Which freeware apps / utilities do you use to boost your productivity?

Question

Which freeware / open source apps and utilities make your development life a little more enjoyable? Please provide URLs for anything you recommend.

Here's a brief list of some of my favorites:

Notepad++ is my text editor of choice, it has to be installed on any PC I work on.

Ditto is a lightweight and highly-configurable clipboard manager that I love.

7-zip for file compression, with command line support.

WinMerge is a fantastic file diff tool with plugin support. I even found a plugin to support Visual FoxPro's .VCX class libraries.

Answer 1

• gcc, for compiling
• svn, for source control
• doxygen, for code documentation
• trac, for issue tracking

Answer 2

• gdb to match the gcc answer
• Firefox
• mutt

Answer 3

The more tools you have, the more you need a tool like enso or launchy.

Answer 4

GhostDoc.

Answer 5

• TortoiseSVN
• Paint.net

Answer 6

TortoiseSVN

Answer 7

Finding out those pesky bugs.. .NET Reflector

Answer 8

NUnit

Answer 9

Firefox with extensions :

• Web developer

• Firebug

Answer 10

• Notepad2 is my text editor of choice
• RoyalTS for my RDP needs
• Launchy
• FireBug
• And of course .NET Reflector

Answer 11

Mylyn Plugin for Eclipse: absolute must-have for me, as it reduces the signal-to-noise ration in Eclipse and makes coding task-oriented, plus it connects to remote bug repositories. A good place to look is in Scott Hanselman's Ultimate Developer and Power users Tool List (here). It's Windows-oriented and written in 2007, but I still find it relevant.

Answer 12

Desktops

Answer 13

Slickrun for launching apps and Fiddler HTTP Debugging

I also use Password Safe for storing my many passwords, and Google Desktop for, you know, searching for stuff.

Answer 14

I couldn't live without KeePass.

Answer 15

Emacs - if God used a text editor, it would be Emacs! And +1 for Firebug - can't live without it!

Answer 16

Wikidpad is a great desktop wiki program.

Answer 17

A new Firebug's extension named FireScope to check out HTML/CSS/JAVASCRIPT references.

FireScope is a new add-on for Firebug, the popular web development tool, that extends it with reference material for HTML and CSS. Using data directly from our reference sites, the tool provides the most accurate and up-to-date information on usage and browser compatibility, and it’s all right there in your browser!

Answer 18

• git
• bazaar
• cyberduck
• MAMP

Answer 19

WinRoll Rollup a window (so you can just see the title bar), make it translucent, make it stay on top, etc. Very useful especially when you just have one monitor.

Dexpot Can be configured to do the same things as winroll and also lets you use virtual desktops. You can assign hotkeys to move windows to another desktop, switch desktop, etc.

Executor App launcher. Don't know what I'd do without it.

Answer 20

Most of the good ones (Launchy, Reflector, SVN, Firebug) are already taken. Here's a few extra

Productivity CodeRush Xpress

Testing TestDriven.NET PEX

CI CruiseControl.NET NANT

UI IconExtract ColorCop

Answer 21

RocketDoc, AutoIt, Firefox.

And Python, Javascript?

Answer 22

As a web developer, and speaking of editors, I would suggest Geany and Kate.

For web pages debug purposes I find Firebug is a must-have, if you use Firefox and Gecko-based browsers (FirePHP also, if you use Ajax and PHP).

Furthermore, for web pages performance measurements, I'd like to suggest YSlow.

To quickly compact JavaScript and CSS code I find myself comfortable with YUI Compressor.

Hth

Answer 23

• WinSplit Revolution - Keyboard shortcuts to resize and reposition windows. A must for large monitors!
• Dropbox - File synchronization and online backup.
• Evernote - Notes and information capture.
• Chrome - Web browser

Answer 24

Visual Studio Express Editions

Answer 25

Scott Hanselman posted a great list of such tools back in 2007. Most of the tools on the list are still applicable today. It is a very comprehensive list. Not all of the tools are free, but many of them are.

Scott Hanselman's 2007 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows

Answer 26

I use:

• LastPass for password generation/auto-completion.
• meld for diff/merge under Linux.
• Evernote for note taking.

Answer 27

• TortoiseSVN
• Humanized Enso
• Google Chrome
• Firefox + Firebug
• Aptana

Answer 28

Some more useful programs;

Total Commander - This one is a huge boost of productivity if you learn all the short cuts. Built in diff tool, cmd line etc. This program alone is the reason I haven't fully migrated to linux yet...

Synergy - Mouse over lan, for the 2pc setups.

VirtuaWin - Emulate some more desktops.

Baretail - Colourize them logs.

Answer 29

FARR for app launching, searches, file tree browsing & more

Answer 30

• Notepad ++
• NUnit
• TortoiseSVN
• SVNMonitor
• DebugView
• ProcessExplorer

Answer 31

DotNetNuke CMS - very powerful and free

Notepad++ as code editor

Mindjet Mindmanager for structuring ideas

Firebug to debug HTML code

Answer 32

A Ruler For Windows (which I wrote)

Notepad++

Xenu's Link Sleuth

bk replaceem - which now seems to be called Replace Text

Answer 33

xplorer2 - tabbed, dual pane file browser. I've tried them all and this is the best on Windows. Favourites, macros, it's got everything.