Windows 10 has come a long way in terms of features. When I compare it to my Windows XP desktop, its hard to believe you couldn’t even take a screen clipping back then. However, there are still a lot of tasks such as clipboard management, application management, and hotkey management which cannot be inherently performed. Here is where utilities come into the picture. They are small in size and are built for a specific purpose.
On that note, here is the best Windows utility which you should be using in 2020.
Best Windows Utilities
- One of the perks of using a laptop or desktop, instead of a tablet, is that you can customize your workflow. Utilities make your computer less annoying and c.
- The best ways to run Windows 10 on a Mac; Q&A: Mural CEO talks up remote collaboration, details plans for $118M funding. WiFi Password Revealer is the best kind of utility because its name.
Dec 03, 2016. A general-purpose utility with more tools than a Swiss Army knife, Onyx packages maintenance scripts, cache cleaning, and permissions repairers to keep your Mac in tip-top shape.
1. PowerToys
PowerToys is an add-on utility for Windows 10 power users. It’s built by Microsoft and is inspired by the Windows ’95 era PowerToys project. PowerToys aren’t a native part of Windows 10 and you have to additionally install it from GitHub. PowerToys contains 5 tools as of now.
- Fancy Zones – It lets you quickly create a complex divided pane on your desktop. In case you have a multi-monitor setup, it’s a must-have.
- Shortcut Guide – It shows you the shortcut keys when you long down the Windows key.
- PowerRename – It lets you search and rename files in bulk.
- File Explorer (Preview Panes) – It lets you quickly preview a file. As of now, it only supports “.md” and “.svg” file formats
- Image Resizer – It lets you resize batch images in bulk with just a right-click.
Download PowerToys
2. TreeSize
Mac Utilities Menu
Windows Explorer gives you a good amount of information about the file system but a graphical representation is still missing. On top of that, what if I want to have a bird’s eye view of the entire file system with each file size, percentage, file count? Not Possible! So there you can use a free disk space analyzer called TreeSize. It shows you the size of folders including the sub-folders with the file count and with better graphical representation.
My most favorite feature would be the right-click action. You can right-click on any folder and choose TreeSize. It is much more usable than the inbuilt Properties Tab. It gives you all the information about the folder and the contents within. You can choose to directly delete files from here or any other normal right-click action on the folder.
Download TreeSize
3. MuseScore
MuseScore is a score writer for Windows intended towards music instrument users. It is unique in what it does. MuseScore generates the music input into a score sheet. Currently, music input can be provided from the MIDI keyboard. It also lets you make inputs
You can even edit the score sheet with the normal keyboard and mouse. Musescore lets you even print the sheet if you want to take your scores to a concert Maybe just maybe! The site also features many sound scores for popular songs. You can download them and play them via MuseScore. This is a good learning usage of the app.
Download Musescore
4. SharpApp
ShareApp is a handy utility that lets you uninstall bloatware from Microsoft. You can uninstall inbuilt apps like Sticky Notes, Windows Mail, Calendar, etc. In addition to that, SharpApp also lets you block the infamous Windows telemetry services. In case you don’t know, Windows telemetry services share your usage data with Microsoft in order to enhance Windows and user experience. You can manually add IPs to block or use some of the rules provided by the community.
Download SharpApp
5. Unlocker
There are times when you are not able to delete files or uninstall an app because it is being held by another processor running in the background. There is no force delete option in Windows, which is where Unlocker comes in. Unlocker is an open-source freeware that lets you unlock the file with a single click.
You can just drag and drop the .exe file of the app in Unlocker and unlock it from all the processes. As soon as the file is added, a dropdown is presented showing the processes which are locking the files. You can unlock it with just a click.
Download Unlocker
6. Sandboxie
Sandboxie builds a safe environment inside your computer where you can browse the web or run an application. This environment is isolated from the files and programs on your local computer. If you are running an app under Sandboxie it would be highlighted by a yellow border which helps you to distinguish it from other applications.
It’s a good tool if you want to try out a fishy app or browse unsafe web pages. Consider it like a virtual machine that barely eats any system resources. You can run any app inside Sandboxie and it’s as simple as right-clicking the app and choose “Run Sandboxed”. If the app creates any mess then you can close Sandboxie and done you are back to good. The app has few bugs and you will see a pop up now and then which you can ignore.
Free version of Sandboxie allows you to run only 1 sandbox environment simultaneously. To upgrade you can buy out the premium version at $21/annually.
Download Sandboxie
7. Chocolatey
Chocolatey is a package manager where you can not only install apps but also update and even uninstall them. It just escapes you from the process of downloading the exe file and clicks on Next, Next every time. The installation process is fairly simple.
You can do it just by typing in choco install googlechrome and hit enter. then open another cmd and type in ‘choco install VLC’ and so on. The installation runs in the background and you can continue with other tasks. Updating an app is as easy as typing “choco update Google Chrome” and to uninstall “choco uninstall Google Chrome”. This makes the whole process so easy and simple.
Chocolatey has recently moved to GUI and still, a lot of options are not available on GUI. GUI doesn’t allow you to create packages of software to bulk install or update them. If you are not someone who likes commands, Chocolatey would be a tricky app to learn, and maybe you should skip this one.
Download Chocolatey
8. Wox & Everything
Consider Wox as a Spotlight alternative for Windows, ie. an app launcher to help you quickly find files and folders. Giving an Alt + Space triggers the app from any screen. I can go ahead and search apps, Google queries, perform calculations, and open URLs. There are a ton of possibilities with this app.
But my favorite thing about Wox is the third party plugins support, so you can do everything from searching YouTube to translate languages, right from your launcher. My favorite one is a plugin called Everything and the file search is so smooth that nothing comes close to that. You will get instantaneous results as you type. Microsoft is currently working with Wox & Everything to bring a Spotlight-like laucher to Windows 10.
Download Wox
9. Ditto Clipboard Manager
Ditto Clipboard is an open-source clipboard manager and extremely popular amongst Windows users. It keeps a track of the stuff you have copied and in case you have left out something you can always go back to the clipboard and copy again. The best thing is it also tracks images and links so you can even recover that from the clipboard. Just select the text or image press Ctrl+C and you have the data copied back. The clipboard data is persistent even though the reboots. Even though a lot of people use Ditto but rarely people would have noticed that you can copy multiple items from the clipboard.
Download Ditto Clipboard
10. SharpKeys
Ever wondered, what are you gonna do with 2 shift keys, 2 control keys, and the caps lock button! Pretty useless right? What you can do is map these keys to some other functions. Like I use my Caps Lock key to launch a calculator. SharpKeys lets you remap your keyboard keys to a different action.
You just have to specify the For Key and To Key within the app. After a successful configuration, you need to restart your system. This can also be achieved by manually editing the registry entries but that requires too much manual effort.
Download SharpKeys
11. ShellExView
Once you have installed a lot of applications, the “right-click” context menu starts getting cluttered and, moreover, slow. Hence, to get rid of pointless options on the context menu, you can use the ShellExView utility. It lists down all applications accessing the context menu and you can just right-click and select “Disable Selected Items“. Once you have done that, head over to the Task Manager and restart the “Windows Explorer” process.
Download ShellExView
Which Windows Utility should you choose?
Chocolatey GUI is a good tool to have if you download a lot of apps. It smoothens the process of installing, updating, and uninstalling an app. If you write a lot on your desktop then you should use Ditto Clipboard. A clipboard manager is a must-have. You can also give a try to SharpKeys, mapping hardware keys to trigger apps is a quick way to shorten trigger time of daily used apps.
In case you have a lot of Bluetooth devices connected to your system, SoundSwitch makes switching them easier. I would love to hear which utility you end up using from this list.
Also Read: 12 Best Photo Viewer for Windows 10 (2020 Edition)
Purchasing a new MacBook is much similar to buying a ticket to a land of fabulous software & apps. In addition to all the free programs offered by Apple to all the fresh Mac owners, there are some extras essential Mac apps too that help to make the most out of your Machine.
We’ve organized a list of the most useful Mac software and programs that are categorized into ten major categories, ranging from Best Mac Cleaning utility to Best Media Player & so on. Take a look at our best of bunch & let us know which of these suits the most for your needs!
Top 10 Best Mac Apps & Utilities for 2020
We’ve trawled the software market to find the most ideal Mac utilities & apps in every major category for better productivity and efficiency. Try them now!
1. Disk Clean Pro (Best Mac Cleaner & Optimizer)
An all-in-one solution to keep your Mac machine clean & optimized for smooth performance.
Disk Clean Pro is an affordable tune-up utility to help users maintain their system for a longer time. It features dedicated modules to remove junk files along with hidden redundant files to improve response time & speed up Mac. It’s ‘One-Click Care’ works like magic to keep your machine run clutter-free.
Disk Clean Pro is an excellent Mac optimizer, packed with all the advanced features that several Mac Cleaning utilities miss. Packed with various tools like Junk Cleaner, Logs Cleaner, Crash Reports, Partial Downloads remover, Duplicate Finder, Large & Old Files Cleaner & more. Moreover, it offers a module, Internet Privacy Protector, that works efficiently to remove traces of your browsing history for best-in-class Mac security.
The best part? Disk Clean Pro is available at just $0.99, & it’s a limited time offer, so what are you waiting for? Optimize the storage space in a single scan & make the most of Mac’s disk space.
Several websites have reported Disk Clean Pro, as the #1 Mac Cleaning & Optimization Utility!
2. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard (Best Data Recovery Tool for Mac)
An advanced data recovery tool to retrieve accidentally deleted files, documents, music, videos and much more.
Losing data & important files is the kind of nightmare no one would ever want to experience. But unfortunately, it has been known to happen for a variety of reasons such as, drive failure, human error & viruses. However, the “good thing” is the availability of a Data Recovery Software that makes restoring lost files effortless.
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is one such data recovery service that lives up to its name, by offering easy yet effective recovery solutions that makes users task super simple. The tool not only helps in locating recently deleted files from corrupted & critical file systems, but also helps in restoring data from external storage devices such as memory sticks, USB drives etc.
There are three different versions available with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard: Free, Pro & Unlimited. Free edition allows you to recover data up to 200 MB. Get this Best Mac App for your system now!
3. Systweak Anti-Malware (Best Anti-Malware for Mac)
The 24/7 malware protection against your Mac.
Systweak Anti-Malware is a robust Mac security software that does a fantastic job of detecting any type of malicious content hiding in your system. Its smart algorithms understand which types of threats can put your Mac Machine at risk, and hence keep a close check that no suspicious program, malware, adware or spyware could bypass Mac’s defenses.
The antivirus software claims to have a 100% success rate for detecting dangerous malware and viruses. The lightweight application offers multiple scanning methods to make sure you have an ultimate protection against malware and other infections.
To keep your Mac safe, the antivirus software regularly updates its malware database, so that no latest suspicious threat can bypass you Mac’s security. It not only shields your Machine from online threats but also optimizes it for smooth-functioning, which probably makes it one of the best anti-virus programs in the market.
4. CyberGhost VPN Mac (Best VPN App for Mac)
A feature-rich, powerful VPN for PC with an easy-to-use interface, suitable for both novices & professionals.
CyberGhost is one of the most reliable VPN services for Mac. It boasts a really easy set-up process. In fact, all you have to do is download the VPN for your OS from the below button and launch it with one-click on your system. The VPN software boasts more than 3,700 servers across 60+ countries, including optimized servers for torrenting & other streaming services.
The VPN solution comes with a bundle of extra tools to block unnecessary ads, track malicious websites that attempts to make unauthorized access on your system and an automated HTTPS redirection that ensure most secure connection.
It’s one-month plan costs $12.99 which is a bit higher than other standard VPN services in the market. But that’s totally worthy as it supports connecting up to seven devices simultaneously.
5. Duplicate Files Fixer (Best Duplicate Files Cleaner for Mac)
An efficient, fast and easy-to-use duplicate file cleaner to get rid of identical documents, photos, videos, music and other digital media files.
Duplicate Files Fixer by Systweak Software is an awesome duplicate cleaner that helps you reclaim chunks of occupied hard drive space, clogged with unnecessary duplicates such as Documents, Videos, Music, Photos and other files. It’s one of the Best Mac Software for both professional and novice users for finding exact and similar-looking files.
This duplicate file finder comes with a robust set of functionalities for scanning different file types in just a few moments. The Mac utility has a sleek & intuitive interface for great navigation experience. It lets you create a backup of all your duplicate files before you delete them. The application is capable of scanning external devices as well for finding duplicates.
To use this Mac software all you have to do is download it > Add files or folders containing duplicates > click the Scan button to begin sorting > Remove to clean all the duplicate files at once! Enjoy deduplicate library in three-clicks. Duplicate Files Fixer is a must have mac application to fill your bucket of Best Mac Utilities 2020.
6. Stellar Drive Clone (Best Disk Cloning App for Mac)
A robust Mac utility to help you clone & restore all the files on your hard drive, so you can always have your peace of mind.
Stellar Drive Clone is a complete suite to create a Clone or Image of your Mac hard drive. The Cloned copy can be used as a ‘read-to-use’ copy of the original hard drive. And, the Image file can be used for ‘restoring purpose’ in case any data mishap happens.
The advanced Mac cloning tool supports various types of cloning including, HFS-to-HFS, FAT-to-FAT & NTFS-to-EXFAT. Stellar Drive Clone is a must-have Mac app if you wish to clone an encrypted Mac drive and volumes as well. You can also choose to ‘Schedule’ Periodic Backup’ to create timely backups.
This amazing disk cloning service stands out for two reasons, it’s ease-of-use and high compatibility. It supports all the commonly used OS X versions including the latest MacOS Mojave. Download this app for MacBook Pro now!
7. Photos Exif Editor (Best Exif Data & Editor For Mac)
Editing photo metadata or EXIF data was never this easy. Meet Photos Exif Editor, an ultimate batch photo editing tool for your Mac.
For people unaware what EXIF Data is, it’s basically a set of data attached to every image you capture. It includes basic parameters such as date, time, location, camera settings etc. This can be immensely useful info, when you might want to examine how a particular picture is taken, what are its shutter speed or ISO. Moreover, you can certainly edit and modify those set of info using an Exif data editor.
Presenting, Photos Exif Editor a fast and easy-to-use Mac software to read, write and modify metadata of single or thousands of images in one-go. You can manually manipulate the GPS coordinates of images to change its location. Rename multiple files at once, create EXIF Presets for repeated metadata editing to speed up the process.
It’s one of the best Mac apps to view, edit and modify EXIF, IPTC & XMP metadata. The Mac software supports various common photo formats including RAW image file format.
8. Cisdem Video Player for Mac (Best Media Player on Mac)
A universal video player with an impressive set of features to play up to 5K resolution videos without any jerks or tearing.
You saw that coming, right? Talking about the Best media player and not mentioning Cisdem’s Video Player is certainly not possible. It’s one of the most popular and utilized OS X apps that comes with interactive interface to play both audio and video. The video player is known for its smooth playback assistance offering crystal clear views.
With Cisdem Video Player, you don’t require to download any Codec pack, it lets you directly play WMV, FLV, MKV, AVCHD, AVI etc. videos on your Mac Machine. Best part? Unlike other media player for Mac, Cisdem allows you to automatically load subtitle files for the movie.
Apple Mac Utilities
Looking to convert your video files for other Apple devices? Cisdem does that too for you with an optional in-app purchase. The video player is designed to support more than 50 audio and video formats. As soon as install the app, it’s ready to go!
9. Tweak Photos (Best Batch Photos Editor for Mac)
Most popular photo editing app that lets you brighten single or thousands of photos in a few clicks.
Tweak Photos is a brilliant package featuring an attractive interface, powerful filters, plethora of customization, adjustment tools and a lot more. This OS X app is available for just $4.99 on Mac app store.
From performing basic editing like renaming, resizing, cropping, simple color fixes, format conversions to advanced editing like applying complex photo filters, watermarking, multi-layer management, Tweak Photos does all for you.
You can download this amazing photo editor for Mac to de-noise bulk images, change texture/stylize, auto-correct orientations, blur multiple images, add frames and other artistic elements to batch photos at once. And just everything to create vivid and dazzling photo collection.
10. iSkysoft PDF Editor (Best PDF File Editor for Mac)
A super-smooth Mac software for editing PDF files easily & quickly.
iSkysoft’s PDF Editor is an ultimate solution to edit PDF documents without compromising file formatting. You can download this OS X app to get a complete suit of PDF editing tools to manipulate texts, images, links and other elements present in a PDF file.
Considered as one of the best alternatives to Adobe Acrobat, you can download this Mac software for easy editing, cropping, rotating, extracting, splitting, adding watermarks, altering background colours and a lot more.
Download this free PDF File Editor to quickly edit, convert, create, merge & convert scanned PDF files with ease. Not only this, iSkysoft enables you to protect your PDF files with passwords, you can set permissions for other users to perform specific functions like editing, commenting or printing. It’s one of the best Mac app available to share your PDFs to Email, Google Drive, Evernote and Dropbox in one-click.
Best Mac Apps You Need To Install On Your New Machine!
The MacOS app ecosystem is certainly packed with a lot of hidden gems. All the aforementioned Mac software & utilities are great to get you started. For the least frustration and better efficiency, download these handy extras now!
Find Utilities On Mac
Responses