OSS that a sysadmin can love... InfoWorld's 12 Sysadmin CodePlex Gems...

InfoWorld - Microsoft CodePlex: 12 open source gems for every Windows admin

Microsoft CodePlex gems: 12 open source tools every Windows admin will love

While it may seem antithetical to Microsoft’s image, free open source tools abound for Microsoft admins, many of which are hosted by Microsoft itself on CodePlex, the company’s free open source project hosting site.

The tools offered at CodePlex are diverse and often downright awesome. Whether you’re working with Windows, Windows Server, SharePoint, Exchange, you name it, CodePlex is a rich resource for filling out your Microsoft-based toolset -- and at the right price: free.

The following 12 CodePlex projects are some of the best, but the site offers thousands of others that can benefit IT and developer pros alike. Happy hunting.

• Windows 7/8 USB/DVD Download Tool
• Terminals
• Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL)
• SharePoint Manager 2013
• Squiggle
• RamHook
• Corefig for Windows Server 2012 Core and Hyper-V Server 2012
• Start Screen Button
• Hyper-V Manager for Server 2012 Core console using PowerShell Scripts
• ConfigMgr 2012 PowerShell Right-Click Tools
• Windows Product Key Finder
• Finestra Virtual Desktops

I've used a number of these and agree that they rock. One that many of us have used, but maybe didn't know it was OSS is the Windows 7/8 USB/DVD Download Tool (https://wudt.codeplex.com). Yep, it looks like this is "that" tool...

BTW, I don't get credit for finding this, Martin Woodward found this and due to my role on This Week on Channel 9, I kind of stole, well borrowed, it from him (hint, you'll this also mentioned in tomorrow's show).