Getting a new computer is always exciting: you take it out of the box, turn on Windows… and after a few minutes you realize that, without good essential software , that new PC isn't performing half as well as it could. It doesn't matter if you're going to use it for gaming, work, studying, or content creation: without the right applications, the hardware falls short.
In the following lines, you'll find a comprehensive guide to the essential programs that your new PC should have . You'll see everything from gaming platforms and productivity tools to utilities for monitoring system health, creative software, security solutions, streaming services, and much more. The goal is to provide you with the most complete list possible so that, as soon as you reinstall Windows or get a new machine, you'll know exactly what to install.
Essential gaming platforms and launchers
If you've built a PC with a good graphics card and processor, you'll probably want to use it for gaming. For that, you need more than just one or two games: you need platforms from which to download, purchase, and manage your game library, often spread across several services.
- Steam It remains the queen of PC gaming, but the current ecosystem is quite fragmented. Many studios use their own launchers, so you'll likely end up with several stores installed on your computer if you want access to all your games.
- GOG (Good Old Games). A very interesting alternative. It offers a huge catalog of modern and classic games, often has very aggressive daily discounts, and, above all, stands out for distributing DRM-free titles, which greatly simplifies their use and reduces activation problems.
- Epic Games Store It has become Steam's main rival. Besides featuring hits like Fortnite and some high-quality timed exclusives, it gives away games every week, which is ideal for building your library without spending a penny.
- Battle.netAnother essential app if you enjoy Blizzard and Activision games. From here, you can install and keep titles like Call of Duty, Overwatch 2, and Diablo updated, as well as manage friends, chats, and integrated social features.
- Ubisoft connect It's the client required to play Ubisoft games, such as Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, or Rainbow Six. It not only serves as a launcher but also centralizes achievements, club rewards, statistics, and settings in the cloud.
- The Xbox app from Microsoft It's practically mandatory for users of this platform. With it, you manage your Game Pass for PC subscription, download games included in the service, check achievements, chat with friends, and link your library between console and computer.
Communication and social tools for playing and working
Online gaming, remote work, and distance learning have made good voice and text chat apps essential . Not all games include decent voice chat, and often you'll want to communicate with people who aren't even in the same game.
- Discord. It has become the de facto standard for the gaming community and many workgroups. It allows you to create servers with text and voice channels, and perform audio and video callsIt features screen sharing, file sharing, and integration with bots and external services. It's lightweight, runs smoothly in the background, and has mobile and browser apps.
- TeamSpeak It remains a very valid option. It's perfect for those looking for a voice app with low resource consumption and with high-quality dedicated servers, ideal for clans and competitive teams.
- Skype or WhatsappAlthough it has lost prominence to other solutions, it remains a solid video calling tool, with Multi-screen, chat, phone calls and long-standing features that still work well. It can be useful as an alternative when other platforms fail or for users accustomed to its interface.
Essential productivity and organization software
Beyond entertainment, a modern PC needs to allow you to work, study, and organize your daily life seamlessly. This is where office suites, cloud storage, and note-taking and project management tools come into play.
Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) remains the benchmark for productivity. This subscription includes popular applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and Teams , as well as OneDrive for cloud storage. Key features in its current version include integration with artificial intelligence and real-time collaboration, and it also incorporates tools for handling PDFs, such as free PDF editors.
In Word, you can create complex documents, share them with others, and have everyone edit them simultaneously. AI-powered features help correct style, generate drafts, and summarize long texts . This same functionality extends to Excel, which now suggests charts, detects patterns in data, and facilitates analysis without requiring spreadsheet expertise.
PowerPoint has taken a leap forward thanks to its automated design wizards: you enter content and the application suggests slides with professional designs , animations, and structures that fit the message you want to convey. Outlook, meanwhile, has strengthened its position as a central email and calendar platform, with smart reminders and improved integration with Teams.
All of this is powered by OneDrive , which offers a generous amount of cloud storage (up to 1 TB on many plans). Files are synced across all your devices, and you always have a backup available, reducing the risk of losing important documents if something happens to your PC.
Web browsing, business communication, and video calls
No PC is complete without a good browser and some professional communication tools. These days, practically everything happens online, so choosing the right tools is key.
Google Chrome
Google Chrome remains among the most popular browsers. Its strengths lie in its performance, vast catalog of extensions , and seamless integration with your Google account. You can effortlessly sync bookmarks, history, passwords, and open tabs across your PC, mobile phone, and tablet, which is incredibly useful if you frequently switch devices.
In its latest versions, Chrome has strengthened its focus on security and privacy, with improved protection against malicious sites, tracking controls, and permission management. Furthermore, Chrome is an excellent gateway to Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) , which behave almost like installed programs: they pin to the Start menu, run in their own window, and in many cases, even work offline.
Zoom
For work meetings, classes, or large video calls, Zoom has become a critical tool. It allows you to organize meetings with dozens or hundreds of people , webinars, online events, and virtual classes, with advanced features such as collaborative whiteboards, live polls, breakout rooms, and automatic recording.
The platform has been continuously improving its security and encryption features, which is crucial when sharing sensitive data or business information. Furthermore, its performance is excellent even on modest connections, and it offers clients for virtually any operating system.
Slack
In the realm of team communication, Slack is a leading platform. It organizes conversations into channels by project, department, or topic , facilitates searching for old messages, and integrates with over 2.000 applications, such as Google Drive, Asana, Trello, GitHub, and many more.
Slack is more than just chat: it includes voice and video calls, threaded discussions, basic automation, and chatbots. Thanks to this, many companies use it as the core of their internal communication, reducing email usage and centralizing day-to-day information.
Security, antivirus and secure connection
With how connected we are, having a good security system is no longer optional. Malware, ransomware, and data theft attempts are commonplace, so it's important to reinforce the built-in security features of Windows.
Bitdefender is one of the best antivirus programs for Windows . Its engine is capable of detecting malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks with a very high degree of accuracy, and it features behavioral analysis that identifies suspicious activity even when dealing with new threats.
In addition to classic real-time protection, Bitdefender includes extra tools to optimize PC performance , manage system vulnerabilities, and filter unsafe websites. All of this is presented with a clear interface and options for both novice and advanced users.
If you frequently use your laptop on public Wi-Fi networks (cafés, libraries, universities, etc.), it's highly recommended that you add a VPN to your list of essentials. This type of software encrypts all traffic leaving your computer and reaching the VPN server, making it much harder for anyone to spy on you.
Besides protecting you from man-in-the-middle attacks (where a third party positions themselves between your PC and router to capture information), a VPN can help you bypass certain geographical restrictions on online services. The idea is that even if someone is tapping into your network, all they'll see is a bunch of meaningless encrypted data.
Hardware monitoring, temperature control and health
A new computer works perfectly… until, due to lack of maintenance or a cooling problem, performance starts to drop. To avoid unpleasant surprises, it's great to have monitoring tools that tell you how your components are performing.
HWiNFO is one of the most comprehensive solutions for monitoring your entire system. It displays real-time temperatures, voltages, loads, fan speeds , and a wealth of other data from the CPU, GPU, motherboard, RAM, and other sensors. It's perfect for ensuring everything is operating within normal parameters. If you need further guidance, see our article on monitoring temperatures.
If you want something specifically focused on graphics, MSI Afterburner is a classic tool. It allows you to adjust frequencies, voltage, and fan curves for your graphics card, as well as apply a slight overclock if you want to squeeze out a few extra FPS. All of this is displayed with real-time graphs to see how the hardware is responding.
NVIDIA graphics card users have two key tools at their disposal: the classic Control Panel and the new NVIDIA App. From there, you can install and update drivers, adjust GPU behavior, optimize games, and configure options such as V-Sync, image scaling, and DLSS technologies.
If your hardware is AMD , the Adrenalin Edition suite performs similar functions. It offers tools to monitor performance, apply power profiles, and optimize both the CPU and GPU for specific games, as well as facilitating the installation of updated drivers.
And if what you want is a very complete summary of the hardware, HWInfo64 (the 64-bit variant of HWiNFO) gives you very detailed information about all the components, incorporating load sensors, memory usage, frequencies and generating complete reports to review the evolution of the system over time.
File management, optimization, and maintenance of Windows
Windows works reasonably well out of the box, but with a few extra programs you can make it run much smoother, especially if you manage a lot of large files or want to clean up bloatware and unnecessary processes.
Teracopy is practically essential if you frequently move large files or multiple folders at once. It replaces the standard Windows backup system and optimizes transfers , makes better use of disk bandwidth, and handles errors more intelligently—especially useful when copying to USB drives or external hard drives. And if you notice your system is running slowly after an update, see how to fix it.
Another little-known gem is Wintoys , available in the Microsoft Store. This application centralizes a host of Windows maintenance and tuning functions: performance optimization, disabling unnecessary services, uninstalling bloatware , managing startup programs, and much more, all with a very clear interface.
The beauty of Wintoys is that it lets you perform tasks that would normally require tinkering with the registry or hidden configuration menus, but in a safe and guided way. This means that even if you're not an advanced user, you can fine-tune your system and remove a lot of the bloatware that comes pre-installed on some laptops.
RGB customization and software for peripherals
If you've built a gaming PC with a mechanical keyboard, an advanced mouse, and fans with lights, you'll probably want to control all the lighting and extra features of your peripherals. Each manufacturer offers its own ecosystem for this.
Windows 11 includes a feature called "Dynamic Lighting" that lets you change the colors of certain compatible peripherals directly from the system settings, without having to install multiple third-party applications. It's useful if you just want something simple and unified.
For Corsair equipment , the flagship software is iCUE . With it, you can control the RGB lighting of fans, LED strips, keyboards, mice, and other devices from the brand, create synchronized effects , and also monitor temperatures and customize macros and performance profiles.
Logitech users have access to G HUB , which centralizes the configuration of mice, keyboards, headsets, and other peripherals. It allows users to adjust DPI, remap buttons, create game profiles , and design elaborate lighting animations.
In the case of SteelSeries , the SteelSeries GG application goes a step further: in addition to the typical peripheral configuration, it includes extra features such as a customizable virtual sound system , game clip capture tools, and even an "Aim trainer" to improve your aim in shooters.
If your hardware is from ASUS , you'll likely need to install Armoury Crate and, optionally, Aura Creator . These tools allow you to manage peripherals as well as the lighting of the motherboard, RAM, and other internal components, creating coordinated lighting scenes throughout your PC.
Finally, Razer Synapse brings together the configuration of the Razer range: keyboards, mice, mousepads, headsets, etc. It allows you to define profiles for each game, adjust performance, manage RGB backlighting with striking effects , and synchronize it with other devices in its ecosystem.
Multimedia, streaming, and content creation
A modern computer is also an entertainment center and a miniature creative studio. To cover this need, a good media player, editing tools, and streaming software are essential.
VLC Media Player is a timeless classic. It's free, open-source, and compatible with virtually every video and audio format you can imagine, without needing to install any additional codecs. MP4, MKV, AVI, FLV, MP3, FLAC… you name it, it plays it.
In addition, VLC allows you to stream content via URLs , open live broadcasts, listen to internet radio, and even play certain online videos. It also includes a built-in format converter, which lets you convert videos from one format to another, extract audio, or adapt files for specific devices.
Its advanced features include screen capture and video recording , DVD and CD playback (including some encrypted discs), subtitle loading and synchronization, selection of different audio tracks, and a fairly comprehensive sound equalizer. All of this is presented through a simple interface that you can customize with skins and configurable keyboard shortcuts.
Creative Cloud has been incorporating generative AI features that greatly streamline complex tasks: image filling, automatic cropping, effect suggestions, faster clip editing, and more. All of this makes working on creative projects much more agile and accessible, even if you're not an expert.
If you want to stream your gameplay, go live on Twitch, or record videos for YouTube, OBS Studio is practically essential. It's a free and open-source program that lets you capture your screen, mix different video and audio sources , add overlays, scenes, transitions, and stream to various platforms. For post-production, you can also check out video editing software.
Development environments, containers, and deployment
If you use your PC to program or deploy applications, there's one tool that has practically become standard: Docker . This software works with containers, small, isolated environments that include everything necessary for an application to always function the same way, regardless of the system it runs on.
With Docker, you can easily set up complete development stacks (databases, web servers, auxiliary services) without cluttering your main system, and deploy the same configuration to production with minimal changes. It's ideal for microservices-based architectures and integrates seamlessly with Kubernetes and other orchestration platforms.
This way of working makes the typical "it works on my machine" problem almost completely disappear, because everyone uses the same container image with the same dependencies and the same configuration.
With this entire repertoire of game launchers, office suites, browsers, communication tools, security, monitoring, RGB customization, maintenance utilities, media players, and content creation and development solutions, your new PC is perfectly equipped to handle virtually any everyday task, from the most demanding gaming to the most serious professional work, without neglecting security or ease of use.
