7 Free Microsoft Programs that You Can Try out

Microsoft does not have many Windows programs that is free. However, still there are quite a few free software from Microsoft that is worth checking out. But, you have to look at right place to find it. This article lists 7 free software from Microsoft that you may take a look.

• Paint.NET: It started as a project from Washington State University. This tool is a good image and photo editing product which was developed on .NET technology framework. The software has a cool user interface and it is user friendly.Paint.NET provides all the essential image editing features you need, plus layers, special effects, and support for a wide range of image formats. You can find lots of help and tutorials and it supports Windows 7.
• Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition: If you are a web developer , you may take a look at Visual web Developer 2008 Express edition. The developing environment allows you to create web site for smaller applications.  This tool is suitable for beginners and intermediate level developers. The feature includes a wide variety of Web sites, from the most basic HTML to more advanced ASP.NET pages or SQL Server databases.
• XML Notepad 2007:  If you are looking for powerful XML editor, you may investigate XML Notepad 2007. The features for User interface includes a tree view pane on the left that provides a color-coded view of classes, tags, and values. The main text editor pane shows all text on the right, which is synchronized and color matched to its associated identifier on the left. The other essential features include drag and drop, find and replace, incremental search, instant XML schema validation, a built-in XML Diff tool etc.
• SQL Server Express 2008: You can use this database for desktop, web and small server applications. This is a trimmed version of SQL Server. The software comes with three editions: Express, Express with tools and Express with advanced services. It is easy to use and provides the same database engine as in SQL Server full edition.
• Virtual PC 2007: Virtual PC is a virtualization program for Microsoft Windows Operating System. You can create and run one or more virtual machines, each with its own operating system, on a single computer. Supported windows operating system can run in Virtual PC. The new release is available only for Windows 7.
  
• Worldwide Telescope: This new program from Microsoft runs on Windows platform. You can view outer space using this tool. Users are able to pan around outer space and zoom as far into any one area as the data will allow. It gets the image from Hubble Telescope. Using this telescope, you can view the sky in many wavelengths of light.
• ServerQuest II Game:  ServerQuset ll is the follow up of original Server Quest. But, it was built on Silverlight instead of Flash. Server Quest II is pretty much more of the same: You play through a day in the life of an IT professional and get all the benefits that come along with it. There are different games and puzzles including Boss Launch and a number of other entries from the Server Quest Contest .