Created 4 February 2007, last updated 12 May 2009

This is a summary of the various pieces of software I regularly use. For the most part, links here are to blog posts I've written about them, but some links are direct to the software page.

Windows

I use Windows, primarily out of familiarity and habit. Here are extras I use to augment Windows:

Cygwin, for adding dozens of useful Unix utilities.
John's Background Switcher, for displaying pretty pictures on my desktop.
TaskSwitchXP improves the Alt-Tab behavior so you can see what program you are switching to.
Taskbar Shuffle lets me rearrange my taskbar icons.
Launchy is an unobtrusive launcher similar to Quicksilver.
TweakUI gives you a bunch of control panels Windows doesn't provide.
DisplayFusion provides nice support for multiple monitors.
SpeedFan monitors CPU temperatures.
AutoHotkey remaps keys to change the compromises on laptop keyboards.
SpyBot is great at finding and eradicating malware of all sorts.
SpaceMonger is a tree map showing where your disk space is going.
TrueCrypt provides encrypted mountable disks.

Special mention to Sysinternals' tools, which are always the Cadillac in their class:

Process Explorer is a Task Manager on steroids.
Autoruns shows you what will run when you start Windows.
Process Monitor tracks file and registry access in real time.

Internet

For surfing, I use Mozilla Firefox, with these add-ons:

Greasemonkey for writing extension scripts for other people's sites.
Tab Mix Plus adds more options to how browser tabs work.
SwitchProxy makes living with proxies easier.
Download Statusbar puts download progress in the status bar instead of a dialog.

While developing web sites, these Firefox add-ons are great:

Firebug is an amazing in-browser debugger.
TamperData lets you inspect and modify HTTP requests and responses.
YSlow analyzes pages and recommends changes to improve their speed.
Web Developer adds a huge number of helpful utilities.
Remove Cookies for Site helps while testing.

My other communication tools:

Thunderbird for email.
Bloglines for reading RSS feeds.
Pidgin for instant messaging.
Twhirl for following Twitter.
FileZilla for FTP transfers.
PuTTY for secure terminals.

Development

Tools I use for writing software:

Python as language of choice.
Subversion for legacy source control.
Mercurial for new source control, especially with Bitbucket project hosting.
Beyond Compare, an impeccable file comparison tool.
Komodo Edit for lightweight text editing.

Graphics

My go-to apps for graphics work:

GIMP for graphics editing.
Lightroom for photo storage and tweaking.
@icon sushi for manipulating Windows icons.
CoolRuler, a handy pop-up pixel ruler.
ZoomPlus, a well-executed screen magnifier, with measurement and clipboard support.

Toys

Little doodads that don't do anything useful, but I enjoy having on hand:

Golly, an amazing implementation of Conway's Game of Life.
Xaos, a realtime fractal zoomer.
Aptus, my own Mandelbrot renderer.
Chaoscope, a strange attractor display program.

Comments

Joe W. 11:47 AM on 22 Jan 2008

Nice list, but where's Emacs?

And you might want to give Google Reader a try. I switched to it when Bloglines was showing the plumber a little too often and new feature development had ground to a halt. I like Google Reader's cleaner design and their recommendations feature works pretty well for me.

Doug Napoleone 7:19 PM on 22 Jan 2008

The problem I have with google reader is that it does not support feed which require authentication. This is a no-go in my book. Sage plugin for FireFox is what use, and it works great.

Ned Batchelder 7:41 PM on 22 Jan 2008

Thanks guys, for the recommendations. A new RSS reader may be in my future, and I'll take a look at these alternatives.

Kevin Dahlhausen 10:43 AM on 23 Jan 2008

Give FeedDemon a look too - it is one of the few programs I've used that just fits me perfectly, I'm still stunned by it.

Ken Pespisa 11:00 AM on 23 Jan 2008

Thank you for sharing this list!

I've recently discovered AutoHotKey and how great a tool it is. I had to complete a frustratingly repetitive task of updating records via a Web interface, but with a small amount of coding I made a script that I could trigger on each page to populate all the fields in seconds.

Here are a couple of my favorites that you might find useful:

BookmarkSync -stores a copy of your bookmarks online and keeps them automatically synchronized between multiple computers.

MW Snap -a simple screen capture program. You can outline just the part of the screen you want to capture.

Uldis Bojārs 5:02 PM on 30 Mar 2008

For a treemap of disk space usage take a look at WinDirStart. It's free, open source and looks amazing.

One more program that I can not live without on Windows is the FAR Manager. It is like Norton Commander on steroids, very extensible and gives that "the filesystem at your fingertips" feel. I am moving to a Mac now and this is what I am missing the most. Of course, this does not mean that everyone needs it that bad. :-)