Use a standard user account in everyday life, not an administrator account.Leave the built-in antivirus and firewall active.The typical user is sufficiently protected with some simple precautions: Many free antivirus programs unnecessarily burden your computer, are loaded with ads, and can add unwanted functionality to Windows. XMedia Recode – A bit harder to figure out than Handbrake, but incredibly versatile, and it can use your GPU for conversion.Turn off Cortana, Onedrive and ads (!) in the start menu. O&O ShutUp – Stop Microsoft collecting data about your computer usage (telemetry).If you value your privacy, try Signal for your text, picture and video conversations. Signal – An excellent open-source messaging app not owned by Meta.The following programs are unfortunately not on, but are worth mentioning: NVDA is a free screen reader for Windows.Īpplications that are not available on NVDA – If you build websites, you should at least test them with a keyboard and a screen reader.Still updated and probably the most robust program for FTP file transfer. FileZilla – The FTP client from “when dad was a boy”.Perfect for quick HTML/JS/CSS/XML editing. Notepad++ – A minimalist but competent text editor with syntax highlighting.Zoom – Google Meet and Microsoft Teams are available in simple browser-based versions, which is great.LibreOffice – Opens without complaining the Microsoft Word file that, for some reason, still finds its way into your email inbox even though we are writing 2022.Handles all the formats the built-in zip function in Windows does not. 7-Zip – The classic open source file compression program for Windows.You can crop, scale and optimise your images for the web. Paint.NET – A lovable little image editor that opens in a snap.Handbrake – Converts and compresses your video files to the aforementioned formats and codecs.

A tool you will also find for all your platforms.

VLC – Media player that works with all modern codecs including h.264, MKV, WebM etc.

Respects your privacy and is also available for Android phones and Apple devices.

Chrome – There’s really no way around the browser from the world’s biggest advertising company, and Chrome has some unique browser extensions.

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