What To Download When You Get A New Computer

Whether yous've just purchased a new PC or reinstalled Windows, the kickoff task you'll probable do is installing apps. While there are dozens of amazing Windows programs, knowing which ones are the must-accept software for Windows 10 or Windows eleven makes setting up a new installation easier.

In no item guild, let's step through 15 essential apps for Windows that everyone should install correct away, along with some alternatives for them.

ane. Net Browser: Google Chrome

Unsurprisingly, Google Chrome is nonetheless our pinnacle browser pick. Information technology'due south super-speedy, includes niggling conveniences similar letting you instantly search Google Lens for an image, and has a vast library of Chrome extensions. Throw in cross-platform syncing that lets you open your desktop tabs on your phone and vice-versa, and y'all've got a fantastic browser for all purposes.

Chrome isn't without its faults, still. Plenty of people want to avoid Google's pervasive tracking in Chrome, and it gobbles a lot of RAM. But the adept news is that you have plenty of other fantastic browsers to cull from, like Firefox and Opera.

Fifty-fifty the congenital-in Microsoft Border is based on Chromium, so give it a try if you adopt Microsoft's approach over Google's.

Download: Google Chrome (Free)

Download: Firefox (Free)

Download: Opera (Gratuitous)

two. Cloud Storage: Google Drive

If yous only pick one deject app service, Google Drive is the one you should install due to the amount of free space it includes. It offers 15GB of free storage, which is shared beyond your Google business relationship with Google Photos and Gmail too.

Google Drive offers an app for every major platform, so yous can take your files anywhere. In addition to syncing files you lot place in the dedicated Google Bulldoze folder, the desktop app makes it easy to back upwardly folders on your estimator and external devices, besides.

It'south also super piece of cake to share files with others, plus the service plays well with Google'southward productivity suite. Whether yous utilise it as part of your fill-in plan, equally a cloud flash drive, or for setting upwardly shared folders with others, Google Drive is an essential app choice for Windows 10 and xi.

Paired with OneDrive (which comes built into Windows) or another gratuitous cloud storage provider, yous tin can get plenty of storage space and separate your files logically by service.

Download: Google Drive (Costless, subscription bachelor)

3. Music Streaming: Spotify

Years ago, listening to music on your desktop meant painstakingly importing and organizing a drove of MP3s. That's no longer the case; music streaming services eliminate the need for buying individual albums physically or digitally.

There are a lot of music streaming services bachelor, just we think the essential option for Windows 10 or 11 is Spotify. Its ad-supported gratis plan lets you mind to as much music as you like, and there are several Spotify Premium plans that are worth information technology for avid listeners. Spotify is likewise home to millions of podcasts, making everything available in one convenient place.

Spotify also has a defended Windows app, unlike some of its competitors. If y'all're already invested in some other ecosystem, though, Apple tree Music or YouTube Music might be a better choice for yous.

Download: Spotify (Gratis, subscription available)

Visit: Apple Music (Subscription required, gratis trial available)

Visit: YouTube Music (Free, subscription bachelor)

4. Function Suite: LibreOffice

Chances are you lot'll need a productivity suite that lets you work with documents, spreadsheets, and presentations at some betoken. You might think that paying for Microsoft Office is the only way to get such access, but that'southward far from the truth.

No Windows user should go without LibreOffice. Information technology's a completely free and powerful office suite that includes alternatives to Microsoft Give-and-take, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and more. In one case you go used to a few small aesthetic differences from MS Office, you'll be flying through your work with LibreOffice.

Note that OpenOffice, a one time-popular alternative, is basically dead now. If y'all don't want to use LibreOffice, try FreeOffice. Yous can use spider web apps like Discussion Online or Google Docs too, simply nosotros're focused on full desktop downloads here.

Download: LibreOffice (Gratuitous)

Download: FreeOffice (Free)

5. Epitome Editor: Paint.NET

Whether y'all want to try your hand at bones image manipulation, need a way to blur sensitive info in screenshots, or want to retouch old photos, everyone should have an paradigm editing program installed. Photoshop is the golden standard for this, but there are plenty of complimentary tools that are more than accessible.

Paint.Internet is a must-have Windows app for your image editing needs. It's far more than powerful than Microsoft Pigment, but doesn't overwhelm you with loads of confusing tools. You can easily blur out parts of an epitome, machine-level photos to brand them expect amend, and add together text and shapes to your pictures in just a few clicks. Plenty of plugins allow you to aggrandize its functionality, besides.

If you find Paint.NET too basic, GIMP is a more than avant-garde solution, and information technology'south also bachelor at no accuse.

Download: Pigment.NET (Gratuitous)

Download: GIMP (Gratis)

6. Security: Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

Windows 10 and 11 include Windows Defender, which is a good enough antivirus for most users. Notwithstanding, it's wise to keep a secondary security programme installed to supplement it.

For this, you lot can't shell Malwarebytes. The gratuitous version lets you scan your organization for malware that your antivirus might not catch. And for a powerful blended security solution, upgrading to Malwarebytes Premium is worth the toll.

Download: Malwarebytes (Gratis, subscription available)

Thanks to YouTube'southward ubiquity, you probably don't watch local videos as well oftentimes. However, everyone should still go on a solid video player around on their desktop for when they need to play media files locally. Even if it's non one of the tools you recollect to download on a new computer right away, it will come in handy someday.

For this job, nothing beats VLC Media Player, which packs a ton of features and is capable of playing virtually every video and audio format imaginable. You lot might not break it out often, simply give VLC a download while y'all're setting up your PC. You'll save yourself the hassle of messing with video codecs or using QuickTime, which hasn't been supported on Windows for years.

Download: VLC (Free)

Taking a screenshot on Windows is useful for everything from capturing funny moments to having a record of important information. The bones Snipping Tool and Snip & Sketch apps but provide a barebones feature set, so you need something better in your pack of essential Windows apps.

You won't detect a more powerful free screenshot tool than ShareX. With tons of capture methods, a solid built-in editor, the ability to run automated steps afterwards yous accept a screenshot, and extra tools similar a colour grabber and ruler, ShareX has an impressive characteristic fix for no cost.

If ShareX overwhelms you, give PicPick a try instead. It's a bit simpler, but doesn't compromise on features.

Download: ShareX (Costless)

Download: PicPick (Gratuitous)

9. File Compression and Extraction: 7-Zip

Windows includes native back up for elementary zipped files, only anything beyond the basics requires a more powerful tool. While this isn't the most exciting software category, a file extractor is still a must-have PC app so you can work with any kind of archived files yous might meet.

7-Aught is the gold standard for file compression and extraction apps. It'south small and installs in seconds, is easy to use, and stays out of your mode when y'all're not using information technology. Those who need advanced features will still find them in vii-Nix, though.

The but drawback of 7-Nil is its anile, spartan advent. If yous tin can't get over that, take a expect at PeaZip, which is a like tool with a much more attractive UI. Either fashion, you certainly don't need to pay for tools like WinRAR.

Download: seven-Aught (Free)

Download: PeaZip (Costless)

10. Messaging: Rambox

Chances are that you use at to the lowest degree one messaging service to stay in impact with your friends during the twenty-four hours. With so many options to choose from, there's no way we could pick the best messaging service, considering information technology all depends on what your friends use. So why not have all of them in one place?

Rambox is our option for the best messaging app on Windows. It lets you add accounts from dozens of popular messaging services, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Telegram, GroupMe, Discord, and many more. You tin fifty-fifty add other web apps, like Apple tree Music, to it.

The app simply adds a new tab for every service yous use, letting you lot keep upwards with every group in ane window. Information technology includes some extra features that arrive more useful than opening these apps in your browser, and you can easily close or minimize one window (instead of a half-dozen) when it's time to focus.

While Rambox's complimentary programme has some limitations, it offers more for costless than competitors similar Franz.

Download: Rambox (Costless, subscription available)

11. Clipboard Manager: ClipClip

A clipboard managing director is an of import Windows app considering it saves you a lot of time. Instead of only being able to keep ane item on your PC's clipboard at one time, clipboard managers let yous keep rails of the last several dozen entries you've copied.

ClipClip is a swell Windows clipboard managing director to use. In improver to logging what yous copy, the app as well lets y'all pivot frequent snippets for easy admission. Information technology'south easy to create folders for apace pasting canned text like addresses, email responses, and similar.

The app doesn't overwhelm you with options, just does let you tweak its hotkeys, disable clipboard monitoring when needed, and cull what the app ignores. Add information technology to your list of basic Windows software and you lot'll never have to worry about managing your PC's clipboard again.

Download: ClipClip (Costless)

12. Countersign Director: Bitwarden

It'south not humanly possible to create strong passwords for every business relationship and remember them all. That'due south why you need a countersign manager. It's a secure service that creates good passwords for you and locks them behind ane master password, which is the only one you accept to remember.

Bitwarden is the best free countersign manager and one of the most of import pieces of software y'all can download. In addition to the desktop app, you'll need to install the Bitwarden extension in your browser of choice to easily motorcar-fill passwords. Follow our complete guide to getting started with a password managing director to larn how to get started.

Download: Bitwarden (Free, subscription bachelor)

13. Backup: Backblaze

Backing upwardly your PC is essential, every bit a natural disaster, burglary, or malware assault could wipe out all the files on your machine. You don't want to lose all your documents, photos, and other files and have to start from scratch.

Nosotros similar Backblaze as an essential backup service for Windows 10 or Windows 11. For only a few dollars a calendar month, the service backs upwards everything on your PC, as well as any external drives you connect, to the Backblaze cloud. Yous don't accept to worry well-nigh choosing what gets backed up, and there are no limits to your backup size either.

While it's the only app on this list that doesn't have a gratis selection, backing upwards is worth paying for. If you ever lost all your files, the app would pay for itself in an instant.

As an additional fill-in layer, or for your main backup if you can't afford Backblaze, you should try EaseUS Todo Backup Gratis. Information technology's an easy-to-utilise tool for making local backups of your files.

Download: Backblaze (From $7/month)

Download: EaseUS Todo Backup Free (Free, premium version bachelor)

fourteen. Storage Management: TreeSize Gratis

Everyone knows the hassle of running low on storage space. That's why one of the useful apps you should install on every Windows system is a deejay analyzer.

TreeSize Free is a straightforward fashion to find out what's taking upwards space on your computer. Only open it and tell information technology which disk to scan, and it will order all the folders on your PC based on how large they are. Y'all can and so run across the largest files on your computer and take action to delete or move them accordingly.

Don't waste time trying to manually hunt through folders and find big files—allow this essential utility do information technology for you lot. Utilise it as office of our step-by-pace Windows cleaning guide.

Download: TreeSize Free (Free, premium version bachelor)

15. Scripting: AutoHotkey

If you want to bring more automation to your computer, then AutoHotkey is something you need to download. It'due south a custom scripting tool that let you define your ain commands, making it equally useful equally whatever you tin can dream up.

As only a few examples, you can create quick text expansion, enable automatic typo correction, override certain keyboard keys, and create macros to perform several actions with a few keypresses.

AutoHotkey can be a little intimidating at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's a powerful tool to have in your kit. Run across our guide to getting started with AutoHotkey and peachy AutoHotkey scripts to attempt as an introduction.

Download: AutoHotkey (Free)

The Must-Accept Apps for Every Windows PC

We've looked at essential apps for Windows 10 and Windows eleven that everyone should install right away, and they're almost all gratis. If yous don't adopt ane of our picks, yous'll find a suitable alternative without much trouble. Nigh people will become plenty of use out of these programs and capeesh them more than the default software that comes installed with Windows.

Now that you know this necessary software for your PC, you should besides be aware of useless Windows apps that yous should uninstall.