Top 15 REQUIRED Windows Programs Everyone Should Have 

Even I don't know what's going on in the thumbnail tbh

0:40 VLC + MPC (Media Players) 1:22 Notepad++ (Better Notepad) 2:00 DropBox (File Sharing Service) 2:50 BackBlaze (Backup Service) 3:25 f.lux (Screen Warmer) 4:02 qBittorrent (Torrent) 4:40 WinRAR / 7Zip (Archive Programs) 5:24 Discord (Social Media For Gamers) 5:58 Steam (Gaming Platform) 6:25 OBS (Livestreaming + Recording) 7:10 ShutUp10 (Lets You Change Windows 10's Annoying Features) 7:50 ShareX (Screenshots + Other Stuff) 8:50 Windows Defender (Default Windows 10 Antivirus) 9:10 AV-Test (Find Best Antivirus) 9:30 Chromium Browser or Mozilla Firefox (Web Browsers)

You were already legend but after paying for WinRAR you have become legend among legends

I keep unsubscribing when this dude makes troll videos and resubscribing when actually useful videos drop lol

Regarding cloud storage. I believe many users have (irks me to no end) Microsoft Office 'the rental'! As those who use this are aware, it comes with 1Tb+ free storage. Makes the 'rental' a bit more bearable. Office costs $69 annually that's a lot cheaper than your Dropbox @ $10 a month.

Editing Team: What is joe doing in today's thumbnail? ThioJoe: Yes

I personally love Total Commander as file manager. It has a ton of options!

0:37 media player classic (video player) 1:20 notepad plus plus (notepad, texteditor, codeeditor) 4:36 7zip 6:24 Obs(screen recorder)

Me: how many thiojoes are in the thumbnail? Thiojoe: Yes

My personal additions to this list would be Classic Shell/Open Shell and Winaero Tweaker. Classic Shell's main feature is the Classic Start Menu, which I like because it's very customizable and works great. Winaero Tweaker lets you change a lot of useful Windows settings that would otherwise require a registry edit or some other complicated way to access. The very first programs I'll install on a new Windows installation are the two I mentioned above, 7-Zip, and Firefox.

0:35 - Media players - VLC, MPC-HC (VLC is mediocre, MPC-HC is deprecated, I would suggest PotPlayer) 1:13 - Productivity - Notepad++ 1:58 - File storage - Dropbox, Backblaze 3:27 - Miscellaniuos - f.lux 4:04 - File sharing - qBittorrent 4:37 - File compression - 7-zip, WinRar 5:22 - Gaming - Discord, Steam, OBS 7:13 - Utilities - O&O ShutUp10, ShareX 8:41 - Antivirus - Windows Defender 9:25 - Web browser - Chromium based browsers, Firefox

Good list as usual - I use or am familiar with about 90% of them. One thing about your security section though - I advocate a tiered security approach, which most computer security experts suggest. Relying on only one anti-virus program is not enough in my view, even a single paid option. You should recommend additional programs such as MalwareBytes to supplement your machines.

Cool tip, if u press 'D' inside media player classic u can download subtitles directly from the player, if the subtitles u need aren't there, they probably don't exist xD

I don't know if you ever covered it, but one thing I've been finding increasingly essential for helping out other people is Quick Assist. It's built into Windows 10 and it's so freaking easy when someone calls and says "I need your help. My computer's not working right." I start up Quick Assist and log into my MS account, and I just tell them: "Click Start, type 'Quick', and choose Quick Assist from the listing." They type in the 6-digit code I give them (they don't need to log into an account or anything) and I can connect to them, see what they're doing, take control (with their permission), and fix their problem or help them out. The best part is that you don't have to guide them through downloading or running software from one of the other remote-control services. Those are great when you want to regularly connect to certain computers, but when a family member or friend calls with a problem for the first time, you can have them running Quick Assist within a minute and be connected to them and helping.

"But none of you would ever do that right?" no no no....of course not....😅

Joe, thanks for the video. I already have most of the programs that you have mention. And that is thanks to you; keep up the good work

I think Tixati is the "new best option" even though it's not new. I like Windows' built in "night light" better because I can set my own sun up and sun down times, and it doesn't smooth the transition. I want to be hit by that red like a firetruck. I was installing ShutUp10 before the video was done playing.

I wish everyone can just have their own personal thio Joe to give them tips and cool applications when needed

I use Google backup and sync to Google drive as my backup software, and I have over 40gb of photos and videos and I'm still using the free version because you can select an option called "high quality" and it compresses your photos and videos, however, I haven't really noticed any reduction in quality, so I really recommend it to anyone who wants to backup their stuff for free. Also windows has a built in blue light filter in the display settings.

I use everything you've mentioned except for MPC (I use VLC), Backblaze (I use FreeFileSync), WinRAR (I use 7-Zip), and ShareX. I also use Classic Shell to get the old-school Windows Start Menu back.

WinDirStat is also a really good program for organizing and visualizing what's taking up storage space

Whyisn't search " everything " on the list?

Rainmeter is a good one too. Really transforms your experience if you take the time to set it up

For my music/video playing, I do use VLC (for movies) and Windows Media Player (for music). Works great for me, except for a recent update that caused WMP to have a problem with the _visualizations._ They work when I first open WMP and paly music, but when it switches to the next song on the playlist or a curtain amount of time goes by, the _visualization_ stop working.

What about Minecraft

Difference between flux and windows 10's built in night mode? By the way, I couldn't get used to night mode, the shift in tint really makes drawing stuff and enjoying gaming hard. It wasn't an issue for reading texts though.

Thanks so much! You are always a big help to me.

I for one love having different backgrounds, specially since it also changes accent colors, so I suggest - Dynamic themes for spotlight and Bing pictures -and John's background switcher, the best program I never knew of until recently.

"And yes I actually paid for it. I know, you thought doing that was just a myth." 😂

You forgot Microsoft Teams for professional use! For unprofessional use Discord is the obvious choice, but we started using Teams in the Marine Corps and it's great!

I downloaded Media Player Classic on my Windows 10 PC, and I agree that it make a perfect companion to VLC, which I have enjoyed for years! Thanks for the useful video! I have it as an icon on my desktop!

Very informative video. Thumbs up!

1:57 - Or "Google Backup & Sync", which gives you 15 GB free storage

I already have some of these but nice video anyway, really useful!

Thx so much this is going to help me alot whit to know what apps are good and must have

As for Media Players, MPC-HC is no longer supported. It's successor is MPC-BE and should be gotten instead. It has built in codecs that MPC-HC does not have internally.

How does f.lux compare to the default windows night light feature?

Bran : Thank you Thio, ………you are a good man 😄

Excellent choices. Never heard of Backblaze but will try that for sure. 3 other good ones too. Thanks.

Check SMPlayer as an alternative to VLC, it uses MPV as a backend which is better than MPC.

0:28 i just watched the video installed them then rewatched it does this mean im a computer expert?

8:18 good thing you blurred that link or we would be able to see that screenshot of an empty desktop lol

thank you thio for sharing your valuable knowledge

Hello, Can I please ask a question? Is ShareX a copy of Greenshot or is Greenshot a copy of ShareX.

I would like to add: Foldersize: a simple program to see which files take up more space quickly EqualizerAPO: an extremely versatile and lightweight audio driver? Effects, equalization, noise reduction and infinitely expandable with plug-ins for your speakers and microphone

Please explain to me why are you recommending Dropbox over onedrive on Windows computers especially for free tier

I used to use OBS, but it became a problem for my PC when a certain update came around for Windows and OBS, then I switched to OBS Studio which had worked beautifully for me since that time. I will use it for streaming when I live somewhere with good internet. I also use it for recording video. Could be video of playing a game or just me on my webcam having a conversation about a certain topic, etc.

ThioJoe, would you please recommend software that will let me scan and organize receipts using a MFC scanner?

"dont use it to download cracked things" me: *laughs in my dad using it to download cracked games*

Instead of Steam, I would recommend GOG Galaxy. It groups all of your gaming clients in one place, having support for many of them, like Steam, Epic Games, Uplay, Origin and so on.

Tribes : Ascend in recently played. You sir, are a man of culture.

I have ALL of these except backblaze and dropbox. I use Google Drive tho, and I have a few HDDs for backup. I'd also recommend Audacity for basic audio editing and FreeFileSync. Another for productivity I'd highly recommend for mass renaming files is Better File Rename. Epic, GOG and others sometimes give away free games, so keep them all in mind (as well as humble bundle) For antivirus, I use VirusTotal (it uses many AVs) alongside Windows Defender and Malwarebytes. ZoneAlarm has a pretty good firewall which is extremely customizable in comparison to Windows Firewall.

When will you be sponsored by Raid Shadow Legends?

Bro, I'm not sure I'd be putting my tax docs onto Dropbox. I question your thinking on that one for sure.

Could you please tell me where you got that lamp that's behind you in all your videos? Really like it but can't seem to find it anywhere online.

Great video glad someone still likes windows as myself

For Media player, I use Potplayer

Missed a few essentials that are free and you'll never know when you'll need, but have a high learning curve ;-; - blender - davinci resolve - visual studio code

I don't watch videos on my computer (other than RU-vid) so that doesn't bother me. But I do play audio files (wav or CD). What I like most about VLC is the built-in graphic equaliser.

The night after I watched one of your other videos, I thought that my monitor was starting to die because the colors shifted and dimmed.... thanks to a Windows Night Light Setting that you suggested in the video and I decided to try. :D :D :D

Well I guess I'm a certified computer expert :)

Great list Thio, replaced some on your list a while ago, but cool video, I am not a computer expert so I might got some crap stuff :( Might as well as share it: 1 - Pot Player (light years ahead of MPC and VLC) 2 - Sublime Text, along with OnlyOffice (ditched Notepad++ and MS Office) 3 - Jottacloud (free 5 GB, Unlimited €7.50/month) 4 - F.lux (no change) 5 - Qbitorrent (no change) 6 - Winrar (no change, nothing against 7Zip, personal choice) 7 - Discord (no change, great to replace FB messenger) 8 - Steam (no change) 9 - Debut by NCH for screen recording, OBS for streaming 10 - Gyazo (your recommendation looked a bit bloated, to be honest) 11 - Comodo antivirus & firewall personal edition 12 - Opera GX browser 13 - MusicBee (music player and library, bye WMP) 14 - ImageGlass (to replace the awful Win10 photo viewer) 15 - Wondershare AllMyTube (to piss off RU-vid, nice downloader and converter) 16 - Mixxx (DJ & Playlist Software) 17 - Format Factory (converts anything to everything)

I've been using IZArc Free for years to zip/unzip without ever having a problem or a file I couldn't unzip. I also use Syncback Free to back up selected folders to an external hard drive which I keep in a separate location.

It would be nice if would add the links to make it easier to find what you are talking about

I am surprised you didn't mention Vivaldi as one of the better browsers. I have been using it since forever now after trying Chrome, Fox and Brave. I just love finding new features in Vivaldi randomly. I'd prefer to stay away from actual Chrome browser though.

1. VLC media player 2. Media Player Classic 3. Notepad++ 4. Dropbox 5. Backblaze 6. f.lux 7. qBittorent 8. 7-Zip/WinRAR 9. Discord 10. Steam 11. OBS 12. O&O ShutUp10 13. ShareX 14. Windows Defender 15. Chromium/Mozilla Firefox based browser

I like Syncthing better for file share/syncing. You can just have a bunch of computers sharing files, or like me, have a dedicated server as a central hub. My phone auto will backup images to my server and from there it sends them to my desktop and laptop when they fire up. All automatically. I backups/share other folders as well, but the picture one seems like a good example for most people.

Snip and Sketch is also very good program. You can activate it by clicking: Right Click on Windows Taskbar and then tick, click Show Windows Ink Workspace button and then the small pencil button icon and then click Fullscreen Snip, or by search in Windows Programs.

Dude, you lost me with Dropbox! XD It used to be great back in its day but that was mainly because of a lack of alternatives. Dropbox free is limited to 2GB (Microsoft OneDrive offers 5GB and Google Drive offers 15GB) but you neglected to mention that as of March 2019 it has a 3-device limit as well (which is not the case with other services).

You should put an activate windows watermark on all your videos

which software you recommend in place of adobe live media encoder, because soon it would be unsupported by adobe.

Thank you for these Apps!!!

OH! THANK YOU SO MUCH

WinRAR completes me. Edit: You can use bookmarks in VLC.

MPC with SVP4 Pro is a glorious masterpiece!

Out of curiosity, why continue to use F.Lux over the built-in Nightlight?

Lol that loop Theo made (int i =0; i=1; i++) Also replace winrar with 7zip

The best program: thiojoe's yt channel

thanks. i dont know if you will see this but i am trying to learn swift programming language do you have any tips of what i should do to learn swift.

Great video man👍👍👍

I am apparently a computer expert!! 😀🎉🎉

4:34 of courseeeeee i wonttttt *cough* pirate *cough* stuff *cough * *cough*

Yup! Discord is definitely my choice for voice/video chat & text chat. Although it does have a game streaming option, I will do my streaming with OBS Studio on Twitch or RU-vid.

Don't forget to try QT Tabbar. Really very useful

You forgot Winamp, its still the best music player.

Functions allready implemented in Windows 10 make the programs bellow unnecesary: - 2:06 Backblaze, Dropbox (just use OneDrive); 3:28 f.lux (inbuild "Night lights" setting); 7:50 - ShareX (just press Win+Shift+S and share via OneDrive). 😏

also in MPC you can sharpen the image with some sharpening filters.

What features does Flux have that the built in nightlight feature in Windows 10 doesn't? I have the night light set to turn on at sunset and off at sunrise.

0:42 Check, and Check. I use VLC for everything, and MPC when I wanna watch something quickly. 1:24 Check. I have a lot of files associated with it, including .rb, .ini, among others. 2:02 Ehhh...not a fan. 3:02 I don't recall this one...don't have that kind of money to just throw around either. 3:40 Yeah. I believe it's exclusive to Windows 10. 4:20 Yeah; I dumped uTorrent a while ago. Good riddance, really. 4:42 Check, and Check. Both are useful. 5:30 Well, yeah, I'm on your Discord (I asked if you knew about Iridium for RU-vid). 6:00 Check. I have a lot of software and games through Steam. 6:30 If I had a more powerful computer I'd consider it. 7:16 When I do upgrade to a better computer and to Windows 10, I'll DEFINITELY GRAB THIS. 7:50 Is this Windows 10 exclusive? 9:40 Brave doesn't run for me, at least, it just runs super laggy... I'm not an expert, just decently experienced. I'm not quite sure what qualifies as being an expert though...

4:26 linus would

Thank you, ThioJoe.

I need a hex editor, a compare utility, and a disk prober... I tend to work with close to the metal... so Ultra-Edit, Beyond Compare, and WinHex are where I live.

Heh, I'd NEVER put any sensitive files like my tax returns on a cloud platform, especially not Dropbox who is notorious for security breaches! 🤔

If you have Windows 10 and reading this, can I suggest a few alternatives to some of this programs? Instead of Dropbox, Windows 10 has OneDrive integrated on the system, and the free tier is 5GB instead of 2GB. Instead of f.lux, Windows 10 has also a Night Light integrated on the system, on Settings > System > Display. In the Chromium browsers section, please, download and test the new Edge browser, is sooooooo faster and lighter compared with Chrome. Firefox is really good too.

does anyone know where the gpu upgrade software is im looking to update my rx 570 to a rx 5700. Help!!??

I still use win7 for my windows system so shutup10 isn't needed. I dont sleep at night so flux is not needed. I backup everything using drop box making backplane not really needed. The rest i have been using for awhile, although looking for linux alternatives. Do you use Linux?

Can i have a heart and a comment. Love the vids bro.

Best video player: Potplayer Best back up: Google sync

Joe I need a desktop program for Windows 7/10. I have too many shortcuts on there. It slows my machine down. Is there such a program?

Notepad++ doesn't have built in code formatting for Coldfusion fyi, you have to use a user defined language file which can be found online with a bit of searching.