Tools: Notepad++

Looking for a real Notepad? There are some alternative, but my choice is Notepad++.

It's free, open source, very fast and most importantly just works.

One of the most useful features is being able to change the content type at run time.

This is particularly important when opening *.config file from .NET solution, or any other data file that you know is of a certain type but it has different extension.

Tools: WinToFlash

The DVD drive on my notebook had its day. No biggie since I don't really use it, but I now have problems for re-install.

WinToFlash looks promising, but haven't tried it yet. If it works, it'll save me £30 - £50 buying an external drive to re-install Windows.

Tools: Agent Ransack

Agent Ransack is a nifty little file search utility. It's leap and bounds better than the bog standard Windows Search (in XP at least, haven't used Windows 7 yet). It's fast and lightweight.

You can search the content of the file or use regular expression. It's great and I can't live without it (at work at least).

Tools: Snippy

A colleague just showed me a really good screen shot tools, with a human aspect on it, Snippy:

http://www.bhelpuri.net/Snippy/

Well worth the download.

But one worth of caution, Snippy hooks into your F11, so if you're wondering why that Debug doesn't go into the method you know why!