Tools (Early 2026 Edition)

Both macOS and Windows have package managers that make setting up a new machine much easier. On macOS there is Homebrew, and on Windows there is the Windows Package Manager (CLI) or the Microsoft Store (GUI). Both WinGet and Homebrew support creating bundles of software to install, which is great for automating setups.

Do note that store versions of applications (on both platforms) are sometimes more constrained due to the sandboxed nature of the Store. This sometimes results in some features that integrate deeply with the system being less powerful, but it can also be beneficial in running things in a more restricted environment.

System

• Dropbox — Every backup/sync solution I have tried has some issues with either touching a large amount of files (OneDrive) or being flaky with making sure my data is available elsewhere (Amazon). Dropbox is the best so far!
  • Looking to replace Dropbox with something like Seafile — it’s annoying with node_modules, especially if it already synced before. With two subscriptions (one Business for 90+ day history), the costs add up.
• 1Password — Secure password management on every device. Supports 2FA, passkeys, SSH keys, and secrets. The CLI can inject secrets directly into processes, so you don’t need them in environment variables or stored unsecurely on disk.
• Krisp — Best noise cancellation app I have used. Filters both outgoing and incoming audio.
  • Unfortunately, in recent times they are aggressively pushing their other (AI) features. I haven’t given Krisp permissions for it, and every time I click the UI open it reminds me of that. Looking for an alternative solution.
• Tailscale — Secure zero-config point-to-point networking. Connects all my devices in a mesh network with MagicDNS and ACLs to control which devices can talk to each other, provides access to self-hosted services from anywhere, and doubles as a private exit node on untrusted networks.
• Browsers — Safari on macOS and Edge on Windows. Safari for work, Edge for personal — Edge syncs across Windows and iOS. Chrome is installed on both for automation and tooling — browser automation libraries and tools that launch a browser (like Visual Studio’s debug experience) fail to interface with Edge cleanly when an instance is already running.
• NextDNS — DNS-level ad and tracker blocking with encrypted DNS for privacy. Handles most of what browser-based ad blockers used to do for me.

Currently trying out

• Seafile — Self-hosted file sync as a Dropbox replacement. No more syncing node_modules headaches.
• ente — End-to-end encrypted photo backup as a Google Photos replacement. Currently evaluating the self-hosted option to learn its constraints.

macOS

• Raycast — A collection of powerful productivity tools all within an extendable launcher. Fast, ergonomic, and reliable.
• Amphetamine — Keeps the Mac awake during presentations and long-running tasks.
• Fantastical — Beautiful calendar with great UX. Combines multiple calendars into one view, and you can hide specific events — handy when repeated blocks for focus time clutter your week and make it look busier than it is.
• UTM — Virtualization for running Windows VMs on Apple Silicon.
• Ghostty — Fast, native terminal emulator. Combined with Oh My Posh for a beautiful prompt and Zoxide for effortless directory navigation.

Windows

• Windhawk — Windows 11’s Start menu and taskbar UI is a setback in productivity for me. With Windhawk, you can select which changes you’d like to make.
• Microsoft PowerToys — Utilities for power users, finally back after being away for a few years! Contains a useful color picker, keyboard shortcut manager, file lock analyzer, and many other utilities.
• f.lux — Must-have for when you stay up late — past Sesame Street. Brightness during the day and warmer colors at night. It takes a little time to get used to, but then you realize it’s a lot easier on the eyes.
  • I am a fan of using built-in functionality (Night Light in Windows), but that frequently stops working or hangs in a specific mode.
• Bitvise SSH Client — All-in-one SSH suite with terminal, SFTP, and tunneling in a single application.
• 7-Zip — Handles virtually any archive format you throw at it.
  • Looking for an alternative that better integrates with Windows 11.
• Windows Terminal + PowerShell 7 + Oh My Posh + Zoxide — A modern, customizable terminal experience on Windows. Oh My Posh and Zoxide are also part of my macOS setup.
  • Currently investigating alternative terminals.

Productivity

• Tana — Tana is even more powerful than Notion. Be warned, if you don’t use a template you can / have to spend a lot of time building your own workflow.
  • Looking into alternatives, possibly local ones. There is so much potential for the next leap in automation that Tana isn’t hitting for my use cases.
• Acrobat Reader — Still the best PDF reader. For editing, combining, and splitting PDFs I use PDFGear.
• Typora — A minimalistic Markdown editor (and viewer) with focus mode.
• Microsoft Office — Mostly Excel for personal use and Outlook for both personal and work e-mail.
  • The new Exchange licensing combined with “New Outlook” has me considering alternative e-mail providers.
• Microsoft To Do — Simple shared lists for groceries and household tasks.
• Inoreader — Best RSS reader I have tried. The free tier covers everything I need to stay on top of tech blogs and news.
• draw.io — Diagramming tool for when Mermaid doesn’t cut it. I mostly use MermaidJS in Markdown these days, but some diagrams need a visual editor.

Currently trying out

• Wispr Flow — Voice dictation that works system-wide. Really impressive, but missing the ability to have a keyword that presses Enter.

Windows

• Notepad++ — Powerful improvement over Notepad with plugin support.

Development

• Claude Code — My primary development tool. I use it as a first step for building things and it has fundamentally changed my workflow. I use the Opus model exclusively — if you have a subscription, why optimize? OpenAI Codex serves as a fallback for code reviews.
• Docker — Powers both my local development environments and self-hosted infrastructure.
• LINQPad — The ultimate .NET scratchpad for quick experiments, prototyping, scripting, and inspecting formatted output.
• OpenTofu — Open-source infrastructure as code for managing both cloud infrastructure and home lab resources. Chose it over Terraform for its open-source license and because it already ships several features that Terraform does not.
• Ansible — Declarative setup of my VPSes. I was using cloud-init before but kept making changes after the initial provisioning.

Windows

• Visual Studio + NCrunch — My primary .NET IDE on Windows. NCrunch provides continuous test running which is essential for TDD. For simpler tasks, Claude Code has taken over.
• Rider — Cross-platform .NET IDE. Primarily used on macOS where Visual Studio is not available. On Windows I keep it around but default to Visual Studio — I’m not a fan of JetBrains’ layered settings, and VS supports cutting-edge .NET features first.
• RegexBuddy — Visual regex debugging and testing. AI handles most regex tasks nowadays, but RegexBuddy remains invaluable for understanding and debugging complex patterns.

Communication

• IRCCloud — Always-connected IRC client with a clean, modern interface. Keeps me connected to open-source communities on Libera.Chat without missing a message.

Utilities

• Beyond Compare — Easily diff all kinds of files and directories.
• balenaEtcher — Flash OS and firmware images to SD cards or USB drives.
• Raspberry Pi Imager — The official Raspberry Pi imaging tool. Pre-configures WiFi, SSH, and other settings during flashing, which makes it more convenient than Etcher for Pi-specific work.

Windows

• Bulk Rename Utility — I don’t use it often, but sometimes you need to rename a lot of files at once. This really helps doing it in a systematic manner.
• DiskGenius — Great app for data recovery.
• Duplicate Cleaner Pro — Clean duplicate files and photos with great customization options.
• WizTree — Fastest disk space analyzer.
• AutoHotkey — Also a tool that I don’t use often. It allows you to write scripts and bind them to shortcuts.
• CPU-Z — Identify hardware components.

Home Automation

• Home Assistant — Open-source smart home hub running on a Raspberry Pi 5 with an SSD. Central control for smart home devices, automations, and energy monitoring.

3D Printing

• OpenSCAD — I am not great with 3D model design, but with OpenSCAD I can write code to create models instead.
• UltiMaker Cura — Slicer for preparing 3D models for printing. Used with my Creality Ender 3 V2 running Klipper firmware.