ARTICLES ABOUT CONTACT
I’ve been a GNU/Linux user for over 25 years now. I’ve switched from different kinds of distributions and I settled on Debian for more than two decades now (ok, I do run Arch on my laptop). Before that, I was using MS-DOS, transitioned to Windows 3.1, and Windows XP was my last Windows version that acted as my main operating system.
Since then, I do have a separate Windows desktop machine only for gaming. So I traversed all the Windows versions till the latest one (11). While using GNU/Linux for such a long time, I still need some essential tools on my Windows system to make sure that I don’t lose my sanity.
These are the essential tools that are a must for me, and I can’t operate a Windows machine without them.
AltDrag:
This tool is more than essential to me. What it basically does is let
you move and resize windows by holding the Alt key. A standard UNIX
behaviour that removes the tedious task of trying to aim the borders of
the window to resize it.
X-Mouse
Button Control:
Reconfigure and remap your mouse buttons. Nowadays, if you have a modern
mouse, it supports profiles, but it can be more convenient and versatile
to use software, since it supports multiple layers with numerous options
to tweak, instead of fiddling with the firmware all the time. For
example, I use a specific layer when I play Neverwinter Nights,
since I want to assign a different mouse button to control the camera
view.
MSYS2:
Having a UNIX-like environment with a package management system on
Windows is awesome. You can install build tools and use them for Windows
development, but even without this, it’s too convenient to fire up a
GNU/Linux terminal and do numerous operations the way that they should
be done.
PuTTY:
A free SSH and telnet client. I guess the description says it all. It’s
also highly customizable. Of course, you can do all of the things that
PuTTY does by configuring the appropriate programs within MSYS2 (after
installing them), but I kinda need both for different scenarios.
WinSCP:
You can still tackle the remote copies via MSYS2 or PuTTY, but for some
reason, mostly for local network copying, I just feel like the user
interface of this tool is useful. Especially when it comes moving back
and forth modding directories between my systems. So it’s a niche SSH
copying tool for me, but still essential.
Vim:
Vim, the editor. I don’t think I have to say more.
7zip:
I used to use WinRAR, but I find 7zip better. It’s not shareware, so no
extra clicks when opening it, and it does everything that I need. Very
lightweight too.
VLC:
Play or stream videos. You can also try mpv; both are great players. For
Windows my preference is VLC.
Flameshot:
A screenshot utility. There are multiple alternatives but that’s my
preference for every operating system. No bloat, fast, clean UI, works
as intended.
MSI
Afterburner:
Yes, it’s a little bit bloated. Nevertheless, I always want to have some
kind of control on my hardware, specifically my GPU. Also, I like
constantly having CPU/GPU temperatures in my system tray.
GIMP:
I always do image processing on my GNU/Linux system, but sometimes,
while I’m doing something on Windows and I need to process an image,
GIMP is the way.
Firefox:
The least worse browser out there. Not going to analyze why (not now at
least), but in any case, it’s the best option.
These are the good-to-have tools list. I still have all of them installed, but they are not as critical.
CPU-Z:
Gather detailed info about your CPU, memory, mainboard, chipset, measure
each core separately, etc.
Windhawk:
For the minimalists or the eye-candy people. Customize how your Windows
look based on your needs. There are multiple mods to install. Personally
I use it to resize and remove bloat from the start menu and customize my
taskbar.
Fraps:
Benchmarking software with lots of capabilities. Also supports screen
and video capturing.
WACUP:
The “successor” of WinAMP. You can still install WinAMP by the way.
GKrellM:
An old-school monitoring tool that still works great on both GNU/Linux
and Windows. It comes with a huge number of plugins.
xmon:
My good friend Nuclear
wrote a really nice monitoring tool, and he ported it to Windows as
well. It’s a must for me now on my Debian machine.
TakeOwnershipEx:
This is the only that I couldn’t decide how to classify. Sometimes I run
into really annoying permissions issues and I brute-force the ownership
of files or directories, and this is what basically TakeOwnershipEx
does.