Windows Developer Power Tools

23.0 Introduction

A day in the life of a developer is an odd mishmash of tasks. You write your software in an IDE, but you sometimes need to run tests in a separate application, and you might need to use FTP to drop some files on a server somewhere, open up PowerShell to interact with your registry, and so on.

These little steps are all critical tasks, but they’re often annoyingly awkward to accomplish. Too often, way too many mouse movements, clicks, and keypresses are required to get the work done. On top of that, you’ll often find yourself repeating the same tasks over and over, and possibly opening yourself up for errors. Why not use a tool to cut the effort needed to accomplish some of these tasks, or at least automate them for you so you have a structured, repeatable process?

Small things can make a big difference in your ability to get and stay in the flow. This chapter is here to help you work faster, smarter, and better with Windows. We’ve chosen a number of tools that do little things in a big way. Some of the tools even do big things in a big way; for example, installing Cygwin gets you Unix-like functionality, and installing SlickRun will give you the ability to launch any application, folder, or URL with just a few keystrokes. All the tools discussed here help you get things done faster and with less room for error.

The Tools

For launching applications or URLs with fewer keystrokes

SlickRun

Forget the Start menu and desktop or quick launch icons. SlickRun lets you create ...