This page is meant to be like my bookmarks, only used infrequently (I only install software once typically..)

• Transactions in SQL – Talks about SELECT … FOR UPDATE and locks

Most useful for when you are not at your own PC.

SSH2 Client Java Applet	Works like PuTTY, but in a web browser. (Needs Java installed though… )1)

Private note: azui is 56886 and aztui is 56870

Software and tools I consider essential, and install instantly upon a rebuild. For useful tricks when rebuilding a PC, see Tools.

Firefox	Free standards-compliant webbrowser, which is vastly friendly to use than IE. Also be sure to check out PortableFirefox, which I have migrated to, it's the same thing but lives completely within a single folder, handy if you want to take your settings with you, or sync them between PCs
Thunderbird (portable) Mail Client	Firefox's sister project, Thunderbird, is an open-source email client of a similar standard to Firefox — it has all the functionality you'd expect (akin to Outlook (Express) et al) but is less annoying. This is the “portable” edition, which runs directly off of a disc (or more likely, a USB drive). Got some spare space on your USB-drive based MP3 player? Then you can carry your email around with you - very handy if you want to synchronise your email between work/home or just laptop/desktop. I'm personally using the otherwise-useless 32MB Compacy Flash card which came with my digital camera for the task, it's really quite convenient!
AdBlock for FireFox browser	An extension (plugin) for FF which blocks ads, rather effectively
Filterset.G for AdBlock	A filter set for AdBlock — a frequently updated master list of URLs you probably want to have blocked…
All-in-One Gestures	Another extension for FF, with this you hold the right mouse button and draw symbols (it draws a red line while you hold the button) and when you let go does a specific action based on the symbol. If you've played the game “Black and White” this ought to be familiar to you.
Bug-me-not	Both an extension and just nifty website which provides “member login” details for free sites who ask you to register to access their material
Cygwin	Linux-like BASH shell for Windows, very very useful for linux types
PuTTY	SSH client for connecting to SSh servers, such as found on Linux machines
NTFS Links	!!If you've had to re-install windows (not merely repair it) then this may be just what you're looking for to easy the transition!! This basically adds symbolic links (aka “soft links”) to windows. They were already there, but not readily taskable to users. If you've reinstalled windows you might note that all your Documents & Settings directories have new names, such as “All Users” becoming “All Users.WINDOWS” in my case. I recommend you do what I did - move all the files to the new (nasty) names, and then create soft links to the old name, so you don't have to update all your software. Most of my stuff just runs from Program Files now ;) yay.
Trillian	All-in-one Instant Messenger client - MSN, ICQ, AOL, Yahoo, IRC, Jabber (including GoogleTalk), Rendevous and probably others. See the skin for it below.
Ultramon	Multi-monitor utility, adds buttons next to minimise, maximise/restore and close on each window for “stretch across screens” and “move to other monitor” as well as more usual multimonitor functions (wallpaper assembly etc)
Unison	Wonderfully useful multiplatform file synchronisation system, I use it to sync this site between my webserver, desktop and laptop regularly, as well as to sync my email betwen my PCs and more. I use this baby a lot!
XP Powertoys
RainMeter	A great utility for displaying system (and other) info in a skinned manner
RainLender	Adds an interactive calander (with scheduler), todo list and event list to the desktop. Amending your todo list has never been this easy, and it looks great!
Process Explorer	A truly excellent replacement for Task Manager
AutoRuns	Shows you a complete list of everything which is loaded during a windows boot. Another great tool from www.sysinternals.com
Smoked Glass for RainMeter	My personal favourite RainMeter skin, used on my desktop to show me system info
3D Color Changer 30002)	This tool allows you to tweak all the colours in Windows 9x/NT/XP, and it also allows you to switch schemes instantly. Included is the night-time and day-time schemes I switch between almost daily. This link is for an archive I'm hosting myself, it contains everything you need to do hack an “install” of it (files + registry fragment), I personally install it this way since the offical site went down.
TextPad	A text-editor for Windows so good that I paid for my copy. It's aimed at coders and other who might find use for regexp Find & Replace dialogs and similar.
G-Mailto	Use the GMail webmail interface as your default email composer, instead of launching an unwanted application (such as Outlook (Express)).
CDcheck	Scans discs and checks for CRC32 errors, also can attempt recovery of a disc.
DVD Info Pro	Wonderfully thorough and well-crafted DVD Info utility, does what Nero Info Tool does, plus scan for CRC32 errors, perform PI/PIF/Jitter scans, speed tests, and can read disc manufacuter codes.
TClock-Ex	A windows clock augmentation, it allows complete control over how and what is displayed in that area (not strictly limited to date and time!) and has a very nifty pop-up calander, although if you use the calander a lot consider RainLender which is also in this list!
WinRAR	Simply the best compression utility. No-frills but very practicle GUI, great command-line support and very well thought out and reliable. So good I registered my copy
MotherBoard Monitor 5 (MBM5)	Very nice little utility for monitoring misc. motherboard settings, such as temperature of the CPU, Fan RPMs and the like.
Speed Fan	If Motherboard Monitor doesn't seem to work on your setup, give SpeedFan a try. It works with my Acer TravelMate C312XMi tablet PC, showing me the harddisk temperature and two other temperatures I presume are either CPU or something quite mysterious.
Hardware Sensors Monitor	More compact that MBM5 (see above) and simpler than SpeedFan, this also has the ability to fetch the GPU and Ambient temperatures from various graphics adaptors!
Monitor Calibration Wizard	The best (freeware) tool I have found for fixing gamma (and hence colour) problems on my screens. Does a pretty good job of making my very dark, dying, screen usable again.
HashCalc	Calculated CRC32, SHA1, MD5SUM and many other hashes from text strings or files. Handy for checking downloads.
Wizmo	The windows gizmo, a very useful little tool which lets you turn your screens on and off. I use it for scripting via my remote control.
Winamp	Obviously.

• VIM Syntax for Standard C and others.
• Remapping keycodes in VIM (fix broken function-keys etc)

Websites which I recommend and frequently use.

I thought I'd write a bit about some of the more interesting things I link to.

Microscopic Pro is a skin for trillian. It's really quite tiny, but is not lacking in usability.

Far Left: The contact list, with icons showing which medium they use. The individual avatars of friends can be viewed in a large tooltip which appears when you hover the mouse over a name, also it appears in a corner during conversations. Those that are “away” or similar are in a colour similar to the background, and hence harder to read.

Left: This shows what windows are available (visible and hidden).

Below: A conversation window. The grey text is the history of our last conversation. If they responded they name would appear in blue and their text in white (see IRC conversation below).

Above: An IRC window. Note the horizontal rule showing where the window last lost the focus - this serves as a visual aid to find what you last read before switching to another task.

Below: Another IRC window. This is the expanded layout - this is also available for normal conversations, but without the IRC Topic ticker along the top.

This skin has multiple colour themes, and can be configured using the GUI tool which comes with it. Below are all the colour previews: