This is my page for all the tools in my development toolbox. There always seems to be a new tool to help with some specific task. Tools are great when they are actually useful. The problem is that some tools create more complexity for your project. Sometimes we pick the wrong tool. A tool isn't everything, but in the right hands, a great tool can produce a great product.

Programming Tools

NUnit for unit testing, but looking into XUnit.  The main difference I am seeing is that NUnit has its own client to run tests, whereas, XUnit needs ReSharper.NET or TestDriven.NET, which is a commercial product.

Web Deployment Projects for Visual Studio 2008

Reflector - owned and managed by Red-Gate, but still a free utility for inspecting compiled DLLs and EXEs

Xml Development

Xsd.exe - converts a schema definition (.xsd) into C# or VB programming objects.  Xsd.exe is found in the Microsoft SDK (C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\bin). I have used this in that past, but LinqToXsd is a newer alternative.

LinqToXsd - converts a schema into classes that are compatible with LinqToXml.  Be sure to download the source code.  This is where all the documentation is.

Web Development Tools

jQuery - there is no doubt that jQuery has proven itself for client-side javascript, and is likely to continue into the future.  The jQuery UI library is very nice for web applications.  The Smoothness theme is a nice works-for-everything jQuery UI theme.

FireBug - web page debugger plug-in for Firefox browser

FireQuery - very nice jQuery Firebug add-on which allows you to search for page elements in the Firebug console, eg. $('div')

FireFinder - higlights page elements that match a jQuery query in the FireBug console

HTTrack - This nifty tool will download your site, AND FILES, to html files which can be run locally on your pc.  I was able to configure it to download all files and create relative links to them so that web access was not required at all.

Considering...

ReSharper - plugin for Visual Studios with enhanced code highlighting, intellisense, and testing support