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1. AntiVirus I use different ones on different computers. As a power user I disable the on the fly scanning to conserve cpu and memory.
   1. Avira Personal Edition - has highest detection rate but has pop-up advertisement. Though it can be disabled, I actually recommend buying a license.
   2. Avast Home Edition - Recommended by Dickson. Very good but I don't like having to renew my keys every once in a while.
   3. AVG - Free version does not check for malware.
2. Telnet - you actually have to go into Windows 7 and install this manually.
3. Any Password - centralize your passwords. Now I am looking at an open source alternative called KeePass which I can hopefully hook up to an application server and make online. Even more ideal, I can perhaps hook up KeePass with a java web app with 2-Factor authentication.
4. KeePass* - a central place to keep your important data with one master password or master key file. I currently am using the Kepass 2.10.
5. Second Copy - I have been using this forever to backup my data. My favourite feature, it can keep versions of you backups, like the last 3 versions of the file.

Communication Utilities

SSH and SFTP

If you heavily use SSH

1. Kitty* - Takes the actual Putty code base and improves the interface with the following key features. Here are the details of my personal configuration file,
   1. Portable option - instead of Windows Registry saves to local file in the directory
   2. Transparent Windows (CTRL-Up Arror and CTRL-Down Arrow)
   3. CTRL-F7 Pin Window to always be on top (useful with Transparency and especially with second or third monitor) - though I tend to use Winkey+F9 using Hoekey
   4. Improved sizeable, searchable, folder based session manager, but still not as good as Putty Connection Manager
2. Putty - I find this to be the most reliable compatible and universal. However, the interface is dated and Kitty is much better. I now package this as part of Putty Connection Manager. Generally I adjust the defaults to:
   1. Window - Columns = 100, Lines of scrollback to 2000
   2. Window, Translation - Received data assumed to be in which character set: UTF-8
3. Putty Connection Manager* - An updated tabbed and tree based listing interface to Putty (no install, though it does use the registry consider talking to this developers about not doing this)
   1. For convenience I create a manual package. Just download the manual package and unzip to a directory of your choice and then execute puttycm.exe.
4. SecureCRT - Cross platform and has all the features you would want. Approximately $100 for a license.
   1. Moving Sessions btw Mac and Windows
   2. Launching from Browser (it's just a checkbox)
5. ExpandDrive (create a map drive over SSH for easy development)
6. BitVise Tunnelier
   1. No Putty Integration (console included is not as universally compatible)
   2. GUI for tunneling
   3. Hides in System tray
   4. Does not support drag and drop from desktop

This is a very important tool to my everyday work these days,

ExpandDrive (create a map drive over SSH for easy development). ExpandDrive hands down is the best tool I found yet for Windows.

Browsers and Networking

1. Firefox 3.x US version for compatibility + plugins, 
   1. TextMarker Go - Now my new favourite highlighter that works with Firefox 7. Additional features F2 to jump to next highlight is also nice. Change colour using CTRL or SHIFT. F12 to use keyboard to highlight.
   2. Highlighter by Terry Yen - My favourite highlighter but it no longer works with Firefox 3.6.3. Update, the latest working version is now at http://netticat.ath.cx/MyAddons/MyAddons.htm
   3. Highlighter TexMarker Go - The simplest alternative I found (I don't like the other ones that might slow down my system
   4. MM3-ProxySwitch - Simple UI for switching proxies but still a bit too complicated for novices.
      1. After install Right click on white space beside the help and choose Customize
      2. Scroll down and look for the mm3 icon
      3. Drag icon to where you want on the browser, I put it on the right of my address bar
   5. Spell checking in forms will only be enabled unless if you have a dictionary. Right-click on a form field and Add Dictionaries...
   6. Disable anti-virus scanning on downloads
      1. about:config
      2. browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone
   7. New Tab Homepage - show homepage on new tab create.
   8. English Canadian dictionary or whatever dictionary you want and change it to the default.
2. Firefox 5.x (all above plugins are compatible with the exceptions listed below),
   1. TextMarker! - Similar to Highlighter, but as of 0.3.4 missing features for printing and saving with highlights. Still, it is at least up to date.
3. Chrome
   1. Proxy Switch! - Quick proxy switcher and because Chrome shares proxy settings with IE using this more often then Proxy Switcher.
4. TCP View (Systernal utility to watch all open connections, good for network troubleshooting).
5. Proxy Switcher Lite - only free decent utility to quickly proxy switch in IE. Not too happy with it though.

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