Tried and True Tools

last updated June 8th 2010

Desktop Productivity

  • Go-OO - I assume you know that OpenOffice.org is a free alternative to Microsoft Office, 100% compatible with Excel, Word and PowerPoint (Ok, 97.3%). But did you know that many bugs in OO are not getting fixed due to political reasons?! Apparently Sun has all kinds of concerns that get in the way of the community. Enter Go-OO -- a developers-managed fork of OpenOffice.org, with many more bugs fixed, performance improved etc.
  • Find+Run Robot - this is a launcher, a program that pops up when you press Ctrl+Space, and quickly searches all your shortcuts and executables as you type an approximate name. No need to waste valuable seconds switching to mouse and finding that program in the Start Menu (or, worse, deep in the Windows SDK binary folder!). You can configure which folders it should search. Install DCUpdater to see all available plugins on its Available for Installation tab. My favorites are FarrMultiMonitor and ServiceControl.
  • Fences - my recent favorite, Fences is a nice utility that draws fences around your desktop icons, as if they were sheeps. Organize icons by theme and move entire group at once. As an added bonus, it can also save positions of all icons separately for each screen resolution so no more reordering icons after each Remote Desktop Connection session. Just remember to uninstall Stardock Impulse crapware that comes with it.
  • UltraMon. I suspect UltraMon developers have good friends in Microsoft. Otherwise why would Microsoft not add second-monitor taskbar to Windows 7? I hope they'll fix it in Windows 8, meanwhile I use UltraMon. 
  • TeraCopy. Sort of like robocopy for everyday use. Replaces Windows Copy Files function (both copy/paste and drag-and-drop). Shows more informative progress window, allows to pause, supports retries in case of network glitches, verifies CRCs, can overwrite only newer files. Ideal for copying huge deeply nested directories of files over network.
  • Google Desktop. Not that I use it everyday but it's still nice to have this handy. Stop Windows Search and Indexing services, install Google Desktop, let it index your files, press Ctrl-Ctrl to search. Feels faster that Windows Search and the indexing doesn't seem to slow the system down.
  • PureText - finally you can copy HTML, rich text, or syntax-highlighted code, then paste it as plain text by pressing Windows+V!
  • ZoomIt - next time you give a presentation surprise your auditory by zooming in on UI feature you're talking about (Ctrl+1) and drawing a red rectangle (Ctrl+LeftMouseDraw).
  • Paint.NET. Give yourself a break from paintbrush and use a real tool for once. That is assuming you don't already use Adobe Photoshop!
  • KeyPass. Stop using same password for all your websites and accounts! Generate strong passwords and store them encrypted on a flash drive. Copy/paste passwords into browser without ever typing them.
  • 7-zip. Somehow 7-zip just feels right even for regular zip files! Still using WinRAR for those rare RAR files though.
  • Flux - ideal for your home computer, this gem of utility changes your monitor's color gamma to match the ambient light. Feels easier on the eyes, looks nicer, and supposedly helps prevent computer-induced sleeping disorders. Loving it!
  • Console2 - if you frequently work with command line prompt, you will love this. It gets Command Prompt to where it should be in 21st century. Have your Powershell, Visual Studio Command Prompt, FAR, Cygwin and regular DOS prompt all in one place and customized to fit your soul size.

 

Internet

  • FireFox is my browser of choice: almost Acid3-compliant, fast, slim, with tons of extensions:
    • AdBlock Plus is an essential add-on that cuts off banner ads thereby reducing page load time and improving battery life.
    • Mozilla's Weave is another add-on; it synchronizes your history, bookmarks, closed tabs, and passwords between all your computers (although  you may want to disable its OpenID integration).
    • IE Tab is useful in those rare cases when the stupid site won't work in anything but IE.
    • Omnibar combines the google search bar with the address bar (yeah I know they've stolen that from Google Chrome but that's exactly why I love Firefox). The freed-up area at the top right can now be used for File/Edit/etc menu.
    • iMacros + MWBS to automate daily punch-ins at work.
  • FoxIt Reader is an alternative to Adobe Acrobat Reader. Much faster, takes less disk space, and doesn't load anything on system startup.
  • Google Reader - if you still go through your daily ritual of checking your favorite sites for updates, please stop!  RSS has been invented for a reason and Google Reader is a great online RSS reader that keeps all your "feeds" and their read/unread status in one place globally accessible from all your computers.
  • LiveMesh - this is what I use to synchronize folders between my multiple computers. I know some people like DropBox for that but I haven't tried it yet.
  • Pidgin - my favorite multiprotocol IM client. No banners, no visual clutter, no tons of unneeded features. Open Source / GPL (good for your karma).
  • Skype - believe it or not, one of my coworkers did not know what it was! (he doesn't read blogs, so no worries)

 

Development Tools

  • WiX - for those who needs to create an installations and is fed up with Visual Studio setup project, Windows Installer XML toolkit is the way to go.
  • WinDbg - every senior developer has to master this one. Troubleshoot system crashes, debug memory leaks and simply look cool.
  • Programming Fonts: Dina - I'll never use Courier New again. Consolas doesn't cut it either. For me, Dina is the best for its compact size and very legible characters. There's a TTF version available here. Don't forget to turn ClearType off to get the best rendering in VS 2010!
  • ReSharper - if you think you don't really need it you're wrong. Get the trial, print out the shorcuts and see the difference!
  • Before I got smart and started using all these tools, here's the technique I used to compare the files: I would open the two versions in two different windows, align the first lines, and start switching the windows real fast to visually spot the differences. Don't laugh, some people still do that. While choosing a diff tool is often a matter of personal preference, the best free one for me is SourceGear DiffMerge although recently I switched to BeyondCompare ($30) which provides even bettwen visual appearance.
  • If you use Subversion for source control I bet you also use TortoiseSVN + AnkhSVN for Visual Studio integration. If you don't use Subversion I can only hope that you're on Git rather than on TFS or, God forbid, on Visual Source Safe.
  • BareTail - great utility for watching log files. Scrolls the screen as the new lines are written. You can specify substrings to highlight in color. They also have a commercial version that can do regex, filter tail mode, and more. Two other tools I tried were Tail for Win32 and LogExpert but my experience with them was mixed. I also tried Log Parser Lizard for a nice GUI on top of Microsoft Log Parser but querying log files with SQL feels like an overkill for my humble needs.
  • Command Prompt Here / Powershell Prompt Here - adds the useful commands to Explorer context menu. Although in Win2k8 and newer it's now built-in - simply hold Shift when rightclicking on the folder to have Open Command Prompt added to the context menu.
  • Test Naming Mode - a compiled AutoHotKey script that replaces spaces with underscores while typing, to help with writing descriptive unit-test names. Toggle on with Ctrl + Shift + U. Toggle off with Esc or Enter. Original credit goes to Jean-Paul Bodhoo. There's an alternative version here that can even insert empty test method when you press Ctrl + Alt + U.