A list of all the basic tools to deal with a network of Windows machines. I’ll add to it as I remember other tools that I use, but this is the bulk of the utilities that I keep installed on my Admin machine (which happens to be a virtual machine in parallels on my Mac :-P).

AlphaZip : Makes working with .cab files painless

bcd : Create bootable CDs or Thumb Drives

Dameware : Do anything to a remote machine without disrupting the users. Remote in if you need to. Be sure to limit the IPs that can connect to the machine via a firewall.

Ghost : Imaging software

Perl : great for scripting, not as painful as VB

SQLyog : Free application to work with MySQL

Text Editor : Emacs for Windows ; Ultraedit 32 … whatever.

WinDirStat : Does a nice job

Windows Server 2003 Admin Tools Pack : Manage your AD