Having just upgraded some pc to Win 10 I am wondering what the must have apps are in Win 10. In the past I usually had my preferred pdf reader, picture viewer etc but I notice a lot of this already covered by Win 10. Any suggestions on apps or external software that is still essential to be put on Win 10 either because there is nothing provided by default or the native software is missing essential features?
No modern/metro apps for me. Stick to old-school desktop programs. Add PotPlayer for multimedia & DVD playback.
I would say CCleaner to remove most of the junk Metro apps that can't be removed normally from within Windows.
I do not use any of modern/metro apps other than Microsoft's Calculator app, and have uninstalled most of them with IObit Uninstaller. I use PDF-XChange Viewer for reading PDFs. For viewing images I use Honeyview. For playing audio files and viewing videos I use SMPlayer. Advanced SystemCare Ultimate is my antivirus on the main laptop I use, and Tencent PC Manager on the others. For uninstalling software I use IObit Uninstaller They all have more features than Microsoft's apps, and unlike Windows Defender, Advanced SystemCare does not slow down my computer. However, I do use Notepad for editing text files and Microsoft Paint for saving screenshots.
Modern apps are ran in Appcontainer (Windows' "sandboxing") so basically safer than any 3rd party apps (unless you run your 3rd party apps in a sandbox, as i do). For basic usage, Modern Apps are good , i use them; for more options, i run portable apps in sandboxie.
I have uninstalled all of them including the hard coded non removable ones such as support and contact, however I have left calculator and MS Edge.
I don't use any sandboxing software, but I don't like Microsoft's included apps, so I'm prepared to sacrafice some security by using alternative desktop apps.
There are a few ways you can switch to the old Windows 7 calculator. 1. Get the old calc.exe from Windows 7. 2. Download and install Microsoft Calculator Plus v1.0. Note: Microsoft no longer hosts it, so I provided a CNET link. 3. Download and install Old Calculator for Windows 10 v1.1 by Winaero. (My preferred method).
In my VM install of Windows 10 (Ent. LTSB) I use none of modern apps. They are luckily not included in LTSB release