Programmer's Tools (Part II)

More tools that can be useful for the windows programmer

• Process Explorer: More that an advanced task manager, really helpful to diagnose some problems http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx. While you are there you may want to check the rest of the utilities provided in Sysinternal Suite like ProcessMonitor, AutoRuns, ... et al.
• PuTTY Connection Manager: Utility to handle PuTTY sessions http://puttycm.free.fr/cms/. Very useful if you have to handle lots of PuTTY sessions.
• ClipX: Clipboard history manager http://bluemars.org/clipx/.
• FoxIt: A small PDF reader the ideal replacement for Adobe Reader http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/. (Some pdfs may not work with it because they require some plugins included with Reader.)
• Launchy: A very complete program launcher http://www.launchy.net/.
• 7-zip: A open source archive manager http://www.7-zip.org/. A nice replacement for WinZip, WinRar archive managers.

You can check Scott Hanselman's Tool List for Windows http://www.hanselman.com/tools for more utilities.

Programmer's Tools (Part I)

There are some tools that are useful for a programmer working under windows, independently from the language they work on.

• TortoiseSvn: Shell extension to handle subversion repository http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org. There're others tools to integrate a Cvs and Git repositories, apropiately named TortoiseCvs and TortoiseGit.
• WinMerge: Difference and merging tool http://winmerge.org/. It can integrate with an installed version of TortoiseSvn. Tortoise already contains a similar tool but it is not as advanced as WinMerge.
• Perforce Merge: Another difference and merging tool, its merging tool is more advanced than WinMerge but will require more work to integrate with Tortoise http://www.perforce.com/perforce/products/merge.html.
• Stickies: An utility to left notes on desktop, it can be colored and they support transparencies http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/.
• ToDoList: Utility to keep track of tasks and its status http://www.codeproject.com/KB/applications/todolist2.aspx.
• Notepad++: An advanced text editor, there are lots of different advanced text editors and each one has its own pros and cons. Take your time and find one that suit you best http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/

Next installment will bring more advanced tools.