Useful Software and Tools - 2024
What software and tools I found to be exceptionally useful in 2024
In “celebration” of the last year, I’ve put together a list of various software and tools that I found useful or helpful for various tasks. I split these up into 3 main categories, Software, Tools, and Homelab. The Software and Tools categories both focus on what I run on my Windows 10 desktop, while the Homelab category has things that I host locally on my home network and does not exclusively apply to my personal devices.
Software
Applications used constantly or as a platform for other tasks
VoiceMeeter Potato
Voicemeeter is a virtual audio mixer that allows for audio to be routed and mixed to different virtual and physical audio outputs, frequently used in conjunction with VB-Audio’s Virtual Audio Cables.
I use VoiceMeeter to route all my computer audio between different devices and at different volumes. Originally I set it up a few years ago to split and route audio for Twitch streaming, but since then I’ve used it to combine different microphone inputs into a single virtual microphone output, route audio for when I’m in VR, and in general provide an easier experience for managing audio than what Windows natively provides.
Trello
Manage Your Team’s Projects From Anywhere | Trello
Trello is a project management program from Atlassian and is used for collaborating on tasks using a Kanban style board. I have ADHD (undiagnosed, but peer reviewed) and I have long struggled to keep track of tasks that I need to do. I’ve bounced between various methods in the past, but nothing really stuck. I use Jira at work and that works really well for project management, so I figured why not try the same for myself? I tried Trello as a lite version of Jira for my personal tasks and it has been working surprisingly well. I think the ability to set up automations was the biggest thing that actually kept me using it, as it could set up recurring tasks or integrate with external tools to automatically create tasks for school assignments.
Windows Terminal
Windows Terminal is an open source terminal by Microsoft that supports multiple tabs, multiple shells, theming, and provides an actually modern experience compared to running cmd or powershell on their own.
I use Windows Terminal as my default terminal emulator because it makes it really easy to swap between PowerShell and CMD and even provides a really nice integration with WSL for ease of use and access. Native PowerShell and CMD feel really clunky to me now that I’ve gotten used to the Windows Terminal’s quality of life improvements and customization abilities. Related to that, you can customize the terminal bel to be an array of different sounds so you get a different noise each time it is fired. It was entertaining for a while but I eventually got tired of it since it wasn’t super stable at the time.
WSL
What is Windows Subsystem for Linux | Microsoft Learn
Windows Subsystem for Linux, or WSL, allows for a tiny Linux virtual machine to run and integrate with the local Windows system that doesn’t have the added bloat of running a full dedicated VM. There’s a LOT more to it, but it makes it really easy to use native Linux tools while remaining in a native Windows environment.
I first experimented with WSL when it was originally released, but it was a pain to set up. On the other hand, WSL 2 (the current iteration) is significantly easier to work with and basically “just works” and gives you a Linux terminal in Windows. I have mine set up with Ubuntu, but I mainly just use it for a handful of CLI tools that don’t offer good Windows support, such as Ansible.
Obsidian
Obsidian - Sharpen your thinking
Obsidian is a cross-platform note-taking application that supports addons, themes, and syncing across multiple devices. It uses Markdown for styling and provides additional tagging and linking capabilities to create a network of connected documents.
Obsidian is one of the few non-FOSS software that I pay a subscription for (just the syncing feature). It’s where I’ve been taking notes, writing documentation, and writing these blog posts. It’s full of features that I’m probably not even taking proper advantage of, but it has been a fantastic experience and is significantly better than taking notes in a text document or a notepad on my desk. It has been a great resource and a surprisingly effective way to get me to write more or just get my thoughts in order.
Tools
Applications with a specific or dedicated use
Everything
Everything is a super fast, super powerful search tool for Windows machines that finds files by file name with support for filters.
Windows native search sucks, and is even worse on modern Windows (10 and 11) with Microsoft adding a web search feature to the start menu. Everything lets me find things instantly across my terabytes of local storage and is really convenient to use when looking for specific assets for various projects, especially when I forget the path to the different files.
TeraCopy
TeraCopy for Windows - Code Sector
TeraCopy is a better way to copy large numbers of files that supports retries, verification, and unattended functionality. It has a paid version for commercial use, but the free version is extremely powerful as it is and has everything I’ve ever needed.
When I was backing up dating from a failing drive, I used TeraCopy to make sure that every file was properly copied or at least logged as unable to be copied. Windows Explorer leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to mass file transfers and TeraCopy meets these needs. There was a brief learning curve with the UI, but now that I know how it works it’s my go-to tool for backing up or copying large amounts of files manually
PowerToys
Microsoft PowerToys | Microsoft Learn
PowerToys is a set of FOSS utilities for Windows that Microsoft provides to make Windows better for power users. There are a variety of different tools included, but some are more niche than others.
I primarily just use FancyZones, which allows me to snap windows into various predefined locations and sizes on my 4 monitors by dragging while holding shift. I use it all the time and is a huge quality of life improvement that mostly just works for me. The only issue I have with it is that it sometimes offsets a new window significantly when I drag a browser tab out of the parent window, but it isn’t much more than a minor annoyance. Text Extractor is a newer tool I’ve been using to copy text from places that don’t support copying, such as images or videos. It works similarly to the snipping tool but performs OCR on the selection and places the result on the clipboard for easy pasting.
Homelab
Locally hosted services
Pi-Hole
Pi-hole – Network-wide Ad Blocking
Pi-Hole is a DNS-based adblocker that can also provide additional DNS services for a local network.
I run Pi-Hole as a Docker container on my router and have my entire local network using it for DNS. It’s surprising how much stuff gets blocked with just the basic blocklists on all my devices. More importantly, it also hosts my local DNS entries for my servers, which has been extremely convenient so I don’t have to memorize IP addresses for various machines.
Uptime Kuma
GitHub - louislam/uptime-kuma: A fancy self-hosted monitoring tool
Uptime Kuma is a FOSS uptime monitoring tool similar to UptimeRobot that allows users to keep track of device and service availability.
I use Uptime Kuma to keep track of my various services and networking hosts. Most of the time I’m only getting alerts for when I do things myself, but seeing that some devices are sometimes flakey can make diagnosing issues easier. One of the most useful monitors I have is monitoring an external host (8.8.8.8) to track my local internet connectivity. Eventually I plan to tie alerts into Home Assistant, but for now I’m relying on external internet access for notifications through a Discord webhook.
Traefik
GitHub - traefik/traefik: The Cloud Native Application Proxy
Traefik is a proxy service that is commonly used in homelabs as a reverse proxy for locally hosted services. It supports the use of LetsEncrypt for TLS to properly route traffic with https instead of http, removing the “insecure connection” warning for visitors viewing the service.
I use Traefik as my reverse proxy for my services and have everything configured to use https for all connections. While I’m rarely accessing Traefik itself, I use it all the time to access my internal services. The added convenience of being able to navigate to https://pi-hole.internal.thevirusofdoom.xyz/ instead of having to remember a port number and include a path (such as /admin) to access a service is one of the best additions I’ve made to my homelab, and because of that I configure all new services to route through Traefik.