The Pathfinder offers you a selection of tools to be installed as a priority on a new computer running under Windows.
Congratulations, you have just acquired a new laptop or of bureau under Windows. But you don’t know where to turn among all the necessary installations to obtain a powerful and comfortable PC to use. Between chat apps, antivirus, word processing software, specific needs… We therefore offer you a tour of the applications and software that you absolutely must install on your computer to help you get started.
Among the selection, many applications are available directly for download from the Microsoft Store, already integrated into Windows. Others are however paying and must be acquired on the appropriate sales sites.
Un antivirus
First of all, it should be noted that Windows comes with its built-in free antivirus called Windows Defender. The tool will be content with classic continuous system scans and will download security updates when they are deployed. That being said, many other solutions exist, each bringing their specificities and advanced features.
For example, Bitdefender is one of the leaders in this field. It has a free version operating more or less the same actions as any free antivirus like that of Windows. But it has several subscription offers providing access to personal data protection and advice to follow in the event of a data breach. It even has a built-in VPN and password manager.
Similar solutions are legion with the famous Avast, Norton or Malwarebytes. The choice is entirely up to the user, the tools offering substantially the same functions in free or paid version. An important point to take into account is in particular their consumption of PC resources. It will be necessary to aim for the least greedy tool if the performance of the computer is important to you.
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Obviously, one of the first things we are tempted to do when turning on our new computer is to install everything we need to communicate with loved ones or our business. On this point, you have most likely already adopted your favorite applications. WhatsApp being one of the most used instant messaging applications in the world, it is important to note that its desktop application has undergone a minor facelift from Microsoft recently. The app is now more powerful on PC and allows audio calls to 32 people and video calls to eight people.
Among the other discussion solutions to have absolutely on your Windows computer, let’s also mention Slack and Zoom for professionals, Skype for the old ones, too attached to the tool, or Discord, the application for discussions by forums which expands each year. its features. Microsoft Teams is also a must, but the software is now installed by default on computers running Windows 11.
A password manager
If a world without passwords seems to be possible thanks to passkeys, for the moment we have to face the facts, they still largely control our access to the Internet and our tools. In order to avoid account hacking as much as possible, it is strongly recommended to never use the same password to authenticate. But how then to retain all its accesses? This is where password managers come into play.
The French Dashlane is undoubtedly one of the most suitable. The tool, which has a free version limited to one device, offers efficient synchronization, an integrated VPN or even storage of important documents, in addition to a section dedicated to saving passwords so as not to forget them. However, it will be necessary to pay € 52.99 per year to benefit from the service on several devices.
We will also mention Bitwarden, EnPass or 1Password.
Listen to his music
Do we need to quote and introduce in depth Spotify, the Swedish music streaming giant? It may be your main tool for listening to music whether at work or during rest days in front of the computer. However, an interesting alternative is emerging for iPhone owners. The Apple Music application arrived a few months ago for download from the Microsoft Store of Windows 11. It is not yet the final version of the application (which moreover offers an interface very similar to that on Mac), but it has the merit of being available. According to the latest news, it will be necessary to take some precautions before installing and using the application. This will ask to go through iTunes and then close it. You will need to uninstall Apple Music to regain access to iTunes.
In the meantime, Amazon Music or even Deezer continue to live their merry way and constitute very satisfactory alternatives.
Word processing and photo editing
In the long list of software to download and install first on a new computer running Windows, it is word processing and image editing software. Of course, the classic of classics is to obtain a license Microsoft 365 at €69 for a single device. The pack brings together the essentials of Microsoft Word and Excel as well as a myriad of other tools.
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There are the open and free counterparts of this suite, called LibreOffice and OpenOffice. Their interface is certainly more austere, but the possibilities are very present, although less extensive than on the tools of Microsoft, which can integrate its latest technologies. With these different software, why not add Antidote? The best-selling spell checker starts at €59 per year.
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For fans of photo editing, you will obviously have to turn to the Adobe suite, which contains Lightroom and Photoshop in particular. Software which, once more, has its equivalent in open and free versions.
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The comfort of use
Here we gather some recommendations in order to improve the comfort of overall use of the PC. For example, don’t forget to download a PDF reader like Adobe’s Acrobat Reader as soon as possible. The tool in its free version only allows you to read PDF files and not to modify them, but it is often quite sufficient. To play videos, the best solution to date is the French VLC media player, with its famous icon representing a construction cone. Finally, in the famous proposals, we will quote WinRar. The software allows to compress and decompress files in a very simple and fast way. It has a free version limited to its simplest device and a definitive paid version at less than 30 €. The legend says that the number of people using the paid version on Earth can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
In the slightly more marginal category, we advise you to install monitoring software for your system. For example, HWiNFO64 offers a large panel of information concerning all the components of the PC and the state of the latter. It is very useful for precisely monitoring, for example, the temperature of its processor during heavy tasks to be performed for the device.
Finally, Power Toys is probably the most extensive customization tool available on Windows. We already talked regarding it in a previous article. This is a collection of utilities that allows, among many other features, to anchor a window in the foreground, to resize images on the fly, to create keyboard shortcuts or to activate the localization of the mouse to find it more easily, especially on dual-screen configurations.
