Programing Tools

TeamCity

TeamCity is a Java-based build management and continuous integration server from JetBrains, creators of IntelliJ IDEA and ReSharper.

This is the continuous integration server that I use for this webpage, as I have described on my blog. It is a commercial product; however there is a free license for up to a certain number of developers. I have used this for personal projects, as well as professionally and it works GREAT! The user interface is extremely sharp. It has many features you'd expect from for a large enterprise app, but if you are just looking to start up and get project on a build server, TeamCity makes it easy and the interface does not get in your way.

Subversion

Subversion is an open source version control system.

http://subversion.tigris.org/

Not as robust as TFS, subversion is still miles ahead of many other commercially available version control systems. What you get for the price (free) is a fantastically full featured very widely used product that will make it easy to get started with source control. Again, this is what I use to maintain this webpage among other things.

Fiddler

Fiddler is a Web Debugging Proxy which logs all HTTP(S) traffic between your computer and the Internet. Fiddler allows you to inspect all HTTP(S) traffic, set breakpoints, and "fiddle" with incoming or outgoing data. Fiddler includes a powerful event-based scripting subsystem, and can be extended using any .NET language.

http://www.fiddler2.com/fiddler2/

If you are not using fiddler, especially if you do any kind of web development, integration space, or SOA then you are missing out. This makes developing, mocking, using, or debugging any kind of web service or really anything that goes out over the wire a breeze.

Notepad++

Notepad++ is a free (as in "free speech" and also as in "free beer") source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License.

http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

An indispensable tool for doing my job: I could not work with files nearly efficiently if I did not have notepad++. One quick example is notepad++ makes detecting end of line characters types or any kind of non-printable characters easy, and that is just the tip of the ice burg.

nCover

NCover helps .NET teams all around the world deploy applications with fewer bugs.

nDepend

NDepend is a Visual Studio tool to manage complex .NET code and achieve high Code Quality. With NDepend, software quality can be measured using Code Metrics, visualized using Graphs and Treemaps, and enforced using standard and custom Rules.

.NET Reflector

.NET Reflector is a proprietary software utility for Microsoft .NET combining class browsing, static analysis and decompilation, originally written by Lutz Roeder. MSDN Magazine named it as one of the Ten Must-Have utilities for developers,[1] and Scott Hanselman listed it as part of his "Big Ten Life and Work-Changing Utilities".

http://reflector.red-gate.com/

FitNesse

FitNesse is a web server, a wiki, and an automated testing tool for software. It is based on Ward Cunningham's Framework for Integrated Test. FitNesse is designed to support acceptance testing rather than unit testing in that it facilitates detailed readable description of system function.

http://fitnesse.org/

T4

In Visual Studio, a T4 text template is a mixture of text blocks and control logic that can generate a text file. The control logic is written as fragments of program code in Visual C# or Visual Basic. The generated file can be text of any kind, such as a Web page, or a resource file, or program source code in any language.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb126445.aspx

Resharper

ReSharper executes solution-wide static code analysis (error detection on-the-fly, without the need to compile), provides additional features for error correction, code completion, navigation, search, syntax highlighting, formatting, code generation and optimization, carries out 40 automated refactorings, and streamlines unit testing using NUnit and MSTest, among other features.

http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/

Microsoft Enterprise Library

The Microsoft Enterprise Library is a collection of reusable software components (application blocks) designed to assist software developers with common enterprise development cross-cutting concerns (such as logging, validation, data access, exception handling, and many others). Application blocks are a type of guidance; they are provided as source code, test cases, and documentation that can be used "as is," extended, or modified by developers to use on complex, enterprise-level line-of-business development projects.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff648951.aspx

PInvoke.NET

PInvoke.net is primarily a wiki, allowing developers to find, edit and add PInvoke* signatures, user-defined types, and any other information related to calling Win32 and other unmanaged APIs from managed code (written in languages such as C# or VB.NET).

http://pinvoke.net/

General Computing Tools

Hamachi VPN

LogMeIn Hamachi² is a hosted VPN service that securely connects devices and networks, extending LAN-like network connectivity to mobile users, distributed teams and business applications. You can easily create secure virtual networks on demand, across public and private networks

https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi2/

Evernote

Evernote is a suite of software and services designed for notetaking and archiving available in a paid version or a more restricted, advertising-supported, "free" version. A "note" can be a piece of formattable text, a full webpage or webpage excerpt, a photograph, a voice memo, or a handwritten "ink" note. Notes can also have file attachments. Notes can then be sorted into folders, tagged, annotated, edited, given comments, and searched.

http://www.evernote.com/

Sysinternals Suite

Windows Sysinternals is a part of the Microsoft Technet web site which offers technical resources and utilities to manage, diagnose, troubleshoot and monitor a Microsoft Windows environment.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062

Paint.NET

Paint.NET is a proprietary freeware raster graphics editor program for Microsoft Windows, developed on the .NET Framework. Originally created by Rick Brewster as a Washington State University student project,[4] Paint.NET has evolved from a simple replacement for the Microsoft Paint program, which is included with Windows, into a powerful editor with support for layers, blending, transparency, and plugins.

http://paint.net/

7-Zip

7-Zip is an open source file archiver designed originally for Microsoft Windows. 7-Zip operates with the 7z archive format, and can read and write several other archive formats. The program can be used from a command line interface, graphical user interface, or Windows shell integration.

http://www.7-zip.org/

Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE)

BartPE (Bart's Preinstalled Environment) is a lightweight variant of the 32-bit version of Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, similar to Windows Preinstallation Environment, which can be run from a Live CD or Live USB drive.

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

PC Media

VLC

VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVD, Audio CD, VCD, and various streaming protocols.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

DVDDecrypter

DVD Decrypter is a software application for Microsoft Windows (including Windows 7 support) that can create backup disk images of the DVD-Video structure of DVDs. It can be used to image any DVD, but controversially it is especially useful for decrypting copy protected movies. The program can also record images to disc. Content Scrambling System (CSS) decrypting software (such as DVD Decrypter and AnyDVD) allows a region-specific DVD to be copied as an all-region DVD. It also removes Macrovision content protection, CSS, region codes, and user operation prohibition.

http://www.dvddecrypter.org.uk/

Handbrake

HandBrake is an open-source program designed to convert MPEG video (including DVD-Video) into an MPEG-4 video file in MPEG-4 Part 14 (.mp4) or Matroska (.mkv) containers.

http://handbrake.fr/