This page lists apps for daily work, networking, monitoring, and self-management.
These are practical recommendations, not strict requirements. Pick tools based on your OS, threat model, and workflow.
Web Browsers and browser hardening references.
Terminal SSH and terminal clients.
Monitoring Resource and hardware observability tools.
Remote access Remote desktop and collaboration tools.
Notes Knowledge and note-taking applications.
Network Packet and service discovery tools.
Web Application Description Helium Best privacy and unbiased ad-blocking by default. Handy features like native !bangs and split view. No adware, no bloat, no noise. Made for people, by people. Fully open source. Firefox Fast browser for Windows, macOS, Linux, and mobile. Tune with Betterfox for stronger defaults. Betterfox Tuned user.js profile for speed, privacy, and security. Based on yokoffing/Betterfox with personal improvements. Zen Firefox-based browser with a modern interface and privacy-focused defaults. Tune with Betterfox for stronger defaults. Floorp Fast, customizable browser with Betterfox-style performance and privacy improvements.
Terminal and SSH Application Description PuTTY Lightweight terminal emulator with SSH, Telnet, and SCP support for remote administration. Termius Modern SSH client with host groups, cross-device sync, and SFTP support.
FTP Application Description FileZilla Cross-platform client for file transfers over FTP, SFTP, and FTPS.
Monitoring and system info Application Description btop4win Resource monitor for CPU, memory, disk, network, and process usage on Windows. btop Resource monitor for CPU, memory, disk, network, and process usage across platforms. lm-sensors Linux utility for reading hardware sensor values, including CPU temperature. HWiNFO Detailed hardware diagnostics and real-time monitoring for Windows. CPU-Z Lightweight utility for CPU, motherboard, memory, and GPU details. CPU-G Open-source system information tool similar to CPU-Z.
Video recording Application Description OBS Open-source tool for video recording and live streaming with advanced scene control.
Remote access Application Description AnyDesk Remote desktop software for support, collaboration, and daily operations. RustDesk Open-source remote desktop tool with optional self-hosting for stronger privacy control. Parsec Low-latency remote access platform optimized for collaboration and performance.
Application Description PowerToys Microsoft utility suite that adds advanced productivity features to Windows. EarTrumpet Enhanced Windows volume mixer with per-app audio control. NVIDIA Shader Cache Explorer Utility for inspecting and managing NVIDIA shader cache data. MPO GPU Fix Fix utility for MPO-related display issues on supported AMD and NVIDIA GPUs. MAS Open-source activation and troubleshooting scripts for Windows and Office. PaintDotNet Release repository for Paint.NET installers and portable builds.
Notes Application Description AFFiNE Collaborative knowledge management and note-taking app. Obsidian Local-first Markdown note app for building a connected knowledge base. Notion All-in-one workspace for notes, tasks, databases, and collaboration. Karakeep Self-hostable bookmark-everything app with AI-assisted organization. AppFlowy Self-hosted cloud backend for AppFlowy with auth, storage, and real-time sync.
Virtual machine Application Description VirtualBox Open-source hypervisor for running multiple operating systems on one host. VMware Workstation Desktop hypervisor with advanced virtualization features and high stability. VM Manager Platform for automating virtual infrastructure and managing virtualization workloads.
Audio Application Description Audacity Free, open-source, cross-platform tool for recording and editing audio.
Network Application Description Wireshark Network protocol analyzer for troubleshooting, analysis, and education. Jfscan Super fast port scanning & service discovery using Masscan and Nmap. Scan large networks with Masscan and use Nmap’s scripting abilities to discover information about services. Generate report.
