Windows gets a bit of a bad rap for being more cluttered than Linux and less refined than something like macOS, but at its core, it's still arguably a good operating system. You can make a solid argument that it's the most powerful platform for productivity, especially when you add third-party tools into the mix. Stock Windows leaves a lot to be desired, but these 5 tools turn Windows into a better productivity OS than anything else out there.

EarTrumpet

Less fumbling with sound settings

Balancing audio of applications quickly is not a strong suit in essentially any OS these days, which is embarrassing because we nailed this a long time ago. The volume mixer on Windows used to be great; a small, functional window that allowed you to change audio devices along with the volume levels for each running application on your system. That's really all anyone needed, but Microsoft decided to make the mixer gigantic, and take a lot of the functionality away, hiding it in other menus for some reason.

macOS and Linux are really no better, although the latter does a much better job at allowing customization than the former, but it just depends on which desktop environment you find yourself using.

On Windows, the solution is simple and free. EarTrumpet is a light way to bring back a lot of the functionality around sound settings, and cuts away all the bloat you don't need. Want your music quiet but Discord loud? Done. Need to mute Chrome without touching the rest of your system audio? One click. It even respects per-output configurations, so you can send certain sounds to your headphones and others to your speakers. A must-have addition to any Windows install.

Everything by voidtools

Find exactly what you're looking for, quickly

Windows Search is one of those things that just continues to be a sore point for many users. What was once a very useful utility has turned into a platform to push AI helpers and online search through Bing, something that no human should be subjected to.

In all seriousness, Windows Search should be for the things on your computer and nothing else. Spotlight search on macOS is marginally better, but also has a ton of room for improvement.

Everything search by voidtools takes all the frustration around finding what you need on your system away completely. It indexes your drives instantly and delivers results the moment you start typing with no lag, no spinning wheels, no “rebuilding search index” messages. If your work revolves a lot around finding files on your system, Everything is a must-have. It supports regex, filters, and command-line arguments, and it even works across networked or external drives.

PowerToys Run

A free version of some really great tools

PowerToys is more of a collection of tools rather than a single one, but PowerToys Run stands out to me as one of the most useful for productivity-focused users. It's a lightweight launcher that allows you to open apps, files, and run system commands with just a few keystrokes. The macOS equivalent I can draw to would be Alfred, which is extremely powerful, but PowerToys Run (and the rest of the PowerToys suite) is totally free, and able to be tightly integrated into Windows.

PowerToys as a whole is basically a collection of tools that provide functionality that you'd otherwise have to pay for on macOS. Sure, there are some free options that provide similar functionality, but most of the great stuff is purchase-only.

ShareX

Screenshots are part of pretty much everyone's workflow

I'll admit that the Snipping Tool has improved quite a bit, but it still leaves a lot to be desired for me. At its core, I need a screenshot tool that allows me to quickly take a snap, make some edits, and upload/save to the location I need. Nothing more, nothing less.

Snipping Tool allows me to do that, but ShareX does it with less friction. All the customization that happens after a screenshot is taken is really what separates ShareX from other screenshot utilities.You can automatically upload the file to Imgur, copy it to your clipboard, add watermarks, annotate it, or even run custom scripts. It supports OCR to extract text from images, built-in screen recording with audio, and workflows that can replace several separate tools. Compared to macOS’s built-in capture shortcuts or third-party recorders like CleanShot, ShareX feels just as feature complete without needing a purchase.

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

The best hybrid environment, only on Windows

No tool better represents how far Windows has come as a platform than WSL. It’s not a gimmick or a compatibility layer, but a genuine Linux environment running natively inside Windows, complete with kernel support and hardware access.

Download a distro from the Microsoft Store or from the command-line, spin up a WSL instance, and you can start running Linux commands immediately. Developers can compile code, use Git, run Docker, or spin up servers without dual-booting or juggling virtual machines. macOS natively has a Unix-based terminal, and that works great for some things, but WSL brings an experience that's much closer to actual Linux to the table. That might be a hot take, but I'd rather have Linux instances I can close and spin up quickly than something that feels like Linux-lite.

Windows wins for work (most of the time)

Windows might not win every design award, but when it comes to actually getting work done, it has the upper hand. A few free installs and a little bit of tinkering turn it into a platform that’s faster, friendlier, and more capable than most give it credit for. Making it yours can take time, but that time is well spent if it means less friction in getting stuff done.