I’m primarily a Windows user and do the bulk of my work in Windows 11. Here’s a list of free and licensed/subscription software programs I have used over the years.
Development
Productivity
- Screenpresso Pro (screenshot and screen video recording) $
- Notepad++
- 7-zip (zip/archive management)
- Draw.io (architecture/flow diagrams)
- Beyond Compare (file compare) $
- Joplin
- Thunderbird (Outlook substitute)
- Quikflow $
- Caffeine – a Citrix Workspace remote desktop keep-alive tool
- mRemoteNG
Architecture
- https://docs.structurizr.com/lite (docker image)
- Draw IO (web & download)
Communications
- Slack
- Microsoft Teams
- MicroSIP (requires a voip phone line)
- Google Meet
- Signal
Web Browsers
Validators
- w3.org maintained list of WCAG/Accessibility testers
- Structured data validator –
Last review & update: December 23, 2025
