Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here!
So, this is a video on 5 free Window[s] apps I think everyone should be using.
And this video is a little bit different from the Mac version that I made a couple days ago.
Because Windows users have a huge selection of free apps to choose from.
So what I'm going to do is do five free apps that I think everyone should be using,
and then list a few more apps that I think are also really good, also free, but are more specialized.
So those may not apply to everyone, depending on what you do or don't do.
And as usual, none of these are sponsored, because those videos suck.
Okay, first one: it's an antivirus.
I'm the type of person that doesn't use an antivirus, because I'm an idiot.
But I'm just comfortable formatting frequently. So... I'm okay with it.
But for most people, who are not stupid, you should run an antivirus.
My two favorite are AVG and Avast, or A.v.a.s.t.
There's a site called AV-TEST, they're an independent site that tests antivirus really extensively.
And then they update their ranking list.
So in terms of the free ones, AVG and Avast are always near the top.
This Ahn-thing is up there as well, but it's a paid software, so screw that guy.
With the current builds, Avast does a better job at detecting current malware,
but AVG is slightly less taxing on your system.
You really can't go wrong with either of them, I prefer performance, so if I had to choose, I'd go with AVG.
If you're wondering, Microsoft Windows Defender isn't perfect for detection,
and when it's running there's a measurable performance hit.
Next up, we have a clipboard manager called Ditto,
these are apps that kinda store all the stuff you copy using Ctrl-C.
So, if you copy a selection of text, and then later on you copy more text,
Ditto stores it all into a clipboard manager.
Really useful for essays, development, and just about anything.
If you've never used one before, install it, they're very lightweight and pretty useful.
Alright, next up is f.lux, or F-flux.
It's a program that adjusts the color temperature of your screen, based on the time of day.
So during daylight hours, your screen looks completely normal, but as the sun sets,
the blue hues get reduced on the screen, which makes it more comfortable for your eyes.
It's really a little weird at first, because stuff looks really warm and orange.
But you get used to it. And once you do, your computer usage at night is just easier on your eyes.
And personally, I can fall asleep more readily after using the computer that's had f.lux running.
The next thing, okay. We need to talk about something related.
There's an app called CCleaner. It used to be amazing, like, it seriously belonged in top 3 apps for Windows.
But Windows 10 has gotten better and better at cleaning up its own mess.
And at this point, unless you really know what you're doing with it, I don't recommend CCleaner anymore.
Especially with cleaning registries. Nowadays, a registry cleanup can mess things up pretty bad.
The thing is, CCleaner also came with a good uninstaller,
but since I don't recommend CCleaner anymore, we gotta find a separate uninstaller program.
And my favorite one right now is IObit uninstaller, it's pretty simple, the UI is good,
and it just does what it says it does. It cleanly uninstalls your applications.
Okay, the last of this group of apps is a text editor.
So instead of using a super basic, like Notepad that comes with Windows,
there's something called Notepad++, it's basically an amped-up vesion of Notepad.
A lot of features are geared towards developers, there's syntax highlighting, and you can have multi-editing.
But a lot of the features are awesome for regular people.
You can zoom in and out of your document, and my favorite is that you can have different tabs open.
So I use a text editor for a bunch of stuff in my life, and Notepad++ is awesome for it.
And I know some of you guys are developers, and you're using things like Sublime and Atom,
but for the average person that isn't a developer, Notepad++ is solid.
So, the apps that you have listed so far, those are just apps that everyone would use,
or I think that everyone should be able to use.
The next five are a little more specific.
So the first one is an app called Discord.
If you've been using Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, Mumble, or some other kind of voice chat to play games,
you should consider switching to Discord, I think it's the best of the team chat programs.
It has your usual desktop client, but you can also run it from a web browser,
and you can even send people links that instantly brings them into your channel.
It also tells you what games your friends are playing and if they're online.
If you're not using this yet, you should switch.
Next up is, O.B.S, or OBS.
At it's basics, it's a screen capture program, it's how I'm recording all of these clips.
But it can stream to any RTMP-enabled service, like Twitch and YouTube.
It also supports Quick Sync, for faster video processing.
Has an audio mixer plug-in, it's really solid.
The one thing that doesn't have is a secondary stream.
So if you want to stream your game while showing a webcam of you playing,
or, like, a webcam of your keyboard, it doesn't support that.
Okay, if you're looking to edit videos,
and you want something a little more feature-rich than Windows Movie Maker,
my top pics are HitFilm and DaVinci Resolve.
Now, the free versions of these applications are toned-down from the payed versions.
But they're still very capable programs, I've actually edited some of my older videos with both of these.
HitFilm has more features in regards to effects, like if you want to add any kind of visual effects,
HitFilm has stuff that's built into it. And it basically supports any kind of video formats.
So if you're shooting from a GoPro, HitFilm is great.
If you have a more advanced camera, like a DSLR, I'd go with DaVinci Resolve.
It has some really powerful color correction and color grading tools.
Another notable feature about Resolve is how well it uses GPUs,
so if you're fortunate to have a really good video card, Resolve can take better advantage of it.
Now if you're looking for a free Photoshop-type program,
or if you just want something better than MS Paint,
there's Gimp, which is a pretty powerful photo editor.
But Windows users are lucky, and also have access to paint.net.
So, I've used both of these, Gimp is more powerful and has access to a lot more features,
some of the plugins are amazing, like G'MIC.
Paint.net isn't as feature-rich, but it's so much easier to learn how to use.
So if you're new to photo editing, or digital illustration, I would highly recommend paint.net, fantastic program,
and I think for, like, 90% of people that use it, you'll be able to do
whatever you want to do with a photo editing program.
Okay, the last one is a hardware monitor, and choosing one of these is like choosing a brand of cereal.
There are a ton of good options, and everyone has their personal favorite.
My pick is HWiNFO, it's an app for people who want to keep track of their system.
So if you wanted to see your processor use, temperatures, memory usage, it does a really good job.
It can monitor your system very extensively, and of all the ones that I've tried, that's the best overall package.
And that's about it, if you guys learned a thing or two, like if you discovered an app because of this video,
I'd love to hear about it.
If you... didn't learn anything, that's pretty sad.
But let me know in the comments below if you knew about all of these apps to begin with.
Hope you guys enjoyed this video. Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it!
I'll see you guys next time.