08 August 2022

What I Use

I recently mentioned Win + V in some internal channels and people are always surprised it exists.
So, here’s a list of things, both tools and basic tips, from what I think is most useful descending.

Ditto #

• Clipboard history tool
• Provides access to historical copy/cut and paste it
• Many other features
• Alternative: Win + V on Windows, Copyclip for MacOS (I’m told)

Many other tools like Shapeshifter, ClipX, etc do similar, but have more obtrusive UI.

Everything #

• Windows Search tool
• Similar to normal Windows Search, but actually works

Finds files, always, fast, no fuss.

Gitkraken #

• Visual Git client
• Comparative to SouceTree, Github Desktop, Git Extensions, etc
• PAID for company

“Which git client do you use” is always a good discussion.
I like this one because it clearly shows the git tree/history and can pick a specific branch to view it’s history in isolation.

Fork #

I’ve switched to Fork from Gitkraken because it’s WAY faster, and the pricing model isn’t a subscription.
Pretty much everything from above is also present here, although I will say it’s probably less intuitive to use.

Azure Data Studio #

• Nice modern database query tool
• Not fully featured like SSMS
• Built on VSCode’s Monaco, so has extensions

Way nicer and faster than SSMS, but doesn’t have most of the features.
Extensions can provide some of the more common features such as bacpac

It comes with SSMS anyway, so if you have one, you probably have the other!

Onenote/ Obsidian #

• Notetaking
• Onenote good for adding anything. Files, drawing, etc
• Obsidian good for simple text notes and formatting

I only recently started with Obsidian, and I’m still not 100% sold compared to Onenote, but it does have some nice linking and organisation (i.e. clicking on the calendar shows the note for that day)

Postman/ Thunderclient #

• Api inspection tools

Another one that just does what it says on the tin.
Can call API’s with various configurations. Thunderclient is a VSCode plugin, and is nice and lightweight compared to Postman, but much less featured.

Windows Terminal #

• Terminal
• On Windows

Better terminal than the standard Windows terminal.
Drop in replacement.

Powertoys #

• Many small useful tools
• Fancy Zones - (better window manager), less useful now that Win 11 zones exist
• Power Rename
• Image Resize
• Run: Alt + space - Like MacOS Spotlight, has some extra things built in compared to Windows Start

As above, some handy little tools that expand on Windows functionality.

Microsoft Todo #

• Todo app

Nice simple todo app.
Has substeps, so you can have “make cake” and list the ingredients under that.
Has mobile apps.

Really useful keyboard shortcuts #

• Ctrl + backspace/del: Delete word
• Ctrl + arrow: Jump to start/end of word
• Ctrl + +/-: Zoom BUT also back and forward in VS editor history
  • Alt + arrow: VSCode history

Other much more common things #

• Slack/Teams: Internal chats and company chats
• Microsoft Edge: Feels nice, built in, better than Chrome. Don’t hate FF, just never got into it
• Hugo/Netlify: Static site builder for blog, hosted on Netlify. Simple and cheap.
• Visual Studio/VSCode: Backend/Fronend dev. Haven’t gotten into Jetbrains stuff.
• ffmpeg: Video conversion tool. Industry standard, text based.
• Some Visual Studio and VSCode tips and tricks I’ve written about before