Windows offers pretty good value for money - especially when you can upgrade for free from the previous version. As well as the main operating system, you get plenty of extra apps and tools for performing everyday tasks, so you don’t need to waste time downloading programs when you first set up your PC.
However, there’s no reason you should stick with these default tools forever just because they’re convenient to use. Some of the features built into Windows haven’t been updated for years, which means they’re starting to show their age, and virtually every tool installed by Microsoft has a superior alternative you can download for free.
In this feature, we recommend the best free software to replace 16 tools that come with Windows 10 and 11. Our carefully selected programs let you do much more than Microsoft’s default apps, offering extra features, faster performance and greater flexibility in how you use them. Also, in light of the recently discovered security flaw in Snipping Tool (see page 51), they’re less likely to be targeted by hackers.
We haven’t included Edge in our suggestions for what to ditch, because deciding which browser to switch to is a feature in itself, but our choices cover loads of other tools you use every day – but shouldn’t any more.
REPLACE THESE CLASSIC WINDOWS TOOLS
1 Snipping Tool
In what’s been dubbed the ‘aCropalypse’, a security flaw was recently discovered in Windows 11’s Snipping Tool and ‘Snip & Sketch’ in Windows 10 that allows other people to see parts of a screenshot that you’ve cropped out. As we reported in Issue 655 (page 6), in a worst-case scenario the bug could enable someone to see sensitive information you thought you’d removed from an image, such as bank-account details.
Microsoft has issued an emergency patch to fix the vulnerability, which it described as ‘Low severity’ because “successful exploitation requires uncommon user interaction and several factors outside of an attacker’s control” (www.snipca.com/45645). However, the flaw may still make you think twice about using Snipping Tool or ‘Snip & Sketch’ to capture and edit screenshots, especially when superior free tools are available.
What to use instead
ShareX
ShareX is an excellent free, open-source screen-capture tool that does everything Snipping Tool can – including recording videos – and much more besides. Although its interface looks a little confusing at first, dig into the program’s menus and you’ll find a host of useful options for capturing, annotating and sharing screenshots.
You can choose to capture specific windows, areas or your entire screen; blur and pixelate sensitive information or delete it using ShareX’s Smart Eraser tool; automatically upload screenshots to online-storage services including Google Drive, OneDrive and Google Photos;
