Windows has the greatest choice of software in the desktop OS world – no different OS even approaches. In any case, this large number of uses has one major issue – a ton of extraordinary applications go unnoticed and neglected. Regardless of the possibility that we attempt to utilize every one of them, there isn’t sufficient time in a day to carefully attempt and test them all, particularly the devices for power users. We present to you a curated rundown of cutting edge Windows tools that you can utilize – that we carefully picked and tested, so you don’t need to.
[ad type=”banner”]1. Glasswire
Glasswire is a network monitor and firewall. It has a powerful yet spontaneous interface that visualizes your network activity on a graph by traffic type, application, and geographic location. The firewall alerts you when an application connects to the internet for the first time, shows you which servers it is communicating with, so you can see possible threats and block them if necessary.
There is also a bandwidth monitoring feature that alerts you for possible internet excesses, plus see what apps are using up all your bandwidth. Remote server monitoring is also supported, and these are only the features available in the free version!
Paid features include ask to connect, webcam and mic usage detection, lets you see the device connected to your network, and a longer graph history. The paid versions of the app range from $49-$199, differing only in the number of PC’s and remote connections supported.
[ad type=”banner”]Download (Supports Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7)
2. Everything Search Engine
Everything is a search engine for your desktop. Unlike Windows’ built-in file search, everything keeps a database of all the files on your computer. As a result, searching for any file name gives results almost instantly.
Everything is fast, extremely lightweight (only a 500kb installer), uses minimal resources, updates the file index in real-time, has support for Boolean operators, wildcards, filetype search, and more.
Download (Supports Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7)
3. TreeSize
TreeSize helps you find space hogs on your hard disk. It visualizes folder sizes via a colored bar, making it easy to distinguish which files and folders are taking up how much space.
Apart from your local hard disks, TreeSize can scan smartphones and other mobile devices connected via MTP. It can be started from the context menu of folder or drives for quick lookup.
While the basic functionality is free, there are paid versions as well. TreeSizePersonal ($24.95) features include 3D charts and tree maps, list of duplicate files, and redundant file search. TreeSize Professional ($54.95) includes numerous export and reporting options, scan scheduling, and remote machine scanning.
Download (Supports Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7)
4. ShareX
ShareX is a free screenshot capture, screen recorder, file sharing and productivity tool. It is much more advanced than Windows’ built-in Snipping Tool, as it has various methods of capturing screenshots including full screen, window, monitor, region, freehand, and web page capture.
Not only does it capture screenshots, it has customizable after-capture tasks such as annotating, adding effects, watermarking, and uploading. A must-have tool for those who capture a lot of screenshots.
[ad type=”banner”]Download (Supports Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7)
5. Breevy
Breevy is a text expander for Windows that helps you type faster and more accurately by allowing you to abbreviate long words and phrases. For example, you can define an abbreviation jwc as [email protected]. In the future, just write the abbreviation jwc, and it will automatically expand to [email protected]. Saves a bunch of time.
Other than expanding text, you can also configure it to launch applications, websites, files, and folders. For example, type in gg to open google.com, or type ff to open Firefox. The application is available in a 30-day trial, after which you will have to pay $34.95 to get the full version.
Download (Supports Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7)
6. SharpKeys
What SharpKeys does is simple – it maps one key on your keyboard to another. One common usage of this free tool is to get rid of the rarely-used Caps Lock key, and map it as an extra Ctrl or Shift.
sharpkeys
Keep in mind that SharpKeys only lets you map a single key to any other- it cannot let you swap two keys with each other, and neither can it map multiple key presses to one key. For example, mapping Ctrl+C to Page Up is not possible.
Download (Supports Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7)
7. Chocolatey
Chocolatey is a free command-line software manager for Windows. You can use it to quickly install, update, and uninstall applications. Instead of opening your browser, searching for a software, downloading the installer, and clicking next finish, all you need to do with Chocolatey is:
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choco install firefox sharex 7zip
Download (Supports Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7)And that’s it. This command will install Firefox, ShareX, and 7zip on your system automatically.
8. Autoruns
Autoruns is a comprehensive startup process monitoring utility for Windows and it’s available for free. It shows you what programs are configured to run during system boot-up or login. It goes beyond other AutoStart utilities, and reports Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, and much more.
autoruns
The included Hide Signed Microsoft Entries option helps you identify auto-starting images that have been added to your system by third-party software. Run this once, and you will probably be surprised at how many services launch automatically!
Download (Supports Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista)
9. Quick Access Popup
Quick Access Popup (QAP) is a free tool that lets you add applications, folders, websites, and more to its highly customizable pop-up menu. Any time or anywhere you click the middle mouse button (configurable), the pop-up will open and you can make your choice.
Quick Access Popup
Apart from opening applications and folders, you can switch applications, open recent folders, access your clipboard history, create subfolders, and even restart, or shut down your system.
[ad type=”banner”]Download (Supports Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7)
10. FileMenu Tools
FileMenu Tools adds a customizable context menu to Windows Explorer. It adds some built-in utilities that perform operations on files and folders such as run external applications, delete specific file types, and rename the selected files using a set of rules.
filemenutools
The extensive set of utilities lets you sync folders, find and replace a text string in all selected files, split files into multiple parts, join parts of a file which were previously split, shred files, delete empty folders, and much more for free. Do give this a try if you find the basic Explorer context menu too basic.
Download (Supports Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7)
Add these best Windows tools to your PC
And that is all for today’s roundup of the best Windows tools for power users. Firewalls, search engines, text expanders, encryption tools, clipboards managers, we tried to cover all grounds here.