I am going to share what tools I use to do my job.

I was recently training some student on Microsoft Azure Data Services development and was asked by a few of the students what tools I use for different roles of my job. First and foremost, I am a Microsoft stack guy. I have used other operating systems (OS) over the years, but only to complete a specific task or project that I was on. My brother introduced me to the NeXT operating system that was light years better than any OS at the time. There were just no apps built for it, and it took beefy hardware to run. Also, I was not too fond of the terminology he was always slinging at me like toast, amiga, and pizza-box. However, it sure looked amazing. Then there was the venture into OS2. That was going to be the Microsoft challenger to the desktop, but that never took off either. Too specialized and again seemed to need proprietary hardware to get the software to function correctly. So I was quick to correct course and landed firmly on the Microsoft stack of applications, developer tools and now services that has given me an incredible career. Instead of trying to relive the past, I am going to focus on the tools that I use now. I also decided only to list the software that I have installed on one of my three PC’s (2 laptops, 1 server).

Architecture, Modeling & Design

Browsers

Data Tools

Development Tools, Editors

Media Tools

Office Programs, Tools & Addins

  • bVisual Layer Manager (Visio addin)
  • Microsoft Whiteboard
  • Office 2019
  • OneNote 2016 (better functionality)
  • Project 2019
  • Skype
  • Teams
  • Visio 2019

Other Tools

I will spend time now and then to keep this list updated. From this list there has been a few go to tools over the years that I am not sure I could have done with out. Those being TechSmith’s Snagit, Microsoft Visio and Microsoft Visual Studio. Defiantly my top 3!