Light screenshot tool on Print Screen: region, window or full screen, then annotate, blur and send to a file, the clipboard or an app.

On Mac: Shottr, Xnip

The power-user capture tool: screenshots, scrolling capture, screen recording to MP4/GIF, OCR, and upload to dozens of hosts via workflows.

On Mac: CleanShot X, Shottr

Snip and pin: capture a region and float it on top of other windows as a reference. Commercial use needs Pro.

On Mac: Snipaste (also on Mac), Shottr

Polished capture and recording with step-by-step templates, callouts and a library — built for writing docs and tutorials. Subscription-only since 2025.

On Mac: Snagit (also on Mac), CleanShot X

Capture plus an image editor, colour picker, pixel ruler, protractor and magnifier in one app.

On Mac: Xnip, Shottr

Finds any file or folder by name instantly by reading the NTFS index — results appear as you type, across millions of files.

On Mac: HoudahSpot, EasyFind

Type-to-search launcher that also jumps Open/Save dialogs and Explorer to the folder you want.

On Mac: Alfred, Raycast

Alt+Space launcher for apps, files (uses Everything), web searches, calculator and plugins.

On Mac: Raycast, Alfred

Microsoft's utility pack: FancyZones window layouts, PowerToys Run / Command Palette launcher, colour picker, bulk rename, text extractor, Always on Top and more.

On Mac: Rectangle, Raycast

Keeps everything you copy in a searchable history — text, images, files — and pastes any of it back with a hotkey.

On Mac: Maccy, Paste

Microsoft's admin toolkit: Process Explorer (Task Manager on steroids), Process Monitor, Autoruns, TCPView and 70 more.

On Mac: Activity Monitor, Stats

Every hardware detail and live sensor — temperatures, clocks, fan speeds, power — with logging.

On Mac: iStat Menus, Stats

Quick answer to “what CPU, motherboard and RAM is in this PC?”, with a simple benchmark.

Reads SSD and hard-disk S.M.A.R.T. health and temperature and warns before a drive fails.

On Mac: DriveDx

Uninstalls an app, then hunts down the leftover files and registry keys. Pro adds forced uninstall and install monitoring.

On Mac: AppCleaner

Removes many apps in one batch, including bloatware and orphaned entries, with leftover cleanup.

On Mac: AppCleaner

Scripting for hotkeys, text expansion, key remapping and automating any Windows app.

On Mac: Karabiner-Elements, Keyboard Maestro

Writes an ISO to a bootable USB — including Windows 11 installers with the TPM and account checks switched off.

On Mac: balenaEtcher

Turns a USB stick into a boot menu: copy any number of ISO files onto it and pick one at boot, no re-flashing.

The fastest “what is eating my disk?” scan — reads the NTFS table directly, so a full drive takes seconds — with a treemap.

On Mac: DaisyDisk, GrandPerspective

The classic treemap of folder and file-type sizes. Slower than WizTree, fully open source.

On Mac: GrandPerspective, DaisyDisk

Folder sizes in an Explorer-style tree. Paid editions add duplicate search, reports and network drives.

On Mac: DaisyDisk

The original zip tool, now with encryption, cloud sharing and PDF tools. Windows already opens zip files itself.

On Mac: BetterZip, Keka

Creates and opens RAR (the only full RAR creator) and zip, with recovery records and split archives.

On Mac: Keka, BetterZip

Opens nearly every archive format and makes 7z with the best compression ratio. Free for work use too.

On Mac: Keka, The Unarchiver

7-Zip with a modern Windows 11 look and right-click menu integration, from the Microsoft Store.

On Mac: Keka

Fast, friendly archiver with archive preview. Pro adds password recovery, archive repair and image preview.

On Mac: Bandizip (also on Mac), Keka

Open-source archiver with a fuller GUI than 7-Zip, 200+ formats and strong encryption.

On Mac: Keka

Keyboard-driven two-pane file manager with built-in FTP, archive browsing, multi-rename and a huge plugin library.

On Mac: ForkLift, Commander One

The most configurable Explorer replacement: tabs, dual panes, scripting, metadata columns, FTP.

On Mac: ForkLift, Path Finder

Modern two-pane or column-view file manager with tabs, themes and file preview.

On Mac: ForkLift, Finder column view

Side-by-side diff and merge for text files and whole folders, plus images, Excel files and binaries via plugins.

On Mac: FileMerge, Kaleidoscope

The best folder compare and sync, plus text, table, image and hex compares. Pro adds 3-way merge.

On Mac: Beyond Compare (also on Mac), Kaleidoscope

Clean two- and three-way diff and merge for files, folders and git working copies.

On Mac: FileMerge

Hex editor plus disk, RAM and forensic tool: edit raw sectors, recover data, image and clone drives.

On Mac: Hex Fiend

Fast, free hex editor that also opens raw disks and RAM — the everyday choice when you do not need WinHex's forensics.

On Mac: Hex Fiend

Hex editor with Binary Templates that parse file formats (ZIP, PNG, EXE…) into named fields.

On Mac: 010 Editor (also on Mac), Hex Fiend

Hex editor for reverse engineering with a pattern language, disassembler and data inspector — a free 010 Editor.

On Mac: ImHex (also on Mac), Hex Fiend

The Windows text editor: tabs, syntax highlighting, regex find-in-files, macros, column editing, plugins.

On Mac: CotEditor, BBEdit

Microsoft's code editor with extensions for every language, git, terminal and remote SSH/containers.

On Mac: VS Code (also on Mac)

Very fast editor with multiple cursors and Goto Anything. One licence covers all your machines and OSes.

On Mac: Sublime Text (also on Mac)

Opens multi-gigabyte text and CSV files that choke other editors; Professional adds CSV tools and macros.

On Mac: BBEdit

Plays anything, from any source, with no codec packs.

On Mac: IINA, VLC

Feature-packed player with hardware decoding, subtitle tools and fine-grained playback settings.

On Mac: IINA

Lightweight classic-style player, maintained by clsid2 (the original ended in 2017).

On Mac: IINA

Converts and shrinks video to MP4/MKV with ready-made presets for devices and web.

On Mac: HandBrake (also on Mac), Permute

Long-running audio editor and recorder with real-time effects, batch conversion, restoration and CD ripping.

On Mac: Audacity, Fission

Multi-track audio recording and editing with noise reduction, effects and plugins.

On Mac: Audacity (also on Mac)

Simpler, faster audio editor than Audacity, with real-time effect preview.

On Mac: ocenaudio (also on Mac)

Tiny, very fast image viewer with batch rename, convert and resize.

On Mac: Preview, XnView MP

Clean, modern image viewer that opens 80+ formats including HEIC, AVIF and RAW.

On Mac: Preview

Layers, effects and plugins — a step up from Paint without Photoshop's learning curve.

On Mac: Pixelmator Pro, Acorn

Tiny, instant PDF, EPUB, MOBI, CBZ and XPS reader — no toolbars, no updaters.

On Mac: Preview, Skim

Offline password manager: one encrypted .kdbx file you keep and sync yourself. Plugins for autotype, TOTP and sync.

On Mac: KeePassXC, Strongbox

Modern cross-platform KeePass app with browser integration and TOTP built in — same .kdbx file.

On Mac: KeePassXC (also on Mac)

Open-source cloud password manager; the free plan syncs unlimited passwords across devices. Premium adds TOTP, attachments and reports.

On Mac: Bitwarden (also on Mac)

The most polished password manager: passkeys, travel mode, sharing and Watchtower breach alerts.

On Mac: 1Password (also on Mac)

The classic SSH and serial client. Windows 10+ also ships OpenSSH in Terminal.

On Mac: Terminal / iTerm2 (ssh built in)

SFTP, SCP, FTP, S3 and WebDAV file manager with sync and scripting.

On Mac: Cyberduck, Transmit

Cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with a transfer queue. Cloud storage (S3, Drive) is in FileZilla Pro, a separate paid app.

On Mac: FileZilla (also on Mac), Cyberduck

Tabbed SSH, RDP, VNC and serial client with a built-in X server and SFTP browser beside each session.

On Mac: Royal TSX, Termius