I have been collecting a lot of very nice developer tools and thought I would start putting together a list of my favorite ones.  This will be an on going effort, so I will give it  a  permanent navigation link.

Top Developer Tools

1. Lutz .NET Reflector - Reflector is the class browser, explorer, analyzer and documentation viewer for .NET. Reflector allows to easily view, navigate, search, decompile and analyze .NET assemblies in C#, Visual Basic and IL.
2. Virtual PC - Free from Microsoft, Virtual PC allows you to run multiple operating systems at the same time on the same physical computer. I like to keep my Visual Studio 2003 tucked away inside a VPC.
3. Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar - Free from Microsoft, this is an add-in toolbar for Internet explorer that enables the developer to examine various part of a web page. I did a recent blog post on that can be found here.
4. ExamDiff Pro - Not a free program, but the best directory/file difference & merge tools I have found. I use this for code migrations to production servers.  If you are looking for a free open source program, try WinMerge.
5. Notepad2 - A fast, light and free notepad replacement with syntax highlighting aimed at the developers' needs. This is a must for any development toolkit.
6. .NET Webservice Studio  - This free tool is used to invoke web methods interactively.  This tool is located on GotDotNet which is being phased out.
7. WinSnap - Not a free piece of software, but one of the best image capture program I have found, and best of all, it works excellent with Vista, including Aero Glass with shadows and transparencies.
8. Paint.NET - This Photoshop like program is a free image editing and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. It is also written in C#.
9. Fiddler - Fiddler is freeware and can debug HTTP traffic from virtually any application, including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera. Fiddler allows you to inspect all HTTP Traffic, set breakpoints, and "fiddle" with incoming or outgoing data.
10. XmlPad - This is a great Freeware XML editor with advanced features like auto-formatting and regular expression support. XmlPad is a must for any web developer and should be part of his/her toolkit.

Last Update - 12/10/2007