What Windows 10 apps should you get for your new PC? Here are eight must-have downloads.
Updated April 19, 2017: We refreshed this list to include a few new great apps that will be right at home on your new Windows 10 PC.
You just purchased a new Windows 10 PC and set it up, and you're now looking for some great apps to get you started. Whether they're for productivity or entertainment, the Windows Store has all the apps you need. Here are the best apps for your new Windows 10 PC.
Readit
A large population of people use Reddit everyday to get their news or a dose of laughter, meet new friends who have relevant interests, and to waste company time. Readit is a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app for Reddit that has a nearly flawless UI. Posts are all kept in the left frame of the window where you can scroll through them, and anything you actually want to read is displayed — along with the comments — in the right frame of the window.
A pop-out sidebar makes it easy to search and post in subreddits, and a wide variety of settings ensures your Reddit experience is exactly how you want it.
Download Readit (Free) from the Windows Store
Awesome Tube
There is no official YouTube app for Windows 10, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy all your favorite videos in a standalone app. Awesome Tube's UI makes it easy to browse the most popular videos, plus you can save videos to watch later. A picture-in-picture function lets you search for more videos while the one currently playing stays in a small frame.
Have your own content you want to share? You can upload your creations right through the app. As far as YouTube on your PC goes, this free UWP app is one of the best.
Download Awesome Tube (Free) from the Windows Store
The Instagram app for Windows 10 was once nothing to write about, but it has seen plenty of updates and has now become exactly what a lot of people wanted it to be. If you're familiar with Instagram on your phone, you'll feel right at home here. Swipe or scroll to browse through your feed, search for new, interesting contributors, manage your profile, and see all the likes you've received.
For more social networking action on your Windows 10 PC, be sure to check out the Twitter app and the Facebook app.
Download Instagram (Free) from the Windows Store
Netflix
Netflix, otherwise known as a cord cutter's dream, has been turning out some pretty incredible original series lately on top of its enormous collection of beloved movies and hit TV shows. With the intuitive Windows 10 app, you get easy access to the entire lineup without opening a web browser.
Haven't yet pulled the trigger on a Netflix subscription? It's never too late! Plans range from $7.99 to $11.99 per month.
Download Netflix from the Windows Store
Adobe Photoshop Express
While the full version of Adobe Photoshop Elements is a powerful editing tool, many people don't need quite as many features. Photoshop Express is the answer.
Your basic tools, such as crop, flip, rotate, and straighten, are there, and you can adjust brightness, contrast and exposure. It is a perfect, lightweight photo editor for casual users that won't bog down your system.
Need more power? Check out Adobe Photoshop Elements 15.
Download Adobe Photoshop Express (Free) from the Windows Store
Wunderlist
Wunderlist provides you with a clean, simple interface to collect all your to-dos, reminders, and dates. Thanks to its versatility, you can use it for simple things like a shopping list, or you can use it to plot out a project's scope.
The app lets you add reminders, notes, images, and documents to list items, and even use Cortana for easy list management. If you suffer from disorganization, Wunderlist will be your favorite new app.
Download Wunderlist (Free) from the Windows Store
Enpass
Extra security is becoming ever more important, and one step toward increasing security is creating strong, unique passwords. The problem is, it's difficult to remember all your passwords without a password manager.
Enpass has a (UWP) app, is compatible with Windows Hello, and has an Edge extension. Your data is stored locally, further improving security, and it has all the features you love, including a password generator, auto-fill passwords, time-based one-time passwords, cloud sync, folder support, and a secure web browser.
Download Enpass ($9.99) from the Windows Store
Office 365
Office 365 is a subscription-based model that delivers all of your favorite Office tools, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. You can choose from personal, home, and business suites depending on user requirements, and pick from a yearly or monthly subscription.
One of the best parts of an Office 365 subscription is access to 1TB of OneDrive storage. If you're already looking at picking up cloud storage, cash in on this great deal and basically get the Office suite for free. Office 365 Home plans start at about $10 per month or about $100 per year.
Download Office 365 from the Windows Store
Windows Central
Now that you have a fancy new Windows 10 PC, you no doubt want to keep up with all the latest Window news. What better place than Windows Central? Our app is incredibly easy to navigate, with separate tabs for phone, Surface, Xbox, apps, and more.
Visit the Windows Central forums with a single click, jump over to our collection of videos, and even delve into all our podcasts. This is the app for all fans of Windows.
Download Windows Central (Free) from the Windows Store
Your favorite Windows apps
What are the apps that you immediately download and install on a new Windows 10 PC? We want to know, so please drop your comments below.
Reader comments
Best Windows 10 Apps for Your New PC
I think Google Chrome is also a best app or software for windows 10.
Hi Everyone, I would like to humbly offer my new app as a candidate :) http://www.indexcards.ink - We just launched last month and we've had great 5* reviews so far - I would love all your feedback - the goal is to be a great app designed for the Surface perhaps even a Must-Have one day! Taking advantage of Windows Ink and soon the Microsoft Dial. As a complement, not replacement, to OneNote or Evernote - designed for visual, creative people, students, writers and anyone who wants to organize throughts into projects, just like with real Index Cards! We just launched a big update today as well with some fun things. Thanks :) Prem
I agree with Enpass (specially if you have a Windows Hello compatible device) and Instagram is a nice thing to have if you use the platform... however the Photoshop Express app is unnecessary because the built-in Photo app already has a very capable Editor... I would ecourage people to play with it first....
I also use and recommend the Todoist app which has a very nice UWP interface with plenty of useful features....
Drawboard is absolutely the best PDF editor (but it is not as fast to open to replace a separate PDF reader... so I use another app for that)
XODO PDF, 8ZIP, and LastPass
Based on the recent announced Microsoft To-Do app, Wanderlust is eventually disappearing. You may as well download the new Microsoft To-Do app if you need a to do app.
Torrex Pro, Drawboard PDF, 8 ZIP,. KODI
1Password...though there is not yet an Edge extension....And, what about MS's new To-Do...which, I expect, will supplant Wunderlist?
So great I luv it
The ones i have in my 32gb small n cheap laptop
1. Anime chia tv
2. Cartoon tube tv
3. Asphalt 8
4. Skype
5. News
6. Office
7. Imo messenger
8. Awesome tube
9. Hp AiO remote
Kodi (Kodi app is great)
Skype preview
Instagram
Instapic (lets you upload pics on desktop )
Facebook (Love the new app)
Messenger
Adblock for edge
Ghostery for edge
Flipboard
8 Soundcloud
It's no longer Skype preview. Just Skype.
Dumpert Universal
Ziggo
Awesome Tube
Groove
Netflix
Twitter (I miss location)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe the Edge extension for Enpass has been released yet.
Windows Phone is my fascination.
Why would I bother wasting drive space to install apps when going directly to the website for Instagram or Twitter or YouTube works perfectly fine?
Apps are fine on a smartphone or tablet, but on a desktop or laptop or other device that runs a complete Windows operating system? Only if there is not a functional website already.
I use apps on the desktop. Live tiles, notifications are not available from the websites
Is your hard drive only 500 megabytes large or something? We're not talking about downloading xbox sized game files to your computer here where a game can be like 30 gigabytes.
Yes website CAN work, sometimes apps work better or in a more convenient way and have extras such as live tiles/notifications/etc.
1. Todoist
2. Nextgen Reader UWP
3. Newsflow
4. Feedlab
5. Microsoft To-Do
6. Poki for Pocket
7. Line
8. Viber
I like Tubecast! Readit sux, they are too **** with censoring.
My must-have list is all about non-official apps
FlowDict
Spoticast
Grover Pro
Perfect Tube
Loadkit
Shareit
I've been pretty happy with TubeCast as a YouTube client.
Hey guys, here are some of the Win32 software available in Windows Store that were converted using Project Centennial : https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/53s10e/list_of_apps_converte...
Skype
Readit would be amazing if it had filters. It doesn't, so I stick to RES.
"There is no official YouTube app for Windows 10..."
There is an official YouTube app for XBox One, which of course runs on Windows 10. I use it often. Presumably it must be UWP, so not sure why Google hasn't made it available for PCs?
Okay I'm trying to open the links but they are all being blocked by opendns, anyone know why or how to change that? Thanks.
Pdf conversion suite, Edjing and Edjing pro, Instagram, Twitter, Groupme, Skype prev., Disqus, MS wda etc..
Trakter for tv show and movies watchlist. Plex, Geophoto, 17Track, Audible, Spoticast, Perfect 500px, Perfect Tube, share across device to list a few
Just finished my build this morning. Will use a few of these for sure.
Wunderlist?? First off its crap, second MS have just announced that they are binning for To Do. You reported this on Windows Central, why would you recommend it?
I thought the same thing.
I enjoy wunderlist.
Second of all, I have been beta testing the new microsoft to do (or known as project cheshire) before it came out of beta. I really like the soon-to-be wunderlist replacement. It is now in preview as microsoft to do and they are not retiring wunderlist until the new one has more feature parity with the current wunderlist. SO it is still a fully functional app for the time being, there is no reason to NOT recommend it.
All this article shows is the fact, that WIndows Store is basically empty.
Far from it. Have a look here http://allaboutwindowsphone.com/features/item/20980_The_best_of_the_best...
Think he means the lack of UWP apps, which he is right.
NextGen Reader
I prefer Fhotoroom than Adobe Photoshop Express
Poki as client app for Pocket (Read it later) - awsome design and better functionality than official app on Android!
Zero support though, I paid a few times over the years, then when I had some issues, it took forever to get them to respond (tried mutiple official avenues).
And then when they finally did I expressed my exasperation, so they just ignored me further, & then after several more nudges, they FINALLY reponded with a terse suggestion that I secure a refund from MS.
The whole things was very classy (not)...
Lol at the Windows central plug
Ahem* VUZE
Windows Central 'beta' app for Windows 10 is buggy as all hell. Had to go back to the old WC app which is not as buggy but doesn't crash at least.
Share the link to download the beta app
Isn't Wunderlist is being withdrawn, and replaced by Microsoft To-Do? Isn't it a bit late to suggest it?
I always load up Wunderlist but I just installed the new MS to-do app, looks promising, very similar to Wunderlist except it keeps your tasks on Outlook, which I think is cool. The tasks are a much abbreviated version of an exchange task but looks to be quite sufficient for an everyday what do I need to do solution.
When will you finally update the WC app?
Kodi, Poki (Pocket), Twitter and Xodo (PDF).
Is there a future for the Windows Central UWP app? Any updates in the pipeline? Right now the app frequently locks the UI for several seconds, sometimes missorts/duplicates stories, and stops receiving push notifications until you relaunch the app a couple of times (once they stop coming in).
my want to rest the app
My experience has been that what I described above still happens on a fresh app install. As a developer, the symptoms seem to point to using the UI thread to do slow network calls in a synchronous fashion, instead of using async/await in conjunction with the UI thread, or the thread-pool alltogether.
I hear ya. The occasinal missing articles is the bug I cannot ignore. I am using website until the new app arrives - or an update that fixes it arrives. A real shame too, I love the design.
If we're going with Store apps only, Hulu
Adobe Photoshop, Translator, Sticky Notes, Netchat, Bank of America, Keeper Password, OneNote, MSN News, CrystalDiskMark 5
some good apps! ;)
Creative Cards is a great Windows 10 app for learning, Search / Browse for any subject and you will find interesting stuff to learn and play.
MyTube Beta is a great YouTube Client! Especially on Mobile :)
I agree. But there are too many bugs which need to be immediately fixed
Readit for Reddit is amazing.
No love from Netflix on Windows for their new download feature.
it got on pc on 4/8/17
Until Google starts releasing Windows 10 UWP apps AwesomeTube makes for excellent YouTube alternative.
I use Perfect Tube - haven't tried Awesome Tube. Does it have dark mode?
I use mytube beta on PC and xbox. I think it was awesome tube I tried on xbox and it sucked. That was a couple of months back, may be a lot better now.
Tweetium. mSecure. NextGen Reader, BaconIt. Yes, I'll concur with Windows Central as well.
For Wunderlist the Cortana commands are US only FWIW
Tried When seeking and immediately deleted my account. Can't recur tasks. How can a task/to do app lack such a basic feature. Outlook Tasks are more useful, and I can just write notes in them.
Since Outlook.com is on Exchange, you can also use Outlook Notes (which look a thousand times better in Outlook for Mac, laughably). Outlook.com is basically a massively scaled Exchange Online service now, which is kind of impressive.
You can add recurring tasks, add # tags, has auto lists for due today, starred tasks, all tasks, can have shared lists, has an outlook addin, can send or forward tasks into it, set up an email rule that forwards bills to it, one of the nice things about it is that it looks clean and simple. Sounds like you only took it at face value
I found Mages and Minions to be the most amazing game from Windows 10 Store.
I started playing this game in may smartphone but I noticed that it lags a lot ( I have a midrange Android device from Sony) but this game when it runs on Windows 10 laptop it runs really fast, this game is free and it reminds me a lot about Diablo III for Xbox 360 and Xbox One, but this one can be played for free. It also reminds me about World of Warcraft since there are green, blue, purple and organge weapons and armor.
Instagram app has come a long way. Works great for me on both PC and Phone.
Windows Central, Amazon, and Facebook apps are completely useless because you can just open the browser and log into them easily. You can even pin the sites to the start page.
I guess you don't install apps on tablets then?.
See Windows central guys, your list is biased.
Lol!
I install quite a few apps actually :D But just to name a few, Deezer, OneLocker, 8Zip, Disqus, Awesome Tube and WC are always in the first ones :D
Sorry, but to suggest Wunderlist on the WP10M as a "best app" is a huge stretch. I use the app to a small degree, however the app doesn't allow you to delete past appointments. The app hasn't been able to do this simple task for quite some time.
I just tried it and deleting a completed todo works fine on W10M
Tried reinstalling it? Works for me to delete past appointments.
Microsoft To-Do is already available for downloading! And it is better than Wunderlist.
To be replaced by Microsoft To-Do.
Plex, Tweetium just to name 2.
Is the windows central app available on Xbox ive looked for it before never seen it on there
Judging by its current state you probably dont want it anywhere near your Xbox......
Agreed.
Woah... Why haven't I ever heard of this Windows Central app you speak of?
Sent using the Windows Central app on Windows 10
Because you are already reading the article on this app! ;)