18 Must Have Software Tools for the PC

For Christmas this year from work I got a DELL D820, Intel Core 2 T7400 @ 2.16Ghz, 2 Gigs of RAM and 100 Gig Hard Drive. It is sweet. Any how, I had to move computers which can be a pain. Here is the list of must have software tools I have installed. If you develop web applications, this is a must have list.

1. CrapCleaner - A must have to easily keep your PC running smooothly and not letting crappy temp files cog your memory.
   
   
2. HomeSite - My HTML/PHP editor of choice. I only wish Macromedia/Adobe had never bought them. Macromedia/Adobe have basically stopped development of this once fine product, but I haven’t found anything better.
   
   
3. UltraEdit - My Text editor of choice. This thing can do almost anything and best of all it handles huge (over 100mb) text files without a problem.
   
   
4. Visual Studio 2005 - I do all my .NET work out of here, I also just installed SP 1 and have found it to speed things up.
   
   
5. SQL Server & Management Studio 2005 - It took a little bit to get use to it vs Query Anaylizer/Enterprise Manager but I like it now so much better.
   
   
6. FireFox 2.0 - My default Web Browser for so many reasons (most of them are extensions listed below)
   
   
Extensions for FireFox:
• FasterFox - Speeds up FireFox by changing some default settings
  
  
• FireBug - A must have for debugging web applicatons
  
  
• iFox - My theme
  
  
• ColorZilla - A great tool to get HEX values of colors.
  
  
7. Proccess Tamer - This keeps any wild proccess under control
   
   
8. Gaim - I have an AOL account but this thing is so much nicer and less resource intense
   
   
9. SlickRun - My quick launcher of choice. I blow the font up so this thing is pretty big on my machine
   
   
10. FireWorks - I’ve never found Photoshop to be intuitive, I much prefer FireWorks for web work in terms of how things are cut
    
    
11. Navicat - A mysql admin tool. I have a lot of issues with Navicat (definitely a future post) but it does have its advantages, like its upload ability and user management set up.
    
    
12. SSH Client- A must have for PC users that work on Unix boxes.
    
    
13. Surround SCM - Our version control.
    
    
14. TestTrack Studio - Our defect tracking and test case management tool.
    
    
15. Zune Theme for XP - I have Vista as a dual boot but when I am in XP I prefer for it to look this way.
    
    
16. Google Desktop - I’m finding I use this less and less by keeping my mail cleaner on a daily basis. I use it strictly for search, their sidebar stuff is god awful. This tool might be dropping off the list soon.
    
    
17. FileZilla - Simple and clean FTP client.
    
    
18. VNC - I manage MC OS X machines. OS X makes it easier to manage things thru their GUI sometimes. The same can not be said for any of the Linux builds.
    
    

Written by Tim on January 16th, 2007 with 8 comments.
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