i've always used nirsoft's bluescreenview and menu editors:
https://www.nirsoft.net/
another site i came by that has potentially useful stuff:
https://cresstone.com/
https://topmostfriend.flash.moe/
Still staying pretty close to home, osk's Kurumi is a great tool for whipping Windows' terrible time syncing back into shape, I probably use it more than topmostfriend at this point LOL
https://kurumi.osk.sh/
Feel like on every Windows install I ever do getting OldNewExplorer + OpenShell is essential, or StartAllBack if I'm on Windows 11. Also Everything because Windows Explorer search sucks balls lmao
Also being Macbrained I like QuickLook, it replicates the Finder thing where you press space on a selected file to view its contents. It doesn't beat an actual image viewer/media player/whatever but for quick little things it's nice.
On a sidenote, does anyone know of a stupid simple thing for adding custom context menu shortcuts to run commands? I've found that I'm increasingly using ffmpeg more and more to do stupid things like convert YouTube downloads to .wav because for whatever reason yt-dlp'd .mp3's don't properly import into the old ass version of FL I'm using, also stuff like converting video files to "web safe" .mp4's. I've been so tempted to set up one of those stupid Quake drop-down terminals cuz every 2 seconds I'm finding I have to open up command prompt to run ffmpeg -i ... -c:v h264 -c:a aac -pix_fmt yuv420p .... It's 2025 and the quickest way I can take a fuckin video from my iPhone and convert it to something that'll actually consistently play in chat or whatever is to send it to myself on Discord and download it on my PC and do some ffmpeg voodoo and finally use it. Why is this so cumbersome. Maybe we should move to iMessage and just hit the share button like Tim Apple intended, idfk, shit's cooked
This dumb tangent reminded me that I also kinda have a similar thing going on with GIFs. You know what would be a baller program? Ezgif but not a website
More useful stuff I personally use:
WinAeroTweaker - Self-explanatory
Bulk Crap Uninstaller - I use this instead of appwiz.cpl now. Performs an 'analysis' on leftover registry keys and files to remove if needed.
File Converter - Quick and easy conversion of files to different formats via the contexxt menu. I think the specifics are tweak-able but the defaults are good enough for me honestly.
T-Clock - Works on the old taskbar brought back by SAB, allows you to change the tray clock format. Also comes with little niceties.
Twinkle Tray - Adjust brightness of connected monitors with a tray pop up or scrolling on the tray icon.
Portals - Free Stardock Fences alternative, probably the best alternative imo.
MacType - Better font rendering on Windows.
CompactGUI - A frontend for compact.exe, useful for games that take up a lot of space
Tailscale - The free tier is really good and it allows me to access my Home PC from anywhere, and is very reliable so far.