Any other tools/plugins like VisualAssist that will change my life (MSVS)?

Question

I was introduced to VisualAssist a few years ago and for me there's no going back. Are there any other tools I'm missing out on?

Answer 1

I tried Resharper for a while. It was great but too expensive for my taste and I could not get my employer to purchase it when the trial expired. You might take a look.

Answer 2

There's a few things that get installed on every computer I use for development:

• ExamDiff is the best light-weight diff program I've found.
• Tortoise SVN is the best version control client
• Perforce is a way to make your life worse when your company inflicts it upon you.

Answer 3

Just after installing VisualAssist I go after WinMerge, which also significantly simplified my life.

Answer 4

If you're a vim user, ViEmu is indispensable. It's a plugin available for Visual Studio (SQL Server and Office as well, although it's sold separately) that transforms the editor into Vim.

Another plugin by the same company is Codekana. In its current incarnation, it spruces up code structure considerably, and makes reading code much more pleasurable. Based on several chats with the author, he's planning on growing it into other areas as well.

Answer 5

I own all of these tools and use them on a regualar basis.

• Resharper
• CodeRush/Refactor Pro!
• NDepend
• Gallio/MbUnit

Answer 6

BeyondCompare : Life-changing folder & file diff with many installable extensions for additional file types. Don't know what I'd do without it.