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Vol. 3, # 21 - May 27, 2011 - Issue # 89 |
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The Best Laid Backup Plans of Mice and Men
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- Editor's Corner
- The Best Laid Backup Plans of Mice and Men
- Follow-up: World without Wires
- Quotes of the Week
- News, Hints, Tips and Tricks
- VIPRE tops anti-virus repair test
- Windows Phone 7, Take 2
- 7 Ways to Work Faster in Windows 7
- How to: Using the New Windows 7 Features
- How to create and mount VHD files
- Windows 7 Security
- Beware Microsoft support scam
- Windows 7 Question Corner
- Need Help with slow shutdown on Windows 7
- Windows 7 Configuration and Troubleshooting
- How the Attachment Manager works
- 30 second delay when you log on after configuring certain Group Policies
- Fav Links
- This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff
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Speed Matters
Is old-style antivirus software slowing down your PC, causing problems and nagging you?
VIPRE Antivirus Home was built completely from scratch with the latest generation technology,
providing powerful protection that won't slow your PC down!
http://www.win7news.net/110527-VIPREAntivirus
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Editor's Corner |
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The Best Laid Backup Plans of Mice and Men
You'll find that this week's Win7News is both shorter than usual and late in
arriving, and for that, I apologize. It's been a wild and wooly couple of days.
No matter how well you think you've planned ahead, life and nature can find a
way to thwart those plans. I create a huge amount of content: two newsletters
every week, my Cybercrime, Smartphones and Microsoft InSights columns for
TechRepublic, five articles and thirty blog posts per month for the
Windowsecurity/WindowsNetworking/ISAServer web sites, and various other "one
off" contract projects. It's important that I have a reliable system for saving,
organizing and accessing all those documents.
So this week, I wrote a long, detailed feature article about how I use OneNote
to keep track of ideas, URLs, quotes, photos, diagrams, and all the other little
bits and pieces that go into formulating a piece of writing. I thought it turned
out to be a pretty good article and I was looking forward to reader response. As
usual, I finished most of the newsletter (all but the Fave Links, Question
Corner and proofreading) on Tuesday and saved it to our main file server, where
it gets backed up every night to a second server. Then on a weekly basis, I make
a copy of the important data to an external drive that can be stored off-site.
Tuesday night, however, I got to see up close and personal the flaws in the
process that had served me well for years. The DFW area was hit with a wave of
severe storms that spawned tornadoes, golf-ball sized hail and high winds. We
spent several hours hunkered down in our master closet, which is large - but not
nearly large enough for two adults, two puzzled dogs and two claustrophobic
cats. We had the laptops and tablet and three cell phones, and when we lost our
wi-fi connection after a particularly big flash of lightning, we were able to
tether the laptop to one of the phone's 3G connections to keep in touch with
what was going on "out there." Our electrical power only went out momentarily;
we were luckier than some of our neighbors a few streets over, who were without
power for over eight hours. In other parts of the metroplex, it was far worse,
with roofs torn off buildings and other serious damage. But that was nothing
compared to the devastation the same storm systems created in Oklahoma, where
five people died:
http://www.win7news.net/110527-Tornadoes
I'm thankful that we spared the worst of it, but we didn't escape completely
unscathed. The servers went down, which meant the backup didn't get made. Worse,
when we got the main file server back up, this morning one of its hard drives
was dead. You guessed it - that was the drive on which all of my work was
stored. Most of it was backed up, thank goodness - but yesterday's work wasn't.
So instead of the OneNote article I spent hours putting together, you get my sad
tale about the failure of my backup system.
There is an important lesson here, though, and maybe others can learn from my
mistake. Don't assume that just because you have automatic backup in place,
that's good enough. It would have taken me perhaps 30 seconds to email a copy of
my unfinished document to my Gmail account, or save it to my SkyDrive when I
called it quits for the day. You can bet I'll be doing that in the future. And I
have a new appreciation for the value of cloud storage - not as the only
or primary place to keep my data, but as an easy and immediate off-site backup
plan.
I urge all my readers to re-think your backup plans if you have important data.
Remember that timing is always the scourge of backup; no matter how regularly
you back up, important information can be lost if something bad happens in
between backups. Utilize the free cloud services that are out there to prevent
the same thing from happening to you. Even if you don't live in tornado alley,
there's always the risk that some other natural or man-made disaster will make a
mockery of your carefully constructed backup plan.
Follow-up: World without Wires
In last week's editorial, I wrote about my dream of a world without cords and
cables - or at least with far fewer of them. And I discussed some new products
that take us a few steps closer to the day when that dream comes true. Many of
our readers believe that we'll see freedom from wires - except perhaps for the
power cord - within their lifetimes. Others don't believe that day will ever
come (and are in no hurry for it to happen).
There were some creative ideas regarding the power problem, too. I like the idea
of a
"power table" that would provide electrical power to any device that you sit on
it. Some readers brought up the issue of contention for channels by wireless
devices and in fact, we found this to be a bit of a problem after we ordered the
additional wi-fi IP cameras for our home security system. We've had to do a bit
of adjusting to get them all to work together; when the camera vendor tells you
that you can have up to 32 cameras, they don't mention that.
Several of you mentioned HomePlug technology, which provides home networking
over the home's power lines - not wireless, but you do use the wires that are
already there and don't have to run Ethernet cable.
Others brought up the alleged health effects from wireless signals. I say
"alleged" because these technologies haven't been around long enough for us to
really know what the long term effects are. In fact, due to the low frequency at
which the RF signals for wireless networking equipment operates, the body
actually absorbs far more radiation from TV and FM radio than from wi-fi
devices, and no specific harmful effects from wireless technology has been
documented. This is according to the World Health Organization (WHO):
http://www.win7news.net/110527-Electromagnetic-Fields
On the other hand, radio signals of any kind can demonstrably effect those who
have pacemakers and similar medical devices, and thus - as some of you pointed
out - can't be used safely in some environments.
Finally, thanks to the many of you who wrote to me about last week's little
story of my friendship with Pete. I'm often reminded that the vast majority of
folks who read this newsletter are kind and wonderful people, and I appreciate
that you took time out of your busy lives to send words of support.
'Til next week,
Deb Shinder, Editor
feedback@win7news.net
PS: Did you know this newsletter has a sister publication for XP users called
WXPnews? You can subscribe here, and tell your friends:
http://www.win7news.net/110303-WXPnews
And for IT pros, there's our "big sister," WServer News, at
http://www.win7news.net/110303-WServerNews
Look for the Win7News fan page on Facebook!
Quotes of the Week
"Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what
is left of the old." - Winston Churchill
"Plan ahead or find trouble on the doorstep." - Confucius
"It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan." - Eleanor Roosevelt
"Everyone has a plan 'til they get punched in the mouth." - Mike Tyson
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News, Hints, Tips and Tricks |
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VIPRE tops anti-virus repair test
APC Magazine reports that German security company AV-Test recently put 22
popular consumer anti-malware products through their paces, testing for
protection, repair and usability. VIPRE won the repair contest, which determines
how well a product removes malware and disinfects the PC, beating out biggies
such as Symantec, McAfee, Kaspersky and Microsoft Security Essentials. Read more
here:
http://www.win7news.net/110527-Antivirus-Test
Windows Phone 7, Take 2
When Windows Phone 7 came it, it got good reviews but sales haven't been so
great. This week, Microsoft unveiled the first major upgrade, code named Mango,
which according to Steve Ballmer adds over 500 new features. You can watch the
demo here:
http://www.win7news.net/110527-Win7-Search
I'll be writing about Windows Phone 7 and how such factors as Mango, the Nokia
partnership and the Skype deal could make or break the brand, in next week's
Microsoft InSights column for TechRepublic. Watch for it and meanwhile, you can
read my analysis of the Skype acquisition here:
http://www.win7news.net/110527-Skype-Acquisition
7 Ways to Work Faster in Windows 7
Windows 7 has many new features that can speed up your work, but you can't use
them if you don't know about them. Some are obvious, whereas others are more
like hidden jewels. You can find out about 7 of these new efficiency-boosters
and the details of using them in Tony Bradley's article over on the
ComputerWorld web site:
http://www.win7news.net/110527-Work-Faster-in-Win7
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How to: Using the New Windows 7 Features |
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How to create and mount VHD files
VHD is the virtual hard disk file format that is used as the hard disk for
virtual machines in Microsoft Virtual PC. With Windows 7, you can create and
mount these disks directly and access them in your host operating system. To
create a new virtual drive, follow these steps:
- Click Start and in the Search box, type diskmgmt.msc , then press
Enter to open the Disk Manager.
- Click the Action menu and select Create VHD.
- Right click the VHD and select Initialize Disk, then right click the
unallocated space and select New Simple Volume.
The VHD drive behaves like a regular drive; that is, you can install programs on
it, drag and drop files to it, etc. To remove it, right click the disk (where it
shows Disk 2 or whatever its number is) and select Detach VHD.
To mount a VHD drive (for example, one you've copied from another computer), do
the following:
- In the Disk Manager, click the Action menu.
- Select Attach VHD.
- Choose the VHD file you want to mount.
Now it will appear as a virtual drive in Windows Explorer, ready for you to use.
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Windows 7 Security |
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Beware Microsoft support scam
Here's a new twist on an old trick: people are receiving calls purporting to be
from Microsoft Support, informing them that the Support team has received an
alert from their computers and instructing them to install teamviewer or a
similar remote control/assistance tool so the phony "Support" person can take
control of your machine and infect it with malware. Don't fall for this ploy,
and be sure to warn your less tech-savvy friends about it.
http://www.win7news.net/110527-Microsoft-Support-Scam
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Windows 7 Question Corner |
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Need Help with slow shutdown on Windows 7
QUESTION:
I upgraded my Sony VAIO laptop that came with Vista, to Windows 7. I love the
operating system and it works well but it takes a long, long time to shut down.
Much longer than it did with Vista. I checked for viruses and malware with two
different programs and it came up clean. Any ideas? - Ben J.
ANSWER:
There can a number of reasons that Windows get "stuck" for a while in the
shutdown process. One common problem, especially on an upgraded computer, is an
outdated or wrong driver. Many people having this problem have been able to
resolve it by installing newer drivers for their video cards (display adapters).
Here is an article that describes troubleshooting and solving this problem:
http://www.win7news.net/110527-Driver-Update
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Windows 7 Configuration and Troubleshooting |
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How the Attachment Manager works
Windows XP SP3, Vista and Windows 7 include the Attachment Manager, which is
designed to help protect your computer from unsafe email attachments and unsafe
files you save from the Internet. Sometimes, though, you may be mystified by how
the Attachment Manager decides which files are safe or unsafe. KB article 883260
explains how this feature works, which file types are considered high risk, and
how you can configure the Attachment Manager's behavior using Group Policy or
the local registry.
http://www.win7news.net/110527-Attachment-Manager
30 second delay when you log on after configuring certain Group Policies
You might find that, if you configure the "Hide all icons on the desktop" and
"normal wallpaper" group policies on your Windows 7 computer and then try to log
onto the computer, you experience a 30 second delay during the logon process.
What's up with that? It's a known issue but there is a hotfix available for
download from Microsoft that will fix it. To find out more, see KB article
2409711.
http://www.win7news.net/110527-30-Second-Delay
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Fav Links |
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This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff
Disclaimer: Win7News does not assume and cannot be
responsible for any liability related to you clicking any of
these linked Web sites.
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Copyright © 1996-2012 Sunbelt Media Services. All rights reserved.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Other products and companies
referred to herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or mark holders.
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