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// Finding things
Where is the file, what’s inside it, what’s eating the disk, what’s a duplicate.
Everything
voidtools · free
Instant search for every file and folder name on your PC. It reads the NTFS file table directly instead of crawling the disk, so it indexes millions of files in seconds and results appear as you type.
How I use itFinding a specific image to share on Facebook or Bluesky, locating scripts across multiple drives, and feeding its command-line client (es.exe) into my AutoHotkey launcher so Win+Space finds any file on the machine.
GotchaIt searches names and paths, not the text inside files. For that you want AstroGrep, next.
Get it: voidtools.com/downloads
AstroGrep
open source · free
A point-and-click grep for Windows. Give it a folder, a file pattern, and some text or a regular expression, and it shows every file and line that contains it. Portable, no installer.
How I use itAuditing my AutoHotkey scripts for duplicate hotkeys, finding every reference to a path before I change it, and checking which pages on this site still carry an old tag.
GotchaNo index, so big folders take time. Narrow the folder with Everything first, then point AstroGrep at it. Separate multiple file types with semicolons: *.ahk;*.md;*.htm
Get it: astrogrep.sourceforge.net
WizTree
Antibody Software · free
Shows what is eating your disk space as a treemap, and does it in a few seconds because, like Everything, it reads the NTFS file table instead of scanning folders.
How I use itFinding where a full drive went, spotting old video renders and backup archives I forgot about, and comparing drives before a cleanup.
GotchaThe speed trick only works on NTFS drives. Network shares and exFAT USB sticks fall back to a normal scan.
Get it: diskanalyzer.com
Czkawka
open source · free
A duplicate finder that also catches similar images, similar videos, empty folders, broken links, and bad file names. Fast, cross-platform, and it does not nag you.
How I use itCleaning up years of photo and download folders that got copied more than once.
GotchaIf you have drive letters that are aliases, or a backup drive that mirrors your main drive, exclude them first. Otherwise every real file shows up as a “duplicate” of its own backup, and deleting those is a very bad day.
Get it: github.com/qarmin/czkawka
// Automating things
Stop doing the same thing by hand.
AutoHotkey v2
open source · free · the grand-daddy of free Windows software
A scripting language for Windows. Hotkeys, text expansion, window management, clipboard tricks, full GUIs, automation of anything you can click. Version 2 cleaned up the syntax and is the one to learn today.
How I use itNearly everything. My content-capture app for managing posts and images is written in it, along with dozens of hotstrings that type paths, signatures, and boilerplate I would otherwise retype every day.
GotchaMost tutorials online are still for v1, and the two are not compatible. Check the version before you copy a script. Some security software flags compiled AHK scripts; that is a false positive, but expect it.
Get it: autohotkey.com
PowerToys
Microsoft · open source · free
A grab bag of the features Windows should have shipped with: FancyZones window layouts, PowerRename for bulk renaming, a color picker, Always On Top, a keyboard remapper, and Text Extractor for pulling text out of any image on screen.
How I use itPowerRename for cleaning up file names in bulk and Text Extractor for grabbing text from screenshots.
GotchaIt wants to run at startup with everything enabled. Turn off the modules you do not use or it will fight with AutoHotkey over the same keyboard shortcuts.
Get it: learn.microsoft.com/windows/powertoys
Robocopy
Microsoft · already on your PC
Windows has shipped a serious file-copy tool since Vista and almost nobody uses it. It mirrors folders, resumes after interruptions, retries on errors, skips files that already exist, and logs everything.
How I use itNightly mirrors of my main data drive to a backup drive, and moving large archive files where Explorer would choke.
GotchaThe /MIR switch deletes files on the destination that are missing from the source. Always run with /L first, which lists what would happen without doing it.
Docs: learn.microsoft.com — robocopy
// Media
Play it, record it, save it, shrink it.
VLC
VideoLAN · open source · free
Plays every audio and video format ever made without hunting for codecs. Also streams, converts, records the screen, and plays DVDs and network shares.
How I use itConstantly. It is my default player for everything, and I use its convert function for quick one-off format changes.
GotchaThere are fake “VLC” sites and sponsored ads that bundle junk. The real one is only at videolan.org.
Get it: videolan.org/vlc
OBS Studio
open source · free
Screen recording and live streaming with a professional scene system: multiple sources, audio mixing, hotkeys, and output to file or to YouTube, Facebook, and the rest.
How I use itRecording video for this site and YouTube.
GotchaThe default recording format is MKV so a crash does not lose the file. Turn on “Automatically remux to mp4” in Advanced settings if you want files that upload anywhere.
Get it: obsproject.com
yt-dlp + ffmpeg
open source · free · command line
yt-dlp downloads video and audio from YouTube and a thousand other sites. ffmpeg is the engine underneath nearly every video tool on earth: convert, trim, compress, merge, extract audio, anything.
How I use itSaving reference clips before they disappear, and batch-compressing hours of recorded video down to a fraction of the size with ffmpeg and a PowerShell script.
Gotchayt-dlp needs ffmpeg in the same folder or on your PATH to merge video and audio. Update yt-dlp often (yt-dlp -U) because sites change constantly.
Get them: github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp · ffmpeg.org/download
ShareX
open source · free
Screenshots and screen recordings with annotation, OCR, scrolling capture, and automatic upload or save-to-folder, all on hotkeys.
How I use itCapturing region screenshots for posts and documentation without the Snipping Tool dance.
GotchaThe “after capture” defaults are set to upload to a public host. Change that to save-to-file before your first screenshot.
Get it: getsharex.com
// Files and text
The two programs I install first on any new machine.
7-Zip
open source · free
Opens every archive format (zip, 7z, rar, tar, gz, iso, and more), makes smaller archives than the built-in zip, and has never shown an ad or a nag screen in twenty-five years.
How I use itEverything archive-related. Also handy for peeking inside installers and disk images without running them.
GotchaThe only site is 7-zip.org. Everything else is a copy at best.
Get it: 7-zip.org
Notepad++
open source · free
The text editor Notepad should have been: tabs, syntax coloring, find-and-replace across files with regular expressions, column editing, and it opens huge files without complaint.
How I use itEditing scripts, config files, and the HTML for this site. The encoding menu alone has saved me hours when a script would not run because of an invisible character.
GotchaIf a PowerShell script gives baffling errors, check Encoding in the menu. Older PowerShell wants UTF-8 with BOM or plain ASCII.
Get it: notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads
// Networks and machines
Reach your own computers from anywhere, and run other ones inside this one.
Tailscale
free for personal use
A private network between all your devices, wherever they are. Install it on each machine, sign in, and they can reach each other securely without opening ports on your router or fighting with VPN configs.
How I use itReaching my main desktop and its file shares from a laptop away from home, and Remote Desktop between machines.
GotchaTailscale gets the machines talking, but Windows file sharing still needs its own firewall rule allowed on each PC. If a share works at home but not remotely, that is usually why.
Get it: tailscale.com/download
VMware Workstation Pro
Broadcom · now free
Run a whole other operating system in a window: Linux, an older Windows, or a scratch copy of your own. VMware made Workstation Pro free for personal use in 2024 and later dropped the paid tier entirely.
How I use itA Linux Mint machine for testing, and a throwaway Windows for trying software I do not trust yet.
GotchaThe download now lives behind a free Broadcom account, and the page has moved more than once. Confirm the address is a broadcom.com or vmware.com domain before you click anything.
Get it: vmware.com — Workstation
// How to download software without getting burned
The tools above are free and safe. The copies of them floating around the internet often are not.
- Go to the official site, by typing the address. The links on this page are the real ones. If you search instead, skip the results marked “Sponsored” or “Ad” — those are bought, and fakes buy them.
- Never use a “download site.” Softonic, download.com, and their imitators wrap free software in their own installer that adds toolbars and “offers.” The original program is always free of that on its own site.
- Read every installer screen. Uncheck anything that is not the program you came for. “Express install” is where the extras hide.
- Prefer the portable version when there is one. Everything, AstroGrep, 7-Zip, Notepad++, and ShareX all offer a zip you can just unpack and run. Nothing to uninstall later.
- Open source is a good sign, not a guarantee. It means anyone can read the code. It also means anyone can repackage it with something added. The source is the project’s own site or GitHub page, not a mirror.
- If a page says your computer is infected, close it. Real software does not announce itself with a warning.
Last reviewed August 2026. If a link has moved, tell me and I will fix it. Related: The Windows Files — what Microsoft built into the operating system these tools run on.