ToolboxAs I mentioned previously, I am continually scouring for tools to make my life easier.  Every now and then I find one that after a while I wonder how I functioned without it.  Accountants can’t imagine how they’d live without Excel and Carpenters can’t imagine how they would live without their hammers.  Well, IT professionals are no different!  This posting focuses on the tools I use nearly every day (in no particular order).

The List

The list is always evolving over time.  Rarely do tools fall off, but it seems I do add one every now and then.

  • VNC - There are a plethora of commercially available remote assistance tools on the market, some of them very slick, but there is nothing like VNC.  It is free, low bandwidth and works like a charm.  We use this daily for remote support and even during meetings to view a shared desktop.  The really nice thing is you can save profiles, so if you connect remotely to a machine continually, you can setup 1 click access to it!  There are several different flares of VNC, I’ve settled on Ultra-VNC.
  • Snagit - I find myself using this tool several times an hour it seems.  This is a screen capture utility on steroids.  It does a lot more than just capture the screen.  It can record video, do screen annotations and also convert images between formats as well as a ton of other things, best of all it’s dirt cheap.
  • Skype / Trillian - I’ve got a plethora of contacts I like to keep in touch with or bounce a question of in an instant.  Skype is a killer utility, particularly for voice.  It is great to see it getting a good foothold in the business arena as noted by this recent CCJ article noting Transcore’s adoption of the technology.  Trillian is noted here along with Skype as my text messaging application.  I use AOL, Y!, MSN however I don’t want to have all these different programs running at once…that’s where trillian comes in to merge them all into one interface!
  • Avant Browser - I’ve been a long time Avant user, basically a wrapper on top of IE that extends the browser to add all kinds of functionality.  For me the mouse gestures, URL shortcuts, their implementation of tabbed browsing and the online storage / auto fill capabilities are key.  When I bookmark something at work, I can go home and it’s already on my bookmarks there since they are synchronized. 
  • Clipboard Recorder – I am always copying and pasting it seems.  The clipboard recorder is a free program that allows you to quickly get back to things you have cut or copied previously which is real handy since the clipboard by default only holds 1 item at a time.
  • Winmerge - There are many times when I need to compare one file to another, usually when looking at some source code.  This utility does a wonderful job splitting the screen and neatly organizing files to compare them side by side.
  • FreecalcMoffsoft Freecalc - I am not good with simple math, and I’m always having to do some sort of math during the day.  Many people keep calculators at their desk, but I don’t like clutter and contraband at my station.  This calculator is a free utility that offers the “tape” functionality, like those calculators with the rolls of paper that print each time you do your calculation so you can check your work.  This is a great replacement of the built in windows calculator.
  • Windows Desktop Search – If you’re on Vista, you’ve got it, if you’re on XP you don’t.  This is a great searching application that allows you to find anything on a network share, your email and your computer all within a second.  I had used the google desktop for a long time,  since it was first to market in the desktop search war, but Microsoft has surpassed them with the usability features and the UI from my opinion.
  • Virtual PC – This is a tool that is available freely from Microsoft.  If you read any technical periodical, you’ve surely heard about the growth of virtualization technologies.  Virtual PC is meant to run on XP or Vista and allows you to run virtualized PCs which are merely a couple files on your disk.  You have complete control over emulating another PC, it even connects to your network, just like another physical machine would appear.  So now with 1 piece of hardware you can run multiple machines.  This is invaluable for testing applications and being able to maintain lab type environments.
  • SVN - I already blogged about SVN, the version control system.  The important thing to note is that it isn’t just for programmers, it’s a great tool for versioning almost anything (graphics, documents, etc).
  • SQL Prompt – This is a commercial add in from Red Gate software (they make some great SQL Server products).  It basically adds intellisense to SQL Query Analyzer or SQL Server Management Studio.  I know…SQL Server 2008 will have this built in, but we’re still using 2000 and 2005 which doesn’t!
  • Dual ScreensDual Screens – This really isn’t a utility, just a way of computing.  If you walk through our office, you’ll see everyone in the company equiped with dual monitors.  Once you go dual screen, there is no going back.  It is a huge time saver not having to Alt-Tab referencing one window to another, just drag it over to the other window and you can see two applications easily.  We even have a few people in the office with three screens! 
  • Y! Music Unlimited – And I throw this one in just for fun.  I’ve found rocking out to some tunes while cutting some code increases my productivity.  I know a lot of people swear by their Ipods, but I don’t understand purchasing music to own.  My tastes change and I don’t like hearing the same stuff over and over and I don’t want to have to invest all this money into music, so I have gone the subscription route.  I basically have in my musical library over 2 million songs for about $10 a month, but most times I just listen to one of the many CD Quality commercial free stations Y! has to offer.

I’m always interested when I see someone else using some shortcut or some utility, so if you have any you can’t live without, I’d love to hear about it, could be one I’ve been looking for but haven’t found yet!?!?

Popularity: 66% [?]

Other Posts that May Interest You