Free from Microsoft

Everybody loves getting something for nothing. But I bet you never realized how much great software Microsoft gives away for free. And when I say free, I don't mean a free 60-day trial. Here are some of the highlights.

AntiVirus:

Microsoft Security Essentials is not only a free antivirus program, but it is the best antivirus program period. I like it more than any other antivirus program, free or otherwise.

Compilers:

Microsoft Visual Studio Express Edition is a completely free version of their flagship compiler. You can't compile every type of Windows program with this version, some of the more esoteric areas of Windows (like Office development) aren't included. But for general use it's pretty full featured.

The Windows Driver Kit is definitely not the most downloaded file from Microsoft. It is intended for developers writing device drivers for Windows. But it does include a C/C++ compiler which can compile more than just kernel code. Visual Studio Express is going to be a better all-around choice, but between the two of these I'm sure you could compile most any program.

Operating Systems:

That's right, Microsoft gives away free versions of Windows. The first I've talked about before, Windows PE. The download is called WAIK, inside of which is WinPE and all the tools and instructions necessary to create a WinPE CD. Whereas WinPE won't make a great general-use operating system, it can run a lot of Windows programs and is a great platform for diagnostics and maintenance. Let's say you run Ubuntu on your system and there is a new BIOS you need to update your system with, but the update program only runs under Windows - how do you install the update? Simple, you boot your system temporarily to WinPE and install the update.

Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is another completely free version of Windows. This is the "core" version of Windows meaning it doesn't have a graphical Explorer like other Windows. But it is a full-blown copy of Windows.

Whereas Virtual PC 2007 isn't technically an operating system, it is a PC emulator for Windows. This means you can run any operating system virtually on Windows; DOS, Windows, Linux, OS/2, Mac, etc.

Office:

Microsoft Mathematics is a fairly powerful mathematics package. Think of it as a graphing calculator on your computer. Great for students, engineers, scientists, etc.

The Excel, Word, and PowerPoint viewers allow you to view and print Office documents without having to buy and install Microsoft Office. But unfortunately you cannot create or edit documents. But if all you need is to view documents, then these are perfect.

There you have it, 10 free programs from Microsoft which are all very useful.