Every so often, a colleague walks up to me and says “Hey Frank, I got this new Windows Mobile phone – can you recommend any good software that I could install on it?” Well, of course it depends on what you want to do, but since I have tested quite a lot of stuff, here’s my favorite 10 apps that I am using on my HTC Touch Pro, in no particular order:

1. Evernote (http://www.evernote.com/about/download/get.php?file=EvernoteWMcab) – great notetaking app (text, photos, audio) with file sync and clients for web, desktop, and iPhone/iPod Touch.
2. WMWiFiRouter (http://www.wmwifirouter.com/) – turns your WM phone into a WiFi access point (cool!).
3. SPB Wallet (http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/pocketpc-software/wallet/) – safe storage for personal data, with desktop client and synchronization.
4. pRSSreader (http://code.google.com/p/prssr/) – RSS reader (which can scan web sites for included RSS feeds, makes adding them very easy).
5. Agenda One: http://www.developerone.com/agendaone/
6. Live Mesh (http://m.mesh.com) – invaluable for transparent file sync between devices; public WM client coming soon.
7. Subsembly Mobile Banking (http://subsembly.com/de/subbanking.html) – great mobile banking client supporting HBCI etc.
8. TouchResponse (http://touchresponse.snailslug.com/) – tactile feedback for HTC touch screen devices.
9. Navigon Mobile Navigator 7 (http://www.navigon.com/site/de/de/products/navigation_software/windowsmobile_pda) – excellent GPS navigation with great UI and rich functionality.
10. Resco File Explorer (http://www.resco-net.com/pocketpc/explorer/) – finger-friendly file management app, includes registry editor & FTP client.

(Disclaimer: As I said, this has been compiled according to my very own subjective criteria of “usefulness”, and does not constitute an official rating by Microsoft ;-)

If you think there is s.th. that I should know about, let me know. Happy to expand this “best of” list with other great stuff.

(Oh, and btw, I got used to TouchFLO 3D in the meantime, so I can currently live without any other custom app launchers – that’s why none of them made it into the list above ;-)