Ultimate List of Free Windows Vista Software from Microsoft

[Pan]

This is another compilation of windows goodies for Vista. Enjoy!

WINDOWS VISTA GOODIES

Experience Pack

• • Equation Writer adds mathematical expressions. Handwrite math equations, and convert it into a typewritten image
  • Media Transfer copy/stream media from a computer to a Tablet PC
  • Ink Crossword solve 12 puzzles (& download more) using your pen
  • Ink Flash Cards helps learning facts or study for an exam

Feeds Plus read RSS feeds in a combined view with notifications for new items. (Support: MSDN)

Ink Desktop is a dry-erase board to jot down phone #, directions, or top priorities for the day

Origami Experience Pack for UMPCs

• • Origami Experience: Access all media & favorite programs
  • Touch Settings: Config touch screen
  • Sudoku: Popular number game

Virtual Earth 3D search, browse, & organize local information viewed in 3D

Windows Vista Ultimate Helpful Hints: Guide to mastering the Ultimate operating system

XML Notepad 2007 browse & edit XML documents. (Support: DOC)

XML Paper Specification Essentials Pack view, generate & index XPS Docs

WINDOWS LIVE PROGRAMS

Windows Live 2008 Email & IM working seamlessly using PCs, mobile phones, or handhelds. Organize, edit, and share photos easily and creatively. Protect kids by managing their Web access.

Windows Live Mail accesses multiple email accounts — even Yahoo! Premium & Gmail.

Windows Live Messenger connect with friends & family via text, voice, and video. Send text to mobile phones or handhelds.

• • Amigos 25 "friendly" emoticons
  • Digital Effectsproduces special effects for video communication by selecting 3-D costumes or other digital effects in a pop-up window (or blur the background of photos to protect privacy).
  • Facebook contacts Facebook friends
  • Fun Family 30 cool emoticons
  • Superheroes 30 brave emoticons!

Windows Live Photo Gallery Upload creative photo slideshows, or create a cool panoramic view by combining multiple photos. Enhance photos by adjusting color & exposure, simple crop, and red-eye fixes.

Windows Live Toolbar Search from any Web page; highlight text such as an address or phone number, smart menus automatically appear. With one click, map all of the addresses on the viewed web page.

Windows Live Writer publishes rich content to blog services (i.e. Live Spaces, SharePoint, Wordpress, Blogger).

• • Smiley Plugin adds smileys from MSN & Yahoo - as well as adding smileys or pictures directly from WLW.

UTILITIES

AccessChk provides what kind of accesses specific users or groups have to resources including files, directories, Registry keys, and Windows services

Active Directory Topology Diagrammer reads AD configurations using ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), and automatically generates a Visio diagram of your Active Directory and /or Exchange 200x Server topology

Administrative (Group Policy) Templates (.admx) manages registry-based policy settings in the (gpedit.msc) user interface

Application Compatibility Toolkit contains tools & docs to evaluate and mitigate application compatibility issues before deploying Windows Vista, Windows Update, or a new version of Internet Explorer in your environment.

AUReset tool contains scripts to fix most Automatic Updates & Windows Update problems.

AutoRuns shows what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows the order Windows processes them.

Baseline Security Analyzer graphical & command line interface performs local or remote scans of Windows systems. MBSA scans for common security misconfigurations: missing security updates, update rollups and service packs published to Microsoft Update. (Support: MBSA Homepage & Visio Connector Tool for MBSA)

Battery Saver saves up to 70% of your battery by disabling some greedy features

BGInfo displays relevant information on the Desktop's background: computer name, IP address, service pack version, etc.

BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool configures drives to support BitLocker

BitLocker Recovery Password Viewer for Active Directory locate & recover encrypted passwords in ADDS.

BitLocker Repair Tool recovers data from a corrupt / damaged BitLocker drive

BITS Repair Tool for 32 bit & 64 bit, helps fix the corruption of Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) state files. (Support: KB940520)

Command Reference for automating command-line tasks by using batch files or scripting tool

Cayra mind mapping tool for flushing out design ideas. (Support: MSDN)

Desktops organizes your applications on up to four virtual desktops.

FolderShare share files & access computer(s) remotely

Group Policy Log View utility exports Group Policy event data from the system and operational log into a text, HTML, or XML file

IE7Pro add-on for Internet Explorer includes tweaks to make it friendlier, more useful, secure and customizable. (Support: MSDN)

IconEditor creates icons in multiple formats: 16x16 - 16 color, 48x48-24bit color, up to 128x128-32bit color, along with marking the transparent colors (XOR Mask and AND Mask). (Support: MSDN)

Internet Connectivity Evaluation Tool verify routers support new technologies.

ISO Recorder with DVD Support

IPsec Diagnostic Tool assists troubleshooting network related IPsec failures.

Keyboard Layout Creator create or modify keyboard layouts

Language Interface Packs for English versions

Network Monitor protocol analysis allows capturing, viewing and analyzing network (wired & WiFi) traffic. (Support: TechNet, Command Line Wizard)

OpenType Font File Properties Extension adds property tabs to the fonts dialog box (i.e. font name, origination, copyright, and extended character set code pages)

PrivBar toolbar shows current privilege level (Administrators, Power Users, Users, or Guests)

Process Explorer shows information in two sub-windows, about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded. The top window always shows a list of the currently active processes, including the names of their owning accounts, whereas the information displayed in the bottom window depends on the mode that Process Explorer is in: if it is in handle mode you'll see the handles that the process selected in the top window has opened; if Process Explorer is in DLL mode you'll see the DLLs and memory-mapped files that the process has loaded.

Process Monitor shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. It combines the features of two legacy Sysinternals utilities, Filemon and Regmon, and adds an extensive list of enhancements including rich and non-destructive filtering, comprehensive event properties such session IDs and user names, reliable process information, full thread stacks with integrated symbol support for each operation, simultaneous logging to a file, and much more. (Support: TechNet)

PsExec allows executing processes on other systems, complete with full interactivity for console applications, without having to manually install client software. PsExec's most powerful uses include launching interactive command-prompts on remote systems and remote-enabling tools like IpConfig that otherwise do not have the ability to show information about remote systems.

PsService service viewer and controller displays the status, configuration, and dependencies of a service, and allows you to start, stop, pause, resume and restart them. PsService enables logging-on to a remote system using a different account, for cases when the account from which it doesn't have required permissions on the remote system.

Release Notes provide important information on deploying and using Vista, including known issues. Familiarize yourself with all of the known issues listed prior to installing the software.

Remote Server Administration Tools 32bit & 64bit support remote management of computers running Windows Server 2008.

SearchMelt, is a Vista Search Folder that has been changed slightly to be generic and able to be shared. "It's like Search + XML + Sharing -- it's a whole bunch of melty goodness!"

SharedView Beta connects up to 15 people andd get your point across by showing them your screen. (Support: FAQ)

ShellRunas for heavy Explorer users who launch programs under different accounts (similar to Runas tool)

Snip IT can email selected text in Internet Explorer using your default email: Google Gmail, Hotmail & Outlook & Yahoo Mail.

SpeechSaver system tray utility to turn off Speed Recognition after a few minutes with no activity.

Speech Recognition Macros creates powerful macros triggered by voice command to interact with applications.

Speed Launch gives you lightning quick access to all the documents, files, and websites.

Start++ Windows XP Desktop Search allowed the creation of aliases between words or characters with commands and searches. Example: set up the Deskbar so you could type “g Stuff” to search for the work “Stuff” on Google. Start++ also launches programs, run scripts with parameters.

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UTILITIES (continued)

SteadyState helps manage shared computers in a school, Internet cafe, library, or at home. (Support: FAQ)

System Update Readiness Tool x32 & x64 checks for inconsistencies in the Windows servicing store which may prevent the successful installation of future updates, service packs, and software.

TCPView shows detailed listings of all TCP & UDP endpoints, including the local and remote addresses and state of TCP connections. TCPView also reports the name of the process that owns the endpoint. TCPView provides a more informative and conveniently presented subset of the Netstat program that ships with Windows.

Terminals multi-tab terminal services/remote desktop client. It uses Terminal Services ActiveX Client (mstscax.dll) allowing the control of multiple connection simultaneously.

TweakUAC quickly Turns On & Off (UAC) User Account Control (Support: MSDN)

User State Migration Tool migrates user files & settings during deployments of Windows XP & Vista. USMT captures files & settings from the source computer and then migrates them to a new Windows installation.

• • Workstation Migration Assistant visual wrapper for the User State Migration Tool, designed to simplify the capture / restore process for your end-users. (Support: TechNet)

Vispa allows tweaking for better privacy & security, and system performance. (Support: Channel 10)

Virtual Desktop Manager provides a powerful virtual desktop manager with a full screen thumbnail based preview

Virtual PC 2007 create and run one or more virtual machines, each with its own (different) operating system, on a single computer.

VistaTweakerhas software, performance, usability and other kinds of tweaks to improve the overall Vista experience. (Support: Channel 10)

WinDirStat disk usage statistics viewer & cleanup tool. (Support: MSDN)

WinHlp32 Help program included in versions prior to Windows Vista. (Support: KB917607)

Windows Automated Installation Kit helps IT professionals customize & deploy Windows Vista. Perform unattended installations, capture Windows images with ImageX, and create Windows PE images.

Windows Installer CleanUp Utility removes a program's Windows Installer configuration information when experiencing installation (Setup) problems (i.e. problems when adding / removing a program's component.)

Windows Mobile Device Center enables data synchronization between Windows Mobile Devices and Windows Vista & Windows Vista 64.

Windows Vista Hardware Assessment finds computers on a network and perform a detailed inventory, reporting whether the computers can run Windows Vista.

Windows Vista Ultimate Language Packs

• • Chinese (PRC)
  • Chinese (Hong Kong SAR)
  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • English (US)
  • Finnish
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Norwegian
  • Portugese (Brazil)
  • Russian
  • Spanish
  • Swedish

Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor identifies if a PC is ready for an upgrade to Windows Vista and which features will be able to run on their PCs

XdN Tweaker (Support: Channel 10)

ZoomIt is screen zoom and annotation tool for technical presentations that include application demonstrations.

SEARCH & PREVIEW ADD-INS

Windows Search 4.0 for 32 bit & 64 bit updated search component. (Support: KB940157)

• • 2007 Office System Converter: IFilter Pack will install and register the following formats: .docx, .docm, .pptx, .pptm, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb, .zip, .one, .vdx, .vsd, .vss, .vst, .vdx, .vsx, & .vtx
  • Internet Explorer History Add-in indexes the history of the web pages browsed using Internet Explorer. (Support KB918998)
  • Lotus Notes Add-in indexes the content of Lotus Notes e-mail, contacts, calendar items, and journal items
  • Network (UNC/FAT) Protocol Handler Add-in indexes shared network directories and FAT drive(s) to easily find specific content. (Support KB918996)
  • Outlook Saved Mail Add-in indexes Outlook's (.MSG) sent itens

Adobe Photoshop Preview Handler for Photoshop (PSD) files

Code Preview Handler for .cs, .vb, .sql, .js files - allows viewing of code files within Explorer & Outlook 2007 (Support: MS Blogger)

InkSeine offers a unique ability to search for files by circling a handwritten phrase within notes to create a query

MULTIMEDIA

ImageResizer PowerToy resizes one or many image files with a right-click. (Support: How to...)

Imagizer simple application to resize a batch of images.

HD View Utilities display & interaction with very large images. (Support: Website)

HD Photo Plug-in for Adobe Photoshop supports a wide range of pixel formats (including high dynamic range, wide gamut formats) and numerous advanced HD Photo features. (Support: MSDN)


Paint.Net originated as a project at Washington State University, and still developed by Microsoft alumni.

Photo Info allows photographers to add, change and delete common "metadata" properties. (Support: FAQ)

Pro Photo Tools for editing metadata in photographs including latitude, longitude, and other location details.

RAW Codecs handles RAW image files with the same ease as JPEG or TIFF images. (3rd Party)

• • ArdFry (.DNG)
  • Adobe DNG
  • Canon (.CR2, .CRW & .TIF)
  • Nikon (.NEF Nikon Electronic Format)
  • Olympus (.ORF)
  • Pentax (.ORF)
  • Sony (.ARW .SR2 & SRF)

TweakMC - Tweak Media Center

trueSpace 3D authoring package for online shared spaces, and for Virtual Earth.

WebGuide provides remote access to your Media Center from any computer with a web browser, including a cell phone or mobile device.

WMV9 PowerToy configures advanced properties of the WMV9 encoder and decoder otherwise only accessible through registry settings

DESKTOP WALLPAPERS, SCREENSAVERS & DREAMSCENES

Chirpscreen interactive screensaver updates with content from social networks (i.e. Facebook, Flickr) - it floats the information across the screen, and allows clicking on the content taking you to the web page or social networking site. (Support: MSDN)

Dark Aurora (1500 × 1125) Wallpaper from Long Zheng


Digital Blasphemy's Free 3D Wallpapers - "really-cool" 3rd party wallpapers (Support: MSDN)

Exchange Server Team's three wallpapers with their new logo


FlipClock Screensaver (Support: MSDN)

Flittrbook, a WPF screensaver mashup of three popular social networking sites: Flickr, Twitter, & Facebook. (Support: MSDN)

Halo 3 Wallpaper

How to Customize ScreenSavers via Registry.

New Zealand Bliss backgrounds & Wallpaper

(RED) Wallpapers raise awareness for women & children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Silverlight Team's “Dusk” DreamScene - Standard & Widescreen

Silverlight Team's Wallpaper - Dawn "Blue" & Dusk "Black" inspired widescreen and 4:3 desktop wallpapers

Virtual Earth Screensaver reads RSS feeds to show interesting Virtual Earth birdseye and satellite images with users' information

Vista Ultimate Wallpapers - 2 "Ultimate" themed wallpapers in widescreen and 4:3 aspect ratio


Vista Wallpapers by Hamad Darwish

Vista's Winning Wallpapers from Microsoft Singapore

Wallpapers from Microsoft Employees: Michael Swanson & Mikhail Arkhipov's 1920 x 1200 (16:10 aspect ratio "widescreen") & 1600 x 1200 (4:3 aspect ratio "standard"), Peggi Goodwin's Gorgeous Nature Images (various resolution)

Xbox 360 "Jump in" Holiday Wallpaper - 800 x 600 & 1024 x 768

WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 11 SKINS from Microsoft

• • Anemone Get into Oceanography!
  • BlueGrid A neat & organized desktop
  • Cerulean Android-like skin
  • Circle Overlapping circular disks
  • Claw Sink your claws into this
  • Color Chooser Select different background colors to suit your mood
  • Crystal Ball Look deeply into this crystal ball . . .
  • Digital DJ Automatically builds skins based on different playlist preferences
  • Gadget Cool gadget-style
  • Goo A splash of organic goo
  • Modern Blue Soft swirls of blue
  • MSN Keep up on entertainment news
  • Ocean Ocean breeze
  • Pharaoh Go back in time
  • Polygon Are you into geometry?
  • RAD Get techno
  • Radio Old-fashioned radio
  • Science Cool Chemistry
  • Toothy Your "best friend" who stays until the party's over
  • Tube Frame featuring SRS WOW effects

[Pan]

GAMES

GAMES for Windows Vista from MSN's Game Zone


Go (traditional Chinese board game) by Microsoft's Xu Wang

Hua Rong Dao Game from Microsoft's Xu Wang


Rubik's Cube Game from Microsoft's Xu Wang

Sudoku Game from Microsoft's Carlos Aguilar Mares

Windows Pranks:

• • April Fool's Day Prank that wait until the assigned time and then runs one of two (or both!) effects: Desktop Zoom In/Out and Desktop Rotate!
  • Halloween Prank involving "dripping animated blood down a victim's screen"

SECURITY, BACKUP & DATA TRANSFER

Easy Transfer automatically copies files, photos, music, email and settings to your Windows Vista based PC.

Malicious Software Removal Tool (32 & 64 bit) detects and removes infections by malware.

SyncToy helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers quickly and easily.



Windows Live OneCare service has been upgraded to support Windows Vista.

Windows NT Backup - Restore Utility restores backups made on Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003.

HARDWARE

Fingerprint Reader - DigitalPersona Password Manager 2.0 (Support: How to . . .)

Habu Gaming Mice Drivers & Firmware

Keyboard IntelliType 6.2 for Windows Vista and Vista 64

LifeChat Headset

Mouse & Trackball IntelliPoint 6.2 for Windows Vista and Vista 64 (Support: How to . . . )

Webcams LifeCam

XBox 360 Controller & Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows Vista & Vista 64 (Support: DOC)

WINDOWS VISTA DEVELOPERS

DebugView monitor debug output on a local system, or any computer on the network via TCP/IP. It displays both kernel-mode and Win32 debug output, so you don't need a debugger to catch the debug output your applications or device drivers generate, nor do you need to modify applications or drivers to use non-standard debug output APIs.

Debug Diagnostic Tool is designed to assist in troubleshooting issues such as hangs, slow performance, memory leaks or fragmentation, and crashes in any Win32 user-mode process.

Debugging Tools for Windows - used to debug drivers, applications, and services on systems running both 32 bit & 64 bit versions of Windows.

Fiddler HTTP & HTTPS Website Debugging PowerTool supports viewing and modifying HTTP & HTTPS traffic. It also can be saved to Visual Studio WebTest files.

Image Colorizer demonstrates how to write an application for colorizing digital photos using the inking support provided by Tablet PC APIs.

LUA Buglight helps developers & IT Pros (sysadmins) identify specific causes of admin-permissions issues (a.k.a. LUA bugs) in desktop applications. (Support: MSDN)

PowerShell & PowerShell 64 command-line shell & scripting language allows managing computers via commands or scripts, improving productivity through system automation. (Support: Website)

Graphical Help File (including cmdlet help and the About topics) in a fully-searchable, graphical format (a standard Windows .chm file). Also included in the help file is the VBScript to Windows PowerShell Conversion Guide and a collection of PowerShell Tips of the Week.

PowerGUI is an extensible graphical administrative console for managing systems based on Windows PowerShell. The tool allows to use the rich capabilities of Windows PowerShell in a familiar and intuitive GUI console. (Support: MSDN)

PowerShell + console embedded in a rich and intuitive user interface. (Support: PowerShell Team)

Product Identification Tool creates a product signature for your installed application.

Robotics Studio is an environment to create robotics applications across a wide variety of hardware.

Introductory Courseware demonstrates common robotics concepts such as reading sensors, controlling actuators, designing simple behaviors, and having a robot interacting with its environment.

SQL Server 2005 Express Edition is a free lightweight, and embeddable version of SQL Server 2005. (Support: Books Online)

Storyboard Designer is used to diagram (model) and generate documentation for a storyboard scenario.

Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions. (Support: SDK)


Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions (Individual Files or ISO Image) includes:

• • Visual Web Developer 2008 Express
  • Visual Basic 2008 Express
  • Visual C# 2008 Express
  • SQL Server 2005 Compact
  • SQL Server 2005 Express
  • MSDN Express Documentation

Windows Media Center Software Development Kit - Documentation, tools, & sample code for developing Windows Media Center applications & services.

• • Media Center Markup Language Preview Tool provides a graphical user interface to craft the command line parameters which can be used with the Media Center Markup Language Preview Tool available with the Windows Media Center SDK.

Windows Movie Maker and Windows DVD Maker Software Developers Kit create & add custom special effects and transitions to Windows Movie Maker; also create custom transitions, buttons, and menu styles to Windows DVD Maker.

Windows Vista Software Developers Kit includes documentation, samples, and tools designed to help develop applications & libraries using both Win32 & .NET Framework 3.0 technologies. (Also: ISO Image)

DONE!!!



Credits go to bhandler

[35yeros]

thanks man, i'm checking these out =D

[Pan]

your welcome