Tools
The following represents our developers’ personal experience with various tools.
.NET Reflector (http://www.Red-Gate.com/products/reflector/)
Viewing the source code from binary files is made simple with this free utility. It can decompile and analyze .NET assemblies in C#, Visual Basic, and IL. A great tool for learning and analyzing code, Reflector allows you to take the lid off .NET applications without having to open the IDE.
Advanced Find & Replace (http://www.abacre.com/afr/)
This free tool allows you to search multiple documents with smart queries and batch-replace lines of text.
AnkhSVN (http://AnkhSVN.Open.Collab.net/)
This open-source Subversion SourceControl provider works with Visual Studio and allows you to perform the most common version control operations directly from inside the MS Visual Studio IDE.
Beyond Compare (http://www.ScooterSoftware.com/)
Comparing, merging, and synchronizing files and folders on Windows and Linux systems is easy with this reasonably-priced tool—$50/license for the Pro version and $30/license for the Standard versions.
Carbonite (http://www.Carbonite.com)
A small, bi-annual charge gets you access to unlimited backup space and a full-featured, intuitive backup utility that makes backing up files a cinch and means you can finally sleep at night knowing your information is safe.
Copernic Desktop Search (http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/)
Copernic Desktop Search (CDS) allows to instantly search files, e-mails, and e-mail attachments stored anywhere on your PC's hard drive. The application executes sub second searching of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, Acrobat PDFs, multimedia, etc. CDS is available in three versions: Home (i.e. free), Professional and Corporate.
CutePDF Writer (http://www.CutePDF.com)
This light-weight, open-source application makes creating PDF files as easy as printing. In fact, it installs as if it’s a printer, so when you want to create your own PDF all you have to do is select CutePDF from your list of printers and enter where you want your new PDF saved.
Debug View (http://Technet.Microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896647.aspx)
A freeware application, Debug View enables you to monitor debug output simply.
DirSync Pro (http://directorysync.sourceforge.net/)
DirSync Pro (Directory Synchronize Pro) is a small, but powerful utility for file and folder synchronization. And this tool can be used to synchronize the content of one or many folders recursively or to make incremental backups.
GNU Image Manipulation Program(http://www.gimp.org/)
GIMP is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It has many capabilities—a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.
Firebug (for Firefox) (https://Addons.Mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843)
A must for anyone doing Javascript development, this free, light-weight, intuitive debugger runs within the Firefox browser. It’s also very useful for working with 3rd party libraries (e.g. JQuery, YUI, and EXT).
HeidiSQL (http://www.HeidiSQL.com)
A full-featured, open-source database administration tool, HeidiSQL provides an intuitive interface for accessing data stored in multiple MySQL databases on multiple servers.
IntelliJ (http://www.JetBrains.com/idea/)
Offering open-source and paid licenses, IntelliJ is a full-featured Java IDE that has been invaluable to many of our coders.
Jungle Disk(http://www.jungledisk.com/)
Jungle Disk Desktop Edition lets you store files and automatically backup data easily and securely to Amazon.com's S3 Storage Service.
Launchy(http://www.launchy.net/)
Launchy is a free windows and linux utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager. Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!
KeePass(http://keepass.info/)
KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish). For more information, see the features page.
Maven (http://Maven.Apache.org)
Apache produced this project management and comprehension tool to manage their own projects and now provides it as an open-source application.
Notepad++ (http://Notepad-Plus.Sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm)
This open-source text editor supports syntax highlighting for multiple languages (e.g. C#, VB, Java, JavaScript, LISP, HTML, CSS, and XML). It’s great for general purpose authoring, be it text files or code files—especially JavaScript, HTML, and XML. By making Notepad++ the default application for.txt files, Windows Notepad can be eliminated.
OpenSSH (http://www.OpenSSH.com)
Another open-source tool (our favorite kind), Open SSH installs both secure shell and FTP interfaces for easily accessing Linux servers.
Pidgin (http://www.pidgin.im/)
Stay connected with your peers no matter what chat network they use with this free, multi-platform chat client. It supports AIM, ICQ, IRC, Google Talk, Yahoo!, and almost any other network you can think of.
ReSharper (http://www.JetBrains.com/resharper/)
The must-have productivity tool for Visual Studio, ReSharper 4 provides solution-wide error highlighting on the fly, advanced code completion, superior unit testing tools, over 30 advanced code refactorings, multiple handy navigation and search utilities, single-click code formatting and cleanup, automatic code generation and templates, and a lot more productivity features for C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET, XML, and XAML. ReSharper fully integrates with Visual Studio to intelligently and powerfully extend the functionality that is native to Visual Studio.
SnagIt (http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp)
SnagIt allows you to take a "snapshot" of anything on your PC screen then send it, store it, turn it into a detailed graphic, or find it later.
Subversion (http://Subversion.Tigris.org/)
Source control is crucial to any project, and Subversion’s free utility is simple to implement and maintain. It’s been a life-saver for many of our projects.
TimeSnapper (http://www.TimeSnapper.com/)
Entering timesheets can be a chore, but this reasonably-priced tool ($24.95/single license) makes it easier by creating an automated screenshot journal that takes snapshots of your desktop every few seconds. Playback is quick and intuitive.
UltraEdit (http://www.ultraedit.com/)
This text editor makes repetitive tasks much faster with a robust macro system, column editing mode, and flexible search and replace. It also has user-extensible syntax highlighting that supports hundreds of languages.
TrueCrypt(http://www.truecrypt.org/)
TrueCrypt is free, open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux.
VirtualBox(http://www.virtualbox.org/)
VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Wallpaper Changer(http://www.wallpaperchanger.de/)
Wallpaper Changer is a FREEWARE Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP wallpaper manager that can change your background images on every startup, once a day or at regular intervals. It features JPEG, PNG, GIF and BMP support. Several options are provided, including the ability to change your images in random order.
Windows Live Writer (http://WindowsLiveWriter.Spaces.Live.com)
Writer makes it easy to share your photos and videos on almost any blog service—Windows Live, Wordpress, Blogger, Live Journal, TypePad, and many more. And it’s all free!
WinMerge (http://winmerge.org/)
This open-source differencing and merging tool has been critical for many of our recent projects.
XML Pad (http://www.WMHelp.com/xmlpad3.htm)
XML Pad is a free multi-featured XML editor.
