The 10 Apps I Can't Live Or Work Without - On Windows, Mac, And Mobile

19 hours ago

Every 5 years aliases so, I make an inventory of nan apps I usage astir frequently. It's ever fascinating to spot really nan database has changed complete time, and it usually says thing astir nan computing landscape. When I did that workout this year, I was astonished astatine nan changes.

Half of nan apps I utilized 5 years ago are nary longer connected my database astatine each successful 2025. They've been replaced, successful astir cases, by apps that are tightly linked pinch web-based services and unreality retention and tin tally connected immoderate desktop, laptop, aliases mobile device.

Also: A decade of Windows 10: Chaos, Cortana, and conspiracy theories that ne'er panned out

Seven of nan 10 apps I usage each time connection afloat functional free versions, often pinch paid options to unlock further features aliases to region immoderate usage limits. Of nan 8 apps I salary for, nary still connection a accepted perpetual license, favoring a subscription exemplary instead. I cognize that's a hot-button rumor for immoderate readers, who are adamant astir their distaste for paying monthly aliases yearly fees. I for illustration the predictability of those arrangements instead of nan large jolt to nan fund that comes pinch awesome upgrades. And I'm besides happy to support independent developers.

The biggest astonishment for maine is really overmuch little I usage nan Microsoft 365 desktop apps (formerly known arsenic Microsoft Office). If it weren't for Excel, I'm not judge that I would still beryllium consenting to salary for my Microsoft 365 subscription. I've stopped utilizing OneNote completely, and I usage Word a batch little than I utilized to. I yet sewage tired of Quicken, Spotify, and Adobe Acrobat, each of which had easy replacements.

Of course, this action reflects my activity habits and my individual preferences. Your needs are undoubtedly different, truthful your database won't beryllium nan aforesaid arsenic mine. I promote you to stock your favorites successful nan comments conception below.

1. Microsoft Edge

Purpose: Browsing nan internet
Price: Free
Info: Microsoft Edge

A modern browser has 1 job: to render webpages that activity arsenic they were designed to work. Given nan realities of nan modern web, that intends a browser that's based connected nan de facto standard, utilizing codification from the open-source Chromium project. For astir people, nan evident prime is Google's Chrome browser, but you tin besides take different Chromium-based browser: Microsoft Edge, aliases Brave, aliases Vivaldi, or one of these moreover much obscure options. I person utilized Microsoft's version, Edge, for 5 years, and spot nary logic to move now.

Also: I made Microsoft Edge my default browser because of these 3 slayer features

The existent loop of nan Microsoft Edge browser is, arsenic acold arsenic astir websites are concerned, conscionable different lawsuit of Google Chrome, pinch support for each nan extensions written for that juggernaut. But 3 features that are built into Edge are capable to make maine comfortable utilizing it arsenic my default browser. The astir important is Tracking Prevention (shown here), which stops a adjacent magnitude of online surveillance and serves arsenic an effective advertisement blocker. I can't ideate seeing this implemented successful Chrome.

The different 2 slayer Edge features for maine are vertical tabs, a characteristic that makes it imaginable to separate what's connected each webpage moreover if you person dozens of tabs open, and nan immersive reader, which strips distant clutter from a page truthful you tin ore connected nan content. (For much details, see "I made Microsoft Edge my default browser because of these 3 slayer features." )

I still support a transcript of Chrome installed connected my Windows desktop, but I seldom tally into a page that requires maine to switch. I besides usage Edge connected my MacBook Pro and connected iOS and Android, pinch history and favorites synced crossed each those platforms.

2. 1Password

Purpose: Password management
Price: Subscription-based. Individual, $3 a month; Family (5 users), $5 a month; Team and Business plans available
Info: 1Password

When I group up a caller PC, Mac, aliases mobile device, nan first point I install, without exception, is nan 1Password app and its companion browser extension. (For a afloat review, see: 1Password: My favourite password head is an basal information tool.)

Also: I replaced my Microsoft relationship password pinch a passkey - and you should, too

It has each characteristic you expect from this people of software, including a robust password generator that tin create and prevention genuinely random, unguessable credentials, support for two-factor authentication, and nan expertise to create and sync passkeys crossed aggregate devices. I person a family scheme ($5 a month, billed annually), which makes it easy for my woman and maine to support individual credentials arsenic good arsenic a shared vault for services we entree pinch a azygous account.

1Password is besides disposable arsenic an app for iOS, Android, MacOS, and Windows and uses nan aforesaid synced, encrypted database for each platforms.

I'm comfortable pinch allowing 1Password to shop and sync my encrypted password files. Because it's a zero-knowledge architecture, nary 1 astatine nan institution has entree to nan contents of those encrypted files; that information tin only beryllium opened utilizing my unsocial section password, accompanied by nan encryption key.)

3. Workona

Purpose: Tab management
Price: Subscription-based. Free, pinch limits; Pro scheme $7 a month, Team and Enterprise plans available
Info: Workona

By immoderate reasonable standard, I person excessively galore browser tabs unfastened correct now. But I don't care, because I person a concealed limb that helps maine support those tabs nether power -- a work called Workona. I've been a paid subscriber for much than 5 years, and it's go an indispensable portion of my online toolkit (see "Too galore browser tabs? This awesome hold is my favourite solution.")

Workona allows maine to shape tabs, bookmarks, notes, and tasks into groups called spaces that sync crossed devices; I tin stock spaces pinch squad members, and link cloud-based productivity services (like Slack and GitHub) to widen nan capabilities of a space. I usage it connected Microsoft Edge, but it's besides disposable arsenic an hold connected Chrome and Firefox connected each awesome desktop platforms.

Also: I usage Edge arsenic my default browser - but its caller AI mode is unreliable and annoying

The free version of Workona limits nan number of spaces and resources you tin create, but it mightiness beryllium bully capable if your needs are modest. I salary $7 a period for a Pro scheme that gives maine unlimited spaces for a azygous personification and some different useful features, specified arsenic Google Drive integration. Team and Enterprise editions are besides available.

At immoderate fixed time, I mightiness person much than a half-dozen spaces open, each successful its ain browser session. On Edge, those spaces merge pinch tab groups, truthful I tin quickly move tabs betwixt spaces. Best of all, if a browser crashes aliases I request to restart my computer, I tin reopen each those tabs quickly without losing immoderate work. I can't ideate moving without it.

4. Obsidian

Purpose: Text editor
Price: Free, pinch subscription-based sync and people options available
Info: Obsidian

For galore years, Microsoft Word was my main matter editor. It was perfectly basal successful nan days erstwhile astatine slightest half of what I wrote was destined to beryllium published successful book form, pinch extended formatting and a attraction connected page layout. These days, though, almost everything I constitute is published online -- arsenic a webpage aliases a newsletter. For those uses, Word is overkill, and its formatting is often arsenic overmuch of a hindrance arsenic a help.

Also: Microsoft astatine 50: Its unthinkable rise, 15 mislaid years, and stunning comeback - successful 4 charts

My longtime workfellow Mary Jo Foley would nary uncertainty propose I usage Notepad, but that's a spot excessively barebones for my taste, moreover with recent characteristic additions. Which is why I now do astir of my penning successful Obsidian. This easy-to-use app, developed by a small team that started successful 2020, uses nan lightweight Markdown connection to create system documents pinch rich | formatting that tin beryllium saved arsenic matter files. It's besides a awesome measurement to seizure and shop question and reply notes and snippets of investigation -- it's wholly taken complete that domiciled from OneNote, different Microsoft Office app I utilized for decades that I nary longer usage regularly.

I've mapped Obsidian hotkeys to immoderate acquainted Word shortcuts, and I've besides installed a plugin that adds outlining capabilities to my documents. It's each remarkably easy. (The Obsidian organization has created thousands of plugins.)

Obsidian is not unfastened source, but it has a robust plugin exemplary that allows third-party developers to widen its features. The programme itself is free, pinch nary limits. I salary $8 a period (billed annually) for optional add-on services that let maine to sync up to 10 vaults and 10 GB of retention crossed devices, pinch a revision history of 12 months. There's besides an action to usage Obsidian arsenic a back-end for a elemental website.

5. deck.blue

Purpose: Bluesky provender management
Price: Free. Advanced features disposable pinch membership, $2 a month
Info: deck.blue

Before Twitter changed its sanction and became a vanity task for nan governmental obsessions of nan world's richest man, it was a important root of accusation and a measurement to build communities. It was besides a firehose of information, and nan only sensible measurement to support way of that torrent of tweets and threads and lists was pinch nan thief of an app like TweetDeck, which became a subscribers-only characteristic called X Pro successful 2023.

Also: How to migrate from X to Bluesky without losing your followers

I've since replaced Twitter pinch Bluesky, which follows galore of nan aforesaid personification acquisition conventions arsenic bully ol' Twitter and tin beryllium conscionable arsenic overwhelming. To get nan astir worth retired of Bluesky, you request to travel hundreds aliases thousands of accounts, which tin move your location page into a stream that flows truthful accelerated nary quality tin support up utilizing nan web-based app.

The solution is simply a third-party web-based app called deck.blue, which lets you portion and dice your provender into different views, each contained successful its ain column. Like TweetDeck, it allows you to show lists successful columns and has a robust group of options for filtering unwanted content. You tin tally deck.blue successful a browser aliases do arsenic I do and instal it arsenic a progressive web app. It's free, but I salary $2 a period for a membership that unlocks support for aggregate accounts; it besides pays nan developer, Gildásio Filho, for whom this is simply a full-time job.

6. NewsBlur

Purpose: RSS reader
Price: Free, unfastened source. Premium subscriptions, starting astatine $36 a year, unlock immoderate precocious features
Info: NewsBlur

They told you RSS was dead. I americium present to show you that's not precisely true. The RSS provender is very overmuch alive, albeit not rather arsenic vigorous arsenic successful its heyday, earlier nan Google Reader app was abruptly discontinued. (If you've ne'er heard old-timers talk of Google Reader, here's my obituary from 2013: Embrace, extend, extinguish: How Google crushed and abandoned nan RSS industry)

RSS is short for Really Simple Syndication, a modular that allows publishers to create "feeds" that you tin publication successful an app that understands RSS. Amazingly, galore ample websites still support RSS, which makes cross-platform apps like NewsBlur incredibly useful. It's disposable arsenic a web app connected nan desktop and arsenic a autochthonal app connected iOS and Android, and its characteristic database is genuinely impressive.

I usage NewsBlur to support way of each sorts of information. The RSS provender for Microsoft's Windows Blog, for example, makes it easy to way caller Windows Insider builds. To enactment successful touch pinch Apple news, I travel John Gruber's Daring Fireball. The New York Times and nan Washington Post person RSS feeds, and immoderate really enlightened publishers like Talking Points Memo even person members-only feeds, truthful paying subscribers (like me) tin publication posts successful a autochthonal app alternatively of subscribing to an email newsletter. That, to me, is nan biggest advantage of NewsBlur -- helping to support clutter retired of my Inbox.

7. Microsoft Excel

Purpose: Charts, spreadsheets, and lists
Price: Included pinch Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, and Business subscriptions: $100 a twelvemonth and up
Info: Microsoft 365

For much than 25 years, nan 4 desktop apps that dress up nan halfway of what utilized to beryllium Microsoft Office were an perfectly basal portion of my moving day. (I moreover wrote a half-dozen books astir them!) That has each changed successful nan past fewer years.

Outlook (Classic) is still nan first app I unfastened successful nan morning, but Microsoft says I americium going to person to move to Outlook (New) sooner aliases later, and without giving distant my feelings astir nan replacement, I tin show you I americium looking earnestly astatine alternatives. I unfastened Word erstwhile aliases doubly a week, mostly for reports, letters, and invoices, and usage Obsidian for everything other text-related. I typically stumble done PowerPoint erstwhile aliases doubly a year, astatine most.

Also: How to create a drop-down database successful Excel and prevention yourself hours of time

But I usage Excel each day. I usage it to analyse information and create charts, for illustration nan ones successful this article about why those "Windows 11 marketplace share" numbers aren't reliable. I usage it for lists, elemental and complex, and to comparison products earlier making awesome purchases. I yet sewage tired of utilizing Quicken and figured retired really to support way of my individual and business finances successful a postulation of spreadsheets that would make my precocious father, a CPA, proud.

The online type of Excel is free, but I salary $12.50 a period for a Microsoft 365 Business Standard subscription that includes Excel and each nan different desktop Office apps, positive an Exchange Online license, and 1 TB of OneDrive for Business storage.

8. VLC Media Player

Purpose: Playing video files
Price: Free, without limits
Info: VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player is simply a free, unfastened root instrumentality that tin play astir immoderate audio aliases video file, sloppy of its format. It's been astir forever, maintained by the nonprofit VideoLAN organization, based successful France. I wrote astir it astir a decade ago, erstwhile it was nan best free replacement DVD player on nan market, and coming it handles some beingness and streaming formats pinch aplomb. It doesn't require downloading dodgy codec packs to work, and it runs connected each conceivable platform.

I haven't touched a DVD aliases a Blu-ray disk successful ages, but I still person a postulation of saved video files, that I occasionally want to watch, and this is nan perfect instrumentality for nan job.

On Windows PCs, make judge to download and instal the full Windows package. That type is also available successful nan Microsoft Store; conscionable steer clear of nan outdated, limited-feature VLC UWP app. The easiest measurement to instal it is pinch nan built-in winget package manager. If you're comfortable astatine a bid line, conscionable type this: winget instal videolan.vlc.

9. MediaMonkey 2024

Purpose: Music organizing and playing
Price: Free; $40 upgrade to Gold version unlocks premium features
Info: MediaMonkey

Despite nan easiness of streaming tunes from services for illustration Apple Music and YouTube Music, I still person a important individual euphony postulation successful integer format. Some of nan tracks successful that postulation are copies ripped from aged CDs that aren't disposable connected immoderate commercialized service. Others are unrecorded recordings, obtained straight from nan creator aliases from ineligible online services and besides unavailable for streaming. With a small other effort, I tin upload those files to nan cloud, but I still person to negociate them locally.

For those tunes, MediaMonkey 2024 (available connected Windows and Android, but not MacOS aliases iOS) is an indispensable tool. Its built-in subordinate handles conscionable astir immoderate audio aliases video file, including lossless euphony tracks successful FLAC and ALAC formats, successful a manner that's much organized than nan one-track-at-a-time VLC. It tin rip CDs, watercourse euphony to outer devices, automatically tag MP3 files and adhd medium art, and moreover sync tracks pinch my iPhone and Android devices. The free Standard type is perfectly capable, but I paid nan $40 upgrade value to bask a assortment of very useful precocious features in nan Gold edition.

10. Snagit 2024

Purpose: Screenshots and surface recordings
Price: Subscription-based, $39 per year
Info: Snagit

Honestly, I americium not judge erstwhile I began utilizing TechSmith's Snagit to capture, crop, and annotate screens for my books and online posts. It was decidedly astatine nan insistence of my book patient successful nan erstwhile period (the institution and its flagship merchandise person been astir since 1990), and it is 1 of nan very fewer survivors from those years.

The bully folks astatine TechSmith person done a awesome occupation of keeping that package applicable much than 3 decades later. Every caller type gets a fewer caller features, for illustration nan expertise to seizure a speedy surface video for posting online. I'm happy that I tin prevention screenshots successful nan unreality work of my choice, truthful I tin find that cleanable screenshot pinch a speedy search.

Snagit switched to a subscription exemplary a fewer years ago. The default value of $39 a year, which allows a subscriber to tally nan package connected 2 devices, is reasonable. Because I bought my licenses years ago, I'm locked into a bequest scheme that's astir a 3rd of that price. I won't switch.