Time to time is necessary upgrade or change Server Hardware. In average, companies change hardware for servers every 3-5 years. Furthermore, yes,...

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Today, Esther is going to show off the Previous Versions. This feature is part of the Shadow Copy feature in Windows Vista. This is a really helpful feature that has saved me numerous times!   It essentially makes incremental back-ups of your work - so if you accidentally delete content, you can find it again and recover it with a single click.  Anyone who has modified a document and clicked "save" instead of "save as" will appreciate Previous Versions!

Video: Windows Vista Demo: Previous Versions

Let me know what you think of this and the other features we've discussed this week (Search and Live Icons) - we'd love your feedback!

Windows Live OneCare 2.5 is now available and I've got some information for both new and existing Windows Live OneCare subscribers regarding the Windows Live OneCare 2.5 release I'd like to share.

Beginning last week (July 1st to be exact) - existing Windows Live OneCare users (paid subscribers) began automatically receiving Windows Live OneCare 2.5. The Windows Live OneCare website also began offering Windows Live OneCare 2.5 for new users as well. If you are a Windows Live OneCare subscriber and have not yet been automatically updated, you can either wait until the update occurs or download the new version from the Windows Live OneCare website.

NOTE:  If you choose not to wait for the automatic update to occur and want to go ahead and "manually" update yourself via downloading the new version off the Windows Live OneCare website - you will need to uninstall the previous version first before Windows Live OneCare 2.5 will install. I had not been automatically upgraded so I chose to install manually on 1 of my PCs but the others were automatically updated soon after.

So what's new with Windows Live OneCare 2.5? As I stated previously, the Windows Live OneCare 2.5 release is mainly an "under-the-hood" release. That means all the improvements take place behind-the-scenes so you will not notice any major new features or changes to the overall UI. Windows Live OneCare 2.5 is an incremental release that highlights Microsoft's ongoing commitment to improving Windows Live OneCare for paying subscribers.

However, Windows Live OneCare 2.5 does bring some changes worth taking note of. Windows Live OneCare is now available in 3 new markets: Brazil, India and Hong Kong. Also, if you are using the Online Photo Backup feature in Windows Live OneCare, you will be pleased to see that online storage capacity has been increased from 10GB to 50GB! Online Photo Backup is an added benefit to Windows Live OneCare users where they can pay $50 a year (on top of their existing Windows Live OneCare subscription) to have their digital photos automatically backed up to the "cloud".

As a Windows Live OneCare user myself, I enjoy seeing updates to Windows Live OneCare even if they aren't major updates. The priority for me is simply keeping my PC protected.

To help celebrate St. Patrick's Today - the Windows Live OneCare Team is kicking off a brand new campaign: Get Green Stay Green.

The Get Green Stay Green campaign is designed to make sure Windows Live OneCare users are staying "green" - meaning their PC Health Status. Here is Amy Barzdukas, Senior Direct here at Microsoft, to talk about Windows Live OneCare and keeping your PC safe. Amy leads the Windows Live OneCare Team.

Video: Microsoft Windows Live OneCare

I use Windows Live OneCare on my 3 personal home PCs - which are connected together in an OneCare Circle (you can have up to 3 PCs in an OneCare Circle). This lets me manage the PC Health for all my personal PCs. If any of my PCs in my OneCare Circle have their PC Health Status change to yellow or red, I can quickly see which PC it is and why. I can then do what is needed to bring that PC back to green. Keeping all my PCs green is very important to me. If any of my PCs slip into yellow or red - I fix it immediately.

I have a few tips to share from personal experience in keeping my PCs green in my OneCare Circle that you can use to help keep your own PCs green:

• Make sure you have your PCs backed up. Windows Live OneCare can backup your PCs automatically to a centralized point on your home network. In my case, I have all my home PCs backed up to my Windows Home Server which Windows Live OneCare detects.
• Have your firewall turned on. Windows Live OneCare can maintain and monitor your firewall - protecting your PC from attacks. Even though I'm behind a pretty secure router - I have the firewall turned on for all PCs in my OneCare Circle to add an extra level of protection.
• Make sure Protection Plus (malware definitions) are up to date. This ensures your PC is protected from the latest internet garbage.
• Do a PC Tune-up! Windows Live OneCare can do regular Tune-ups that can ensure your PC is running at its best.
• Make sure your PC has the latest updates from Windows Update. Important updates are key to ensuring your PC stays green.

Again, keeping my home PCs green is very important to me and the above tips help me to do so.

Do you have any tips for Windows Live OneCare and keeping your PC green? I'd love to hear them. Leave a comment below. I would be particularly interested in hearing about how you use Windows Live OneCare to ensure your PCs are backed up.

Users can also visit http://www.getgreenstaygreen.com/ and find out what it takes to keep their PC "green".

My business requires me to safeguard the security of certain files. For years I have used Encrypted Magic Folders (EMF) from PC-Magic to encrypt those files, and to hide them from the view of an interloper. I loved it, because files were always encrypted on disk and yet were fully accessible to applications. However, when I upgraded to Vista 64, the new EMF crashed my system so completely that it was unbootable even in safe mode. I tried it twice, recovered twice with some difficulty, and gave up on EMF.

In the meantime I had heard about TrueCrypt, an open-source disk encryption package for Windows and Linux. It’s free! I must admit that after I downloaded it, I needed some time to get my mind around it.

Here are the basics:

• Using the TrueCrypt application you create a large “container” file on your system, larger than you will need to hold your encrypted files. It can be on any read/write disk, even a memory stick, and is initially filled with random data.
• The container file can be copied, moved, deleted, or renamed just like any other file. It’s not fragile. It can have any name and any file extension. You can have more than one.
• With the TrueCrypt application, you mount that container file as a disk volume with its own drive letter. You choose the letter.
• The TrueCrypt application runs in the background and manages TrueCrypt volumes.
• Within the TrueCrypt volume you create folders, or copy them in, and create or copy in any files that ought to be encrypted. A TrueCrypt volume behaves exactly like any other disk, even though it’s really just a file on your hard drive or mem stick. Every file within it is totally encrypted, including file names and even its file system.
• Unused space in the TrueCrypt container file is filled with random data which cannot be distinguished from actual encrypted files.
• When you open an encrypted file in an application, such as a wordprocessor or graphic editor, the file is decrypted on the fly so that the application sees it decrypted.
• The file is never decrypted on disk, however, unless the application keeps temporary backup copies, and of course you should tell your applications to keep those in an encrypted volume too.
• Backup of encrypted data is easy: Just dismount the encrypted volume and copy its container file, still encrypted, to the backup medium.
• If the backup medium is another disk, mem stick, DVD, or CD-ROM, you can actually mount that backup container file whenever you want without ever copying it back to the original hard disk.

That’s the simple view of TrueCrypt. There is lots more. For example:

• Anyone examining your system or your disk can tell that you use TrueCrypt, and can probably even identify the container files.
• However, you can host a TrueCrypt volume within another truecrypt volume in a manner that makes the internal volume both hidden and undectable even if the outer volume is mounted and visible. Really cool. The TrueCrypt people call this “plausible deniability,” and consider it quite important.
• Example: An adversary points a gun at you and demands to see your encrypted files. You can give them the password to the outer encrypted volume without ever revealing that an inner, hidden volume even exists. It’s invisible. I don’t actually see the need for a hidden volume in my business, but evidently some folks do.
• You can host a truecrypt volume on a public computer, or another person’s computer, without installing any software on that computer, so your encrypted files are portable.
• You can tell TrueCrypt to mount certain TrueCrypt volumes automatically at bootup, though you will be required to enter a password to complete the mounting process.
• TrueCrypt allows you to use any of eight different encryption algorithms and three different hash algorithms, making decryption by an adversary even more difficult.

I love it, and in fact am using it for my encrypted files on my new computer. It works very well indeed, even on Vista 64. It is certainly no more trouble than EMF was, and backup is much simpler. It is far better than Windows Encrypted File System (EFS) because: (1) EFS files are always available when you log on, whereas TrueCrypt files require you to enter another password; and (2) EFS files cannot easily be backed up in their encrypted form. TrueCrypt is also much simpler than Windows BitLocker encryption, which requires you to partition your drive and poses some risk of losing the entire drive if something goes wrong.

This weekend I completed the roll-out of my new HP MediaSmart Server running Windows Home Server.  I ordered the HP MediaSmart Server EX470. I originally had Windows Home Server running on my Dell Dimension E520 but decommissioned it when I created my “Ultimate” PC. I really wanted to try out the experience the average consumer will have in purchasing a Windows Home Server and setting it up in their home. The HP MediaSmart Server seemed like the perfect choice in checking out the Windows Home Server experience.

 

The HP MediaSmart Server EX470 has the following specs:

• Processor - AMD 1.8GHz 64-bit Sempron
• Memory - 512MB DDR
• Interfaces - 4 USB 2.0 Ports, 1 eSATA Port
• Storage - 1 500GB SATA 7200 RPM

The EX470 model of the HP MediaSmart Server comes with a single 500GB harddrive, however the EX475 model comes with 1TB (two 500GB SATA harddrives). I don’t need 1TB just yet so decided to go with the EX470. The EX470 comes with 3 expansion slots to add my own harddrives at a later date which is really nice.

Windows Home Server gives a great deal of added benefit to Windows Vista users. First and foremost, it allows you to make sure your PC is completely backed up and that all your PCs on your home network are backed up. With a Windows Home Server restore disc, you can easily restore a complete PC backup from your Windows Home Server via your home network. Windows Home Server also makes sure all your PCs are protected by as well - alerting you if a PC becomes unprotected our has out-of-date antivirus/spyware definitions. And Windows Home Server takes advantage of Media Sharing abilities built in to Windows Vista for photos, music and videos. I can move recorded TV shows onto my Windows Home Server where I can access them on any PC on my home network. Same goes for my photos.

There are 3 reasons why Windows Home Server is essential for my home network:

1. A centralized place for data storage with quick access from any PC on my.
2. Quick and easy remote access to PCs and data.
3. Complete PC backups with full and quick restore capability.

I do a lot of traveling and when I’m away from my home office, I cannot begin to explain how amazing it is to be able to login to my Windows Home Server to access important data - or files I accidentally left behind. I can even use Remote Desktop to login to my PCs at home remotely.

In setting up the HP MediaSmart Server, I was curious how the experience would be in setting up a “headless” server from a consumer standpoint. There’s no monitor connection on the HP MediaSmart Server - only way to access it is remotely. I was incredibly impressed on how easy it was.

Essentially, the HP MediaSmart Server comes with an install disc you use on any of your client PCs on your home network. The install disc will install some HP software for the server as well as launch a wizard that takes the user through a step-by-step process in setting up Windows Home Server. The wizard lets you setup a Windows Home Server Password, check for updates, name your Windows Home Server, and install the Windows Home Server Connector.

    

After the wizard completed, I had a fully functional and accessible Windows Home Server. Took me only a matter of a few minutes to set up. Very nice.

Coming up, I’ve got some more experiences to share with Windows Home Server and Windows Vista.