Installing extra applications for Windows 10

Misc notes

You don't have to install all the programs mentioned of this page. Just pick the ones you need

The applications will be installed by default on the C: disk. You may want to check the free space available on C: from time to time (remembering that you need space there for the system, system updates, what you store on your desktop, etc...)

Some installers will let you choose where you want to install the programs

Some applications can be installed directly from the Microsoft Store but you will have to download and execute the installer for most of the applications listed below

You are probably running the 64bit version of Windows 10, so download the 64bit version of the installers!

List of installed applications

Firefox and Thunderbird

Firefox

Thunderbird

Google Chrome

Install Chrome if you think that you may need an extra browser (besides the builtin Edge and the preinstalled Firefox) to test the content of some web pages or to use some videoconferencing software

Notepad++

Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages

Notepad++ cheat sheet

Image (bitmap) editors

The editors listed below go from the simplest to the most powerful (but harder to use)

Snip & Sketch

For simple screenshots and/or annotating images, you can launch the preinstalled Snip & Sketch (Capture d'écran et croquis) tool from the Start menu

Shortcut for taking a screenshot: Win + Shift + S

Autodesk SketchBook

For freehand drawing (especially if you have a tablet or touch screen), you can use the preinstalled Autodesk SketchBook

SketchBook seems to be free (now), but there is also a page that mentions that SketchBook for Enterprise is free for education

XnView MP

XnView MP is the enhanced version of XnView Classic. It is a powerful picture viewer, browser and converter for Windows, Mac and Linux. This software can read more than 500 formats change picture size, reduce picture file size and much more!

Paint.net

Paint.NET is an image and photo editing software for PCs that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

You can either download Paint.net for free (and choose to make a donation), or buy it from the Windows 10 store (the payment is the donation)

GIMP

GIMP is a cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, OS X, Windows and more operating systems. Whether you are a graphic designer, photographer, illustrator, or scientist, GIMP provides you with sophisticated tools to get your job done. You can further enhance your productivity with GIMP thanks to many customization options and 3rd party plugins.

Get this powerful image editor only if you need a free replacement of Adobe Photoshop and you have time to read tutorials! The image editors list above should be enough for your needs

Image (vector) editors

Dia

Dia is roughly inspired by the commercial Windows program 'Visio,' though more geared towards informal diagrams for casual use. It can be used to draw many different kinds of diagrams. It currently has special objects to help draw entity relationship diagrams, UML diagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, and many other diagrams.

Inkscape

Inkscape is professional quality vector graphics software [...] for creating a wide variety of graphics such as illustrations, icons, logos, diagrams, maps and web graphics.

Inkscape uses the W3C open standard SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) as its native format, and is free and open-source software. Inkscape has sophisticated drawing tools with capabilities comparable to Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW and Xara Xtreme. It can import and export various file formats, including SVG, AI, EPS, PDF, PS and PNG.

Inkscape can theoretically be used as a replacement of Adobe Illustrator

SVG (not ps/pdf) is the native format of Inkscape. If you know that you may have to alter/update a vector image later, you may want to save it in .svg format as well as .pdf, when possible.

PuTTY & Pageant

PuTTY is a free implementation of SSH and Telnet for Windows and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator.

PuTTY is basically an ssh client that will allow you to connect to the LSCE servers with a very efficient text terminal (install VcXsrv and select Enable X11 forwarding in PuTTY if you need to open graphical windows on the remote servers)

The best way to use PuTTY, is to use it with Pageant:

Start Menu => Putty menu => Pageant (this will just put the Pageant icon in the rightmost part of the taskbar, the icon may even me masked)

Right-click on the Pageant icon and choose:

New session to define a new server you want to connect to

Recommended settings:

Saved Sessions to connect to a server

Add key to select a private ssh key and type/store the matching pass phrase (if you have a private ssh key you generated on Linux, you need to convert it with Putty Menu => PuTTYgen)

If you have installed WSL+Ubuntu, you can just open a terminal and type ssh server to connect to the server

WinSCP

WinSCP is a popular SFTP client and FTP client for Microsoft Windows! Copy file between a local computer and remote servers using FTP, FTPS, SCP, SFTP, WebDAV or S3 file transfer protocols.

WinSCP will automatically use the private ssh key stored in Pageant (installed with Putty) for authentication, if Pageant is running

You can use WinSCP to transfer files between your computer and ssh1 when you are outside LSCE.

When you are on the LSCE network, you should directly use local folders on the LSCE servers

If you have installed WSL+Ubuntu, you can directly use scp from a terminal!

ownCloud

ownCloud Desktop Client enables you to connect folders on your desktop to your corporate ownCloud Server. With it you can create folders, organize your local ownCloud directory, and keep the contents of your local directory synced with your ownCloud server. Anything shared with you will also appear in your home directory on your desktop, and changes will be automatically synced.

ownCloud is compatible with the CNRS "mycore" cloud but not (yet) with the LSCE "files" cloud

VLC media player

VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.

Python

Depending on which kind of data, you can install a Python distribution either directly in Windows, or in the Linux section (WSL + Ubuntu or some other Linux flavor) of the computer

CDAT

CDAT is a Python distribution for the climate scientist. It can only be installed in the WSL+Ubuntu part of a Win10 computer. Check the installation instructions for 8.1 (or later)

Anaconda

The Anaconda Python distribution can be installed either directly in Win10, or in the WSL+Ubuntu part of Win10. CDAT (above) uses Anaconda for its installation

Canopy

The Enthought Canopy Python distribution can be installed either directly in Win10, or in the WSL+Ubuntu part of Win10.

VcXsrv Windows X Server

Once VcXsrv is installed (see below), follow the VcXsrv on Win10 extra steps to solve the resolution problems (blurry text, etc...)
Check the Win7 VcXrv section

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Check the WSL page if you want to execute Ubuntu (or another Linux) on your Win10 computer