Create keyboard shortcuts to enter text (or execute multiple keystrokes).
My favorite shortcuts:
Ctrl+D outputs the date in YYYYMMDD format.
Ctrl+L displays the length of the currently selected text.
Ctrl+Shift+L formats a plain list of values to be a SQL “IN” formatted list.
F12 runs a Python script that opens the last screenshot I took. (To be fair, Autohotkey can probably find and open the last screenshot by itself, but it was easier and fun for me to use Python.)
Create hotstrings that expand to larger text (a.k.a. text expansion).
My favorite hotstring: Typing “ds;” (without the quotes) expands to the current date in MM/DD/YYYY format.
I give credit to AutoHotkey for making me more productive and making my life more fun.
Last updated in August 2021. It had been a while since the last update before this.
Before this, RDCMan (Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Connection Manager) was no longer recommended by Microsoft, and I could not find an active download link for it (as of Dec 2020). Therefore, we should definitely consider an alternative.
Microsoft recommends using “in-box remote desktop client (MSTSC)” or “universal Remote Desktop client”. But I don’t think these are currently the right tools for me:
MSTSC seems to be a command line tool. (Don’t get me wrong. I really like the command line.)
“Universal Remote Desktop client” appears to refer to the “Microsoft Remote Desktop” program in the Microsoft Store, and (I think) I’ve had a user that had issues with it not allowing full use of connected server functionality (as of Fall 2020).
I’ve heard mRemote [1], while “not easy”, is a good option because it has features that are missing from RDCMan:
Modern/up-to-date.
Import/export (and therefore easy-to-share) settings and servers.
“WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows. WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle.” – WinMerge.org
Free and open source.
I have WinMerge installed on my laptop and mostly use it there. I use WinMerge Portable when I want use WinMerge directly on a DSI Platform or other application server. (That way, I don’t need to install it and worry about it interfering with the server software, I think.)
“TestSockConn is a simple Windows dialog application that can be used to verify that a particular host is available and listening on a particular port. It also verifies that a connection can be made from the current host. It is useful for testing a connection through a firewall.” – Progress.com
Can be used to confirm a DSI Platform server port is accessible.
Free lightweight utility.
Heads up about download trickiness… To download this utility:
“Enter a port to listen on and it will show incoming connections to that port. This can be useful if you are trying to setup connectivity through a firewall or a router.” – AllScoop.com
Can be used in conjunction with TestSockConn to confirm a DSI Platform server port is accessible.
Free lightweight utility.
Notes
Thank you, Mike Boyd, who neither endorses nor opposes the use of these tools.