In my daily development there are three tools that I keep open almost constantly: Visual Studio 2008, Windows Debugger, and Reflector. The first is obvious, the second is for extreme-debugging, and the third so I can have a clue what I’m working with (...I have NO idea how people do .NET or Silverlight development without reflector!) The first two I access with icons, while the third is one that I open and close at least 10 times a day.
To quickly access reflector (as well as Notepad2 and a whole host of sysinternals apps!) I throw it in my Windows folder so I can access it from the Run box. Not only that, but I typically rename tools I throw in there to have only one letter. Reflector is “r”. So, I hit Win-R and type “r”. Up comes reflector. Here’s the thing though: I work in both .NET and Silverlight equally. Yet, Reflector only loads ONE of them. What to do?
The fix is simple: copy r.exe to rs.exe. When I load r.exe, I select .NET. When I load rs.exe, I select Silverlight. Now I when I hit Win-R, I can type either “r” or “rs” depending on what framework I want to inspect. You could even take the concept further by making a “rf.exe” for the compact framework” Each “x.exe” will have it’s own “x.cfg” so the configurations won’t bleed over each other.
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