Many of us will have worked in places where installing a piece of software is an exercise in frustration. One Lifehacker reader was faced with just that situation yesterday. They needed to attend a video-conference but the required software wasn’t available on their desktop PC. Rather than give up, our intrepid reader came up with a creative solution involving sticky tape and a smartphone.

There are so many Windows apps out there, that picking a list of the very best, most must-install software for your desktop or laptop feels daunting. We've pored over pages of recommendations, countless forum posts, and lots of comments to come up with this year's Lifehacker Pack for Windows, a list of software champions across four categories: productivity, internet/communications, music/photos/video and utilities.

If you're a presenter or trainer and you like to use iOS devices to show things from your screen off to a broader audience, it can be challenging. Perhaps you're a developer and what to see how things look on different mobile devices. Or, if you are responsible for providing AV facilities to visiting presenters, ensuring you have all the right cables and connectors for connecting smartphones and tablets can be annoying. Reflector 3 is a solution to those challenges. Here's how it works.

There are a bunch of things we take for granted each day. We pick up our smartphones to check messages or play games. We get in our cars and drive off trusting that it will work as we expect and the building we work in won't collapse. In the past, the designs of those, and thousands of other objects and devices we take for granted, would have been drawn with the complex calculations undertaken by engineers. Today much of that legwork is carried out in software. And it turns out many of the things we depend on where designed using an application called Altair.

Mac: It makes us sad that Apple has basically abandoned the App Store on macOS. Just take a look at the experience you get on your smartphone or tablet compared to the one you get on your laptop - it's night and day. That's OK, though; we're more than happy to provide recommendations for amazing macOS apps even if Apple doesn't want to do it itself.

Mac: Just because we love symbolic links on Windows so much - thanks, Steam Mover - we're going to show you a handy macOS app that lets you set up symbolic links on Apple's operating system as well.

Android/iOS: What's on your network? You can always pull up your router's web interface to get a sense of which devices are connected, but you're probably just going to get a list of MAC addresses and assigned IPs - not very helpful. The app Fing - Network Scanner is a great, free way to get a better idea of all the devices your router has to deal with.

We talk a lot about software designed to attack our smartphones and computers, but it turns out your router might also be at risk. That's right. Some dangerous new malware is going after the box you use to beam internet around your home or office.

You really shouldn't preorder video games. Getting some shiny, exclusive item when the game arrives isn't worth gambling $80 or more for an experience that's buggy on launch day or not as fun as you thought it would be once you start playing.

I'm busy. You're busy. We're all busy. Sometimes, the sheer amount of crap you have to deal with can almost feel overwhelming, but a good way to get control of your chaotic to-do list without going crazy is to make sure you're getting enough downtime, too.

Mac: As much as we'd love it, Clipy is not a macOS version of Clippy, that little animated Windows paperclip that asks you how you're doing and gives you useful life advice. It's a must-have utility that makes your macOS clipboard 10 times more powerful, if there was any way to measure that sort of thing.

Android: Android P comes packed full of exciting new features, but it also introduces a huge change in how you'll navigate your smartphone. Google is replacing the virtual navigation buttons we know and love with a single pill-shaped icon and a whole bunch of swiping.

Google and Android are typically a package deal. Even if Samsung or Sony makes your phone, you'll still find it loaded with Google Maps, Gmail, Chrome, YouTube, and all the other apps that makes up Google Play Services. But it's possible to totally "de-Google" your Android device - strange as that sentence is to type - though it's not exactly easy.

So I tried to switch to Apple Music. I was sick of Spotify and its thousand little problems and I missed iTunes. (Actually I missed Winamp, but that's not an option.) iTunes feels less like a spreadsheet. It handles device downloads better. It works great with Siri and my Apple TV. Plus it's got all the music I actually own, including all the weird little mashups and SoundCloud downloads that Spotify can't give me.

Website archive services such as the Internet Archive: Wayback Machine are incredibly useful for when you need to see old versions of sites - either for nostalgia or because you're looking for a specific bit of information that has since been overwritten or deleted (such as a story you wrote for a former employer, for instance).

Microsoft is officially rolling out the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, also known as the Spring Creators Update, to computers tomorrow. While that might mean you'll get it first thing, the company typically rolls those updates out slowly, which means you also might be waiting for a bit. If you're anxious to get it now, here's a rundown on how to make that happen. If you'd rather not bite the bullet on the update right now, then you can also delay having that update come to your computer.

This one's almost a cop-out, since all Windows users should know about WinDirStat by now. This app has been out for nearly 15 years, and it's one of the most helpful tools you can use to clean up your hard drive.

This app isn't something you'll probably have to use very often -- we hope -- but it's a great tool if you're upgrading your system and need to move everything from an old hard drive to a new drive.

Go ahead and get your Breaking Bad jokes out of your system. We'll wait. Once you're done, we recommend installing Amphetamine as soon as you can. This app is a super-tiny download, and it's like giving your macOS machine caffeine pills. Once activated, your system will stop going to sleep.