Of the thousands of products Microsoft owns, develops or distributes, a few are always completely new to me. Either because they aren’t marketed at all (as in today’s product) or simply because they’ve never entered my sphere of knowledge (like MIIS, which I only learned about earlier this week).

Today’s little gem is Microsoft Expression.

Apparently it’s a product Microsoft picked up at some point. It’s a vector tool like Freehand or Illustrator but it’s surprisingly easy to use. Some would say that’s because Microsoft didn’t design it, which could be accurate.

Either way, it’s currently a “Preview” download. It’s free. No expiration date. I have no idea if there is any intent to develop this software.

Now, how could I give you a decent free vector tool without a decent free raster tool?

Enter Paint.NET. Some people will have heard about this because it made a minor splash a few months ago. I forgot to blog it at the time and was kicking myself when I needed it earlier this month. I found it tonight, so hopefully the next time I Google for it I can find it right here.