As I was setting up my new laptop (yay!) I figured it might be helpful to share what I consider “essential” from a dev tools point of view. This isn’t all Sitecore-specific, but should be helpful regardless:
- Astrogrep – Ever wanted to find where a value is in the mess of Sitecore configs? Check out Astrogrep.
- GitKraken – I used to be a fan of SourceTree. Then it got slow, clunky and basically awful. I switched over to GitKraken and haven’t looked back.
- Beyond Compare – Yes, everyone uses the free trial. Pay for it though. It’s cheap, and it is a lifesaver. Did you know you can use Beyond Compare as your diff tool? It’s stupid easy to configure.
- Chocolatey – It’s NPM for your windows apps. Not everything is supported, but for the things that are, installing them is a breeze
- Greenshot – Screenshot creation…on crack. I don’t advocate doing drugs. If I did though, and Greenshot were a drug, I’d do it.
- Resharper – We had a saying in the consulting world (prior life) that went something along the lines of “If you’re not using Coding Tools like Resharper or Coderush, you’re stealing from your clients”. It’s pretty accurate. These tools help you get stuff done faster.
- dotPeek – This is basically a must for knowing what other chunks of code are doing. No, I won’t be more specific. 😉
- 7-zip – I can appreciate that MS built zip functionality into windows. That’s where it stops. Get something else. (or use winRAR forever)
- Notepad++ – Some peeps are Sublime Text peeps. I’m a Notepad++ guy. If you’ve still using Notepad to view your config files, I’m not judging you. I’m harshly judging you.
- Paint.net – I usually reserve the usage of this for ‘shopping people around the office, but I’ve lately been using it for more professional reasons. Right.
- Robot 3T – This used to be called Robo Mongo, but they’ve changed the same. Same great Mongo viewer to ensure those new xDB Facets are showing up.
- Xenu’s Link Sleuth – Looking to crawl your site quickly and check for 404s? This light-weight tool is a must. No frills, no fancy. Just crawling.
- FileZilla – An FTP client that does it all, including FTPS and SFTP.
The best part is that most of these are free. Do you have a must-have app for a new laptop that screams efficiency? Let me know in the comments!
My work laptop is not work ready until I have Total Commander and Visual Studio Code installed.
* VSC is a kick ass editor for quick fixes. It has an integrated git client, integrated shell to run npm scripts etc, and is a quick start compared to its bigger brother.
* Many apps have tried but one-man team Ghisler has created the best dang Windows clone of Norton Commander. I can’t live without the powerful search tools, file compares, folder sync and file viewing features of Total Commander.