Must-Have Windows Applications You Should Install First on New PC

If you have just purchased a new PC or reinstalled the Windows then first thing should be to install all sorts of useful software. There are dozens of Windows programs but I would recommend my list of everyday tasks with you...

We will sort these programs into useful categories like
Internet Browser
File Sharing
File compression
Office Suite
Media player
Image Editing
Security
Screen recording
Download Manager

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1- INTERNET BROWSER
My top pick in this category is google chrome, it's super easy /speedy and tons of extensions, like if you have the speed dial extension on it than it will save your time of typing the addresses. you should also check out its very useful extensions like...
color picking, Touch VPN proxies, enable right-click, built-with for web developers, download video helper, Click to remove elements, Full page screenshot, Grammarly for typing, Screencastify, Window resizer for responsive, etc...

There are other browsers with plugins/extensions like Firefox, Opera, and Maxthon Nitro. Chrome sometimes have javascript execution problems which Opera can handle easily in my experience.

2- FILE SHARING
My first choice would be DropBox for LAN users and invited friends. Files can be easily shared just by drag and drop like in windows file explorer. Although DropBox as a 2GB Cloud Storage isn't much but you can increase that by referring friends. it also offers an app so you can take your file anywhere.

Other alternatives are Google Drive (15GB Free), OneDrive (5GB Free), BOX (10GB Free), Apple iCloud (5GB Free), Amazon Drive (5GB Free) and zoolz.

3- FILE COMPRESSION
Windows have native support for some zipped files, but if you want more powerful tool than 7zip will help a lot because it supports almost all compressed formats even the PC game files and .exe files, I mean yes you can uncompress the executable files of any software. Also 7-Zip compresses to 7z format 30-70% better than to zip format. And 7-Zip compresses to zip format 2-10% better than most of other zip compatible programs.

Other alternatives I have used are WinRAR, WinZip, PeaZip and KGB Archiver.
I have seen KGB archive of 168Kb file size contains 760Mb of video file but it requires a lot of computing power to uncompress.

4- OFFICE SUITE
You will need an office type program (free of course) to work with documents, spreadsheets, and presentations at some point so here LibreOffice comes which is powerful free open source program includes alternatives of the word, excel, access, powerpoint etc...

Other alternatives you can try OpenOffice and WPS Office.

5- MEDIA PLAYER
If you like to watch videos and listening to music online than you should have the offline tool always on your desktop. that's where the best VLC media player comes (swiss army knife of media players). it can support all the popular and new media formats like webm, FLV, mkv, H264, H265, mov, mp4, mp3, etc...
Plus it also has a World radio so you can listen to the world's every channel smoothly.

Other alternatives are Media Player Classic, KMPlayer, UMPlayer, BS.Player, GOM Player.

6- IMAGE EDITING
I have been using Adobe Photoshop for almost 10 years, it has all the editing tools plus plugins for the final photo look. But if you are looking for a free tool then I would recommend Photo Pos Pro. It has both beginner and expert mode to work with and some tools like in photoshop. The only drawback of this free tool is its limited resoltion export. and if you want that removed then you have to go for the premium version.

Another advance tool is, of course, GIMP with no limitations.

IMAGE BROWSER
I would strongly Recommend the ACDSee because now in its latest version not only you can browse the images but you can edit directly even the RAW format that's make it professional image editing tool. I also like its right-click image view with EXIF data and camera import feature.
You can also check the PSD file screenshot when right click on the file or any other image format with no thumbnail

7- SECURITY
You should think about the security of your newly installed windows and There are many antivirus software other than windows native security and some rise above the rest.
I would recommend Panda Free Antivirus. it is a lightweight and fast program and doesn't slow the system resources means you can set up scheduled scans or exceptions. You can also disable the promotional ads from settings.

8- SCREEN RECORDING
I have been Fraps for screen/games recording and you can take a screenshot with the key. There's no need to paste into an image editing program every time you want a new screen. It captures and named automatically and timestamped.

9- DOWNLOAD MANAGER
If IDM (Internet Download Manager) is too buggy with all your browsers, then I would recommend EagleGet a free multithread tool with browser capturing capability and lightweight and fast downloading speed. it’s free, easy to use, fully configurable, and comes with some extra tools you should try it.

10- Windows Essentials
After you have installed all the drivers for your device you should install the basic windows programs like DirectX, .Net framework, Java, Flash player, PDF reader, etc...

You can also share your favorite programs if you like.