The Windows tablet is the most flexible, portable device you can get. You can take it anywhere, use it for work and for entertainment, and just like with a smartphone, you can customize it to fit your needs with apps.
But where do you find the best ones?
You’re in the right place: we’ve rounded up our top picks for the best apps you can add to your Windows tablet. Here’s what we’re thinking about:
Best Apps For Windows Tablet
Microsoft’s app marketplace may not be quite as flush as its competitors, but roughly 140,000 apps still reside in the Windows Store. And frankly, as with any app store, a lot of them are junk. How does a Windows tablet owner know which apps are worth installing?
Easy: Read on!
Embracing touch
Let’s start with apps that highlight the strengths of Windows 8 and Microsoft’s quest to deliver a singular, unified experience across a multitude of devices. Surprise! They all come straight from Microsoft.
Fresh Paint was a star at Windows 8’s 2012 launch, and it still shines brightly a year later. The free app comes chock-full of watercolors, oils, and pencil tools that will keep you doodling for hours in full multitouch glory. If that gets boring, try something else: Fresh Paint also allows you to paint over pictures stored on your PC, or to pull in “inspiration” from photos on Bing. You can purchase optional “packs” (read: coloring books) for your kids, including some starring Disney characters such as Mickey and Nemo. As simple as it sounds, Fresh Paint is a blast.
Don’t feel like finger painting? Xbox Smartglass lets you navigate and control your Xbox 360 or Xbox One console with your slate, and much more. Games with Smartglass support (such as Halo 4, Ryse: Son of Rome, and Dead Rising 3) offer unique gameplay capabilities in-app, and a number of movies provide supplemental content through Smartglass. You can also use Xbox Smartglass to buy videos from Xbox Video and shift them from your tablet to your TV and back again.
If you’d rather game on your tablet, check out Skulls of the Shogun or Halo: Spartan Assault. Skulls of the Shogun syncs your progress between the Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows Phone, and Xbox Live Arcade versions of the game (assuming you’ve bought more than one), and allows players on one platform to go head-to-head with users of other devices. “One Microsoft” indeed.
Halo: Spartan Assault is, well, Halo, even if it can’t cross platform borders as Skulls of the Shogun can. And hey—if those don’t scratch your gaming itch, you can pick up fun, touch-optimized versions of Solitaire and Minesweeper.
Getting social
No Windows tablet is an island, given Windows 8’s cloud-centric nature. The Windows Store lacks apps for many social networks, but the big two—Facebook and Twitter—are available, along with a surprisingly awesome Foursquare app.
The two big-name apps each have some quirks: Twitter lacks in-stream retweet/favorite options, and you can’t share content to Facebook via the Share charm. Overall, however, the two apps are rock-solid. They deliver systemwide notifications, as well, and you can “snap” them to a portion of the screen for handy multitasking, just as you can any other proper Windows app—two highly useful additions.
Beyond social networks, you’ll want to download IM+ if you use instant messaging services. The Messages app in Windows 8 offers bare-bones IM support, and the Skype app that replaced it in Windows 8.1 doesn’t even have Messages’ Facebook chat support. IM+, in contrast, plays nice with Facebook, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, and plenty of other IM services—including Skype.
A portable boob tube
While the Office 2013 Home & Student suite baked into many Windows tablets makes Microsoft’s slates a solid choice for content creation—our roundup of the most productive Windows 8 business apps can help you get things done, by the way—the undeniable fact is that most people use their tablets for content consumption instead. Fortunately, the Windows Store has a solid lineup of entertainment apps just waiting to please your peepers, and video and audio apps are an especially good fit for the modern UI.
Netflix and Hulu Plus subscribers will want to check out those respective apps post-haste. YouTube, unfortunately, isn’t available as an app, but you won’t mourn its loss if you check out Hyper for YouTube, a slick YouTube viewer that includes video-quality options and full YouTube account support. (Most of the YouTube-related offerings in the Windows Store don’t.) Or, if you’re just into YouTube for the free tunes, check out the free Vevo app.
If you’re looking to soothe your savage breast, install Slacker Radio. Sure, Windows 8 bakes in the Xbox Music service by default, but Xbox Music restricts your free listening after six months and has limited device support outside of Microsoft’s ecosystem. Slacker Radio offers free, unlimited listening to the service’s superb, 300-plus, DJ-curated radio stations, while subscribing for $10 per month unlocks on-demand music and playlist support.
But what if you’re already a Spotify subscriber? The fan-made Spotlite app lets premium Spotify subscribers jam to the service’s tunes, and it sports a sleek, Xbox Music–esque interface.
Finally, if you have a large music and movie library of your own, grab Plex. This killer app lets you stream any of the media stored on your PC to your tablet on the fly, after some initial setup. It’s wonderful.
PCWorld’s roundup of the 14 best Windows Store music and movie apps has even more options. Check them out!
Go read a book
Display resolutions are only climbing higher, and with a flood of easily graspable 8-inch tablets such as the Dell Venue 8 Pro, Lenovo Miix2, and Acer Iconia W4 hitting the shelves, Windows tablets can be a great way to catch up on your reading.
The Windows Store features both Kindle and Nook apps. Each serves as a gateway to the bounty of ebooks and magazines available in their respective digital bookstores.
If your tastes skew toward shorter forms, try the stellar Flipboard app, which finally touched down in the Windows Store this fall. It compiles stories from around the Web into a beautiful magazine-style format. Comixology, meanwhile, has more than 40,000 digital comics available for purchase from top-name publishers such as Marvel, DC, and Image. Some people have run into minor bugs with the app, but nothing crippling, and its deep troves are a wonderful way to spend any day.
Cool extras
Some of Windows 8’s best apps don’t fit into the neat boxes we’ve talked about. If you’re not overwhelmed with all the choices yet, check out the following.
- Bing Maps Preview is a version of Bing Maps that supports Google Earth–like 3D maps. It’s a big improvement over the basic Bing Maps, and with Google largely sitting on the Windows Store sidelines, it’s the marquee maps option available for Windows tablets.
- If you go cuckoo for Coco Crisp or any other athlete or sports team, you’ve got to grab the ESPN Windows 8 app, which dishes out up-to-the-minute scores, analysis, and videos from the Worldwide Leader in Sports. Plus, you can pin live tiles for your favorite teams to the Windows 8 Start screen.
- Music Maker Jam lets you make your own jams, man, complete with an orchestra’s worth of premade loops and a multitude of effects. It’s a blast.
- If you’re over 21, Cocktail Flow is the personal bartender you’ve always wanted. The app packs alcoholic-drink recipes and recommendations by type, by spirit, by whatever you have in your liquor cabinet, or heck, even by color. Grab the Allrecipes food app to go with it, and you’ll never have to think about dinner again.
best free windows apps
o say that there are lots of apps to choose from in Windows 10 is an understatement. In a 2018 statement, Microsoft said that there are over 35 million apps on the platform. The sheer number of apps makes it hard to know which ones are worth downloading. To make things easier for you, here is our list of the best free Windows 10 apps you can download, including the best apps to play videos, edit photos, web browsers,
When you go to download some of these apps, you will have the option to download the 32-bit or the 64-bit version. If you want to know which one you should download, check out our guide on the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit here.
Google Chrome: Best Web Browser for Windows 10
chrome best web browser app for windows 10
(Image Source: Google)
Google Chrome is the most popular web browser for Windows 10 today because of its simple and intuitive interface. It’s also one of the fastest browsers around, and it has tons of great features to protect your privacy online,
With Chrome, you can sync all your bookmarks, browsing history, saved passwords, extensions, and more on all your devices. All you have to do is sign in to Chrome from any computer, tablet, or phone, and you’ll have all the same data and settings on that device. It’s also easy to personalize Chrome with over 188,000 extensions, which is more than any other web browser.
If you want to personalize your Chrome browser, check out our list of the best Chrome extensions here.
Download: Google
VLC: Best Free Multimedia Player for Windows 10
vlc best apps for windows 10
VLC is one of the best Windows 10 apps for playing videos and other media because of its robust features. It’s a free and open-source multimedia player that can decode a wide range of video files, from MPEG to MKV files and everything in between. It can also play DVDs and CDs, and it even supports a number of streaming protocols.
VLC makes it easy for you to watch videos any way you want. For instance, you can watch parts of a video before the download is complete. If you get a video in a ZIP file, you can watch it without having to extract each file. Also, there are tons of extensions, skins, and hotkeys that make VLC one of the most customizable media players available.
Download: Microsoft
Foobar 2000: Best Free Music Player for Windows 10
Foobar 2000: Best Music Player for Windows 10
(Image Source: Foobar)
Another app that has stood the test of time is foobar2000. This free audio player for Windows lets you convert your CDs into MP3s and organize them into a library. Initially released in 2002, foobar2000 can play almost any audio file formats, from MP3s to FLAC files. Support for more formats is available from foobar’s Component Database.
Managing your music library is easy with foobar2000, as you can rename, copy, or remove files in batch mode. Audiophiles will also appreciate how the foobar equalizer has 17 bars instead of the usual five or 10. Foobar’s powerful music conversion and playback capabilities make it one of the best Windows 10 apps for music lovers.
Download: Microsoft
Malwarebytes: Best Free Anti-Malware App for Windows 10
malwarebytes best free apps for windows 10
If you want to protect your privacy and security, you’re going to need to install Malwarebytes. This free Windows 10 app makes it easy to scan for any kind of malware (or malicious software) and remove it from your Windows 10 computer. In fact, Malwarebytes claims that its app finds threats on 39 percent of devices that already have an anti-virus installed.
If you want to be protected from threats in real-time, you will need a premium subscription, which normally costs $39.99 a year. The most expensive plan costs $59.99 a year, and it allows you to use Malwarebytes on up to five devices at once. The app also works with Mac computers and iOS and Android devices.
Download: Malwarebytes
virus-removal
LibreOffice: Best Free Alternative to Microsoft Word for Windows 10
libre office
(Image Source: Libre Office)
If you want a word processor app, but you don’t want to pay for Microsoft Office, LibreOffice is a great alternative. This free Windows 10 app comes with a powerful word processor that has all the same features you would find on Microsoft Word, and you can even save a document and open it with Microsoft Word.
The app also comes with alternatives to Excel, PowerPoint, and more.
It has Writer for word processing, Calc for working on spreadsheets, Impress for making presentations, Draw for editing vector graphics, Math for creating and editing mathematical formulas, and Base for managing databases.
If you really want to use Microsoft Word, check out our guide on how to get Microsoft Word for free.
Download: LibreOffice
Microsoft Sticky Notes: Best Notes App for Windows 10
Microsoft Sticky Notes_ Best Notes App for Windows 10
(Image Source: Microsoft)
If you’re looking for a simple app that lets you take notes on your Windows 10 computer, Microsoft Sticky Notes is your best bet. Just like the traditional sticky notes, you can use this app to jot down notes and then “stick” them on your desktop.
On top of the old-school way to jot down notes, this free Windows 10 app also has other cool features. For example, you can attach photos to your notes, sync them across all your devices, and transform them into reminders for Cortana, Microsoft’s own virtual assistant. The app can also detect addresses or mobile numbers, so when you tap or click them, a corresponding app will open. For example, when you tap an address on the note, the Maps app will launch.
Download: Microsoft
Flipboard: Best News and Social Media Aggregator App
flipboard
(Image Source: Microsoft)
If you want one app that combines all your news and social media updates in one place, Flipboard is one of the Windows 10 apps you can download. This free app gathers everything that you deem important, and it aggregates them into a personal magazine. That means you won’t have to switch between apps and websites to catch up on the news or see what your friends are up to.
Flipboard is easy to use and customize. You can add any topic or source that interests you, and the app will allow you to flip through stories in a beautiful magazine format. And, to keep up to date on your online social life, you can connect your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media accounts, too.
Download: Microsoft
Zoom: Best Video Conferencing Windows 10 App
desktop
desktop
Zoom is one of the best Windows 10 apps for keeping in touch with family, co-workers, and friends. This free video conferencing app allows you to video chat with up to 100 people for up to 40 minutes at a time. If you don’t want to be limited by time constraints, you can also sign up for a paid plan, which comes with lots of other features for personal and business use.
Other features that make Zoom a good video conferencing app include screen sharing, meeting recording, and automatic transcription. The app also has plugins and is available as a browser extension. You can also customize add a virtual background on Zoom, so you can have a video chat from the Bahamas or from outer space.
Download: Zoom
slow-computer
Adobe Photoshop Express: Free Photo Editing Windows 10 App
photoshop express
(Image Source: Microsoft)
Adobe Photoshop Express is the best free photo editing app that you can download on your Windows 10 PC. With great features for giving your photos touch-ups, this app is easy to use and will be a great addition to your arsenal of Windows 10 essential apps.
With Photoshop Express, you can add filters to your photos, remove red eyes and blemishes, crop, adjust contrast and exposure, add borders or backgrounds, and more. You can also turn your photos into collages or assemblages for that extra artistic touch.
Download: Adobe
LastPass: Best Free Password Manager App for Windows 10
lastpass best password manager
(Image Source: LastPass)
If you’re always forgetting your passwords, LastPass is one of the best apps you can get. This free Windows 10 app saves all your passwords in one place, so you only have to remember one password. This way, you can create a different password for all the sites you visit, which will prevent hackers from accessing all your information if they get happen to breach one site.
LastPass will also generate strong passwords for you, autofill your passwords, save your payment information, and more. This password manager also works for Mac computers and iOS and Android devices, so you can sync your passwords across all your devices.
Download: LastPass
Dropbox: Best File Hosting App for Windows 10
dropbox
(Image Source: Dropbox)
Dropbox is a free app that lets you store your files in the cloud, so you can access them from any other device. With Dropbox, you can back up any important photos, documents, and other files, so you can recover them in case something happens to your computer.
The Basic Dropbox subscription is free, but it only comes with 2 GB of storage space. You can also pay $10 a month for up to 2 TB of storage or $20 a month for unlimited storage. With a free Dropbox plan, you can create, share, and edit Microsoft Office documents and chat with other Dropbox users. Dropbox works with Windows 10 and Mac computers, iOS and Android devices, and even web browsers.
Download: Microsoft
Mozilla Thunderbird: Best Free Email App for Windows 10
Thunderbird 60 Windows
(Image Source: Wikimedia)
Instead of checking email with the built-in Windows 10 Mail app, you can try Mozilla Thunderbird. This free email app helps you manage multiple accounts. Its Smart Folders feature lets you consolidate your inbox, sent mail, and archives folder in one view.
If you’re looking for a particular email, you can use the Quick Filter Toolbar to sort messages by date, tags, or contacts. To protect your privacy, Thunderbird warns you about phishing attempts. In addition, it blocks emails that collect information about you when you open them.
Download: Thunderbird
7-Zip: Best App for Extracting or Compressing Archived Files
7zip3
Have you ever received an email with an attachment you can’t open on your computer? If so, 7-ZIP is one of the best apps you can download. This free Windows 10 app makes it easy to extract almost any type of compressed files on your Windows 10 PC, including ZIP, RAR, ISO, TAR, and other files.
With 7-Zip, you can also compress files before sending them if they are too large to send in an email attachment. On top of compression and extraction, 7-Zip also lets users add password protection or to create files that self-extract.
If you want to know how to open a ZIP file without the app, check out our step-by-step guide here.
Download: 7-Zip
slow-computer
FlashbackExpress: Best Screen Recorder for Windows 10
Flashback Express
(Image Source: TalkHelper)
If you ever want to record your screen, FlashBack Express is one of the best Windows 10 apps you can get. This app lets you capture your screen or webcam, and even record audio. The free version gives you access to the screen recorder component only, while the paid version includes an editing suite.
The screen recorder lets you record a window, your entire screen, or just a specific area – with no time limits. In addition, you can set pre-determined start and stop times for screen recordings, even if you’re not in front of your computer. This is useful for webinars and online events. The finished product is a water-mark-free video that you can share on YouTube or download as an MP4, AVI, and WMV file.
Download: FlashBack
OneCalendar: Best Calendar App for Windows 10
OneCalendar
(Image Source: OneCalendar)
It can be time-consuming to switch back and forth between different calendars. But with OneCalendar, you can add up to nine online calendars from Google, Windows, Outlook, and more.
Aside from the usual daily, monthly, and yearly views, OneCalendar also has other useful features to make sure you won’t miss appointments. For instance, you can see upcoming engagements as large live tiles or on your lock screen. Plus, when your internet goes out, you can still check and manage appointments offline. The OneCalendar interface is fairly straightforward and customizable, making this one of the best Windows 10 calendar apps you can get.
Download: OneCalendar
PDFescape: Best PDF Editor for Windows 10
PDF Escape
(Image Source: FileCroco)
Using industry-leading PDF editor tools can be expensive. Fortunately, PDFescape offers a budget-friendly alternative. This freemium app has online and desktop versions with varying feature sets.
You can use the online version as long as the file size is less than 10 MB and less than 100 pages long. The Windows 10 desktop version lets you create PDF files from more than 300 file types and various sources, like your clipboard, scanner, or even a URL.
In contrast, the Premium version lets you edit text and images, merge PDF files, and convert PDFs to other formats. With the Ultimate plan, you get all Premium features plus encryption, redaction, and electronic signing.
You can get PDFescape Desktop for free. The Premium version costs $2.99 per month, while the Ultimate version is priced at $5.99 per month.
Download: PDFescape
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