A handful of small utilities cover the boring half of desktop work: archives, PDFs, quick edits. They are free, they start instantly, and they do not nag.
1. 7 Zip
7 Zip — free download, no account needed. It installs in a minute and stays out of the way.
2. Sumatra Pdf
Sumatra Pdf — free download, no account needed. It installs in a minute and stays out of the way.
Keep the small tools close
None of this replaces judgement, but it removes the friction that eats the working day. The full Windows catalogue is at SoftGalaxy, sorted by category.
