Stop buying third-party apps for Windows when these free tools from Microsoft already do the job

Windows has quietly built a suite of free tools that replace many paid third-party apps. Key highlights include the Snipping Tool's OCR and text extraction via Win+Shift+S, native screen recording, Clipchamp for video editing with AI captions, PowerToys Image Resizer for batch resizing with custom presets, PowerToys Run as a fast app launcher and calculator, and Windows Security as a capable built-in antivirus. Several quality-of-life features like taskbar network speed tests, Storage cleanup, and Android phone integration round out the package.