Windows Third Party Vendor List

The following are a list of favorite or replacement tools both Microsoft and third party tools for the base tools in Windows. 
Make sure to test in your environment first!

WSUS

Shavlik
http://www.shavlik.com/company/trials/
comments: “ love it”

Install and Update All Your Programs at Once
https://ninite.com/

Backup and Restore

Robocopy
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc733145(v=ws.11).aspx
comments “ love it very fast”

References

http://randelhall.blogspot.com/2011/11/setup-windows-server-2008-r2-as.html

http://randelhall.blogspot.com/2010/06/great-file-unlock-tool.html

SharePoint Business Continuity

2013

Virtualization Guide 2013 (No Dynamic Memory)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff621103.aspx

2010

More from SharePoint Galaxy
http://sharepointgalaxy.blogspot.com/2011/09/sharepoint-server-2010-10-steps-to.html

Plan for backup and recovery in SharePoint Server 2010
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261687.aspx

Plan for availability in SharePoint Server 2010
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc748824.aspx

Best practices for virtualization in SharePoint Server 2010
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh295699.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff621103(v=office.14).aspx

Document farm configuration settings in SharePoint Server 2010
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff645391.aspx

SharePoint Server 2010 - 10 Steps to Disaster Recovery

Great article on DR

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/uksharepoint/archive/2011/08/31/sharepoint-server-2010-10-steps-to-disaster-recovery.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0