I just repaved my desktop and while reloading software I thought I’d share some of the programs I use the most. Here they are in no particular order:
SQL Server
This is the software that pays the bills. I’ll admit though, I’m pretty excited about working with SQL Server. Databases are fun!
Visual Studio
Along with SQL Server, I do a little bit of .NET development. I’ve also been using the Database Edition features quite a bit lately, and really like them.
Digsby
Digsby is the best multi-IM client. One app to connect to Google Talk (my preferred network), Live (MSN), Yahoo, AIM, Facebook, and more!
Input Director
Input Director let’s me use one keyboard and mouse to control both my desktop and my laptop.
KatMouse
I can’t live without KatMouse anymore. It lets you use your scroll wheel in background windows without bringing them to the front or giving them focus.
Microsoft Office
Not much to say here. I use Word, Excel, and OneNote the most, then PowerPoint and Visio. I try to avoid Outlook.
Google Chrome
Chrome is getting more use lately. Simple and quick, I love the application shortcuts for gmail.
Firefox
Still my most used web browser. I love some of the extensions, but it’s been losing a little bit of time to Google Chrome. I’m currently running beta 2 of Firefox 3.1.
Foxit Reader
Foxit Reader is a lightweight pdf reader. It’s much faster than Adobe. I don’t like that they started adding a bunch of stuff to their installer or the new updater, but I still keep it around. It’s getting a little less important with Google’s new pdf viewer built in to gmail.
Daemon Tools
Simple tool, mounts iso images.
Skype
I use Skype to call regular phones, hardly ever for Skype-to-Skype calls.
UltraMon
UltraMon is a must have for multi-monitor users. It extends the Windows taskbar across your other monitors. Other cool things are being able to setup different wallpaper and screen savers on each monitor.
Alt.Binz
My favorite Usenet client for binaries.
uTorrent
Favorite bittorrent client.
WinRAR
WinRAR is one of those things that I take for granted. Right drag –> Extract To is mostly how I use it, and occasionally to zip something for email.
XBMC
I don’t use this on my PC, but it would be hard to get along without it. My wife loves this one as well. XBMC is by far the best media center software I’ve used. Newer HD formats are making my original Xbox outdated, but I’m going to get some new hardware soon and definitely keep XBMC around.
Airfoil
Airfoil let’s you stream music from any application to AirPort Express devices. I picked up a few on ebay for around $50 each. Turn on Pandora and have whole house audio on the cheap.
OpenPandora
Pandora in a Windows desktop app. Lets you hide it in the tray and more.
TweetDeck
My favorite Twitter client.
That covers most of it. I also have a bunch of small apps that I keep in a C:\utils folder and there are a few web apps that I use frequently (Google Apps, FreshBooks, Google Reader, RTM). I’ll cover those in a future post.
What apps do you use frequently? Any I should know about?
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I can’t believe I left off TweetDeck the first time. I even used it to tweet about my blog entry. Doh!
I discovered xobni a few montha ago and definately recommend it. The added integration with Facebook, LinkedIn, etc… just added so much more value. http://www.xobni.com
If I was using Outlook, I’d definitely be using Xobni.
Great list. I'll be creating my own pretty soon.
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