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Last week on Processor we covered a bunch of utilities for the Mac and, as promised, here’s the Windows 10 side of things. As with the last piece, I wanted to focus in on utilities instead of apps — little tools that improve how you do little things on the PC.

I bounce around from Windows, Mac, and Chrome OS a lot. That’s meant that I’ve had a hard time keeping up with everything that’s available on all three platforms, so I got an assist from Tom Warren. Tom confirmed a opinion I had as I was looking around for any tools I might have missed: Microsoft is doing a great job updating Windows 10 with new features on a very fast cadence.

Later this year, Microsoft will be introducing features that are similar to — and might even obviate — three of the utilities we talk about in the video above. As Tom says, it’s a good indication that “Microsoft is listening” to its users. I agree, though that open ear and open mind has its limits. The Redstone 5 update will have better screenshots, and clipboard history — among many other improvements.

Of course, if you're Microsoft, you have the “opportunity” to focus on your desktop OS more than others. When you don’t have a phone operating system to worry about, it’s a lot easier to put your efforts into what you do have.

Windows 10 is getting updates at a rapid pace

At the same time that Microsoft is adding much-requested features, it’s also pushing just as hard to box its users into using Edge, Cortana, and Bing. We’re a long ways from the legal battle that forced Microsoft to stop pushing IE back in the day, but Windows 10 should respect a user’s default choices.

It’s tempting to resign yourself to that kind of bundling in modern operating systems. After all, Apple is even more locked-down on iOS and ChromeOS only recently began offering ways to use other browsers. And when I use Windows 10, I tend to stick to Edge because I think it’s a lighter-weight browser.

But let’s not do that. Windows 10 and the Mac are the two biggest and best mass-market operating systems that are easy to customize at a deep level. As I’ve said so often that I know you’re getting tired of it, that customization is important. It empowers users and can serve as a way to get people to feel confident doing more complicated things on their computers. It’s a lot easier to think you can learn to code if you’ve already fixed a bunch of little hassles on your computer.

At the risk of turning this into yet another Mac vs PC debate (this isn’t the moment), I will say that I’m mainly disappointed in Microsoft’s aggressive tactics with Bing and Edge because the rest of the OS is just so good. There are so many little things that are smart: auto-hiding icons in the System Tray, snapping windows, and the Start Menu.

I still wish the app ecosystem was stronger, but I give credit to Microsoft for being ahead of both Apple and Google in trying to bring mobile app (and web app) paradigms to the desktop. Maybe too far ahead of its time, in some ways.

Anyway, if you haven’t used Windows 10 in awhile, I encourage you to take a fresh look. It’s very close to feeling like a whole and complete thought instead of a bunch of new features tacked on over the years. There are little hassles and plenty of inelegant things to complain about, but there’s also a coherence that you won’t get on other desktop platforms.

And when it doesn’t meet your needs, there are utilities for that. Here are seven we like (two of them were cut for time in the video above).

Updated at 3pm ET June 27th to reflect the news that tab sets won’t arrive in the next update.