I’ve been using Windows since the very first release, and if you were around in those early days, you probably remember that the experience was a little rough in places. Windows was powerful and ambitious, but it also had some glaring gaps. Basic tasks that users needed every day like playing almost any video file, compressing archives properly, connecting to servers, or uploading files to a website often required tools that simply didn’t exist in the operating system itself.
That’s where open-source software stepped in and fixed the problem. Over the years, a handful of community-built apps became essential parts of the Windows experience, solving issues Microsoft either ignored or took years to address. Even though Windows has caught up in some areas, these tools never disappeared. In fact, many of them are still among the first programs longtime Windows users install on a fresh system.
The media player that could open almost anything
If you used Windows in the early 2000s, you probably remember how chaotic video playback used to be. One file would open perfectly, the next would say “Codec not supported,” and refuse to play. The usual advice involved installing yet another mysterious codec pack. Windows Media Player simply wasn’t designed to handle the wild mix of formats circulating online, which meant users were constantly chasing compatibility problems. VLC Media Player solved that headache by bundling its own codecs and supporting an enormous range of file types out of the box.
I’ve personally been using VLC for nearly two decades, mostly because of how easy it is. You download it, open a file, and it just works. That simplicity helped it become the universal media player for Windows users around the world. Whether someone was watching a downloaded movie, playing a random video file from a camera, or opening an obscure format they’d never seen before, VLC almost always handled it without complaint. Over time that reliability built a reputation that few apps achieve, and today it’s one of the most widely installed open-source applications on the planet.
7-Zip turned Windows into a real archive powerhouse
The open-source tool that made compression faster, stronger, and far more flexible
For years, Windows treated file compression as an afterthought. The built-in ZIP support worked in a pinch, but it was slow, and only handled a narrow set of archive formats. If you downloaded something in RAR, 7z, or just needed better compression, Windows didn’t have much to offer. Power users quickly ran into those limits.
That’s where 7-Zip stepped in and quickly became one of the most essential utilities on the platform. It offered dramatically better compression efficiency, supported a huge range of archive formats, and gave users far more control over how files were packaged. You could encrypt archives with strong passwords, fine-tune compression settings, and extract almost anything you downloaded from the internet. Like VLC, it earned a reputation for reliability and simplicity. Once you installed it, it became the tool you used for every archive without even thinking about it. In fact, it’s still the one I use today.
PuTTY gave Windows users their first real SSH client
The lightweight terminal tool developers relied on for years
For a long time, Windows had a surprising gap that developers and system administrators ran into constantly: it had no built-in SSH client. If you needed to connect to a Linux server, manage a router, or access a remote machine over a secure terminal, Windows simply didn’t have a native tool for the job. Meanwhile, SSH was already a standard part of the workflow on Linux and Unix systems, which left Windows users relying on third-party solutions.
That’s where PuTTY became indispensable. For years it was the most practical and widely used SSH client on the Windows platform, giving developers and IT professionals a simple way to open secure terminal sessions. It was lightweight, reliable, and easy to configure, which made it a staple on countless workstations. Microsoft has since added OpenSSH support and integrated it into tools like PowerShell and Windows Terminal, but for a long time PuTTY filled a major gap in the Windows ecosystem. Even today, many people still keep it installed out of habit and trust.
FileZilla made website publishing simple
The FTP client that gave Windows users an easy way to manage servers
In the early days of the web, uploading files to a server was a normal part of building and managing a website. The problem was that Windows never offered a particularly good built-in way to do it. There were command-line FTP tools buried in the system, but nothing that felt modern, intuitive, or easy to manage when you were dealing with folders, permissions, and remote servers.
That’s where FileZilla stepped in. It gave Windows users a clean, reliable graphical FTP client that made transferring files to and from a server simple. You could drag and drop files, manage connections, and see exactly what was happening during a transfer. FTP isn’t as central to everyday computing as it once was, but for years FileZilla was one of the most common tools in a web developer’s toolkit. Like the other apps on this list, it solved a problem Windows left open and became a trusted utility that many users still rely on today.
The open-source tools Windows users still install first
Windows has improved a lot over the years, and Microsoft has eventually addressed some of the gaps these tools once filled. Today you can find built-in SSH support, better archive handling, and broader media compatibility than the platform had in its early days. Even so, many longtime Windows users still install apps like VLC, 7-Zip, PuTTY, and FileZilla almost out of habit. They solved real problems when Windows couldn’t, and their reliability earned them a permanent place in the toolkit. Decades later, they’re still here, still maintained, and still among the most useful pieces of software you can install on a Windows PC.
