Windows Tools

I'm an expert Windows user who has run and operated every client and server version of Windows since Windows 3.1. I'm now running Windows 8.1 on my main desktop with a Xubuntu virtual machine handy for any linux tasks like running the Acrylamid software that publishes this site.

Editors

  • EmEditor - simply the fastest editor on Windows including special support for delimited files, the ability to open Visual Studio projects, and find/replace.
  • Sublime Text - provides access to some great extensions, but the per­for­mance is not close to EmEditor.

Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty

  • 1Password - keeps my cre­den­tials in sync across platforms.
  • Dropbox - the fast LAN-based syncing and unlimited history are killer features.
  • SkyDrive Pro - brings the best of SharePoint to my desktop.
  • Office 365 ProPlus - this version of Office gets continual updates.
  • Evernote - notes synced across all the platforms I care about.
  • Foxit Reader - much better than Adobe Reader and it includes a PDF print driver.
  • Adobe Creative Suite CS4 Web Premium - not current, but I haven't had issues with Photoshop, Fireworks, or Il­lus­tra­tor on Windows 8.1.
  • IrfanView - a fast image viewer.
  • Adobe Lightroom 4 - the best pho­tog­ra­phy software I've used. I might upgrade to the new version before I consider a Photoshop upgrade.
  • Mint Finance Manager - I finally found a modern app that I like to use :)
  • Ninite - the first app I run on a new install of Windows.
  • VMware Work­sta­tion - a vir­tu­al­iza­tion platform that runs fast on Windows, Linux, and OS X.

Media

Network Tools

  • ExpanDrive - makes it easy to tweak documents over SSH, but I don't use it for big copy operations.
  • FTP Voyager - simply the best FTP client on Windows, but the developer sold out to SolarWinds. It'll be in­ter­est­ing to see how well this is maintained.
  • Royal TS - an improved Remote Desktop client that supports many con­nec­tions, and the config files are compatible with the OS X edition.
  • Free Download Manager - schedule big downloads to run overnight.
  • Bitvise SSH Server - enables secure access to my desktop from anywhere.
  • Bitvise Tunnelier - a nicer experience than PuTTY.
  • Fiddler - everything runs on HTTP so you need the best tool for debugging it.
  • Wireshark - when something doesn't use HTTP you can fallback to this.

Utilities

  • F.lux - everyone thinks there is something wrong with my monitors, but they are just running optimally. Anyone who works late should have this.
  • TrueCrypt - if I need to encrypt a disk that can be opened on any OS I use this.
  • Windows Clippings - the best screenshot tool I've used.
  • grepWin - everyone needs grep.
  • WinRar - I prefer to archive in RAR format, but I also like the UI.
  • slimKEYS - makes it easy to manage windows with keystrokes.
  • Everything - sometimes I don't want to grep for things.
  • Opaque Taskbar - fixes a minor annoyance with Windows 8.
  • InstEdit - fantastic tool for hacking Windows Installers (MSI files) with silly launch conditions, or dependency checking.
  • KeyTweak - I remap Caps Lock to Control, and switch the Windows and Alt keys.
  • clink - adds copy and paste as well as other niceties to the Command Prompt.
  • xplorer2 - an al­ter­na­tive to Windows Explorer for power users.
  • cmder - a packaged version of ConEmu with git and a nice user experience.
  • NirSoft tools including MyUnin­staller, Sy­sEx­porter, WhoisThis­Do­main, MyEventView­er, DLL Export Viewer, and Fas­tRe­solver.
  • Sys­In­ter­nals tools including DbgView, Process Explorer, Process Monitor, AutoRuns, and VMMap.

Pro­gram­ming

  • Visual Studio 2013 - I'm always on the latest and greatest version of the ultimate IDE.
  • SQL Server 2012 - I use this for ad hoc data processing as I prefer SQL over Excel.
  • JetBrain ReSharper - slows down VS, but the pro­duc­tiv­i­ty boost is worth it.
  • Python Tools for Visual Studio - great support for multiple Python en­vi­ron­ments, and it has some amazing debugging features.
  • GitHub for Windows - the quickest way to get a git shell. Just hit ` (backtick) to open the shell of your choice.
  • Tor­tois­eSVN - I use SVN for managing my Windows utilities.
  • TortoiseHg - sometimes I need to access Mercurial repos­i­to­ries.
  • LinqPad - quickly hack up LINQ queries.
  • JetBrains dotPeek - a re­place­ment for Lutz Roeder's .NET Reflector. It's amazing how many devs have never heard of this.
  • smtp4dev - when I need to send email during de­vel­op­ment I use this instead of a real mail server.

Windows Internals

  • oSpy - a tool for finding out what APIs a program is calling.
  • SendMes­sage - allows you to send Windows messages to any window.
  • WinCheat - an improved WinSpy utility.
  • SpyStudio - a modern ap­pli­ca­tion tracing tool.
  • Catch22 HexEdit - a basic hex editor for hacking binaries.
  • WinSpy++ - allows you to view the properties of a window.