Here is an article about the tools I have found that help me being a web developer on Windows with ASP.NET. In addition to acquiring/downloading the best tools available, I recommend doing a lot of research before making design or layout changes on your site.

pngout.exe: I was amazed by this program. It reduced the size of my already-compressed PNGs by up to 10%. Overall, I saved maybe 30 KB off of the first 4 images on this site. My visitors will appreciate faster load times and less bandwidth required, as will I, as my web host has a cap on my bandwidth. Here's how I use this program:
Put it in your Users directory.
Start PowerShell.
Run the executable with "./pngout [...]", supplying the arguments.
Copy the new images into Visual Studio.

GIMP: I don't have any great uses for this now--but it is good to have for rare image formats. Install it!

Visual Studio 2008: My main program. It has JavaScript IntelliSense now. The most valuable UI feature is IntelliSense. Microsoft has created a good web development framework, and ASP.NET is very usable. I prefer projectless website development, as that is easier to manage. A really huge or complex site might need more options. I highly recommend the Express editions to start off with (I started with the 2005 Express C++/C# editions).

FileZilla: I will say this right now: Visual Studio 2008's FTP capabilities are bad. They seem to freeze the application sometimes. Here's how to use FileZilla:
Setup the connection to your server and browse to the relevant directories locally and remotely (the left pane is local, and the right is remote).
Use filters to hide useless files (project files, etc.).
Use directory comparison to find what files need changing/updating on the server.
Drag updated files to the bottom pane. Then, process queue (the bottom pane is the queue).
Lather, rinse, and repeat.

Fiddler2: I just started using this to verify my redirects are working properly. If you have to have 301 or 302 redirects, Fiddler will help you make sure the HTTP stuff is working properly.

Paint.NET: This is a .NET application that can save screenshots in PNG format for use on my website. A nice program and it works well. I open it and "paste into new image" the screenshots I capture with Print Screen.

Safari 3.1: I do most of my browsing with Safari 3.1/WebKit. It isn't perfect, but it as good as anything else (at least on this PC). Safari 3.1 has a great Web Inspector, that will report markup errors in XHTML. For some reason, I really enjoy Safari more than other browser. Maybe because I secretly wish my Vista box was a Mac. (Actually, it's not such a secret.)

Internet Explorer 8: I have the beta version of IE 8. I use IE for mostly social networking stuff on the Internet (StumbleUpon, Google Toolbar). It also has a new layout mode that is more standards-compliant. It works well and is very compatible. I will spare you the hyperlink; you know where to look.

Firefox 2.0 and 3.0: Possibly the best browser overall. I use it for testing and also for its Firebug extension. Firebug An amazing program that hooks into Firefox 2.0 and can be used to analyze loading times and diagnose script errors. You absolutely must have Firebug.

Microsoft Excel: I store over 70 password and login combinations in an Excel spreadsheet. I don't know how else to store all of these data in a slightly secure and portable way. I use Excel 2007 for PC.

PowerShell: Microsoft provides this "super-terminal" and it works very well. I know very little about it, but it is so much nicer than the default Windows Vista terminal. I start it up, and it starts in my Users directory, which gives me easy access to a bunch of .exe command-line files.

Adobe Kuler: Choose a nice color theme for your website, and make it unique--don't use some recycled Blogspot theme.

About the Author

Sam Allen is a web developer specializing in ASP.NET and C#. He is primarily interested in server-side programming, but also focuses on improving front-end features for an optimal user experience. He runs a site called Dot Net Perls, which receives thousands of visitors and provides source code to hundreds of programmers worldwide.