Everyone collects utilities, and most folks have a list of a few that they feel are indispensable. Here's mine. Each has a distinct purpose, and I probably touch each at least a few times a week. For me, "util" means utilitarian and it means don't clutter my tray. If it saves me time, and seamlessly integrates with my life, it's the bomb. Many/most are free some aren't. Those that aren't free are very likely worth your 30-day trial, and perhaps your money.

Here are most of the contents of my C:\UTILS folder. These are all well loved and used. I wouldn't recommend them if I didn't use them constantly. Things on this list are here because I dig them. No one paid money to be on this list and no money is accepted to be on this list.

Personal Plug: Discover more cool tools and programming tips on my weekly Podcast Hanselminutes, or my other show with Rob Conery called This Developer's Life.

This is the Updated for 2011 Version of my 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009 List, and currently subsumes all my other lists. Link to http://hanselman.com/tools when referencing the latest Hanselman Ultimate Tools List. Feel free to get involved here in the comments, post corrections, or suggestions for future submissions. I very likely made mistakes, and probably forgot a few utilities that I use often.

New Entries to the 2011 Ultimate Tools are in Green . There are dozens of additions and many updated and corrected entri es and fixed links. I started doing this list for EIGHT YEARS AGO which is like 60 internet years ago. I've also removed some older stuff that no long matters in 2011.

2009 Japanese Translation: Yasushi Aoki has translated the 2009 Tools List to Japanese! You can find it here http://www.hanselman.com/tools/ja-jp/ ?: ???.

NOTE: Please don't reproduce this in its entirety, I'd rather you link to http://hanselman.com/tools. I appreciate your enthusiasm, but posts like this take a lot of work on my part and I'd appreciate that work staying where it is and linked to, rather than being copy/pasted around the 'net. If you're reading this content and you're not at http://hanselman.com, perhaps you'd like to join us at the original URL?

The Big Ten Life and Work-Changing Utilities

"A problem well stated is a problem half solved." - Charles Kettering



"Knowing is half the battle." - Duke, G.I. Joe

Bins was actually written by the same author as Fences, below, so you know it's awesome.

It's actually ridiculously awesome. For example, I've got four browsers pinned to my Windows 7 Taskbar, which is kind of silly. Now, with bins, I can make a, *ahem*, "bin" and put four browser shortcuts in the space of just one regular icon. Then I make can choose a default program for the bin when I just click, or hover to get my others. All this functionality for $4.99, and he takes PayPal. Sold. Bins almost makes Windows 7 feel like Windows 7.1.

was actually written by the same author as Fences, below, so you know it's awesome. It's actually ridiculously awesome. For example, I've got four browsers pinned to my Windows 7 Taskbar, which is kind of silly. Now, with bins, I can make a, *ahem*, "bin" and put four browser shortcuts in the space of just one regular icon. Then I make can choose a default program for the bin when I just click, or hover to get my others. All this functionality for $4.99, and he takes PayPal. Sold. Bins almost makes Windows 7 feel like Windows 7.1. I mentioned Fences here almost two years ago to the day and it's been running happily on all my Windows PCs ever since. I realize that some folks like a clean desktop but if you'd like to get those pixels working for you then I think you gotta put some icons on your desk. When they get out of hand, put a fence around them.

One of the best parts about Fences is that it's pretty smart about changing resolutions. Some people don't like a lot of icons because they fear the inevitable "give a presentation, change resolutions and lose all my icon positions" day. With Fences, this is not a problem. All your icons stay in their little boxes. They'll even rearrange magically if you change icon sizes.

Fences is truly a fantastic application and one that should be built in. The author of Fences and Bin is a programming god amongst men and I salute you, sir. The next taco is on me.

here almost two years ago to the day and it's been running happily on all my Windows PCs ever since. I realize that some folks like a clean desktop but if you'd like to get those pixels working for you then I think you gotta put some icons on your desk. When they get out of hand, put a fence around them. One of the best parts about Fences is that it's pretty smart about changing resolutions. Some people don't like a lot of icons because they fear the inevitable "give a presentation, change resolutions and lose all my icon positions" day. With Fences, this is not a problem. All your icons stay in their little boxes. They'll even rearrange magically if you change icon sizes. Fences is truly a fantastic application and one that should be built in. The author of Fences and Bin is a programming god amongst men and I salute you, sir. The next taco is on me. Window Pad is a multi-monitor aware window-moving tool. You use the Window Key along with the Number Pad to move windows around. Rather than spending time moving your windows with a mouse, you use the positions of the numbers on the number pad to move them.

It's Aero Snap taken to the next level. Rather than just left and right, there's nine positions per monitor that your windows can go, but because the positions correspond to the number pad you already know there's virtually no learning curve. WindowPad is brilliant and deserves to be in your Startup Folder.

is a multi-monitor aware window-moving tool. You use the Window Key along with the Number Pad to move windows around. Rather than spending time moving your windows with a mouse, you use the positions of the numbers on the number pad to move them. It's Aero Snap taken to the next level. Rather than just left and right, there's nine positions per monitor that your windows can go, but because the positions correspond to the number pad you already know there's virtually no learning curve. WindowPad is brilliant and deserves to be in your Startup Folder. Join.me from Logmein - There's a lot of screensharing utilities out there. There's even Remote Assistance built into Windows. There's TeamViewer, there's CrossLoop, and on and on. However, when I just want to share my screen and give a URL to a bunch of people who can view it without anything other than Flash, I use Join.me. Great for Mom and great for me.

- There's a lot of screensharing utilities out there. There's even Remote Assistance built into Windows. There's TeamViewer, there's CrossLoop, and on and on. However, when I just want to share my screen and give a URL to a bunch of people who can view it without anything other than Flash, I use Join.me. Great for Mom and great for me. AutoHotKey - This little gem is bananas. It's a tiny, amazingly fast free open-source utility for Windows. It lets you automate everything from keystrokes to mice. Programming for non-programmers. It's a complete automation system for Windows without the frustration of VBScript. This is the Windows equivalent of AppleScript for Windows. (That's a very good thing.) Make sure you get the "AutoCorrect for English" script on the Other Download page. It's got 4700 common English Misspellings. It gives you autocorrect everywhere in Windows. Every program, always. It's just the tip of the iceberg. Note above that Window Pad - a great util on its own - is actually written in AutoHotKey. Amazing!

- This little gem is bananas. It's a tiny, amazingly fast free open-source utility for Windows. It lets you automate everything from keystrokes to mice. Programming for non-programmers. It's a complete automation system for Windows without the frustration of VBScript. This is the Windows equivalent of AppleScript for Windows. (That's a very good thing.) Paint.NET - The Paint Program that Microsoft forgot, written in .NET. It's 80% of Photoshop and it's free. It also has nice enhanced Windows 7 features.

- The Paint Program that Microsoft forgot, written in .NET. It's 80% of Photoshop and it's free. It also has nice enhanced Windows 7 features. 7-Zip - It's over and 7zip won. Time to get on board. The 7z format is fast becoming the compression format that choosey hardcore users choose. You'll typically get between 2% and 10% better compression than ZIP. This app integrates into Windows Explorer nicely and opens basically EVERYTHING you could ever want to open from TARs to ISOs, from RARs to CABs.

- It's over and 7zip won. Time to get on board. The 7z format is fast becoming the compression format that choosey hardcore users choose. You'll typically get between 2% and 10% better compression than ZIP. This app integrates into Windows Explorer nicely and opens basically EVERYTHING you could ever want to open from TARs to ISOs, from RARs to CABs. DropBox - There's so many great cloud storage systems today. SkyDrive, CloudDrive, DropBox and others. I keep coming back to DropBox though. It's on every platform I want it on. It works great with large stores (mine is over 60gigs) and also allows selective sync for small amounts of data in just certain folders. Ultimately, though, get yourself some cloud storage because when you stuff is just "there", life is better.

- There's so many great cloud storage systems today. SkyDrive, CloudDrive, DropBox and others. I keep coming back to DropBox though. It's on every platform I want it on. It works great with large stores (mine is over 60gigs) and also allows selective sync for small amounts of data in just certain folders. Ultimately, though, get yourself some cloud storage because when you stuff is just "there", life is better. SysInternals - I want to call out specifically ProcExp and AutoRuns, but anything Mark and Bryce do is pure gold. ProcExp is a great Taskman replacement and includes the invaluable "Find DLL" feature. It can also highlight any .NET processes. AutoRuns is an amazing aggregated view of any and all things that run at startup on your box. A great new addition to the SysInternals Family is Process Monitor , a utility that eclipses both Filemon and Regmon. It runs on any version of Windows and lets you see exactly what a process is doing. Indispensable for developing. It's also worth calling out the legendary Process Explorer as a standout and must-have utility.

- I want to call out specifically ProcExp and AutoRuns, but anything Mark and Bryce do is pure gold. ProcExp is a great Taskman replacement and includes the invaluable "Find DLL" feature. It can also highlight any .NET processes. AutoRuns is an amazing aggregated view of any and all things that run at startup on your box. Windows Live Writer - If you've got a blog (and if not, why not?) then this is THE app. They've also got a great plugin community. It's the second app I install.

Rocking Sweet Windows 7 Specific Stuff

"No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible." - George Burns

A (.NET) Developer's Life

"You can have it good, fast, or cheap. Pick two."

The Angle Bracket Tax (XML/HTML Stuff)

"Without an XML Schema, you might as well replace all those < and > signs with quotes and commas, 'cuz that's what you've got - just less-than/greater-than-delimited text." - Scott Hanselman

XPathMania and Mvp.XML - This is an extension to the XML Editor within Visual Studio 2005 that allows you to execute XPath queries against the current document dynamically. Created under the Mvp.Xml umbrella project - also a kickbutt XML extension library.

- This is an extension to the XML Editor within Visual Studio 2005 that allows you to execute XPath queries against the current document dynamically. Created under the Mvp.Xml umbrella project - also a kickbutt XML extension library. SketchPath for XPath - SketchPath does for XPath what Regulator did for Regular Expressions. It's totally hardcore.

- SketchPath does for XPath what Regulator did for Regular Expressions. It's totally hardcore. XmlSpy - Just buy it.

- Just buy it. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Toolkit - Got broken links on your site? Is your HTML SEO optimized? This fantastic free tool answers all these questions and hundreds more as it chews your angle brackets for you, creating flexible reports and a full queryable database of your site.

- Got broken links on your site? Is your HTML SEO optimized? This fantastic free tool answers all these questions and hundreds more as it chews your angle brackets for you, creating flexible reports and a full queryable database of your site. XML Viewer for Google Chrome - Like Google Chrome but miss IE's XML text viewer? Here's a XML Viewer as a Chrome Extension. Take control.

Visual Studio Add-Ins

"This one goes to eleven..." - Nigel Tufnel

Productivity Power Tools - Add a dozen cool new enhancements to Visual Studio 2010 and get a pick of the next version of Visual Studio. Improved Find, middle click scrolling, improved refactorings, an all new Solution Navigator, new tabs and much more.

- Add a dozen cool new enhancements to Visual Studio 2010 and get a pick of the next version of Visual Studio. Improved Find, middle click scrolling, improved refactorings, an all new Solution Navigator, new tabs and much more. Web Essentials - Add Live Web Preview, improved CSS editing, color preview, font preview and lots more to Visual Studio with this lightweight and actively developed "playground" extension.

- Add Live Web Preview, improved CSS editing, color preview, font preview and lots more to Visual Studio with this lightweight and actively developed "playground" extension. NuGet Package Manager - NuGet integrates into the References node of the Solution Explorer, enables Package Management and brings PowerShell directy into to Visual Studio.

- NuGet integrates into the References node of the Solution Explorer, enables Package Management and brings PowerShell directy into to Visual Studio. Web Standards Update - Update Visual Studio with support for HTML5 and CSS3. Add intellisense and validation to the editors for JavaScript, CSS3 and HTML. Lots of little details as well as vendor specific prefixes for CSS.

- Update Visual Studio with support for HTML5 and CSS3. Add intellisense and validation to the editors for JavaScript, CSS3 and HTML. Lots of little details as well as vendor specific prefixes for CSS. JScript Editor Extensions - Bundles lots of new features into the Visual Studio 2010 JavaScript editor like brace matching, work highlighting, intellisense doc comments, and more.

- Bundles lots of new features into the Visual Studio 2010 JavaScript editor like brace matching, work highlighting, intellisense doc comments, and more. Web Workbench with Sass, Less and CoffeeScript - Teach Visual Studio 2010 all about Sass, Less and CoffeeScript with this free addin from MindScape. You'll wonder how you lived with out these technologies and be impressed how seamlessly they integrate.

- Teach Visual Studio 2010 all about Sass, Less and CoffeeScript with this free addin from MindScape. You'll wonder how you lived with out these technologies and be impressed how seamlessly they integrate. tangible T4 Editor - It's a crying shame that T4 templates don't get syntax-highlighting in Visual Studio. Cry no more.

- It's a crying shame that T4 templates don't get syntax-highlighting in Visual Studio. Cry no more. VsVim - Obsessed with the Vim editor but also like Visual Studio? Why not like them both? It's also open source.

- Obsessed with the Vim editor but also like Visual Studio? Why not like them both? It's also open source. StyleCop - StyleCop analyzes C# source code to enforce a set of style and consistency rules. It can be run from inside of Visual Studio or integrated into an MSBuild project. Totally useful by yourself or with a team.

- StyleCop analyzes C# source code to enforce a set of style and consistency rules. It can be run from inside of Visual Studio or integrated into an MSBuild project. Totally useful by yourself or with a team. Pex - Amazing Visual Studio addin that finds edge cases in your code that ordinary unit testing never can.

Regular Expressions

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems. - Jamie Zawinski

Launchers

Scott's Note: Personally, I'm all about Windows 7 now, so I'm not using a 3rd party launcher any more as I don't see the need. However, here are some stand-outs I've used in the past that you might want to check out.

"Oh, yes, little Bobby Tables, we call him." - http://xkcd.com/327

Slickrun - still the sexy favorite, this little floating magic bar keeps me moving fast, launching programs, macros and explorer with its shiny simplicity.

Tell them I sent you. Also available is an Open Source project called MagicWords (not updated since Feb 07) that looks similar to SlickRun.

- still the sexy favorite, this little floating magic bar keeps me moving fast, launching programs, macros and explorer with its shiny simplicity. Tell them I sent you. Martin Plante has created SlimKeys and continues to innovate his a "universal hotkey manager" with a .NET plugin architecture. If you've got ideas or thoughts, visit the slimCODE Forums.

Have you ever wanted to bind something to Shift-Ctrl-Alt-Window-Q but didn't know how to grab a global hotkey? This will launch programs, watch folders, and find files.

and continues to innovate his a "universal hotkey manager" with a .NET plugin architecture. If you've got ideas or thoughts, visit the slimCODE Forums. Have you ever wanted to bind something to Shift-Ctrl-Alt-Window-Q but didn't know how to grab a global hotkey? This will launch programs, watch folders, and find files. Promptu - A new entry into the lauching space, promptu ups the ante with new features like syncing between computers.

- A new entry into the lauching space, promptu ups the ante with new features like syncing between computers. Humanized Enso - Unquestionably the smoothest and most interesting user interface of the launchers, Enso pops up as the Caps-Lock key is held down, and performs the command when the key is released. It takes a minute to understand, but it's a very clean UI metaphor. They are now bringing Enso's metaphor to Firefox as "Ubiquity."

- Unquestionably the smoothest and most interesting user interface of the launchers, Enso pops up as the Caps-Lock key is held down, and performs the command when the key is released. It takes a minute to understand, but it's a very clean UI metaphor. They are now bringing Enso's metaphor to Firefox as "Ubiquity." Colibri - The closest thing so far, IMHO, to Quicksilver on Windows, although this little gem has a slow startup time, it runs fast! It's being actively developed and promises integration with a dozen third party programs. It also formally supports "Portable Mode" for those of you who like to carry your apps around on a USB key.

- The closest thing so far, IMHO, to Quicksilver on Windows, although this little gem has a slow startup time, it runs fast! It's being actively developed and promises integration with a dozen third party programs. It also formally supports "Portable Mode" for those of you who like to carry your apps around on a USB key. Launchy - Another do it all application, Launchy binds to Alt-Space by default. This app also has the potential to be Quicksilver like if it start including support for stringing together verb-noun combos. It's pretty as hell and totally skinnable (there's TWO Quicksilver skins included!)

Stuff I Just Dig

"Great googlely moogley!" - Johnny Carson

Low-Level Utilities

"If you know how to use Process Monitor competently, people of both sexes will immediately find you more attractive." - Scott Hanselman

Websites and Bookmarklets

"So why is “Shut down” on the Start menu? When we asked people to shut down their computers, they clicked the Start button. Because, after all, when you want to shut down, you have to start somewhere." - Raymond Chen

Tools for Bloggers and Those Who Read Blogs

"You can do anything, but not everything." - David Allen

Browser Add-Ins/Extensions

"Tomorrow is 11/11/11, not 11/11/11. Bloody Americans." - Laurentme0w

GetRight - Downloads, resumes and most importantly, splits up large downloads over HTTP or FTP into as many as 10 concurrent streams.

- Downloads, resumes and most importantly, splits up large downloads over HTTP or FTP into as many as 10 concurrent streams. WebDeveloper for FireFox - If you're the last developer to download FireFox, or you're holding off, WebDeveloper is a solid reason to switch to FireFox NOW. It's amazing and has to be used to be believed. It consolidates at least 2 dozens useful functions for those who sling ASP.NET or HTML. And if you're a CSS person, the realtime CSS editing is pretty hot.

- If you're the last developer to download FireFox, or you're holding off, WebDeveloper is a solid reason to switch to FireFox NOW. It's amazing and has to be used to be believed. It consolidates at least 2 dozens useful functions for those who sling ASP.NET or HTML. And if you're a CSS person, the realtime CSS editing is pretty hot. IEView and ViewInFireFox - These two utils go together. Both are FireFox extensions, but they are yin to the others yang. They add View in Internet Explorer and View in FireFox context menu items to their respective browsers. Great if you develop, but also great if you tend to visit sites that aren't browser agnostic.

- These two utils go together. Both are FireFox extensions, but they are yin to the others yang. They add View in Internet Explorer and View in FireFox context menu items to their respective browsers. Great if you develop, but also great if you tend to visit sites that aren't browser agnostic. Speckie - Spell check for Internet Explorer. The feature IE forgot, cleanly integrated. Install and forget.

- Spell check for Internet Explorer. The feature IE forgot, cleanly integrated. Install and forget. FireFox Extensions - Stunning! Extensions for my browser that won't kill kittens! DownloadManagerTweak, AdBlockPlus , and GreaseMonkey.

- Stunning! Extensions for my browser that won't kill kittens! DownloadManagerTweak, , and GreaseMonkey. JSONView for Chrome - Makes exploring JSON payloads in Chrome much easier.

Things Windows Forgot

"I didn't know anything about this. So I called up some folks at Microsoft, and apparently we make a lot of different image editors." - Steve Balmer

Outlook AddIns and Life Organizers

"With engineering, I view this year's failure as next year's opportunity to try it again." - Gordon Moore

Evernote and RememberTheMilk - Gotta show these twice! These two apps manage notes and todos and they do it in an elegant and cross platform way. Evernote works on the Mac, Windows, iPhone, Palm Pre, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry and your notes live in the cloud. Remember The Milk is your todos any way you like them, from Google Calendar, Twitter, BlackBerry and Bookmarklets.

- Gotta show these twice! These two apps manage notes and todos and they do it in an elegant and cross platform way. Evernote works on the Mac, Windows, iPhone, Palm Pre, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry and your notes live in the cloud. Remember The Milk is your todos any way you like them, from Google Calendar, Twitter, BlackBerry and Bookmarklets. gSyncit - I've got data in Outlook Calendar and Google Calendar, and I now use gSyncit to keep my live in sync between Outlook and Google.

- I've got data in Outlook Calendar and Google Calendar, and I now use gSyncit to keep my live in sync between Outlook and Google. PocketMod - Has nothing to do with Outlook, but everything to do with getting organized. This tiny book is created by some creative folding and your printer. Design it and print it yourself for free.

- Has nothing to do with Outlook, but everything to do with getting organized. This tiny book is created by some creative folding and your printer. Design it and print it yourself for free. Getting Things Done (GTD) with Outlook ClearContex t - Artificial Intelligence for your Outlook Inbox. Speedfiler - A replacement for Move To Folder in Outlook; file your messages as fast as your can press Enter. Taglocity - A learning system, Taglocity tags, filters, searches, and teaches itself about your mail.

XMind - A great free mind-mapping tool with a fast and intuitive (not to mention keyboard friendly) interface.

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