Windows Tools, Help & Guides

It’s been a while since the new Xbox 360 Slim was released.  I’ve been keenly reading reviews and watching screencasts on Microsoft’s new games console.  In particular I’ve been watching out for RROD issues and comparisons to the Xbox 360 Classic

I came across Paul Thurrott’s review last month, it’s one of the best on the web I’ve read and I’d like to share it with mintywhite readers.

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Windows Forums member, walt1019, made the following suggestion in our suggestion box:

Tips on securing home wireless networks could be useful. So many are still using the default settings which are wide open while some just use WEP, MAC filtering or not broadcasting the SSID which offers little to no protection.

This guide will show you how to do the following:

• Access your router’s administration panel.
• Secure your wireless network.
• Secure your router.
• Disable SSID broadcasting.
• Connect to a non-broadcasting network.

Why do You Need to Secure Your Home Network?

With an unsecured network, I can get access to your router, PC, private documents, printer, peripheral devices, and can even monitor your instant messaging activity, emails, bank passwords etc. I can also use the internet you pay your hard earned cash for, without paying for it myself. It’s important to protect your home network and this guide will show you how. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, I chose my top five anti-malware applications and there are many more that didn’t make the cut. Here on Windows Guides, we have a section dedicated to security and anti-malware application reviews. But, if you want a list of a bunch of security programs, look no further than Gizmo’s freeware.

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Update: More information on RAID can be found here.

And who wouldn’t put their hands up for RAID? The Redundant Array of Independent disks can improve your disk performance, or give you data integrity, or both.

Windows Media Center provides an excellent home for your digital entertainment — and like any excellent home you want to pack more and more into it. Take a look at your physical collections — photos, albums, CD’s, DVDs, video tapes, etc. If you are into home entertainment then you’ve probably collected plenty of good stuff. The same thing will happen to your digital collection. Before long you will outgrow a single drive, then two. Around the time you get your third drive and file searches need three separate operations you’ll start looking around for a better storage system.

Adding a RAID Controller card and an array of 3 or more hard drives will combine those separate drives (minus a bit of space for safe data storage) into a single virtual drive that is easier to manage and provides protection against a single disk failure. It may improve your disk performance, depending on how you configure it.

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We have a number of new writers on the team lately and, in this article, I’d like to share a little about each of our writers so you can get to know us all a little better.

Here’s a quick overview of the team:

	Name (Username)	Joined Team	Location	Operating System	Profile
	RSVR85	September 2009			rsvr85
	Mike	November 2009			Mike
	Thomas	January 2010			Thomas
	Harry	February 2010			Harry
	Steven Downer (DarkNovaGamer)	March 2010			DarkNovaGamer
	Angel Luis	April 2010			Angel Luis
	Taylor Ling (ghost 301)	July 2010			ghost301
	Deck Hazen (Deck)	July 2010			Deck
	swooper	July 2010			swooper
	Spazz	August 2010			Spazz
	N J West (Nicholas)	October 2009			Nicholas
	ashmsa (Scragg)	January 2010			Scragg
	sergiogarcia9	May 2010			sergiogarcia9
	Rich Robinson (Rich)	February 2008			Rich

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I’ve done a major rework on the PC Maintenance Handbook and the second edition is now available as a free download. Below is a changelog of some of the changes you’ll see in the new edition. As always, feedback–whether positive or constructive–is always welcome.
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