Deozaan, I use the Outlook calendar along with Remind-Me http://www.beiley.com/remind-me/desc.html.  It's not free but it does all or most of everything that you mentioned, and it automatically syncs with Outlook (separate option must be purchased).  You can use it for alarms, events and recurring items which can send an email notification and or pop-up or alert.  If you get a a meeting 'invitation' in Outlook it will automatically be added to the Remind-Me calendar, if you bought the sync option.  I find it useful as a quick reference rather than depending on all the bloated stuff in Outlook.

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