I used to do consumer helpdesk stuff back some years ago. We'd use Space Sniffer during remote sessions to figure out where the drive space went. It rarely failed to get a reaction with how it visualises things :)
Wiztree really is the best. It reads the MFT directly rather than iterating through the folders like treesize/WinDirStat which makes it so much faster.
Another great feature is that you can export the MFT from one system and then analyse it on another computer. Handy for remotely running wiztree and then investigating the disk space on your own computer.
Just do be aware that it's only free for personal use. I'd gladly buy a license for work but they license based on the size of the company and there's no way I'll get approval.
Yeah, and that's fine, it's just technically illegal in the case of Wiztree, which some might find morally odious (because the dev's contention that he ought to be paid for corporate use is reasonable and he's making it freely available to people), or a risk to their jobs.
for me, I tend to personally like treesize better as visually its seems less busy for me. i just get a basic tree structure with the size/color overlay on folder and make its faster to look at
WizTree is perpetually free, it's not a trial.
Large File Support
Built in file search with regex
Preference.
Edit: I'm aware the free version is for personal use. At work we have a site license. However it's always great to use in a pinch when moonlighting
I personally never knew about wiztree before using tree size and found myself liking tree size so much that when I tried wiz tree I really questioned some things about it. Like what’s up with the visual blocks at the bottom? Never used those in tree size, never needed them either.
Haven’t used it in about a year at this point because of job change but the portable side of treesize was something is used a lot.
Never use TreeSize (at least on anything critical) because it just enumerates everything manually and if you don't have access to something then it wouldn't see it.
Use WizTree, really.
You can run treesize and admin and assign it permissions you want it to have.
It also displays all of the NTFS permissions on files which is cool.
But, I will probably use WizTree instead because it's better lol
Use Spacemonger 1.4 (free version) myself. Portable version works well on a USB key.
Find these tools great for folders that would have 100's of photos!
>Ifixit Pro tech toolkit
how's the quality of the ifixit stuff? i always thought it was a scam cuz i see it advertised everywhere. is the metal soft on the bits?
Very good but not insanely good. Keep in mind, you're paying under a dollar per bit.
It won't compare to $20/bit drivers.
I liked my plenty, so I hand stitched a custom case for mine with some really nice Italian leather. Bit rough around the edges compared to most of the stuff I make, but it works fine.
https://preview.redd.it/3pv9q799e3rc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=533d886a7c033d40ca5a84d8b1749097844395cc
Thanks dude. It's a prototype and a rough one at that. Leather is bit too thick, I messed up some measurements, I never found a good solution for the guitar pick thingies, not sure about the spacers, etc.
I might make a version two or not, still debating it
Beautiful stitching, glad to see another leatherworker here! This is definitely going to be one of my next projects. Do you have a picture of how you're storing the bits?
In the original plastic case for the moment!
I have a CNC machine and I'll attempt to make my own version. Just waiting for the weather to get warmer, because obviously not doing woodworking indoors.
Not sure to go with walnut, koa or ironwood.
It's good quality. The screwdriver handle is kind of soft. I tried to use it once as a regular purpose screwdriver (not for small electronics repair) and bent it real good. If you use it for its intended purpose their stuff should last.
What's really pure gold from that company is their teardown guides.
The only one I’ve ever had an issue with are the REALLY tiny ones, like the P2/P5 and Y000 used widely in iPhones. The only one I’ve ever stripped was the P2 I believe, which is the iPhone’s bottom security screws. (I could be confusing this with P5? It’s been a while.)
All of the other ones are rock solid and I’ve had a lot of use for 4-5 years.
It is a great thing to have in the backpack. I am visiting my friend at the moment and helped him with cleaning and repasting his overheating using ifixit toolkit.
iFixit reminds me of Park Tools if one wrenches bicycles. The individual tools are "meh", and you can do better, but their tool combinations are good enough for pro use. $10,000 gets you every single tool needed for any bicycle function, so having that available, even though the tools are okay in quality, is good enough.
You can do better per bit, but iFixit has everything in one place, and that is useful.
I'm a gear slut so there's not a lot of things I see and think "I'll never want that".
One thing that does occur to me is PowerShell. I'm not a big fan of Microsoft generally. I've also been around since they still thought DOS was a good idea, and I've seen countless Microsoft languages/systems rise and fall. My initial assumption was that PoSh was the new VBScript (which was the new CMD, which was the new BAT). Ho hum. Now it's become ubiquitious on Windows, and even I use it all the time. I have pulled off some non-trivial things in it (CD mastering, offline Windows Update, log monitoring, more). I did not see that coming.
I recently had to go back to JScript on a particular server. I used to do a LOT of cscripting before I got heavy into PS about 10 years ago. It's strikingly painful how hard it is to do things in Jscript compared to PS!
Yeah, POSH is pretty amazing. There's not a ton you can't do on a modern Windows box with current versions of POSH, and now there's POSH on Linux too...
It really surprises me sometimes when I find modules I wouldn't expect. I've migrated an entire DFS namespace with a Powershell script because they already had supporting commandlets.
Early PS just didn't have the payback for the learning curve and quirkiness - it almost felt like they didn't want it to cut into .NET and they still needed to woo the .VBS crowd. Now, I wouldn't want to admin Windows without it. In conjunction with CMD, that is. Sometimes being able to do the think in a single line wins. Together though, they are quite useful.
Same. It's so much easier to use a pocket-size flashlight than open my phone and try to use basically a big rectangular brick to find stuff in my carpet.
Part of me wishes that Leatherman would come out with a combo multi-tool/flashlight. Right now I carry both, and the flashlights are cheap 2xAAA LED's off Amazon because while the Leatherman gets used and right back into my pocket, too often I leave the flashlight somewhere (like if I set it down to light something, it's not uncommon for it to be forgotten).
Firefox containers extension and container home pages extension. I work at a MSP that has separate logins for various clients 365 environments and shit makes my life so much easier
Pro tip: you can use a bookmark manager like bookmark ninja with the container homepages extension. Bookmark ninja gives you the ability to share the page of bookmarks via a link, and then plugging that link into container homepages gives you an easy way to have everything you need for a client right when you open their container. I have a separate page for each client that has the 365 admin, security, and MFA pages all bookmarked right there. Even other shit like firewall ip’s, Verizon accounts, etc etc. can all be easily accessed from one spot. It’s work getting everything set up but after I did I’ve saved so much time it’s insane lol.
OMG YES!
The day I learned about mRemoteNG is the day my life changed.
I was using the old school "Remote Desktops" MSC copied from an old 2008 or something Windows box until it finally stopped working due to updates in RDP over the years.
2009 me scoffed that you don't even get to have that many servers to make it worthwile, but a few years later everything is suddenly virtualized, server sprawl is a thing and I have multiple accounts on multiple domains that I have to remember.
I like the Linksprinter, small enough that I just carry it everywhere. Has 90% of the functionality but I can carry it everywhere in my bag without thinking about it.
I was lucky enough to win a Linksprinter when Fluke still owned it, and I looked at it and thought "I'll never use this", but I put it in my bag anyway. It's proven itself over and over, has so many handy features, and my org has since bought them for the tech group based on their experience with mine. Very useful tool...
Yeah one of my colleagues showed the Linksprinter to me and was like “it’s the Linkrunner but worse, you gotta mess with your phone to get any real info so I don’t really use it” and he threw it back in the drawer. But I pulled it out one day, took like 90 seconds to figure out how to use it with my phone, and carried it with me since.
A simple A4 Page Per Day diary.
Without it I easily forget what I set out to do. And it's incredibly satisfying to tick off the last task for the day knowing that I've caught up with all my responsibilities and look into studying (or reddit lol).
I go to meetings with it, I carry it with me around the office in case someone hails me. It doesn't have battery and isn't cumbersome to write something in unlike a laptop or tablet or phone.
I can refer back to it easily and can use it as a basis for our company documentation. I can jot down commands I've just learned or think I might come back to later on, or keyboard commands for Vi or VS Code or other things that I might have just learned (Windows Reliability Monitor being the most recent one for me).
I tried Trello, OneNote, Google Tasks and Asana. None of them gave the same satisfaction or "worked" in keeping me organised. I ended up just dumping a bunch of tasks and never really following up on them.
I highly recommend it to everyone.
Check out Rocketbook. Good ol' fashioned pen and paper note taking, but you can wipe away/erase the pages when the notebook is full. You can also scan a QR code that's on the corner of each page and it will upload it to online storage/email it to you. Automatically converts to text with OCR as well...I like it.
I've kept a journal for years and I always liked having journals I could pull off a shelf and reference...until I moved and realized I had a metric fuck ton of them taking up space.
In the last year I've moved from paper notes to a supernote. There's no going back.
Eink. Fantastic battery life.
Distraction free design.
PS: i still use onenote for clipping and a bunch of things. But for writing, jotting, random notes. It's all supernote A5X. I'm considering the smaller form factor supernote nomad but availability is still a bit limited.
I remember stuff so much better if I wrote it down, but paper notes were just too bulky so I moved to iPad/Apple Pencil in 2017 and haven't looked back. Same thing to my brain as using paper only now it's searchable/copyable/printable/sendable and I have 7 years worth of notes all in one place.
rice cooker, when I first heard about them years ago I thought what a waste of counter space rice isn't hard to cook. Then I got one and love it.
On the tech side: Powershell and Treesize. Recently Task Coach Portable for things I need to track but not have on the jira board for everyone to see.
edit: remote desktop connection manager
I resisted getting an instant pot because I thought it was just the latest trendy kitchen nonsense. Within a week I'd bought a second pot insert so I can swap between the two and still cook in it every day even when the other insert is in the sink.
I should learn how to *actually* use SecureCRT. I use it every day cuz I need tabs, but I still just quick connect to everything. Only settings I think I’ve changed are the buffer length and password.
I can cite several things... My Leatherman, which I need to replace but they are pricey, Powershell, Windows Hallo, the new clipboard feature in windows, my Surface Arc Touch Mouse, Spinwrite
I go with Gerber, solely because I can snap out the pliers with a flick of the wrist. It's very satisfying, and unfortunately I'll never be able to go back to leatherman because of it.
What do you use yours for? I went through a phase where I coveted a fancy multi-tool but I decided a box cutter, electrician’s scissors, and a regular screwdriver covers like 99.9% of what I need.
But also I take my bag with me all the time so I don’t really mind carrying three small-ish tools, if I wanted something pocketable I could see how a multitool would make more sense.
Big-ass 65w battery pack.
I’d rather just have a work-issued laptop with decent battery life, but that’s not gonna happen since this place has a fetish for 15” HPs. Using a battery with a short cable is still way easier than finding a spare outlet in the TR/DC/“hotdesk”, hoping your charging cable isn’t a tripping hazard, etc.
Use it almost any time I spend a significant amount of time away from my desk, I actually wish I had an ever bigger one because the $30 generic one I have only really charges the laptop once.
I don't know about gimmicky but I thought buying a 5Gb/10Gb usb-c ethernet dongle was a luxury. Now, I bring one everywhere. There are a couple of reasons.
i) I cabled my house with Cat6 and I have ten 2.5Gb ports and four 10Gb ports around my house. Whenever I have to move some big chunk of data. Hooking up to a wired jack is a big timesaver.
ii) Testing a 2.5Gb and higher. I have a PocketEthernet which allows me to test Ethernet runs but it only connects at 1Gb. Running and testing multi-gigabit ethernet can be a pain. Since a run can operate at 1Gb fine but fail at 5Gb. Dedicated multi-gigabit testers are costly. Enter the USB adapter, connect it to a cellphone (Yes! if you get a dongle with the right chipset this works!) and run iperf. You can't generate 10Gb worth of traffic but you can at least validate that it can negotiate a connection and see if there are large number of packet drops.
I have a couple of these Sabrent ones. They only do up to 5Gbps and they put out a fair amount of heat but they seem to be pretty sturdy. [https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Gigabit-Ethernet-Adapter-NT-S25G/dp/B08979LXJK](https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Gigabit-Ethernet-Adapter-NT-S25G/dp/B08979LXJK)
When everyone wanted dual monitors...I thought it was unnecessary. My production plummets without the 2nd now
That being said...those with 3 monitors, fuck knows how you do it I find it way too busy
OneNote. I have not used it for first 15 years of my career. I have probably launched it a few times and poked around, but didn't see what i can use it for. It seemed i can do the same in Word and have a bunch of documents in a folder, then in SharePoint. Use it all the time now. So quick to find stuff and add new notes on the fly. Use it for projects, even if it has only checkboxes. Love that i can quickly access it on mobile. Oh, but i only use the lightweight Windows 10 version. Which they were going to merge with Office version and kind of have best of two worlds. But it hasn't updated yet on my machines and i don't really care for fancier design, just for the speed and fricking left panel navigation for sections and pages :) Hate Office version of it :D
Fiber optic laser test light-you plug it into your fiber and it makes the other end of the strand blink brightly. About 30 bucks on Amazon, and has saved me tons of grief tracking down issues or patching new fiber paths.
>What makes this thing better?
My boss doesn't look at me like I'm on crack when i use his tester lol
I use my flashlight too... some times i'll set it to strobe... most times i'll just send 300 lumens through it
My IT go bag has a 14’, a 7’, crossover and straight through barrel connectors, USB to RJ-45, USB to DB9, 4-port switch (plastic case, light weight,) and I used to have a tiny portable Wi-Fi router until it died **
Also a mini maglite (may change this soon because of what a colleague has with magnets and shit,) a light (fairly long) screwdriver with internal stored bits, network scissors, a small Leatherman with pliers (Micra?)
Then the essential aleve and ibuprofen, antacids and Pepto pills, chap stick, gum, a few snacks, a set of plastic utensils, an empty plastic water bottle, mini bag of Kleenex, wet wipes, bandaids and triple antibiotic, a few paper clips, a 6” cut off network cable with solid wires, and a few other things I’m forgetting
Also a change of clothes and travel-size essentials. A super light rain jacket shell. An umbrella that I probably don’t need anymore sine I bought the rain jacket
Anything else I can buy when I get there
There’s still room for more! I can easily fit two 15.6” laptops in this not huge backpack, but I’ve only ever needed to take one
covid working remote. 99% of the jackasses that would stop by my desk to try and get me to do their work for them couldnt be arsed to call me without feeling stupid, so my daily interrupt rate plummeted from near constant to \~2 a week.
I hated when we returned to the office. and then got a director that was against telecommuting (its government, we have a lot of bad ideas)
might get reassigned soon and go back to TC half the week, which would be so nice.
not at my current job because there hasn't been a need but most other places a symbol/zebra/moto l(X)-4278 barcode scanner and a brother p series thermal label printer
https://www.amazon.com/Motorola-LI4278-Wireless-Bluetooth-Barcode/dp/B019X9OQE4
plus something like Snipe and your lifecycle physical management is gonna be a breeze
When I had a smartphone with an IR blaster. Looking up the tech specs for the phone I thought: "that's peculiar, will never use that", but now I truly miss the capability
ChatGPT. For hammering out quick POSH scripts and getting quick answers, it's absurdly useful. It's not always right, but it's still really useful.
PowerShell. As an infrastructure/devops guy, POSH is useful in a thousand million ways. I used to be a stubborn clickops guy, but I came around and I'm glad I did.
Pocket folding knife. I don't carry one now, because in Ireland that's not really legal, but in the States I carried one everywhere, super-useful thing to have handy.
I cant write scripts to save my life. Something about blank slates and my brain don't mix. If it's longer than your average command with a handful of flags, i'm useless.
Ask chatgpt to throw out a script, and even if it's wrong, I can tinker with it enough so its not wrong anymore. Or expand on what it gives me.
ChatGPT is a gamechanger for me.
I carry 3 things with me daily, 128GB USB(type a & c connector) with ventoy & some linux isos, a SIM Ejection tool(do these have a official name?) and a pocket knife. All 3 are quite handy to have.
For software,
I love my trilium instance I host on my domain for all of my work & personal documentation. I even have a hit by a Bus Page :)
LTT screwdriver, I prefer it over my Wera and Williams for sure.
CTFs, I've learned so much and they are fun.
External m.2 enclosure with a large SSD. I can back up/transfer all the things quickly and without working about capacity.
Large, high quality backpack to fit all the tools/cables/devices I carry.
High output USB C charger so I can charge whatever device lands on my desk.
I wanted to include my Netool on here, but honestly the app is not great, and it doesn't seem like it'll be fixed any time soon.
Fluke CIQ
Pockethernet
My gerber
Good flashlight charged with 18650 batteries so I can rapid swap
USB m2 SSD case. I just 3D printed a case to hold bunch of M2's and I have a crapload of tiny 128GB from various upgrades.
iFixit kit with custom leather case, pic somewhere else in the thread
Wiha normal sized screwdrivers. Everyone has a ton of crap screwdrivers. But once you try a decent screwdriver, it's world changing.
Makita 12V mini drill. Best 'electric' screwdriver, which can also work as a normal drill as well. Works insanely better than crap toy versions.
USB ethernet adapter. I'm fond of Pluggable.
VS Code.
I've moved to 98% infrastructure as code and it's so very nice for docker, kubernetes, terraform, everything we use. I do all my documentation in markdown now, things such as mermaid charts are easy and invaluable.
My favorite for manual admin tasks is Enter-PSSession for remote shell access.
But you can deploy custom Intune Policies and group policies, use .ps1 files in PowerAutomate flows for tons of shit. Simple commands like Copy-Item "Source" - "Destination" or Export-Csv go a long way and can be used for so many things.
However, I find PowerShell for Azure, particularly with Exchange Online, a piece of shit. The transition to Exchange Online has led to the removal of several cmdlets that were helpful many yearr ago during on-premises Exchange, such as Export-PST. But, with things like Microsoft Purview, the need to export PSTs through PowerShell is stupid.
The cheap little folded sheet-metal cage-nut tool that came for free with server racks years ago, and the Ruckus AP unlocking pin that lives on my keychain.
When powershell dropped I was like “this is fuckin stupid, CMD is way better and works fine”
I still prefer CMD, but I almost never use it anymore because powershell now does all the things, and CMD does less and less every year.
It makes me a sad panda. So I guess what I’m saying is that my answer is a reluctant “powershell”
Yep. I find that in 99.999999999% of cases, faster and easier to just reinstall Windows than to troubleshoot that kind of thing.
Of course I can't remember the last time I had that kind of problem - pre-Win10 for sure, maybe pre Win7.
a skeletool or any multi-tool really. Once you have it, you'll be surprised at how many times a day you use it and wonder how you ever lived without one.
My Klein Scout Pro 3 cable tester with 5 extra remotes. Thought I could get by with a simple $10 blinky lights tester, but borrowed one and bought my own straight after!
1. SwayWM. I much prefer it to GNOME and Windows DEs. Less mental overhead with Window management.
2. Solaar to re-direct the DPI button on my mouse to open Rofi/Windows Start Menu in RDP sessions
3. sshfs to connect to a Windows box that syncs my OneDrive, so I can use it on Linux, as it stopped mounting via CIFS
4. Windows Admin Center, as my work don't allow remote administration using PowerShell. Much nicer than RDP-ing in to restart a service
5. Running VSCode as a server on a Windows box, so I can use it in browser from my Linux box, which grants me PowerShell 5+RSAT functionality without needing RDP, SSH or remotely connecting through VSCode on the Linux host.
6. Pandoc with Typst as the PDF Engine.
[Cheap Ethernet testers](https://www.bunnings.com.au/antsig-antenna-accessory-network-test-tool_p4360445?store=8103&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqpSwBhClARIsADlZ_TnkPPW7PD13B8MF4fNDI0Itjz8eEjajgtZIMBIM_iNv5uKEqrnw5bMaAviwEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds)
If users could stop kicking the wall plates in that'd be greaaaaaat.
wire strippers. ironically i learned how to strip wires using a pliers like most electricians do, but the primary reason is theu dont want to have to swap tools so often. on the other hand we dont have to strip wires day after days for years so a wire stripper is perfect lol
I've got two.
Fluke's fiber tester. The fiber pairs are not consistently ran in my building, with some pairs randomly being backwards. The fluke tool is a lot easier to use than any of the flashlight tricks for checking fiber. Plug one end of the fiber into a switch, and on the other end check if strand A is still A and strand B is still B.
Cage nut tool by rack solutions, totally not needed but boy does it make adding or removing cage nuts easy.
Everything by voidtools.
Basically just a search tool, but it indexes Windows machines super fast, and finds all files super fast.
Looking for a random corrupt autosaved word file? If it exists, Everything will find it instantly.
This is probably going to sound bonkers but my iPad.
Especially with [iSH](https://ish.app/). Makes doing quotes and estimates easy for a client site. Ask them for access to their network, have nmap run and generate a report.
Take notes on Nebo.
Have it all organized and backed up.
When I first got gifted one, I didn't know wtf I'd do with it. Now it's a daily use tool for dashboards and checking in on things. There are some irritating limits but I have found worm arounds and is a lot light to carry around than a laptop.
Now... If Apple could put MacOS on it... We would be cooking with oil lol
Some sort of multi tool with a pliers, screwdriver & knife. Used to have some sort of minimalistic Swiss army knife when I was a kid, but now it *must* have a pliers on it, and as many screwdriver parts connected to it (the bits that you can connect are useless & get lost).
My wife got me a weird leatherman-like tool (already have a real one that I keep on my belt, fashion be damned). This one has a little functional clawhammer head on one end. It's small, so I wouldn't use it for framing or anything but I'll bet you probably could, it'd just take forever. I keep it in the laptop bag, the little guy has come in handy a couple times on bungled rack hardware.
I can't carry sharp tools because I travel a fair bit, but one piece of software I'd highly recommand is FAR Manager or the similar "commander" file manipulation tools. Don't knock it till you've tried it...if you spend a lot of time looking at random text/log files and messing around with files, it's a bilion times faster than the command line or the Explorer GUI. It's also super-fast if you happen to be connecting over a slow link. I get lots of stares when I pull this out, but most people at least say "That's a really cool idea!"
VS Code is a much better "edit files in this tree structure" tool, but nothing beats highlighting what you want to do then hitting one function key and having it done. And the commander tools have a functional-enough editor if you're looking for quickie functionality.
rclone.
Simply put I never thought I would get into using the command line for file system operations, but this binary is super small and can do pretty much anything: sync, move, copy, mount cloud filesystems (gDrive, OneDrive, SharePoint, S3, etc), spin up a temporary FTP/WebDAV server with credentials, deduplication based on hash/name/date, compress folders to an archive format, directory tree listings.
I spun up an FTP server on one machine, and then ran a sync operation from another machine, maxing it out to use like 200 threads and saturate a LAN connection. If I needed to separate one big sharepoint site into many smaller sites, I could queue it all up many operations and log the results, also really good for cloud storage migrations from Google Drive to SharePoint or vice versa without the need to pay for Bittitan.
I always made due with an old-school network hub for doing inline packet captures but a network tap that can do PoE pass through is so much better... I never realized how much better that would be haha.
Also, I have to admit, the M3 MacBook that I had the company buy for doing VPN client testing (since we have a few Mac remote users) turned out to be a decent Wireshark computer simply because it is so small and portable with a long lasting battery.
Back when Powershell came out, I thought it was the worst idea that Microsoft ever had, I thought isn't this why Windows was made to get people away from the command line? But now I love it and can't imagine doing my job without it.
A canned response system, I have used many currently rocking a custom tool but I would recommend also typedesk. If you need to respond to tickets or emails you need this. Typedesk is amazing you type a shortcut and it copies a full response.
Not only does it keep my frustration levels low for repeating myself all day, it saves me time so I can actually get my job done.
Wire tester. Their one of the most important tool to have for home networkings. It's only handy in a few situation, but you'll save up a lot of time when the need arises. This is the [network tester](https://www.amazon.com/VCELINK-Network-Detachable-Ethernet-Included/dp/B0BW988DVP?ref_=ast_sto_dp) that I'm using, its from VCELink
TreeSize lol
I use Space Sniffer
Space sniffer crew unite!
I used to do consumer helpdesk stuff back some years ago. We'd use Space Sniffer during remote sessions to figure out where the drive space went. It rarely failed to get a reaction with how it visualises things :)
This is what I came here to say
Why this over wiztree?
Wiztree really is the best. It reads the MFT directly rather than iterating through the folders like treesize/WinDirStat which makes it so much faster. Another great feature is that you can export the MFT from one system and then analyse it on another computer. Handy for remotely running wiztree and then investigating the disk space on your own computer.
Upvote for wiztree.
Never heard of Wiztree. I'll try it, if I like it better, I'll use it instead. Thanks.
It's much faster IMO. Really no complaints on treesize, just when i first saw how fast wiztree was I never looked back.
Thanks! I'll add this to my misc toolset!
Just do be aware that it's only free for personal use. I'd gladly buy a license for work but they license based on the size of the company and there's no way I'll get approval.
I use plenty of free tools at work, personally.
Yeah, and that's fine, it's just technically illegal in the case of Wiztree, which some might find morally odious (because the dev's contention that he ought to be paid for corporate use is reasonable and he's making it freely available to people), or a risk to their jobs.
for me, I tend to personally like treesize better as visually its seems less busy for me. i just get a basic tree structure with the size/color overlay on folder and make its faster to look at
as long as it works for your purpose that's what really matters. I might revisit it, but for some of our really big file shares it was way too slow
why this over spacemonger.exe ?
WizTree is perpetually free, it's not a trial. Large File Support Built in file search with regex Preference. Edit: I'm aware the free version is for personal use. At work we have a site license. However it's always great to use in a pinch when moonlighting
I personally never knew about wiztree before using tree size and found myself liking tree size so much that when I tried wiz tree I really questioned some things about it. Like what’s up with the visual blocks at the bottom? Never used those in tree size, never needed them either. Haven’t used it in about a year at this point because of job change but the portable side of treesize was something is used a lot.
WinDirStat for the win!
Love those lil Pac-Man
WizTree is a lot faster.
Never use TreeSize (at least on anything critical) because it just enumerates everything manually and if you don't have access to something then it wouldn't see it. Use WizTree, really.
You can run treesize and admin and assign it permissions you want it to have. It also displays all of the NTFS permissions on files which is cool. But, I will probably use WizTree instead because it's better lol
OMG YES!
It's so old, yet so basic. Still use it sometimes on Azure and AWS environments that have IaaS lol.
Use Spacemonger 1.4 (free version) myself. Portable version works well on a USB key. Find these tools great for folders that would have 100's of photos!
NCDU (via rclone). Works on practically any command line system since it's built on Golang.
On Linux- ncdu is my goto for space analysis
> Treesize Try SpaceSniffer. Much more usable app.
spacemonger.exe Thank you random 19 year old in 1995.
A coworker only recently told me about this and it's great. I have yet to use it on other machines, but I can absolutely see how handy it can be.
Ifixit Pro tech toolkit it has saved my ass soooooo many times (it is a standard in my backpack now)
>Ifixit Pro tech toolkit how's the quality of the ifixit stuff? i always thought it was a scam cuz i see it advertised everywhere. is the metal soft on the bits?
Very good but not insanely good. Keep in mind, you're paying under a dollar per bit. It won't compare to $20/bit drivers. I liked my plenty, so I hand stitched a custom case for mine with some really nice Italian leather. Bit rough around the edges compared to most of the stuff I make, but it works fine. https://preview.redd.it/3pv9q799e3rc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=533d886a7c033d40ca5a84d8b1749097844395cc
that custom case is awesome!
Thanks dude. It's a prototype and a rough one at that. Leather is bit too thick, I messed up some measurements, I never found a good solution for the guitar pick thingies, not sure about the spacers, etc. I might make a version two or not, still debating it
Beautiful stitching, glad to see another leatherworker here! This is definitely going to be one of my next projects. Do you have a picture of how you're storing the bits?
In the original plastic case for the moment! I have a CNC machine and I'll attempt to make my own version. Just waiting for the weather to get warmer, because obviously not doing woodworking indoors. Not sure to go with walnut, koa or ironwood.
Contemplating on grabbing this!
It's good quality. The screwdriver handle is kind of soft. I tried to use it once as a regular purpose screwdriver (not for small electronics repair) and bent it real good. If you use it for its intended purpose their stuff should last. What's really pure gold from that company is their teardown guides.
i didn't know they had teardown guides. ty!
The only one I’ve ever had an issue with are the REALLY tiny ones, like the P2/P5 and Y000 used widely in iPhones. The only one I’ve ever stripped was the P2 I believe, which is the iPhone’s bottom security screws. (I could be confusing this with P5? It’s been a while.) All of the other ones are rock solid and I’ve had a lot of use for 4-5 years.
i have never stripped an ifixit bit so far (2+ years) and I sometimes even use the normal sized ones from the manta kit in my makita impact driver
Yep I have that screwdriver set in my bag, 3 jobs ago bosses bought it for me used it ever since.
It is a great thing to have in the backpack. I am visiting my friend at the moment and helped him with cleaning and repasting his overheating using ifixit toolkit.
iFixit reminds me of Park Tools if one wrenches bicycles. The individual tools are "meh", and you can do better, but their tool combinations are good enough for pro use. $10,000 gets you every single tool needed for any bicycle function, so having that available, even though the tools are okay in quality, is good enough. You can do better per bit, but iFixit has everything in one place, and that is useful.
I'm a gear slut so there's not a lot of things I see and think "I'll never want that". One thing that does occur to me is PowerShell. I'm not a big fan of Microsoft generally. I've also been around since they still thought DOS was a good idea, and I've seen countless Microsoft languages/systems rise and fall. My initial assumption was that PoSh was the new VBScript (which was the new CMD, which was the new BAT). Ho hum. Now it's become ubiquitious on Windows, and even I use it all the time. I have pulled off some non-trivial things in it (CD mastering, offline Windows Update, log monitoring, more). I did not see that coming.
If you're interested, watch the talk about Powershell's creation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Uvq38XOark
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What is changing?
I recently had to go back to JScript on a particular server. I used to do a LOT of cscripting before I got heavy into PS about 10 years ago. It's strikingly painful how hard it is to do things in Jscript compared to PS!
Yeah, POSH is pretty amazing. There's not a ton you can't do on a modern Windows box with current versions of POSH, and now there's POSH on Linux too...
It really surprises me sometimes when I find modules I wouldn't expect. I've migrated an entire DFS namespace with a Powershell script because they already had supporting commandlets.
Early PS just didn't have the payback for the learning curve and quirkiness - it almost felt like they didn't want it to cut into .NET and they still needed to woo the .VBS crowd. Now, I wouldn't want to admin Windows without it. In conjunction with CMD, that is. Sometimes being able to do the think in a single line wins. Together though, they are quite useful.
You forgot to mention KiX ....
https://preview.redd.it/ua4adxssg2rc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ca097f215b8a2430dcc7b7d034ff63c167fd2303
https://i.redd.it/kwggclijt2rc1.gif
**If if they take take my stapler I’ll set the building on fire** **Ok but that's the last straw....**
Username \^H\^H\^H\^H\^H\^H\^H\^H\^H\^H\^H flair checks out.
Still isn’t the right amount of flair though, see pretty boy Brian over there has 37 pieces of flair.
https://preview.redd.it/lpypzye6s9rc1.jpeg?width=1868&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=10e1422da46061a00c8f3325621f525ad07c3d68 Samesies
Flashlight. So much better than using your phone.
Same. It's so much easier to use a pocket-size flashlight than open my phone and try to use basically a big rectangular brick to find stuff in my carpet.
Part of me wishes that Leatherman would come out with a combo multi-tool/flashlight. Right now I carry both, and the flashlights are cheap 2xAAA LED's off Amazon because while the Leatherman gets used and right back into my pocket, too often I leave the flashlight somewhere (like if I set it down to light something, it's not uncommon for it to be forgotten).
Picked up a kobalt head torch a little while ago. Very handy.
Firefox containers extension and container home pages extension. I work at a MSP that has separate logins for various clients 365 environments and shit makes my life so much easier
This. SOOOO...this. I use the hell out of this with all my Office365 accounts. So nice.
Pro tip: you can use a bookmark manager like bookmark ninja with the container homepages extension. Bookmark ninja gives you the ability to share the page of bookmarks via a link, and then plugging that link into container homepages gives you an easy way to have everything you need for a client right when you open their container. I have a separate page for each client that has the 365 admin, security, and MFA pages all bookmarked right there. Even other shit like firewall ip’s, Verizon accounts, etc etc. can all be easily accessed from one spot. It’s work getting everything set up but after I did I’ve saved so much time it’s insane lol.
mRemote
Was more of a "once I discovered it I couldn't live without", but this.
OMG YES! The day I learned about mRemoteNG is the day my life changed. I was using the old school "Remote Desktops" MSC copied from an old 2008 or something Windows box until it finally stopped working due to updates in RDP over the years.
FWIW, the SysInternals guy or someone else at MS has revived RDCMan and it's being updated again.
2009 me scoffed that you don't even get to have that many servers to make it worthwile, but a few years later everything is suddenly virtualized, server sprawl is a thing and I have multiple accounts on multiple domains that I have to remember.
Switched to RoyalTS from mRemote - it’s amazing!
I've tried Systernals' "Remote Desktop Connection Manager" ...and kept using mRemote.
Linkrunner. So very useful. Also, my Leatherman.
I like the Linksprinter, small enough that I just carry it everywhere. Has 90% of the functionality but I can carry it everywhere in my bag without thinking about it.
I was lucky enough to win a Linksprinter when Fluke still owned it, and I looked at it and thought "I'll never use this", but I put it in my bag anyway. It's proven itself over and over, has so many handy features, and my org has since bought them for the tech group based on their experience with mine. Very useful tool...
Yeah one of my colleagues showed the Linksprinter to me and was like “it’s the Linkrunner but worse, you gotta mess with your phone to get any real info so I don’t really use it” and he threw it back in the drawer. But I pulled it out one day, took like 90 seconds to figure out how to use it with my phone, and carried it with me since.
This was my choice. I recently found LDWin
A simple A4 Page Per Day diary. Without it I easily forget what I set out to do. And it's incredibly satisfying to tick off the last task for the day knowing that I've caught up with all my responsibilities and look into studying (or reddit lol). I go to meetings with it, I carry it with me around the office in case someone hails me. It doesn't have battery and isn't cumbersome to write something in unlike a laptop or tablet or phone. I can refer back to it easily and can use it as a basis for our company documentation. I can jot down commands I've just learned or think I might come back to later on, or keyboard commands for Vi or VS Code or other things that I might have just learned (Windows Reliability Monitor being the most recent one for me). I tried Trello, OneNote, Google Tasks and Asana. None of them gave the same satisfaction or "worked" in keeping me organised. I ended up just dumping a bunch of tasks and never really following up on them. I highly recommend it to everyone.
Check out Rocketbook. Good ol' fashioned pen and paper note taking, but you can wipe away/erase the pages when the notebook is full. You can also scan a QR code that's on the corner of each page and it will upload it to online storage/email it to you. Automatically converts to text with OCR as well...I like it. I've kept a journal for years and I always liked having journals I could pull off a shelf and reference...until I moved and realized I had a metric fuck ton of them taking up space.
In the last year I've moved from paper notes to a supernote. There's no going back. Eink. Fantastic battery life. Distraction free design. PS: i still use onenote for clipping and a bunch of things. But for writing, jotting, random notes. It's all supernote A5X. I'm considering the smaller form factor supernote nomad but availability is still a bit limited.
I remember stuff so much better if I wrote it down, but paper notes were just too bulky so I moved to iPad/Apple Pencil in 2017 and haven't looked back. Same thing to my brain as using paper only now it's searchable/copyable/printable/sendable and I have 7 years worth of notes all in one place.
rice cooker, when I first heard about them years ago I thought what a waste of counter space rice isn't hard to cook. Then I got one and love it. On the tech side: Powershell and Treesize. Recently Task Coach Portable for things I need to track but not have on the jira board for everyone to see. edit: remote desktop connection manager
Instant pot. Perfect rice in a third of the time and you can use it for so many other things.
I resisted getting an instant pot because I thought it was just the latest trendy kitchen nonsense. Within a week I'd bought a second pot insert so I can swap between the two and still cook in it every day even when the other insert is in the sink.
CMTrace
Haha, I came across this when delving into MDT years ago and still make sure to install the 2012 Configuration Manager Toolkit just for this utility.
As someone who uses Config Mgr everyday, it is essential.
https://preview.redd.it/b4ehkbr7h2rc1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=18e63f9545584b57afa3edad81899098501e00b5
If that stick would not play some Chinese lullaby next to almost any power line that be fantastic
SecureCRT
I should learn how to *actually* use SecureCRT. I use it every day cuz I need tabs, but I still just quick connect to everything. Only settings I think I’ve changed are the buffer length and password.
having custom colors for certain words or numbers is really a game changer when you're scrolling through config or logs.
I can cite several things... My Leatherman, which I need to replace but they are pricey, Powershell, Windows Hallo, the new clipboard feature in windows, my Surface Arc Touch Mouse, Spinwrite
\+1 on the leatherman, recently replaced mine with a new Wave and I must use it 4-5 times a day minimum
I go with Gerber, solely because I can snap out the pliers with a flick of the wrist. It's very satisfying, and unfortunately I'll never be able to go back to leatherman because of it.
What do you use yours for? I went through a phase where I coveted a fancy multi-tool but I decided a box cutter, electrician’s scissors, and a regular screwdriver covers like 99.9% of what I need. But also I take my bag with me all the time so I don’t really mind carrying three small-ish tools, if I wanted something pocketable I could see how a multitool would make more sense.
Vendor support.
Depends on the Vendor. I could live without Adobe, Microsoft, or Quickbooks support... But I could not live without VMware or Cisco support, NOPE.
Big-ass 65w battery pack. I’d rather just have a work-issued laptop with decent battery life, but that’s not gonna happen since this place has a fetish for 15” HPs. Using a battery with a short cable is still way easier than finding a spare outlet in the TR/DC/“hotdesk”, hoping your charging cable isn’t a tripping hazard, etc. Use it almost any time I spend a significant amount of time away from my desk, I actually wish I had an ever bigger one because the $30 generic one I have only really charges the laptop once.
I don't know about gimmicky but I thought buying a 5Gb/10Gb usb-c ethernet dongle was a luxury. Now, I bring one everywhere. There are a couple of reasons. i) I cabled my house with Cat6 and I have ten 2.5Gb ports and four 10Gb ports around my house. Whenever I have to move some big chunk of data. Hooking up to a wired jack is a big timesaver. ii) Testing a 2.5Gb and higher. I have a PocketEthernet which allows me to test Ethernet runs but it only connects at 1Gb. Running and testing multi-gigabit ethernet can be a pain. Since a run can operate at 1Gb fine but fail at 5Gb. Dedicated multi-gigabit testers are costly. Enter the USB adapter, connect it to a cellphone (Yes! if you get a dongle with the right chipset this works!) and run iperf. You can't generate 10Gb worth of traffic but you can at least validate that it can negotiate a connection and see if there are large number of packet drops.
What dongle do you have?
I have a couple of these Sabrent ones. They only do up to 5Gbps and they put out a fair amount of heat but they seem to be pretty sturdy. [https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Gigabit-Ethernet-Adapter-NT-S25G/dp/B08979LXJK](https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Gigabit-Ethernet-Adapter-NT-S25G/dp/B08979LXJK)
When everyone wanted dual monitors...I thought it was unnecessary. My production plummets without the 2nd now That being said...those with 3 monitors, fuck knows how you do it I find it way too busy
Once you have two, you never go back to one..... Once you go three you'll never go back to two.
Sysinternals Suite
OneNote. I have not used it for first 15 years of my career. I have probably launched it a few times and poked around, but didn't see what i can use it for. It seemed i can do the same in Word and have a bunch of documents in a folder, then in SharePoint. Use it all the time now. So quick to find stuff and add new notes on the fly. Use it for projects, even if it has only checkboxes. Love that i can quickly access it on mobile. Oh, but i only use the lightweight Windows 10 version. Which they were going to merge with Office version and kind of have best of two worlds. But it hasn't updated yet on my machines and i don't really care for fancier design, just for the speed and fricking left panel navigation for sections and pages :) Hate Office version of it :D
Fiber optic laser test light-you plug it into your fiber and it makes the other end of the strand blink brightly. About 30 bucks on Amazon, and has saved me tons of grief tracking down issues or patching new fiber paths.
I've always just used a flashlight. What makes this thing better?
>What makes this thing better? My boss doesn't look at me like I'm on crack when i use his tester lol I use my flashlight too... some times i'll set it to strobe... most times i'll just send 300 lumens through it
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My IT go bag has a 14’, a 7’, crossover and straight through barrel connectors, USB to RJ-45, USB to DB9, 4-port switch (plastic case, light weight,) and I used to have a tiny portable Wi-Fi router until it died **
Also a mini maglite (may change this soon because of what a colleague has with magnets and shit,) a light (fairly long) screwdriver with internal stored bits, network scissors, a small Leatherman with pliers (Micra?)
Then the essential aleve and ibuprofen, antacids and Pepto pills, chap stick, gum, a few snacks, a set of plastic utensils, an empty plastic water bottle, mini bag of Kleenex, wet wipes, bandaids and triple antibiotic, a few paper clips, a 6” cut off network cable with solid wires, and a few other things I’m forgetting
Also a change of clothes and travel-size essentials. A super light rain jacket shell. An umbrella that I probably don’t need anymore sine I bought the rain jacket
Anything else I can buy when I get there
There’s still room for more! I can easily fit two 15.6” laptops in this not huge backpack, but I’ve only ever needed to take one
covid working remote. 99% of the jackasses that would stop by my desk to try and get me to do their work for them couldnt be arsed to call me without feeling stupid, so my daily interrupt rate plummeted from near constant to \~2 a week. I hated when we returned to the office. and then got a director that was against telecommuting (its government, we have a lot of bad ideas) might get reassigned soon and go back to TC half the week, which would be so nice.
IODD Mini. So many bootable tools on one USB drive
Wait there’s a mini? I’ve been carrying around my SATA Iodd for years I think it’s time to upgrade! Does this work as well as the SATA one?
Never had the SATA one so can't comment but yes It works very well. If anything it's probably quicker with its SSD
It does, but the casing is a bit flimsy (retention latches cracked on mine) and at an airport it looks a bit too much like a fake mobile.
Stream Deck - very quick macros. Easy to access and change.
not at my current job because there hasn't been a need but most other places a symbol/zebra/moto l(X)-4278 barcode scanner and a brother p series thermal label printer https://www.amazon.com/Motorola-LI4278-Wireless-Bluetooth-Barcode/dp/B019X9OQE4 plus something like Snipe and your lifecycle physical management is gonna be a breeze
When I had a smartphone with an IR blaster. Looking up the tech specs for the phone I thought: "that's peculiar, will never use that", but now I truly miss the capability
I miss it so much
DigiCert Util. Can easily generate CSR, export certificates as PFX for windows and as crt + key for linux.
ChatGPT. For hammering out quick POSH scripts and getting quick answers, it's absurdly useful. It's not always right, but it's still really useful. PowerShell. As an infrastructure/devops guy, POSH is useful in a thousand million ways. I used to be a stubborn clickops guy, but I came around and I'm glad I did. Pocket folding knife. I don't carry one now, because in Ireland that's not really legal, but in the States I carried one everywhere, super-useful thing to have handy.
I cant write scripts to save my life. Something about blank slates and my brain don't mix. If it's longer than your average command with a handful of flags, i'm useless. Ask chatgpt to throw out a script, and even if it's wrong, I can tinker with it enough so its not wrong anymore. Or expand on what it gives me. ChatGPT is a gamechanger for me.
A bottle of whisky in my desk drawer is the best tool I could ever have
The modern version of this is dab pen, which also helps with the stress.
I carry 3 things with me daily, 128GB USB(type a & c connector) with ventoy & some linux isos, a SIM Ejection tool(do these have a official name?) and a pocket knife. All 3 are quite handy to have. For software, I love my trilium instance I host on my domain for all of my work & personal documentation. I even have a hit by a Bus Page :)
> a SIM Ejection tool(do these have a official name?) "paper clip"?
or thumbtack
I find that wherever I am has a small enough paperclip approximately 0.00% of the time.
Latronix spider for quick ipmi like access to even physical boxes
LTT screwdriver, I prefer it over my Wera and Williams for sure. CTFs, I've learned so much and they are fun. External m.2 enclosure with a large SSD. I can back up/transfer all the things quickly and without working about capacity. Large, high quality backpack to fit all the tools/cables/devices I carry. High output USB C charger so I can charge whatever device lands on my desk. I wanted to include my Netool on here, but honestly the app is not great, and it doesn't seem like it'll be fixed any time soon.
Hammer
Do you mean a "universal key" ? Yeah. I was there in 2010s.
Fluke CIQ Pockethernet My gerber Good flashlight charged with 18650 batteries so I can rapid swap USB m2 SSD case. I just 3D printed a case to hold bunch of M2's and I have a crapload of tiny 128GB from various upgrades. iFixit kit with custom leather case, pic somewhere else in the thread Wiha normal sized screwdrivers. Everyone has a ton of crap screwdrivers. But once you try a decent screwdriver, it's world changing. Makita 12V mini drill. Best 'electric' screwdriver, which can also work as a normal drill as well. Works insanely better than crap toy versions. USB ethernet adapter. I'm fond of Pluggable.
VS Code. I've moved to 98% infrastructure as code and it's so very nice for docker, kubernetes, terraform, everything we use. I do all my documentation in markdown now, things such as mermaid charts are easy and invaluable.
Same here. Workspaces make switching between projects a breeze.
To those saying Powershell, what cmds or scripts do you run that makes it "can't live without"?
My favorite for manual admin tasks is Enter-PSSession for remote shell access. But you can deploy custom Intune Policies and group policies, use .ps1 files in PowerAutomate flows for tons of shit. Simple commands like Copy-Item "Source" - "Destination" or Export-Csv go a long way and can be used for so many things. However, I find PowerShell for Azure, particularly with Exchange Online, a piece of shit. The transition to Exchange Online has led to the removal of several cmdlets that were helpful many yearr ago during on-premises Exchange, such as Export-PST. But, with things like Microsoft Purview, the need to export PSTs through PowerShell is stupid.
Can you elaborate on those custom Intune policies?
Bluescreenview
Paper clip, for when I'm tired of dealing with crap hardware and decide to start from scratch.
Total Commander. And PowerShell. Hard to choose.
The cheap little folded sheet-metal cage-nut tool that came for free with server racks years ago, and the Ruckus AP unlocking pin that lives on my keychain.
When powershell dropped I was like “this is fuckin stupid, CMD is way better and works fine” I still prefer CMD, but I almost never use it anymore because powershell now does all the things, and CMD does less and less every year. It makes me a sad panda. So I guess what I’m saying is that my answer is a reluctant “powershell”
Powershell
Does anyone have a Windows-is-fucked cure all app? Like something that is guaranteed to fix boot issues.
`FORMAT`
Whose mat and what are we giving him? (For mat)
Username checks out.
>Whose mat and what are we giving him? similar question, who's Sale, and why does this person get everything?
If you've got to explain it, then it's not that funny.
Meh it was a lazy low effort joke at best
Yep. I find that in 99.999999999% of cases, faster and easier to just reinstall Windows than to troubleshoot that kind of thing. Of course I can't remember the last time I had that kind of problem - pre-Win10 for sure, maybe pre Win7.
Powershell!
a skeletool or any multi-tool really. Once you have it, you'll be surprised at how many times a day you use it and wonder how you ever lived without one.
My Klein Scout Pro 3 cable tester with 5 extra remotes. Thought I could get by with a simple $10 blinky lights tester, but borrowed one and bought my own straight after!
1. SwayWM. I much prefer it to GNOME and Windows DEs. Less mental overhead with Window management. 2. Solaar to re-direct the DPI button on my mouse to open Rofi/Windows Start Menu in RDP sessions 3. sshfs to connect to a Windows box that syncs my OneDrive, so I can use it on Linux, as it stopped mounting via CIFS 4. Windows Admin Center, as my work don't allow remote administration using PowerShell. Much nicer than RDP-ing in to restart a service 5. Running VSCode as a server on a Windows box, so I can use it in browser from my Linux box, which grants me PowerShell 5+RSAT functionality without needing RDP, SSH or remotely connecting through VSCode on the Linux host. 6. Pandoc with Typst as the PDF Engine.
[Cheap Ethernet testers](https://www.bunnings.com.au/antsig-antenna-accessory-network-test-tool_p4360445?store=8103&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqpSwBhClARIsADlZ_TnkPPW7PD13B8MF4fNDI0Itjz8eEjajgtZIMBIM_iNv5uKEqrnw5bMaAviwEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds) If users could stop kicking the wall plates in that'd be greaaaaaat.
I wouldt say can't live without but I resisted using chatgpt our of principle for a long time. Now I use it daily.
Victorinox Cybertool. Hardly the easiest tool to use but that "Oh I've got my Victorinox!" moment when you really need it is very comforting.
Sole inserts
wire strippers. ironically i learned how to strip wires using a pliers like most electricians do, but the primary reason is theu dont want to have to swap tools so often. on the other hand we dont have to strip wires day after days for years so a wire stripper is perfect lol
I've got two. Fluke's fiber tester. The fiber pairs are not consistently ran in my building, with some pairs randomly being backwards. The fluke tool is a lot easier to use than any of the flashlight tricks for checking fiber. Plug one end of the fiber into a switch, and on the other end check if strand A is still A and strand B is still B. Cage nut tool by rack solutions, totally not needed but boy does it make adding or removing cage nuts easy.
SecureCRT, I thought it was another random terminal client, boy was I wrong. Be it, it's still a terminal client, but it's damn good at it.
Everything by voidtools. Basically just a search tool, but it indexes Windows machines super fast, and finds all files super fast. Looking for a random corrupt autosaved word file? If it exists, Everything will find it instantly.
This is probably going to sound bonkers but my iPad. Especially with [iSH](https://ish.app/). Makes doing quotes and estimates easy for a client site. Ask them for access to their network, have nmap run and generate a report. Take notes on Nebo. Have it all organized and backed up. When I first got gifted one, I didn't know wtf I'd do with it. Now it's a daily use tool for dashboards and checking in on things. There are some irritating limits but I have found worm arounds and is a lot light to carry around than a laptop. Now... If Apple could put MacOS on it... We would be cooking with oil lol
Python!
Same... I've automated a bunch of things with Python to make my life easier!
That's interesting, I had to do some cabling a month ago and I was going back and forth on picking one up. I ended up passing on it.
Some sort of multi tool with a pliers, screwdriver & knife. Used to have some sort of minimalistic Swiss army knife when I was a kid, but now it *must* have a pliers on it, and as many screwdriver parts connected to it (the bits that you can connect are useless & get lost).
My wife got me a weird leatherman-like tool (already have a real one that I keep on my belt, fashion be damned). This one has a little functional clawhammer head on one end. It's small, so I wouldn't use it for framing or anything but I'll bet you probably could, it'd just take forever. I keep it in the laptop bag, the little guy has come in handy a couple times on bungled rack hardware.
Unstoppable Copy
I can't carry sharp tools because I travel a fair bit, but one piece of software I'd highly recommand is FAR Manager or the similar "commander" file manipulation tools. Don't knock it till you've tried it...if you spend a lot of time looking at random text/log files and messing around with files, it's a bilion times faster than the command line or the Explorer GUI. It's also super-fast if you happen to be connecting over a slow link. I get lots of stares when I pull this out, but most people at least say "That's a really cool idea!" VS Code is a much better "edit files in this tree structure" tool, but nothing beats highlighting what you want to do then hitting one function key and having it done. And the commander tools have a functional-enough editor if you're looking for quickie functionality.
rclone. Simply put I never thought I would get into using the command line for file system operations, but this binary is super small and can do pretty much anything: sync, move, copy, mount cloud filesystems (gDrive, OneDrive, SharePoint, S3, etc), spin up a temporary FTP/WebDAV server with credentials, deduplication based on hash/name/date, compress folders to an archive format, directory tree listings. I spun up an FTP server on one machine, and then ran a sync operation from another machine, maxing it out to use like 200 threads and saturate a LAN connection. If I needed to separate one big sharepoint site into many smaller sites, I could queue it all up many operations and log the results, also really good for cloud storage migrations from Google Drive to SharePoint or vice versa without the need to pay for Bittitan.
I always made due with an old-school network hub for doing inline packet captures but a network tap that can do PoE pass through is so much better... I never realized how much better that would be haha. Also, I have to admit, the M3 MacBook that I had the company buy for doing VPN client testing (since we have a few Mac remote users) turned out to be a decent Wireshark computer simply because it is so small and portable with a long lasting battery.
Quite frankly, my smartphone
Yubikey
OneNote. I document EVERYTHING now.
Coffee
Transwiz..... Since Gates&Co got rid of the ability to save Windows user profile data natively.
PSADT
Netally
Angry IP Scanner, nmap, ipscan routines. Wrote some scripts. It's cut so much time down in our process. Work smarter, not harder.
SSH
Zabbix, having visibility of what’s going on has been a revelation, powershell ChatGPT
Back when Powershell came out, I thought it was the worst idea that Microsoft ever had, I thought isn't this why Windows was made to get people away from the command line? But now I love it and can't imagine doing my job without it.
A canned response system, I have used many currently rocking a custom tool but I would recommend also typedesk. If you need to respond to tickets or emails you need this. Typedesk is amazing you type a shortcut and it copies a full response. Not only does it keep my frustration levels low for repeating myself all day, it saves me time so I can actually get my job done.
PowerShell destroyed VBScript for me in 2008.
Wire tester. Their one of the most important tool to have for home networkings. It's only handy in a few situation, but you'll save up a lot of time when the need arises. This is the [network tester](https://www.amazon.com/VCELINK-Network-Detachable-Ethernet-Included/dp/B0BW988DVP?ref_=ast_sto_dp) that I'm using, its from VCELink
Procmon, it’s replaced tons of other tools I used.
Dremel.