My Must Have Softwares


MPC-HC and madVR #

The best video players on Windows by far, it even put Linux players to shame.
The quality and responsiveness is crazy good, it downloads subtitles automatically, it keeps track of time position for each file, resize the window according to the video dimension. You can put it in minimal mode (1) with only the video without any UI or controls in the way.
You need to clean a folder full of videos? Press the delete key while playing a file to delete it then go automatically to the next in the playlist.
It downloads and play videos from tons of streaming website, you can also get automatic captions from Youtube.

Combine it with madVR to get even better video quality, to control tons of image processing or cut useless black bars automatically.

AltSnap #

If you are used to Linux, this is a must have!
Move and resize any windows anywhere without using the classic handlers. Here are my settings:

Extremely intuitive and can’t live without it. You can even resize unresizable windows.
You can also pause processes, very useful when you want to pause an intensive CPU process without closing the program. Resume it whenever you want like nothing happened.

Can go in pair with RBTray that will minimize any window in the systray icons by right clicking the minimize button.

Snappy Driver Installer #

Windows always struggle with drivers, sometimes the manufacturer or Windows ones are outdated, faulty. I always hated that part of reinstallations. This software fixes the search for identifying hardware AND their corresponding drivers.
All you have to do is:

It’s never been that easy.

f.lux #

Sorry Microsoft but years after years, each time I install a PC I hope you fixed your Night Light functionnality… But no it’s still not working 8 years after… We still have to rely on f.lux after all that time.
It puts a yellow filter on your screen, you eyes and your circadian rythm will thank you.

It just works and you have much more control over it, you can also reduce brightness with Alt+Page Down/Up on any screen. Or you can set it to “disable” automatically for apps where color quality is critical.

MSEdgeRedirect #

Microsoft forcing their browser for opening all links instead of the default browser is extremely annoying. This fixes it and really set your default browser as default for all links.
You can also disable the bing search in the start menu by taping anything in it > three dots at the top right > Search Settings > Disable Web Search. You can also use that regedit modification, save it as a .reg file and execute it.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search]
"BingSearchEnabled"=dword:00000000

Open Broadcast Software #

Extremely good for recording videos or streaming live. It can also create a virtual webcam with NDI and your phone camera. If you want to record quick videos of parts of your screen ShareX is more convenient.

ffmpeg #

If you work with videos that’s the number one software you need to learn. It’s everywhere and you will wonder how you managed to live without it.
Did you know you could cut videos instantly without reencoding them?
WebmGenerator is based on ffmpeg, even though it has a quirky and bad UX it can be a good alternatives for some interactive operations like cropping and filters.

Freefilesync #

A backup software for disk transfers (aswell as some server options), great for mirroring and comparisons functions to keep backup disks and folders up to date.

Duplicacy, restic, Kopia, Borg, Duplicati #

A backup solution with full versioning and deduplication to avoid reupload the same data every time.
You can send your data where you want, be it a hosting service, a private FTP server or local disk. It can be a good alternative to save all your settings by using Symbolic Links.
Duplicacy is the only one not open source but it has a nice (paid) web UI, and I can’t recommend Duplicati anymore since its database got corrupted several times.

For a bit of money per month, Backblaze a fully automatic online backup solution is another good tool to mitigate the risk of data loss.

Unified Remote #

Control your computer with your phone, control the mouse, keyboard, see your screen from far away. You can also wake it up with Wake On Lan and put it to sleep.

Jdownloader 2 #

A download manager for streaming services and download websites. It keeps tracks of what you did or did not download.

Synergy #

Acts as a software KVM. If you have several computers and want to share a mouse and keyboard for all of them, on usage it looks like a dual/triple screen and you can also copy/paste files.
Sadly the last versions are not that good. If they don’t suit you you can try Synergy one that is more robust. There are alternatives but few that are crossplatform.

Ant Renamer #

A bulk file renamer that comes in handy when you have hundreds of files to rename with automatic padding, enumeration, using dates or mp3/EXIF metadata. You can preview what all your files will look like with the rules you want to apply to it.

Spotify with SpotX and Spicetify #

Both can be installed independantly if you don’t want one or the other.

I made this custom CSS with Spicetify to totally hide podcasts and artists in the Playlist panel and made the general UI cleaner and more minimal… except for that Nyan Cat bar and the cat dancing to the BPM of the current song… Totally useless thus totally indispensable!

.Root__top-container {padding: 0px;gap: 0}
.Root__main-view-overlay {margin: -8px 0 0}

.Root__globalNav {padding-bottom: 8px}
.Root__globalNav .main-globalNav-link-icon {background-color: transparent}
.Root__globalNav .main-globalNav-link-icon[aria-label="Marketplace"] span svg {display: none}
.main-topBar-searchBar {background-color: black !important}

div.IconContainer-trailing {display: none}
div.main-yourLibraryX-libraryContainer + div {display: none}
div [aria-label='Friend Activity'] {display:none;}
div [aria-label="What's New"] {display:none;}

div.main-yourLibraryX-headerContent {display: none}
div.main-yourLibraryX-filterArea {display: none}
div.main-yourLibraryX-libraryFilter {display: none}

.main-yourLibraryX-libraryRootlist .main-rootlist-wrapper {height:100% !important}
.main-yourLibraryX-libraryRootlist div [aria-labelledby^="listrow-title-spotify:show"] {display:none} 
.main-yourLibraryX-libraryRootlist div [aria-labelledby^="listrow-title-spotify:artist"] {display:none} 
.main-yourLibraryX-libraryRootlist p[data-encore-id="listRowDetails"] {display:none} 


.main-entityHeader-backgroundColor, .main-actionBarBackground-background, .main-home-homeHeader, .main-topBar-background { background-color: rgb(83, 83, 83) !important;}

section [aria-label="Good evening"] {display: none}
section [aria-label^="Made For"] {display: none}
section [aria-label="Your top mixes"] {display: none}

.main-nowPlayingBar-container:before {border-radius: 0px !important;}

/* Disable coverAmbiance border radius */
#coverAmbienceBorderNumber, .LibraryX .main-nowPlayingBar-container, .LibraryX .main-nowPlayingBar-container:before {border-radius: 0px;}

button[aria-label="Open Miniplayer"] {display:none;}
button[data-restore-focus-key="now_playing_view"] {display:none;}

.x-downloadButton-DownloadButton { display: none; }

.os-scrollbar:nth-child(6) .os-scrollbar-handle { visibility: hidden; }
.os-theme-spotify.os-host-transition > .os-scrollbar-vertical > .os-scrollbar-track > .os-scrollbar-handle { border-radius: 4px; width: 6px; background-color: var(--spice-button-disabled); } .os-theme-spotify.os-host-transition > .os-scrollbar-vertical > .os-scrollbar-track { width: 6px; }

.main-cardImage-image, .main-cardImage-imageWrapper, #fad-art-image, #fad-art:hover, #fad-art-overlay, #fsd-art-image,.main-entityHeader-image, .main-coverSlotCollapsed-navAltContainer,.main-trackList-rowSectionEnd>:not(:last-child), [dir=ltr] .main-trackList-rowSectionVariable>:not(:last-child,.main-trackList-facepile), [dir=ltr] .main-trackList-rowSectionStart>:not(:last-child),.main-nowPlayingView-coverArt, .x-entityImage-xsmall,.fRZRXRIV2YBCFLYgwDAr,.HD9s7U5E1RLSWKpXmrqx,.main-editImageButton-rounded,.x-entityImage,.osuFIR_6Jo9yKsmLL4y2,.Vn9yz8P5MjIvDT8c0U6w,.k270skPbT7JOaSidSA2a,.aaasJtK_0Z_ggHet0u6v,.kwzBRpFigKr1EP2d5qle,.H3mjE6AEBDPRuHNKUpRK ,.GS_6HA9xIobh5dt5VUSY,.GenericModal,.jW4eWdr_LUeOXwPpKhWG, .kh6wYYPvgRPBhA2wj3AS .qp7Sys7hJSZHLzw4K_yF,.ffFwfKcPDbmAPLXzxzKq,.main-nowPlayingView-section,.main-nowPlayingView-aboutArtistV2Image,.huMHH_FySIW5UhSrJfy8>video,.main-topBar-background,.main-nowPlayingView-aboutArtistButton,.RmbxUFLb4j9KmgftJyk1,.main-trackList-rowImage,.main-editImageButton-image, .lkXpBMSmNP9w702sek8V, .yMQTWVwLJ5bV8VGiaqU3:not(.MxmW8QkHqHWtuhO589PV),.main-yourLibraryX-entryPoints,.Root__main-view { border-radius: 0px !important; } `