Best $ 100 Update: Five Paid Programs That Make Windows Better Now

Posted on January 23, 2015 by resourcefulman

Every few years, a new version of Windows comes out with decent but minor updates and a $ 100 price tag. If you’d rather pay $ 100 for real empowerment, consider purchasing these five programs to get a truly new version of Windows.

Blast From The Past is a weekly feature on Lifehacker in which we bring old but still relevant posts to life for your reading and hacking enjoyment. This post was originally published before the release of Windows 8, but now that Windows 10 is free at launch , it’s time to spend that $ 100 on some real software updates.

Xplorer ² Pro – $ 30

Windows Explorer is simple and easy to use, which is great for beginners, but once you get into power user territory it just won’t stop working. There are tons of great alternative file browsers out there, but our favorite is Xplorer ² . It has an advanced but not difficult to use interface that allows you to browse through tabs, multiple panels for copying files easily, lots of keyboard shortcuts, and advanced search (which is the main reason to buy Pro instead of the free lite version ). It will also replace Windows Explorer as the default file manager, which is absolutely killer.

If you don’t like Xplorer ² , you can check out some of its competitors, such as the same price but somewhat ugly Total Commander or the much more expensive but terrific Directory Opus . Check out our app directory entry for the Xplorer ² to learn more about its competitors.

Fences Pro – $ 10

We’ve talked about Fences many times already, and for good reason: there is simply no better way to clean and organize your desktop . Fences allows you to split your messy desktop into multiple groups – or “fences”, letting you put recently uploaded files on one fence, current projects on another, and short notes on another. You can double click on the desktop to hide all your icons when you don’t want to see them, and even give them names.

All of these basic features are free, but Fences really comes in handy with the $ 10 pro version. With a professional license, you can set Fences to automatically organize your desktop by placing new files in a specific fence or grouping them according to parameters such as file name and type. You can even dim your fences until they are closed with the mouse so that they are only 100% visible when you actually work with them. If you really use your desktop to organize your work files, Fences Pro is the perfect app to keep things free .

Bunkers – $ 5

For a measly $ 5, there is no reason not to try Bins. Created by the same developer as Fences, Bins lets you group icons on the Windows taskbar, much like the popular stacking feature in OS X. This makes your taskbar slim while keeping all your apps ready: just hover your mouse over the icon group. to access the shortcuts inside. It also lets you pin files and folders to the taskbar, which is something we’ve all wished for forever. Basically, it does what Fences does to your desktop for your taskbar : it keeps it clean, organized, and much easier to browse.

Divvy – $ 14

One of the best new features in Windows 7 was Aero Snap, a feature that lets you “snap” a window to the edge of the screen to fill half of the screen, or to the top of the screen to enlarge it. However, this can be a little annoying – sometimes you just move the window and he thinks you want to click it; in other cases, you want to have more options for splitting windows. What if you want to split the screen 60-40 between two windows instead of 50-50? Or put one window on top and one on the bottom? Divvy lets you do this. By simply pressing a hotkey, you can bring up the Divvy grid and tell it exactly where you want to place the current window. You can even create keyboard shortcuts for various custom layouts so that you can split the screen into equal parts with just a few keystrokes. If you like Aero Snap but think it might be better, turn it off and use Divvy instead.

DisplayFusion Pro – $ 25

Finally, if you’re using multiple monitors, DisplayFusion Pro is a must-have piece of software (if you’re only using one monitor, you can probably skip this one). Windows multi-monitor support is better in Windows 8, but nowhere near as powerful as DisplayFusion. With it you can manage your wallpaper across multiple monitors, gives you hotkeys to move windows between monitors or change their transparency, adds extra title buttons, extra window snapping functionality (although you won’t need them since you will be using Divvy!) and many other things. You can get some of these features with the free version of DisplayFusion, but all the good stuff comes with a $ 25 professional license, so if you’re using multiple monitors in your setup, DisplayFusion Pro is absolutely worth the price. It will make you feel like your computer is really meant to be set up for multiple monitors .

Obviously there are tons of great programs on Windows that are worth paying for, like Trillian Pro , Breevy, or MediaMonkey Gold , but our goal today was to find $ 100 apps that are so well integrated that they should be in the first place. part of Windows. … It’s also worth mentioning that there are many free apps that fit this category, such as Console2 , Launchy, or Dexpot , so check out our app catalog to learn more about what Windows needs. If you have a favorite Windows add-on that we haven’t mentioned, be sure to share it in the comments below.

Remix title image taken from clearviewstock , clearviewstock , Shawn Hempel , Greglith , Tyler Olson , Masekesam and Elle Arden Images (all Shutterstock).