Glucose media player

https://glucose.media/features

Glucose strips away the clutter of traditional media players, leaving you with a fast, private, and beautiful way to watch and listen.

Media Player Classic - BE

 Media Player Classic - BE is a free and open source audio and video player for Windows.Media Player Classic - BE is based on the original "Media Player Classic" project (Gabest) and "Media Player Classic Home Cinema" project (Casimir666), contains additional features and bug fixes.

Features:

Playing various video and audio files

Support for hardware decoding and deinterlacing

Automatically mount ISO images.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/mpcbe/

DiskRaptor

DiskRaptor is a free, open-source disk space analyzer for Windows, macOS, and Linux that helps you figure out exactly what is eating your drive space. It scans drives and folders, locates large files, finds duplicates, searches for files, and offers several ways to visualize where your storage went. There are also cleanup and browser tools tucked inside, making DiskRaptor considerably more than another "show me the biggest folder" utility.

https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/diskraptor.html

 

 WinSetView

an easy way to configure default folder views throughout Windows File Explorer. You can apply a preferred view such as Details, List, Tiles or Icons globally, while assigning different settings to specific folder types such as Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, Downloads, Libraries, OneDrive folders and search results.

The program can customize displayed columns, column order, widths, sorting and grouping for each folder type. It also covers File Open and Save dialogs, connected devices such as phones and many virtual Windows folders that are not affected by File Explorer's standard Apply to Folders option.

https://www.oldergeeks.com/downloads/file.php?id=3645

Right-Click Tools

Right-Click Tools adds a collection of useful commands to the Windows File Explorer context menu, providing quick access to command prompts, PowerShell, Registry Editor, ownership controls, elevated file managers, shell maintenance tools and other frequently needed Windows functions.

The tools can be accessed by right-clicking a folder, drive or the background of an open Explorer window.

https://www.oldergeeks.com/downloads/file.php?id=5012

 

Vertical tabs in Chrome

 I typed chrome://flags into my address bar, searched for #vertical-tabs, and flipped the switch to Enabled.

https://www.xda-developers.com/hated-using-google-chrome-until-tiny-adjustment-changed-everything/

LibreOffice Writer Outliner

 Heading 2 style is flagged “keep with next paragraph” so that the heading will never print last on a page with its text starting on the next. This flag is cumulative, i.e. whenever several consecutive paragraphs are so flagged, they form an indivisible block. This is what you get with your sequence of Heading 2 paragraphs. Their number is such that they don’t fit in the remaining page space under their Heading 1 paragraph. The Text Body paragraph following chapter 5 heading was kept with Heading 1 (because Heading 1 is also flagged “keep with next paragraph”) but introduced a “natural” break location for formatting.

You have nothing to do to “fix” the problem. As soon as you write a Text Body between the Heading 2, you make smaller independent blocks and they will flow to their expected location.

https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/unwanted-auto-page-break-after-headline/31081/2

CrystalDiskInfo

CrystalDiskInfo

CrystalDiskInfo provides accurate SMART data monitoring that helps predict drive failures before data loss occurs. Simple, clean interface makes it easy to check drive health, temperatures, and usage hours. 

https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/ 

ClyphX - Ableton Live actions

 ClyphX offers a robust set of Actions to masterfully control various aspects of Ableton Live. You can unleash these Actions through X-Triggers, which come in four flavors:

• X-CLIP: Any clip in Session View that follows the correct naming convention.
• X-CUE: Any locator in Arrangement View with the right naming. X-Cues will perform their Action List when the playhead passes over the X-Cue.
• X-CONTROL: MIDI controls at your command. X-Controls will perform their Action List when pressed. They can optionally perform a second Action List when released.
• STARTUP ACTIONS: These trigger every time you load a Live set, as specified in your User Settings.

UniGetUI (Windows package manager)

UniGetUI (formerly WingetUI)

The Graphical Interface for your package managers:
Download, install, update and uninstall any software that's published on the supported package managers

https://www.marticliment.com/unigetui/

TPM "Trusted Platform Module" update to Windows 11

 You're looking at the inside of a desktop computer I built in 2018. It was high-end at the time, and in fact, it still works beautifully in 2025. But with Windows 10 nearing end of support, it fails Microsoft's compatibility test for Windows 11, saying its hardware doesn't meet the requirements. 🤔 Seriously?

Not enough memory? Hah! Tons of that. Out of date processor? Nope. Why then?  

Here's where the scandal comes in. This gets geeky, but stick with me. The detailed test results say it lacks something called a "Trusted Platform Module" - or TPM - which is a requirement for Windows 11's security system. I wasn't so sure that was truly the case, and a few well-honed Google searches revealed that my motherboard does indeed include a TPM - disabled by default. This, it turns out, is very common with systems from just a few years ago. In the computer world, "disabled" equals "not present", so the system fails the check! In my case, I had to get into the system setup (BIOS), find the setting for the TPM, and change it to "enabled".  Restart, and now it's fully compatible!

This is the reason for the vast majority of fails for Win11 readiness. Is Microsoft telling anyone about this? Not that I've seen, and many people are buying new computers for a completely bogus reason. If your 3-6 year old computer failed the Windows 11 test, find yourself a capable geek, or if you're good with such things, Google your computer model and "TPM" and you may find instructions for doing what I did. I had two computers that initially failed, and now they both pass with no issues. No money spent.  Just a few minutes time.

ExplorerPatcher: customization options for the Windows taskbar, Start and File Explorer

 ExplorerPatcher is an open source program for Windows 10 and 11 that adds a huge number of customization options to the desktop environment. From restoring the classic Windows 10 taskbar on Windows 11 devices to adding or removing features that Microsoft does not want users to have access to.

The application is tiny and can be run right after download. Note that the screen may turn a solid color for a moment before the changes that it makes take effect. There may also be a Windows SmartScreen warning about the app.

Warning: Explorer Patcher seems to be glitchy with recent versions of Windows 11. The system boots to a black screen, making it unusable. We are no longer recommending this tool, as it prevents Explorer from running.

https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher

Q-Dir (the Quad Explorer)

 Q-Dir is a great alternative file manager for Windows with a amazing Quadro-View technique.

You don't have to give up your usual work habits, drag 'n' drop, view types, and other standard functions of your current file manager.

No! Q-Dir gives you extra useful functions to make you happy. Save time by reducing mouse-clicks and hand movements .

http://www.q-dir.com/

Optimize windows for audio

The Ultimate Guide To Optimizing Your Windows Computer For Live Music Performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5I-1aQQQNw&t=7s

https://gigperformer.com/docs/ultimate-guide-to-optimize-windows-for-stage/index.html

https://gigperformer.com/docs/ultimate-guide-to-optimize-windows-for-stage/The%20Ultimate%20Guide%20to%20Optimize%20your%20Windows%20PC%20for%20the%20Stage.pdf

Disable file grouping in Downloads

Completely disable file grouping, always, everywhere, in all windows, dialogs, everything!

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/completely-disable-file-grouping-always-everywhere/ac31a227-f585-4b0a-ab2e-a557828eaec5

https://superuser.com/questions/1566886/downloads-folder-keeps-getting-grouped

Stop windows explorer from grouping

 https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/completely-disable-file-grouping-always-everywhere/ac31a227-f585-4b0a-ab2e-a557828eaec5

Use WinSetView to turn off file grouping globally.

https://lesferch.github.io/WinSetView/

Win 10 utils

 https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-my-five-favorite-free-utilities/

• Files
• Windows Sysinternals
• Belarc Advisor
• MiniTool Partition Wizard
• PowerToys

Recover Windows key from disk

Use Nirsoft’s ProduKey:

Run the program as Admin (it will show your own key by default)

Press F9 to bring up the Select Source dialog

Select Load the product keys from external Software Registry hive

Browse to the SOFTWARE registry hive. For example, if you have the drive from the other system mounted as drive Z:, then you would probably select Z:\Windows\System32\Config\SOFTWARE

Click [OK]

Save info as TXT file

LiceCap

Capture animated GIF from desktop

 www.cockos.com/licecap/

BSOD - PNP error

The main culprit for this annoying error for some is the Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Manager Driver, or the Intel DPTF Manager Driver.

Intel DPTF Manager

Do you have another computer you can connect the drive to and use autoruns to hopefully identify and disable the drivers causing the crash? You'd use the "File -> Analyze offline system..." menu item.

In the Options you'll want to hide Microsoft and Windows entries as disabling those can easily make the system unbootable. 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns