27 BEST Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 apps

Fotor (Free) – Fotor usurps some of the more established names in the imaging industry to become our favourite Windows 8 app for general photo editing. It’s got a well-stocked library of editing tools and effects, and unlike some of its rivals, there’s a strength slider on each of those effects to help make those filters look more subtle, rather than the over-cooked effects you tend to find on Instagram and its ilk. The Tilt-Shift filter – where you make landscape images look like toy villages – is particularly well implemented, with an overlay revealing exactly which parts of the photo will remain in focus. There’s also an option to create photo collages, which is easy to manipulate with touch controls.  You really can’t grumble for free.

Meme-Generator (Free) – Anyone who’s ever pointed their web browser at Reddit will know that daft memes – images accompanied by witty slogans – are what keep the internet amused. This app makes it a doddle to create your own. It includes a batch of popular templates – including Advice Homer, Bad Advice Cat and the ever-popular Success Kid (pictured) – to which you simply overlay your witty slogan. Once you’ve done being funny, you can save the meme locally, or share it via email or any other app using the Windows 8 Share Charm facility. If you don’t like the reasonably unobtrusive ads, you can buy an ad-free version for 79p and stick it to The Man.

Plex (£3.49) – Tablets, and even many modern laptops running SSDs as their primary form of storage, don’t have a great deal of disk space. Plex helps you get around that by streaming your media from other devices. Install the free server software (https://plex.tv/downloads) on your PC or compatible NAS drive, and you can access all your photos, videos or music on your Windows 8 device using the Plex app (provided they’re not wrapped in DRM). The Plex app interface is stunningly well designed, with attractive slideshows of your photos scrolling in the back of menus, and finger-friendly design throughout. Plex also offers a series of online channels, including YouTube and BBC iPlayer, which is particularly handy since the Beeb hasn’t got an official iPlayer app for Windows 8 yet. Shame, then, that we couldn’t get catch-up shows to play on our test device.