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 tasks solution is excellent, and it always has been. I will stick with it, if only because I like the mobile client so much.

Twitter. Still the premier example of a first-classic Progressive Web App (PWA), Twitter is excellent and full-featured, with a nice, simple design.

Store apps

Perhaps not surprisingly, my use of Store apps has increased as more high-quality apps have appeared. I also use the Store versions of the Microsoft Office apps, too, when they’re preinstalled on a PC I’m reviewing. But it is interesting that two of the three actually come with Windows 10.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 15. This Desktop Bridge app is the most sophisticated Store app that I use, and I prefer it to the normal desktop version because the Store’s liberal licensing policies mean I can install it on all of my PCs without worrying about activating and deactivating it as I do so.

Microsoft OneNote. This is perhaps the only version of a Store app that I prefer over the desktop version, which is nice because Microsoft is no longer updating or supporting OneNote 2016. It’s not perfect, of course. But this is the most sophisticated “pure” Store (UWP) app that I use every day.

Skype for Windows 10. I can’t claim to like Skype in any guise, but the Windows 10 version is particularly limited, with no support for multiple conversation windows or even keyboard shortcuts to switch between them. But it’s built-in to Windows 10 so I deal with it.

Special cases

I install a handful of other applications from time to time, but not on every PC I use. For example, I use Visual Studio Code or Android Studio for my software development experiments, and Hyper-V (included with Windows 10 Pro) when I need to use a virtual machine for the book. I also install Git on many PCs because I need it to publish Markdown documents to Leanpub to construct the book.

What I don’t (usually) install

I use a phone or tablet for consumption activities like reading or watching movies. But that could change if a Surface Go-type PC with adequate performance and battery life materializes. In the meantime, I use Chrome for light and work-related reading and save longer articles for later with Pocket. I would use Microsoft Movies & TV to watch Movies Anywhere-compatible movies. And I would use the web app version of Google Play Music or the Spotify Store app for music. I also don’t currently play games on the PC, but I’m going to look into that more deeply in 2019 as well, given Microsoft’s moves in this market.