Windows
There’s more to life than writing on tablets, and most people have access to a computer of some kind. Now that Windows 8 is actually available, this section will cover apps for both, as all Windows 7 apps will work on 8, and there are certainly more of those out right now.
Notepad
Price: Free
Like TextEdit on Mac OS, you can always use the Windows favourite Notepad to write in pure text, or even switch to Wordpad if you want to save in something a little more interesting than txt format. Sadly, Microsoft never really updated the program, so it won’t export to Dropbox or other backup services natively, so make sure to backup your files by hand.
Q10
Price: Free
Clear, simple, and fullscreen, Q10 is about as distraction-free as it gets, and since iA Writer doesn’t exist
ZenWriter
Price: Free
A clone of OmmWriter for Windows, ZenWriter includes similar minimalist background music and a serene wallpaper to write to. There are a few background to choose from, and you can spellcheck inside the app, create folders, and print.
OmmWriter
Price: $4.99;Â Older version available for free
Just like its brother on Mac OS, OmmWriter is all about clearing your head and typing. We’re more fans of the ambient soundtrack in this than in ZenWriter, but both have free versions, so it might be worth checking out the duo and seeing which you prefer.
Note Sphere (Windows 8 specific)
Price: Free
Windows 8 hasn’t been out for very long, and as such, there aren’t many apps that take advantage of the neat and clean modern touchscreen interface it uses. Note Sphere isn’t the best writing app we’ve seen yet, but we could certainly use it for NaNoWriMo, and it’s actually what we used for writing this story and even a review or two. You can create categories and add notes for each day, and it backs up the information to various drives too.
Scrivener
Price: $40; 30-day free trial available
Just as good as its Mac OS brother, Scrivener for Windows lets you do all the same things such as scrapbooking ideas, work the chapters out on a corkboard, and export into PDF and ePub, only it works in Windows.
