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Comment by hamletdrc2 | Hacker News Reader

Well, it is a big list, isn't it? I doubt that the author actually uses all of these tools. Consider that the list contains Cygwin plus a whole bunch of utilities that are native Cygwin applications (Gnu Tools, Tailers, Splitters, and more).

This list left me feeling that it needs to be proctored or maintained. I don't want a list of utilities that somebody tried once; I want a list of good utilities.

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From the very first & second paragraphs of the link:

Everyone collects utilities, and most folks have a list of a few that they feel are indispensable. Here's mine. Each has a distinct purpose, and I probably touch each at least a few times a week. For me, "util" means utilitarian and it means don't clutter my tray. If it saves me time, and seamlessly integrates with my life, it's the bomb.

...

Here are most of the contents of my C:\UTILS folder. These are all well loved and used. I wouldn't recommend them if I didn't use them constantly. Things on this list are here because I dig them. No one paid money to be on this list and no money is accepted to be on this list.

I use these almost daily:

* Total commander (all-in-one file manager)

* The Regex Coach (useful if you work with regular expressions)

* Notepad++ (text editing)

* Beyond compare (visual diff)

* XnView (image viewer)

* putty (SSH/SCP)

* Sysinternals pack (various system tools)

You should try then the 150 utilities from nirsoft which are bundled in one launcher: http://launcher.nirsoft.net/download.html And then use that launcher to combine sysinternals and nirsofts tools in one gui. Here is described how:http://www.thewindowsclub.com/integrate-sysinternal-suite-wi...

If someone likes Total Commander, they might want to try FreeCommander (which is roughly the same thing, but free).

It's pretty well maintained. I run not only PowerShell and Cygwin but straight DOS and sometimes I like having, for example, baretail in the path, rather than messing with Cygwin. Also I keep the loose cmd line utils in dropbox and in the path for machines that don't have Cygwin.

Try GOW instead of cygwin... doesn't have X11, but just about handles most needs.

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