These are the Apps I Rely On (Premium)

I install the same basic set of desktop applications, web apps, and Store apps on every PC I use. Here’s a quick rundown.
Desktop applications
Given the nature of Windows and my needs, it’s perhaps not surprising that most of the apps I use each day are desktop applications. That said, three of these applications come with Windows 10, and a fourth, Microsoft Office, is often included with new PCs, too. So I’m really only installing as few as two major desktop applications on every PC as I use. And while one is quite popular, the other is one I’m actively trying to replace.

Google Chrome. I probably spend more time in Chrome than any other application, and I use it to pin the web apps noted below to the Windows taskbar so that I can access them as standalone apps. And some Chrome extensions, like Grammarly, are almost as important as some of the standalone apps I use.

MarkdownPad 2. As I wrote in What I Use: Markdown (Premium), I switched to MarkdownPad 2 about three years ago because I needed to output clean Markdown for my book, Windows 10 Field Guide, and it was difficult moving back and forth between that application and Microsoft Word. But that could be changing: See below for details, but I believe I’ll be using Microsoft Word again for the site, and Markdown for book updates going forward.

Microsoft Paint. I use Paint in tandem with Photoshop Elements (below) to edit the graphics that appear on this site and, interestingly, our annual Christmas card photo collage as well. In both cases, Paint is the more crucial tool.

Microsoft OneDrive. A few years ago, OneDrive had all kinds of performance and reliability issues, and I was actively plotting a move to Dropbox. But that’s over, and OneDrive works excellent today. As such, it is the central storage solution for all of my work-related documents and files, and my archives dating back 25 years are stored there. I don’t use OneDrive, I rely on OneDrive.

Notepad. I use this basic text editor every day, and for a variety of tasks.

Microsoft Office. Thanks to two factors---my use of Markdown for writing for the past three years and Microsoft canceling the desktop version of OneNote in favor of the Windows 10 version (see below)---my Office usage dropped off a lot in recent years. (I do use Excel and PowerPoint as needed, but not regularly.  I never use Microsoft Outlook.) But that’s changing. Thanks to the coming simplified ribbon, I’ve started using Microsoft Word again. I’ll discuss this in a separate article soon.
Web apps
Each of these apps is used as an application-like shortcut, created by Chrome, via the taskbar.

Google Inbox and Outlook.com. I’m plotting a move away from Gmail because Google decided to kill off its minimalist front-end Google Inbox. And I’m most likely moving to Microsoft’s Outlook.com. In the meantime---I have until March 2019 to decide---I’m using both for email.

Google Calendar. Google’s calendaring and ta...