Essential tools

Some great everyday tools to work with. These are mostly based around work with SharePoint.


SharePoint related

ULS viewer - http://ulsviewer.codeplex.com/ or http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/ULSViewer/
don't leave home without it. ULSViewer allows users to open a ULS log file and display its contents in a user friendly format. Users can then perform advanced functions such as filtering, sorting, highlighting, loading logs, appending logs, etc in order to single out the data that is important to the user. This information can be used to diagnose problems with machines running ULS services, or to monitor machines and the events they create in realtime.


Notepad++ - http://notepad-plus-plus.org/
fantastic tool for html, xml, config file editing

XML Notepad -  http://xmlnotepad.codeplex.com/
XML Notepad provides a simple intuitive User Interface for browsing and editing XML documents

WinMerge - http://winmerge.org/
compares files, go compare

Power GUI - http://powergui.org
GUI for script editor for Microsoft Windows PowerShell, more features and can be more stable in some cases than PS console

Fiddler - http://fiddler2.com/fiddler2/
Browser Web Debugging Proxy, logs traffic between PC and browser.

WireShark - http://www.wireshark.org/
 go deep, network protocol analyzer for Unix and Windows




Useful Firefox\IE add-ins

Firebug - http://getfirebug.com/
Tools for web development. Allows inspect, edit and monitor CSS, HTML, JavaScript and Net requests in any web page

Yslow - http://yslow.org

Grade your web pages
Page performance, page components, stats, tools for performance

HttpWatch - http://www.httpwatch.com/
HttpWatch is an integrated HTTP sniffer for IE and Firefox that provides new insights into how your website loads and performs



Day to day tools

Vision app remote desktop - http://www.visionapp.com
excellent tool to manage remote access to multiple systems all at once, set your creds and login with one click. copy and paste between systems.


TreeSize pro - http://www.jam-software.com/treesize/
GUI for local and remote hard disk manager

KeePass - http://keepass.info/
Local client password manager

VMWare Workstation
VMWare machines at will


Process Explorer - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.