Essential And Best Programming Tools To Install On Your Development PC

A lot of these are free tools (unless noted) that I tend to download and install on a PC when I am going to be doing some programming.

Text Searching/Replacing

• GrepOne of the most useful of the Unix commands. Here is a stand-alone version of grep for Windows that can search subdirectories.
• WinMerge - WinMerge is very much like that terrible, but terribly useful WinDiff that came from Microsoft.
• Recursive Replace - Useful for replacing text in files down recursive directories.

Text Editor - For when Notepad is not cutting it

• Vim - Yes, I am a Vim person. Getting to know it was a pain in the arse... now sometimes I hit strange keys and they do things I was expecting, even after not using it for a long time. University was right, all that pain did come in handy sometimes when I was on a machien that only had vi! For those on the other side of the fence, there is:
• Emacs - No, I have no idea how to use it, or wish to.

Shell Registry Additions/Windows Modifications

• DOS Prompt Here - Create a DOS prompt from the selected Windows Explorer Directory.
• I like to change my busy cursor to one of the cursors that shows a timer. This can come in handy when testing as you can see how long things are taking to complete.

Internet Browser

Often it is a good idea to check some different browsers to make sure your web developments are working as expected.

• Firefox - Getting pretty popular and still very good.
• Firebug - Great Firefox add-on tool for debugging web pages.
• Firefox Javascript Debugger - Venkman - Firefox extension that is really handy for Javascript Debugging.

• Opera - Apparently they changed there free version to not use adverts anymore.
• IE Developer Toolbar - A not quite as nice version of Firebug for IE.

Compression Programs

For your zipping, arjing, tar, gzipping etc

• IZarc
• 7-zip
• Iceows

FTP Client

• Filezilla
• SmartFTP - I like this, but it is only free for non-profit, personal or educational use.

Graphics

• The Gimp - For when Paint won't do the job. Lots of features, but I find it hard to use.

Music/Video

I find it hard to concentrate with people talking around me, so blocking it out with some music works wonders for me. Some people find this hard to understand, but each to their own.

• WinAmp
• KalaK Amp My favourite WinAmp skin.