Popular business apps for Windows
Microsoft’s Windows operating system is definitely the mainstay when it comes to the business world – pretty much every office has it installed on their computers, and it’s easy to see why: the OS has a lot apps and software for it that have no alternatives on other operating systems, so even if the workers wanted to use for example, Mac OS X, they wouldn’t be able to.
But there’s really no reason not to want Windows on your computer, aside from the cost – the OS is very stable and good for everything, especially the latest versions, and the many apps are very functional, with a lot of features that are unique to the platform.
If you’re using Windows for business purposes, you just have to check out the following apps:
Microsoft Office. The Office suite is Microsoft’s second most popular product and it’s actually the one with the most users if you consider all the Mac users who bought it. It has set the standard in document editing and that’s why it’s the number one choice for any business or individual who needs to work with documents. With Word, Excel, PowerPoint and several other programs, you can create and edit almost any kind of document, and the end result will never disappoint.
Microsoft Visio. Visio is relatively new in Microsoft’s business tools stable, but it’s already one of the most popular programs in the world. What it does is basically allow you to draw or diagram anything you want using a nice interface and a ton of tools. You can draw mind maps, org charts, any kind of graphs, electric and architectural diagrams and more. You can then export the result as an image for easy integration in other documents or output to a projector.
Google SketchUp. Google’s SketchUp is a free but little known app that lets you sketch pretty much anything you want. You can draw anything in 2D or 3D, and thanks to vectors, which the program uses, the image can always be sized as much as you want for easy printing. Diagrams, cross-section views, charts, architectural designs – everything can be done in SketchUp.
Mozilla Thunderbird. Firefox is Mozilla’s most well-known product, but their other major program deserves to be more popular, as well – Thunderbird is pretty much the best email client on the market. It’s better than Outlook, especially when you factor in all the plugins, and it lets you manage multiple email accounts, set up notifications and auto responders (with a very advanced filter system), create appointments, tasks and schedules, and more. It’s a must for any business computer running Windows!
VirtualBox.If you’re in the software business and need to be able to test your products in multiple environments or you have some legacy software that will only work on Windows 98, for example, virtualization is one of your best bets, and VirtualBox is pretty much the best virtualization software you can get – and it’s completely free! It’s got an excellent base, a lot of features (including advanced 3D acceleration for Windows and Linux) and it’s very stable – ready to be used in production environments right away.
If you’re running Windows on your computer and plan on or are already using it for your business, be sure to check out the apps listed above – I’m sure you’ll find them useful no matter what type of business you’re in and you’ll see just how functional Microsoft’s OS is – there’s really no competition when it comes to that!
