Top 10 Tools to Supercharge your Windows Experience

While Windows is a powerful operating system, it can be made even better with the right tools and apps. So in this article, we’ve compiled a list of the top 10 tools and apps to supercharge your Windows experience, based on recommendations from Reddit users and our own research.

1. ShareX

ShareX is a powerful and versatile screen capture, file sharing and productivity tool. It allows you to quickly capture or record any area of your screen and share it with a single keystroke. Key features:

• Capture full screen, active window, monitor, region, scrolling screen, and more
• Annotate screenshots with shapes, text, and more
• Record screen as video (GIF, MP4, AVI)
• Built-in image editor to add effects, watermarks, and more
• Upload to over 80 destinations including Imgur, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.
• Customizable workflows and hotkey combinations

ShareX is open source, completely free, lightweight and actively developed with a passionate community. It is trusted by many companies and power users for its extensive features and reliability.

2. Everything

“Everything” by Voidtools is a super fast file search utility for Windows. It can find any file or folder on your PC almost instantly by directly reading the NTFS Master File Table. Key features:

• Instant results as you type (faster than Windows search)
• Wildcard and boolean search support
• Regex support for power users
• Can index and search network and USB drives
• Minimal resource usage
• Portable version available

Everything is free for personal use with an optional $5 donation. It is an invaluable tool for quickly finding files scattered across your drives. Many users find it significantly faster and more reliable than the built-in Windows search.

3. PowerToys

Microsoft PowerToys is a set of utilities to tune and streamline your Windows experience for greater productivity. Inspired by the Windows 95 era PowerToys project, this reboot provides power users with utilities to squeeze more efficiency out of the Windows 10 shell and customize it for individual workflows. Key features:

• FancyZones for advanced window tiling and layouts
• PowerRename for batch renaming files
• Shortcut Guide for Windows key shortcuts
• Image Resizer to quickly resize images
• Color Picker to pick colors from anywhere on your screen
• Awake to keep your computer awake without changing power settings
• More experimental utilities in development

PowerToys is free, open source and actively developed by Microsoft with community input. It allows power users to make Windows work the way they want.

4. Ditto

Ditto is an extension to the standard Windows clipboard with advanced features. It saves a history of everything you copy, allowing you to access previous clipboard entries anytime. Key features:

• Stores text, images, HTML and custom formats
• Search and paste previous copy entries
• Synchronize the clipboard across multiple computers
• Paste into any application that accepts standard copy/paste
• Accessed from tray icon or customizable hotkey
• Encrypted network sync
• Portable version available

Ditto is more powerful than the limited built-in clipboard history in some Office apps. It is free and open source with Unicode and UTF-8 support.

5. WizTree

WizTree is a high-speed disk space analyzer that shows you which files and folders are taking up the most space on your drive. It can help you quickly find and remove large files to free up disk space. Key features:

• Scans MFT directly for very fast results (on NTFS drives)
• Tree view visualization of file system
• Find the largest files immediately
• Delete files directly from WizTree
• Portable version available
• Supports scanning network and USB drives

WizTree is freeware for personal use. It is significantly faster than other disk analyzers like WinDirStat, especially on large drives. Use the information it provides to locate and remove space hogs from your system.

6. EarTrumpet

EarTrumpet is a powerful volume control app for Windows that replaces the default volume flyout. It provides more control over audio devices and individual app volumes. Key features:

• Control the volume of individual apps
• Switch between playback devices from the tray
• Move apps between playback devices
• Multi-channel peak monitoring
• Customizable hotkeys
• Modern fluent design

EarTrumpet is free and open source. It is a must-have for anyone who wants more control over Windows audio without digging through settings.

7. Windows Terminal

Windows Terminal is a modern, fast, and powerful terminal application for command-line users. It significantly improves upon the default Windows Console Host. Key features:

• Multiple tabs and panes
• GPU-accelerated text rendering
• Custom themes and configurations
• Unicode and UTF-8 support
• Support for PowerShell, Command Prompt, WSL and more
• Extensive customization options

Windows Terminal is free and open source, developed by Microsoft. It provides developers and power users a much better command line experience on Windows.

8. QuickLook

QuickLook is similar to the popular macOS “Quick Look” feature for Windows. It allows you to quickly preview files in Windows Explorer by pressing the spacebar, without opening them in an app. Key features:

• Preview images, videos, PDFs, documents, archives, folders and more
• Native Windows Explorer integration
• Supports custom plugins for more file types
• Light and dark themes
• Open source and actively developed

QuickLook is free and makes it much more convenient to browse files in Explorer. It is a must-have for former Mac users who miss the Quick Look feature on Windows.

9. Notepads

Notepads is a modern, lightweight text editor with a minimalist design. It provides a clean and distraction-free environment for working with text files. Key features:

• Syntax highlighting for common file types
• Multi-line tab editing
• Focus mode to highlight only the active line
• Autosave and multi-encoding support
• Customizable fonts and themes
• Open source and actively developed

Notepads is free and makes a great replacement for the dated Windows Notepad. It looks right at home on Windows 10 with its fluent design language.

10. Sumatra PDF

Sumatra PDF is a lightweight and open-source PDF, ePub, MOBI, CHM, XPS, DjVu, CBZ, and CBR reader for Windows. It is designed for portable use and minimal resource consumption. Key features:

• Small and starts up very fast
• Tabbed document interface
• Advanced search and table of contents
• Customizable shortcuts and mouse controls
• Supports PDF forms and signatures
• Includes command line tools
• Portable version available

Sumatra PDF is free, open source and a great alternative to bloated PDF readers. It is actively developed and very customizable to suit different workflows and preferences.

Wrapping Up…

This was my take on the top 10 tools to supercharge your Windows experience where I handpicked my favourites combined with popular tools among the Windows community on Reddit.

I hope you will find this tutorial helpful and if you have something to share, please let us know in the comments.