brokenshard

The following list is based on what I use at work.

1. Quick launcher: Mostly, this is taken care by the Windows Run command. But with Vista, the search option in the Start Menu makes life a lot more easier. For people still stuck with XP (thats me at work), Launchy is the way to go. 
    
2. An On-desktop todo list: No matter how sophisticated  your task management software is, you would still like a small gadget which sits on your desktop and shows you your tasks in hand. I like and use doomi.
    
3. Something better than notepad: Apart from your IDE, you would like to have a better scrap container.  Notepad does an excellent job, but not enough. My personal choice is Notepad++, but I have seen people swear by TextPad. I usually use these editors for temporary copy/paste and search & replace. 
    
4.  An explorer replacement: Windows explorer is a nice file browser. But when it comes to complicated file/folder tasks, it falls short in many departments. I usually end up copying a lot of stuff, at frequent intervals, from my workspace folder to my local server’s exoploded archive. And so I absolutely need a dual pane file browser. Apart from this, filtering files while copying/moving helps a lot as well. My tool of choice - xplorer2. 
    
5. Firefox for Firebug: Firebug is totally indispensable. It definitely is the holy grail of web development. For me, this is the sole reason why I still use Firefox at work. And also the main reason why I still find it difficult to move to other browsers. 

Apart from these, I also use an alternate shell called LiteStep at work as well. It gives me four very important features in one single go:

1. A Quick Launcher via LSXCommand.
2. A virtual windows manager
3. Customizable hotkeys
4. Lots and lots of deskspace and ofcourse much cooler themes. ;) 

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