#43

If this isn’t too off-topic, I was wondering what tools people depend on for non-musical stuff. I need Windows, Excel, and PowerPoint for work, so I have a 365 subscription. Windows comes with its own Calendar and Email programs, and then of course 365 comes with Outlook. I imagine I’d choose Outlook over the Windows 10 tools, but maybe I’m mistaken (I do know the Calendar app had trouble when I tried, last night, to add a second Google account). Can folks speak from experience as to which such tools they use? I’d appreciate it.

#44

Was your trouble related to the dedicated graphic card causing stutter / glitches ? I know that’s the only issue I had with my laptop and it was also only happening with ableton which makes me think their software is really not handling dedicated graphic cards all that well (which, considering how poorly it behaves with videos, is really not that surprising to me, probably one of my biggest gripes with Ableton)

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#45

I’d I’d move to Windows now I guess that would be a relatively easy transition. To name the most important ones: Adobe CC stuff, Fontexplorer, Postbox for emails (you should check that), Blender and sometimes Affinity Designer.
I also sometimes use Atom (which I’d have to replace, since I think it’s pretty bad on Windows) and Love2D. That’s just to name the ones I use most.
All of them run smoothly on Windows afaik.
The only thing I’m not sure of are Wacom drivers. They used to be a bit crappy on Windows years ago.

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#46

No, my issue was Ableton not running. It would install, but then it wouldn’t get past the splash screen on start-up.

#47

Thanks. Yeah, I still need to install the Adobe stuff.

I will check out Postbox (I pretty much live in webmail, but I do want access to a program to help with some syncing issues I won’t bore you with).

I mostly use Sublime Text 3. I found on Mac that Atom couldn’t handle really long documents, and I tend to have really long documents. That may have just been my Mac, which was dying a slow death for two-plus years.

#48

Before moving everything to macOS I used to run everuthing on a Windows7 desktop I had built, and CS6 was running just fine back then.

No idea about long documents. My stuff is usually quite short. I know about sluggishness on Windows, but haven’t heard about these on mac. This said, I think that Sublime is certainly the better option.

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#49

Almost every tool I use works on both platforms. Do you have any Mac-specific tools that you need replacement advice on?

I bailed on Adobe once I was outside of the student CC window. $50/month is wayyyy too high for how infrequently I use their stuff. I switched to Affinity Designer and Photo for the few times a year where I need to create graphics, and they do everything that I personally need. I dig them because the licenses are a one-time $50 fee, and they run on Windows and Mac. The only drawback is you have to buy the license once per platform.

Other general tools:

  • I just keep pinned tabs open for Gmail and Google Calendar. I used to use Thunderbird for email, but to keep it running smoothly it needs to download copies of messages. This took up a few gigabytes of storage. I may look back into it again, now that Google killed off my beloved Inbox interface :angry: (I also see that @papernoise recommended Postbox, I’ll check that out…)
  • SimpleNote is the best cross-platform note-taking app that I’ve found (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, etc.). It’s text-only, no formatting, and very lightweight… which is all I need. Of course, if you have 365, OneNote may be more appealing, but it’s way too heavy for my use case.
  • For code editing, Visual Studio Code, Atom, and Sublime Text are all great options. I have all of them and use them about equally for different cases (VSCode for VCV module coding, Atom for TidalCycles, Sublime Text for quick edits).
  • Fences is an excellent tool for keeping your Desktop clean. I bought Stardock’s Object Desktop for cheap, but I think Fences is the only thing that I end up using.
  • SourceTree for git management. I almost exclusively use git bash, but there are some git situations where I just need the visual management.
  • Discord for team chat. Most people use Slack, but the two of us at Unfiltered use Discord because it’s lighter-weight, it has a dark mode, and it has a quick .gif search for keeping more humor in the stressful pushes. We also use Notion for task management.
  • Cyberduck for norns-ing.
  • foobar2000 for music file playback.
  • VLC for video file playback.
  • 7-zip for file archiving/unarchiving.
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#50

@trickyflemming Postbox is pretty ok. I generally hate email clients, and Postbox is the one that I hate the least :slight_smile: It’s basically a sort of commercial Thunderbird fork

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#51

Thanks for those! That’s very helpful. I’ll be adding foobar2000 now. Fences looks cool. I just don’t leave anything on my desktop for long except for shortcuts. I store almost everything in Dropbox, so my work-life is always in sync.

The main things I wonder about currently are:

Calendars: I have multiple calendars from various work, personal, and creative email accounts/identities that I need to see simultaneously. On the Mac, the built-in Calendar app managed this fine. There were some Apple/Google connection issues on occasion, but the two systems seemed to play nice. My first go at the Windows 10 Calendar app didn’t accept a second Google account, so I may have to give Outlook a try, if there aren’t better options.

PDFs: This is another Mac-specific one. On the Mac, Preview did a great job of displaying a PDF in a window of its own with essentially no framing. On the Windows machine, I’ve failed to find something that simple/minimal. I tried Xodo, but it was super slow and the search was messy. Right now I’m using Acrobat Reader DC, which is the opposite of minimal, but at least it is fast and the search works well.

Thanks, folks.

#52

Seems a bit basic, but I just use Firefox for PDFs.

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#53

Sumatra is pretty popular and super lightweight: https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/free-pdf-reader.html

I haven’t used it yet. I currently use Foxit Reader but am about to delete it since it has annoying ads on the toolbar.

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#54

Thanks. I will check it out.

I’ve managed to whittle the Acrobat tools to a fairly minimal number, but I do look forward, at some point, to a PDF window that is just a document.

#55

Installed Sumatra just yesterday after it was recommended in german CT magazine and I was fed up with the unbelievable slowness of acrobat reader. Sumatra is incredibly fast, scrolls way more smoothly and is supposed to be more secure as well

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#56

Oh, yeah, Sumatra is working well. Just installed it. That is the almost-invisible interface I was looking for. Much appreciated.

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#57

Great to hear… I’ll make the leap as well.

BTW, for quick code and text editing, a fantastic and free Windows-only program is Notepad++ (https://notepad-plus-plus.org/).

4 Likes
#58

For perhaps the designers in the house: any tips on getting Helvetica Neue on a Windows 10 system?

#59
#60

Thanks! My Google Fu had fu-ailed.

#61

item 3 on mine latest win 10 is
bullet 1 - After buying an audio interface, open up the Playback Devices tab by right-clicking the volume control on the bottom right of the screen and selecting 'open sound settings’
bullet 2 - Select your audio interface and hit “ Device properties”
bullet 3 - Select ‘Additional device properties’, the go to 'Advanced tab
bullet 4 - as is

thanks for post btw

#62

I am still on Windows 7 on my home desktop (I’ll be building a new PC later this year) and 10 on my laptop and work. I like Classic Shell to get the familiar Start menu back.

Tools I use:

Box Sync for cloud storage – for documents that I might want to access both at home and at work, or want an online backup of which I can also access from my phone. I keep my recorded music here for both backup purposes and so I can listen at work the next day with fresh ears.

KeePass for password management. There might be better ones, but I recommend everybody use some kind of password manager so they can easily have a different password for every login. I keep the database in the cloud, but require a private key file that is only stored locally.

Simplenote for notes :slight_smile:

Bins to organize pinned apps in my taskbar. At home I have an ultrawide monitor and I keep the taskbar vertical.

Listary is how I tend to launch programs/find files that I don’t keep in the toolbar.

Greenshot for screenshots.

Agent Ransack for serious file searching within the computer… regex searches of file contents etc.

LIbreOffice (mostly for spreadsheets) so I don’t have to buy Office.

CCleaner for occasional disk cleanup and removing cruft from the Registry.

WizTree for mapping what’s consuming my disk space. More out of curiosity and a general desire to keep it tidy, than because I’m low on space.

Foxit Reader for PDFs because it’s a whole lot faster than Adobe.

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