There are a few apps I would like to share that I find incredibly useful on a daily bases and while setting up a new pc. All programs are free unless otherwise specified. I like free apps and many will have a donate button if you so choose to do so.

Ninite

A very helpful program I use on every new install of Windows. As one might guess, it takes a preselected list of apps you pick on their website and installs them by itself. No dialog boxes to click, no fuss, just completely unattended. The pro-version may have more apps to choose from but the free one suits me just fine.

Below is a link to the page for all of my favorite choices.

Download Ninite. :)

Ninite


Atom IDE

One of my go-to apps on the desktop, if not using notepad++ or a webide like cloud9. It has a lot of features, way more than I’d ever need. I like it simply because it has a file tree on the right, multiple tabs, and some git functionality.

Atom


BatteryBar

It’s a simple app but still quite useful. I use it on all my laptops (well there’s really only one laptop but I had one before the current one and I used the app on it too), it provides a better reading than the built in meter provided by the OS. It gives a percentage, eta to empty, power consumption, battery energy levels, a few other things.

BatteryBar


Cygwin

A lovely program, it gives the ability to do some linux like tasks within windows without the need to virtualize an entire OS or a dedicated machine. It’s certainly no substitute but I like it for running things like ruby gems or python apps. Like, spinning up a local version of my website to test things. The installed package can hover around 1GB but can easily consume more but that shouldn’t be much of a problem for most people. ;)

Cygwin


Foobar2000

Just a simple music player I like. It seems to be a bit more hackable than your commercial variety. :)

I’ll include my theme I use for ya: My Theme File

Foobar2000

Notepad ++

I’m sure many developers out there know, Notepad++ is a indispensable text editor. I prefer it over the plain ‘ol notepad any day and has lots of features to take advantage of.

Some features:

  • Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding
  • User Defined Syntax Highlighting and Folding
  • PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expression) Search/Replace
  • GUI entirely customizable: minimalist, tab with close button, multi-line tab, vertical tab and vertical document list
  • Document Map
  • Auto-completion: Word completion, Function completion and Function parameters hint
  • Multi-Document (Tab interface)
  • Multi-View
  • WYSIWYG (Printing)
  • Zoom in and zoom out
  • Multi-Language environment supported
  • Bookmark
  • Macro recording and playback
  • Launch with different arguments
Features copied from Notepad++’s Website.

Notepad ++

Enjoy! :)