Microsoft’s free tools

Byline: MArk Schroder

Hidden deep within Microsoft’s web servers are several gigabytes of very useful free tools. Mark SchrA[paragraph]der checks out over 100 of the best for Windows, security, internet, Office and multimedia

Every year, Microsoft publishes more than 1,000 new downloads. Its official website at www.microsoft.com/downloads lists about 8,800 files; in addition to these there are the development tools from the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and administrative utilities at Technet (http://technet.microsoft.com).

With so many add-on utilities, updates, widgets and documents, it is almost impossible to find the download to solve your problem or to perform a particular task. And Microsoft’s policy of not allowing magazines to distribute these programs and tools on their cover discs means that many of these useful programs go unnoticed.

So, in the tables later in this feature, we’ve done the donkey work and given you direct links to each piece of software — most of them are very small in size, so shouldn’t take too long to download, even for those using dial-up internet access.

Tools from Microsoft’s labs

Microsoft’s Download Area is not your only point of contact for software. We have frequently found tools, officially still under development, that work fine. You can often find these programs online in Microsoft’s Research Area (http://research.microsoft.com) or as links in blogs posted by Microsoft workers.

Examples include the Scalable Fabric desktop management system, which transforms the XP interface into a virtual desk; or the Virtual Wifi tool, that allows connections to multiple wireless networks using a single hardware adapter.

Security under Windows is always a big discussion topic. Spyware has become a serious problem and Microsoft is working on solutions. Windows Defender is one solution to the problem of effective data protection. Another everyday problem is the difficulty when taking group photos — there is always someone who isn’t looking at the camera. Group Shot solves this problem by merging multiple segments from separate pictures.

Windows Tools

Microsoft makes available a wide range of utilities for Windows, ranging from universally useful programs, such as Windows Desktop Search, to specialist utilities, such as the Color Control Panel Applet.

Windows Desktop Search

Find data on your PC quickly and reliably

Compared with the built-in search tools in Windows XP, Windows Desktop Search will also find words or phrases in emails, attachments, chat records or documents. You can also search through music and video files. The utility adds itself to the Taskbar — unobtrusive, but always ready for use.

Hits can be displayed either in a pop-up window or in your browser. You can access the last-used search terms, preview the hits and start an online search with just a mouse-click. Filters for other file types, such as Pdfs or Open Office documents, can easily be added.

Group Bar

Control the way programs are grouped on the Taskbar

Group Bar guarantees the user control over a large number of programs that are running at the same time.

Using Group Bar, you can arrange various tasks into different application-independent groups. So you can put one Excel file into one group and another spreadsheet into another group.

You can control how the grouped tasks are displayed by right-clicking on the green grouping areas: minimise them, arrange them next to one another, save the current view as a Snapshot or close them all at once.

USB Flash Drive Manager

Synchronise data between a removable USB memory key and a PC

USB Flash Drive Manager offers functions for synchronising data between USB media and your hard disk, including the synchronising of drives, folders and, if required, individual files (see screen 1). Just a few clicks on the Settings tab enables you to transfer, for example, the configuration settings for a wireless Lan from a desktop computer to a USB key for use in configuring further PCs.

Shared Computer Toolkit

The best way to lock down a shared computer

You can use the Shared Computer Toolkit to protect publicly accessible PCs or your own home computer from unauthorised access. This utility also prevents writing to or deleting from the hard disk. An eight-step wizard guides you through all the necessary configuration options. Included is a password checker and a limited user profile checker.

Keyboard Convert Service

Use a foreign keyboard layout in English XP

You can use Keyboard Convert Service to switch between keyboard layouts. It makes use of the keyboard languages installed by Windows, such as Arabic, Czech, Greek and Russian. Keyboard Convert Service can switch the layout before text is entered or can alter the properties of selected paragraphs in Word so they appear as though they were entered with a foreign keyboard.

Color Control Panel Applet

Advanced control of Windows colour management settings

Colour management is essential for designers and photographers, requiring the installation of special software. Color Control Panel Applet is one such program that installs itself in the Control Panel (see screen 2).

With the help of an ICC (International Color Consortium) colour profile for the monitor, printer or scanner you can get both the display and output to be as accurate as possible. If there is more than one ICC profile installed on the system, you can use the Color Control Panel Applet’s Profiles tab to compare profile graphs by clicking on the magnifier in the lower-right corner of the window.

Scalable Fabric

A Vista-like interactive desktop for Windows XP

Scalable Fabric is a novel experiment in user interaction for Windows XP. This tool can be used to define a ‘boundary area’ on your desktop. Inside this area, all open program windows behave as usual and are displayed at normal size, but if you drag a program window out of the boundary area, it is automatically minimised.

The mini-views get smaller the further a program is dragged to the edge of your desktop. If two or more miniaturised programs are placed on top of each another, you can create groups of tasks which react together if moved within, or are dragged out of, the focus area (see screen 3).

Security Tools

Microsoft’s recent increased focus on security is reflected by numerous special tools, which you can use to make Windows more secure.

Windows Defender Beta 2

Protect your PC from spyware

You can use the Windows Defender utility to check your computer for spyware and, if necessary, remove any malicious code.

Quick Scan checks the typical places where spyware hides on a PC, such as the Registry. The optional Full Scan goes through the whole system looking for suspicious code. You can carry out a manual check using the Software Explorer from the Tools which also checks for running programs (see screen 4). This function also provides an overview of applications in the Autostart folder, loaded programs and utilities with an active network connection.

Regular updates, which can be set to download automatically, prevent new spyware from installing itself. Officially, this software is still in beta, but in our tests it worked fine.

Malicious Software Removal Tool

A tool to clean up after a virus infection

The Malicious Software Removal Tool helps owners of infected PCs to clean up their systems. It has search and removal routines for widely distributed internet parasites, such as Blaster and Mydoom, plus hundreds of variants of viruses and worms.

Microsoft adds new virus definitions every month. You can run the program without installing it. If the tool finds malicious programs, it removes them automatically and records any modifications made in a log file.

However, it does not offer protection against virus infection, and therefore we strongly recommend that you also install a virus scanner.

Promqry UI

Check the security of your internet connections

Promqry UI checks all of a system’s available network interfaces for security. After starting a Query, all the installed adapters are interrogated. Promqry UI investigates whether or not they are working in Promiscuous Mode.

This can indicate the activity of network sniffers that might be logging or spying on network traffic. To check the communication within a network, you can scan the data traffic between a remote computer or several remote computers by entering an IP address or an IP range.

Port Reporter/PR Parser

Analyse your software’s network traffic

Port Reporter installs itself as a service under Windows. It can be started either manually or automatically at boot-up, and it then logs all TCP and UDP network activity.

Port Reporter stores its log files in the Windows\System32 directory. The log files contain a detailed report on which programs are using which ports and which remote computers they communicated with. PR Parser acts as a viewer for the log files.

Outlook 2003 Junk Filter Update

Spam filter for Outlook

The level of frustration caused by spam is enormous, especially as the number of spam messages often far exceeds the number of genuine emails.

Microsoft now publishes new spam definitions at the same time as the regular monthly updates for the Outlook 2003 junk filter. The update is worthwhile, as its definitions enable the otherwise rudimentary Outlook anti-spam function to reliably weed out advertising.

To increase the filter’s effectiveness, select Tools/Options in Outlook and click on the Junk Email button on the Settings tab. On the Options tab, alter the aggressiveness of the junk filter. In addition to this, you can add Trusted and Blocked senders to further limit who can contact you by email.

Add-in to remove hidden data

Get rid of hidden text from office documents

Word, Excel and Powerpoint save metadata, which could contain sensitive information, along with the visible content.

The Remove Hidden Data tool deletes such things as the record of changes, author details, hyperlinks or highlighted text. This utility adds itself to the File menu in Office applications. Clicking on Remove hidden data opens a dialogue box for you to enter a name for the cleaned-up version of the document. The add-in then scans the original files and removes all misleading or unwanted information.

Multimedia Tools

Your computer can double as a music box, photo album or video recorder by extending Windows XP with suitable free utilities.

Video Screensaver Powertoy

Use your own videos as screensavers

Instead of the fluttering 3D Windows flags, XP users can be entertained by videos during breaks (see screen 5).

The Video Screensaver Powertoy uses not just videos in Windows’ own Wmv format, but the program will also accept Avi, mp3 and Wav files. Winamp playlists can be used as a source too.

The configuration of the screensaver is done via the Control Panel’s display settings. In a dialogue box, you can specify whether the videos should be played at an accelerated or slowed-down speed. You can preview the files using the Windows Media Player.

Windows Media Connect

Transfer music from your PC to your stereo system

Windows Media Connect transforms your XP computer into a media server. On UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)-capable devices this software can stream user-selected multimedia content via a wired or wireless network.

Any directories on the PC or in the network domain containing music, photo or video files can be streamed. With the right UPnP hardware the content can then be played back on a television or stereo system. The program can use mp3 and Wav as well as Wma audio files and video in Avi, DVR-MS, Mpeg1/2 or Wmv formats. It can also use Winamp playlists.

Raw Image Thumbnailer and Viewer

Display Raw files from your digital camera

This add-on for Canon and Nikon digital cameras adds functions for viewing, organising and printing camera Raw format files to Windows XP.

As soon as it has been installed, you can manipulate the Raw images. For example, you can display thumbnails in Windows Explorer and view the file metadata. You can also use the Properties button to show a view, in a translucent window, of all the information stored in the Raw file (see screen 6).

Group Shot

Clever fixing tool for group photos

With a few mouse clicks you can use Group Shot to paste together a perfect group picture from several failed shots.

To do this, use the rectangular selection tool to select the correct portion of each of the originals. There is no need for precision, as the software recognises edges, shadows and overlapping objects automatically (see screen 7).

Rotation of the source material and brightness and contrast adjustment can also be set automatically, although you can do the corrections manually from the Tools menu. Group Shot can use photos in Bmp, Jpeg and Tiff formats, but can only export finished compositions as Jpeg files.

Internet Tools

Microsoft is having to pile on the pressure in the internet service market to compete with Google and others. The best results so far are the MSN Screen Saver and the Search Result Clustering Toolbar.

Search Result Clustering Toolbar

Sorting tool for web search results

The SRC (Search Result Clustering) internet search engine, which automatically categorises results from the MSN Index, is a product of Microsoft’s Chinese research labs.

Enter a search term into the toolbar as normal and in a few seconds you get a list of matches in your browser. In addition, SRC shows clusters of hits within the numbers of results in the left margin. These groups are sorted according to the number and relevance of the sites found. You can then browse the cluster just as you would a directory tree in Windows Explorer.

MSN Screen Saver

RSS-enabled screensaver

MSN provides a screensaver that displays Jpeg images and shows information from RSS feeds in a translucent window.

Several feeds from the US channel MSNBC are included as standard, but you can easily add your own favourite feeds.

Another window displays current weather data — although for selected US cities only. The MSN screensaver can establish a link to MSN Messenger to recall incoming messages. The program can even automatically check Hotmail accounts for new messages.

Virtual Wifi

Access multiple Wifi networks simultaneously using a single adapter

Virtualisation is a topic on everyone’s lips. Virtual Wifi works by tricking the operating system into thinking there are several wireless network adapters installed. This makes it possible to simultaneously access multiple wireless networks with a single hardware device.

Under XP, those programs can access the virtual Wifi adapter and use it for data transfer, just like a real one. It is also possible to connect to wireless networks using different standards (such as 802.11a and 802.11g) if the hardware adapter supports them.

For Virtual Wifi, Microsoft’s developers use a process that rapidly changes the connection back and forth between the various networks.

Remote Desktop Connection Software

PC remote control via the web

To allow you to carry out support tasks directly on a remote PC, Windows XP has a feature called Remote Desktop Connection.

This allows you to demonstrate how to do things directly on the screen of another computer over the internet. If the target computer is not running XP, but an older version (Windows 9x, ME, NT4 or 2000), then this function will not be available.

But help is at hand in the form of the Remote Desktop Connection Software. After installing the client software on the remote computer you can access it from a Windows XP Professional system on which the Remote Desktop Connection is active.

To do this, click the Start button and select the corresponding entry under Programs/Accessories/Communications and enter the remote computer’s IP address.

Office Tools

Office 2003 has been on the market for nearly four years, and Office 2007 with its new-look interface will soon be released. However, there are a few real gems among the free Office tools.

Lookout

Advanced search for Outlook emails

Lookout makes it possible to search for emails, attachments and address data within Outlook.

A toolbar embeds itself in the Outlook interface. Type a search term into an input field, and Lookout then displays the matches in a new window. In this window, you can use the Restrict option to filter, for example, results from a certain time period or certain contacts. Microsoft also uses the technology from Lookout in Windows Desktop Search and Outlook 2007.

Snarf

Social networking add-on for Outlook

Email clients have not yet fully mastered social networking. Outlook might have lots of filters and sorting options, but it is lacking routines for analysing the relationships between email contacts.

Microsoft has changed this with Snarf (an abbreviation for Social Relationship and Network Finder). The program sorts mails, for example, into personal messages, mail-to lists and subscribed newsletters.

A special function of Snarf is the virtual meeting, in which a conversation is shown as a flow chart. Snarf prioritises correspondents with whom you frequently exchange email in a process called ‘email triage’, to assess the importance of unread emails and display them with the most important at the top.

Word Redaction

Black out sensitive passages in documents

Microsoft Word does not have a function for blacking out sensitive words. The Word Redaction Add-In adds a tool bar to Word 2003. You use the mouse to select passages to obscure; these then appear on screen with a grey background.

The Redact Document menu option then creates a new file in which the selected words are replaced by black blocks. To be really certain that a word can’t be guessed from its length, the amount of black around the hidden word can be increased. This will foil those readers who want to work out the original text based on the length of the blacked-out area. PCW