Scott Hanselman's 2007 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows

August 24, 2007 12:42 AM Comments [132] Posted in Tools
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Japanese Translation: Yasushi Aoki has translated the Tools List to Japanese! You can find it here http://www.hanselman.com/tools/ja-jp/ 訳: 青木靖.

Everyone collects utilities, and most folks have a list of a few that they feel are indispensable.  Here's mine.  Each has a distinct purpose, and I probably touch each at least a few times a week.  For me, util means utilitarian and it means don't clutter my tray.  If it saves me time, and seamlessly integrates with my life, it's the bomb. Many/most are free some aren't. Those that aren't free are very likely worth your 30-day trial, and perhaps your money.

Here are most of the contents of my C:/UTILS folder. These are all well loved and used.  I wouldn't recommend them if I didn't use them constantly. Things on this list are here because I dig them. No one paid money to be on this list and no money is accepted to be on this list.

Shameless Personal Plug: Discover more cool tools and programming tips on my weekly Podcast with Carl Franklin - Hanselminutes (Podcast Feed/Podcast Archives) - "Our show is guaranteed not to waste your time. Free free to listen in double speed and waste half as much."

This is the Updated for 2007 Version of my Original List and 2005 and 2006 List, and currently subsumes all my other lists. Link to http://www.hanselman.com/tools when referencing the latest Hanselman Ultimate Tools List. Feel free to get involved here in the comments, post corrections, or suggestions for future submissions in the HanselForums. I very likely made mistakes, and probably forgot a few utilities that I use often.

  • New Entries to the 2007 Ultimate Tools are in Red. There are dozens of additions and many updated and corrected entries and fixed links.
NOTE: Please don't reproduce this in its entirety, I'd rather you link to http://www.hanselman.com/tools. I appreciate your enthusiam, but posts like this take a lot of work on my part and I'd appreciate that work staying where it is and linked to, rather than being copy/pasted around the 'net. Also, I do believe in the Permanence of the Permalink, and I will do everything in my power (as I have for the last 4+ years) to avoid Link Rot. If you're reading this content and you're not at http://www.hanselman.com/blog, perhaps you'd like to join us at the original URL?)

The Big Ten Life and Work-Changing Utilities

  • THREE WAY TIE: Notepad2 or Notepad++ (Scite also uses the same codebase) or E-TextEditor - The first two are great text editors. Each has first class CR/LF support, ANSI to Unicode switching, whitespace and line ending graphics and Mouse Wheel Zooming. A must. Here's how to completely replace notepad.exe. Personally I renamed Notepad2.exe to "n.exe" which saves me a few dozen "otepad"s a day. Here's how to have Notepad2 be your View Source Editor. Here's how to add Notepad2 to the Explorer context menu. E-TextEditor is new on the block this year, inspired by TextMate in the Macintosh. It includes a "bundle" system that uses the scripting power of the Cygwin Linux-like environment for Windows to provide a more IDE-like experience than Notepad2 or Notepad++. It costs, though, but you should absolutely try it's 30-day trial before you shell out your US$35.
    • Notepad++ is built on the same fundamental codebase as Notepad2, and includes tabbed editing and more language syntax highlighting. Is one better than the other? They are different. I use Notepad2 as a better Notepad, but more and more I find myself using E-TextEditor aka TextMate for Windows when I need to crunch serious text. As with all opinions, there's no right answer, and I think there's room for multiple text editors in my life. These are the three I use.
  • PowerShell - The full power of .NET, WMI and COM all from a command line. PowerShell has a steep learning curve, much like the tango, but oh, my, when you really start dancing...woof. I also use PowerShell Prompt Here.
    • I also recommend after installing PowerShell that you immediately go get PowerTab to enable amazing "ANSI-art" style command-line tab completion.
    • Next, go get the PowerShell Community Extensions to add dozens of useful commands to PowerShell.
    • If you're willing to pay (and wait a little) keep an eye on PowerShell Plus. I'm on the beta, and while it'll cost a reasonable fee, it'll be amazing. Certainly not required, but very shiny.
  • Lutz's Reflector and its Many AddIns - The tool that changed the world and the way we learn about .NET. Download it, select an interesting method and hit the space bar. Take the time to install the Add-Ins and check out the amazing static analysis you can do with things like the Diff and Graph.
  • SlickRun - A free floating dynamic "command prompt" with alias support that continues to amaze. My tips for effective use: read the instructions, edit the slickrun.ini file and bind it to Window-R. Also set ChaseCursor so when you hit Win-R, you'll have a floating transparent command line anywhere your mouse is. I recommend you also use larger fonts! Get to know this little box. It's the bomb. I've tried dozens of launchers, giving each days of actual use, but I keep coming back to SlickRun.
  • FireBug - Arguably the most powerful in-browser IDE available. It's a complete x-ray into your browser including HTML, CSS and JavaScript, all live on the page. A must have.
  • ZoomIt - ZoomIt is so elegant and so fast, it has taken over as my #1 screen magnifier. Do try it, and spend more time with happy audiences and less time dragging a magnified window around. Believe me, I've tried at least ten different magnifiers, and ZoomIt continues to be the best.
  • WinSnap and Window Clippings - I'm torn between two of the finest screenshot utilities I've ever found. Free, clean, fast and tight, WinSnap has as many (or as few) options as you'd like. Also does wonders with rounded corners and transparency. It includes a 32-bit and 64-bit version, as well as a portable no-install version. However, Window Clippings also has no install, includes 32 and 64-bit and is only $10. It's a tough one. I use Window Clippings at least daily, and I use WinSnap a few times a week. Kenny Kerr of Window Clippings is actively adding new features and has a nice clean add-in model on his Developers site. Both these apps are worth your download.
  • CodeRush and Refactor! (and DxCore) - Apparently my enthusiasm for CodeRush has been noticed by a few. It just keeps getting better. However, the best kept secret about CodeRush isn't all the shiny stuff, it's the free Extensibility Engine called DxCore that brings VS.NET plugins to the masses. Don't miss out on free add-ins like CR_Documentor and ElectricEditing.
  • SysInternals - I showed specifically ProcExp and AutoRuns, but anything Mark and Bryce do is pure gold. ProcExp is a great Taskman replacement and includes the invaluable "Find DLL" feature. It can also highlight any .NET processes. AutoRuns is an amazing aggregated view of any and all things that run at startup on your box.
    • A great new addition to the SysInternals Family is Process Monitor, a utility that eclipses both Filemon and Regmon. It runs on any version of Windows and lets you see exactly what a process is doing. Indispensable for developing.
    • It's also worth calling out the legendary Process Explorer as a standout and must-have utility.
  • FolderShare - It takes a minute to grok, but FolderShare lets you synchronize folders between systems, between OS's, behind firewalls. Truly change the way you use your machine. Save a file in a folder and it will always been on your other three machines when you need it. Also access files, if you like, from remote locations. And it's free.

A Developer's Life

  • TestDriven.NET (integrated with NCoverExplorer) - The perfect combination of Unit Testing with Visual Studio.NET. Right click and "Run Test." The output window says "Build" then switches to "Test." The best part, though, is "Test With...Debugger" as a right click that automatically starts up an external process runner, loads and starts your test. Compatible with NUnit, MBUnit and Team System. TD.NET also works with Silverlight.
  • Eric J Smith's CodeSmith - Oh, yes, it's much more than just a Strongly Typed Collection Generator. It's a complete code-generation engine with an ASP.NET-like syntax. Very extendable, very powerful, very affordable. And all is right with the world. I've used it to generate THOUSANDS of lines of code. There's a learning curve, but the benefits are immense. It's worth the download just for the Strongly Typed Collection code from Chris Nahr.  CodeSmith is a company and costs now, but the $99 version is worth your time and money.
  • Query Express - Wow, a Query Analyzer look-alike that doesn't suck, doesn't need an install, is wicked fast, is free and is only 100k. Pinch me, I'm dreaming.
  • WatiN Test Recorder - WatiN is Web Application Testing in .NET, and this Test Recorder will generate chunks of source for you by recording your clicks in an embedded IE browser. It makes my old WatirRecorder pale in comparison.
  • Jeff Key's Snippet Compiler - Sits quietly waiting for you to test a quick snippet of code or algorithm.  No need to even start VS.NET! Jeff hasn't updated it in a while, but perhaps its *re-inclusion* on this list will pressure him to get working on it again.
  • Jeff Atwood's CleanSourcesPlus - Jeff extends on Omar's idea of a quick Explorer utility that lets you right click on any folder with code in it and get your bin,obj,debug,release directories blown away. Jeff's includes configuration options for deleting things like Resharper folders and Source Control bindings.
  • MemProfiler - The amount of information this tool offers is obscene. We used this at my last job to track down a number of funky memory leaks.
  • The IIS Diagnostics Toolkit is a collection of small utilities from the IIS Team that make life under IIS just that much more pleasant. These tools help with debugging, tracing, log sniffing and email delays.
    • LogParser - Get to know it, as it's a free command-line tool from Microsoft that lets you run SQL queries against a variety of log files and other system data sources, and get the results out to an array of destinations, from SQL tables to CSV files. I dig it and use it to parse my own logs.
  • SOSEX .NET Debugging Extension by Steve Johnson - John Robbins has a writeup with screenshots praising SOSEX. It's a WinDBG extension that adds commands to WinDBG that really should have been there in the first place for .NET development, like !gcgen, !dlk, and !vars.
  • WinMerge - The best open-source Diff Merge Tool that I've found.
    • More and more people are trying to push me towards DiffMerge the new free merge tool from SourceGear. The merge window is pretty compelling...
    • KDiff3 is another free option with very configurable color schemas, multi-paned view, and it's cross platform on Linux, Windows and Mac.
  • VM VM Optimizer - If you use VMs, you'll want them small. There's lots of ways to do this manually, but for about $70 (how much is your time worth?) Invirtus VM Optimizer will squish the hell out of your VMs for you, automatically. I've used it with great success.
  • HightLight for Windows - Highlight is a universal sourcecode converter for Linux and Windows, which transforms code to HTML, XHTML, RTF, LaTeX or TeX - files with syntax highlighting. (X)HTML output is formatted by CSS.
  • FileHelpers - This open source library is the easiest way I've found to get data out of fixed-length or delimited text files and into Sql or Excel.
  • NirSoft Utilities Collection - Nearly everything NirSoft does is work looking at. My favorites are MyUninstaller, a replacement for Remove Programs, and WhoIsThisDomain.
    • Also check out ZipInstaller; it installs utilities that don't provide their own installer! It creates icons, puts them in the folder you want and adds an uninstaller.
  • FireBug - Arguably the most powerful in-browser IDE available. It's a complete x-ray into your browser including HTML, CSS and JavaScript, all live on the page. A must have. It's on the list twice. Go get it.
  • Page Spy for IE - I go back and forth between PageSpy and the IE Developer Toolbar. PageSpy makes it really easy to find items on the page in the HTML source. It's a better View Source.
  • WebDeveloper for FireFox - If you're the last developer to download FireFox, or you're holding off, WebDeveloper is a solid reason to switch to FireFox NOW. It's amazing and has to be used to be believed. It consolidates at least 2 dozens useful functions for those who sling ASP.NET or HTML. And if you're a CSS person, the realtime CSS editing is pretty hot.
  • Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar - While not as feature-packed as FireBug or Web Developer Toolbar, the IE Developer Toolbar marches on and should be in the toolkit of any web developer supporting IE.
    • Fiddler - More feature-packed than the elegantly minimalist ieHttpHeaders, Fiddler is THE debugging proxy for checking out HTTP between here and there.
    • ieHttpHeaders - Internet Explorer "Explorer Bar" that shows the HTTP Headers as you browse.  Invaluable for quickie debugging.  More great stuff from Jonas Blunck. I still install this one first as it's just so basic.
  • MSI Utilities - This site lists darn near every MSI related utility.
  • Telerik Code Converter - Website that converts C# to VB and VB to C#.
    • CarlosAg's CodeTranslator - One of the first, and many say, the best. An AJAXy Code Converter that'll do to and from C# and VB.NET.

The Angle Bracket Tax (XML/HTML Stuff)

  • XPathMania from DonXML - This is an extension to the XML Editor within Visual Studio 2005 that allows you to execute XPath queries against the current document dynamically. Created under the Mvp.Xml umbrella project - also a kickbutt XML extension library.
  • SketchPath for XPath - SketchPath does for XPath what Regulator did for Regular Expressions. It's early beta, but it's totally hardcore.
  • Web Services Studio Express - A nice little interactive Web Services tester, source included, hosted up on CodePlex.
  • Mindreef SOAPscope - The original. The glory forever, this is more than an Add-In, it's a complete XML Web Services design studio. It's a bargain and works even better when setup in a workgroup. It keeps a database of all Web Services traffic, but it's more than a sniffer. It also analyzes data for WS-I compliance and allows for record and replay of messages. "It's Tivo for Web Services!" It'll cost you a bit, but if you do Web Services all day, it's worth the money.
  • XmlSpy - Just buy it.
  • SSW Link Auditor - C#-based Link Auditor that crawls your site looking for bad links and makes a fine report. SSW has a pile (like 60) of great products. They do cost money, but they are very modestly priced. Disclosure, I know the owner, he's a nice guy.

Regular Expressions

  • David Seruyange's "NRegEx" Ajax-based RegEx Tester - An very minimalist online Ajax-based ASP.NET site, I keep turning to this via a bookmark when I want to test a quick RegEx. It'll tell me how a RegEx will work in .NET.
    • RexV - Another excellent, better laid out RegEx evaluator, useful for RegEx's that'll run in JavaScript.
  • Roy Osherove's Regulator - Roy entered the RegEx fray with a bang, and with syntax highlighting and web services integration with regexlib.com. The very definition of slick.
    • RegEx Visualizers for VS 2005 - Roy has extended his toolkit to include Debug Visualizers for Regular Expressions, based on his Regulator code base.
    • Regulazy - Currently at version 1.01, this tool is a great way for newbies to start using Regular Expressions. Write regular expressions without prior knowledge of the syntax!
      "So you've got a problem, and you want to use Regular Expressions to solve it. Now you've got two problems."
  • RegexDesigner.NET from Chris Sells - Simple, elegant, small. A great little application.
  • Regular Expression builder inside of SharpDevelop - Which is worth the download just to read the SharpDevelop code!
  • Funduc's Search and Replace - Multiple file search and replace on steroids! You'll love it if you love Grep.

Launchers

  • Slickrun - still the sexy favorite, this little floating magic bar keeps me moving fast, launching programs, macros and explorer with its shiny simplicity.
    Tell them I sent you.
    • Also available is an Open Source project called MagicWords (not updated since Feb 07) that looks similar to SlickRun.
  • SmartStartMenu - Shaun Harrington has created this elegant little application that lives in the task bar and automatically indexes the list of items in your Start Menu for quick access with the speed of AutoComplete. It will take system commands, paths to launch explorer, even UNC paths. Launch anything on your system with less than 4 keystrokes. It also adds new context menus to Explorer like CopyPath and Open in DOS box to Explorer.
  • Martin Plante, hot off his gig at Xceed has created slimKEYS, a "universal hotkey manager" with a simple .NET plugin architecture. If you've got ideas or thoughts, visit the slimCODE Forums.
    Have you ever wanted to bind something to Shift-Ctrl-Alt-Window-Q but didn't know how to grab a global hotkey? This will launch programs, watch folders, and find files. It has great potential as more and more plugins appear.
  • Humanized Enso - Unquestionably the smoothest and most interesting user interface of the launchers, Enso pops up as the Caps-Lock key is held down, and performs the command when the key is released. It takes a minute to understand, but it's a very clean UI metaphor.
  • Tidy Start Menu - If you still love the Start Menu, but you've installed everything on this list and your menu takes up more room than you have pixels, this program will organize it all.
    • Also try SMOz (Start Menu Organizer)
  • Colibri - The closest thing so far, IMHO, to Quicksilver on Windows, although this little gem has a slow startup time, it runs fast! It's being actively developed and promises integration with a dozen third party programs. It also formally supports "Portable Mode" for those of you who like to carry your apps around on a USB key.
  • DashCommand - The world continues to try to make QuickSilver for Windows and the very fresh DashCommand is a good start. Dash does a nice job of using the current context (like the currently selected folder) for it's commands. Select a folder in Explorer, call up Dash and say Zip and it's zipped.
  • Launchy - Another do it all application, this one Open Source and written entirely in .NET, Launchy binds to Alt-Space by default. This app also has the potential to be Quicksilver like if it start including support for stringing together verb-noun combos. It's pretty as hell and totally skinnable (there's TWO Quicksilver skins included!)
  • AppRocket SkyLight -this little bar sits at the top of your screen, popping down an active list of Bookmarks, Programs, Music, Web Queries and more.  It's unclear if this tool is being enhanced for future versions as folks have reported not hearing from the company in a while. 
  • ActiveWords - Arguably the most minimal of these launchers (as it can have no UI at all if you like!), but the most configurable. ActiveWords watches everything you type, in every application, so anything you've just typed could potentially be used by you to launch a program, a macro, send email, or give you Auto-Correct in any application. Check out their screencast/demos and their scripting language. It also is the only launcher (I've seen) with explicit support for the Tablet PC and allows ink to trigger an "Active Word." 
  • DirectAccess - Similar to ActiveWords in some ways, but with a fresher UI, this speedy app lets you build up collections of system-wide abbreviations for quick access.
  • Dave's Quick Search Bar - Written originally in JavaScript and now written in magic and ensconced in voodoo, this little Toolbar sits in your Windows Task bar (or wherever you choose to drag it) and supports a huge community of macro writers who've enabled it as a Calculator, Web Searcher, People Finder, Currency Converter and literally hundreds of other tasks via simple to write plugins. Very actively developed and on the web for over 5 years (that's like 100 people years). It even has a Search Wizard to create your own web searches by example.
  • Google Desktop - Google Desktop has an option that let's you use it as a quick program launcher along with fantastic search abilities by tapping Ctrl-Ctrl. 
  • Find and Run Robot - Lightweight, small, quiet until you need it. This little application allows for tunable heuristics to make it work like you think. Demo Screencast here.
  • Run++ - The only ClickOnce launcher I've found. Requires .NET 2.0. It was developed using the free Visual Studio Express!

Window Management

  • Ultramon - When an item is on this list twice, it's on purpose. Ultramon is the first thing I install after Windows. I sure wish someone would just buy this guy's company.
  • GridMove - Some how I keep turning to Grid Move. I've got three large monitors and this simple little application causes your windows to "snap" to configurable locations. Less resizing, more work.
    • ZMover - I'm not quite ready to give this guy my $15, but I'm close. ZMover keeps a small database of your applications and lets you set preferences for size, position and Z-order. Basic, and should have been built into Windows.

Stuff I Just Dig

  • DarkRoom - When I just want everything to go away so I can think, I don't just want a clean desktop, I want a Dark Room to work in. I love this text editor for getting my thoughts straight. I also use it for more dramatic presentations.
  • InstallPad - How long until someone creates an InstallPad application list containing the complete contents of this post? I dunno, but it'd be cool. InstallPad takes care of downloading and installing the latest versions of all your favorite apps. What a great way to get from a freshly paved machine to something usable by me. :) This tool hasn't been updated in a long time, but it's still cool.
  • Foxit Reader for Windows - Fast as hell. Version 2.0 is even better. This little PDF reader requires no installer and is tiny and fast. Did I mention fast? Good bye, Acrobat. Sorry.
  • Virtual TI-89 [Emulator] - Sometimes CALC.EXE doesn't cut it, and I want a REAL scientific calculator for Windows, so I emulate the one I used in college.
  • XPLite and 2000Lite - Sometimes Windows is just too fat. XPLite has a crippled free trial, but the purchased version really lets you customize your Windows System by subtraction. That means, removing as many unused or unneeded services as you'd like, creating the tiniest of systems. Great for making small VMs.
  • VisiCalc (vc.exe) - Because I just like having a copy of VisiCalc in my utils folder.  I use it occasionally. Works fine on Vista.
  • DiskView - The most powerful disk usage program I've found, DiskView integrates nicely with Explorer and includes SMART disk health statistics.
    • SequoiaView - A fast Treemap of your disk usage!
    • WinDirStat - There's a lot of Disk Visualization Tools out there, but this one just seems to tell me exactly what I need to know and it can be run without installation.
    • OverDisk - This one's stuck at version 0.11b but it's still worth a download. It's a pie chart view of your disk space usage. It runs really slow - takes forever, really - however, it's worth the wait.
  • VLC Media Player - Screw all other media players. When you just want to watch video. Bam.
  • WhiteBoard Photo - Has to be seen to be believed. Takes a skewed low-contrast, bad photo of a Whiteboard and automatically corrects it and offers up a clean white sheet of paper with a color corrected and keystoned photo of your whiteboard.  Check out the demo. Way expensive though.
  • FAR File Manager - Norton Commander is back, it is still text mode, it's still lightning speed and it's from the makers of RAR File Archiver. I'll race you. I get FAR, you get Explorer.
  • Skype - Internet VOIP Calls with better sound than the POTS phone? Free? Conference calls as well? Sign me up.
  • Cygwin - Remind yourself of your roots and give yourself a proper Unix prompt within Windows. However, it's less about the prompt as it is about the wealth of command-line tools you'll gain access to.
  • FinePrint - This virtual printer lets you save paper, print booklets, delete pages and graphics, and provides print preview for every application.
  • BlogJet - I freaking love this little guy. Works great with DasBlog, supports spellcheck, file upload, makes clean HTML, and includes Music Detection support as well as posting of Audio to your blog. Version 2.0 is even better with integration with all major blog readers and browsers. Looks like Office, too.
  • Acronis TrueImage - has saved me a half dozen times. Image your whole life. Relatively inexpensive and VERY easy to use. However, know that their support is ass-tastic.
    • If you can, think about a Windows Home Server for backup. As soon as WHS supports Vista 64, it'll be over for TrueImage for me.
  • Fraps - DirectX video capture! Exactly what you need when you want full screen video of a DirectX or OpenGL application.
  • 7-ZIP - The 7z format is fast becoming the compression format that choosey hardcore users choose. You'll typically get between 2% and 10% better compression than ZIP.
  • xplorer2 - Norton Commander-like functionality for Windows. It's one better than Explorer.
  • SyncBack - How can you not like a company named 2BrightSparks? There's a Freeware SE version as well. Golden, with a clean crisp configuration UI, I use this tool internally for scheduled backups and syncs between machines within my family network.
  • TimeSnapper - Tivo for your desktop? Kind of. TimeSnapper can't give you files back, but it'll take a screenshot in the background at user-configurable intervals and let you answer the burning question - What was I doing all day at work? Free and only 80k. Another brilliant idea blatantly stolen off my list of things to do and executed by folks more clever than I. Kudos.
  • AutoHotKey - Programming for non-programmers. It's a complete automation system for Windows without the frustration of VBScript. This is the Windows equivalent of AppleScript for Windows. (That's a very good thing.)
  • Tor Anonymous Browsing - This tool lets your anonymous your web browsing and publishing. Use it when you're on the road, or staying in a hotel. Try PortableTor if you want to run it all of your USB key.

Low-Level Utilities

  • The Ultimate Boot CD and the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows - I've downloaded and saved everything from BootDisks.com, including Win95 and Win98 boot disks and a DOS 6.22 disk. The boot CDs are life-savers and should be taken to all family gatherings where the relatives KNOW you're a computer person. They'll expect you to save their machines before the turkey is served.
  • Bart's Preinstalled Enviroment (BartPE) - Ever want to just boot quickly off a CD and get some data off an NTFS drive? What about network access? This is a bootdisk you'll keep in your bag all the time.
  • DllFiles - You never know when you might need an old-ass dll.
  • Videroa Converters - I love these guys. They have Video convertors for iPhones, PSPs, XBox360, Tivos, AppleTVs, everything. They are all free, but do donate to them if you can.
  • DVDDecrypter and other utils -  When you just need to make an archival backup copy of a DVD.
    • DVDWizardPro - Another nice one that writes to MANY formats.
    • PSPVideo9 - Meant for the Playstation Portable, this utility is more useful that you think. It creates MP4 squished video you can use anywhere.
  • Daemon, Virtual CD ISO Image Mounter - This is the utility that lets you mount an ISO image as a Drive Letter...nice to keep a library of CDs around on a Firewire drive. Very robust. Works well on Vista 64.
  • Synergy - Share the same keyboard between two systems...I use this to move the mouse cursor out the right side of my monitor and onto the one that's connected to my Mac.
  • YATT by Simon Fell - Yet Another Trace Tool, requires WinPCAP, when you just need to sniff some packets. 
  • WireShark - Used to be called Ethereal, but it's Wireshark. Very free, and very good. I've had trouble with it on Vista, though, so if you're on Vista, consider using...
  • ...the Microsoft Network Monitor 3.1 - Version 3.x was a fine upgrade to NetMon, overhauling the guts. This is a very full featured sniffer and I've never had a problem with it.
  • ProxyTrace - Often less trouble than the Microsoft Soap Toolkit's SOAPTrace. 
  • Unlocker - Nicely integrated into Explorer's right-click menu and challenges Process Explorer directly on their site. Ballsy. I love it.
  • Process Explorer - The ultimate replacement for TaskManager. Includes the amazing Find DLL feature to find out what processes have your DLL in memory.
  • Sid2User - CommandLine Util to take a SID and get a Real Name to, for example, get the local name of the "Everyone" user.
  • Strings - Gives you more detail that you can handle about text hidden within binaries.

Websites and Bookmarklets

  • TinyUrl.com - Makes big urls tiny. For when you're emailing a long URL to someone and you KNOW they will freakout it if wraps.
  • Visibone HTML/JavaScript Reference - These guys make a great physical paper reference, but they also have a great .HTML file you can download for free that has ASCII charts and Color references.  It's a link I keep close by.
  • SQL Designer - A web-based DHTML/AJAX SQL Entity Relationship Designer that exports .SQL files. Seriously. Drink that in, then visit it.
  • Del.icio.us - A social distributed bookmarks manager. It took me a bit to get into it, but their Bookmarklets that you drag into your Links toolbar won me over. All my bookmarks are here now and I can always find what I need, wherever I am. Very RESTful.
  • TypeTester - The very best way to compare up to three different web-typefaces.
    • What the Font? - This website will let you upload an image with a font and it'll guess (usually right) what font it is.
  • Genpass - Bookmarklets to make your passwords more powerful. Adapted from Nic Wolff's concept. There's a great screenmovie explaining how this works by Jon Udell.
  • Google Portal - It's not Google, it's http://www.google.com/ig and it includes movie times, driving directions, news and weather. My new home page.
  • Google Browser Sync - If you like your settings in Firefox sync'ed between all your computers, use this free tool from Google.
  • QuirksMode - Over 150 pages of details on CSS and JavaScript. When my brain is overflowing with the HTML of it all, I head here.
  • Google Maps + HousingMaps.com - Google Maps is cool, but Paul Rademacher's HousingMaps.com is synergy. It was the first great Mashup of Web 2.0.
  • XRay - This sleek little bookmarklet lets you quickly see all the CSS attributes attached to any HTML element.
  • PortableApps.com - Take all your favorite apps with you on a USB key without installing them! All your settings remain. Be sure to get PStart, the handy Portable Apps Launcher for the Tray.
  • JSLint - Just what is sounds like, it's a JavaScript "Lint" tool that will tidy up your JavaScript and also tell you why your code sucks.

Tools for Bloggers

  • Amazoner - RoyO's applet dedicated to making it easier to create Amazon Associate links. This little. How about a Windows Live Writer plugin anyone?
  • DasBlog - Easy to install and requires no database, DasBlog runs this blog. Actively developed. (Disclaimer, I work on the team.)
    • Subtext - Another ASP.NET blogging engine based on SQLServer. Actively developed.
  • FeedDemon - My favorite aggregator. Always on the cutting edge and very actively developed. $30.
    • RSSBandit - Free, Open Source, and written in .NET. The first aggregator for many.
  • FeedValidator - If your RSS/Atom feed doesn't pass FeedValidator's tests, it's crap. Seriously. Crap.
  • BlogJet - I love this little guy. Works great with DasBlog, supports spellcheck, file upload, makes clean HTML, and includes Music Detection support as well as posting of Audio to your blog.
  • Windows Live Writer - The ultimate offline Blog Post tool? Not quite, it's beta, but it has an easy SDK. If you don't like it, change it.

Smart People and their Pages for Utils They Wrote

Alt.Lang

Browser Add-Ins

  • Urlograph - I don't know how I lived without this util. It adds a button to internet explorer that cleans filthy URLs (Amazon, Google, MSDN, Google Groups, etc) and puts the smallest URL possible in your clipboard. Not to be confused with TinyUrl.com, this util removes the fluff and makes Urls hackable again.
  • UrlKicker - If you DO end up with a giant wrapped URL with line breaks, this little tray icon will remove those breaks and launch the browser. Source included.
  • FFClickOnce - This fantastic little add-in for FireFox 2 makes .NET ClickOnce Applications just work.
  • GetRight - Downloads, resumes and most importantly, splits up large downloads over HTTP or FTP into as many as 10 concurrent streams. Great with FlashGot for FireFox.
  • Delicious - Be sure to get their Del.icio.us IE Buttons and shiny Firefox extension. However, if you use Firefox and you REALLY want a seamless experience for your bookmarks, use the Yahoo! Del.icio.us Bookmarks extension.
  • WebDeveloper for FireFox - If you're the last developer to download FireFox, or you're holding off, WebDeveloper is a solid reason to switch to FireFox NOW. It's amazing and has to be used to be believed. It consolidates at least 2 dozens useful functions for those who sling ASP.NET or HTML. And if you're a CSS person, the realtime CSS editing is pretty hot.
  • IEView and ViewInFireFox - These two utils go together. Both are FireFox extensions, but they are yin to the others yang. They add View in Internet Explorer and View in FireFox context menu items to their respective browsers. Great if you develop, but also great if you tend to visit sites that aren't browser agnostic.
  • FireFox Extensions - Stunning! Extensions for my browser that won't kill my family! GoogleBar for FireFox, CopyPlainText, DownloadManagerTweak, AdBlockPlus, ChromEdit, FlashGot, and GreaseMonkey.

Things Windows Forgot

  • Ultramon - Why this kind of functionality isn't built in, I don't know. But it'll keep the guy at RealTimeSoftware in business! Ultramon is the ultimate utility for Multiple Monitor systems. It's most significant features, IMHO, is the addition of TaskBars that are monitor specific, and the addition of buttons NEXT to Minimize and Maximize to move open windows over to other monitors. Great if you've got 2 monitors, but a MUST if you've got more than 2!
  • Vista Codec Package - There's a pile of Video Formats out there that don't work out of the box on Windows, or, you're only able to view them in certain applications. However, if you install the right Codec (compresser/decompressor) you can view them anywhere. Installing Codecs is tricky though, and the Vista Codec Package takes the effort of out of it.
  • AutoHotKey AutoCorrect WikiPedia Script - Do you like AutoCorrect in Word? Grab this AutoHotKey script while you still can! It's cross-application AutoCorrect. Works in any application and corrects the world's most common (English) typing mistakes. Laziness abounds!
  • Rainlender - Double-click on the Clock in the Windows Taskbar? Feh. That's so 1995. Try Rainlender instead, it's floaty, transparent and skinable.
  • Tail for Windows - There's lots of ways to get this functionality, including the GNU Utils for Windows and BareTail. The point is, it should have been included! A "tail -f" for Windows.  Great if you work with programs that write to log files and you want to watch the log as it's being written.  Also has keyword highlighting so you can see things get visually flagged as they go by.
  • Console - Tabbed and transparent, this Open Source Windows Console Enhancement puts you in control of your controls. I call mine the Hanselshell. I also modded the PROMPT environment variable.
  • CrossLoop is a nice little screen sharing system, based on VNC, that punches through firewalls, much like Copilot.com, but it's free.
  • SlickRun, Windows Search and/or Dave's Search Bar - Pick one, and love it. Why there isn't a floating or docked command-line in Windows I do not know. Probably so my mom wouldn't freak out.
  • RoboCopy - When COPY and XCOPY just won't cut it, try the "Robust Copy"
  • Nero 7 and ImageDrive - Nero 7 is a fantastic value and the greatest burning suite out there.  It also include ImageDrive that let's you make and mount ISO images.
  • Google Desktop - Google's Desktop Search continues to impress, although with Vista having search built it, it's less compelling today. However, it's a lightning fast Launcher with its Ctrl-Ctrl feature, a feature rich indexer with many plugins available and it is now a Gadget/Sidebar platform. It's my primary local search tool on my XP machines. It even <cough> integrates with PowerShell nicely, thank you very much thanks to its rich SDK.
  • BgInfo from SysInternals - If you log into a lot of boxes remotely and always wonder, where the hell is this? This wallpaper tool creates custom wallpapers with all the information you'd need, like IP Address, Box Name, Disk Space, and it's totally configurable.
  • SmartFtp - Say what you like, but I've tried them all, and SmartFtp is flat-out the best FTP app out there for Windows. And they get a +1 for having a 64-bit version.
  • ProcessTamer - Beat back those processes demanding 100% CPU. Raise the priority of the process that has focus. ProcessTamer makes it happen. Sure sped up Outlook on my system.
    • DonationCoder.com is a treasure trove of donationware. Check out the complete collection.
  • AutoRuns - I always am suspicious that someone is running something automatically on my system.  AutoRuns (from SysInternals) checks EVERYWHERE that could be running something, the registry, win.ini (remember those?), the Startup Group, etc... 
  • Vista Alternative ALT-TAB Task Switchers - Check out Switcher (Bao's blog) and others.
  • SharpKeys - Do you want your Right-CTRL key to map to the Windows Key? I do. Why can't I do it with Windows' Control Panel? Because Windows forgot. Thankfully Randy didn't. Remap any key in Windows.
  • Marc Merrit's Event Log Monitor (EventReader) - Sits in the tray and pops up a nice XP-style baloon whenever the event log is written to.  I hate tray icons but I love balloon tooltip info, so it's a good tradeoff.
  • NetMeter - Clean and simple, how much traffic is running over my network?
  • PingPlotter - Graphical plotting of network latency.
  • Universal AutoCorrect with AutoHotKey and WikiPedia - Do you suck at typing? And spelling? This tool is like Word AutoCorrect, but it works everywhere in Windows.
  • Filter Files with Unknown Extensions for XP - Chris Sell's provides a .REG file that let's explorer's find files with file extensions that are not known.  A real irritant with XP, fixed.
  • Paint.NET - The Paint Program that Microsoft forgot, written in .NET.
  • PC De-Crapifier - So you just bought a Dell for $300 and it has a $4000 value worth of Crapware. Get ride of that poo with the De-Crapifier.
  • CrapCleaner (CCleaner) - Freeware app that optimizes and cleans your system's registry and temp files. Better than the built-in Windows Disk Cleanup.
  • GhostIt - Little tray app that lets you ghost (make transparent) any window by clicking on it.
  • NetPing - Jeff Key's multi-threaded pinger...it continues to include new features, like right-click and launch Remote Desktop. Great for administration of small networks. I use it all the time.
  • Spybot - The first thing I install when I visit a relatives house. Seriously. Step One.
    • Windows OneCare - Don't poo poo it. It's anti-spyware and anti-virus. Sounds like anti-extended-family-support-calls if you ask me. Version 2 (in Beta) is even better.
  • TrueCrypt - I love that this is free. Create a file or partition and encrypt the heck out of it. You can even encrypt a secret drive that'll have "decoy" documents that you can give the bad guys when they torture the password out of you.
  • Magical Jelly Bean KeyFinder - Misplace your Windows and Office Product Keys?  Find them with this.
  • NetworkDriveInfo - Helps you find free drive space on remote systems. 
  • Bulk Rename Utility - A graphical and incredible versatile way to rename large numbers of files using a myriad of patterns. Invaluable.
  • PSTools from SysInternals - All the command-line tools that Windows forgot...kill, loggedon, remote exec, shutdown, getsid, etc.
  • RealVNC - When RemoteDesktop is a hassle and PCAnywhere is lame...VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing. It is remote control software which allows you to view and interact with one computer (the "server") using a simple program (the "viewer") on another computer anywhere on the Internet.
  • Terminals - An Open Source multi-tabbed Remote Desktop client. Simple and useful.
  • Visual Subst - Subst.exe is quite possibly evil, but Visual Subst is a joy. An evil joy.
  • HSTART - Just like START.EXE, but this one hides the console windows!
  • URL Bandit - Monitors the clipboard and saves all URLs that go by in the click-stream.  If you copy a 1 meg file to the clipboard, URL Bandit can find, for example, all 200 URLS within it.  Yum.
  • TouchCursor - If you move the cursor a lot, but you don't like moving your hands, why not make I,J,K,L (where you right hand is already) move the cursor? I'm not sure it's worth $20, but it works exactly as advertised.
  • Synchronex - A file synchronizer, sure, but not just any file synchronizer, this one supports local, UNC, FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, ZIP and versioning. And only $20. Oy. I use it for backing up my blog on a schedule. An obtuse scripting format, more complex than SyncBack SE, but more detail oriented and powerful. Once you set it and forget it, IJW (It Just Works.) Brilliant.
  • Visual Studio Prompt Here - Right click on a folder and get four different "prompt here" options; cmd.exe, Visual Studio 2003, 2005, and PowerShell. Dan made a new one for VS 2008.

Outlook AddIns and Life Organizers

  • Sciral Consistancy - A strange little tool with a stranger name, this little jewel helps you get those niggling little "every once in a while but have to get done" tasks done.
  • ToDoList - This popular CodeProject submissions is a surprisingly full-featured ToDo list manager. It also is an excellent reminder that useful stuff can still be done in MFC and it contains a number of useful utility classes. Tasks are stored in XML. It's a very useful tool for Getting Things Done because it encourages you to device and sub-divide your tasks into smaller, more management chunks.
  • Getting Things Done (GTD) with Outlook
    • ClearContext - Artificial Intelligence for your Outlook Inbox.
    • Speedfiler - A replacement for Move To Folder in Outlook; file your messages as fast as your can press Enter.
    • Taglocity - A learning system, Taglocity tags, filters, searches, and teaches itself about your mail.
  • Windows Live Local for Outlook - Map your appointment and meeting locations directly from within Outlook. Get driving directions, print detailed maps, find optimized trip routes, and estimate travel times. Receive reminders based on the estimated travel time. Even find the nearest Quiznos!
  • SyncMyCal - I've got data in Outlook Calendar and Google Calendar, and SyncMyCal was the easiest and least expensive way for me to get these two calendars in sync.
  • PocketMod - Has nothing to do with Outlook, but everything to do with getting organized. This tiny book is created by some creative folding and your printer. Design it and print it yourself for free.
  • gMove Outlook Migration - The things gMove does could arguably be done with a manual process, but that process is tedious and often error prone. The price was low and it worked exactly as advertised when I moved thousands of emails from Outlook to Gmail.

Ultimate Registry Tweaks

Windows Explorer Integration (and other Integrate-y things)

  • LinkShellEx - This tool subsumes the tool below with the same functionality and more! Manage all your junctions and hard links with clean Explorer Integration. If you're digging Junctions (NTFS Reparse Points/Symbolic Links) like I am, then you're lamenting the fact that Windows Explorer is CLUELESS about them. Well, no longer, thanks to Travis and his Junction Overlay for Explorer. This tool isn't really needed in Vista, FYI.
  • ExecParm - Like Right Click|RunAs...it's even better with ExecParm adding the ability to execute with parameters. Everything else at this site is awesome also, including ClipName.
  • ASP.NET Development Helper - Nikhil, a dev lead on ASP.NET 2.0, created this wonderfully elegant developer helper that plugs into IE and gives you lots of insight into what's happening in ASP.NET while you develop. Want a FireFox version? Sure.
  • PowerMenu - Great little hook that adds item to the System Menu that let you change the Transparency or Priority of the current window.
  • SummerProperties - a Shell Extension that adds a Tab to File Properties that calculates the file's checksum.
  • PrivBar - This util is great if you're trying to avoid running as Administrator. It adds a bar to Explorer that uses text and color to let you know what Privilege level you're running at.
  • Preview Handler Association Editor - Stephen Toub's tiny tool lets you associate extensions with Preview Handlers.
  • Plaxo - I love the way Plaxo integrates with Outlook, tells me about upcoming Birthdays and has kept my whole Address Book up to date.
  • BrowseToSender - This little Outlook Add-In takes you to the website of the sender of the currently viewed email.
  • PureText - Ever wish Ctrl-V didn't suck? And when I say "suck" I mean, wouldn't you rather spend less of your live in Edit|Paste Special? PureText pastes plain text, purely, plainly. Free and glorious. Thanks Steve Miller.
  • BCWipe - Check out all the fine software from Jetico, but don't forget to pick up BCWipe and don't just delete your files, wipe them off the face of the earth. Very clean integration with Explorer.

Continuous Integration and TDD

  • MbUnit - MbUnit really is better unit testing and is a fine improvement over the legendary NUnit. Take a look at Phil Haack's three examples for a few reasons why I like MbUnit.
  • TestDriven.NET - see above in the Big Ten.
  • MSBuildTasks - Literally dozens of excellent MSBuild tasks, all Open Source, headed by Paul Welter. Let us thank him.
  • NDepend - This amazing app does dependency analysis on your .NET application and presents the findings as a TreeMap.
  • devMetrics - devMetrics is a community edition tool for measuring various attributes of your C# code so that you can accurately assess your product for quality and maintainability. I use it to measure cyclomatic complexity and abuse people during code reviews. A great way to add static analysis to your automated builds!
  • Selenium - I wasn't a believer before, but more and more I'm turning to Selenium. It's an in-browser, cross-platform Web Testing tool. Between Selenium, Watir and Watin, Web Testing has never been easier.
  • LibCheck - Highly recommended. This is the tool that Microsoft uses to compare builds of public APIs. We use it at Corillian to generate reports showing what public methods and properties have changed between builds. (Note, be sure to read this gotcha when you start messing around.) You'll need to recompile it for 2.0 until Microsoft released a newer version.
  • SandCastle - When NDoc died, SandCastle was created to fill the void. It's funky, yes, but along with the Sandcastle Help File Builder you can create very professional looking API documentation from your in-code XML.
  • Simian - Similarity Analyzer finds duplication (copy-pastes!) within your code! Great way to jump start refactoring at your company.
  • CruiseControl.NET - This is a great Automated Continuous Integration Server using .NET, from ThoughtWorks. Includes a tray icon for your developers to receive updated build information as well as a flexible plugin model you can use to extend CCNet to meet your needs.
  • TypeMock - We really started to lean on Mock Objects at Corillian in the last year. TypeMock was the most flexible and powerful for what I needed. It does cost money.
    • RhinoMocks - The best free alternative, RhinoMocks has a very clean API and extensive documentation, and it's supported by some very prolific developers. Recommended.

TabletPC Indispensables

  • ArtRage - It's free, and it's amazing. If you remember being blown away the first time you used Kai's Power Tools, you'll feel the same way with ArtRage. In the You can create some AMAZING art with an organic quality I've just never seen on a PC. If you do one thing this weekend, install it and use the "Load Tracing Paper" Feature.
  • Paint.NET - This is a must have tool Tablet PC or not, but since the 2.0 version added Ink support, you'll find it very comfortable for making annotations to screenshots. Now on version 2.7, it keeps getting better.
  • MaxiVista - Use your Tablet PC as a virtual second or third monitor! I use my M205 as a third monitor that keeps Outlook open. Now MaxiVista Version 2 is a software Virtual Keyboard and Mouse! When I don't want to use the Tablet as an extension of my main computer, I want to use my main computer's keyboard and mouse as an extension of my Tablet!
  • Wallpaper Gyro - The Toshiba M205 has a Gyroscope installed so no matter how you hold it, when you press the hardware "orient" button on the edge of the screen the system will switch to the correct orientation. Wallpaper Gyro will not only automatically change your wallpaper when the orientation changes, but it allows you to have different wallpaper for each orientation!
  • InkPlayer - Easily create Macromedia Flash playbacks of animated ink stokes!
  • InkDesktop - Write notes directly on the desktop.
  • MathPractice and Fraction Practice - Great for the young people in your life. A series of Tablet PC-enabled FlashCards that let kids practice Math with Ink!
  • MuseBook Concert - Not completely Tablet-specific, but create and use an electronic music score and sheet music on your Tablet PC. Different from MusicPad.
  • OneNote - duh, but don't forget SP1!
  • X-Think Calculator or MathJournal - Fantastic support for ink along side equations, these are worth download the trials just to see. If not, at least be prepared by downloading the free viewer.
  • Alias SketchBook Pro - It costs, but it has a very different style and goal (IMHO) than ArtRage, and the output is different in philosophy. ArtRage is largely about paint, and Alias is about pencils and sketching.
  • Microsoft TabletPC Experience Pack for Vista - Four programs that add coolness to Vista Tablet's, including another Ink Crossword, an Equation Writer and Ink Flash Card.
  • Tablet PC PowerToys - Get any and all of these, but I use:
    • Physics Illustrator - This one helped me out when I went back to finish my degree and was stuck in Physics 203.
    • New York Times Crossword Puzzle - This one is the bomb-diggity. Even the wife digs it. The only complaint is it's not re-sizable, but the Zoom to 640x480 feature of the Toshiba Tablet fixes that. The Crossword app lets you download today's Crossword for solving off line. Fantastic for the bus or train ride to work.
    • Pool for Tablet - This is worth at least $20, but it's FREE. A wonderful game of Pool with all the graphics and physics to make you smile, and it's all TabletPC enabled. Be sure to try playing over a wireless network with a friend.
    • Snipping Tool - A new tool that some folks haven't seen yet, this lets you "cut out" portions of the screen for annotation. It's the Pen's take on the traditional screen shot tool.
    • Web Search Power Tool - This is the one I wrote lo these many years ago in 17 minutes , and got $2500 for my troubles. Even more useful when combined with Google Desktop Search.
    • Music Composition - Free and it lets you write Sheet Music with your Tablet PC
    • Energy Blue Theme - An Media Center-inspired theme for the Tablet PC
    • Make your own Handwriting Font - A winner of the Tablet PC applet content, you can make your own TrueType Font out of your Handwriting. Amazing.
    • Microsoft Experience Pack for TabletPC - A collection of some of the PowerToys all packed up, including a TabletPC specific Windows Theme.
  • TabletPC Enhancements for Outlook - Outlook isn't exactly TabletPC-friendly. An Outlook-Addin, you can create Appointments and Tasks in Outlook using Ink.
  • MindManager for the TabletPC - If you use Mind Mapping software, it's even more intuitive and comfortable when the application has seamless Tablet PC support.

ASP.NET Must Haves

  • Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer - I love this tool and I'm surprised it's not used more. I think that something like this should be used as a Best Practices Repository for all Microsoft products.
  • Peter Blum's Validation And More - Not an add-in but rather a complete re-imagining of the ASP.NET Validation Framework. There's a learning curve, but it will change the way you write pages. Also check out his Visual Security Security and Peter'sDatePackage. His documentation is legendary.
  • Andy's MetaBuilders - Talk about good karma. When you put this much goodness and free ASP.NET controls into the world, you must get a lot of great parking spots. Check out the dozens of ASP.NET Controls here.
  • UrlRewriting.NET - An open source URL rewriter, implemented as an HttpModule.
  • ISAPI_rewrite - Hardcore, but once it's configured it just works. I use ISAPI rewrite to cleanly organize my links. It's mod_rewrite for IIS.
  • Web Development Helper - Enables ASP.NET 2.0 debugging with all the features you wish it had out of the box, but built into a Browser Toolbar.
  • Fritz Onion's ViewStateDecoder - Simple util that gives you more insight into what's hidden inside of ASP.NET's ViewState (hidden form field)
  • ELMAH (Error Logging Modules and Handlers) - I marked this one as new because I want folks to know about it. It's been updated for 2.0 and it's wonderful. An HttpModule and Handler that will capture and log all Yellow Screen of Death messages your ASP.NET site experiences. And it will even give you an RSS Feed of the errors! Great for anyone who wants to instrument a site without recompiling.
  • Blinq - Slightly bleeding edge, Blinq is "a tool for generating ASP.NET websites for displaying, creating, and manipulating data based on database schema." Very Rails.
  • Packer for .NET - A Javascript minimizer with a custom MSBUILD Task.

Visual Studio.NET Add-Ins

  • CodeProject Browser Add-In - A very cool idea. This Add-In integrates CodeProject with Visual Studio and keeps all your samples neatly organized. It'll download and upzip them also, and maintains a list of favorite CodeProject articles. This is a great way to build the CodeProject community and folks should now about it.
  • CodeRush - Of course. It's the bomb, enough said. Also check out Resharper (C# only).
  • Code Style Enforcer - This is DxCore plugin that puts squiggles under the places in your code that don't meet your style standards. Think of it as "Grammar checking for your code."
  • Power Toys Pack Installer - Rather than installing them all manually, this CodePlex-maintained installer gets you dozens of IDE Enhancements and sample code integrated into Visual Studio.
  • CopySourceAsHtml - Better than a Macro, this Add-In puts syntax-highlighted HTML on your clipboard. Now it supports "Embedded Styles" for use in BlogJet and other tools.
  • GhostDoc - Now in its 2.11 version, GhostDoc attempts to generate C# documentation that can be gleaned from the name and type of methods and properties. One to watch, and while it sometimes guesses wrong, it's a completely unique Add-In worth your download.  Now supports Visual Studio 2008!
  • Regionerate - This actively developed tool enforces layout and region rules on your C# code. You can define and publish your own styles.
  • DPack - A packaged collection of Visual Studio 2003, 2005 and 2008 tools. Kind of a CodeRush/Reshaper-lite, but possibly just what the doctor ordered.
  • devMetrics - devMetrics is a "community edition" tool for measuring various attributes of your C# code so that you can accurately assess your product for quality and maintainability. I use it to measure cyclomatic complexity and abuse people during code reviews.
  • Resource Refactoring Tool - This aids in Internationalization of your apps by adding an "Extract to Resource" option in the Visual Studio Refactor menu.
  • CodeKeep - Manage and share codesnippets from within VS.NET.
  • XML Visualizer - This gorgeous VS2005 Visualizer is from Howard van Rooijen.
  • Mindreef SOAPscope - The original. The glory forever, this is more than an Add-In, it's a complete XML Web Services design studio. It's a bargain and works even better when setup in a workgroup. It keeps a database of all Web Services traffic, but it's more than a sniffer. It also analyzes data for WS-I compliance and allows for record and replay of messages. "It's Tivo for Web Services!"
  • Cache Visualizer - What's in the ASP.NET cache? Find out with this VS2005 Visualizer.
  • Consolas Font Pack - Consolas is a great programmers font, and while it was only available on Vista, Microsoft made it available for Visual Studio 2005 on Windows 2003 and XP.
  • TestDriven.NET - If you're serious about TDD, stop fooling with NUnitGui and Attach Process and start using TestDriven.NET. It's a simple as Right-Click -> Test With -> Debugger.
  • ASPX Edit Helper Add-In - As good as the VS.NET ASPX Designer is, many folks, myself included, like to type the markup directly. This Helper adds some easy shortcuts for adding server controls and fills in runat="server" for you when you type Server Control markup yourself.
  • pinvoke.net - Adam Nathan continues to innovate with an add-in that lets you "Insert PInvoke Signature" from the VS.NET Editor by communicating with a server-side repository with best-practice signatures to make calling unmanaged code a breeze. Also, be sure to visit the PInvoke.NET Wiki.
  • SmartAssembly - Code pruning, obfuscations, and automatic exception reporting. A great way to take your .NET application to the next level.
  • AnkhSVN - Integrated support for the Subversion Source Control System with Visual Studio 2003 and 2005. 
    • VisualSVN is also a contender in this space, but does cost money.
  • WS Contract-First - Christian Weyer leads the pack with custom Web Service code generation, and generation of WSDL itself from Message-based XSD. How's that for SOA and contract-first development?
  • CommentReflower - Really detail-oriented? This tool reformats your code comments to your specifications.

Contents Copyright © 2003-2008 Scott Hanselman - Reproduction prohibited without written permission. Hyperlinks to are most welcome.
Comments [132]
« Make the Windows Text Cursor (Caret) Wid... | Home | XLINQ to XML support in VB9 »
Friday, August 24, 2007 1:08:33 AM UTC
Vim works great on windows, I use it where I guess you use Notepad++.
Bill Mill
Friday, August 24, 2007 2:26:12 AM UTC
Thanks for another year of the tool list!
Jim Welch
Friday, August 24, 2007 2:43:23 AM UTC
wow what a huge list! Thanks again! If I ever need a dev tool I come here first.

I must speak up about Autohotkey though. First you have it listed twice. First instance -correct. Second - incorrect - this is just from your old list. The autocorrect *is* an AHK script but the way you have it is misleading.

Also, GridMove is based on AHK too :)

I am not sure how often you use it either, but I use my custom made hotkeys/functions DAILY. They save me many many keystrokes. Here are some examples that are pertinent to programming (# meaning the winkey)
- #w - open command prompt
- #n - start new email
- #z - new n2 window

- some autotypes like c-c-o-o to autotype the filepath to my project (useful for open file dialogues)
- autotypes for passwords - like in SQL studio - send password, tab, space, tab, enter for the standard new connection popup window

- S-S-F will autotype SELECT * FROM or s-t-f >> SELECT TOP 1 * FROM

- and my favourite... I remapped F1 to toggle between VS05 and Firefox windows - but when switching to FF it sends ALT-D + Enter to refresh the page automatically. (I don't have to "run" my project from VS all the time)

endless possibilities! not too hard to learn either.
Morgan
Friday, August 24, 2007 2:50:19 AM UTC
Hi Scott

The Filehelpers link is wrong, is pointing to devexpress :P

The right address is

www.filehelpers.com

Thanks a lot for your words about the project and the publicity.

Cheers
Marcos
Friday, August 24, 2007 3:03:07 AM UTC
As always with each release of the list, I'm frantically downloading as I type.

One thing - I don't think WinSnap is free anymore as of version 2. :(
jeff
Friday, August 24, 2007 3:50:25 AM UTC
Hey Scott, thanks for updating the list.

In the Unit Test runner category, there is Unit Run from Jetbrains. Currently it is free.

It can be found here: http://www.jetbrains.com/unitrun/

You have to register to get a key, but at present, costs nothing.

Take care..
Craig B.
Friday, August 24, 2007 4:06:37 AM UTC
I have to say that "RegexBuddy" is my regular expression tool of choice (http://www.regexbuddy.com/). It allows you to debug regex's, assists you in building them, allows testing with real data, and even produces the code for the regex in C#/VB.NET, Perl, Python, Ruby, Java, Javascript, Delphi, and more.

I've tried all of the regex tools you mentioned and RegexBuddy is hands down the best regex tool I have ever used (pay or otherwise). It costs $39, but is well, well worth the money. And no, I am not associated with the company or know them in any way...I just love their product.
Mick
Friday, August 24, 2007 4:28:48 AM UTC
Marcos - sorry about that...I've fixed it now.
Scott Hanselman
Friday, August 24, 2007 4:54:12 AM UTC
Thanks for SmartAssembly! This tool is the shizzle!

Andrew.
Andrew Peters
Friday, August 24, 2007 5:44:58 AM UTC
Thanks again for the great "toolbox"!

I'm wondering why you didn't mention Mozy. Are you still using it for backups?

GridMove and Switcher are great ;)
Florian
Friday, August 24, 2007 6:22:00 AM UTC
once again, a very nice list. Glad you pointed out WatinRecorder. I was looking for this the other day.
Haacked
Friday, August 24, 2007 6:27:05 AM UTC
cool list...

Maxpower
Friday, August 24, 2007 6:28:00 AM UTC
Amazingly useful list, as ever - thanks!
Andrew
Friday, August 24, 2007 6:54:49 AM UTC
Loads of great new toys to try out, thanks for the update Scott!
Ciz
Friday, August 24, 2007 7:16:00 AM UTC
The link for "What the Font?" is wrong, points to a weird one.
Hüseyin
Friday, August 24, 2007 8:30:46 AM UTC
Nice list, indeed. I found a couple of useful or interesting tools I haven't heard of yet. There is, however, one little mistake: You write "Also check out Resharper (C# only)". Well, version 3.0 is out for two months now, an since then ReSharper is no longer limited to C#, it fully supports VB.NET too now.

Greetings from Good Ole' Germany. :)
The Janitor
Friday, August 24, 2007 8:32:45 AM UTC
Yo,

just wanted to point out a very nice text editor, that blows notepad++, notepad2 & others away: PSpad - check it! It dosen't have a nice plugin architecture, but has all the things that any dev would like to have :)

And you can give FreeMeter a shot - as a competitor ;)


Regards Miechu
miechu
Friday, August 24, 2007 10:20:10 AM UTC
Wow... this list is too good.

How many hours did you take to write this huge post anyway?

Keep it up!
Vaibhav
Friday, August 24, 2007 10:41:29 AM UTC
Thanks for updating you tools list.
I would like to add a link to XPathBuilder which helps me a lot to build the correct XPath

Regards Dominik
Dominik
Friday, August 24, 2007 12:21:48 PM UTC
AppRocket is now Skylight ->http://www.candylabs.com/Skylight/
Kiruthik
Friday, August 24, 2007 1:04:27 PM UTC
Wonderful list, as always...too much stuff to digest. Just wanted to let you know that the link to the:

Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer is pointing to an incorrect location (http://www.thinktecture.com/Resources/Software/WSContractFirst/default.html). Possible internal link to http://www.hanselman.com/blog/MIcrosoftBestPracticesAnalyzerTools.aspx
Aaron Corcoran
Friday, August 24, 2007 1:18:41 PM UTC
Great list.
Thank you Scott
Mighell
Friday, August 24, 2007 1:43:15 PM UTC
Hey Now Scott,
This is a stellar post! Extreamly helpful. Your pod is really well done too, listen all the time.
Thx,
Catto
Catto
Friday, August 24, 2007 2:08:22 PM UTC
If you're into OneNote as much as I am, you're already running the task bar icon (see options in OneNote). You're a step away from easy partial screen shots. WindowsKey + S. Not as fancy as some of the other tools, but if you have OneNote, you already own it.
Todd Price
Friday, August 24, 2007 2:26:25 PM UTC
If you like DiskView, you absolutely should have a look at FolderSizes. It's easily the best of the disk space visualization and reporting tools, in my opinion. And I've pretty much tried all of them.
Jason L.
Friday, August 24, 2007 3:49:17 PM UTC
I love TrueCrypt. A great free little program and you can do so much with it.
Mike
Friday, August 24, 2007 4:22:01 PM UTC
That's a great list!

Just want to add that for rebinding hotkeys I use hotkeyp.

It can bind default hotkeys like Winkey+e to e.g. xplorer² or win+f to Firefox!
Johan
Friday, August 24, 2007 4:40:13 PM UTC
Quick note: Resharper isn't just C# anymore. With version 3.0 it also has full VB.Net support.

Also, another must have tool from JetBrains is a@http://www.jetbrains.com/unitrun/@UnitRun. It is a better TestDriven.Net.
Plus, there are downloads out there that add MBUnit and MSUnit support.

Great list.
Chris Brandsma
Friday, August 24, 2007 4:41:00 PM UTC
Sorry, that link should have been http://www.jetbrains.com/unitrun
Chris Brandsma
Friday, August 24, 2007 4:48:08 PM UTC
ERDCommander when BartPE doesn't cut it. It saved me a few times when Windows couldn't boot anymore because of a bad driver, bad registry entry or whenever you need to work on Windows from the "outside".

12 different launchers? Some one needs to develop one that does it all.
abdu
Friday, August 24, 2007 5:07:21 PM UTC
Thanks for the list Scott. You just burned a whole morning of productivity. On the bright side I think I discovered some new tools that will help make me more productive in the future.
Ryan Smith
Friday, August 24, 2007 5:12:13 PM UTC
Awesome List! Love the HanselMinutes podcast as well.

Say, I was wondering what you thought about http://www.tiddlywiki.com/
It's something that I use alot to keep notes and attempt to be organized.
Have you used it? Is it worthy to add to the list?

Thanks, Anton
Anton P.
Friday, August 24, 2007 5:29:11 PM UTC
Scott, thanks once again for taking the time to compile and post this list!

As Florian mentioned, I noticed that Mozy isn't present on the list. Scott, what are you using these days to fill the role of "even if my house burns down, my data is still safe"? (Maybe you could address this topic in a future blog post or Hanselminutes discussion?)
Jon Schneider
Friday, August 24, 2007 5:35:34 PM UTC
Scott,

Exactly what is so great about Query Express? And how does not suck compared to Query Analyzer? Seems like a clone that does not address the shortcomings of Query Analyzer and is missing a couple of its features (for instance, does not support Ctrl+B shortcut).

Regards
Robert
Robert G.
Friday, August 24, 2007 5:45:01 PM UTC
Scott - thanks for getting a small co. like CrossLoop on your huge list. It inspires us and we appreciate your support!
Please feel free to email me if you or your readers have any questions!
Have a great weekend
Mrinal
Friday, August 24, 2007 6:01:02 PM UTC
Robert - "Query Express is a simple Query Analyzer look-alike, but being small and free it can be run where the SQL Server client tools are not installed or licensed. This makes it especially useful as a query tool for MSDE and SQL Express. It also connects to Oracle and other OLE-DB compliant databases. "

It's because it's small, free, no install, only 100k and I can run it from an USB stick on machines that can't have SQL Client Tools.
Scott Hanselman
Friday, August 24, 2007 6:01:59 PM UTC
Anton - Yes, I love TiddlyWiki. I'll do a separate post on it. I used to run whole sites with it.
Scott Hanselman
Friday, August 24, 2007 6:43:37 PM UTC
I love your blog, and I just contributed some $ to your cause. This blogs makes me a better developer, so this really doesn't feel like a donation, but simply giving back to those who give freely to me.
Eric Lau
Friday, August 24, 2007 7:27:07 PM UTC
I have to ditto Eric Lau... I'm becoming a better developer via Scott's evangelizing.. I've become aware of such cool technology as PowerShell and software practices such as continuous integration.. I'll be sure to make a contribution as well as a token of my gratitude.
Anton P.
Friday, August 24, 2007 8:01:58 PM UTC
There goes my weekend - thanks! How am I supposed to be productive while trying to research all these tools to make me more productive? :)

A couple more:
goScreen - even if you have multiple monitors this is great for decluttering your screen by using virtual desktops. Use hotkeys to quickly switch between your Outlook/SQL/Dev/whatever desktops. There's a lot of them out there - this is the best I've found.

SmartOutline - Visual Studio add-in to collapse/outline blocks of code. I've found it especially handy for CSS and .js files.
michael
Friday, August 24, 2007 9:16:26 PM UTC
Just a footnote for everyone, the "cirth" tool now has it's own domain. It's located at: Nregex.com - it should be forwarded but just in case the connection is not obvious.
David Seruyange
Friday, August 24, 2007 10:15:20 PM UTC
"As soon as WHS supports Vista 64, it'll be over for TrueImage for me."


Why is that?
abdu
Friday, August 24, 2007 10:37:24 PM UTC
Scott, nice update as always...I get back to the tool list a couple of times a year and always find something that I had not seen that is very usefull.

One utility that has save me a lot of time in the last year is called Autopatcher (http://autopatcher.com/whatsautopatcher/). It is an application that includes all of the updates for different versions of Windows. When you reinstall a PC it allows you to get it up to date on all the updates that have been released in one unattended step. You can even burn it to a CD or copy to a usbdisk and run it from there.

I always take it with me to family meetings :)

Best of all, its free.

Jose
Friday, August 24, 2007 11:08:17 PM UTC
Wow, I am not even a developer (or anything even close) and I found a handful of tools I will start using.

Thank you for this great resource!
Jeff the Great
Friday, August 24, 2007 11:16:54 PM UTC
I have to agree with Mick. RegexBuddy is phenominal. Version 3 added a ton of great new features, including a Regular Expressions Discussion Forum.
O
Saturday, August 25, 2007 12:35:46 AM UTC
abdu - because WHS includes a bootable CD and I'll be able to reimage my machine from it.
Scott Hanselman
Saturday, August 25, 2007 4:38:23 AM UTC
This is a very nice list. I had some time today to play a little bit with Powershell and I am amazed by the object oriented underpinnings. Yeah... I can now pipe objects.

I am curious about one thing though... does anyone actually install all of these tools? I don't think Windows can handle having this many programs installed at once :-).
Chinh Do
Saturday, August 25, 2007 4:58:26 AM UTC
Yes, I do install all the tools. Now I install most in a VM though. Windows can handle it just fine. ;)
Scott Hanselman
Saturday, August 25, 2007 5:27:42 AM UTC
The links for ProcExp and AutoRuns are broken .
Other than that, great job :D.
sirrocco
Saturday, August 25, 2007 9:22:19 AM UTC
Hi Scott, you owe it to yourself to take 5 mins from your day to check out Charles - an HTTP proxy / HTTP monitor / Reverse Proxy. It is so unbelievably useful, I am not even going to start to list the way I have used it since I installed it, it will take too long. It renders half of Firebug redundant. That said, the other half of Firebug remains utterly peerless.
Olly
Saturday, August 25, 2007 9:48:30 AM UTC
You ought to give us more notice that you are going to update the tool list. Will help us plan for a few days off to make the next year or so more productive. I have started falling in love with PortableApps. A bunch of you applications are neat/clean and portable. It might be nice to mention that or maybe have a separate category for 'Portable Applications'.
Praveen
Saturday, August 25, 2007 1:53:10 PM UTC
Wow! Comprehensive list. One utility that i found missing tho' was a password manager. <a href ="http://keepass.info/'>Keepass</a> is definitely worth a mention.
Rohan Wali
Saturday, August 25, 2007 3:49:36 PM UTC
Scott,

You should seriously consider joining http://wakoopa.com/ . This site keeps track of any software that you use, how long you use it for, etc. You can have a software profile there, comment on stuff you use, and why you like it, etc.

Take a look,
BOb
PilotBob
Saturday, August 25, 2007 4:18:47 PM UTC
Rohan, good point. I use Keith Brown's Password Manager.
Scott Hanselman
Saturday, August 25, 2007 6:03:59 PM UTC
The point is, it should have been included! A "tail -f" for Windows.

Microsoft does supply tail, although not by default in Windows . It is part of the Windows Resource Kit Tools. The bundle also contains a lot of other tools that may interest you.
Felix
Saturday, August 25, 2007 8:47:57 PM UTC
Scott: TrueImage boots from a CD also.
TrueImage can restore to a different hardware and supposedly soon it can restore 32bit systems to 64bit systems. Those guys always impress me. I think they were the first to create images while the OS is running That's when I switched from Ghost.

I thought it was a price issue for you.
Abdu
Sunday, August 26, 2007 6:51:46 AM UTC
Talking about password managers, I also use KeePass, I use FolderShare to keep my password DB in Sync between computers and it works great. Clipperz is a password manager to watch out for, it stores your passwords online in an encrypted form that only gets decrypted in javascript on the client. I should get around to writing a SideBar app that interoperates with this, can not get myself to trust javascript on a web site with all my precious passwords ...
sam
Sunday, August 26, 2007 7:45:59 AM UTC
Thought you might like to add Coderanger.com BuildIT to your apps list, it can be used for automated builds, or any other repetitive sequence of tasks. Personally I have used it for mailing lists, doing database backups, running regular downloads or functions and all sorts. Its pretty cool and free.

There are also the excellent ZoomPlus and Winspector tools to consider
Dan
Sunday, August 26, 2007 11:16:02 AM UTC
Great like past years, Thanks Scott!
Mahdi Taghizadeh
Sunday, August 26, 2007 11:43:11 AM UTC
Sam- You spoke my words :)
"can not get myself to trust javascript on a web site with all my precious passwords"
I will still go through the trouble of keeping the password db file in sync on all computers than trust an online utility. If I were to use an online utility it would be Passpack (http://www.passpack.com).
Rohan Wali
Sunday, August 26, 2007 3:28:05 PM UTC
Jim Holmes's Regular expression tool, Expresso is also worth a look. Great for explaining complex RegEx's (http://www.ultrapico.com/Expresso.htm)
mitch wheat
Sunday, August 26, 2007 3:43:17 PM UTC
Just to add another into the realm. Along with WebDeveloper for FireFox/Firebug I recommend iMacros for Firefox.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3863
It is very useful for quick and easy regression web testing. If you think Watir is too complicated, this is for you.

Here is a short test script for hanzelman.com :)
http://tinyurl.com/ywtakq
James Q
Sunday, August 26, 2007 6:50:52 PM UTC
Hey Scott,

Thanks for putting all these links together... I am currently dissecting my way around (probably for the next month). One tool that I did not see listed was Red Gate Sql Compare & Sql Data Compare. Red Gate has some really awesome tools... Although they are not free...

Red Gate Sql Compare allows you to compare SQL Server databases and shows differences... I had to use this for a client and I have been ecstatic about the tool... This tool is great in development vs. production staging comparisons... It has saved me so much time in not having to re-deploy my stored procs, views, table changes, etc. I can just deploy my changed code.

I definitely recommend you add it for your 2008 list.

Thanks,

Blake Theiss
The Art and Science of Business
http://www.quilogy.com
Blake Theiss
Monday, August 27, 2007 12:28:10 AM UTC
Rohan,

If you intend to use PassPack make sure you have a read of the Clipperz blog. Clipperz knows less about you than passpack (which imho is a good thing).

Sam
Sam
Monday, August 27, 2007 8:12:21 AM UTC
This list is just TOO HUGE! Thank you very much for sharing this with us, I bet I will start using some of these apps.
Pawel Krakowiak
Monday, August 27, 2007 9:00:50 AM UTC
Great List - I am adding a link to it to my blog's resource page right now!
Wade Harvey
Monday, August 27, 2007 9:10:51 AM UTC
Great list, but one utility that I use far more than any other and that's not on your list is Total Commander (from http://www.ghisler.com).

It nominally replaces the Windows Explorer, but it has so many inbuilt utilities that it also replaces any number of others with a quick and better option, it's the one tool I truly cannot live without. For example, there's a permanent command line, inbuilt zip (as well as allowing numerous other compression tools through plugins and external utilities), inbuilt diff, FTP, SFTP, WebDAV all tie in seamlessly. But best and most useful of all is the inbuilt file viewer. Allows you to open just about any file to either view its text, image, excel or word data, binary content, hex data, etc. without having to load the corresponding application. Saves you a bundle on loading time, but it's also saved me from inadvertently opening a virus at one stage.

It's not free but at around $30 it's cheap, plus it gives you a fully functional trial version that doesn't expire with lifetime free updates.

Pius
pto
Monday, August 27, 2007 10:09:35 AM UTC
Sorry for being pedantic, but a "steep learning curve" means you can learn very quickly -- think of the curve as amount learned vs. time. It is the shallow curve that means you'll be thumbing through manuals for weekks.
Madrikh
Monday, August 27, 2007 12:23:32 PM UTC
Hey Scott!

Thanks for putting the list together, and thanks for the awesome podcasts!

MarkH
MarkH
Monday, August 27, 2007 3:09:06 PM UTC
Just awesome!
billie
Monday, August 27, 2007 6:13:16 PM UTC
Beyond Compare from http://www.scootersoftware.com/ is the ultimate file/folder diff utility, IMHO. Highly recommended.
truewill
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 1:00:15 AM UTC
For screen shot capture MWSnap is another great utility. The Current version is capable of capturing the whole desktop, a highlighted window, an active menu, a control, or a fixed or free rectangular part of the screen.

You can download it here: http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html
Michael Ceranski
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 1:23:30 AM UTC
one word.
PDFCreator

sourceforge.com
Brian Hood
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 3:17:29 AM UTC
Has anyone tried http://www.ie7pro.com ?
Rajiv Menon
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 6:25:36 AM UTC
Thanks Scott,

Your annual tools list is the bomb.

I'd like to give a shout out to Frans Bouma and llblgen. If you like working in the O/R-mapping style, his generator is worth taking a look at.

Timothy
Timothy Lee Russell
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 7:51:05 AM UTC
Great list!
However, as a developer, I couldn't live without TortoiseSvn. It has saved my work more than once :)
Oh, and of course my ToDo List software!
Loris
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 10:32:59 AM UTC
Hi Scott,

Love your work and this toollist is great!
Just wanted to mention that the TrueCrypt link does not work (just add a 'w').

Erik
Erik Haverkamp
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 12:00:05 PM UTC
Brilliant list. I really like the looks of DarkRoom - there should be a way to quit silently though, without being asked to save.
einar
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 1:54:50 PM UTC
great list dude, one thing i didn't see was Beyond Compare - it knocks the socks of WinMerge and any other compare tool i've come across.

Matt
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 2:08:29 PM UTC
awesome list. BTW, this made me laugh and cry at the same time-so true:
all family gatherings where the relatives KNOW you're a computer person. They'll expect you to save their machines before the turkey is served
Duane
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 5:51:36 PM UTC
Hello Scott,

Your collection is amazing. I am very fond of checking any add in or development tool written for general use. And I know how satisfied you are when you have shown them to all in this blog.

I wanted to add one more to this list.
Guidance explorer: http://www.guidancelibrary.com/GuidanceExplorerBeta/
(This is also available as stand alone app downloadable from codeplex.)

Regards
Arvind G
Arvind G
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 7:47:36 PM UTC
What about a fantastic desktop search tool, specifically: mo-search. Very powerful, easy to use and searches all kinds of files.
jamome
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 7:48:35 PM UTC
Oh, here is the Mo-Search download link: http://www.meauxsoft.com/21701/index.html
good stuff
jamome
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 10:03:12 PM UTC
Great List,

Thanks for publishing it.
Do you know of a good tool (preferably free) that converts sql stored procedures to mysql?
David G
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 10:21:32 PM UTC
David, try http://sourceforge.net/projects/tsql2mysql
Scott Hanselman
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 9:21:30 AM UTC
Fantastic list - many thanks for sharing.

I also really enjoy the podcast and have been listening for over a year - always great topics, intelligibly covered. At the right level of depth as well.
Hardeep Virdee
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 3:09:28 PM UTC
I'd like to second the vote for vim. It is very powerful and great for those of us who like to keep hands on the home row as much as possible.
Nick Krosschell
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 6:32:56 PM UTC

Great list of tools! Thanks.
Your readers may want to check out my xtopdf PDF creation/conversion toolkit, too.
See my site below.

Vasudev Ram

Dancing Bison Enterprises
http://www.dancingbison.com
http://jugad.livejournal.com
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xtopdf

Vasudev Ram
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 6:37:16 PM UTC
Clipmate is awesome. You can create containers to manage clips. Export clips, custom screen prints, etc etc. I use it to copy cool code snippets and use them later. Also a handy backup tool, I copy all my code before saving, just in case I get a memory dump. (you know developers we always have too much open at once)(or an Oracle export running....). Sometimes having the timestamp of clips helps with timesheets.

http://www.thornsoft.com/index.htm
GregD
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 7:52:54 PM UTC
This list has infect become a great tool in itself to find the tool of your requirements.

Thanks Scott!!! Great work..
Manish Agrawal
Thursday, August 30, 2007 1:43:00 AM UTC
Amazing coverage. Thanks for developing this list.

Have you tried Oxygen XML? I find it better than XML Spy for editing, XSLT debugging, and schema development.
Brad Barber
Thursday, August 30, 2007 5:27:33 AM UTC
Damn son! I used to be able to read your Tool List in about 5 minutes! I've had to read it 3 times just to get through it!

I have no idea how you do it.

Oh yeah, I'd like to send a HUGE thank you for doing that podcast with Tim Ferriss. Great podcast.
Donn Felker
Thursday, August 30, 2007 1:02:02 PM UTC
Paint.Net is actually now in version 3.10, not 2.7. But whatever, it's still great.
Ian Sinke
Friday, August 31, 2007 1:06:23 AM UTC
Does anyone here use EditPadPro, which I believe is made by the same developer as RegexBuddy? I use the regular expression search and replace feature to make easy pickings of .NET repetitive code.

Also, any suggestions when it comes to the best SQL query tool around? Something fast, connects to most major databases, preferably free, and with Intellisense?
Isabel
Friday, August 31, 2007 1:09:26 AM UTC
I almost forgot. Thanks a lot for the great list, Scott! Big help for noobs like me.
Isabel
Friday, August 31, 2007 1:50:57 AM UTC
The list is simply GREAT!
Michael Chan
Friday, August 31, 2007 3:02:48 AM UTC
Scott, could you explain why the recommendation for Web Services Studio Express? Its UI is pretty, but it doesn't actually DO anything as far as I can tell.

I use WebServiceStudio all the time for basic testing of web services just because it's fast, free & lightweight, but bare-bones. SOAPSonar is heavy and slow to load (free Personal Edition makes up for that a little, at least), but much more complete and a good choice if you have more complex web service testing needs.
Lee
Friday, August 31, 2007 5:06:19 PM UTC
Thanks for the great work!
Adam Cox
Saturday, September 01, 2007 1:49:56 AM UTC
When I wrote a bulk loader and extracter for work, I had to deal with extremely large CSV and XML documents.
* CsvEd: Far faster to work with than Excel, doesn't reformat data columns, and is extremely flexible!
* XML Notepad: Unlike XmlSpy, this utility can load extremely large (>1GB) files gracefully. If you ever have a huge XML document which was malformed, you'll absolutely love how it loads and immediately tells you where the errors are.
Ben
Sunday, September 02, 2007 9:46:56 AM UTC
I think the Web Service Studio Express recommendation was an accident on Scott's part. Scott was probably using Web Service Studio (not "-express"), which was posted a while back on the (defunct) GotDotNet here: http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/UserSamples/Details.aspx?SampleGuid=65A1D4EA-0F7A-41BD-8494-E916EBC4159C

The "Web Service Studio Express" project that Scott referenced does nothing more than download a WSDL file and parse it. It is a stub for future functionality but it certainly does not DO anything, not even File menu --> Exit. It's apparently just a starter stub with some rough milestones in place.
Jon Davis
Sunday, September 02, 2007 12:30:26 PM UTC
I'm surprised you didn't list KeePass? I used to "hide" passwords in a naughty-file (a plain-text file that I tucked into my Documents folder with red-faced shame). No more!! http://keepass.info/
Jon Davis
Tuesday, September 04, 2007 5:54:50 AM UTC
Hi,

I noticed you have two Screen Capture utilities (both cost) but I much prefer PrintScreen 4.3, a free offering from www.gadwin.com, contains many of the features yours does and just works...
Allan
Tuesday, September 04, 2007 11:58:57 AM UTC
I'd like to recommend ViEmu and Codekana as handy and cool tools for Vis Studio. ViEmu in particular is a must for VIM lovers.
OJ
Tuesday, September 04, 2007 4:51:21 PM UTC
pdf creater

http://www.dopdf.com/
Ramesh
Wednesday, September 05, 2007 4:35:35 AM UTC
Hi
thanks a world. A lots of intersting utilities.
One question. Do you know how we can replace the microsoft WinDiff with something like WinMerge or any others.
Mohsen
Wednesday, September 05, 2007 9:33:37 AM UTC
I would also add for SQL Server - Redgates tools (http://www.red-gate.com/) - SQL Compare should be voted the best SQL product ever in my opinion.

Others I highly recommend from the same people:-

Ants profiler - profile your asp.net / windows 2.0 apps and see where the code bottlenecks are.
Gregor Suttie
Friday, September 07, 2007 6:08:03 PM UTC
Regarding Colibri, one of the cool features for me is quicker access to Google's search. I reprogrammed the short cut keys to Alt + Space and then start typing "Google", hit Tab and then type in a search criteria. Hitting enter will open the browser to Google's page with the results of search.

Nice thing about Colibri, it has learned that I use Google a lot, so I only have to type "g" then tab then search then enter. Fast. I save many "oogle"s in my day.
Mike Adams
Saturday, September 08, 2007 2:15:54 AM UTC
Scott,

I'd like to second PilotBob's suggestion that you check out Wakoopa (http://wakoopa.com/). Your tool list is a great resource, but I think it would be pretty interesting to see which of these things you are really using on a daily basis. I'm sure many of us would be love to subscribe to a feed of "What Scott's Using Today". Give it a look and thanks for all your contributions to the developer community.
Brian DeHamer
Saturday, September 08, 2007 2:54:49 PM UTC
I've been usuing EditPad Pro as my notepad replacement, along with RegexBuddy from JGSoft for a while now... both work well for me.
Anthony Bouch
Saturday, September 08, 2007 5:45:15 PM UTC
Think about adding FFDSHOW to your list. It's a one CODEC install that allows you to play almost everything. CODEC packs always seem to mess up my system, but FFDSHOW is always one of the first things I install. Highly recommended!
Rob Boek
Sunday, September 09, 2007 4:32:31 AM UTC
Great list, the link for "Tor Anonymous Browsing" is broken though.

I've also downloaded DarkRoom, and can really see the advantage to it. Working my way through the rest of the list...
ArcaneCode
Monday, September 10, 2007 10:56:35 AM UTC
Great list. Thanks.
Praveen
Wednesday, September 12, 2007 3:24:08 PM UTC
I gotta tell ya, for screen capturing, I love cropper
http://blogs.geekdojo.net/brian/articles/Cropper.aspx
It does what it needs to do and stays the F outta my way otherwise. Exactly what programs need to do. Also very pluggable.
yestatmcgurk
Thursday, September 13, 2007 2:11:59 PM UTC
Pingback from SharePoint Tips and Tricks...Nice job on such a complete list Scott.
Drew Mace
Thursday, September 13, 2007 2:39:55 PM UTC
I find usefull Universal help launcher. Perfect with PSPad, TOAD.

http://inthelp.ic.cz

Simply highlight a word in your favorite editor and press a key. The google or desktop search will run immediately.
Robert
Saturday, September 15, 2007 4:10:20 AM UTC
Great tools list! Resharper is awesome
mcjustin
Tuesday, September 18, 2007 9:14:45 AM UTC
Great list Scott, nice work!

Like other comments here, please consider including the awesome free password manager KeePass on your list.

+1 for Ultramon. It's spotty dog.

Scott, you mention the CodeProject ToDoList and a few other "GTD" tools. I'd like to know where/what your current "todo" list is residing? Do you ever use those on-screen "Post-It!"-style note apps?
Sprogz
Tuesday, September 18, 2007 7:38:23 PM UTC
Hi!
I was wondering if the tool I created could fit into this list. Take a look:
http://www.papadi.gr/resex.aspx
Dimitris Papadimitriou
Friday, September 21, 2007 6:29:39 AM UTC
woah! great stuff in here.

Cheers
Vince
Saturday, September 22, 2007 2:44:17 AM UTC
I was just wondering, but the GhostIt page is no longer available. Where can I go to download it. I searched Google, and didnt get anything. All the other stuff so far has worked, cept this. Can someone give me a link?
Eric
Monday, September 24, 2007 10:04:32 AM UTC
Check this [http://www.think-less-do-more.com/avafind/] its a very fast file search app that is fater than what is available in the market.
San
Monday, September 24, 2007 8:06:48 PM UTC
Application mashup... you can use PowerShell inside of Console with a trivial edit of the console.xml configuration file.
Chad
Tuesday, September 25, 2007 8:22:47 AM UTC
hi, please somebody help me!

I need a Decompiler Software Tools for Visual Basic 6.0 (full)

Where can i find it?

Regard and Thanks

William
OneSoftware
Friday, September 28, 2007 1:34:45 PM UTC
WOW... the list is simply amazing... !
I've found many potentially useful apps for me. Thanks a lot for that.
It will take weeks to try them all :)

I just wonder why Total Commander is not on the list.. I can't belive you use so many great utils and don't use TC.
I can't live without it.. it's my #1 app. The first one I decided to pay for. The one and only that has it's own directory in my programs folder (is not categorized like the rest).
I do not even have to install it when I need to reinstall my Windows, it's always there and the desktop shortcut is created during unattended installation of the Windows itself, so there are no moments at all when I can't use my TC :)

I am a big fan of some of the utils on the list (and use them for a few years) and I hope my personal list will grow in the forthcoming weeks.

Thanks again!
FiDO
Saturday, September 29, 2007 8:06:49 PM UTC
absolutely amazing list as usual!!!! thank you so much for taking the time to compile it. Love the podcast, I listen ALL the time.

just thought I might take a moment to add to the list of "Things Windows Forgot"..... if you haven't tryed it TaskBar Shuffle fixes the one thing I always felt windows was missing..... Moveable taskbar buttons.

-Ang3lFir3
Ang3lFir3
Tuesday, October 02, 2007 8:45:59 PM UTC
It'll be interesting to know what's missing on Linux, for the developer...

Thanks.
- a2z
A2Z
Saturday, October 06, 2007 6:47:28 PM UTC
Your "tor" link appears to be broken.

Please give Oxygen XML a try. It freaking rocks!
Caustic Dave
Tuesday, October 09, 2007 11:36:49 AM UTC
Fantastic list of tools.

Thanks for taking the effort to put it together.

Some great suggestions in there to improve productivity.

Podcasts have been great too.

Cheers.
Harvey
Monday, October 22, 2007 5:33:02 AM UTC
Hi,

I am looking for a tool for inline documentation for .NET. Similar to the GHOST Doc tool. Can any one recommend some?

Thanks
RG.
RG
Monday, October 22, 2007 5:57:42 PM UTC
RG,
To generate help files from your C# inline docs, use the Sandcastle and Sandcastle Builder projects.
http://tinyurl.com/yphfbc

It's not fancy, but I've used it successfully.
Don Kirkby
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 5:43:04 PM UTC
Can someone please post a link to Ghostit that works? Or if that doesn't work post a link to a program similar to it?
Eric
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 11:28:32 PM UTC
Never mind, Found a page that has ghost it
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Ghost-It_d1128.html
Eric
Comments are closed.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer’s view in any way.