Windows Tools, Help & Guides

Yet another Competition, successfully ended. Here is the list of our winners. If you ever should consider buying a DVD Copy/Backup program, it’s this one. You can make backups of your DVD collection with a few clicks – even the newest ones. And you get free lifetime updates.

Did you miss our review ? Read it here.

When you read through this list, you will notice that we only gave out 19 licenses, thou we promised 30 ?! That is true – as it turns out (and of course we expected as much) that not many of our readers use MAC. Therefore we were only able to give away 4 MAC licenses. However. IF you DO know someone who is bound to their love for MAC, tell them to send me an email at: competition@mintywhite.com begging (Ed note: or just asking nicely) me for a license, and I’ll be happy to accommodate.  Tell them to Write: “MAC license Please” in the Subject line. Now, on to the business at hand… Read more…

I’m sure the vast majority of you guys have more than one or two email addresses.  Personally I have 6 and keeping tabs on them all can be a pain, not to mention unproductive.

If you use Microsoft’s web-based Hotmail & a Windows Live account (hotmail.com & live.com) for your email needs, then linking your accounts so as to consolidate down to one inbox(ish) couldn’t be easier.

Read more…

Are your children always using Facebook? Or is your brother always using your computer?You will find here a way to control access to websites at certain times.

We will do this in Windows 7 but you can do it in all Windows versions.

This post will use the hosts file and two tasks. The host file is stored in %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\ and its function is mapping  host names and IP addresses. Before DNS or WINS act the local host do this mapping so is the ideal place for controlling access to Web Pages.

So let start:

Read more…

Not too long ago, encrypting your computer, files or folders were something that only geeks or people in extreme high security jobs would do. Well people have since the dawn of wars, kingdoms and enemies, world leaders and their adversaries tried to hide information from unauthorized eyes, but nowadays – everyone seems to concerned with it.

Windows 7 supports many different solutions to encrypt (and thereby protect) your data (like: EFS and BitLocker).

But what do you use, if any ?
And are you truly concerned about the loss of important data at all ?
Or, do you still think that encryption is for geeks and government employees ?

Let’s hear your opinion ?

Tell us whether and how you use encryption on your Windows 7 computer. Do you routinely encrypt whole volumes and/or individual files? What types of information do you encrypt? Do you use BitLocker on portable computers only, or on your desktop system, too? Have you tried BitLocker to go for encrypting USB thumb drives and the like? Do you prefer a third-party solution? Have you had any encryption-related problems (such as not being able to access your own encrypted files)?

There’s no prize involved for this one (or who knows)

Microsoft have been very busy bees lately what with work on Windows 7 SP1, Office 2010, Silverlight, .NET Framework (i could go on) and now we have another addition to the Microsoft software chart.  Vail.  Vail is the code name for the Beta Windows Home Server Operating System, i  suppose Vail is quite an apt name for the OS as it literally means profit, gain, return etc.  Microsoft will indeed be seeing lots of that (in monetary terms)

Windows Home Server code name “Vail” is the version 2 release of Windows Home Server, now based on Windows Server ® 2008 R2.  There are some exciting new features that you can try out if you choose to join the Windows Home Server Connect program such as:

• Extending media streaming outside the home or office
• Improvements in multi-PC backup and restore
• Simplified setup and user experience
• Significantly expanded development and customization tools for partners
• Much, much more!

The free trial of Vail can be downloaded from the Microsoft website and the ISO at 840MB(ish) is small in comparison to its desktop counterparts.

Read more…

Windows Forums Admin and Windows Guides writer, rsvr85 is currently seeing if there’s interest in a mintywhite.com XBOX 360 competition.

• Own an XBOX 360?
• Have competition ideas?
• Taken part in a video gaming competition before?
• Want to join us?

Let us know here.