Most useful downloads from Microsoft

[noaccount]

Hey guys,
What do you think are the most useful downloads from Microsoft? I got tired of browsing their download center.

[boyzee]

Found this it may help - Ultimate List of Free Windows XP Software & Resources from Microsoft

It says XP but if you look at the top there is Vista & Office programs also.

[JayCub]

Good share boyzee i came across this before as it's quite a comprehensive list..

[Ande]

Sounds like a sticky in the making!

[noaccount]

Okay i know that list thanks... i was hoping we could discuss which downloads from MS (no Sysinternals and 3rd party plz) are useful to have on a Vista / 7 toolkit... for instance, i have Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, MS Network Monitor (some might say they prefer Wireshark so this will not be relevant to them) and i am also testing latest Application Compatibility Toolkit... XP specific tools like TweakUI or SteadyState, most of PowerToys, User Profile Hive Cleanup are now also discontinued or were never updated to newer oses so i'm not interested... let's try to focus on Vista / 7 compatible apps, another one i think it's relevant is the latest EMET...

[MS.]

Found this it may help - Ultimate List of Free Windows XP Software & Resources from Microsoft

It says XP but if you look at the top there is Vista & Office programs also.

Thanks for the link

[safeguy]

EMET
.NET Framework
Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats (if you're using Office 2003)
2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS (if you're using Office 2007 or 2010)

and....
Service Pack 3 for Windows XP (if you're still using XP SP2)

Those are the ones I view as important....but that's for me, of course. I hardly need to use the other tools provided by MS...

[Boyfriend]

@safeguy
My current preferences are exactly same + Office 2007 SP2 (in case I need to install Office 2007). If you install Office 2007 SP2, then you do not need “Save as PDF or XPS” Add-in as SP2 install it automatically. For Office 2010, you also do not need it, as it is included in default installation (dispute between Adobe and Microsoft for including PDF Add-in in Office 2007 suite was solved perhaps in early 2009).

[hellnoire]

I'd have to say Windows XP Tweak UI. So much you can modify... just a shame there's no free tool that offers that much in Vista or 7.

[JayCub]

Perhaps for now the closest to tweak Ui for Vista and 7 is Ultimate Windows tweaker