In practice, it shows you a list of apps that are contacting various servers on the internet and allows you to stop them from doing so. Portmaster is a useful firewall app that lets you stop apps and services from phoning home. We have a handy list to help you with that, too. Take the time to go through its suite of tools to find the ones you’ll use the most. Microsoft PowerToys is a set of tools that adds advanced features, such as window management, locating your mouse cursor quickly, and a Spotlight-like search function to your PC. It even updates apps automatically that require a manual install each time they release a new version. Even if you’ve already set up the machine, you can always use PatchMyPC to update all of your apps quickly. It also installs these apps in the background, so you can continue to work or play on your PC without any interruptions. Once selected, you click one button and PatchMyPC installs all apps in one go. It shows you a list of useful apps and lets you pick the ones you want on your PC. Whether it’s a new machine or a clean install of Windows on your old computer, PatchMyPC is a must-have. It also has some basic batch processing and editing capabilities. IrfanView: If you want an image viewer, look no further than IrfanView.Get this if you don’t want your browser to open all PDF files. SumatraPDF: This is a fast and lightweight PDF reader.7-Zip is free, and supports all popular compression formats such as zip, rar, and 7z. 7-Zip: It’s the best app to compress and decompress files (for most people).

It plays every video file you can throw at it, and has been rock-solid for decades. VLC Media Player: If you watch videos on your PC, you should get VLC Media Player.Get these add-ons, and you’ll never look back. Firefox: Although Chrome and its derivatives have taken over the internet, we still recommend Firefox for its excellent balance between new features and privacy.

Some apps are so ubiquitous that you won’t need much convincing, so I’ll throw those out there first. Here are 16 such apps everyone should download on a new PC. But if you only stick with what you know, there are likely some hidden gems you’re missing out on. Of course, you probably have a list of apps you install by default. One of the best parts of buying a new PC is deleting all the bloatware and replacing it with your favourite programs.

Download and install sharex