15 incredibly useful (and free) Microsoft tools for IT pros

Source: https://www.networkworld.com/slideshows/2011/071911-microsoft-tools.html

Summary of the tools: (also from the link above)

1. WSCC – Windows System Control Center - Windows System Control Center is a one-stop downloader for almost 300 maintenance tools from Microsoft's Sysinternals and the ever-popular NirSoft suites.
2. RichCopy 4.0 - This little Microsoft TechNet invention spares you the headache of learning, checking and retyping command lines.
3. Microsoft Attack Surface Scanner - Microsoft's Attack Surface Scanner is a sort of checklist that helps you analyze security issues and plug possible vulnerabilities fast.
4. Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Tool - In case of a (deep) infection of boot files by viruses or rootkits, there's not much a real-time scanner can do. In that case, MSSSST (yes, that's Microsoft's naming convention at its best) creates a bootable CD, DVD or USB key that hosts an offline copy of Microsoft Security Essentials -– including all the latest signatures downloaded from MS servers beforehand.
5. NoReplyAll add-in for Outlook 2007 and 2010 - "NoReplyAll" (a Microsoft Research Project) prevents e-mail recipients from forwarding or using "Reply All" to spread your e-mail to other co-workers.
6. VMMap - VMMap shows a graphical representation of the entire memory usage that helps you understand the memory cost of every single application you're running or developing.
7. Disk2VHD - Disk2VHD (also available via WSCC or directly from here) clones your physical system partitions into a virtual hard disk file (VHD) for use in Windows Virtual PC or to boot from natively (VHD boot is only supported in Windows 7 Enterprise in Ultimate, though).
8. Joulemeter - This MS Research invention monitors total power usage and helps you calibrate your laptop's battery. Furthermore, it's capable of actually monitoring power usage of each process running: Go to "Power Usage", enter the name of one of your running applications ("itunes.exe", for example) and hit "Start" to measure its overall impact on power usage. 
9. Microsoft Image Composite Editor - Microsoft ICE helps you stitch photos -– and even videos -– together and create nice little panoramas and sideshows.
10. Microsoft Windows Performance Toolkit - Microsoft's performance tools are the most reliable speed tests for accurately measuring PC performance over a certain period of time. For analyzing PC usage over a certain amount of time, use the "xperf –on DiagEasy" command to start and "xperf –d trace.etl" to stop. Simply launch XBootMgr.exe (via a command line or shortcut) and use one of the following parameters:
Testing boot time: xbootmgr –trace boot –traceFlags BASE+CSWITCH+DRIVERS+POWER Testing shutdown: xbootmgr –trace shutdown –traceFlags BASE+CSWITCH+DRIVERS+POWER Testing standby: xbootmgr –trace standby –traceFlags BASE+CSWITCH+DRIVERS+POWER Testing hibernate: xbootmgr –trace hibernate –traceFlags BASE+CSWITCH+DRIVERS+POWER
Now, go to your Start menu and fire up "Windows Performance Analyzer" to open the ".etl" file created by the trace. You'll end up with a detailed analysis on a) how long the entire boot takes (from loading the first boot file to initializing the last service) and b) which process, service or driver is causing delays.
11. Speed Launch - You can use this to launch a series of programs, websites or shell commands at the same time -– with just one click or by using WIN+C keyboard shortcut and selecting the appropriate tile.
12. Screen Recorder - Sick of repeating your instructions once, twice…tens times to PC newcomers or coworkers? Don't want to use TeamViewer each and every time to show your family how to burn a DVD or make a photo slideshow? Just use Screen Recorder and record the instructions –- step by step!
13. TCPView - TCPView (also a part of Sysinternals and available via WSCC) is your chance to figure out which process is costing you how much bandwidth and deal with this connection hog. Simply launch TCPView and sort all processes by clicking the "Sent Packages/Bytes" or "Rcvd Packages/Bytes" header to get the top bandwidth hogs.
14. Autoruns - This little Sysinternals gem doesn't just provide you with a better way of turning off unwanted startup entries (à la "msconfig"). It's capable of disabling scheduled tasks, drivers, codecs, gadgets, IE add-ons and more. 
15. Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit 2.0 - EMET strengthens security for applications without having to recompile them or waiting for the developer to release a new version. It adds several mitigations to the application of your choice, including SEHOP (Structured Error Handling Overwrite Protection), Dynamic Data Execution Prevention and mandatory ASLR (Advanced Space Layout Randomization).