My current new Windows PC setup essentials in 2020
Published: 2020-11-16 07:37:44

I've bought and set up a lot of new desktop/laptop PCs (usually Windows, in some cases Mac or Linux) over the past two decades; and the set of essential software I installed on a new computer has also evolved over the years.

Most recently when I've set up a new Windows laptop for the family, I've found that the set of software I now install for a new Windows computer is now relatively meager and each are now much higher quality than the generations before.

This has become a sort of compilation of "best practices" setup for myself / my family, so I figured it's nice to document it.

## Windows Updates

This has really replaced a lot of things over the years; most notably in terms of security. I make sure to open up Windows Update (multiple times, and multiple restarts throughout the process) to be certain that I am fully up-to-date.

### Security

In the past I've had various anti-virus (e.g. [F-Prot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRISK_Software_International#F-Prot_Antivirus), [AVG](https://www.avg.com/), [Avast](https://www.avast.com/), etc.), firewall (e.g. [ZoneAlarm](https://www.zonealarm.com/), PrivateFirewall, etc.), anti-spyware (e.g. Spybot Search & Destroy), etc. but it seems that Windows Defender, Windows Firewall and Malicious Software Removal Tool has evolved enough over the years that they have been a good enough replacement for everything, along with up-to-date windows security updates.

### Language

Language tools in Windows is another category where Windows has completely replaced the need for 3rd party. As a Chinese person, who types some Chinese text from time to time, I've been through software like [RichWin](https://www.its.hku.hk/news/archive/ccnews86/RichWin.html), [TwinBridge](https://www.linguistsoftware.com/cjkpartner.htm), [NJStar](https://www.njstar.com/), etc. over the years, but nowadays I simply make do with the Pinyin input that comes with Windows as well as [CantoneseInput.com](https://www.cantoneseinput.com/), a web-based input editor.

### Some Windows settings

#### Cursor size

It's probably something that comes with old age, but I find that on almost every computer I've set up, the default cursor size (considering the screen resolution and screen sizes nowadays) is too small to see. I bump this up a bit as one of the first things to set.

#### Trackpad scroll direction

Maybe I'm old school and not of the "mobile generation", but I find that I can only use the mobile scroll direction on mobile. It just doesn't make sense on a laptop; but unfortunately both macOS and Windows decided nowadays that the mobile scroll direction (opposite scroll) should be the default. I have to flip this every time.

## Blue Light Filter - Flux

It's probably something that comes with old age again, but I simply can't use a regular-colored screen in the evening hours anymore. It gives me a migraine pretty much within a minute of use. I *have* to get [Flux](https://justgetflux.com/).

There are a number of options now for blue light filters, and mobile OS like Android even comes with this feature by default now. On Windows I still use Flux, which I've used for many years. It has a lot of niceties around scheduling and easy customization of color temperature and such.

## Browser - Edge, Chrome, Firefox

I'll be honest, I think we're well past the days of the Microsoft browser being the butt of the joke (as in, Internet Explorer). Edge is a very legitimate browser in its own right. Both as a dev, and for simply having more options as a user when needed (believe or not, there are still sites out there that don't work on certain browsers), I like having all 3 installed. Note that this also means manually updating Edge to the latest because the one that comes with Windows 10 as of now (Nov 2020) still isn't the latest.

### Adblock plugin - ublock origin

Lucky for us, in 2020, [ublock origin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin) is available on all 3 browsers. This is the only adblock or privacy blocking plugin I'd use. The more popular AdBlock Plus is way too bloated.

## Office - SoftMaker FreeOffice

This was a relatively recent discovery for me. I had stopped using Microsoft Office many years ago mainly to be cost-conscious; and for years it has been sufficient to use either Apache OpenOffice or Google Docs. More recently I found out about [FreeOffice](https://www.freeoffice.com/) and in my brief experience so far it seems superior to [OpenOffice](https://www.openoffice.org/), which is slow and often looks dated. Admittedly, I have not tried [LibreOffice](https://www.libreoffice.org/), but currently I'm happy with FreeOffice.

## Graphics - Krita

[Krita](https://krita.org/) was another relatively recent discovery for me. For more than 20 years I had used [Jasc Paint Shop Pro 6](https://winworldpc.com/product/paint-shop-pro/6x) for basic graphics editing needs (mostly things like resizing/scaling, canvas sizing, or cropping images). In the last few years it has finally begun to age and I've run into a lot of issues with more modern image formats and such (even transparent PNGs aren't handled well).

For this reason, the last few years I found myself doing a lot of work with the web-based [Pixlr Editor](https://pixlr.com/editor/), and more recently [Photopea](https://www.photopea.com/). However, web-based editors always felt lacking and slow. I've tried using [Gimp](https://www.gimp.org/) (another free alternative) as well but have never been satisfied.

Having tried Krita briefly, I can say it appears to satisfy all my basic graphics needs quite well and I can see myself being a long term user.

## Communications - Zoom

In these COVID times with social distancing, a lot of times hanging out with friends comes down to video conferencing. In most cases, [Zoom](https://zoom.us/) is everyone's choice, so here it is. Interesting to note that over the years, the choice of communication software has ranged from [ICQ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICQ), [AIM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM_(software)), [MSN messenger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Live_Messenger), Skype to combo ones like [Trillian](https://trillian.im/) or [Adium](https://adium.im/). Nowadays text-based messengers have mostly moved to options that are on mobile like WhatsApp and Facebook messenger. Video calls, though, are still common on the computer.

I hope this list helped you discover some useful free software that you previously did not know about as well!