Just my opinion...

Clearly most of the development related tools I use are from Microsoft since I’m a .NET developer.  I won’t often list versions with many of the development tools since they tend to upgrade almost twice a year, I’ll just give links to the home sites for them then you can select the version you want.  Just because I list an SDK doesn’t mean I use that SDK everyday but I like to have instant access to them as I’m often researching new approaches and technologies and when I see an example on the web I want to go try it out right away.

Other tools on this list I use frequently and others not so frequently but at any time I may need one.  A farmer I used to work for once said, “You seldom need a torque wrench but when you do, you REALLY need a torque wrench.”  Same goes for many of the tools you see listed here.

By the way, everything on this list besides Visual Studio is free and I point out a free alternative to VS.NET.  If you have a nice developer’s text editor and all the compilers (all free and in the SDKs) – you don’t need an IDE anyway, do you? 

Development Related

• Microsoft Visual Studio
  A bit pricey for some but fortunately I get it through work most of the time.  A perfectly acceptable free alternative is SharpDevelop.  With the SDKs listed below you get all the compilers, debuggers, utilities, etc. anyway.
• Microsoft Windows SDK
• Microsoft Silverlight 2 SDK
• Microsoft .NET Framework SDK
• Microsoft Visual Studio SDK
  If Visual Studio doesn’t do everything you want or you want to write a new .NET language.
• Windows Installer XML Toolset (WiX)
  This was the first open source project at Microsoft.  It’s still maintained there and according to a Channel9 video, all Microsoft product centers are using it now.
• Microsoft Web Platform Installer
  I’m only listing the SQL Server parts here but this installer has a lot of other tools you can install.
  
  • SQL Server Express
  • SQL Server Management Studio Express
• Microsoft patterns & practices (or at Codeplex)
  • Enterprise Library
  • Guidance Automation Extensions
  • Guidance Automation Toolkit
• MSBuild Extension Pack & MSBuild Community Tasks
  One is at Codeplex and the other at Tigris.  If you use MSBuild to automate your build process then these extras are almost indispensible.
• DocProject
  If you’ve ever had to produce documentation for your own SDK, you’re going to be absolutely thrilled with the nice VS.NET integration you get with DocProject.
• F#
  Functional programming for the .NET developer.  (Sorry, Greg…  I can’t put Haskell on my list yet.  Just don’t know it well enough.)
• IronPython
• Oslo (or whatever Microsoft is calling it today)
  It’s now going to be delivered with SQL Server but it will stay freely available through SQL Server Express.
• PowerShell
  Let the development team tell you where to get it – there’s been some confusion over CTP vs. RTM versions out there.  I really wish I had the time to exploit PS fully.  I use it as my daily command shell and learn more about it everyday.
• Red Gate’s .NET Reflector
  A free and much more powerful alternative to ildasm.  This tool has shed light on many problems and questions for me.
• LINQPad
  Wanna learn LINQ?  Then do it interactively with this tool.  It’s free unless you want to get the auto-completion feature, it was cheap enough and cool enough that I went ahead and bought it.
• Notepad2
  There are dozens of alternatives to notepad out there, this one just happens to be really light and tailored to developers.
• Antlr
  I used to do an awful lot in LEX/YACC.  I just had to mention this tool.

General Utilities

• IrfanView
  I started using this to view images (JPG, GIF, etc.) years ago.  Quick and easy install, lightweight and is far nicer than paint.  Another alternative if you find yourself editing pictures is Paint.NET.
• Windows Live Writer
  I use it to maintain my blog.  It’ll connect to many of the popular blog servers and integrates almost seamlessly.
• Console2
  The console shell you get with Windows sucks.  Go get this one if you spend much time at the command line.

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