Lifehacker Pack For Windows 2013: Our List Of The Best Windows Apps

Lifehacker Pack For Windows 2013: Our List Of The Best Windows Apps

Windows has more great programs than we can count, but some are essential to just about every PC setup. In our fifth annual Lifehacker Pack for Windows, we’re highlighting the must-have downloads for better productivity, communication, media management and more.

Pictures: Perfect Vectors/Shutterstock and Litz/Shutterstock

The Lifehacker Pack is a yearly snapshot of our favourite, must-have applications for each major computing and mobile platform. If you’re curious to see how things have changed this year, here’s last year’s Lifehacker Pack for Windows.

The Ninite Pack

As always, we have the good folks at Ninite helping us out this year, creating a one-click installer for the 2013 Windows Lifehacker Pack. You can download the entire pack together or just pick the apps you want, and Ninite will install them all at once — perfect for new Windows installations or setting up your friends with a good set of apps. And, just like last year, we have two packs for Windows: an Essentials pack that everyone should have, and an Extended pack, which includes some tools that more hardcore users will probably need around.

Unfortunately, the Ninite pack is missing a couple apps from the list — most notably CCleaner (because it didn’t want its software in Ninite), Bins and Fences (both of which are paid apps). So don’t forget to grab those ones manually after you’ve installed the rest of the pack with Ninite!

Download the 2013 Lifehacker Pack Here.


Productivity

Launchy


On the surface, Launchy is an utility that helps you launch programs very fast — but it’s really much, much more than that. Not only can you launch your favourite programs with just a few keystrokes, but you can also open documents and folders, perform calculations, kill processes, search the web and perform any number of advanced tasks (like start an SSH session). It isn’t the only application launcher on Windows, but it is our favourite.

Download Page


ResophNotes and Evernote


Everyone needs a place to store little notes and clippings, but not everyone needs the same thing. So, for our note-taking portion of the pack, we give you two options: ResophNotes and Evernote. ResophNotes is about as simple as they come, syncing plain text notes through Simplenote or Dropbox and letting you get back to work. Evernote, on the other hand, is more of a filing cabinet for notes, web clippings, and just about anything else you could possibly need. It may seem like overkill, but once you actually figure out how to use it, it can be indispensable for work and play.

Download Page for ResophNotes and Evernote


Icon: Jayvant

PhraseExpress


Text expansion is one of the greatest improvements you can make to your productivity. Think of any tedious typing you do during the day — addresses, canned email responses, bits of code or anything else — and imagine being able to type it all with just a few keystrokes. That’s what text expansion does, and it can save you hours of typing. PhraseExpress is the best free option on Windows, and while it has its problems, its our go-to for folks new to text expansion. Once you get the hang of it though, Breevy might be a worthy upgrade.

Download Page


Wunderlist


More to-do apps exist than we could even count, and which one you choose depends a lot on how you work best. If we had to pick a favourite though, it would be Wunderlist. It’s free, syncs to the cloud, and exists on just about any device you could want or have. Just start it up and start making your lists. It’s incredibly simple to use, which is exactly what you want from a to-do list: make it easy to add and move tasks, so you can get back to actually doing them.

Download Page


LibreOffice and Microsoft Office

When Google Docs just isn’t enough for your word processing needs, you need LibreOffice, the feature-packed, cross-platform, 100 per cent free office suite. When LibreOffice’s word processor, spreadsheet tool and presentation creator don’t cut it, Microsoft Office will undoubtedly fit the bill (albeit at a price). If you just need to view Office documents, you can check out the Microsoft Office Viewers instead.

Download Page for LibreOffice and Microsoft Office


SumatraPDF


The first time you go to open a PDF on a new Windows machine, you may be greeted with that ever-familiar prompt to install Adobe Reader. Don’t do it! Unless compatibility issues force you into using Adobe’s reader, you’d be much happier with something fast, light and simple, like the awesome (and free) SumatraPDF. If you need to edit PDFs, check out our favourite PDF editor, PDF-XChange.

Download Page


Internet and Communication

Chrome


The browser wars aren’t as close as they used to be, and most power users have switched over to Chrome these days. We can see why too: it’s fast, smooth, syncs all your settings and has an incredible extension library. It may not be quite as customisable as Firefox, but it’s more than enough for the majority of people — even us power users.

Download Page


Thunderbird


Gmail’s web interface may be our true email client of choice, but sometimes you just need a desktop client. A desktop client will handle multiple accounts like a champ, give you offline access, provide a backup for when Gmail goes down and a lot more. Thunderbird may have slowed development, but its extension library and level of customisability make it a great choice of desktop client (not to mention its $0 price tag). If you’re looking for something a bit more advanced, we love Postbox (which is based off Thunderbird) as a paid alternative.

Download Page


Pidgin


Whether you live and die by instant messaging or just need it for the occasional contact, having a desktop client is much easier than using the web. With an app like Pidgin, you can sign into multiple accounts at once (like Google Talk, AIM and Facebook Chat), carry on multiple conversations in one window, and do all sorts of other stuff with Pidgin’s fantastic plugins.

Download Page


Skype


Skype may not be our favourite video chat program, but it’s definitely the most popular. Chances are you have at least one or two friends and family members that will want to use Skype with you, so it’s a good program to have in your pocket. Just make sure to disable the auto-start feature so it isn’t always running.

Download Page


Music, Photos and Video

VLC


Windows Media Player can play the most basic file formats, but when it comes to playing DVDs, files you’ve downloaded from the web and more, you’ll need something that can do more. VLC plays every file format under the sun, and it does it well. It isn’t our favourite video player — that honour goes to the amazing PotPlayer — but VLC is incredibly simple to download and use, so we’re substituting PotPlayer for VLC in this Lifehacker pack. It’s the app we’d recommend to just about anyone. If you want something more advanced, PotPlayer is a great alternative.

Download Page


Handbrake


Handbrake is a must-have for anyone ripping, encoding or otherwise working with videos. Not only is it the perfect program for ripping a DVD to your computer, it can also convert big Blu-Ray rips, encode videos for your favourite phone or tablet and more. Best of all, it’s 100 per cent free and open source.

Download Page


Plex


We don’t usually feature media centre programs in our Lifehacker pack, since they’re really designed for media centre devices — plus, most of us are still split over whether we like XBMC or Plex better — but Plex has one other feature we absolutely love: it’s the best program out there for streaming video to your mobile devices. Whether you’re doing it from across the room or across the country, Plex is an awesome tool for keeping up access when you aren’t sitting at your PC.

Download Page


Picasa


Picasa may not be the ultimate professional photo editing and storing tool, but it’s a fantastic app for keeping everything organised. It scans your photo folders and will automatically update your library if it detects anything new, ensuring it never misses anything. It’s also got some great basic editing tools that are easy enough for even beginners to use, and it syncs with Google for cloud-based backup.

Download Page


Paint.NET


Unless you’re a professional designer, you probably don’t need something as advanced and complicated as Photoshop to edit the occasional images. For the rest of us, there’s Paint.NET: a basic, free, easy-to-use image editor that fills the basic needs you’ll encounter on a regular basis.

Download Page


Winamp


Picking a music player is one of the more personal choices you can make when it comes to apps, so we recommend trying a few things and seeing what fits you. If you aren’t sure what you want, we’d recommend Winamp as your first. It’s customisable, yet fairly easy to use, with lots of options to tweak the interface, install extra plugins, and otherwise get everything working just so. If Winamp isn’t your cup of tea, check out the extended pack below for a few more options.

Download Page


Spotify


Winamp might be our pick for music player, but we still recommend having a streaming music player on hand — even if it isn’t your main player. Spotify is a great app to keep around. It helps you discover new artists, try them before you buy, listen to different streaming radio stations and create awesome collaborative playlists. Plus, it has plugins that make discovering music even easier. Sure, it has a few annoyances — like interrupting ads and heavy ties to Facebook — but both of those are fixable. If you don’t like Spotify, we recommend trying Rdio instead.

Download Page


Utilities

Dropbox

These days, lots of us have more than just one device. Maybe it’s a work computer and a home computer, or maybe it’s three computers, a smartphone, a tablet and a time machine that runs Linux. Whatever your span of devices, Dropbox is absolutely essential for keeping all your files (and other stuff) in sync. You get 2GB of free space to start, but it’s really easy to load up on extra space for free.

Download Page


uTorrent


When you have to download a large file, BitTorrent is almost always a better alternative than a slow direct download. When it comes to Windows, uTorrent is still our tried-and-true BitTorrent app of choice. It’s full of useful features but keeps itself lightweight and easy to use, a balance few programs can truly say they’ve struck. It has a few ads, but we’re willing to put up with it for such a great app. Once you have it set up, make sure it’s optimised for speed and privacy.

Download Page


Skitch


There are a lot of good screen capture apps out there, but we love Skitch for its ability to annotate images. Screenshots are a lot more useful when you can quickly throw an arrow or some text on it to point out the important stuff.

Download Page


Growl


Staying on top of everything is tough, especially when you don’t have easy control of which apps notify you of what important events. Growl adds popup notifications to a lot of different programs, and puts them all in one place so you can easily manage and customise everything. Check out our guide to building an awesome, consolidated notification system to get it all set up.

Download Page


CrashPlan


Everyone needs a backup. There’s no worse feeling than having your hard drive crash and having to start from scratch. Enter CrashPlan. While you could always back up to an external drive, that won’t save you if you lose your computer in a fire, burglary or other disaster. CrashPlan backs your computer up to the cloud, using either CrashPlan’s cloud service or a friend’s computer, keeping your data safe no matter what. Plus, it’s really easy to set up. Set it, forget it and relax.

Download Page


CCleaner


Every computer needs a bit of maintenance now and then to keep it running snappy, and CCleaner is our favourite tool to get all those tasks done. CCleaner cleans temporary files and cookies from your browser, temporary files and documents from Windows, cleans up junk from your other installed programs and will even securely wipe your hard drive if need be. Set it to run on a schedule for truly automated cleaning.

Download Page


Revo Uninstaller


When you uninstall a program with Windows’ built-in tool, sometimes it leaves behind extra files or registry entries that it can’t find. Revo fixes that problem: not only does it uninstall every trace of the program in question, but you can also uninstall program via its “Hunter Mode” just by clicking on the program you want to get rid of. It’s a must-have for any Windows user, especially those that like to try a lot of software.

Download Page


7-Zip


Windows can create ZIP archives for you right out of the box, but when you stumble on a less familiar file format — like the much more efficient RAR or 7Z — you’ll need an archive tool. 7-Zip is the tool you want, allowing you to not only create and open archives of other formats, but also encrypt them for safe keeping, all right from Windows’ context menu. Chances are you’ll need this one day, so you might as well install it now. It’s perfect for compressing a bunch of files or sending sensitive information online.

Download Page


Avast! Free Antivirus


No matter how careful you are, every computer should have a good antivirus program installed. If you pick the right one, it’ll be lightweight enough that you never notice it, but strong enough to pick up any infection that comes your way. For us, that balance is almost perfectly struck with Avast. It’s free, light and fantastic at catching infections. It’s replaced Microsoft Security Essentials as our favourite antivirus because MSE’s virus detection skills have gone downhill. We were nervous about trying something else, but Avast is everything we could have hoped for.


The Extended Pack

So you’ve got the basic essentials that every computer should have, but there are other programs we’ve found ourselves installing time and time again whenever we boot up a new Windows installation. That’s what the extended pack is for: they aren’t essentials, but they’re tools we think are really great and deserve to be part of your regular arsenal.

.NET, Silverlight and Java

.NET, Silverlight and Java are three frameworks that you might not always need right away, but you may somewhere down the line. If you know you’re going to need them in the future, go ahead and download them right now. If you aren’t sure, it won’t hurt to hold off. Just make sure to disable Java in your browser while you’re at it.

Download Page for .NET, Silverlight and Java


Teracopy


Teracopy is one of those little utilities that builds itself into Windows seamlessly, and makes you wonder why it isn’t part of the OS in the first place. Basically, it replaces Windows’ file-copying processes, copying your files faster, letting you pause and resume transfers and recovering from errors when necessary.

Download Page


Bins


Bins is a great little app that combines multiple icons into one stack in the Windows taskbar. It’s perfect for grouping together your music players, creating a stack of your less oft-used programs, and otherwise cleaning up your messy taskbar. It’s $US5, and one of the Windows programs we really think is worth shelling out for.

Download Page


Fences


If you have more than a few icons on your desktop that are in a constant state of clutter, Fences is for you. Fences divides your desktop up into a few little groups, letting you place icons in each one individually — by category, file type or however else you want. You can even create fences based on folders on your PC, and swipe between multiple pages of icons. It’s everything you need to create a clean, organised desktop and keep it that way. Fences is $US9.99, but you can get a free trial before you buy (or grab the old, free version of Fences here).

Download Page


Belvedere


Belvedere is actually a program created by former Lifehacker editor Adam Pash, and it’s an indespensable tool for automating the files and folders on your system. With Belvedere, you can automatically move, copy, delete, rename or open files based on any set of criteria you desire. Install it, set up a few rules, and all your files will keep themselves organised without your help.

Download Page


iTunes, MediaMonkey, foobar2000


If Winamp isn’t for you, it’s a good thing you have so many other choices. We’ve put a few other music players in the Extended Pack that should fit almost any needs. iTunes, while far from perfect, is ideal if you have any iOS devices to sync. MediaMonkey has a ton of advanced tagging, organising and syncing features, and it can even sync to iOS with a bit of work. Foobar2000 is more customisable than anything else out there, and while it’s a bit advanced, it can really become anything you want it to be. Try one of these and you’re sure to be satisfied.

Download Page for iTunes, MediaMonkey and foobar2000


Notepad++


Whether you’re a hardcore programmer, occasional web developer or just a mild tweaker, Notepad++ is miles beyond Windows’ built-in notepad for editing code. It’s lightweight, stores open documents in tabs, highlights syntax, and has a lot of plugins for customising your experience. Even if you only edit the occasional INI file, Notepad++ will make you happy.

Download Page


AutoHotkey


What can be said about our favourite little Windows utility that hasn’t already been said before? AutoHotkey basically turns any action you can imagine into a keyboard shortcut. It requires a little bit of code, but even the most basic users can grasp it in an afternoon — and you can do anything from simple shortcuts to build full-fledged programs with AutoHotkey. Use it to add your own shortcuts to Windows Explorer, create a customised boss key, and put your computer to sleep. If you haven’t tried AutoHotkey yet, now is the time — you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.

Download Page


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