Software I have on my computer
I got a shiny new tablet (Toshiba M4) and spent some time installing all the software that I usually use. I figured I should blog about all of the software I have installed. I am usually a sucker for beta and alpha software so you will find some beta software mentioned here. I also have other internal products installed that I will not blog about :). The tablet also came with a bunch of Toshiba and tablet specific tools. I removed some of them and kept others. I am not going to talk about those tools here either.
So here goes, in no particular order:
Base Software:
Windows XP SP2 (tablet version)
Microsoft Office 2003 and RPC Over HTTP for Outlook.
Microsoft Office OneNote - This is the tool i have always wanted. I cannot imagine not using it.
Development Tools:
Visual Studio 2003 - The best tool to write code on.
Source Insight - Great light weight editor.
.Net Reflector - This is one of the most useful tools for .net framework
MSN TV Simulator (emulator)
Net Specific:
Fiddler - Proxy tool for debugging HTTP connections. It comes in very useful for work.
Network Monitor
Ethereal - Another Network Sniffer. Very useful for troubleshooting.
HTTP Watch - Another tool to watch HTTP traffic
Mouseover DOM - Very useful tool
Accessibility toolbar - Very useful tool to check accessibility for your website
IE DOM Tool - Pretty slick way to walk through the DOM IE Booster
Firefox - I like Firefox. It is very extensible.
Opera - Version 8 is really, really good. IE7 has its work cut out.
Utilities:
Bayden SlickRun - I love this little utility. It gives me the ability to launch almost anything using just the keyboard.
Groove - I started using this after Groove was bought by Microsoft and I have to say this is impressive. I still don’t use it with other people, but use it just to share my scripts and other common files between my computers. It is very useful even for that.
MSN Toolbar Suite - Desktop Search is just awesome. It has totally changed the way I work. I am not a huge fan of tabbed browsing, so that feature isn't really important. But i do like the fact that i can open my search results in other windows keeping my results available.
Process Explorer from Sysinternals, This always run on all my computers.
MakeMeAdmin - From Aaron Margosis. I run as a normal user and this is an invaluable tool.
PrivBar - Another LUA tool from Aaron Margosis.
Newsgator - I read a lot of RSS and Newsgator works perfectly for me.
Mezer Tools - This has got a screen capture, calipers and print screen tool in it. Very useful
Notepad 2 -Instructions on how to replace Notepad in Windows with this program is at https://www.shahine.com/omar/SearchView.aspx?q=notepad2
TweakUI - Every windows computer needs to have this powertoy.
TaskSwitch XP - Just like the powertoy, just better.
Communication:
Microsoft Office Communicator - Lets me chat with people using Yahoo, MSN and AOL. But the best feature is its telephony applications. I love it.
MSN Messenger 7 - I really like the new release of messenger.
Other Software:
Celestia - I have spent countless hours exploring this.
Worldwind - Countless hours of productivity loss.
Beta Software:
Acrylic Beta - I am not really good at using imaging software and this way too complicated for me to use. This will probably get uninstalled soon.
Microsoft Antispyware Beta - I think this is the best anti-spyware program available.
The great thing about working at Microsoft is that we get to use a lot of stuff before we even announce it outside. I have some of those beta and alpha software installed as well. I also have some software from MS Research installed. I love being able to use those products and give feedback.
I don't have a lot of tablet PC software installed. What would you suggest i should get?
- Venkat