The best image editor for Windows is obviously... the GIMP, aka the Gnu Image Manipulation Program.
I'm doing web design this week at work, and one of the stock images I was told to use has an ugly flaw. In the original discussion my boss told me we had a current copy of Photoshop hanging around unused after the departure of the previous graphics guy.
So I tried to get hold of this copy of Photoshop on Monday, now it's Thursday and still no one knows where the media or license key is hiding.
The ops guys said they don't manage software for our group, the dev guys have no clue where it might be. So I gave in and installed the GIMP for windows. Now the image is cleaned up, and I don't have to fight the bureaucracy.

The best command line shell for windows is: zsh on cygwin.

I admit, I'm on a rant roll at the moment about lack of functionality in windows.

titivillus, I don't see how you can do development on Windows without extreme pain :-)