These are the tools I use almost daily both for my personal and professional computing needs.
More and more software is available from the Microsoft Store, which makes it easy to install everything you need from one place. One-click installation instead of setup wizards and configuration.
Development
Visual Studio
If you want to be on the cutting edge in the Microsoft / .NET world – and you want to be – you need Visual Studio.
OzCode
OzCode gives you a heads-up display with current values and a red/green visual indication of expressions and statements.
You can take snapshots of an instance and compare that to the current instance or even another snapshot, very helpful during debugging.
With LINQ analysis, you can see what the dataset is at every step of the expression.
NCrunch
The built-in Live Unit Testing feature in the Enterprise edition of Visual Studio does not give you clean errors when something is wrong.
NCrunch makes sure you have a fast red-green-refactor cycle when practicing Test-Driven Development.
LINQPad
LINQPad is a great prototyping tool, and the ability to quickly visualize the data you’re working with is just amazing.
There are editions for both .NET Framework and .NET Core.
RegexBuddy
For everything regular expressions. You can create and test expressions and also generate implementation code.
Beyond Compare
Easily diff files and directories.
System
7+ Taskbar Tweaker
7+ Taskbar Tweaker makes using the Windows 10 taskbar much better by keeping your pinned items on the left instead of using them for the first window.
Another great feature is also that you can close windows by clicking with the middle mouse button.
OneDrive
After having tried many backup solutions over the last few years, I finally ended up with OneDrive. While not a backup solution per se, sometimes simple is best.
LockHunter
Feel like deleting something, but you’re getting “in use” errors? LockHunter helps you find out what’s locking the file or directory that you want to delete.
f.lux
Must-have for when you stay up late – past Sesame Street.
Adapts the colors of your screen to match the time of day and uses warm colors at night.
It takes a while to adjust to this, but then it’s easier to go to sleep.
IPVanish
Stay safe when using unprotected or unknown networks.
Automatically connects to a VPN when using an open network.
HashTab
HashTab allows you to check the CRC or MD5 hash of a file.
Utilities
1Password
I recently migrated to 1Password because it can sync to each device without external tooling, works with 2FA, and has added security measures.
7-zip
The only archive manager you need.
X-Mouse Button Control
Easily bind mouse keys to all kinds of actions. It also allows you to specify a specific window or application.
AutoHotkey
By defining macro’s and hotkeys, you can automate tedious manual workflows.
WinDirStat
WinDirStat gives you a visual overview of your disk space usage. For those situations where you have 0 bytes left and aren’t quite sure what happened.
Documents
Office 365
No setup configuration needed. Just get your Office applications installed.
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Still the best PDF reader.
Notepad++
Easy to use improvement over Windows Notepad.
OneNote
I keep all my notes in OneNote in separate tabs, sections, or even books. Your content syncs with your account.