Windows Setup, Summer 2012 edition

Sweet as it may be for casual users, I find Windows to be lacking when it comes to development.
Here are some tools that I find indispensible to work at full capacity.

Which do you like? Where am I missing out?

System Tools
MS SysInternals Suite Process Explorer: A fully featured replacement for the built in Task Manager, this one shows processes and their dependencies, system load and even file handles.

Rapid Environment Editor: As it stands, the "Environment Variables" section in Windows' control panel is both well hidden and a pain to use. Enter Rapid EE - it makes editing a breeze, has auto-completion for path-like values and even checks entries for validity.

Everyday Tools

Console2: Console is window dressing for Windows' command prompt. Tabs? Check. Colors? Check. Resizing? Check again. It even remembers where you want your prompt to start.
Notepad++: It's no secret that the original Notepad isn't quite up to standards. The two ++ in this tools name are just what I need.
Google Chrome: It's the world's most popular browser for a reason.
Pidgin: There are many IM clients out there. I just happen to like pidgin best.

Generic Developer Tools

Putty & WinSCP: There's hardly a day I don't use one of these. They do what they are built for, and they do it admirably.

MSysGit: Git for Windows. Of all the SCMs I have used, git feels best, and this Windows package answers all questions I might have.

Java Developer Tools

IntelliJ IDEA: I liked IDEA when I first saw its phenomenal Grails support. I started loving it when I first used it for Java development. I used eclipse for 7 years, but I never looked back.

JProfiler: Now that Java comes with a profiler of its own, JProfiler is no longer the indispensible tool it once was. Easy to use, simple to integrate and abundantly powerful, it is still the best to me.
Maven & Gradle: While I like Gradle better by far, it pays to have both of them around if you want to have a look at the inside of open source software once in a while.


Disclosure: I have received free Open Source licenses for both JProfiler and IntelliJ IDEA.

Renaming at github

As you probably know, you can rename your account or organization at github. Once.

Here are two things you might not know:
1. If the name you long for is already taken but the account seems inactive, github is pretty quick to delete it and offer it to you. You just have to ask.
2. If you're using github pages, make sure to not only rename your page repo, but also push a change index.html once so it gets published at the new address.

Converting hg to git on Windows

Converting from hg/mercurial to git is really straightforward.
To start with, all I had was this instructional post. Sounds really easy and would not merit a post of it's own, if it wasn't for a bug in MSysGit.
Here's what I did to work around:

1. Download the latest version of Ubuntu.
2. Burn it on a CD.
3. Reboot from the CD, using "Live CD" mode.
4. Install git via the "Synaptic Package Manager"
5. Still in the "Synaptic Package Manager", activate the "universe"-repository and install mercurial.
6. Mount my hard drive so I have access to the hg's working copy.
7. Follow the instructions from the post - but do everything in the user home.
8. Finally, copy the resulting repository onto my harddrive
9. Reboot into Windows.

The converted result looks like this.
Edit: Rob Rutherford suggests using Virtual Box and your personal flavor of Linux for a more persistent solution.
Edit: Or just boot Virtual Box with the ISO image I linked to above.