Scott Hanselman‘s 2006 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows

Scott Hanselman‘s 2006 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows
Everyonecollects utilities, and most folks have a list of a few that they feelare indispensable.  Here‘s mine.  Each has a distinct purpose, and Iprobably touch each at least a few times a week.  For me, util meansutilitarian 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 arefree some aren‘t. Those that aren‘t free are very likely worth your30-day trial, and perhaps your money.
Discover more cool tools and programmings tips on my weekly Podcast with Carl Franklin.  Hanselminutes  ( FEED /Archives ) - "Guaranteed not to waste your time. Free free to listen in double speed and waste half as much."
Here are most of the contents of my C:/UTILS folder. These are allwell loved and used.  I wouldn‘t recommend them if I didn‘t use themconstantly.
This is the Updated for 2006 Version  of myOriginal Tools List and2005 List, and subsumes all my other lists.
New Entries to the Ultimate Tools are in Red with dozens of additions and many updated and corrected entries.
NOTE: Please don‘t reproduce this in its entirety, I‘d rather you link tohttp://www.hanselman.com/tools.I appreciate your enthusiam, but posts like this take a lot of work onmy 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 inthe Permanence of the Permalink, and I will do everything in my power(as I have for the last 3+ years) to avoid Link Rot. If you‘re readingthis and you‘re not athttp://www.hanselman.com/blog, perhaps you‘d like to join us atthe original URL?)
The BigTen Life and Work-Changing Utilities
Notepad2  or Notepad++  ( Scite also uses the codebase) - A great text editor. First class CR/LF support, ANSI to Unicodeswitching, whitespace and line ending graphics and Mouse Wheel Zooming.A must. Here‘s how to completely replacenotepad.exe. Personally I renamed Notepad2.exe to "n.exe" which saves me a few dozen "otepad"s a day. Here‘s how tohave Notepad2 be your View Source Editor. Here‘s how toadd Notepad2 to the Explorer context menu.
Notepad++ is built on the same fundamental codebase asNotepad2, but is more actively developed than Notepad2. Notepad++ alsoincludes tabbed editing and more language syntax highlighting.
PowerShell - Thefull power of .NET, WMI and COM all from a command line. PowerShell hasa steep learning curve, much like the tango, but oh, my, when youreally start dancing...woof. I also usePowerShell Prompt Here.
Lutz‘s Reflector and it‘s 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. Takethe time to install the Add-Ins and check out the amazing staticanalysis you can do with things like the Diff and Graph.
SlickRun - A free floating dynamic "command prompt" with alias support thatcontinues to amaze. My tips for effective use: read the instructions,edit the slickrun.ini file and bind it to Window-R. Also setChaseCursor so when you hit Win-R, you‘ll have a floating transparentcommand line anywhere your mouse is. I recommend you also use largerfonts! Get to know this little box. It‘s the bomb.
Google Desktop  -Google‘s Desktop Search has come leaps and bounds in the last year.It‘s a lightning fast Launcher with it‘s Ctrl-Ctrl feature, afeature rich indexer with many plugins available and it‘s now a Gadget/Sidebar platform. It‘s my primary local search tool. It even integrates with PowerShell nicely, thank you very much thanks to it‘s rich SDK.
ZoomIt - ZoomIt is so elegant and so fast, it‘s taken over as my #1 screenmagnifier. Do try it, and spend more time with happy audiences and lesstime dragging a magnified window around.
WinSnap - One 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 transparancy.
CodeRush and Refactor!  (andDxCore) -Apparently my enthusiasm for CodeRush has been noticed by a few. Itjust keeps getting better. However, the best kept secret about CodeRushisn‘t all the shiny stuff, it‘s the free Extensibility Engine calledDxCore that brings VS.NET plugins to the masses. Don‘t miss out on freeadd-ins likeCR_Documentor andElectricEditing.
SysInternals - I showed specificallyProcExp andAutoRuns,but anything these guys do is pure gold. ProcExp is a great Taskmanreplacement and includes the invaluable "Find DLL" feature. It can alsohighlight any .NET proceses. AutoRuns is an amazing aggregated view ofany and all things that run at startup on your box.
FolderShare - It takes a minute to grok, but FolderShare lets you synchronizefolders between systems, between OS‘s, behind firewalls. Truly changethe way you use your machine. Save a file in a folder and it willalways been on your other three machines when you need it. Also accessfiles, if you like, from remote locations. And it‘s free.
Dropped out of the Top 10 for 2006 but still rockin‘ sweet
TestDriven.NET and NCoverExplorer ( was NUnitAddIn ) - Now in one integrated build!The perfect integration of Unit Testing with Visual Studio.NET. Rightclick and "Run Test." The output window says "Build" then switches to"Test." The best part, though, is "Test With...Debugger" as a rightclick that automatically starts up an external process runner, loadsand starts your test. Compatible with NUnit, MBUnit and Team System.
Cropper -A fabulous screen capture applet. I usually pick simple tools that dotheir job elegantly. Cropper does just that and it‘s written in .NET.
Magnifixer - My ZoomIn tool du jour. Be sure that you have SOME kind of ZoomIntool installed. I like this one because it automatically follows yourcursor and your typing and saves settings without asking. It also has anice eye-dropper for the RGB in you. Learn how to use this tool if youpresent at all.
Windows Desktop Search  -The betas were rough and tended to lock up, but the free final editionis tight. I can finally bring up a file almost as fast as I can thinkabout it. One important note that sets it apart from Google DesktopSearch is that the items appearing in the result window are first-classExplorer Items. Right click on them and you‘ll not only have all yourcontext menu extensions, but also Open Containing Folder.
TaskSwitchXP and/or TopDesk  -Two better ways to ALT-Tab and Task Switch in Windows. Don‘t confuseTaskSwitchXP with the old PowerToy. This one is fast and powerful. Ifyou envy the Mac‘s Expose, then use TopDesk. Personally, I use both andset a cursor hotspot in the lower-right corner to tile my windows. Besure to have DirectX9 installed.
A Developer‘s Life
Application Profiler - A great GotDotNet sample, a tool for visualizing and analyzing allocations on the GC heap.  Has a GREAT graphical view
Adam Nathan‘s CLRSPY - A diagnostic that looks at .NET 1.1 Customer Debug Probes, in-freaking-valuable.
Eric J Smith‘s CodeSmith - Oh, yes, it‘s much more than just a Strongly Typed CollectionGenerator. It‘s a complete code-generation engine with an ASP.NET-likesyntax. Very extendable, very powerful, very affordable. And all isright with the world. I‘ve used it to generate THOUSANDS of lines ofcode. There‘s a learning curve, but the benefits are immense. It‘sworth the download just for the Strongly Typed Collection code fromChris Nahr.
Query Express - Wow, a Query Analyzer look-alike that doesn‘t suck, doesn‘t need aninstall, is wicked fast, is free and is only 100k. Pinch me, I‘mdreaming.
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!
Alintex .NET Scripting Host - Allows you to create scripts (like like VBS files, etc) except with .NET.  Also a great prototyping tool.
Omar Shahine‘s CleanSources - Right click on any folder with code in it and get your bin,obj,debug,release directories blown away.
Jeff Atwood‘s CleanSourcesPlus - Jeff extends on Omar‘s idea and includes configuration options fordeleting things like Resharper folders and Source Control bindings.
Venkman - An amazing JavaScript debugger for FireFox that has seen me through a number of hard times.
Also try FireBug  for great XMLHttpRequest debugging and an arguably better interface!
Clemen‘s BuildDay.exe -Great commandline util that you should put in your path.  Returns thelast digit of the year and the number of the day.  Great for batchfiles that create daily builds, log files, etc.
PromptSQL - Intellisense for T-SQL in your editor of choice.
DbQuickLaunch - Launch SQL Database utils on database-specific instances from the tray.
LogParser - This utility is so good it has it‘s ownFAN SITE.That says something. Get to know it, as it‘s a free command-line toolfrom Microsoft that lets you run SQL queries against a variety of logfiles and other system data sources, and get the results out to anarray of destinations, from SQL tables to CSV files. Idig it and use it to parse my own logs.
WatirMaker now WatirRecorder - A basic, but functional way to jump into the world ofWatir testing. Open Source, with C# and Ruby versions , soon to be hosted atOpenQA.
WinMerge - The best open-source Diff Merge Tool that I‘ve found.
fLogViewer - Great freeware highlighting log viewer for large log files.
HightLight for Windows -Highlight is a universal sourcecode converter for Linux and Windows,which transforms code to HTML, XHTML, RTF, LaTeX or TeX - files withsyntax highlighting. (X)HTML output is formatted by CSS.
The Subservient Programmer  - Send this link to your boss when you‘ve had it with his demands.
IECookiesView 1.5 from NirSoft - Nice clean interface to snoop contents of the cookies on your box in IE.
NirSoft Utilities Collection - Nearly everthing NirSoft does is work looking at. My favorites areMyUninstaller, a replacement for Remove Programs, andWhoIsThisDomain.
Also check outZipInstaller; it installs utilities that don‘t provide their own installer ! It creates icons, puts them in the folder you want and adds an uninstaller.
Fiddler  -More feature-packed than the elegantly minimalist ieHttpHeaders,Fiddler is THE debugging proxy for checking out HTTP between here andthere.
ieHttpHeaders -Internet Explorer "Explorer Bar" that shows the HTTP Headers as youbrowse.  Invaluable for quickie debugging.  More great stuff from JonasBlunck.
MSI Utilities - This site lists darn near every MSI related utility.
SCCSwitch -Harry Pierson‘s ruthlessly competent Source Control Provider switcherfor VS.NET.  Great if you are using Vault, VSS and CVS like me.
COM is Dead
Reggie - Not a regular expression tool, it‘s a BETTER RegSvr32.exe from ShawnVan Ness.  It provides better error handling and messages.  It doesn‘tsuck. Which is more than I can say for RegSvr32.exe.
COMTrace -Hooks and lets you see COM "traffic" on processes on your system. Intercepts COM calls on any interface.  Has saved my ass 3 times.
APIViewer 2003 - A database and browser of the Win32API, similar to the oldwin32api.txt file that was distributed with VB6. Includes 6500 functiondeclarations and 55000 constants.
Microsoft MDAC Component Checker - Utility to diagnose and deal with MDAC compatibility and versioning problems.
ActiveXplorer v4 - A file manager and analyzer for COM objects...a little higher level than OleView and easier to understand.
BinType2.exe -Ever want to check a VB6 COM dll to see if it‘s been appropriatelycompiled with "Retain in Memory" and "Unattended Execution" set to truefor correct execution under MTS?
The Angle Bracket Tax (XML/HTML Stuff)
VisualXPath - A nice GotDotNet project that runs XPath Queries interactively anddisplays the results. Also useful for quick coarse timing of queryspeed.
XPathMania from DonXML - A guy named DonXML is really serious about his angle brackets. Thisis an extension to the XML Editor within Visual Studio 2005 that allowsyou to execute XPath queries against the current document dynamically.Created under theMvp.Xml umbrella project - also a kickbutt XML extension library.
Web Services Studio 2.0 - .NET Webservice Studio is a tool to invoke Web Servicesinteractively. The user can provide a WSDL endpoint and it generatesthe .NET Proxy immediately.
Mindreef SOAPscope - The original. The glory forever, this is more than an Add-In, it‘s acomplete XML Web Services design studio. It‘s a bargain and works evenbetter when setup in a workgroup. It keeps a database of all WebServices traffic, but it‘s more than a sniffer. It also analyzes datafor WS-I compliance and allows for record and replay of messages. " It‘s Tivo for Web Services! "
XmlSpy - Just buy it.
Ken Arway‘s ComXT - Don‘t write this of just because of the funky UI. This is 13 different useful XML tools (like a true Xml Diff) in one app.
PPXML - Command-Line XML Pretty Printer
Xenu‘s Link Sleuth -Xenu‘s Link Sleuth (TM) checks Web sites for broken links. Linkverification is done on "normal" links, images, frames, plug-ins,backgrounds, local image maps, style sheets, scripts and java applets.It displays a continuously updated list of URLs which you can sort bydifferent criteria.
Fesersoft‘s VS.NET XSLT 1.0 Schema - Enables Intellisense for XSLT 1.0 documents in Visual Studio.NET 2003. There‘s other good code here to check out also!
Regular Expressions
Roy Osherove‘s Regulator - Roy entered the RegEx fray with a bang, and with syntax highlightingand web services integration with regexlib.com. The very definition ofslick.
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 tostart using Regular Expressions. Write regular expressions withoutprior knowlege 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."
Eric Gunnerson‘s Regular Expression Workbench - Nice .NET interactive Regular Expression builder.
Expresso is a new free tool for working with regular expressions in .NET.
RegexDesigner.NET from Chris Sells   - Simple, elegant, it‘s what I use most.
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 sterioids! You‘ll love it if you love Grep.
Launchers
Slickrun -still the sexy favorite, this little floating magic bar keeps me movingfast, launching programs, macros and explorer with it‘s shinysimplicity.
Tell them I sent you.
SmartStartMenu - Shaun Harrington has created this elegant little application thatlives in the task bar and automatically indexes the list of items inyour Start Menu for quick access with the speed of AutoComplete. Itwill take system commands, paths to launch explorer, even UNC paths.Launch anything on your system with less than 4 keystrokes. It alsoadds new context menus to Explorer like CopyPath and Open in DOS box toExplorer.
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.
Tidy Start Menu   -If you still love the Start Menu, but you‘ve installed everything onthis list and your menu takes up more room than you have pixels, thisprogram will organize it all.
Also trySMOz (Start Menu Organizer)
Colibri - The closest thing so far, IMHO, toQuicksilver on Windows, although this little gem has a slow startup time, it runs fast !It‘s being actively developed and promises integration with a dozenthird party programs. It also formally supports "Portable Mode" forthose of you who like to carry your apps around on a USB key.
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 potentialto be Quicksilver like if it start including support for stringingtogether verb-noun combos. It‘s pretty as hell and totally skinnable(there‘s TWO Quicksilver skins included!)
AppRocket  -thislittle bar sits at the top of your screen, popping down an active listof Bookmarks, Programs, Music, Web Queries and more.  It‘s unclear ifthis tool is being enhanced for future versions as folks have reportednot hearing from the company in a while.
ActiveWords - Arguably the most minimal of these launchers (as it can have no UI atall if you like!), but the most configurable. ActiveWords watcheseverything you type, in every application, so anything you‘ve justtyped could potentially be used by you to launch a program, a macro,send email, or give you Auto-Correct in any application. Check outtheirscreencast/demos andtheir scripting language. It also is the only launcher (I‘ve seen) withexplicit support for the Tablet PC and allows ink to trigger an "ActiveWord."
Dave‘s Quick Search Bar  -Written orignally in JavaScript and now written in magic and ensconcedin voodoo, this little Toolbar sits in your Windows Task bar (orwherever you choose to drag it) and supports a huge community of macrowriters who‘ve enabled it as a Calculator, Web Searcher, People Finder,Currency Converter and literally hundreds of other tasks via simple towrite 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 createyour own web searches by example.
Google Desktop - GoogleDesktop has an option that let‘s you use it as a quick program launcheralong with fantastic search abilities by tapping Ctrl-Ctrl.
Find and Run Robot - Lightweight, small, quiet until you need it. Thislittle application allows for tuneable heuristics to make it work likeyou think. DemoScreencast here.
Run++ - The only ClickOnce launcher I‘ve found. Requires .NET 2.0.
Stuff I Just Dig
InstallPad -How long until someone creates an InstallPad application listcontaining the complete contents of this post? I dunno, but it‘d becool. InstallPad takes care of downloading and installing the latestsversions of all your favorite apps. What a great way to get from afreshly paved machine to something usable by me. :)
Foxit Reader for Windows - Fast as hell. This little PDF reader requires no installer and is tiny and fast. Did I mention fast? Good bye, Acrobat.
Virtual TI-89 [Emulator] -Sometimes CALC.EXE doesn‘t cut it, and I want a REAL scientificcalculator for Windows, so I emulate the one I used in college.
VisiCalc (vc.exe) - Because I just like having a copy of VisiCalc in my utils folder.  I use it occasionally.
DiskView   -The most powerfull disk usage program I‘ve found, DiskView integratesnicely 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 onejust seems to tell me exactly what I need to know and it can be runwithout 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.
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 photoof a Whiteboard and automatically corrects it and offers up a cleanwhite sheet of paper with a color corrected and keystoned photo of yourwhiteboard.  Check out the demo. Expensive though.
FAR File Manager - Norton Commander is back, it‘s still text mode, it‘s still lightning speed and it‘s from the makers ofRAR 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 promptwithin Windows. However, it‘s less about the prompt as it is about thewealth of command-line tools you‘ll gain access to.
FinePrint  -This virtual printer lets you save paper, print booklets, delete pagesand graphics, and provides print preview for every application.
BlogJet - I freaking love this little guy. Works great withDasBlog,supports spellcheck, file upload, makes clean HTML, and includes MusicDetection support as well as posting of Audio to your blog.
Acronis TrueImage  - has saved me a half dozen times. Image your whole life. Relatively inexpensive and VERY easy to use.
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 chooseyhardcore users choose. You‘ll typically get between 2% and 10% bettercompression than ZIP.
xplorer2 - Norton Commander-like funcitonality for Windows. It‘s one better than Explorer.
SyncBack  - How can you not like a company named 2BrightSparks? There‘s aFreeware SE version aswell. Golden, with a clean crisp configuration UI, I use this toolinternally for scheduled backups and syncs between machines within myfamily network.
TimeSnapper  -Tivo for your desktop? Kind of. TimeSnapper can‘t give you files back,but it‘ll take a screenshot in the backgound at user-configurableintervals and let you answer the burning question - What was I doingall day at work? Free and only 80k. Another brilliant idea blatentlystolen off my list of things to do and executed by folks more cleverthan I. Kudos.
Low-Level Utilities
The Ultimate Boot CD and the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows - I‘ve downloaded and saved everything from BootDisks.com, includingWin95 and Win98 boot disks and a DOS 6.22 disk. The boot CDs arelife-savers and should be taken to all family gatherings where therelatives KNOW you‘re a computer person. They‘ll expect you to savetheir machines before the turkey is served.
DllFiles - You never know when you might need an old-ass dll.
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 - Meantfor the Playstation Portable, this utility is more useful that youthink. It creates MP4 squished video you can use anywhere.
Daemon367, Virtual CD ISO Image Mounter - This is the utility that lets you mount an ISO image as a DriveLetter...nice to keep a library of CDs around on a Firewire drive. Veryrobust.
Synergy - Share the same keyboard between two systems...I use this to move themouse cursor out the right side of my monitor and onto the one that‘sconnected to my Mac.
FileMon - Displays file system activity in REAL TIME.  Just who is that writing to the disk right now?
YATT by Simon Fell - Yet Another Trace Tool, requiresWinPCAP, when you just need to sniff some packets.
ProxyTrace - Often less trouble than the Microsoft Soap Toolkit‘s SOAPTrace.
Who‘s Locking? -WhosLocking.exe lets you know what application is locking that DLLyou‘re trying to delete! Although, lately I‘ve been using...
Unlocker  - Nicely integrated into Explorer‘s right-click menu.
Process Explorer - The ultimate replacement for TaskManager. Includes the amazing FindDLL 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.
BinText  - Gives you more detail that you can handle about text hidden within binaries.
Websites and Bookmarklets (that change the way you work)
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 agreat .HTML file you can download for free that has ASCII charts andColor references.  It‘s a link I keep close by.
Del.icio.us - A social distributed bookmarks manager. It took me a bit to get into it, but theirBookmarklets thatyou drag into your Links toolbar won me over. All my bookmarks are herenow and I can always find what I need, wherever I am. Very RESTful.
Genpass - Bookmarklets to make your passwords more powerful. Adapted fromNic Wolff‘s concept. There‘s a great screenmovie explaining how this works byJon Udell.
Google Portal  - It‘s not Google, it‘shttp://www.google.com/ig and it includes movie times, driving directions, news and weather. My new home page.
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, butPaul Rademacher‘sHousingMaps.com is synergy.
PortableApps.com  - Take all your favorite apps with you on a USB key without installing them! All your settings remain. Be sure to getPStart, the handy Portable Apps Launcher for the Tray.
More Portable apps athttp://portablefreeware.com/
Tools for Bloggers
Amazoner - RoyO‘s applet dedicated to making it easier to create AmazonAssociate links. This little. How about a Windows Live Writer pluginanyone?
DasBlog - Easy to install and requires no database, DasBlog runs this blog. Actively developed.
Subtext - Another ASP.NET blogging engine based on SQLServer. Actively developed.
BlogJet - I freaking love this little guy. Works great withDasBlog,supports spellcheck, file upload, makes clean HTML, and includes MusicDetection support as well as posting of Audio to your blog.
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.
Windows Live Writer - The ultimate offline Blog Post tool? Not quite, it‘s beta, but it‘s agot an easy SDK. If you don‘t like it. Change it.
Windows Live Writer Plugins at WLWPlugins.com - A growing collection of plugins for Windows Live Wiriter including a number ofCode Formatters.
Smart People and their Pages for Utils They Wrote
Chris Sells - Everything from COM Moniker stuff to CSV ADO Samples to the legendary RegExDesigner.NET.
Fritz Onion andKeith Brown and Aaron Skonnard - The makers ofViewStateDecoder andGenerateMachineKey andXPathExpressionBuilder collect their tools here.
The aggregated blog of Pluralsight  and it‘sRSS Feed is the best way to sip from the wisdom that is Pluralsight. Theirtools list is here.
Jeff Key - Ah, to have this dude‘s skillz. The man who brought youSnippetCompiler has a crapload of other stuff at this page includingSingleDrive andRuler andNetPing.
Travis Illig - A page of software dedicated to saving at least one mouse click. IncludesSNInfo,CR_Documentor, and theFusion Log Settings Changer.
Phil Haack   - Phil leads the SubText team and always has something thoughtful to say.
Mark Russinovich andBryce Cogswell  - The folks behind SysInternals. Every tool they have ROCKS. Completely. I like Process Explorer,Autoruns,Regmon, andPsTools.
Lutz Roeder - The maker ofReflector also makesResourcer and inspired theReflector Add-In community (complete list).
Eric Lawrence - The Father ofSlickRun also makes a number of tools for IE.
Jeff Atwood - Jeff‘s Coding Horror blog consistently doesn‘t suck. Or do I mean it sucks inconsistently?
Jonas Blunck - Jonas wroteieHttpHeaders, my favorite HTTP Sniffer, but alsoComTrace andDeveloper Playground withKim Gräsman.
Juval Lowy - Juval has been quietly but consistantlyfilling the IDesign site with a veritable crapload of utilities. If you‘re into WCF (Indigo) spend an afternoon (or a weekend) here.
Nikhil Kothari - Nikhil keeps a not-so-secret stash of goodness up on his site whilewriting one of the prettiest technical blogs I‘ve seen. He‘s given the worldScript#, a C# to JavaScript compiler, as well as the astonishingWeb Development Helper that enables ASP.NET 2.0 to with all the features you wish it had out of the box.
Check out the rest of my Must Read BlogRoll  along with theaccompanying Podcast over here...
Alt.Lang
John Lam ‘s RubyCLR  - DiggingRuby but also love the .NET Framework Base Class Library? Why not mergethe two like Chocolate and Peanut Butter with RubyCLR?
Wilco Bauer‘s IronRuby  - An ongoing project to compile Ruby as IL, Wilco‘s the smartest (and tallest) intern I‘ve ever met.
Boo  - Feels like C# but feels like Python. Boo is an up and coming wrist-friendly .NET language with great support within the SharpDevelop   IDE
Ruby and Watir  (Web Application Testing in Ruby)  - Ruby‘s today‘s Web 2.0 posterchild but Watir changed my functional-testing life. Learnabout Watir in 3 min at SecretGeek.
Seaside Web Framework in Smalltalk   - Smalltalk? What‘s this? Don‘t judge until you‘ve seenDabbleDB (written in Seaside) in action.
Instant Rails - No muss, no fuss. A one-stop Ruby on Rails solution with no installer ! Great if you‘re paranoid about changing your system.
Browser Add-Ins
Urlograph - I don‘t know how I lived without this util. It adds a button tointernet explorer that cleans filthy URLs (Amazon, Google, MSDN, GoogleGroups, etc) and puts the smallest URL possible in your clipboard. Notto be confused with TinyUrl.com, this util removes the fluff and makesUrls hackable again.
UrlKicker - If you DO end up with a giant wrapped URL with line breaks, thislittle tray icon will remove those breaks and launch the browser.Source included.
GetRight -Downloads, resumes and most importantly, splits up large downloads overHTTP or FTP into as many as 10 concurrent streams. Great withFlashGot for FireFox.
WebDeveloper for FireFox - If you‘re the last developer to download FireFox, or you‘re holdingoff, WebDeveloper is a solid reason to switch to FireFox NOW. It‘samazing and has to be used to be believed. It consolidates at least 2dozens useful functions for those who sling ASP.NET or HTML. And ifyou‘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 areyin to the others yang. They add View in Internet Explorer and View inFireFox context menu items to their respective browsers. Great if youdevelop, but also great if you tend to visit sites that aren‘t browseragnostic.
FireFox Extensions - Stunning! Extensions for my browser that won‘t kill my family!GoogleBar for FireFox,CopyPlainText,DownloadManagerTweak,AdBlock,ChromEdit,FlashGot, andGreaseMonkey.
Things Windows Forgot
Ultramon - Why this kind of functionality isn‘t built in, I don‘t know. Butit‘ll keep the guy at RealTimeSoftware in business! Ultramon is theultimate utility for Multiple Monitor systems. It‘s most significantfeatures, IMHO, is the addition of TaskBars that are monitor specific,and the addition of buttons NEXT to Minimize and Maximize to move openwindows over to other monitors. Great if you‘ve got 2 monitors, but aMUST if you‘ve got more than 2!
AutoHotKey - Do you like AutoCorrect in Word? GrabAutoHotKeywhile you still can! It‘s cross-application AutoCorrect. Works in anyapplication and corrects the world‘s most common (English) typingmistakes. 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 theGNU Utils for Windows andBareTail.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 towatch the log as it‘s being written.  Also has keyword highlighting soyou 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 minethe Hanselshell. I alsomodded the PROMPT environment variable.
SlickRun , Windows Search and/or Dave‘s Search Bar - Pick one, and love it. Why there isn‘t a floating or dockedcommand-line in Windows I do not know. Probably so my mom wouldn‘tfreak out.
RoboCopy - When COPY and XCOPY just won‘t cut it, try the "Robust Copy"
Nero 6 and ImageDrive -Nero 6 is a fantastic value and the greatest burning suite out there. It also include ImageDrive that let‘s you make and mount ISO images.
BgInfo from SysInternals - Ifyou log into a lot of boxes remotely and always wonder, where the hellis this? This wallpaper tool creates custom wallpapers with all theinformation you‘d need, like IP Address, Box Name, Disk Space, and it‘stotally configurable.
ProcessTamer - Beat back those processes demanding 100% CPU. Raise the priority ofthe process that has focus. ProcessTamer makes it happen. Sure sped upOutlook 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 automaticallyon my system.  AutoRuns (from SysInternals) checks EVERYWHERE thatcould be running something, the registry, win.ini (remember those?),the Startup Group, etc...
SharpKeys - Do you want your Right-CTRL key to map to the Windows Key? I do. Whycan‘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 baloonwhenever the event log is written to.  I hate tray icons but I loveballoon 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.
Filter Files with Unknown Extensions for XP -Chris Sell‘s provides a .REG file that let‘s explorer‘s find files withfile extensions that are not known.  A real irritant with XP, fixed.
Paint.NET - The Paint Program that Microsoftforgot, 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 newfeatures, like right-click and launch Remote Desktop. Great foradministration 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. You can getOneCare on Amazon for $19. It‘s anti-spyware and anti-virus. Sounds like anti-extended-family-support-calls if you ask me.
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.
TrueName -Right click a file in Explorer and find out it‘s TRUENAME (Remember theTruename.exe?)  The 8.3 name of My Documents might beC:DOCUME~1SHANSELMMYDOCU~1.
RealVNC -When RemoteDesktop is a hassle and PCAnywhere is lame...VNC stands forVirtual Network Computing. It is remote control software which allowsyou to view and interact with one computer (the "server") using asimple program (the "viewer") on another computer anywhere on theInternet.
WHICH - It‘s which and it‘s back.  Wondering WHICH copy of that .exe is being run first in the path? Run "which calc.exe"
Visual Subst - Subst.exe is quite possibly evil, but Visual Subst is a 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 theclick-stream.  If you copy a 1 meg file to the clipboard, URL Banditcan find, for example, all 200 URLS within it.  Yum.
Synchronex  -A file synchronizer, sure, but not just any file synchronizer, this onesupports local, UNC, FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, ZIP and versioning. And only$20. Oy. I use it for backing up my blog on a schedule. An obtusescripting format, more complex thanSyncBack 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.
Outlook AddIns and Life Oganizers
UrlRun  -The Chez Tabor Outlook Add-In version of Chris Sells original UrlRun.Smart enough to take out spaces and > characters on split lines inforwarded email. Only works on Plain Text Messages.
Sciral Consistancy - A strange little tool with a stranger name, this little jewel helpsyou get those niggling little "every once in a while but have to getdone" tasks done.
Getting Things Done (GTD) with Outlook
ClearContext - Artifical 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, searchs, and teaches itself about your mail.
Windows Live Local for Outlook - Map your appointment and meeting locations directly from withinOutlook. Get driving directions, print detailed maps, find optimizedtrip routes, and estimate travel times. Receive reminders based on theestimated travel time. Even find the nearest Quiznos!
PocketMod  -Has nothing to do with Outlook, but everthing to do with gettingorganized. This tiny book is created by some creative folding and yourprinter. Design it and print it yourself for free.
Ultimate Registry Tweaks
Add ‘Cleanup Drives‘ to the My Computer Right-Click Menu:DriveCleanup.reg (.2 KB)
Add ‘Notepad2‘ to ALL Right-Click Menus [Steve Clark]
(note: I renamed Notepad2 to n.exe to save all those ‘otepads‘) :notepad2_shell_integration.reg (.38 KB)
Add ‘Event Viewer‘ to the My Computer Right-Click Menu:eventviewer.reg (.19 KB)
Fix the Windows Search and treat all unknown extensions as text (.txt) files [Chris Sells]:SearchUnknownExtensionsForXP.reg (.31 KB)
Update/Change the CleanMgr.exe (Drive Cleanup) to include better options, and remove the unused and slow Compress Old Files [Shawn A. Van Ness] (warning: this deletes four registry keys) :VolumeCaches.reg (.2 KB)
Adds System Restore, Services, LogOff, Reboot, Shutdown, DeviceManager, Control Panel and Add/Remove Programs to My ComputerRight-Click Menu:MajorControl.reg (3.42 KB)
Cause Cmd.exe to ALWAYS run ‘vsvars32.bat‘ no matter what [Travis Illig]vsnetcmd.reg (.14 KB)
Remapping a Windows Key on an IBM Thinkpad - I have a ThinkPad, and it has no Windows Key. Now it does and I can Window-Key my way to victory.
Windows Explorer Integration (and other Integraty things)
LinkShellEx  - Thistool subsumes the tool below with the same functionality and more!Manage all your junctions and hard links with clean ExplorerIntegration.
Junction Icon Overlay - If you‘re diggingJunctions(NTFS Reparse Points/Symbolic Links) like I am, then you‘re lamentingthe fact that Windows Explorer is CLUELESS about them. Well, no longer,thanks to Travis and his Junction Overlay for Explorer.
ExecParm - Like Right Click|RunAs...it‘s even better with ExecParm adding theability to execute with parameters. Everything else at this site isawesome also, includingClipName.
ASP.NET Development Helper - Nikhil, a dev lead on ASP.NET 2.0, created this wonderfully elegantdeveloper helper that plugs into IE and gives you lots of insight intowhat‘s happening in ASP.NET while you develop. Want aFireFox 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.
CommandBar for Explorer - This tool extends explorer with functionality of a command prompt.Implemented as a band object completely in C#. Demonstrates COM Interopand P/Invoke, windows hooking and API interception. Finally you can runall these .Net SDK tools and ‘Hello World!’ programs without leavingexplorer shell.  Definitely turns heads if you use it in a presentation.
UrlRun plugin for Outlook -From Tim Tabor based on Chris Sells‘ UrlRun.  Lets you right-click onmessed-up and wrapped URLs in Outlook and launch the browser withoutmanually fixing the URL.  Chris Sells says "It‘s pure sex."
Unlocker  - Nicely integrated into Explorer‘s right-click menu.
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 whatPrivilege level you‘re running at.
Plaxo - I lovethe way Plaxo integrates with Outlook, tells me about upcomingBirthdays 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‘tyou rather spend less of your live in Edit|Paste Special? PureTextpastes plain text, purely, plainly. Free and glorious. Thanks SteveMiller.
BCWipe - Check out all the fine software from Jetico, but don‘t forget to pickup BCWipe and don‘t just delete your files, wipe them off the face ofthe earth. Very clean integration with Explorer.
Continuous Integration
NUnit or ZaneBug - Microsoft Visual Studio Team System is shiny, but there‘s ways to doContinuous Integration and super charge your developers today. NUnit isthe name everyone knows, but ZaneBug is a better GUI for NUnit thanNUnitGui. It adds multiple assembly tests, requires no recompiles, addsperformance counters, repeating tests, as well as charts and graphs.
TestDriven.NET - see above in the Big Ten.
NAnt -It all starts here. Get your build working from the command line, notfrom DevEnv. It‘s makefiles with angle brackets and it‘s a good way tostart improving your processes. Supports .NET 1.0 through 2.0 as wellas Mono!
NDepend - This amazing app does dependancy analysis on your .NET application and presents the findings as a TreeMap.
devMetrics - devMetrics is a free tool for measuring various attributes of your C#code so that you can accurately assess your product for quality andmaintainability. I use it to measure cyclomatic complexity and abusepeople during code reviews. A great way to add static analysis to yourautomated builds!
LibCheck - Highly recommended. This is the tool that Microsoft uses to comparebuilds of public APIs. We use it at Corillian to generate reportsshowing what public methods and properties have changed between builds.(Note, be sure to read thisgotcha when you start messing around.)
Simian - Similiarity 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, fromThoughtWorks.Includes a tray icon for your developers to receive updated buildinformation as well as a flexible plugin model you can use toextend CCNet to meet your needs.
Clemen‘s BuildDay.exe -Great commandline util that you should put in your path.  Returns thelast digit of the year and the number of the day.  Great for batchfiles that create daily builds, log files, etc.
NCover - Code Coverage for .NET withNAnt Integration.Clover is also nice, but costs.
Also check outNCoverExplorer or the integrated pack atTestDriven.NET.
TabletPC Indispensibles
ArtRage - It‘s free, and it‘s amazing. If you remember being blown away the first time you usedKai‘s Power Tools, you‘ll feel the same way with ArtRage. In the You can createsome AMAZING artwith an organic quality I‘ve just never seen on a PC. If you do onething 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 versionadded Ink support, you‘ll find it very comfortable for makingannotations to screenshots. Now on version 2.7, it keeps getting better.
MaxiVista - Use your Tablet PC as avirtual second or third monitor!I use my M205 as a third monitor that keeps Outlook open. Now MaxiVistaVersion 2 is a software Virtual Keyboard and Mouse! When I don‘t wantto 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 holdit, when you press the hardware "orient" button on the edge of thescreen the system will switch to the correct orientation. WallpaperGyro will not only automatically change your wallpaper when theorientation changes, but it allows you to have different wallpaper foreach orientation!
InkPlayer - Easily create Macromedia Flash playbacks of animated ink stokes!
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 completelyTablet-specific, but create and use an electronic music score and sheet music on your Tablet PC. Different fromMusicPad.
OneNote - duh, but don‘t forgetSP1!
GetOmar‘s OneNote From Outlook PowerToy orMicrosoft‘s to improve Outlook/OneNote integration
GetMicrosoft‘s OneNote From IE PowerToy to move content from IE to OneNote
Decide if you want toBlog directly from OneNote ornot.
X-Think Calculator  or MathJournal  - Fantastic support forink along side equations, these are worth download the trials just to see. If not, at least be prepared bydownloading the free viewer.
Alias SketchBook Pro - It costs, but it has avery different styleand goal (IMHO) than ArtRage, and the output is different inphilosophy. ArtRage is largely about paint, and Alias is about pencilsand sketching.
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 onlycomplaint is it‘s not re-sizable, but the Zoom to 640x480 feature ofthe Toshiba Tablet fixes that. The Crossword app lets you downloadtoday‘s Crossword for solving off line. Fantastic for the bus or trainride to work.
Pool for Tablet- This is worth at least $20, but it‘s FREE. A wonderful game of Poolwith all the graphics and physics to make you smile, and it‘s allTabletPC enabled. Be sure to try playing over a wireless network with afriend.
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 thetraditional screen shot tool.
Web Search Power Tool - This is the oneI wrote lo these many years ago in 17 minutes , and got $2500 for my troubles. Even more useful when combined withGoogle 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 cancreate Appointments and Tasks in Outlook using Ink.
MindManager for the TabletPC - If you use Mind Mapping software, it‘s even more intuitive andcomfortable when the application has seamless Tablet PC support.
ASP.NET Must Haves
Web Application Project for VS2005 - Probablythe first thing you should install after installing VS2005, this add onreturns the Web Project development model that was removed in theoriginal release. Makes it WAY easier to port code over from VS2003.
Atlas - Microsoft‘s AJAX implementation for VS2005.
Peter Blum‘s Validation And More - Not an add-in but rather a complete re-imagining of the ASP.NETValidation Framework. There‘s a learning curve, but it will change theway you write pages. Also check out hisVisual Security Security andPeter‘sDatePackage. His documentation is legendary.
Andy‘s MetaBuilders - Talk about good karma. When you put this much goodness and freeASP.NET controls into the world, you must get a lot of great parkingspots. Check out the dozens of ASP.NET Controls here.
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) - An HttpModule and Handler that will capture and log all Yellow Screenof Death messages your ASP.NET site experiences. And it will even giveyou an RSS Feed of the errors! Great for anyone who wants to instrumenta site without recompiling.
Blinq  -Slightly bleeding edge, Blinq is "a tool for generating ASP.NETwebsites for displaying, creating, and manipulating data based ondatabase schema." Very Rails.
Visual Studio.NET Add-Ins
CodeRush - Of course. It‘s the bomb, enough said. Also check outResharper (C# only).
CodeRush Plugins - There‘s a rich plugin model for CodeRush‘s DxCore underpinings. Check outJay‘s list of CodeRush Plugins/Addins.
CR_Documentor is pure gold. Remember thatDxCore (the plugin engine for CodeRush) is FREE. You can run these plugins without CodeRush proper.
Peter Blum‘s ADME - ASP.NET Design Mode Extender (“ADME”) helps custom controls toprovide a better design mode interface. This supports his ValidationControls, which rock, but also controls that you might write that needricher Design Mode Support.
CodeSmith Explorer - GenerateCodeSmith code and templates directly from VS.NET
CopySourceAsHtml  - Better than a Macro, this Add-In puts syntax-highlighed HTML on your clipboard. Now it supports "Embedded Styles" for use inBlogJet and other tools.
GhostDoc - Here‘s an Add-In I‘d overlooked previously, now in it‘s 1.2 version. GhostDoc attempts to generate C# documentation that can be gleaned fromthe name and type of methods and properties. Roland Weigelt has bigplans for version 1.30 that will include customizable text and rules.One to watch, and while it sometimes guesses wrong, it‘s a completelyunique Add-In worth your download.
DPack  -A packaged collection of Visual Studio 2003 and 2005 tools. Kind of aCodeRush/Reshaper-lite, but possibly just what the doctor ordered.
devMetrics - devMetrics is a free tool for measuring various attributes of your C#code so that you can accurately assess your product for quality andmaintainability. I use it to measure cyclomatic complexity and abusepeople during code reviews.
CodeKeep  - Manage andshare codesnippets from within VS.NET.
SmartPaster - An oldie, but a goodie, this add in allows "Paste As" support in 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 acomplete XML Web Services design studio. It‘s a bargain and works evenbetter when setup in a workgroup. It keeps a database of all WebServices traffic, but it‘s more than a sniffer. It also analyzes datafor 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.
NUnit Addin, now TestDriven.NET - If you‘re serious about TDD, stop fooling with NUnitGui and AttachProcess and start using TestDriven.NET. It‘s a simple as Right-Click-> Test With -> Debugger.
pinvoke.net -Adam Nathancontinues to innovate with an add-in that lets you "Insert PInvokeSignature" from the VS.NET Editor by communiating with a server-siderepository with best-practice signatures to make calling unmanaged codea breeze. Also, be sure to visit thePInvoke.NET Wiki.
Reflector as an AddIn- A joint effort, run Lutz‘s unbelievable decompiler/explorer withJamie‘s Add-In support. (There‘s a number of other slick, butalpha-quality addins at thatlink as well, including FxCop as an AddIn.)
Regions AddIn- Finally, something useful from CodeProject, this add-in helpsorganize your code with a simple Right-Click -> Add To New Regionand Right-Click -> Add To Existing Region. You‘ll wonder how youlived without it!
SmartAssembly  - Code pruning, obuscations, and automatic exception reporting. A great way to take your .NET application to the next level.
Unleash it!- The great ASP.NET deployment tool with the unfortunate name. Formerlyknown as WebDeploy, this Add-In lets you deploy your ASP.NETapplication using whatever it takes. Now with plugin support!
AnkhSVN - Integrated support for the Subversion Source Control System with Visual Studio 2003 and 2005.
WS Contract-First - Christian Weyer leads the pack with custom Web Service codegeneration, and generation of WSDL itself from Message-based XSD. How‘sthat for SOA and contract-first development?
VSCmdShell - Open a Command Prompt within a Visual Studio.NET 2003 Docked Toolbox Window!
CommentReflower - Really detail-oriented? This tool reformats your code comments to your specifications.
OnlineSearch - Search the Internet and Google directly from VS.NET!
Contents Copyright © 2003-2006 by Scott Hanselman  - Reproduction prohibited without written permission. Hyperlinks welcome.