Konstantin Kovshenin

The query_posts() function is often misused by theme and plugin developers. This little plugin will call WordPress’ built-in _doing_it_wrong() function, whenever query_posts() is used within a theme or plugin. It doesn’t stop the query itself, but simply issues a notice if running in debug mode.
If you have a friend who uses query_posts(), use this plugin to help your friend out.

Stop query_posts

Let's stop this query_posts madness, shall we?

Robert O'Rourke

Adds a simple set of options to modify the default query. Be careful, this affects all list type 
pages on the site and not just the home page.
You can:
<ul>
<li>Customise the post types used</li>
<li>Exclude terms from any taxonomy</li>
<li>Change the ordering</li>
<li>Set an offset to skip posts</li>
<li>Turn paging off</li>
<li>Use a simple meta query</li>
</ul>
Any problems, bugs or feature requests will be answered the quickest on twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/sanchothefat" rel="nofollow ugc">@sanchothefat</a>.

Query Editor

Adds a simple set of options to modify the default query by changing what post types are used, the ordering and more.

Stop query_posts vs Query Editor