It’s really painful preparing your new PC from scratch (and having to do it 2 times because on the first try COM+ on Vista was broken …. :-S). I installed a lot of software in a lotof time, but finally my ACER 6935 with the much desired 4GB of RAM is up and running 
!!!!
Here is the list of main software with its link (where necessary) to be used for reference in the future. I have deliberately omitted software used mainly by system engineer.
If someone has some other interesting software to be added any comment is always welcome:
- VSTS 2005 + TEAM EXPLORER
- VSTS 2008 + TEAM EXPLORER
- TFS 2008 POWER TOOLS (I fully with Lorenzo that it’s pure madness not install them): in the October 2008 version the Windows Explorer integartion has been added.
- RESHARPER 4.1: this is a spectacular extension to Visual Studio, please be aware that it’s a drug, you will not be able to use another Visual Studio without Resharper isntalled
- SQL 2005
- BIZTALK 2006 R2
- NOTEPAD++: Outstanding free text editor
- SILVERLIGHT
- TELERIK CONTROLS (how much big are they ?!?!?) : really good suite of custom controls for all Microsoft UI (ASP.NET, SILVERLIGHT, WPF, WINDOWSFORMS)
- SOFTWARE FACTORIES (GAX, GAX Fix for VS2008, GAT, BLUEPRINTS): tool for software automation.
- OFFICE2007 (in particular OneNote … … really powerful ! My colleague Michele uses it as an agile tool for user stories, release and iteration planning, tasks, etc.
- ROYALTS: Outstanding console for managing multiple terminal services connection.
- SUBVERSION: Version control system
- TORTOISESVN: Subversion integration in Windows Explorer
- VISUALSVN: commercial integration of TortoiseSVN and Visual Studio, there is also an opensource application ANKHSVN, but I had a bad experience with the old release.
- ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT 7.1: Great UML Modeling tool introduced to me by Matthias Fritz (Thanks again)
- NUNIT
- POWERSHELL
- FILEHIPPO UPDATE CHECKER: useful tool (for me vital) that checks for the presence of updates or beta versions of many common use application
- DASH: I don’t know how to define it … … taken from their web site: the fastest and coolest way to work in windows
- List of secondary but useful tools:
- FIREFOX
- Firefox extensions:
- DownThemAll!: download manager
- Sxipper: password manager
- Google Preview: add a small thumbnail on the left of each link (I know that it uses a lot of internet bandwidth, but for me it’s really useful to discard bad links)
- 7-ZIP
- COLORPIC (for a color blind like me it’s vital for the other is secondary )
- DAEMON TOOLS
- SKYPE
- TREESIZE LITE
- VLC
- VARIOUS ADOBE
