My laptop has not been behaving lately and I figured it's time for a wipe & a fresh install. I was compiling a list of all the apps I need to install and figured I'd share it with the world. My current feeling is that anything not on this list will have to be installed on a VM, but we'll see how long that lasts. I really just want my new install to be clean and tidy.
Development
- Visual Studio 2008
- Expression Studio 3
- SQL Server 2008
- CodeRush & Refactor! Pro – you'd have to be a masochist not to use some sort of code assistance plugin
- TortoiseSVN
- VisualSVN – integrates SVN (runs on top of TortoiseSVN) straight into Visual Studio. $49 and worth every penny!
- WinMerge – it's free and so much better than WinDiff
- Fiddler2 – a terrific web debugging proxy. It's free and worth every penny (and then some)
Communication
- Pidgin – my officemates use AIM (and probably Win95 too), but I use GTalk for everything else. 1 (free) app is better than 2
- uTorrent – I was an Azureus guy until they turned into Vuze and increased their bloat exponentially. uTorrent does the job, and does it well.
- Windows Live Writer – it's actually a great blogging software. Seriously! - CodeSnippet plugin
- TweetDeck – my twitter client of choice
Tools
- Notepad++ – because notepad sucks
- VirtualBox – really great Virtualization software, and it's free
- Paint.NET – comes in handy way more than I thought
- PeaZip – open source, handles tons of file formats, and it's prettier than 7zip
- Virtual CloneDrive – freeware tool to mount ISO and other images. Don't ask me why Windows doesn't come with this!
Firefox Plugins
- Firebug
- YSlow
- Adblock Plus
- Windows Media Player Plugin