Best Windows apps this week
One-hundred and eighty-seven in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 8.x and Windows 10 in the past seven days.
VideoLan, maker of the popular VLC Media Player, has released a new version of VLC for Windows Store. It is a universal application that supports features such as Cortana, Continuum or Live Tiles.
As always, if I missed an app or game that has been released this week that you believe is particularly good, let me know in the comments below or notify me via email instead.
Discounts this week
The following discounts are provided by Red Stripe Deals, a weekly changing list of offers, and the Deals Hub application.
- FluidMath, math app with handwriting support for free
- CodecPacks, media player for $4.99
- Total Manager Pro, file manager for $4.99
- DjVu PDF Viewer, PDF and DjVu reader for $1.49
- Daily Budget Planner, personal finance app for $2.99
- Resume CV Templates, resume templates for $3.99
- PhotoSmile, photo taking app for $2.99
App of the week
VLC for Windows Store is now available as a Universal Windows Application.
New features introduced include support for Cortana, Live Tiles, Pining and Continuum.
The media player supports popular media formats, many of which are not supported out of the box by Windows 10.
The media library has been redesigned, and the player supports features such as subtitle downloads, chapters and audio/ video sync functionality.
VLC for Windows Store supports picture in picture, an audio library as it plays audio formats as well, and network protocols such as DLNA/UPnP, Windows Shares or NFS.
The only thing missing right now is disc playback.
Other apps
Test your Windows PC or Windows mobile device with this popular benchmarking application.
It is just a matter of hitting Start to run various benchmarking tests on the device.
The application tests the CPU, video card, RAM, input and output, and more, and displays scores for each at the end.
You may compare the score with other devices with a click on ranking. Those are however mostly mobile devices which means that it does not make much sense to do so if you run the benchmark on a PC or laptop.
Arcane Quest is a turn-based roleplaying game. You control a party of up to four heroes, each with a distinct set of skills that assists you in your quests.
Each character has a certain number of action points that you may spend for moving, searching or attacking.
Heroes level up while you play the game, get new skills and abilities, and can be equipped with better gear.
The game features multiplayer missions that you can play with others, and a quest editor to create and publish your own missions.
Dictation App ($2.49, free trial available)
Dictation App is a voice recognition and dictation application for Windows 10.
It is easy to use, but requires Internet access to work as voice recognition and speech to text translation is done in the cloud.
Disney Find 'n Seek is a simple "find in picture type of game featuring popular characters from various Disney franchises.
Help Donald, Baymax or Olaf in their quest to find items. The game is divided into books that feature Disney franchises.
The first book is free to play while the remaining five books need to be purchased in-game.
Let's Roll Dice!: Three Kingdoms
Let's Roll Dice is a strategic card driven board game that may remind you of Monopoly.
The core mechanics are the same: you roll dice, move around the board, and occupy spaces that you land on.
Instead of paying money to buy locations, you use troops to occupy them, and warlords to manage them for you.
Enemies can attack most locations with troops and warlords of their own to snag them away from you.
Zootopia: Crime Files Hidden Objects
The second "find in picture" game released by Disney this week.
Zootopia plays similarly to Find 'n Seek. You enter various locations to solve crimes, and need to find clues in each location to proceed.
The game is story driven, and features other activities such as accusing suspects or analyzing evidence.
Notable updates
Enpass password manager gets Windows Hello support, one-time password support, better password generator and more.
Loadkit Download Manager update brings Action Center integration, improved background download stability, and more.