Scott Hanselman has a great list of the power tools he uses for Windows and development. It’s worth a read, and worth checking some of them out. I have used quite a few of these tools over the years, and I find them great, however I’m definitely considering trying a few of his recommendations out.

Ones I like:

• Paint.NET – Beware the big download buttons that take you to GIMP. Click download at the top and follow the text.
• 7-Zip – I moved to this a few years ago and it works great. Is it better than others? No idea, but it works well and easily for me. It doesn’t get in the way.
• DropBox – This works well for me. Is it better than Box, or Live Mesh? I still use LiveMesh, but this gives me a nice integration with a lot of iPhone apps.
• SysInternals – If you admin a network or an AD domain, you need these.
• PowerShell – If you work with SQL Server, spend a few minutes working with this. Here’s a cheat sheet.
• ZoomIt –  If you present, drop this on every machine, and a flash drive.
• TortoiseSVN – Use a VCS, any of them.
• Skype– I’ve also tried Oovoo, but size matters. Skype works well for me.
• Bart’s Preinstalled Enviroment (BartPE) – Saved my wife one time
• DVDDecrypter– With kids this is handy. Rip your own DVDs and give the kids the copy.

The tools I am interested in trying from the list:

• Boot to VHD – I’ve heard a lot about it and maybe it will make things simpler. When (if?) I go back to a Windows laptop, I might try this.
• LogParser – On my list as a way to dig through log files in Windows.
• Hiren’s BootCD – Probably worth keeping around
• SyncBack -Windows Home Server is a POS for me. Looking for a basic file server and scheduled backups.

If you have your own recommendations, I’d love to hear them.