There's a todo.txt file on more Windows desktops than any app store will ever admit. Sticky Notes parked on the wallpaper, a legal pad by the keyboard, a Notepad window that's been open since Tuesday.
And at the desk, all of that works, because you're sitting right there with the list in your face. Which makes "best to do list app for Windows" a funny search, since the PC was never the hard part.
Notepad was almost enough
Give the text file its due. It opens instantly, it never asks you to organize anything, and a list you can always see beats a fancy one you have to go find. People who keep todo.txt going for years aren't behind the times, they've noticed that most task apps add work.
The file has two real failures. It can't remind you of anything, so "friday: send the invoice" only helps if you happen to read the file on Friday. And it's welded to that one machine, so the moment you're anywhere else, your list might as well be in a locked drawer.
The free one already on the machine
If you want more than a text file, the honest first stop is Microsoft To Do, because it's free and it's already there. You get due dates, repeats, reminders, and the trick where a flagged email in Outlook becomes a task. For a work day that runs through Outlook, that's a lot for nothing.
We've written up where it stops being enough1, and the short version is that it lives where Microsoft lives. Which is the text file's wall again, just moved further out.
What the desktop is genuinely good at
The desktop is the best place you'll ever have for working a list. A big screen shows the whole week at once, and a real keyboard makes adding ten tasks painless.
So let the desk do desk things. Type in everything that came out of the meeting, give days to whatever has piled up, look at the week in one glance. Ten minutes with a keyboard beats an hour of thumbs, and a pinned browser tab keeps the list one keystroke away the whole workday.
5:15
Then you lock the screen, and whatever list lives in that PC stays in it. On the drive home you remember you're out of printer ink and that you told Sam you'd call the bank. By the time the PC wakes up tomorrow, those thoughts have been rattling around your head for sixteen hours, if they made it at all.
A list that's great at the desk and absent everywhere else does slow damage, because it trains you to keep the real list in your head and use the PC one for show2.
A list that leaves with you
So shop for the away-from-the-desk half, because the at-the-desk half is nearly free. Can you add a task from your phone in a checkout line? Can you say one out loud in the car? Can the reminder land in Slack, where you were already staring?
That's the shape of 42 Todo!. At the PC it's a browser tab, or a question you type to ChatGPT or Claude mid-chat. Away from it, the same list is on your phone, in the car through Android Auto or CarPlay, and listening in the kitchen through Alexa. The desk was never the hard part, so we spent our effort on everywhere else.
Frequently asked questions
What's the best free to-do list for Windows?
- Microsoft To Do, if your day runs through Outlook and Teams. It's free with the account you already have, and flagged emails becoming tasks is genuinely useful. 42 Todo!'s free plan is the one to try if you want the list to follow you out of the building, and on the PC it's just a browser tab.
Is there a 42 Todo! app for Windows?
- Not a native one. On Windows you use the website, Slack, or the ChatGPT and Claude desktop apps. A pinned browser tab covers the desk fine, and the part we sweat is everything that happens after you stand up.
Are desktop sticky notes a real to-do list?
- For three things you'll do today at that desk, honestly, yes. They're visible all day, which beats plenty of apps. They can't remind you of anything, they can't hold a date, and they don't leave the monitor, so anything past today needs a better home.
Can my work PC list and my phone be the same list?
- Yes. It's one list, so a task you type at the desk is on your phone in the store that evening, and the thing you remember in the car is waiting in the browser tab tomorrow morning. Named lists like Work and Personal keep the halves tidy.
Footnotes
- Where Microsoft To Do runs out the fair look at the free one on the machine, and its ceiling. ↩
- What a to-do list app is actually for why where you are when you remember something decides everything. ↩