“What’s in your toolbox?"

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Here is an ever growing list of tools that I use on a regular basis as a SharePoint dude. Not complete, however, are we ever?

This will in no way be as complete as "THE TOOL LIST" but it is not meant to be. Thanks to Scott Hanselman for making my job easier over the years by providing such a fabulous list for developers.

  1. PureText
    1. Available from https://www.stevemiller.net/puretext/
    2. I added this to number 1 on the list because I now use it so much that it is intuitive. Heck I used it for each link in this post.
    3. Allows you to paste good old plain clear text without any funky keystrokes, mouse moves or spells. Just Windows-V. Bam!
  2. Windows Live Writer
    1. Great blogging tool that is FREE!
  3. LogParser
    1. Excellent tool for IIS usage analysis and so much more
    2. Download details: Log Parser 2.2
  4. Other tools in the IIS 6 Resource Kit
      1. ReMapUrl
  5. Process Explorer
    1. from https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx 
    2. I bet that you will find at list 2 other tools besides Process Explorer that you will find useful from the site.
      1. Zoom It
        1. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897434.aspx
        2. Count Down Timer
        3. Zoom on your screen, excellent for presentations
      2. RootkitRevealer
        1. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897445.aspx
        2. Dang rooties
      3.  https://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/
  6. WinDbg
    1. https://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx
  7. DebugDiag
    1. https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=28bd5941-c458-46f1-b24d-f60151d875a3&displaylang=en
  8. FxCop
    1. Every body needs a “Big Brother” to look over their shoulder into the code and be a cop of some things.
    2. This tool has a way of checking, inflating and deflating coders egos.
    3. FREE
  9. Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar
    1. Excellent tool for finding elements on a page and especially helpful in determining the css applied.
    2. FREE
  10. Reflector
    1. https://www.lutzroeder.com/
    2. Excellent Class browser for .Net developers
    3. FREE
  11. HttpWatch
    1. https://www.httpwatch.com/
    2. I have been using this tool for years and it is a tremendous help in trying to narrow down root causes of pages taking too long to load and other browser related errors.
    3. FREE lite version
  12. Fiddler
    1. https://www.fiddlertool.com/fiddler/
    2. Another very good HTTP Debugging proxy that has been very helpful in making things go faster in the browser.
    3. Was it cached?
    4. Was it redirected?
    5. FREE!
  13. Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL) Tool
  14. SharePoint Logging Spy
  15. Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the 2007 Microsoft Office System
  16. Visual Studio 2005
  17. Visual Studio 2008
  18. SharePoint Designer
  19. NotePad
  20. Zune
    1. BlogCasts
      1. TechNet Radio
      2. HanselMinutes
      3. .Net Rocks
  21. search.live.com
  22. Love the Logs (new tool one day)
    1. ULS
    2. IILS
    3. Event Longs
      1. Application
      2. Security
      3. System