Tools I need to do my job: Link Shell Extension

Heard of Hardlinks , Junctions , Volume Mountpoints? Powerful as they are, here's a helper to create and mange those: Link Shell Extension

Rating: Very useful!

Tools I need to do my job: PureText

PureText from Steve Miller is a little helper I use almost every day. It does simply one thing: If you have formatted text in the clipboard it will remove the formatting to pure text.

Rating: Hard to live without!

Tools I need to do my job: Console2

Console2 is a little nice helper that can host multiple command shells as tabs getting rid of many shell windows in the task bar.

Rating: Useful!

Tools I need to do my job: Debugging Tools for Windows

It is no secret that I'm a big fan of WinDbg. I try to use the Visual Studio Debugger if possible but when it comes to hard core debugging, there is no way around this tool.

Rating: Cannot do without!

Tools I need to do my job: AQTime

Profiling is important when it comes to the CCD rule "Don't optimize" which means you should not optimize code without proving that it really represents a bottle neck. I do not have very dedicated opinion on Profilers, but I can say so much that I personally found the profiler that comes with Visual Studio 2008 not very convincing. The best one I personally worked with is AQTime.

Rating: Strongly recommended.

Tools I need to do my job: XML Spy

When you are a power user of xml family techniques I really recommend using XML Spy from Altova. I've been trying lots of xml editing tools but none of them convinced me that much.

Rating: (Very) hard to do without!

Tools I need to do my job: UltraEdit

Does your Visual Studio starts quickly by clicking onto a source code file? Mine does not! So there is the need for an independent light footprint text editor that does a bit more that notepad. I tried some editors but none of them convinced me from moving away from from UltraEdit.

Rating: Hard to do without!