Scott's post about changing his colours in his Visual Studio IDE to be closer to the colours in TextMate got me thinking about how I customize my environment and how my environment is different from other developers.

The first thing I do when i start VS on a new machine is change my background colour and my font. Currently I am using a gray background and although Scott takes a shot at us gray backgrounders I find it a lot easier on the eyes. Also, since I sit by a window there is less reflection on my monitor with a gray background than there is with a black background.

The font I am currently using at work is called AnonymousRegular, it is a Windows version of the popular Mac TrueType font Anonymous 9. It is quite slick looking give it a shot.

Next I add-in NUnit, FxCop, and NAnt into my external tools list. You will save tons of time if they can be launched right from your IDE.

The last thing that I do is change my mouse buttons so that I can mouse lefty. I switched about 2 months ago and although I am left handed I recommend it to people who aren't left handed by nature. You will feel like a complete asshat for about 2 weeks but once you get used to it you will find that the soreness in your arms and wrists is reduced significantly. Plus as an added bonus, when you move your hand from your mouse to the keyboard, you have less distance to travel.

 Let me know what settings you change either in the comments or on your blog. I am interested in finding out what other developers do to make their IDE unique.