Windows Tools

A list of my favourite Windows tools and software. Most of them should work in both Windows 10 and 11, but I now only have Win11.

Apart from each product's homepage and the official Microsoft Store app, I only trust FileHippo as a place to download Windows binaries, and browsing with an AdBlocker to avoid the insane amount of ads the site contains. Avoid any other software download sites.

Tools & Troubleshooting

• 7Zip: Greater compression compared with standard Zip files
• Everything: I disable Windows search indexing on my hard drives, and instead use this small tool
• NirCmd: CLI utility that eases performing certain operating system tasks without any additional tool
• PowerToys: A set of useful tools that, for some reason, are not included by default in Windows
• Rufus: Utility to create bootable USB drives. I use it for Windows images
• SysInternals: An amazing official set of utilities, from process analysers to listing all boot utilities or even extracting your Microsoft software product keys (e.g. Windows serial number)

Gaming

• CheatEngine: A really good tool to hack games by manipulating memory data, but careful when installing as the installer comes with crapware, so install reading each step to uncheck anything else than CheatEngine itself. See notes below about advanced settings
• Emulation: A list I maintain of my favourite emulators

Hardware & Drivers

• CPU-Z: Tool to gather many details about your PC's hardware (CPU, motherboard, RAM...)
• CrystalDiskInfo: Tool to display all the details of your hard drive(s)
• Driver Store Explorer: An advanced tool to manage all installed drivers (and delete old and unused ones)
• GPU-Z: Tool to gather all details of your graphics card
• HWiNFO: Another tool to get hardware details. I like to use it for the devices detailed information
• NVCleanstall: Download and re-package NVidia drivers to remove all the bloatware. Can also create unattended installers

Multimedia

• Handbrake: A video converter, supporting a lot of formats
• OBS: An amazing tool for video recording and streaming
• Paint.NET: A spiritual successor of the classic Paint, but with many features. Perfect for non-professional usage
• VLC: The best video player
• WinAmp: The best audio player

Security & Optimization

• O&O AppBuster: Tool to display and disable or remove most applications, including some hidden Windows ones.
• O&O ShutUp: Tool to remove spyware and telemetry from Windows 10 & 11

Extra

• Moving a large amount of files is quite slow on Windows, independently of their size. A solution is to use compressed files whenever possible (even with no compression)
• Deleting a folder with a large amount of files is insanely slow on Windows, but not so much if done from the command line:

del /f/s/q foldername > nul
rmdir /s/q foldername

• CheatEngine works nice with most titles, but certain scenarios like emulators can apparently not work. Thankfully, it can be fixed with some Settings tweaks:
  • Under Scan Settings, check most or all of the types in the The 'all' type includes block, and sure checkboxes for MEM_PRIVATE, MEM_IMAGE and MEM_MAPPED are all on/checked.
  • Under Debugger Options, I mostly use kernelmode debugger (DBVM) for emulators, VEH debuger for Windows games, and Windows debugger for very few scenarios like GameMaker titles.
  • Under Extra Custom Types, ensure all three are selected: 2 Byte Big Endian, 4 Byte Big Endian, Float Big Endian. This is needed in some cases for emulators like Xenia.
  • Download and place in the tool's folder both the .NET data collector and the Improved mono data collector