There are a wide variety of software tools that I use regularly in software development. I will semi-regularly introduce a tool that I actively use in a series called "Focus on Tools." Some tools are complex enough that I will go into deeper detail over time, showing various scenarios where certain aspects of a tool are best used. Obviously, to those already in-the-know, these tool introductions will be old news. But to those not in-the-know, learning about these tools can save you significant time. For example, the catch all solution to problems on a Windows system is "reboot Windows." I'll grant that sometimes this is necessary, but in many cases it isn't, and a reboot is costly time wise. I see this as burning down the house in order to kill a single rat. Effective? Yes. Overkill? You tell me.

Someone recommended rebooting recently when a piece of software wasn't working. In reality a registry setting by the application was incorrect. I've encountered other cases where resources are locked, such as a file or a DLL, and though rebooting would free this locked resource, it's much easier if you can find the source of the lock and then properly address it. Finding problems along these lines in the software we develop is vitally important. In the case of the registry setting that was wrong, I used a tool from http://www.sysinternals.com to monitor registry access. For general resource issues, I use Process Explorer from the same site. I'll introduce both these tools in their own entries soon.

There are many aspects of our job that tools help speed up, many cases where tools get us the information we need. Hopefully you'll find something you didn't know about here.