This is an excerpt from the Windows Guides PC Security Handbook. To learn more or find out other security-related tips, download the PC Security Handbook now.

Data backup is essential. If you’d like to explore local backup options, download my Windows pocket guides. I strongly recommend using online (off-site) backups. Backing up your data online prevents data loss if your computer is damaged or stolen—or if your data is wiped by malware.

Online Data Backup

By far my favorite solution for online backup is Mozy. Mozy offers free online storage (up to 2GB with paid options too.) I’ve had Mozy installed on my laptop for over two years and it has saved me on more than a handful of occasions.

Setup is simple and after downloading Mozy, you can specify what you want to back up and when. Mozy will automate your backups and let you decide when it backs up (specific times), what causes it to back up (low CPU usage), and how often (one, two, three etc. times a day.)

I just let Mozy run and it alerts me after a successful backup:

You can specify what types of files to backup or specify folders— it’s up to you:

Mozy even integrates into My Computer so you can browse and restore your backed up files (even ones you’ve deleted from your computer):

MozyHome Features

• Open/locked file support: Mozy will back up your documents whether they’re open or closed.
• 128-bit SSL encryption: The same technology used by banks secures your data during the backup process.
• 448-bit Blowfish encryption: Secures your files while in storage, providing peace of mind that your private data is safe from hackers.
• Automatic: Schedule the times to back up and MozyHome does the rest.
• New and changed file detection: MozyHome finds and saves the smallest changes.
• Backs up Outlook files: Disaster-proof email protection.
• Block-level incremental backup: After the initial backup, MozyHome only backs up files that have been added or changed, making subsequent backups lightning fast.

Download Mozy for Free

Download MozyHome Free

Further Reading

• Best Windows Freebies and Guides 18 [September 2009]
• PC Security Handbook Now Available
• IObit Security 360: Complete PC Tool-Suite for 2009 [Reader Review]
• PC Maintenance Handbook Now Available
• Security 360 is an Advanced Malware & Spyware Removal Utility

Windows Guides readers, I’d like to point your attention to a great website that is currently celebrating its third birthday with a whole host of great competitions. I know a lot of you just love to particpate in competitions and the rest of you are geeks and nerds who want to learn more about technology — if I didn’t just describe you, then welcome to the home of all things nerdy — Windows Guides — I hope you enjoy your stay.

Keith Dsouza, author and owner of Techie Buzz is a good friend who runs an excellent site; below are a few links to get you started:

• Birthday Bash Competitions
• Techie Buzz Homepage
• Subscribe to the Techie Buzz RSS feed
• Subscribe to the Windows Guides feed

Good luck in the competitions!

Further Reading

• Securely Backup Your Data Online for Free [How To]
• RightDelete and SDelete Delete Your Files Permanently
• 20 Free Mac/Windows Icon Packs [Set 05] PNG/ICO
• 111 Free Icon Packs for Your Dock/Website
• Interview with Microsoft MVP: James Fisher

When you delete a file using Windows, it goes to the recycle bin. When you empty the recycle bin, the file is gone right? Actually no; when you delete a file from the recycle bin (or SHIFT+DEL from Explorer), the file is just dereferenced. As long as the data isn’t overwritten, the file is completely recoverable–and may be for sometime if the space isn’t needed. In this guide, you’ll learn about two tools you can use to permanently delete files from your hard drive: RightDelete (GUI) and SDelete (command line.)

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Read the rest of RightDelete and SDelete Delete Your Files Permanently

A round up of the best icon packs on the web. Full credit goes to the image authors. Let us know about any others you really like!

Want More Icons?

Check out more icon collections on Mintywhite.com or learn how to use these on a dock in Windows.

(...)
Read the rest of 20 Free Mac/Windows Icon Packs [Set 05] PNG/ICO

Here at mintywhite.com, we love Icon Packs. In this collection, I’ve picked 57 new packs and included 54 of my favorite packs already featured here on the site. Enjoy these packs and please feel free to suggest some more.

If you want more icons, head to the icon pack collections.

As with all packs listed on this site, please refer to the linked site to view copyright information or get in contact with the artist who created the icons. If you created one of these packs and want to change anything on here, please contact me.

iPhone style sidebar icon

80 Mini iPhone Application Style Icons in .PNG format (16×16)

Mod’em

1 PNG Icon (256×256 and 512×512)

Splashy Icons

464 Icons in PNG format (16×16)

MNM’s

“7 Icons in .ICO and .PNG Format (16×16, 32×32, 128×128, 256×256 & 512×512)”

Desktop Icons

5 Icons in .ICO and .PNG Format (256×256)

Letter icons

4 Icons in .ICO format (256×256)

Driver

18 Icons in .PNG format (512×512)

XIII

“21 Icons in .ICO and .PNG Format (16×16, 32×32, 128×128, 256×256 & 512×512)”

I like buttons 3a

26 PNG Icons (512×512)

Baggy Icon Set

“5 Icons in .ICO and .PNG Format (16×16, 32×32, 48×48, 128×128, 256×256 & 512×512)”

Round Theme Icons

106 iPhone Application style icons. PNG Format 59×60

Playground

9 Icons in PNG format (256×256)

OldSchool Icon Set

“6 Icons in .ICO and .PNG Format (16×16, 32×32, 128×128, 256×256 & 512×512)”

Container Icon Pack

“Container Icon Pack contains 40 high quality (256×256 pixels) icons; PNG and ICO formats. This package includes: Box Icons, Cargo Icons, Trash Icon and more…”

Fugue Icons

“1,600 icons in PNG format (16×16 )”

web 2.0 RSS icons

“28 icons (orange, green, blue, gray) in .ico, .icns, .tif, .png, .psd formats (32×32, 16×16)”

Vaga

60 semi-transparent .png icons (16 x 16)

Icons: Systematrix Full

“28 PNG icons (16×16, 32×32, 64×64, 128×128, 256×256)”

Developpers Icons

105 icons (32×32)

Monitor HP

“1 PNG Icon (128×128, 256×256 and 512×512)”

Cats4 HDD (Beta)

7 Icons in .ICO format (256×256)

Red Moleskine

“One Icon in (16×16, 32×32, 128×128 & 256×256)”

Enjoyment v.1

“4 Icons in .png, .ico, .icns, .tif, .gif, .bmp, and .psd formats (256×256, 128×128, 48×48, 32×32)”

Ive Drives

These hard drive icons are inspired by beautiful Apple hardware designed and crafted by Jony Ive and the Apple Industrial Design Group. Available in four styles of familiar Apple hardware:

Simply Safari Icon

“1 Icon in .ICO and .PNG formats (16×16, 32×32, 48×48, 128×128, 256×256 & 512×512)”

Nurture Social Icon Set

“Includes 10 icons featuring the logos of popular social bookmarking sites. The set was designed with a fresh, lively, green look in mind. The pack includes 512×512, 256×256, 128×128, and 64×64 icons in .png format.”

Zero

21 folder replacement icons beaming holographic images at the speed of light. Your desktop will never be the same. The collection includes resources for both Vista and Leopard. ((512×512 256×256 128×128 48×48 32×32 16×16))

Snow

“102 royalty free website & GUI icons in TIFF, ICNS, ICO, ICON & PNG formats that can be used for both personal and commercial purposes (32×32)”

Smashing Retro Icon Set

10 Icons in .PNG and .ICO format (128×128 & 512×512)

“Handycons – a free, hand drawn social media icon set “

“Hand drawn social media icon set that contains 12 icons. Package contains icons for del.icio.us, Digg, Mixx, DesignBump, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Developer Zone, DesignFloat, Technorati, Twitter and RSS feed & Email icon, of course. All icons are available in four sizes: 16×16, 24×24, 32×32 and 48×48 pixels.”

Book icons

30 Icons in .ICO format (256×256)

Valentine’s Day

2 Icons in PNG format (256×256)

“VLC, glassy icon”

1 Icons in PNG format (512×512 & 1024×1024)

Handycons 2 – another free hand drawn icon set

“Icon set containing 20 more hand drawn icons. This time it is not limited just to socail media related icons. Package contains Facebook, Blinklist, Feedburner, Flickr, FriendFeed, Furl, Gmail, Google, Heart icon, Last FM, Linked IN, Magnolia, Newsvine, PayPal, Skype, Sphinn, Twitter, Vimeo, Yahoo and You Tube icons. All icons come in four sizes: 16×16, 32×32, 64×64 and 12×128px.”

Hydropro Icon Pack

50 high quality (256×256 pixels) icons; PNG and ICO formats.

Vistaico Aero Pack

135 high quality (256×256 pixels) icons; PNG and ICO formats.

Computer Hardware

9 Icons in all sizes in PNG and ICO formats

Must Have Icon Set

59 Icons in all sizes in PNG and ICO formats

Social 2 Duo

The world’s first social networking icons with integrated dual core technology guaranteed to enhance the performance of your applications or blog. Package contains 10 Royalty Free icons that can be used for personal and commercial purposes (128×128 48×48 32×32 16×16)

IconTexto WebDev

“30 icons in formats PNG (128×128, 48×48, 32×32, 16×16) and ICO (128×128, 48×48, 32×32, 16×16).”

Mug icons

9 Icons in .ICO format (256×256)

Crysigns

25 high quality (256×256 pixels) icons; PNG and ICO formats.

Galactica

9 high quality (256×256 pixels) icons; PNG and ICO formats

Travel

10 high quality (256×256 pixels) icons; PNG and ICO formats

Pool Icons

6 Icons (128×128)

Closed Note icons

11 Icons in .ICO format (256×256)

Pioneer Camp

“6 Icons (128×128, 64×64, 48×48, 32×32)”

Aurora Folders

“16 icons in formats PNG (256×256, 128×128, 48×48, 32×32, 16×16), ICO (256×256, 128×128, 48×48, 32×32, 16×16) and ICNS (256×256, 128×128, 48×48, 32×32, 16×16).”

Mountain Bike

“6 icons in formats PNG (512×512, 256×256, 128×128, 48×48, 32×32, 16×16) and ICO (256×256, 128×128, 48×48, 32×32, 16×16). Based on mountain bike sport theme.”

Musto Icon Pack

105 high quality (256×256 pixels) icons; PNG and ICO formats.

Coffee cup icons

8 Icons in .ICO format (256×256)

My Fav Buttons

5 replacement icons to to customize your favorite folders.

Leopard iPhone Icons

18 replacement icons of Mac OS X Leopard Folders in iPhone Icons Style

IconTexto Brasil

“2 icons in formats PNG (512×512, 256×256, 128×128, 48×48, 32×32, 16×16), ICO (256×256, 128×128, 48×48, 32×32, 16×16) and ICL (128×128, 48×48, 32×32, 16×16).”

Deli Pack 1.0 and 2.0

“Icons in .PNG formats (16×16, 32×32, 48×48, 63×63, 128×128 & 256×256)”

Animals

6 Icons in all sizes in PNG and ICO formats

Mailplane icons

4 Icons in .ICO format (256×256)

Older Icon Sets I Really Like

If you are a regular reader of Windows Guides, you may have seen these sets before, but I really like them, so here they are:

Open Phone Pack

iPhone Icon Pack

Animals

Dinosaurs

Vista Style

Air Icons

Radium Nue Pack

Poisson Pack

Aqua Value Pack

iVista icon pack

Black and Blue

More Black and Blue

SNOW.E 2 XP

Windows Icons V1

Q’s Vista Ready Icons

CEM Icon Pack

Misto Icon Pack

Affel Icon Pack

Old School Icons

Aeon Icon Pack

Pure Icon Pack

Flat Panel Icons

Green Icon Set

Simplistica

Niome Icon Pack

Radium Neue

Antares

Aire

The City

Vista Style

Airicons

Poisson

Autumn Breeze

Crystal B&W

Oxygen

Google and Facebook

iMac

Pixel Press

Aesthetica Icon Set

Coquette

Coquette Part 2

Classy Icon Set

Stickers Icon Set

Ruby Extended Icons

iTunes

TextEdit

Air Mail

Slick Drives

iFirefox

NES Icons Pack

Stacks Dock Icons

stock icons

DeskMundo Live Icons

Aquanox mini Icon Set

Well, that’s all for now. Subscribe to keep updated on new packs.

Further Reading

• Best Windows Freebies and Guides 14 [May 2009]
• Best Windows Freebies and Guides 18 [September 2009]
• Best Windows Freebies and Guides 17 [August 2009]
• 90 Free High Quality Icon Packs [Set 1]
• Free Mac/Windows/Linux Icon Packs [Set 16] PNG/ICO

James Fisher is a Microsoft MVP in the Windows Desktop Experience category. James is a member of Windows Forums and runs his own site, which is named Windows Talk.

In this interview, we get to know a little about James and his website. James is exemplary of what a true community contributor can bring to help others.

James, what do you do for a living?

I am a medical radiation technologist (or, X-Ray Tech). I perform general radiography, bone mineral density tests, and I have just started the course for MRI (Magnetic resonance imaging).

What hobbies do you have? How do you make time for them?

My hobbies are more like ‘pastimes’: reading (especially history), listening to music, watching football, maintaining my blog. I try to do some reading everyday, even if it is only for 30 minutes before bed. Reading is my greatest joy.

What’s your favorite thing that begins with the letter S?

My Stereo!

Whom do you look up to and why?

No one person, other than Jesus. Typically, I like those that lead by example. Deeds, not words, so to speak.

If there was one place you could travel to, right now, where would it be and why?

Hawaii. My wife & I celebrated 20 years of marriage there a couple of years ago and it was a wonderful time; a different vista at every turn in the road, on every inter-island flight.

You’ve been a Microsoft MVP since 2003, what motivates you to help others?

It is what gives me my greatest sense of accomplishment; helping others to understand and use their PCs, overcome any glitches and get them up and running again. Sometimes the simplest thing (like a keyboard shortcut, for example) gives others the greatest joy. I once installed a small weather-watching program on an elderly lady’s PC and she thought it was amazing! (The program, not me!)

Please describe your site, Windows Talk, in 10 words or less.

for the average Windows user, non-technical, interesting and easy to understand.

What inspired you to start Windows Talk?

Actually, it was Windows Service Pack 2 for XP started it all. SP2 was such an important SP because it was more of a Operating System ‘refresh’ than a regular service pack, (which is more or less an accumulation of past updates & fixes). I wanted to keep all the Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) articles and SP2 links in one place, so I thought of a webpage where I could just point folks on the forums to. Then, I gradually added pages for my favourite programs, security links, my own articles and reviews of software programs and more. It just grew, but it took a lot of my personal time. I would not asttempt it again on such a large scale. I started the blog just last year (I have never been on the leading edge of technology!), more out of curiosity as well as a quicker way to get information out to users. Web sites require special software (unless you know HTML, which I don’t), blogs on the other hand can be updated from any computer with a ‘Net connection. I am slowly transitioning some of the more relevant info from my old site to the blog.

What separates your site from all the other good Windows-oriented websites out there?

All the other good ones have a zillion hits more than mine! Seriously though, I try to keep my focus on what would appeal to the new to intermediate computer user. I try to keep away from anything too technical, as well as some of the deeper security issues. There are many excellent sites that have a better understanding of these topics than I.

In five years, CBC write an article on Windows Talk. What’s the headline?

“New Brunswick man still relying on Google AdSense Revenue to Support eBay Habit”

What has been your biggest challenge, with regard to your site, thus far?

the biggest challenge is to keep it ‘fresh’ and interesting. I often feel overwhelmed by the computing world; that I can never possibly keep up with all the changes, so I just step away for a few hours or a day, pick up a book and get my perspective back on track. Then, I search for interesting news items and post about them.

What plans do you have for your site this year?

with Windows 7 about to be released, I want to help new users of it to see how it is better than Vista, what they need to know about upgrading, etc. I also would like to update some of the articles from my old site so they are more relevant, since I wrote most of them while using XP.

What is your number one Windows tip?

Backup! reinstalling Windows is not difficult, but you can never get back photographs, emails and documents if you don’t have them saved somewhere other than your PC.

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions James. Readers, please see more of James’ work here.

Further Reading

• Best Windows Freebies and Guides 18 [September 2009]
• Changes to mintywhite.com (and my other sites)
• How To Deal With EXE Issues On Your PC
• Meet a Windows Enthusiast: MSherwood
• Links

ClearType is a software technology developed by Microsoft. This technology improves text on LCD screens, which typically come with laptops, PDAs, and flat-panel monitors.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to use Windows 7’s ClearType Text Tuner, which will sharpen fonts and make writing look almost as good as it does on paper.

More Windows Seven Guides

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Read the rest of Windows 7: Sharpen Screen Text Fonts [How To]

A round up of the best triple monitor wallpapers on the web. Full credit goes to the image authors. Let us know about any others you really like!

Want More Wallpaper?

Check out more wallpapers in the the Wallpaper section of this site or learn how to use these wallpapers for your login screen too!

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Read the rest of 100 Triple Screen/Monitor Desktop Wallpapers

In this guest post, Mike Sherwood explains how to run Operating systems virtually inside another operating system.

Virtualization is an up-an-coming technique that many companies are using to better use their resources. Most servers can only run one program at a time, causing most companies to have as many servers as programs they need to run. To solve this, creating a virtual machine on a machine saves money and uses the available resources to capacity. You can use this technology to your advantage to run a “Virtual PC” right on your desktop, for whatever reason you have. One of the best parts about this program is the ability to run a different operating system in a window right on your desktop. (I needed to run programs for work that are only compatible with XP, while running Vista on my computer) And best of all, it’s free! I’ll show you how.

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Read the rest of Run a Virtual PC on Your Desktop Using Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

A round up of the best icon packs on the internet. Full credit goes to the image authors. Let us know about any others you really like!

Want More Icons?

Check out more icon collections on Mintywhite.com or learn how to use these on a dock in Windows.

(...)
Read the rest of 38 Free High Quality PNG Icon Sets (ICO Packs)