Web Development on Windows 7: Essential Applications

[motvbi]

In case you are interested in developing on the Microsoft platform instead of Apache and MySQL, Web Platform installer is the way to go. Makes it a lot easier to install Visual Studio Express, ASP.Net MVC which otherwise is a real pain sometimes.

[luffy]

Not sure about that. The Web Platform installer has introduced a lot of pain to what used to be fairly simple proceedings. It probably my least favorite application to use.

I set up an Windows 2008 R2 instance on EC2 the other day that did not have IIS7 installed. Even launching the WPI on that instance was painful. IE8 is the default browser, and the default settings in IE wouldn't let you launch the application, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out where the security restrictions were.

So then I went and download Chrome which didn't have the security restrictions, and then I was able to download the WPI and run it.

From within the WPI, I selected IIS7 and .NET 4.0. Ninety minutes later + a reboot or two later IIS7 was installed.

[ghurlman]

I also don't agree. If you're just screwing around with something, fine. If you're installing something upon which you intend to develop a professional piece of software, you should go through the true install process. Too many Windows developers are far too ignorant of the platforms upon which they develop their code (in general, not pointed at parent at all).

[urza]

I suggest to also check out WebMatrix

http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/07/06/introducin...

[zushiba]

Not specific for windows but I do like Adobe's Browser labs. https://browserlab.adobe.com/en-us/index.html#

[varunsrin]

The only thing I do different is using FileZilla for my FTP client. Oh and Dropbox for working on HTML/CSS front-end stuff so team members can see changes in almost real time.

[retlehs]

Tunnelier (http://www.bitvise.com/tunnelier) is a great tool to use with Notepad++ for SSH tunneling

[skbohra123]

any suggestion for a firebug equivalent and a way to install all versions of IE simultaneously ? I am really struggling with that big time.

[steverb]

I presume you mean an equivalent to Firebug for IE.

There's Fiddler and Visual Studio, or you can try Firebug Lite.

As far as multiple versions, the only solution I've found is multiple VMs which sucks, but that's what happens when the browser is tightly integrated with the OS.

[sosuke]

Microsoft releases virtual machines for old versions of IE that expire and are updated regularly http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyId=...

[rileywatkins]

There's a nifty tool called IETester which allows you to render a page in every version of IE simultaneously. It works pretty well.

http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage

[ghurlman]

Expression Web with SuperPreview does exactly what you're looking for.

[contergan]

IETester works for me.