Create Idiot-Proof Backups With Windows' Built-In Tools

When Apple released its Time Machine backup tool in Mac OS X 10.5 last year, many hailed its convenience and simplicity. But your Windows PC comes with all of Time Machine's slick backup tricks built-in.
The backup utility built into Vista and XP doesn't have a catchy name (it's called Backup Status and Configuration), but it's a powerful tool that gets far less attention than it deserves--and it costs nothing extra. Perhaps it should have a name like "Super-Better Backup," or "Burger, Fries, and a Milk Shake Backup."
Apple's Time Machine makes backups on an automated schedule and allows incremental updates. So does Windows' backup app. Your PC can even match Time Machine's most interesting feature, rolling back any given file to an earlier version. I'll explain how to use all of these tools, and I'll provide tips along the way to protect your data from disaster.
Pick the Destination

The most secure backup solution is one that stores your data far, far away from your PC--like, across town in a bank safe. Second best: an Internet-based storage service. Third: a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device.
An external, USB-, FireWire-, or eSATA-connected backup drive such one of the models on our Top 10 External Hard Drives chart is a good choice, especially if you store it somewhere other than on top of the PC it's backing up. As our lab tests have shown, eSATA and FireWire 800 drives are faster than USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 drives (though few PCs come standard with the faster interfaces).
Try to set up a routine of taking the drive with you when you go to work, and bring it home once a week for the backup operation. An even better strategy: Use two external drives, making two sets of backups. With this alternating pattern, you can keep one of the drives at work, or in a fireproof safe, a bank deposit box, a friend's house, or other off-site location to protect your data from a home-office catastrophe.
A network backup offers a great way to store files, and the LaCie Ethernet Disk Mini Home Edition is a good option for the home office, especially if you have more than one PC to back up. But network-attached storage drives are substantially slower than drives that use eSATA, FireWire, or USB connections, and because they're often shared among multiple PCs, they usually stay in once place, greatly diminishing their disaster protection.
Online storage protects you from a fire or other catastrophe, and it allows retrieval from anywhere. Internet backups move slowly, however, because they are limited by your broadband provider's maximum upload rate. Because of the pace, such backups are usually best for saving just individual documents or small folders, not for backing up an entire system. (See "Online Storage Options" for more on this alternative.)
If your PC has only a single hard drive and you can't (or don't want to) find an external solution, you can use Windows to make a second partition, and save the backup data there. Your PC will treat the second partition as a second drive, which can protect it from some simple types of data corruption. But if the drive mechanism physically fails, you'll lose access to the backup too, of course.
To set up a second partition, in Windows Vista, click Control Panel, System and Maintenance, and under Administrative Tools,choose Create and format hard disk partitions to open the Disk Management utility. Right-click your current disk, and pick Shrink Volume. Enter how much space you want to recover. When the action is complete, right-click the Unallocated space, and click New Simple Volume.
Note: Windows XP won't repartition a disk that's in use, so you'll need to employ a utility like the free Partition Logic instead.
Because the Windows backup tools have changed quite a bit with the release of Vista, the next step in creating your backup plan depends on which version of Windows you're running.

Schedule Automated Backups in XP

Windows XP includes built-in, automated backup tools that can save a copy of all your data. From Programs, Accessories, System Tools, choose Backup. Click Advanced Mode to skip the wizard. Click the Backup tab at the top of the window.
Navigate below My Computer to check the drive you want to back up, or highlight the drive name in the left pane and click specific check boxes in the right pane to select items à la carte. Click the Browse button at the bottom of the screen to choose a place on the destination drive to store the data. Click Start Backup.
If you want a long list of redundant backups, leave the radio button set to append data. That way, you can go back to recover files in different states, if necessary. But if you're backing up most of the system, that'll use a lot of space. Choose the second option, Replace the data, if you'd rather conserve drive space when making consecutive backups. That option will provide you with only one version of each file.
Click the Advanced button, and set the Backup Type to Incremental. That setting will save only the files you've changed or added since the most recent backup. (You'll copy everything the first time.) Click OK. Click the Schedule button and save a copy of the settings when prompted. The Scheduled Job Options window will open. Click Properties, and use the Schedule Task pop-up menus to set the time and frequency of the backup. Note that your PC needs to be on to process the backup; but pick a time, such as late at night, when you won't be competing with the utility for system resources. For a primary machine, I like to run a backup every day, but you could be fine with weekly backups on a less frequently used system. Click OK. Choose Start Backup to begin the job the first time.
Schedule Automated Backups in Vista

Once you've decided where you'll save your backups, configure Windows Vista to automatically save new copies of your data. Open Control Panel, System and Maintenance, Backup and Restore Center, and click the Back up files button. Choose an external hard disk or a CD or DVD drive, or click the radio button to connect to a network location. Click Next.
Choose the types of files that you want to back up. I like to back up as much as I can, checking all of the boxes. (This isn't the same as backing up a complete disk image for a full PC restore, which I'll talk about at the end of this article.) Checking all the boxex basically saves everything that you create or add to a computer other than applications and their settings. The operating system and its settings won't be backed up. Click Next.
Choose a schedule by considering how much data you can afford to lose. If you use this PC for critical, daily work, schedule backups every night. If it's an occasionally used computer, consider backing it up every week. The first time you make a backup, the process may take a few hours, depending on how much you're saving. After that, the system will look for files that you've added or changed, copying only those items to save time and storage space.
Roll Back Individual Files

Certain editions of Windows Vista--Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate--let you browse backwards through a single file, recovering a specific version, not just the most recent copy. Microsoft calls this feature Shadow Copy, and it's enabled by default. Right-click a file or folder, and select Restore previous versions. Each system restore point or backup point that Windows creates initiates a new Shadow Copy. Browse through the different modification dates, and click Open to preview the file as it was. Click Restore to retrieve a copy from the backup for current work.
Thriftier versions of Windows Vista create Shadow Copies but don't allow you access to them. The free ShadowExplorer adds this retrieval feature. After installation, launch ShadowExplorer, and choose the restore date from the pop-up menu. Navigate through the file browser to locate an item. Right-click it, choose Export, and save it to any location you like.


Roll Back Windows to an Earlier State

Windows includes a couple of backup tools to revert your PC to a previous, working condition: Restore Points and device driver rollback. These are most helpful if your system becomes unstable and you need to reset it to an earlier point where it was reliable. Unlike Shadow Copy, these don't let you selectively browse back; they're essentially all-or-nothing switches.
Locate Vista's Restore Points by opening Control Panel, System and Maintenance, System. In the left side, click Advanced system settings. Choose the System Protection tab. Click System Restore.
Windows automatically creates a restore point each day, and before making significant changes to the system. You can also create a restore point manuallly by selecting a disk under the System Protection tab of the System Properties control panel and then clicking Create. If you want to revert to the most recent restore point, click Next; otherwise, click the Choose a different restore point radio button. Choose the date and time, and click Next. Click Finish to begin the process.
In Windows XP, open Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. You should see Restore my computer to an earlier time. Click Next, and pick a date to which the system will revert. Click Next twice to begin the process.
The Device Manager also allows you to undo a single software driver. In XP or Vista, double-click a hardware item, click the Driver tab, and choose Roll Back Driver to revert to an earlier state. This option is most useful if you have problems immediately after updating a driver.
Image a Disk
Once you have a new system working perfectly, consider saving a full copy of the drive as a disk image. That way, if you have to reinstall everything, the image file will already contain your applications and Windows updates--in other words, you can restore your OS and applications in one swoop, and then restore all of your documents from a recent backup.
Many backup and disk suites include imaging software. True Image Home 11 handles nearly any imaging need, with encryption options and even incremental images, so you can keep appending the image without starting over.

Bluetooth, IE to Get Critical Microsoft Patches

Microsoft plans to issue seven sets of security patches next week, including critical fixes for DirectX, Internet Explorer and Bluetooth wireless software for Windows.
The updates are due Tuesday, the day Microsoft had previously scheduled to release its security patches. Fixes are also slated for Active Directory, the Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) and the Pragmatic General Multicast (PGM) protocol, used by Windows to stream media to many recipients. These updates are all rated "important."
A seventh update, rated "moderate," is listed as a "Kill Bit" update for Windows. This type of patch will disable code that is known to have a security bug.
"The Kill Bit will more than likely be for a third-party application," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations with security vendor nCircle.
Lately, Microsoft's security group has had to pay more attention to software that runs on top of Windows, as attackers have increasingly looked to products like QuickTime, Adobe's Flash and other media players when devising their attacks.
Last Friday, Microsoft warned that a widely publicized flaw in Apple's Safari browser could be combined with another Microsoft bug to let attackers run unauthorized software on a victim's PC.
It's not clear whether Microsoft plans to patch that bug. The IE update could include a fix, although it's unlikely that Microsoft has had enough time to run this software through its testing process, Storms said.
It is unusual for Microsoft to patch Bluetooth, a protocol used to connect devices like headsets to Windows, but added that "the more interesting question is will this patch and/or the bug extend into Windows mobile where it will more than likely have a greater impact?"
Microsoft announced the planned patches in a note posted to its Web site on Thursday.

Apple Releases QuickTime 7.5 With Bug Fixes

Apple has again released a new version of QuickTime, its multimedia player that has been plagued by software vulnerabilities.
The latest version, 7.5, repairs five vulnerabilities, all of which could result in a hacker taking control over a person's PC. Four out of the five problems affect both Apple's OS X and Microsoft's XP and Vista operating systems.
Apple posted details of the flaws on its Web site.
Two of the problems concern PICT image files, which could be engineered in order to exploit the software vulnerabilities, causing the machine to crash or execute other code.
Apple wrote that the other three vulnerabilities could also be exploited by maliciously crafted files. Content in the AAC audio, Indeo video or QuickTime formats could be built to take advantage of those problems.
In April, Apple released 11 patches for QuickTime, some of which could have also allowed a hacker to execute malicious code on a machine. Four patches were issued in January to fix critical flaws as part of version 7.4.

New FireFox 3.0 is coming

Just more than 10 years ago, Mozilla threw its open-source code into the public domain. Today, its browser -- Firefox -- is preparing to launch its third major release in hopes of continuing to eat away at Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
Firefox already has more than 18 percent of the global market, according to Net Applications. With the release of Firefox 3, Mozilla could see a boost in downloads and market share. Microsoft's next version of Internet Explorer won't come to market until later this year.
On June 17, Mozilla will release Firefox 3. After more than 34 months of active development and the contributions of thousands of people, Firefox 3 will be downloadable free from the Mozilla Web site. Mozilla is promising this is the best browser -- period.
"Firefox 3 is a very nice browser. It's still going to have to go up against Internet Explorer {Windows] and Safari [Mac], which have the home court advantage on their operating systems," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch. "It shows that the browser market is anything but stagnant."
A Focus on Security
Firefox 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9 Web rendering platform. Building on the previous release, Gecko 1.9 has more than 15,000 updates, including some major re-architecting for improved performance, stability, rendering correctness, and code simplification and sustainability. The result, Mozilla said, is a more secure, easier to use, more personal product with a lot more under the hood to offer Web-site and Firefox add-on developers.
Mozilla begins with a focus on security. Users can click a Web site's favicon [icon] in the location bar to see who owns the site and to check if the connection is secure. Identity verification is prominently displayed and easier to understand, Mozilla said. When a site uses Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates, the site's favicon will turn green and show the name of the company.
Firefox 3 also has malware protection to warn users when they arrive at sites known to install viruses, spyware, trojans or the like. And a new Web Forgery Protection service blocks the content of pages suspected as Web forgeries. New SSL error pages, Mozilla said, are clearer and stricter, and Firefox automatically disables old and insecure add-on and plug-in versions.
Add-ons that provide updates in an insecure manner will also be disabled. Firefox will inform antivirus software when downloading executables and the browser respects the Vista parental control setting for disabling file downloads.
Easier, More Personal
Mozilla also concentrated on making Firefox easier to use and more personalized. In terms of password management, that means an information bar replaces the old password dialog so users can save passwords after a successful login. The add-on whitelist has been removed, making it possible to install extensions from third-party sites in fewer clicks. And a new download manager aims to makes it much easier to locate downloaded files. Users can also see and search the Web site where a file came from.
Firefox 3 allows users to add bookmarks from the location bar with a single click and associate keywords with bookmarks to sort them. Web applications, such as a favorite Webmail provider, can now be used instead of desktop applications to handle Web-site mail links. The Add-ons Manager can be used to download and install a Firefox customization from the thousands of add-ons available from Mozilla's Web site.
Gartenberg expects the competition to dominate browsing will continue. Even now, Microsoft is working on the release of IE 8 and Apple is seeding Safari 4. "Clearly, Web browsers are still very important, as important as they were 10 years ago, but just in a different way," he said. "The bottom line is no one is actually paying for a browser any more. A browser is free. It's something you give away in order to make money elsewhere."