{"id":65,"date":"2009-01-12T17:52:10","date_gmt":"2009-01-12T16:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.internet-tools.co.uk\/blog\/?p=65"},"modified":"2009-01-12T17:52:10","modified_gmt":"2009-01-12T16:52:10","slug":"free-microsoft-applications-to-enhance-windows-xp-and-2003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.internet-tools.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2009\/01\/12\/free-microsoft-applications-to-enhance-windows-xp-and-2003\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Microsoft Applications to Enhance Windows XP and 2003"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Last Update: 11th Jan 2009<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Hi all,<\/p>\n<p>As a developer I tend to install an awful lot of freeware, shareware and paid-for applications on my PC in order to assist me with the day-to-day development of applications.<\/p>\n<p>However&#8230; over the years I have noticed a trend where Microsoft themselves release a lot of &#8221;applets&#8217; under the guise of &#8220;Microsoft Research&#8221;, &#8220;Technet&#8221; or &#8220;SysInternals&#8221; (<a title=\"www.SysInternals.com\" href=\"http:\/\/www.SysInternals.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.SysInternals.com<\/a> is now part of Microsoft Technet)<\/p>\n<p>I have compiled a (not exhaustive, so please contribute) list of my favourite utilities and applications which are mainly from Microsoft (with a couple from other sources) that enhance Windows XP and Windows 2003. I haven&#8217;t tested them on Vista (as I still don&#8217;t use it!), but I suspect most of them will still work.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>SysInternals Applets<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"Process Explorer\" href=\"http:\/\/technet.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sysinternals\/bb896653.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Process Explorer<\/a> &#8211; A proper replacement for Windows Task Manager. This improved applet allows you to explore each process properly (instead of just showing 20 copies of RunDll32.exe like Windows Task Manager does!)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"width: 580px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Process Explorer\" src=\"http:\/\/i.technet.microsoft.com\/bb896653.ProcessExplorer(en-us,MSDN.10).jpg\" alt=\"Process Explorer in Action\" width=\"570\" height=\"414\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Process Explorer in Action<\/p><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"FileMon\" href=\"http:\/\/technet.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sysinternals\/bb896642.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">FileMon<\/a> &#8211; This shows all real-time file activity (with the ability to filter). Without this application I never would have fixed the album artwork issue I had on my Media PC (everything showed up as &#8216;The Searchers&#8217; !!!)<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"TCPView\" href=\"http:\/\/technet.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sysinternals\/bb897437.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">TCPView<\/a> &#8211; This displays a list of all open TCP sockets, their destinations and the application that opened them. Essential for tracking trojan or malware infections.<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"ADExplorer\" href=\"http:\/\/technet.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sysinternals\/bb963907.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">ADExplorer<\/a> &#8211; Ideal lightweight tool for exploring Active Directory or LDAP servers. Fast, portable and free!<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"BGInfo\" href=\"http:\/\/technet.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sysinternals\/bb897557.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">BGInfo<\/a> &#8211; Great applet for Server Installations. You can use this tool to display the configuration (machine name, IP address, MAC address + much more) as the desktop background. Great when you are using a KVM to access multiple machines.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"BGInfo\" src=\"http:\/\/i.technet.microsoft.com\/bb897557.BgInfo(en-us,MSDN.10).jpg\" alt=\"BGInfo in action\" width=\"550\" height=\"414\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">BGInfo in action<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Powertoys \/ Control Panel Tweaks<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"Sequoiview\" href=\"http:\/\/w3.win.tue.nl\/nl\/onderzoek\/onderzoek_informatica\/visualization\/sequoiaview\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sequoia View<\/a> &#8211; An excellent tool for visualising the contents of your hard disk (and where all the space went!)<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Download Link - Cleartype Tuning\" href=\"http:\/\/download.microsoft.com\/download\/b\/7\/0\/b7019730-0fa3-47a9-a159-98b80c185aad\/setup.exe\" target=\"_self\">ClearType Tuning Control Panel<\/a> &#8211; &#8216;Tunes&#8217; the ClearType fonts to make them work with your LCD Display<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Direct Download - Command Prompt Here\" href=\"http:\/\/download.microsoft.com\/download\/whistler\/Install\/2\/WXP\/EN-US\/CmdHerePowertoySetup.exe\" target=\"_self\">Command Prompt Here<\/a> &#8211; Add&#8217;s an &#8216;Open Command Prompt Here&#8217; option to Explorer&#8217;s right-click menu<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Direct Download - TweakUI\" href=\"http:\/\/download.microsoft.com\/download\/f\/c\/a\/fca6767b-9ed9-45a6-b352-839afb2a2679\/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe\" target=\"_self\">TweakUI<\/a> &#8211; this is the ultimate Windows XP powertool, letting you change *lots* of system settings&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Fun Stuff &amp; Utilities<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"TimerShot\" href=\"http:\/\/download.microsoft.com\/download\/whistler\/Install\/2\/WXP\/EN-US\/TimershotPowertoySetup.exe\">Webcam Timershot<\/a> &#8211; Takes a picture of from your Webcam and saves it to your hard disk at preset intervals<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Microsodt Virtual PC\" href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/downloads\/details.aspx?familyid=6d58729d-dfa8-40bf-afaf-20bcb7f01cd1&amp;displaylang=en\" target=\"_blank\">Virtual PC<\/a> &#8211; Lets you run Windows, Linux or even Windows Server on your PC as a &#8216;Virtual Machine&#8217;<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Direct Download - Zune Theme\" href=\"http:\/\/download.microsoft.com\/download\/e\/a\/9\/ea9af5ae-b48e-473e-85fe-dcde7472e644\/ZuneDesktopTheme.msi\" target=\"_self\">Zune Desktop Theme<\/a> &#8211; Get a nice tidy &#8216;Black&#8217; look to your Windows XP desktop<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Direct Download - Mount ISO's\" href=\"http:\/\/download.microsoft.com\/download\/7\/b\/6\/7b6abd84-7841-4978-96f5-bd58df02efa2\/winxpvirtualcdcontrolpanel_21.exe\" target=\"_self\">Mount ISO&#8217;s<\/a> &#8211; This applet works like Daemon Tools, allowing you to mount an ISO as a virtual CD Rom drive<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>System Application\/Applet Replacements<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"Notepad2\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flos-freeware.ch\/notepad2.html\" target=\"_blank\">Notepad2<\/a> &#8211; Everything that Notepad should have been! Line numbers, syntax highlighting, plus much more&#8230;<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"7Zip\" href=\"http:\/\/www.7zip.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">7Zip<\/a> &#8211; Everything that PKZip used to be&#8230;. the ultimate Zip\/unzipper, and even supports all those nasty .gz and .tar unix formats as well!<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"PuTTY\" href=\"http:\/\/www.chiark.greenend.org.uk\/~sgtatham\/putty\/download.html\" target=\"_blank\">PuTTY<\/a> &#8211; Forget Hyperterminal, PuTTY is a *tiny* Telnet application that also supports SSH, Serial and just about every terminal type you will need. Ideal to put on your USB key.<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"UltraVNC\" href=\"http:\/\/www.uvnc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">UltraVNC<\/a> &#8211; This is a cross-platform remote control application that works in the same manner as PCAnywhere or GoToMyPC, except it&#8217;s &#8216;Free&#8217;, fast and works with all the VNC protocols. This means you can effectively control a Linux box from Windows (and visa-versa) or even your server from a mobile phone!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I will be updating this list periodically, but please feel free to comment with some more suggestions!<\/p>\n<p>Paul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last Update: 11th Jan 2009 Hi all, As a developer I tend to install an awful lot of freeware, shareware and paid-for applications on my PC in order to assist me with the day-to-day development of applications. However&#8230; over the years I have noticed a trend where Microsoft themselves release a lot of &#8221;applets&#8217; under [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,3,9,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-applications","category-general-stuff","category-hacking","category-operating-systems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.internet-tools.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.internet-tools.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.internet-tools.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internet-tools.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internet-tools.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.internet-tools.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68,"href":"https:\/\/www.internet-tools.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions\/68"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.internet-tools.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internet-tools.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internet-tools.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}