The software you will certainly need

Note : This page has been translated into English from French by a machine translation tool

After your installation of Windows 10, in order to fully enjoy your computer, we present here a list of software that you will certainly need and that can be classified in different categories. Some of these categories will be useful to almost everyone, such as security or system optimization, while others correspond to more specific uses, such as image processing.

In order not to leave any users out, you will find here software and utilities available also, or even exclusively for some, under macOS and Linux and even applications for your mobile devices running Android or iOS. However, we will omit mobile applications available on systems whose development has been stopped such as Windows Phone or BlackBerry OS as well as marginal free operating systems such as those derived from UNIX for example, which represent only a tiny part of the mobile devices and computers in circulation.

Office automation

• Microsoft Office 365
  • Read our Microsoft Office 365 productivity software article

Messaging

• Microsoft Outlook (Windows, macOS, Android and iOS)
  • Read our Microsoft Outlook article

Security

The rapid growth in the number of endpoints connected to the Internet in recent years goes hand in hand with the increase in network threats to your most sensitive data or hardware. In order to fight against these digital threats, you can equip yourself with one of the programs below.

• Malwarebytes Premium (Windows, macOS, Android and Chrome OS)
• SpyBot Search & Destroy (Windows)
  • SpyBot Search & Destroy Personal Editions (for individuals)
  • Spybot Search & Destroy Business Editions (for professionals)

Speed and system optimization

This will come as no surprise to anyone, a computer becomes saturated with unnecessary data over time and your hard drive becomes fragmented, which means that it slows down because of a large volume of files divided into fragments that are increasingly difficult for it to process and make it harder for it to access the items it needs. To combat this, you can use the utilities below to clean and defragment your system and give it a second lease of life.

• CCleaner Super (Windows and macOS)
• Defraggler Pro (Windows)
• Auslogics Disk Defrag Pro (Windows)

File compression

You have just received by e-mail a password-protected compressed file in ZIP format or you have just downloaded an application or a multimedia file in RAR format. Here are some applications that will allow you to open them but also to generate them in your turn…

• WinRAR (Windows)
• RAR (macOS, Linux and Android)
  • RAR is the macOS equivalent of WinRAR. However, as this tool does not have a graphical user interface, and is therefore only available on the command line, this does not make it very accessible to the general public

Storage and backup

No device is eternal, we know that. Your data, on the other hand, usually needs to last much longer than the devices on which it is stored. Thus, making a backup in the Cloud guarantees that you can both separate your data from your hardware so that it does not disappear with it and that you can easily restore it if necessary once you have replaced it. The services offered via the applications below will allow you to keep this data safe.

• OneDrive (Windows, macOS, Android and iOS)
  • Read our Microsoft OneDrive article
• Cozy Drive (macOS)
• Dropbox (Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS)

Data recovery

If, despite all the precautions taken to protect your hardware and protect your data with the tools presented above, you are victim of a sudden disappearance of all or part of the data on your hard drive following a failure of the latter, the infiltration of malicious software on your system or even a deletion by clumsiness, you can try to recover it. The programs below are among the most effective to help you in this task…

• Recuva Pro (Windows)
• Disk Drill Pro (Windows and macOS)
• EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro (Windows and macOS)
• MobiSaver Pro (Android and iOS)

Software for your more specific needs…

We now move on to software that will only be of interest to a part of you and intended for more specific uses. In any case, there are of course other alternatives for each of the types of software presented. Our goal is to try to propose software solutions that will suit the greatest number of people…

Image processing

We integrate in this category all the software allowing to work on images whether it is a question of in-depth modification of images, creation of effects or photographic development.

• Adobe Photoshop (Windows and macOS)
  • Read our Adobe Photoshop article
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (Windows and macOS)
  • Read our article Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

Video editing

• Adobe After Effects (Windows and macOS)
  • Read our Adobe After Effects article
• Adobe Premiere Pro (Windows and macOS)
  • Read our Adobe Premiere Pro article
• Final Cut Pro X (macOS)
• Media Composer (Windows and macOS)
  • Media Composer Ultimate
  • Media Composer Enterprise

Computer music and music production

• Adobe Audition (Windows and macOS)
  • Read our Adobe Audition article
• Logic Pro X (macOS)
• FL Studio (Windows, macOS, Android and iOS)
• Ableton Live (Windows and macOS)
• Cubase (Windows and macOS)

Text editors and development environments

• Adobe Dreamweaver (Windows and macOS)
  • Read our Adobe Dreamweaver article

All the applications presented here offer paid licenses or access to paid services. However, free alternatives exist and some of the software presented also exist in a free version lightened in functionalities. To discover them, we invite you to read our article Which free software to exploit the full potential of your computer… and your mobile ?