Windows personal use app list
Last updated : 27/6/2023 (incomplete, will require additions)
Introduction
This article is to list out the Windows 10 apps that I use. I would also like to make it clear that I don't recommend using Windows 10/11, and that this list will also serve as some sort of reference for what kind of apps I look forward to use for Artix (GTK3).
Gallery
W10's prebuilt gallery app is quite decent, though it has its own unwanted connections & tends to be removed by the AME script.
Usable as a Windows Gallery replacement, but closed source. Sumatra PDF should be a good alternative as it also supports image viewing, if you don't mind combining picture viewer & document reader.
Video / Music
Haven't switched from VLC on Windows for too long (before 17/6/2023 update), so haven't tried other music apps to split video & music. 17/6/2023 Update : Split music & video (although h3 tag kept as video/music since both VLC & mpv plays music & video files), AIMP & mpv is where it's going. VLC is now honorable mention.
VLC (Honorable mention)
A video / music player I've come to rely on in Windows for pretty much most of my time in Windows, at least until mpv & AIMP replaced it. Mostly used to edit music tags, and the last known to work best for me is one from 2018 (3.0.14).
Primarily a video player, though usable as music player if you'd rather use mpv / file browser.
Music
Finally split music & video (for whatever it's worth since my video player of choice could still play music), and dear God does AIMP rule.
AIMP (a.k.a. Artyom Is Music Player) strikes back on Windows, and its glory shows.
- Inbuilt tag editor is present
- You can make playlists using folders, just like you would on AIMP Android (actually, it's a standard feature on AIMP).
As for flaws, here's some :
- No headset button controls - but then again desktop doesn't support them so I'm more lenient on AIMP here.
- Whenever music plays, the file information pops on the top of the screen. It's enabled by default, but can be disabled in Menu > Preferences > Information bar by unchecking "Show current file info at playback start" there.
Music editor
As I download music from YouTube (using NewPipe installed on my otherwise useless LG V30; as bad as it sounds), I sometimes get music files that drag on for too long, and FOSS audio editors on Android are absent.
An audio editor I find to be reliable, though not without its issues, some of which I will mention below.
Text / source code editor
The de facto text & code editor of Windows, based on Scintilla. Unmatched in quality, even in Linux, where some (such as Dedoimedo) would even install Wine to make Notepad++ work in Linux.
Notepad++ features that I look for in Linux text / source code editors :
- Tab scrolling - the kind where scrolling will scroll through visible tabs. With how GTK developers do things, I fear this feature will never be present on GTK3 (or maybe GTK4 but I haven't tried them out yet).
- Automatic restoration of tabs between sessions. In addition, Notepad++ allows keeping unsaved buffers, which is neat for notes (though I don't really care for it).
Prebuilt notepad
Pretty much the prebuilt Notepad app from Windows. Good for some text editing, not so much for anything else. Heck, it's not even good for source code editing, despite what Microsoft said.
Document reader
Chromium-based browsers (including Edge) double as PDF readers, as not ideal as it sounds.
A small, fast, & open source document reader. Also supports image viewing.
Browser
Honorable mentions :
- Ungoogled Chromium (source) : Chromium, without Google integration. Mainly a one-dev-show, with separate contributors compiling the binaries.
Dishonorable mentions :
- Iridium Browser : Half-assed Ungoogled Chromium, with even slower updates.
- Microsoft Edge : Microsoft REALLY loves to force this shit to Windows users, to the point they made it unremoveable by default (28/8/2023 Update : In Tiny10 22H2 (not stock Windows - gotta find a script for removing the leftover shortcut after amelioration), Edge can simply be uninstalled in Control Panel for what it's worth.). Welp, this is Microsoft's prebuilt Windows malware I suppose... (for what it's worth, Tiny10 22H2 allows fully un-installing Edge using control panel)
Others
- Antivirus : None but personal intuition & trust (and maybe some signature verifications if being REALLY nitpicky), I guess. But still, if you really need one, maybe upload to VirusTotal (if you have internet access) or use Malwarebytes (if you really need one installed)? Windows Defender also gets mentioned here since it's integrated with Windows 10 & beyond, but it destroys any & all hosts file that blocks any Microsoft connections (unless the hosts file were manually whitelisted).
- File manager : Stock Windows'. It works, at the very least.
- Network monitor : Glasswire. Closed source, naggy (about premium subcriptions, which can't even be disabled), & hides features (such as in-app firewall & dark theme) behind premium subscriptions; but at least it sorts out connections by app, making it a supposedly workable network monitoring app. Portmaster by safing.io seems to be promising (it's open source & includes adblocking), but turned out to be useless since it requires downloading some assets right in the installer - how hard can providing a completely offline installer can be for a company? By the way, I would also like to mention that Portmaster is also available in the AUR, and it also suffers from being a stub needing online assets.
- Office suite : LibreOffice. It's free & open source (unlike Microsoft's subscription-only Office) but doesn't seem to play well with Microsoft's office formats.
- Start menu : Pretty much stock Windows', just with some features cut away by AME script, including Cortana. Haven't bothered trying out everything else.
- DS4Windows : Emulates an Xbox 360 controller to make various "unsupported" gamepads (such as the PS5's DualSense) work in Windows 10 & higher. Heard Steam includes DualSense support by default, but since I don't install Steam on my computers I'll let others debate this.
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