Yesterday I shared with you the Windows Store apps that I use on a daily basis as I work and take care of my personal activities.
As promised, this is my follow up to that list to let you know the desktop related software, in other words software that does not come out of the Windows Store, that I use each day for these various activities and productivity.
There are a lot of options out there when it comes to these programs so if you happen to know of a specific alternative to anything I have listed please let us know about that in the comments.
This one here is pretty self-explanatory but if I had to pick one of the programs in this suite as my most critical it would be Outlook. I live in this program because of email and calendars and it helps me track everything in my life.
This piece of software is one of the best free options out there for editing images. You can work with various layers to build images, it has all the typical effects/filters to enhance your images including things like blurs, distortion, noise, photo, render and stylistic. You will have unlimited undos at your disposal and there is a very healthy plugin community.
This is well worth the price of free!
Although this is a good program for doing some basic photo editing and resizing I use this because it has a batch conversion feature that allows me to resize an entire directory of images at one time with all kinds of options.
This comes in very handy when I am building galleries on the SuperSite for Windows and need to shrink down the size of the images from my Nikon D5100.
CloudBerry Explorer for Azure Blob Storage
Over at my WindowsObserver.com website I store all of the Observed Tech PODCAST episodes and various downloadable themes, wallpapers and other files on Microsoft’s Azure service using Blob Storage.
This free program from CoudBerry gives me easy access for uploading files to that servicer instead of needing to use the web interface.
When I am building the MP3 files for the Observed Tech PODCAST I use this free software to edit the MP3 files metadata including its embedded cover art.
This open source audio editor and recorder software is one of the best out there. It supports multiple tracks and has the expected filters and other tools to produce the best possible sound quality from your recordings.
You can save your audio in multiple file formats and projects can be saved for later editing if necessary.
This is the open source follow on to the original Windows Live Writer that was no longer being developed/updated by Microsoft. If you have used WLW in the past, you will be in very familiar territory when you open OLW up.
This communications tool has become a critical link between myself, other contributors at SuperSite for Windows, Windows IT Pro and my editor. We use it for planning ahead on different coverage as well as generating content ideas and just general feedback/discussions.
Skype helps me stay connected to family and friends around the world and a few work related contacts as well.
I hear a lot of complaints about Skype but it works great for me and is available on my other devices like my Lumia 950 and the Xbox One. The camera tracking on the Xbox One with Kinect is really good as well.
This is my go to for grabbing quick images from my screen to share on social media because any snips are automatically placed in the clipboard and available to be pasted in apps and other programs.
Of course this is also a great means to grab screenshots or hero images for articles.
Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer
As I mentioned yesterday, my primary browser these days on Windows 10 is Microsoft Edge. IE becomes my primary back up if I experience any issues accessing a website using Edge but I also keep Firefox and Chrome around if there are compatibility issues with IE.
I use LastPass to manage all of my passwords and this program will offer to install the all-important browser plugin for each of your installed browsers so that you have easy access to that repository of log in data. It currently costs me $12 a year to sync that data across multiple devices which is a bargain in my opinion.
So what are your most critical or favorite pieces of desktop software for Windows?
P.S. Be sure to check out all the Windows Store apps I use everyday as well.
