Top Windows software to avoid

Software to avoidUse this insteadWhy?
Adblock PlusUblock originsAdblock Plus sells ads(!)
Adobe Acrobat (PDF printing)Microsoft Print to PDFUse the Windows 10 built-in printer
Adobe Acrobat (PDF reading and modifying)Foxit ReaderFree and safer from viruses, but has ads
Anti-virus softwareWindows SecurityUse the Windows 10 built-in AV
CCleanerBleachBitCCleaner has been accused of spying
Google Chrome, Microsoft EdgeFirefoxGoogle and Microsoft will sell your data
Firewall softwareWindows FirewallUse the Windows 10 built-in firewall
OfficeLibreOfficeSave money
OutlookThunderbirdSave money
WinZip, WinRAR7zipFaster, more secure, no nagging, no ads
Windows Media PlayerVLC PlayerVLC works much better, more formats
Zoom, SkypeJitsiZoom is not secure, Jitsi doesn't sell your data

Other, recommended windows tools:

  • Desktop Restore - prevent your desktop icons getting messed up when your resolution changes
  • Etcher - burn disk images to SD cards, great for working with Raspberry Pi images
  • FreeFileSync - great incremental backup tool
  • Ridnacs - discover what is taking the most space on your hard drive
  • SDFormatter - the official SD card formatting software
  • SyncTrayzor - sync files between computers without giving them to Google or Dropbox
  • Tixati - fast & free torrent client
  • VeraCrypt - file and disk encryption tool
  • WinCDEmu - mount disk images such as .iso files
  • WinMerge - compare text files or folder contents
  • WinSCP - FTP / SFTP client

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to install and play Curse of Monkey Island on Android

Image
There are some great adventure games on Android already. I can warmly recommend Thimbleweed Park or The Silent Age for example. But what if you wanted to play an old classic that cannot be found on Google Play? ScummVM is an app that can emulate these games, if you have the data files. And Curse of Monkey Island is one of these classics. Installation Purchase Curse of Monkey Island from gog.com or Steam (costs about 5€) Download and install it with the GOG Galaxy launcher ... Or Steam Locate the Curse of Monkey Island install directory on your PC Copy the directory to your Android phone, either with a USB cable or on the SD card with an adapter Install the ScummVM app on your phone Start ScummVM and press "Add game" Find the game folder on your phone, select it and click OK.  If you have trouble finding the folder, I made a separate guide for that. Now you can start enjoying Curse of Monkey Island! These instructions should also work on an iPhone. Controls The game is or...
Read more

How to fix the weird audio bug in Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Image
  Kingdom Come: Deliverance has a bug which makes the sound come out muffled or like the characters were talking far away or through a tunnel. This seems to be because the game thinks you are using multichannel surround sound. There seems to be no option to change the audio mode in-game. Instead, you should change your audio settings in Windows by following these directions: Press the windows key Type "Choose your output device" and select the search result. Select "Device properties" under the Output caption. Select "Additional device properties" This dialog will differ depending on your audio hardware. Go to the Advanced tab. There should be a selection for the default audio format. You should select something like this: 2 channel 44100 Hz audio. I had my Focusrite audio interface set up with 8 channels 24bit 44100 Hz, and that caused Kingdom Come to think I have surround sound. After changing the channel amount to 2 the audio started working correctly.
Read more

How to get rid of coil whine just by tweaking BIOS

Finally. No more ringing in my ears! I had a really bad case of coil whine with my computer. In the end I fixed it just by tweaking the BIOS! The coil whine was at it's worst when the PC was idling or under a light load.  Coil whine is a high-pitched sound that is produced by coils resonating at a high frequency. It is really hard to sense where exactly it's coming from. This is because humans cannot sense direction for high-pitched sounds. At first I thought it was my graphics adapter. So I bought a new used one. But the ringing was still there after the upgrade. Next up, I suspected my PSU was the culprit. So I changed the power supply to a newer 80 Plus Platinum model. I hate changing the PSU. And it didn't help. So it looked like my motherboard was the cause. It's an older ASUS motherboard, P8H67-V.  After googling around a bit, I found people talking about ASUS motherboards and coil whine when power-saving features are on in the BIOS . The so-called "C-state...
Read more

Running Black Dahlia on modern PCs

I just played through the old PC adventure game Black Dahlia. It's a good game, well worth a look if you like adventure games. It's a full-motion video (FMV) based game spanning 8 CDs, with some OK acting and an entertaining (but confusing and sometimes illogical) plot. The game was made in 1998 for Windows 95/98 and it's not that trivial to get it to work flawlessly. Here's how to do it. If you are running a Windows version above Windows XP If you are using any of these: Windows Vista Windows 7 Windows 8 Windows 10 Windows 11 ...you most probably can't make the game work without a virtual machine. But still I recommend you to try it yourself, using the below game installation guide. Installing Win95 / 98 on a virtual PC 1) Install Oracle VM Virtualbox and create a virtual PC 2) Install Windows 95 or 98 on the virtual PC Get hold of a copy of Windows 95 or 98. Maybe the easiest to install is the Windows 95 floppy disk version. Here's a guide to help you with ...
Read more

Fix the login loop in Xubuntu 24.04

 I had some problems logging into my brand new Xubuntu 24.04 LTS install running on Virtualbox. On the first login, I was booted back to the login screen. Opening some apps would also throw me out of the GUI session to the login screen. Eventually, I got into a loop where I get continually thrown into a login screen. This bug is mentioned on the Xubuntu homepage as a known issue: Xorg crashes and the user is logged out after logging in or switching users on some virtual machines  Seems that this bug also affects Ubuntu 24.04 . To get a terminal from the login screen, I pressed Ctrl-Alt-F1 and logged in. To get back to the GUI login, you can press Ctrl-Alt-F7. To fix the problem, I had to remove libva-wayland2: sudo apt remove libva-wayland2  After this, login is possible again in GUI mode (Ctrl-Alt-F7). However, this also uninstalled some apps I wanted. Looks like I have to skip Xubuntu 24.04 or Ubuntu 24.04 for now until this is fixed.
Read more

Remove annoying folders from Windows 10 File Explorer

Image
Ever wondered how to remove the annoying "OneDrive" and "3D Objects" folders from File Explorer in Windows 10? Here's an image of what I'm talking about: I removed OneDrive already since I don't use it. But the OneDrive folder persists in File Explorer, and you cannot delete it. Another thing that always bugs me is the "3D Objects" folder. I am never going to need that one. Even if I some day create some 3D Objects, I would like to place them in another folder and not have this shortcut visible everytime I open File Explorer. Removing the OneDrive folder from File Explorer What you need to do is press start button and type "regedit" and press enter. Using the Registry Editor, find the following entry: Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6} Double click on the "System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree" key. Change the Value data from 1 to 0. The OneDrive folder is no longer in F...
Read more