Microsoft Silverlight (formerly known as code name “WPF/E”) is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET-based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.

Silverlight helps you create rich web applications that run on Mac OS, Windows, and Linux. Welcome to a new level of engaging, rich, safe, secure, and scalable cross-platform experiences.

Delivers the highest performance, true HD video experiences on the web.

Silverlight enables companies to design, develop, and deliver powerful applications and experiences for the web. It’s a browser plug-in that works with Mac OS, Windows, Linux, and devices. Best of all, it’s free, only 4MBs, and installs in ten seconds.

Requirements: Windows 7; Windows Vista; Windows XP; Windows 2003; Windows 2008; Mac OS X.

Download: Silverlight 3.0.50106.0

Download: Microsoft Silverlight 4.0.50303 RC

IntelliPoint even offers biometrics support for advanced identity management. If you have a Bluetooth mouse or keyboard, you will need to have Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installed.

The mouse software (IntelliPoint) is also available for the 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP, Vista and 7.

Download: IntelliPoint 7.1 Mouse Software for Windows

Microsoft releases an updated version of this tool on the second Tuesday of each month, and as needed to respond to security incidents. The tool is available from Microsoft Update, Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center.

This tool is not a replacement for an anti-virus product. To help protect your computer, you should use an anti-virus product.

System Requirements

· Supported Operating Systems:Windows 2000; Windows 7; Windows Server 2003; Windows Vista; Windows XP

Download: Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool 3.5

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.

Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times.

Key Features

• Comprehensive malware protection
• Simple, free download
• Automatic updates
• Easy to use

Runs on Windows XP 32‐bit, Windows Vista/Windows 7 32‐bit, Windows Vista/Windows 7 64‐bit.

Download: Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 1.0.1961.0

• The .NET Framework 4 works side by side with the Framework version 3.5 SP1. Applications that are based on earlier versions of the Framework will continue to run on that version. Just a subset of functionality is shared by all versions of the Framework.

• Innovations in the Visual Basic and C# languages, for example statement lambdas, implicit line continuations, dynamic dispatch, and named/optional parameters.

• The ADO.NET Entity Framework, which simplifies how developers program against relational databases by raising the level of abstraction, has many new features. These includes persistence ignorance and POCO support, lazy loading, test-driven development support, functions in model, and new LINQ operators.

• Enhancements to ASP.NET:
 · New JavaScript UI Templates and databinding capabilities for AJAX.
 · New ASP.NET chart control.

• Improvements in WPF:
 · Added support in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) for Windows 7 multi-touch, ribbon controls, and taskbar extensibility features.
 · Added support in WPF for Surface 2.0 SDK.
 · New line-of-business controls including charting control, smart edit, data grid, and others that improve the experience for developers who build data centric applications.
 · Improvements in performance and scalability.
 · Visual improvements in text clarity, layout pixel snapping, localization, and interoperability.

• Improvements to Windows Workflow (WF) that let developers to better host and interact with workflows. These include an improved activity programming model, an improved designer experience, a new flowchart modeling style, an expanded activity palette, workflow-rules integration, and new message correlation features. The .NET Framework also offers significant performance gains for WF-based workflows.

• Improvements to Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) such as support for WCF Workflow Services enabling workflow programs with messaging activities, correlation support, durable two-way communication and rich hosting capabilities. Additionally, .NET Framework 4 provides new WCF features such as service discovery, router service, simplified configuration and a number of improvements to queuing, REST support, diagnostics, and performance.

• Innovative new parallel programming features such as parallel loop support, Task Parallel Library (TPL), Parallel LINQ (PLINQ), and coordination data structures which let developers harness the power of multi-core processors.

System Requirements
• Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista; Windows XP

More details:
 · Windows XP SP3
 · Windows Server 2003 SP2
 · Windows Vista SP1 or later
 · Windows Server 2008 or later (not supported in Server Core Role)
 · Windows 7
 · Windows Server 2008 R2 (not supported in Server Core Role)

Architecture:
 · x86
 · x64
 · ia64 (some features are supported in ia64 for example, WPF).

Download: Microsoft .NET Framework 4 RC

Microsoft DirectX End-User Runtime provides updates to 9.0c and previous versions of DirectX — the core Windows technology that drives high-speed multimedia and games on the PC.

Microsoft DirectX is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. DirectX includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX APIs.

Microsoft DirectX End-User Runtime will update your current version of DirectX — the core Windows technology that drives high-speed multimedia and games on the PC.

Download: DirectX End-User Runtime 9.28.1886

This package is localized into Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Swedish, and English.

System Requirements
• Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7; Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista; Windows XP 64-bit; Windows XP Service Pack 3

Download: DirectX End-User Runtimes Redistributable 9.28.1886 (February 2010)

From any artist, album, or song, Smart DJ will generate a related playlist from the music on your computer and new music from Zune Marketplace.

With Zune software, you can play and organize media on your PC, browse Zune Marketplace, share music throughout your home, and sync to your Zune device.

Putting the Zune software into mini mode while listening to music allows you to use your other programs while continuing to see what’s playing.

Launch into Mixview from any artist or album and discover a mosaic of connections to other artists, albums, and fans.

If you’re tired of online music buying feeling more like a bank statement than a record store, you’re in the right place. Zune 4.0 software is free, beautiful, and browsable.

Operating system: Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit.

Download: Zune 4.2 software

With IntelliType Pro software, you can customize the unique features of your Microsoft keyboard to fit your needs. Many keys can be reassigned to open a program, file or Web page, or to perform commands such as Find, Show Desktop, or other application-specific functions. You can also disable keys you sometimes press accidentally, such as CAPS LOCK, and modify keyboard settings, such as updated horizontal scrolling and zoom functionality. IntelliType Pro software even offers extended application support, as well as biometrics support for advanced identity management.

The keyboard software (IntelliType Pro) and mouse software (IntelliPoint) are available for the 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. The Fingerprint Reader software is available for the 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. IntelliType Pro and IntelliPoint for the Mac version 7.1 is compatible with the 32 and 64-bit version of Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

Download: Microsoft IntelliPoint and IntelliType Pro 7.1

Download: IntelliPoint and IntelliType Pro 7.1 for Mac

Games for Windows – LIVE Setup 3.2 upgrades users to the newest version: 03.02.0217.00

System Requirements
• Supported Operating Systems: Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7; Windows Vista; Windows XP Service Pack 2

Broadband connection to the internet Windows LIVE ID Windows XP SP2

Download: Games for Windows – LIVE Setup 3.2

Download: Games for Windows – LIVE Software

The ISO file contains all the Windows 7 installation files combined into a single uncompressed file. When you download the ISO file, you need to copy it to some medium in order to install Windows 7. This tool allows you to create a copy of the ISO file to a USB flash drive or a DVD. To install Windows 7 from your USB flash drive or DVD, all you need to do is insert the USB flash drive into your USB port or insert your DVD into your DVD drive and run Setup.exe from the root folder on the drive.

Note: You cannot install Windows 7 from the ISO file until you copy it to a USB flash drive or DVD with the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool and install from there.

The copy of the ISO file that the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool creates is bootable. Bootable media allows you to install Windows 7 without having to first run an existing operating system on your machine. If you change the boot order of drives in your computer’s BIOS, you can run the Windows 7 installation directly from your USB flash drive or DVD when you turn on your computer. Please see the documentation for your computer for information on how to change the BIOS boot order of drives.

You may make one copy of the ISO file on a disc, USB flash drive or other media in order to install the software on a computer. Once you have installed the software on a computer, the license terms that accompany the software apply to your use of the software and replace these terms. The license terms for Windows 7, once accepted, permit you to make one copy of the software as a back-up copy for reinstallation on the licensed computer. If you do not delete the copy of the ISO file you made to install the software on your computer, then the copy of the ISO file constitutes your back-up copy.

Download: Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool 1.0.30.0

The Disk2vhd user interface lists the volumes present on the system:

It will create one VHD for each disk on which selected volumes reside. It preserves the partitioning information of the disk, but only copies the data contents for volumes on the disk that are selected. This enables you to capture just system volumes and exclude data volumes, for example.

Note: Virtual PC supports a maximum virtual disk size of 127GB. If you create a VHD from a larger disk it will not be accessible from a Virtual PC VM.

To use VHDs produced by Disk2vhd, create a VM with the desired characteristics and add the VHDs to the VM’s configuration as IDE disks. On first boot, a VM booting a captured copy of Windows will detect the VM’s hardware and automatically install drivers, if present in the image. If the required drivers are not present, install them via the Virtual PC or Hyper-V integration components. You can also attach to VHDs using the Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 Disk Management or Diskpart utilities.

Note: do not attach to VHDs on the same system on which you created them if you plan on booting from them. If you do so, Windows will assign the VHD a new disk signature to avoid a collision with the signature of the VHD’s source disk. Windows references disks in the boot configuration database (BCD) by disk signature, so when that happens Windows booted in a VM will fail to locate the boot disk.

Disk2vhd runs Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1, and higher, including x64 systems.

Download: Disk2vhd 1.4

You can share or relive a vacation destination or explore a distant museum or landmark. With a nothing more than digital camera and some inspiration, you can use Photosynth to transform regular digital photos into a three-dimensional, 360-degree experience. Anybody who sees your synth is put right in your shoes, sharing in your experience, with detail, clarity and scope impossible to achieve in conventional photos or videos.

Synths constitute an entirely new visual medium. Photosynth analyzes each photo for similarities to the others, and uses that data to build a model of where the photos were taken. It then re-creates the environment and uses that as a canvas on which to display the photos.

Operating System: Windows XP (SP2 or SP3), Windows Vista and Windows 7. Running Windows on a Mac? Photosynth runs under Boot Camp and some VM configurations.

Download: Microsoft Photosynth 2.0109.1112.2054

SuperPreview

Expression Web provides new tools to make sure that the pages in your site work in multiple browsers.

Using SuperPreview, you can preview and compare pages simultaneously in multiple browsers, even in multiple versions of Internet Explorer. You can also compare browser views against a comprehensive mock-up (“comp”) image.

You can select individual elements within a page and see details about each selected element, helping you quickly find and fix cross-browser layout and positioning errors.

Snapshot Preview

Snapshot Preview provides a high-fidelity browser preview that updates live as you edit your code, saving you the time and effort of loading the page in a browser for each code change.

Deep Zoom

You can add both Silverlight and Seadragon Ajax Deep Zoom Composer images to your page in Expression Web from a composition created in Deep Zoom Composer.

FTP publishing

Publishing your site with FTP is faster than ever. When you click Publish, Expression Web automatically transfers several files at a time, instead of transferring them one by one, and it transfers them faster. You can easily manage multiple sites and remote locations and you can publish a site to multiple destinations.

Also, you can now publish your files over a secure FTP connection, using FTPS or SFTP.

Silverlight

Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross–platform plug-in for delivering rich interactive applications for the web. With Expression Web , you can add Silverlight video and applications to your web pages.

Expression Encoder 3 is now included in Expression Web . You can use it to convert your video to Silverlight and easily add it to your Web page. You can even choose a “skin” to customize how the video player appears on your site.

Internet Explorer 8

Expression Web supports Windows Internet Explorer 8, so you can update your older sites to be compliant with and take advantage of the new technologies in Internet Explorer 8.
Professional graphics tools

Powerful vector drawing and editing tools in the included copy of Expression Design 3 let you explore new artistic possibilities and create compelling graphic designs and illustrations.

Requires Windows XP with Service Pack 2, Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating system.

Download: Microsoft Expression Web 3.0.1762.0

Download: Microsoft Expression Web 3 Service Pack 1

Microsoft URL Rewrite Module 2.0 for IIS 7 Beta is an incremental release that includes all the features from version 1.1, and adds support for outbound response rewriting. More specifically, it can be used to:

 · Replace the URLs generated by a web application in the response HTML with a more user friendly and search engine friendly equivalent.

 · Modify the links in the HTML markup generated by a web application behind a reverse proxy.

 · Fix up the content of any HTTP response by using regular expression pattern matching.
The installation package includes several additional components and hotfixes required by URL Rewrite Module 2.0 Beta. Refer to the KB articles for the hotfixes to get more details. In order to apply the hotfixes correctly without restarting the server, it is recommended that the WAS service is stopped before installing URL Rewrite Module 2.0 Beta.

System Requirements
• Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista Service Pack 1

• Internet Information Services 7 must be installed

• IIS 7 supports a new shared configuration environment, which must be disabled on each server in a web farm before installing the URL Rewrite Module for each node. Note: shared configuration can be re-enabled after the URL Rewrite Module has been installed.

Download: Microsoft URL Rewrite Module 2.0 for IIS 7 – Beta (x86)

Microsoft Office 2010 gives you powerful new tools to express your ideas, solve problems, and connect with people.

Office 2010 Beta Applications

Office 2010 lets you work how, when, and where you want, letting you get things from a PC, the Web, and even a smartphone.

See what’s new in your favorite Office applications:

• Word
• Access
• PowerPoint
• Publisher
• Outlook
• InfoPath
• Excel
• SharePoint Workspace
• OneNote
• Communicator

With Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010, your people get a wide range of powerful new ways to do their best work from more places – whether they’re using a PC, smartphone or web browser. From insightful updates to Excel, PowerPoint, Word and Outlook, to new server integration capabilities that make it easier for everyone to track, report and share vital information, Office Professional Plus 2010 offers the complete package through familiar, intuitive tools.

Here’s what you need to have:

• Internet access Internet access (to download Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta and get updates)
• 500 MHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor or higher
• 256 MB of system memory or more
• 3 GB of available disk space
• 1024×768 or higher resolution monitor
• DVD-R/W Drive

• Windows XP with Service Pack (SP) 3 (32-bit)
• Windows Vista with SP1 (32-bit or 64-bit)
• Windows Server 2003 R2 (32-bit or 64-bit)
• Windows Server 2008 with SP2 (32-bit or 64-bit)
• Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)

The Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta software is available in the following languages: Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish

Download: Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta

System Requirements
• Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7; Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2; Windows Server 2008 R2; Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2; Windows Vista; Windows XP Service Pack 3

Download: Microsoft Visio Premium 2010 Beta (32-bit)

Download: Microsoft Visio Premium 2010 Beta (64-bit)

System Requirements
• Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista
• Windows Vista SP1 (when installing on Windows Vista)
• IIS 7.0 (with ASP.NET, WCF HTTP Activation and optionally CGI)
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SP1, Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 or Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition with SP1

• SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (or above)

• Hotfix: Native Debugging Improvements (not required for Visual Studio 2010)
• Hotfix: Improve Visual Studio Stability (not required for Windows 7 RC or later)
• Hotfix: Support for FastCGI on the Development Fabric (not required for Windows 7 RC or later, or Windows Server 2008 SP2 or later)

Download: Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio (November 2009)

Windows Azure is elastic, flexible, and interoperable. With Windows Azure developers can achieve high levels of service availability and application interoperability while maintaining freedom of choice.

The Windows Azure SDK provides developers with the tools and APIs needed to develop, deploy, and manage scalable services in Windows Azure.

System Requirements

• Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7; Windows Server 2008; Windows Server 2008 Enterprise; Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2; Windows Server 2008 Standard; Windows Vista; Windows Vista 64-bit Editions Service Pack 1; Windows Vista Business; Windows Vista Business 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Enterprise; Windows Vista Enterprise 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Home Premium; Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Service Pack 2; Windows Vista Ultimate; Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit edition

Download: Windows Azure Software Development Kit (November 2009)

System Requirements
• Supported Operating Systems: Apple Mac OS X
Important To open converted documents, you must have Office 2004 11.5.0 or later installed on your computer. For the best experience, we recommend that you install the Office 2004 11.5.1 Update or a later update for Office 2004 for Mac.

Download: Microsoft Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.1.3