taking. It is highly extensible [https://obsidian.md/plugins with plugins]. A multi-device sync service is offered as a subscription.  


[[File:Icon_Brackets.png|48px]] '''Brackets'''
==Programming==


[http://brackets.io/ Brackets] is a free and open source, cross-platform text editor. Developed by Adobe Systems, it focuses on web development. It is written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. One notable feature, Live Preview, lets you view updates to your HTML/CSS real time in-browser, but only works with Google Chrome - not open-source Chromium or any other forks.
To manage your programming projects, consider setting up individual developer environments with [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dev-home/ Windows Dev Home]. This will prevent you from entering dependency hell, at the cost of some of your storage space.  


=== Integrated Development Environment (IDE) ===
===Text editors===
[[File:Notepad++.png|48px]] '''Notepad++'''


[[File:Icon_Eclipse.png|48px]] '''Eclipse'''
[https://notepad-plus-plus.org/ Notepad++] is free software written in C++ for Windows. It is fast, efficient and customizable.


[https://www.eclipse.org/ Eclipse] is a feature-rich IDE with a major focus on its plugin system. Plugins are used for everything from language support (Java, C++, Python, C#, etc.) to adding additional features or aesthetics (Git integration, Vim keybindings, relative line numbers, CMake support, color schemes, etc.). It also has a reasonable set of built-in features. Some of the more notable of these include the plugin install/update tool, a highly configurable code formatter, and a customizable UI.
[[File:Icon_Sublime-Text.png|48px]] '''Sublime Text'''


[[File:Idea_icon.png|48px]] '''JetBrains' IDEs'''
[https://www.sublimetext.com/ Sublime Text] is a paid, proprietary text editor for code, markup and prose.


[https://www.jetbrains.com/products.html IntelliJ IDEA] is the flagship IDE from JetBrains, and the Community Edition is FOSS. They have several IDEs for different languages, including [https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/ PyCharm] Community Edition for Python, which is also FOSS.
'''Neovim'''


[[File:Visualstudio.png|48px]] '''Visual Studio'''
[https://neovim.io/ Neovim] is a Vim fork designed to reduce attack surface and improve editor speed. An extremely feature-rich programmer's text editor with extensive plugin support.


[https://www.visualstudio.com/ Visual Studio] is Microsoft's IDE for C, C++, C# and VB.NET. Express and Community versions are available for free. Full versions are usually free or discounted for MSDN members, students, etc.
[[File:Icon_Emacs.png|48px]] '''Emacs'''


== Security ==
[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ Emacs] is an extensible, customizable text editor and more. At its core is an interpreter for Emacs Lisp, a dialect of the Lisp programming language with extensions to support text editing.


''For in-depth coverage of this topic, see our article on [[Security]].''
[[File:Icon_Spacemacs.png|48px]] '''Spacemacs'''


=== Antivirus ===
[https://www.spacemacs.org/ Spacemacs] is a community developed configuration for Emacs, making it more accessible especially to those who are used to using Vi.
{{tip|The best antivirus software we can recommend is '''common sense''' and good extensions like uBlock Origin. Don't do something stupid like getting your software from download.com, or that scam brothersoft website. Always look at the file name, and don't open dumb shit with titles like ''FurryHyperMacroHermPorn2016-DougWinger-GiddeonCorralftCockvore.zip.png.exe''. It's simple, really. Still, with any good OSPEC, it is useful to have a fall-back or fail-safe. Use our recommendations should you fail to have simple common sense.}}
<!--[[File:Avast-icon.png|48px]] '''Avast! Antivirus'''


'''Not recommended.''' [https://www.avast.com Avast!] is a proprietary antivirus program which has both a free and paid version. It is adware that makes money by installing a continuous stream of unwanted software on users' computers, including programs such as [https://blog.avast.com/2014/03/27/how-does-avast-safeprice-work/ SafePrice] that spy on your web browsing and inject advertisements. Installing for security is counterproductive to say the least. It is notorious for its absurdly high false positive rate, and it frequently breaks posting to and browsing 4chan. Frequent BSODs have been reported by some users.-->
'''Visual Studio Code'''


[[File:Comodo icon.png|48px]] '''COMODO Antivirus'''
[https://code.visualstudio.com/ Visual Studio Code] is a free and open source, cross-platform text editor. It is developed by Microsoft. Despite being based on Electron like Atom, its performances are usually superior compared to the later, while delivering equivalent functionalities.


[https://antivirus.comodo.com/ COMODO Antivirus] is a module part of the proprietary, free [http://www.comodo.com/home/internet-security/free-internet-security.php Comodo Internet Security] suite. There is a paid version called 'COMODO Internet Security Pro' but it is more designed for computer illiterates with services such as 'GeekBuddy' which is a remote-support service.
===Integrated Development Environment (IDE)===


[[File:Icon_Malwarebytes_small.png|48px]] '''Malwarebytes'''
[[File:Visualstudio.png|48px]] '''Visual Studio'''


[https://www.malwarebytes.org Malwarebytes] is a proprietary antivirus program popular in various security communities as a backup scanner. It is offered both as freeware and commercial software. The free version of Malwarebytes allows the user to manually scan for and remove malware, but a license must be purchased if the user wishes to take advantage of its scheduled scanning and real-time protection features.
[https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/ Visual Studio] is Microsoft's IDE for C, C++, .NET (C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET), Python & Rust. Community versions are available for free. Full versions are usually free or discounted for MSDN members, students, etc.


[[File:Clamwin logo.png|48px]] '''ClamWin Antivirus'''
[[File:Idea_icon.png|48px]] '''JetBrains' IDEs'''


[http://www.clamwin.com/ ClamWin] is an open-source antivirus developed in C++ that focuses on being lightweight and efficient. Please note that it does not include an on-access real-time scanner. You need to manually scan a file in order to detect a virus or spyware.
[https://www.jetbrains.com/products.html IntelliJ IDEA] is the flagship IDE from JetBrains, and the Community Edition is FOSS. They have several IDEs for different languages, including [https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/ PyCharm] Community Edition for Python, which is also FOSS.[[File:Icon_Eclipse.png|48px]] '''Eclipse'''


==== Malware removal ====
[https://www.eclipse.org/ Eclipse] is a feature-rich IDE with a major focus on its plugin system. Plugins are used for everything from language support (Java, C++, Python, C#, etc.) to adding additional features or aesthetics (Git integration, Vim keybindings, relative line numbers, CMake support, color schemes, etc.). It also has a reasonable set of built-in features. Some of the more notable of these include the plugin install/update tool, a highly configurable code formatter, and a customizable UI.
''See: [[Malware removal]]''


=== Sandbox ===
===Hex editors===


[[File:Comodo icon.png|48px]] '''COMODO Sandbox'''
*[http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32.htm XVI32]
*[http://frhed.sourceforge.net/en/ Frhed]
*[https://sourceforge.net/projects/wxhexeditor/ wxHexEditor]


[https://help.comodo.com/topic-72-1-451-4739-.html COMODO Sandbox] is a module of the COMODO Firewall; part of the proprietary, free [http://www.comodo.com/home/internet-security/free-internet-security.php Comodo Internet Security] suite. There is a paid version called 'COMODO Internet Security Pro' but it is more designed for computer illiterates with services such as 'GeekBuddy' which is a remote-support service.
==Security==
{{Main article|Security}}


[[File:Sandboxie.jpg|48px]] '''Sandboxie'''
===Antivirus===
{{tip|The best antivirus software we can recommend is '''common sense''' and good extensions like uBlock Origin / Lite. Don't do something stupid like getting your software from download.com, or that scam brothersoft website. Always look at the file name, and don't open dumb shit with titles like ''FurryHyperMacroHermPorn2016-DougWinger-GiddeonCorralftCockvore.zip.png.exe''. It's simple, really. Still, with any good OPSEC, it is useful to have a fall-back or fail-safe. Use our recommendations should you fail to have simple common sense.}}


[http://www.sandboxie.com/ Sandboxie] is a proprietary shareware program for creating isolated virtual environments.
'''Windows Security'''


=== Software firewalls ===
Formerly Windows Defender, Despite being pack-in software, the default Windows antivirus is [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/stay-protected-with-windows-security-2ae0363d-0ada-c064-8b56-6a39afb6a963 quite competent]. Does encourage you to sign in with a Microsoft account, but this can be ignored. Comes with a solid firewall and malware isolation capabilities. 


''Software firewalls should not be viewed as replacements for hardware firewalls. The proper configuration of modem and router firewalls remains vital to securing one's network no matter what software solutions are employed.''
'''Windows Sandbox'''
Windows Sandbox is a feature that allows you to create virtual desktops for isolating and testing suspicious applications. Read the docs [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/application-security/application-isolation/windows-sandbox/windows-sandbox-overview here]. You can also use them as virtual development environments.


[[File:Comodo icon.png|48px]] '''COMODO Firewall'''
'''Any.run'''


[https://personalfirewall.comodo.com/ COMODO Firewall] is part of the proprietary, free [http://www.comodo.com/home/internet-security/free-internet-security.php Comodo Internet Security] suite. There is a paid version called 'COMODO Internet Security Pro' but it is more designed for computer illiterates with services such as 'GeekBuddy' which is a remote-support service. Do note that COMODO Firewall can potentially make you unable to access your VPN.
[https://any.run/ any.run] is a closed-source web-based malware analysis tool you can use anywhere.


[[File:Tinywall_logo.png|48px]] '''Tinywall'''
[[File:Malwarebytes_Logo.png|48px]] '''Malwarebytes'''


[http://tinywall.pados.hu/ Tinywall] is a lightweight wrapper for the Windows firewall, providing a lot of new features like tampering protection, blocklists, or temporary firewall rules.
[https://www.malwarebytes.com/ Malwarebytes] is a proprietary antivirus program popular in various security communities as a backup scanner. It is offered both as freeware and commercial software. The free version of Malwarebytes allows the user to manually scan for and remove malware, but a license must be purchased if the user wishes to take advantage of its scheduled scanning and real-time protection features.


'''Windows Firewall Control'''
====Malware removal====
{{Main article|Malware removal}}


[http://www.binisoft.org/wfc.php Windows Firewall Control] is another lightweight wrapper for the Windows firewall. Actively developed and supported from Windows 7 to 10. If you make a small donation you get a useful Notifications System which provides notifications for outbound blocked connections.
===Software firewalls===


=== Password managers ===
''Software firewalls should not be viewed as replacements for hardware firewalls. The proper configuration of modem and router firewalls remains vital to securing one's network no matter what software solutions are employed.''


[[File:Keepassx.png|48px]] '''KeePassX'''
[[File:Tinywall_logo.png|48px]] '''Tinywall'''


[https://www.keepassx.org/ KeePassX] is a light interface and cross platform password manager published under the GNU GPL.
[https://tinywall.pados.hu/ Tinywall] is a lightweight wrapper for the Windows firewall, providing a lot of new features like tampering protection, blocklists, or temporary firewall rules.


=== Windows Security Utilities ===
'''Windows Firewall Control'''
''Use at your own risk. Always create a restore point. If you brick your computer using one of these highly-experimental programs you have only yourself to blame.''


[https://www.winprivacy.de/english-home/ W10Privacy] is a utility for the removal of telemetry, bloat and other unwanted "features" from Windows 10. Options are color-coded by risk, and some are non-reversible.
[https://www.binisoft.org/wfc.php Windows Firewall Control] is another lightweight wrapper for the Windows firewall. Actively developed and supported from Windows 7 to 10. If you make a small donation you get a useful Notifications System which provides notifications for outbound blocked connections.


== Emulation and compatibility ==
===Password managers===


=== Virtual CD/DVD drive ===
[[File:Keepassx.png|48px]] '''KeePassX'''
* [http://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/ WinCDEmu]
* [http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html/ ImDisk]


=== Virtual machine ===
[https://www.keepassx.org/ KeePassX] is a light interface and cross platform password manager published under the GNU GPL.


[[File:Icon_VirtualBox.png|48px]] '''VirtualBox'''
===Windows Security Utilities===
{{warning|''Use at your own risk. Always create a restore point. The chances are low, but If you brick your computer using one of these programs you have only yourself to blame.''}}


[[VirtualBox]] is free and open source GPL software. It was first developed by Innotek GmbH, then bought by Sun Microsystems and now continually developed by Oracle.
[https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil winutil] is a multi-purpose Windows configuration utility for the removal of telemetry, bloat and other unwanted "features" from Windows 10 & 11. For more granular control, consider a open source privacy-script generating website such as [https://privacy.sexy privacy.sexy]


* [http://www.vmware.com/ VMWare] ''(non-free)''
==Emulation and compatibility==
*[http://qemu.org Qemu]


=== Virtual desktop manager ===
===Virtual CD/DVD drive===
* [http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/ VirtuaWin] allows you to use multiple virtual desktops.


=== PC-98 simulators ===
*[https://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/ WinCDEmu]
PC-98 is a series of computers by NEC, which was a popular computing platform in Japan. There were many interesting games created for the PC-98. Your average PC-98 emulation user in 4chan is likely to be a first-generation Touhou Project player. For better reference and understanding it's recommended to see its page on [http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/PC-98 Touhou Wiki] and [[Wikipedia:NEC_PC-9801]].
*[http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html/ ImDisk]


Since not every one is real OG enough to have one of these computers from when they were first produced or buy one off the internet, here's a list of a few emulators for the PC-98:
===Virtual machines===


* [http://www.zophar.net/pc98/anex86.html Anex86]
'''Hyper-V Manager'''
* [http://www.yui.ne.jp/np2/ Neko Project II]
* [http://www.zophar.net/pc98/pc98e.html PC98e]
* [http://www.zophar.net/pc98/t98-next.html T98-NEXT]


And [http://www.pc98.org/main.html here's some games] other than 2hus.
[https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/quick-start/enable-hyper-v Hyper-V] is Microsoft's proprietary hardware-accelerated virtualisation platform. It can be used to create both Windows and Linux virtual machines with excellent performance. Hyper-V also supports advanced features like GPU paravirtualisation and network queuing.


== Unclassified software ==
'''QEMU'''


''These recommendations will be classified soon.''
{{tip|''The majority of configuration for this application is done manually by editing its configuration file.''}}


=== Hex editor ===
[https://www.qemu.org/ QEMU] is an open-source hardware-accelerated virtualisation library for Windows, macOS & Linux hosts. Windows is a bit of a second-class citizen but if you're willing to read the documentation, it offers very similar performance to Hyper-V.
* [http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32.htm XVI32]
* [http://frhed.sourceforge.net/en/ Frhed]
* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/wxhexeditor/ wxHexEditor]


=== Comic and manga viewer ===
[[File:Icon_VirtualBox.png|48px]] '''VirtualBox'''


[[File:MComix.png|48px]] '''MComix'''
[[VirtualBox]] is free and open source virtualisation software. Be aware that it is [https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/14/oracles_love_and_hate_relationship/ currently owned by Oracle].


[http://sourceforge.net/p/mcomix/wiki/Home/ MComix] is decent on Windows. It supports manga view and other nice features. It requires some GNOME stuff, but that's easy to provide (it may come with the installer). However, it has some shakiness and non-smooth transitions when dragging images that is not present on the Linux version.
===PC-98 simulators===
PC-98 is a series of computers by NEC, which was a popular computing platform in Japan. There were many interesting games created for the PC-98. Your average PC-98 emulation user in 4chan is likely to be a first-generation Touhou Project player. For better reference and understanding it's recommended to see its page on [https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/PC-98 Touhou Wiki] and [[Wikipedia:NEC_PC-9801]].


[[File:cdisplayex.png|48px]] '''CDisplayEX'''
Since not every one is real OG enough to have one of these computers from when they were first produced or buy one off the internet, here's a list of a few emulators for the PC-98:


[http://www.cdisplayex.com/ CDisplayEX] is a freeware comic book archive viewer that supports reading from CBZ/CBR/CB7/PDF/EPUB format with many features. It also provides native cover thumbnail in Windows Explorer, color filters, Leap Motion support and many more.
*[https://www.zophar.net/pc98/anex86.html Anex86]
*[https://www.yui.ne.jp/np2/ Neko Project II]
*[https://www.zophar.net/pc98/pc98e.html PC98e]
*[https://www.zophar.net/pc98/t98-next.html T98-NEXT]


=== Screen capture ===
And [https://www.pc98.org/main.html here's some games] other than 2hus.


[[File:OBS.png|48px]] '''OBS'''
===Screen capture===
For basic needs, Windows 11 comes with a simple built in screen-recorder you can bring up with <code>Win + Shift + S</code>.


[http://obsproject.com/ Open Broadcaster Software] is free and open source software for recording and live streaming.
Otherwise, [https://obsproject.com/ Open Broadcaster Software] is good quality free and open source software for recording and live streaming.
* [http://blog.bahraniapps.com/?page_id=21 GifCam] can record your desktop as a GIF.
* [http://www.cockos.com/licecap/ LICEcap] is free and open software to record your desktop as a GIF.
* [http://getsharex.com/ ShareX] is free, open source and lightweight. It is a screenshot capture, screen recorder and file sharing tool.


=== Screenshots ===
==What does /g/ use?==


[[File:Greenshot.png|48px]] '''Greenshot'''
* OS: Windows 10 / 11 IoT LTSC Enterprise.
* Web Browser: See [[Web browsers]]
* IRC: Terminal based, Weechat or Irssi.
* VoIP: Discord
* File Compression: 7-Zip
* Maintenance: BleachBit
* Image viewer: JPEGview
* Media Player: mpv
* Document Reader: Your browser.
* Text Editor: Neovim, Emacs or Visual Studio Code.
* Package Manager: Winget + Chocolatey or Scoop
* Antivirus: Windows Security and/or Malwarebytes


[http://getgreenshot.org/ Greenshot] Is a free program which allows you to save images of your desktop, or a selection of your desktop. Highly customizable, as it allows users to use custom hot keys to trigger screen captures, save files in custom file destinations, and many other options.
==See also==


=== Screensavers ===
*[[List of recommended macOS software]]
See: [[Screensavers]]
*[[List of recommended GNU/Linux software]]
*[[List of recommended Android software]]


== See also ==
==External links==
* [[List of recommended OS X software]]
* [[List of recommended GNU/Linux software]]
* [[List of recommended Android software]]


== External links ==
*[https://prism-break.org/en/ Prism Break] - Lists software for different platforms that respect your freedom (and points out those which do not). Maintained by the EFF.
*[https://prism-break.org/en/ Prism Break] - Lists software for different platforms that respect your freedom (and points out those which do not). Maintained by the EFF.


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[[Category:Recommendations]]
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[[Category:Windows]]
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Latest revision as of 10:15, 31 January 2025

This page is for good quality software on Windows, based on the contributions of /g/ users. This page is not for solidifying preferences or ideology; it is considered to be "value-free" and thus permitting of both reference to open source software and closed source software, for-profit and not-for-profit. This is not your soapbox, your ballot box, or pulpit. Stay constructive and avoid politics and arguments.

Package manager

Windows 10 and 11 come with WinGet, the Windows package manager. Using a package manager gives you the benefit of being able to download and install a lot of software via commands rather than having to navigate to a website, download it and run an installer. If you don't want to use the Microsoft Store, take a look at Chocolatey or Scoop.

For an all-at-once installation to install all of your favourite software in one go (useful on a fresh install of Windows), check out winutil.

*nix environment on Windows

If you're feeling a bit limited or alienated with Windows' command line tools, you can set up a native *nix environment on Windows.

  • The Windows Subsystem for Linux, allows you to run a Linux container inside Windows. Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and OpenSUSE are officially supported, but there's a guide for using a custom distro.
  • If you don't feel comfortable with containerization, Cygwin is a good alternative. Cygwin offers a large selection of GNU coreutils and extras, natively compiled for Windows.
  • MinGW-w64 is a port of the GNU Compiler Collection and it's utilities for Windows.
  • The native Windows build of Git provides a shell with simple *nix programs like cp, mv, rm, etc. and other basic coreutils you might need. Read the page for details.
  • Powershell 7 is not POSIX-compliant but it is adopting increasingly POSIX-like syntax, so if you want to tough it out, consider updating to the newest version. Additionally, Windows Dev Home adds native sudo for Windows.

Communications

Before being v&, weeaboo nonces often use communications software to exchange nude images with police officers posing as kawaii lolis.

Web browsers

Main article: Web browsers

Firefox.png Firefox

Firefox is free software developed by Mozilla. It is highly extensible via addons and included as the default browser in many Linux distributions. It is often criticized on /g/ and /tech/ as "SJWfox" because of some Mozilla developers outspoken campaigns on social and political issues.

Software Chromium.png Chromium

Chromium builds are based off the underlying code of Chrome. While nearly identical to Google's browser, they lack proprietary components like automatic updates and Widevine DRM. However, non-Ungoogled Chromium still phones home to Google.

Otter-browser-icon.png Otter Browser

Otter Browser is a FOSS web browser that aims to recreate the best aspects of the classic Opera (12.x) UI using Qt5.

Palemoon.png Pale Moon

Pale Moon is a fork of Firefox that maintains support for the older XUL addon/theming standard. It retains the "Australis" UI, and uses its own "Goanna" rendering engine, forked from Gecko, which performs poorly with some CSS/JS-heavy sites. Does not support current Firefox addons, and has its own addons (see also: JustOff addons).

Torbrowser.png Tor Browser

Tor Browser (formerly known as Tor Browser Bundle) is a package of a modified Firefox extended support release, NoScript, HTTPS-Everywhere, Tor, TorButton and TorLauncher. It automatically routes traffic through the Tor network and deletes history and cookies when closed.

Seamonkey-icone-6933-128.png SeaMonkey

SeaMonkey is a continuation of the Mozilla suite. Unlike most modern web browsers, it is an Internet suite, complete with bundled programs for email, IRC, and web design. It is compatible with most XUL add-ons.

Kmelogo.gif K-Meleon

K-Meleon is a FOSS web browser for Windows. It uses the Gecko rendering engine just like Firefox, but sports a native Windows UI. It is absurdly configurable. Also very suitable for resurrecting Pentium M and older systems because of it's speed.

Email clients

Desktop email clients provide off-line email storage and additional features over most web-mail clients.

Betterbird.png Betterbird

Betterbird is a fork of the more well known Thunderbird. After Mozilla followed in the inglorious footsteps of GNOME where features are removed and bugs closed as wontfix, Betterbird stepped up and delivers fixes and features. It is compatible with most Thunderbird addons.

Icon Claws-Mail.png Claws-Mail

Claws-Mail is a lightweight FOSS (GPL) email client based on GTK+. Supports PGP, vCalendar (Outlook compatible), RSS/Atom feeds, spam filtering and more via a well-maintained collection of first party plugins. Sending HTML emails is not supported. Reading HTML emails is usable but much improved by enabling WebKit or LiteHTML rendering engines.

Instant Messaging (IM) clients

Element

Element is a free and open source cross-platform instant messaging client and the flagship implementation for the Matrix protocol. It's a solid Discord alternative, with support for voice and video calling. DMs are end-to-end encrypted by default. Bridges to other messaging services, such as Discord, Jabber, iMessage and more are available with third party bridges. Unfortunately, however, it is an Electron app.

Icon Pidgin small.png Pidgin

Pidgin is a free and open source instant messaging client developed in C. It is based upon Libpurple and offers support for Jabber (XMPP), Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, GroupWise, Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE and Zephyr out of the box. Support for additional protocols like Matrix and Signal is offered through third-party plugins. Plugins are available for OTR, OMEMO and many other features. Beware it stores passwords in plain text by default.

File:Discord.png Discord

Discord is a non-free VoIP and instant messaging client, widely used for gaming. It is absolutely chock-full of spyware but it is the main platform that normies use.

Gajim-logo.png Gajim

Gajim is a FOSS cross-platform GUI Jabber client written in Python. It supports OMEMO and not OTR.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) clients

Graphical User Interface (GUI)

HexChat.png HexChat

HexChat is a continuation of XChat and makes both its source code and binaries available to users of all platforms it's created for. Like its parent software, HexChat is licensed under the GNU GPL. It includes all the basic features one would need, and can be ideal both for new users and IRC veterans. Has built-in plugins for Lua, Perl and Python scripting.

ChatZilla is an IRC client addon for XUL clients such as SeaMonkey and Pale Moon. Great for people who want basic IRC features without having to install an additional application.

Terminal/Command prompt

Irssi.png Irssi

Irssi is the father of rice clients and easily accessible for all systems. The author of the Metacity window manager for Linux describes his software as follows: "Boring window manager for the adult in you. Many window managers are like Marshmallow Froot Loops; Metacity is like Cheerios." Irssi is the terminal IRC client equivalent of that sentiment. Irssi is extensible through plugins.

Weechat.png Weechat

Weechat is Irssi with more rice, scripting languages, ideal defaults and development. It is rising in popularity as a preferred client on /g/. Weechat also includes plugin functionality.

Support by browsers and mail clients

  • Thunderbird has support for IRC and other IM services.
  • Opera had similar chat support which was dropped in 10.10.
  • As mentioned above, SeaMonkey can support IRC.

Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) clients

Jitsi.png Jitsi

Jitsi Meet is a Discord/Skype alternative using standards compliant FLOSS. It supports text encryption with OTR and audio/video encryption with ZRTP. The downside is it is a web app.

Mumble.png Mumble

Mumble is free and open source audio chat software. It is superior in audio quality and latency by always being the first client to use latest technologies, such as the Opus audio codec.

Google Voice.png Google Voice

Google Voice runs in a web browser and requires a plugin for full functionality. There does not appear to be official desktop software for this. The botnet never felt so good. Free phone numbers, calling, texting, and integration into Gmail.

Search utilities

Everything.png Everything

Everything is a proprietary freeware search engine that instantly locates files and folders by filename, by monitoring file system changes in real time and indexing them.

Launchy 001.png Launchy

Launchy helps you navigate your start menu, programs, folders and more, amazingly fast, simply by typing in the name of your program and folder. Loads instantly by simply pressing a hotkey (default is alt+space). Customizable and allows you to add other things like website bookmarks and commands. The perfect program to replace windows search with.

File compression utilities

File compression software is widely used by various software distributors and archives to mitigate bandwidth and storage space requirements.

Icon 7zip small.png 7zip

7zip is a free and open source file archiver developed in C++ by Igor Pavlov. Its primary feature is lossless compression in the 7z format, based upon the Lempel–Ziv–Markov chain algorithm. In addition to the handful of formats it is capable of creating new archives in, 7zip can retrieve files from archives in virtually any format that one is likely to encounter.

NanaZip is a derivative of 7zip which has some extra features like icons on the context menu, extra options in many dialogs and the ability to minimize to tray while extracting.

PeaZip.png PeaZip

The PAQ and LPAQ methods are capable of an impressive degree of lossless compression, but the time and system resources required are equally impressive.

PeaZip is a free and open source archiver developed in free Pascal by Giorgio Tani. It is notable for its native PEA format and its support of cutting-edge compression technologies like PAQ and LPAQ that are not supported by other popular archivers. Like 7zip, it is capable of retrieving files from virtually any archive that one might encounter.

File sharing

BitTorrent clients

Icon qBittorrent small.png qBittorrent

qBittorrent is a libtorrent-based free and open source BitTorrent client written in C++. According to its developers, the aim of the client is to provide a free software alternative to µTorrent.

Icon Deluge small.png Deluge

Deluge is a libtorrent-based free and open source BitTorrent client written in Python. It is highly extensible via its plug-ins system. Deluge is notable for having originated the particular method of protocol encryption that is currently in use by every major BitTorrent client. It can be a bit of a resource hog on Windows compared to other clients.

Icon Transmission.png Transmission

Transmission is a popular free and open source client that is easy to use and lightweight. For years it has been the preferred BitTorrent client on macOS and GNU/Linux, and it finally has received an official release on Windows.

FTP clients

Icon WinSCP small.png WinSCP

WinSCP or Windows Secure Copy is a free and open source FTP, SFTP, and SCP client written in C++.

TermSCP

TermSCP is a cross-platform free, open source TUI file transfer utility written in Rust.

Direct Connect

FlyingCarpet

FlyingCarpet is an open-source AirDrop clone, Written with Rust.

Sharedrop

ShareDrop uses WebRTC to share files between two devices. Can be used in any web browser.

Eiskalt.png EiskaltDC++

EiskaltDC++ is a cross-platform program that uses the Direct Connect and ADC protocols. It is compatible with DC++, FlylinkDC++, LinuxDC++ and other DC clients.

XDCC

Filesharing over IRC; IRC Clients with support for XDCC include HexChat and irssi. See also: XDCC.

Maintenance

Disk cleaners

Warning: Most, if not all "PC cleaner" programs are at best, snake oil, and at worst, malware. Cleaning the registry does next to nothing. Any app that claims to "speed up your PC" by removing junk files is almost guaranteed to be predatory in some fashion. Steer well clear!

Storage management

Bleachbit.png BleachBit

Bleachbit is a lightweight free open-source disk cleaner that can manage deletion of unnecessary files.

Dupeguru-logo.png dupeGuru

dupeGuru is a FOSS program for finding duplicates in your computer. Supports images, audio and other multiple scan types such as filename, content and tags.

Bulk Crap Uninstaller

Bulk Crap Uninstaller is a FOSS uninstaller tool that calls the uninstaller for programs and scans and prompts for the deletion of file and registry remnants of said programs. It aims to be an open-source version of the popular "Revo Uninstaller" tool.

Disk defragmenters

Warning: Only use these programs on your hard disk drives. Defragmenting can shorten the lifespan of your SSDs

Windows Disk Defragmenter

Windows comes with a proprietary defragmentation tool that should cover most typical use cases.

Icon MyDefrag small.png MyDefrag

MyDefrag is a proprietary freeware disk defragmenter based on the standard defragmentation API by Microsoft. It also optimises file locations.

Disk image and back-up tools

Macrium Reflect.png Macrium Reflect 8

Macrium Reflect 8 is the last free version of Macrium Reflect. It can schedule full backups as well as incremental ones, with the paid version offering a second increment for storage saving. Versions newer than Macrium Reflect 8 no longer offer a free indefinite trial.

File recovery tools

Main article: Data recovery Icon TestDisk small.png TestDisk

TestDisk was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table).

Icon PhotoRec.png PhotoRec

PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video, documents and archives from hard disks, CD-ROMs, and lost pictures (thus the Photo Recovery name) from digital camera memory. PhotoRec ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's file system has been severely damaged or reformatted.

File syncing tools

FreeFileSync.png

FreeFileSync compares your files and folders with other files and folders from target locations, and adds or updates them accordingly

Robocopy is the built-in Windows file sync utility. It functions similarly to rsync.

Syncthing is a cross-platform file-syncing utility.

Winpinator is the unofficial Windows port of the popular Warpinator file sync utility.

System information tools

Icon CPUZ small.png CPU-Z & GPU-Z

CPU-Z and GPU-Z are proprietary freeware that provide detailed information about your CPU and GPU, respectively.

Icon HWMonitor small.png HWiNFO

HWiNFO is proprietary freeware that provides overall system information and a litany of temperature and fan sensor readouts.

Fastfetch

Fastfetch is a cross-platform TUI system information utility written in C. Use it to look cool in desktop threads.

Multimedia

Media players

Mpv-logo.png mpv

Tip: The majority of configuration for this application is done manually by editing its configuration file.

mpv is an incredibly powerful and widely-used fork of mplayer2 and MPlayer. It features FFMPEG playback, high quality scaling algorithms, OpenGL output, proper color management, and is completely free and open-source. With yt-dlp, it can also play video and audio streams, and even .gif files!

mpv.net

mpv.net is an mpv derivative that uses more native Windows components for theoretically better performance and aesthetics.

Vlc-logo.png VLC

VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.

Mpc-hc.png MPC-HC (Media Player Classic)

MPC-HC is an open source media player on Windows with extensive file support, and no bloat or harmful software. Different renderers and shaders are also available from the community. Development is currently in maintenance mode.

Media center and HTPC

Kodi.png Kodi

Kodi (formerly known as XBMC) is a GPL-licensed software media center featuring a 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remote controls. It is highly customizable via skins and addons. There are even addons available for streaming from internet services like YouTube and Twitch.tv. It plays nearly every video and music format out of the box. The built in scrapers can pull data from sites like IMDB and thetvdb to allow sorting media by actor, genre, rating, etc. It can export this data to local files for offline use.

Jellyfin.png Jellyfin

Jellyfin is a free and open source media server based on the last FOSS version of Emby. It does not require any online accounts or come bundled with any free IPTV garbage unlike Plex, whilst retaining excellent performance.

Media converters and rippers

Handbrake.png HandBrake

Handbrake is a free and open source video transcoder with an easy to use GUI. It can rip and convert a variety of video formats, but can not break DVD or Blu-ray copyright protection.

Makemkv.png MakeMKV

MakeMKV can convert video from proprietary (and usually encrypted) discs into a set of MKV files, preserving most information but not changing it in any way. It can instantly stream decrypt video without intermediate conversion and decrypt Blu-rays and protected DVDs.

Mkvtoolnix.png MKVToolNix

MKVToolNix is a set of FOSS tools by Moritz Bunkus for working with Matroska files. It can mux, split and merge mkv files with no transcoding or loss of quality. It can also add or remove audio and subtitle tracks, change track order and edit metadata.

yt-dlp

yt-dlp is a command line program for downloading videos from YouTube and similar sites.

EAC.png EAC

Exact Audio Copy is a proprietary freeware CD ripper written by a German university student. It is preferred by what.cd and other audiophile communities because of its accuracy and ability to rip slightly damaged discs. It can output a detailed log file specifying the position any errors occurred. It also supports AccurateRip, cue sheet generation and ID3 tagging via freedb.

Audio players

Foobar-logo.png Foobar2000

Foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include ReplayGain support, low memory footprint, and native support for several popular audio formats. It supports ASIO output.

Musicbee-logo.png MusicBee

MusicBee is basically a souped version of Foobar2k. It supports everything that you want in an audio player plus more! The GUI is very different than most, but can be customized to your will. It supports ASIO output and provides some level of compatibility with WinAmp input plugins. It is free as in free beer.

Musicpd-logo.png MPD (Music Player Daemon)

MPD is a flexible, powerful daemon for playing music. While mpd doesn't directly play music to you, it provides a stream of it (locally or over the internet) to which you connect to with a client (as it's a server, not a music player). It is the mpd client that provides you with all the functionality you expect from a music player. The advantage here is that you can have multiple clients connected and listening to one instance of mpd, or you can stream over the internet. Some music players listed below will be mpd clients, which means that you may need to install mpd as well (if it doesn't come included) for them to work.

  • mpc is a minimalistic terminal MPD client.

Icon Strawberry Player.png Strawberry

Strawberry is a continuation of the aforementioned Clementine aimed at music collectors and audiophiles.

Audio editors

Tenacity

Tenacity is an easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder made as a replacement to Audacity which now includes telemetry. It has support for LADSPA, Nyquist, VST, Audio Unit effect and VAMP analysis plug-ins.

FFMPEG

FFMPEG is also the gold standard for audio encoding and editing, command line based.

Picard.png Musicbrainz Picard

Picard If you've got a collection of legally obtained music that you want organized in an acceptably uniform way, then you need to get an mp3 tagger to parse mass edits to the filenames and ID3 metadata. There are several out there, but the only one you should be using is Picard. Developed by the Musicbrainz community, Picard has been around for years and it's a feature-rich solution with a whole shitload of tools that will make organizing your hoard of mp3s easy.

Icon LMMS.png LMMS

LMMS is a free and open source DAW that allows you to create melodies and beats, synthesize and mix sounds, and arrange samples. You can have fun with your MIDI keyboard and much more – all in a user-friendly and modern interface. Furthermore LMMS comes with many ready-to-use instrument and effect plugins, presets and samples. Compatible with many standards such as SoundFont2, VST(i), LADSPA, GUS Patches, and MIDI.

Image viewers

ImageGlass-logo.png ImageGlass

ImageGlass is a small FOSS image viewer. It has support for 70+ formats and plugins. However, it has few manipulation tools compared to similar software.

Nomacs-icon3.png nomacs

nomacs is a free and open source image viewer, which supports multiple platforms. You can use it for viewing all common image formats including RAW and PSD images. It also has support for plugins and batch processing.

Irfanview-logo.png Irfanview

Irfanview is a very fast, small, compact and innovative freeware graphic viewer for Windows. It features an inbuilt editor along with many other extra tools that you may need or require.

Icon XnViewMP.png XnViewMP

XnViewMP is the enhanced version to XnView. It is a powerful media browser, viewer and converter. It is compatible with more than 500 image formats. XnViewMP also comes with an easy to use yet powerful batch conversion module.

Jpegview-logo.png JPEGView

JPEGView is a lean, fast and highly configurable viewer/editor with a minimal GUI.

Comic and manga viewers

Cdisplayex.png CDisplayEX

CDisplayEX is a freeware comic book archive viewer that supports reading from CBZ/CBR/CB7/PDF/EPUB format with many features. It also provides native cover thumbnail in Windows Explorer, color filters, Leap Motion support and many more.

Ahoviewer.png Ahoviewer

Ahovieweris Free open source Booru browser and Manga reader and also an image viewer, it supports CBZ,CBR, RAR and other common extensions, it also supports webms and it lets you Browse different boorus and download images and videos from there.

Image editors

Raster art

Icon Krita.png Krita

Krita is a user friendly program for sketching and painting, offering an end-to-end solution for creating digital painting files from scratch.

PaintDotNet.png Paint.NET

Paint.NET started as an MS Paint alternative. It now integrates plenty of features such as layers and effects.

Photopea

Photopea is a free clone of Adobe Photoshop CS6 that works in-browser. All photo processing is done on device. The software is closed-source and ad-supported. The app can be "installed" from Chromium-based browsers to provide an Electron-app like experience. Ads can be disabled with userscripts

Affinity Photo

Affinity Photo is a paid, proprietary, non-destructive photo editor that provides excellent Photoshop compatibility and a similar workflow - $35

Vector art

Icon Inkscape.png Inkscape

InkScape is a vector graphic editor.

Vectorpea

Vectorpea Adobe Illustrator CS6 clone. Same developer and caveats as Photopea.

Screenshot Handlers

Greenshot.png Greenshot

Greenshot Is a free program which allows you to save images of your desktop, or a selection of your desktop. Highly customizable, as it allows users to use custom hot keys to trigger screen captures, save files in custom file destinations, and many other options.

ShareX

ShareX is pretty much the same thing, although it's been in development for much longer, it's open source and there's way more lightweight tools. Plus you have workflowing options to upload your screenshots to different image hosting sites.

Video editors

Kdenlive.jpg Kdenlive

Kdenlive is a free and open source multi-track video editor made by the KDE Team. it's based on FFMPEG and is compatible with a variety of video and audio formats.

Olive

Olive is a free, open source video editor currently in beta seeking to provide a more modern editor workflow. it's one of the most promising free (as in freedom) video editors currently.

FFMPEG

FFMPEG is the gold standard for video encoding and editing. Olive and Kdenlive are pretty much just wrappers around FFMPEG and you can do everything they can do, without bloat, using just the terminal.

Pikimov

Pikimov is a freeware video and motion graphics editor web app with a very similar workflow to Adobe After Effects. Everything is processed on-device. It currently does not support Firefox

Davinci Resolve

Davinci Resolve is a proprietary, professional colour grading tool and video editor. It is free, with a paid version available.

3D modeling

Icon Maya.png Autodesk Maya

Maya offers a comprehensive creative feature set for 3D computer animation, modeling, simulation, rendering, and compositing on a highly extensible production platform. Maya now has next-generation display technology, accelerated modeling workflows, and new tools for handling complex data.

Icon Blender.png Blender

Blender is a free and open source 3D graphics suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline; modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation.

Office

Document readers

Icon SumatraPDF small.png Sumatra PDF

Tip: The majority of configuration for this application is done manually by editing its configuration file.

Sumatra PDF is a free and open source PDF, ePub, Mobi, XPS, DjVu, CHM, CBZ, and CBR reader. Unlike most competing products for Windows, it is extremely fast and lightweight, now with 64 bits binaries.

Okular.pngOkular

Okular is the default document viewer for the systems that are bundled with the KDE environments. It supports PDF, PS, Tiff, CHM, DjVU, epub and many other common extensions, it also has some nice features such as annotations, drawing, highlighting and it's completely free and open source.

Word processors

Icon LibreOffice-Writer.png LibreOffice Writer

LibreOffice Writer is the word processor in the LibreOffice suite. After Oracle acquired OpenOffice, it asked community members to GTFO [1]. Since everyone despises Oracle, the developers all jumped ship as well [2] and started LibreOffice.

OnlyOffice

OnlyOffice is a free and open source document processing suite focused on Microsoft Office compatibility. It can either be hosted as a web service or run locally.

WordTsar

WordTsar is an open-source clone of the extremely popular DOS word processor, WordStar. Comes with an optional GUI and the ability to save in some slightly less antiquated file formats (like .docx)

Obsidian

Obsidian is a free and open source Markdown editor designed for note-taking. It is highly extensible with plugins. A multi-device sync service is offered as a subscription.

Programming

To manage your programming projects, consider setting up individual developer environments with Windows Dev Home. This will prevent you from entering dependency hell, at the cost of some of your storage space.

Text editors

Notepad++.png Notepad++

Notepad++ is free software written in C++ for Windows. It is fast, efficient and customizable.

Icon Sublime-Text.png Sublime Text

Sublime Text is a paid, proprietary text editor for code, markup and prose.

Neovim

Neovim is a Vim fork designed to reduce attack surface and improve editor speed. An extremely feature-rich programmer's text editor with extensive plugin support.

Icon Emacs.png Emacs

Emacs is an extensible, customizable text editor and more. At its core is an interpreter for Emacs Lisp, a dialect of the Lisp programming language with extensions to support text editing.

Icon Spacemacs.png Spacemacs

Spacemacs is a community developed configuration for Emacs, making it more accessible especially to those who are used to using Vi.

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is a free and open source, cross-platform text editor. It is developed by Microsoft. Despite being based on Electron like Atom, its performances are usually superior compared to the later, while delivering equivalent functionalities.

Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

Visualstudio.png Visual Studio

Visual Studio is Microsoft's IDE for C, C++, .NET (C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET), Python & Rust. Community versions are available for free. Full versions are usually free or discounted for MSDN members, students, etc.

Idea icon.png JetBrains' IDEs

IntelliJ IDEA is the flagship IDE from JetBrains, and the Community Edition is FOSS. They have several IDEs for different languages, including PyCharm Community Edition for Python, which is also FOSS.Icon Eclipse.png Eclipse

Eclipse is a feature-rich IDE with a major focus on its plugin system. Plugins are used for everything from language support (Java, C++, Python, C#, etc.) to adding additional features or aesthetics (Git integration, Vim keybindings, relative line numbers, CMake support, color schemes, etc.). It also has a reasonable set of built-in features. Some of the more notable of these include the plugin install/update tool, a highly configurable code formatter, and a customizable UI.

Hex editors

Security

Main article: Security

Antivirus

Tip: The best antivirus software we can recommend is common sense and good extensions like uBlock Origin / Lite. Don't do something stupid like getting your software from download.com, or that scam brothersoft website. Always look at the file name, and don't open dumb shit with titles like FurryHyperMacroHermPorn2016-DougWinger-GiddeonCorralftCockvore.zip.png.exe. It's simple, really. Still, with any good OPSEC, it is useful to have a fall-back or fail-safe. Use our recommendations should you fail to have simple common sense.

Windows Security

Formerly Windows Defender, Despite being pack-in software, the default Windows antivirus is quite competent. Does encourage you to sign in with a Microsoft account, but this can be ignored. Comes with a solid firewall and malware isolation capabilities.

Windows Sandbox Windows Sandbox is a feature that allows you to create virtual desktops for isolating and testing suspicious applications. Read the docs here. You can also use them as virtual development environments.

Any.run

any.run is a closed-source web-based malware analysis tool you can use anywhere.

Malwarebytes Logo.png Malwarebytes

Malwarebytes is a proprietary antivirus program popular in various security communities as a backup scanner. It is offered both as freeware and commercial software. The free version of Malwarebytes allows the user to manually scan for and remove malware, but a license must be purchased if the user wishes to take advantage of its scheduled scanning and real-time protection features.

Malware removal

Main article: Malware removal

Software firewalls

Software firewalls should not be viewed as replacements for hardware firewalls. The proper configuration of modem and router firewalls remains vital to securing one's network no matter what software solutions are employed.

Tinywall logo.png Tinywall

Tinywall is a lightweight wrapper for the Windows firewall, providing a lot of new features like tampering protection, blocklists, or temporary firewall rules.

Windows Firewall Control

Windows Firewall Control is another lightweight wrapper for the Windows firewall. Actively developed and supported from Windows 7 to 10. If you make a small donation you get a useful Notifications System which provides notifications for outbound blocked connections.

Password managers

Keepassx.png KeePassX

KeePassX is a light interface and cross platform password manager published under the GNU GPL.

Windows Security Utilities

Warning: Use at your own risk. Always create a restore point. The chances are low, but If you brick your computer using one of these programs you have only yourself to blame.

winutil is a multi-purpose Windows configuration utility for the removal of telemetry, bloat and other unwanted "features" from Windows 10 & 11. For more granular control, consider a open source privacy-script generating website such as privacy.sexy

Emulation and compatibility

Virtual CD/DVD drive

Virtual machines

Hyper-V Manager

Hyper-V is Microsoft's proprietary hardware-accelerated virtualisation platform. It can be used to create both Windows and Linux virtual machines with excellent performance. Hyper-V also supports advanced features like GPU paravirtualisation and network queuing.

QEMU

Tip: The majority of configuration for this application is done manually by editing its configuration file.

QEMU is an open-source hardware-accelerated virtualisation library for Windows, macOS & Linux hosts. Windows is a bit of a second-class citizen but if you're willing to read the documentation, it offers very similar performance to Hyper-V.

Icon VirtualBox.png VirtualBox

VirtualBox is free and open source virtualisation software. Be aware that it is currently owned by Oracle.

PC-98 simulators

PC-98 is a series of computers by NEC, which was a popular computing platform in Japan. There were many interesting games created for the PC-98. Your average PC-98 emulation user in 4chan is likely to be a first-generation Touhou Project player. For better reference and understanding it's recommended to see its page on Touhou Wiki and Wikipedia:NEC_PC-9801.

Since not every one is real OG enough to have one of these computers from when they were first produced or buy one off the internet, here's a list of a few emulators for the PC-98:

And here's some games other than 2hus.

Screen capture

For basic needs, Windows 11 comes with a simple built in screen-recorder you can bring up with Win + Shift + S.

Otherwise, Open Broadcaster Software is good quality free and open source software for recording and live streaming.

What does /g/ use?

  • OS: Windows 10 / 11 IoT LTSC Enterprise.
  • Web Browser: See Web browsers
  • IRC: Terminal based, Weechat or Irssi.
  • VoIP: Discord
  • File Compression: 7-Zip
  • Maintenance: BleachBit
  • Image viewer: JPEGview
  • Media Player: mpv
  • Document Reader: Your browser.
  • Text Editor: Neovim, Emacs or Visual Studio Code.
  • Package Manager: Winget + Chocolatey or Scoop
  • Antivirus: Windows Security and/or Malwarebytes

See also

External links

  • Prism Break - Lists software for different platforms that respect your freedom (and points out those which do not). Maintained by the EFF.
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