Best Windows 10 apps this week
Three-hundred-and-twenty-five in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Windows Store in the past seven days.
Windows 10 admins who run Windows 10 version 1809 can enable Retpoline to improve performance on these devices. Microsoft integrated the improvement to Windows 10 version 1809 but not in earlier versions of Windows.
Microsoft also released the Windows Calculator application as open source this week.
As always, if I've 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.
Discounts this week
The following list is a selection of the best deals. Make sure you check out the Store for all offers.
Some apps are discounted for more than one week. Only new apps and games are listed below. Check out the previous post in the series for past offers that may still be valid.
- Brain App, brain training app, for $0.99
- Orange Reminder, reminder app, for $0.99
- SQL Mimic, compare SQL Server databases, for free
- Theine, keeps the PC awake, for $0.99
- WiFi Tool - Analyzer & Scanner, for $2.99
New Windows apps and games
A slow week in terms of new application or game releases.
Amazing Mages is a well designed game that mixes strategy and role-playing elements with elements from so-called idle-games.
It is a tactical fantasy game at its core. You recruit and level up heroes, equip them, and fight against hordes of monsters.
The idle part comes into play when you defeat the monsters of a level. Your heroes fight against the monsters of that level over and over again until you move somewhere else; they generate resources and experience which you may collect.
Note that it is one of those pay money or grind type of games.
KeyPenX ($8.99)
The commercial application adds options to control certain applications with the Surface Pen or a comparable digital pen.
You may use it to control apps such as PowerPoint (desktop), Adobe Acrobat and Reader, Google Slides, OpenOffice or LibreOffice, to record an audio clip or take a camera snapshot, or to launch different applications including Win32 programs.
The app was designed with PowerPoint in mind. It includes functionality to go to the next or previous slide, or start a slideshow.
Another wallpaper theme for Windows 10. It includes 18 Mardi Gras related images that focus on masks.
Microsoft publishes new wallpaper themes for Windows 10 regularly. The Springtime Art theme is the latest in a series of seasonal themes for the operating system.
Install the theme and switch to it to display the 18 different spring related wallpaper images on schedule or individually.
Notable updates
Facebook Messenger (Beta) application updated. Introduces chat search, data saver function, messenger account creation from within the app, and more.
Mail and Calendar app with full dark mode support in latest update.
Microsoft ends support for Microsoft Band and Microsoft Health on May 31, 2019.
Microsoft To-Do application update brings enhanced search functionality, attachment improvements, and more.
Twitter PWA update adds popularity information to hashtags that you add to your tweets.