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Setting up a new Windows PC used to mean a download session: a screenshot tool, an archive utility (which could have major security concerns), something to handle captions. I paid real money for some of them — one was costing me over $30 a year. Then I realized Windows 11 had quietly absorbed most of what I was paying for.
Here are three apps I've stopped downloading entirely, because they're already built in.
Screen snipping and capture is built in
No more paying for Snagit
For many years I've paid for a fabulous screenshot tool called Snagit. It lets you take precise screenshots of isolated parts of the screen, it can record videos using your device's microphone to capture audio (perfect for demonstrations), and you can set a custom hotkey to launch various Snagit tools. Currently, Snagit is $31.20 per year (the price fluctuates with discounts), which I was happy to pay because this kind of marking up of screenshots is an important thing in my line of work and this app makes it so easy. It even has one-click upload to my Google Drive, so I can capture, cloud save, and share a screenshot or screen recording all within the same interface.
But thanks to Windows 11's Snipping Tool, I don't pay for Snagit anymore because most of the key things I use Snagit for are native to Windows 11 for free. To use it, just press the Print Screen button on your keyboard, or press Windows key + Shift + S.
All the basics are there. Pressing the hotkey will start a snip and bring up a selection tool. Then, right after you take the snip, you get a "markup and share" button which brings you to an editor. From the editor, you can mark up the screenshot with a pen, highlighter, or shape tool. If you are using a PC with a pen, Snipping Tool lets you use your pen or stylus to mark up screenshots. You can even pull text with OCR from any screenshot, then one-click copy the text to your clipboard. Then, you can instantly share your screenshot with whatever sharing endpoint you want via the Windows share UI.
But Snipping Tool isn't as powerful as Snagit especially when it comes to sharing. While you can easily upload your screenshot to OneDrive, there's no way to directly upload to Google Drive (like I can with SnagIt), which is frustrating, but there are workaround like using Google Drive for Desktop to keep a folder on your PC synced with the cloud. Another thing that my paid Snagit has that Snipping Tool doesn't is the ability to take scrolling screenshots. For scrolling web screenshots, I use a free Chrome plugin called FireShot which does the same thing. But for most things, the built-in screenshot tool in Windows, Snipping Tool, gets the job done.
Folder compression is another tool I can't live without.
File Explorer finally opens the archives it always should have
No more need for WinZip, WinRAR, or 7-Zip
For years, installing Windows also meant installing a proper file archiving tool, like WinRAR or WinZip, both of which allow you to create and extract compressed ZIP or RAR files. But back in 2023, Microsoft added an open-source library to Windows 11 File Explorer that lets Windows natively extract other compressed file formats like .rar, .7z, .tar, .gz, and .tgz.
The honest caveat here is that you can still only create .zip archives natively. If you need to make a .7z file, or password-protect an archive, you still need something like 7-Zip where you also get superior compression with the .7z file format, plus industrial-grade encryption and faster performance.
But for me and my relatively simple needs to quickly and easily open compressed files, the built-in functionality in File Explorer is good enough such that I no longer need to buy or download something more fancy.
There's one more built-in feature that replaced a paid tool for me: Live Captions.
I stopped uploading audio to transcription sites — Windows does it locally
Windows Live Captions transcribes all audio natively
There are so many times when I can't play audio out loud on my laptop. Perhaps I want to watch a sports game or YouTube video without my whole family hearing. Previous to Windows 11, you had to rely on third-party apps, closed captioning toggles, or audio transcription sites to get text overlays on content. But in Windows 11, it's baked right in, like it is on Android.
To start Live Captions in Windows, just press Windows key + Control + L.
Live Captions uses on-device processing that utilizes a language pack that is downloaded the first time you use this feature, which means that Live Captions works without an internet connection. It's a 50-150MB download and it only happens once.
Then, if you press the settings cog for Live Captions, you can adjust the placement of the text. My favorite is "below screen", so the text doesn't get in the way of the contents.
Windows finally does more
You don't need to buy or download third-party apps as much
Windows still has plenty of room to improve, but Microsoft has done a good job filling in the gaps. Between file compression, Live Captions, and screenshots, that's three apps I no longer download — or pay for.
