Are you planning to use Twitter from the Windows desktop outside the web browser? There are quite a few good Twitter clients available for Windows though if you look at the list carefully, you’ll find that most software, if not all, require you to install Adobe AIR first.

TweetDeck, the official Twitter client for Windows, is also the most popular one but there are worthy alternatives like Seesmic Desktop or the elegant MetroTwit.

These are all powerful Twitter software but if you are looking for a more simple alternative – one that gives you access to all features of Twitter but consumes relatively less memory and doesn’t occupy the entire desktop screen – try the new Echofon for Windows.

Echofon - Twitter App for Windows

Echofon is more like running the mobile version of the Twitter website in a standalone Firefox browser. You get access to your Twitter lists, saved searches, @mentions, trending topics and direct messages in the same window. If a tweet includes a picture, Echofon will also display a thumbnail preview in your timeline.

It supports keyboard shortcuts so you can say Ctrl+K to mark all tweets as read or Ctrl+R to check if there are any new tweets in your timeline. While composing a tweet, you can use Ctrl+I to include a picture in your message.

You can even configure multiple Twitter accounts with Echofon. I have been using it as my primary Twitter app since morning and I quite like it though I wish there were shortcut keys to switch from the @mentions view to the main timeline.