Must Have Tools

• Notepad2: A vital, essential, notepad replacement. Color-codes your text using syntax schemes identified by the file’s extention. I followed Scott Hanselman and “renamed ‘Notepad2.exe’ to ‘n.exe’ which saves me a few dozen ‘otepad’s a day.”
• PsExec: [blog entry] Execute remote applications, remotely. Great for installing an MSI on a remote box without resorting to Remote Desktop. Also great for launching solitaire on your buddy’s machine and harrassing him for slacking at work.

Testing Tools

• Screen Hunter 4.0 Free: [blog entry] Free screen capture tool that is a requirement in any tester’s toolbelt.
• Watir: [blog entry] Web Application Testing In Ruby. An automated functional testing tool for automated browser tests in IE. Scripts are written in Ruby.

Continuous Integration Tools

• CruiseControl.Net: Monitor your source. Can be used to manage automated builds, build status, and reports from NUnit, FXCop, etc.
• NAnt: Free build tool for .Net. Use with CruiseControl.net to automatically build nightlies or whenever a code change occurs.
• NantContrib: An extention for NAnt. Adds some useful tasks that NAnt does not include, such as integration with VSS.