Talk:List of recommended Windows software

Proposed Standards

These are my proposed standards for adding software to the 'recommended' software page. I am only trying to start a conversation about what we want to see here, so don't read this as if I am attempting to cross the Rubicon or anything.

• Is is notable? - If it is notable, it should be mentioned on /g/ at least infrequently.
• Is its feature set unique? - Obviously, we do not want to recommend too many different software options to fulfil the same role. I do not feel that this should be a strict standard of course. WinRAR and 7zip for example are in my opinion different enough to both be worthy of mention.
• Is it standalone software? - Add-Ons or extensions for Web Browsers should probably be covered on the appropriate browser pages. Perhaps full-featured programs like ChatZilla should be excepted from this, but I cannot say that I like the idea.
• Is it highly questionable software? - If it phones home or performs other malware-like activities without some significant justification, it should probably not be recommended.
• Is there a clearly superior alternative? - This is a list of recommended software. If something is objectively inferior in every meaningful way, it should not be listed here.
• Is it free or at least unlimited shareware? - We should probably shy away from recommending software with a completely non-optional price tag. Obviously, good paid software like Photoshop or Microsoft Office must be listed, but we all know how much Anon hates paying for things.
• Is it an extremely specialised piece of software? This is a page of general recommendations, so we probably ought to avoid covering anything too exotic. If the average power user would not know what to do with it, it probably should not be here. --Rapespider (talk) 16:55, 13 February 2014 (EST)

Anime specialization?

Just wondering if we should divulge into anime viewing on Windows for if this should take place on a separate page. I contend that anime is far more specialized for Windows, with many programs considered to be the ideal or gold standard-level quality that are only on Windows. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Watashi (talk • contribs) 02:40, 18 February 2014‎ (UTC)

Is there really anything that special about anime playback? --Rapespider (talk) 03:24, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Icon images

These should be displayed at 48x48. Anything else is too large and distracting for the format on many common display resolutions. Honestly, even the 48x48 size that I originally started with might be a bit larger than is ideal. --Rapespider (talk) 03:24, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

CDisplayEX

I have never heard of CDisplayEX before, and it also appears to not be Source-Published making it neither Free Software nor Open Source--Se7en (talk) 22:57, 9 February 2016 (EST)

To be fair, I never heard of it either (then again, I've never read a "manga" or comics like that). But regarding to your second point, all pages of software recommendation have both FOSS and proprietary option, this is emphasized in the preface of the page (and I'm planning to copy it to the Linux and Mac section too).  Morpheus talk 11:28, 10 February 2016 (EST)

Add "Remove Empty Directories" to Maintenance section?

"Remove Empty Directories" seems like the only software that deletes empty unused folders in the directories. It may be worth a mention in the Maintenance section. What do you guys think?

Here is a link to the program: http://www.jonasjohn.de/red.htm --Theredpikmin (talk) 22:43, 24 February 2016 (EST)

I've never used this program, but would wager that CCleaner deletes blank directories. Conversely, I would also consider that empty directories consume only a few bytes of disk space, (therefore no problem to anything) and that they could be required by programs (e.g. game installation creates savegames directory which isn't used until a user opts to save their game.) Mrsnooze (talk) 02:32, 24 February 2016 (EST)

• CCleaner doesn't delete empty directories and rejected the idea. Mrsnooze (talk) 18:38, 25 February 2016 (EST)

If you want to add them, go ahead. but it seems redundant to add "Remove empty directories" subsection.  Morpheus talk 09:43, 25 February 2016 (EST)

Cleanup Tag

Cleanup tag with no reason specified. Let's discuss the cleanup or remove the tag.

Proprietary antivirus

Why would we recommend proprietary antivirus? That sounds incredibly unsafe as you don't know if they have phone-home features. Does anyone know any Free/libre alternatives? --Se7en (talk) 10:47, 27 April 2016 (EDT)

True, and there's always the fact antivirus run as root, so they ARE a vector. — Galactus (talk) 10:56, 27 April 2016 (EDT)

Please consider reading the preface of this page. And speaking about FOSS antivirus, ClamAVClamWin is a FOSS one.  Morpheus talk 12:46, 27 April 2016 (EDT)

Defraggler inferior to stock Windows Defrag utility

It has been proven that defraggler is slightly worse than the default defragging tool in Windows, despite having a cool block view of defrag progress. Recommended software should be superior to the stock counterpart. Sagerion (talk) 11:09, 14 November 2016 (EST)

Email clients

Is it a good idea to let Opera Mail in this list, as it is no longer supported (so no security patches)? Also, what the fuck is Everdesk and is it really recommended or is it some kind of shilling? --Eldy (talk) 12:56, 7 March 2018 (UTC)

I have literally never heard of Everdesk and I could find only a single mention on /g/ in 2016, plus the site looks dated as fuck and not in the good way. I've replaced with claws-mail, since its pretty popular and works well. sneak (talk) 00:39, 24 November 2022 (CET)

Privacy warning banner

I have removed the asinine warning banner.

• Extended Security Updates for Windows 7 cease in January 2023, it is reckless to advise its use.
• I am aware of no evidence to suggest Windows 7 is any "safer" telemetry/spyware-wise than later versions. There are a number of tools that aim to remove telemetry from later versions just as there are for 7, and the effect of either cannot easily be measured. Using any version of Windows if you're majorly concerned about privacy/telemetry is utterly ridiculous, at least without significant external controls.
• The "NSAKEY" mention is just silly.

--sneak (talk) 02:51, 24 November 2022 (CET)