When working with large files, the amount of space these large files consume on your hard drive can be quite a bit. These days, most Windows PCs come with a decent amount of storage to where working with big files isn’t too much of an issue. And adding extra storage either through external USB hard drives or new internal hard drives isn’t as expensive as it used to be. However, a great way to conserve disk space while working with big files is to decrease the amount of space they consume by “compressing” them into a smaller in size. This is called file compression (or data compression). Other great uses for file compression is for reducing file sizes for email, reducing file sizes for backing up, and encryption.

One of the most common file compression formats (which you’ve probably heard of) is .zip. Another is .cab. With file compression, you can take a large file or group of large files and compress them into a single compressed file like a .zip or .cab file. A .zip file can literally be hundreds of files that are compressed into that single .zip file. There are actually quite a few different compression formats that can be used today.

Windows 7 natively supports “zipping” or compressing files into a .zip file. To do this is pretty easy – just select the file or files you want to compress and then right-click on them, choose “Send to” and then choose “Compressed (zipped) file”. Windows 7 also supports opening and extracting .zip files or .cab files as well through Windows Explorer.

But sometimes when working with large files and file compression you need more advanced control over things like the compression rates and compression formats. This is where WinZip comes in. WinZip is an application specifically designed for working with file compression and compressed files. WinZip file compression software has been around for a while – its first version was released in 1991. In 2006, WinZip was acquired by Corel and now is part of Corel’s product line (like WinZip, Corel’s CorelDraw Graphics Suite X5 also carries the Compatible with Windows 7 logo). WinZip’s long history and experience makes it a great application for working with compressed files. Corel recently shipped the latest release of WinZip: WinZip 14.5. And WinZip 14.5 comes with a ton of great features taking advantage of Windows 7.

WinZip 14.5 introduces a brand new UI using the Ribbon. WinZip barrows from the same Ribbon UI seen in WordPad and Paint in Windows 7 – providing a very consistent ease-of-use experience for its users. It also takes advantage of the Taskbar Enhancements in Windows 7 with a Jump List for quick access to creating “archives” (compressed files), open “archives”, and more.

WinZip 14.5 also supports Libraries in Windows 7. With support of Libraries, Corel has introduced a new feature in WinZip 14.5 (in the Pro version) for backups. Using the Backup tab, users can use WinZip to easily backup their Windows 7 libraries. This feature however is available in only the Pro version of WinZip 14.5.

Another neat feature I discovered in WinZip is whenever you create a WinZip “archive”; it tells you how much it has compressed the files (I love this feature!). You can see in the above screenshot how much WinZip was able to compress 2 Excel spreadsheets of mine. WinZip 14.5 also introduces a neat new feature making it extremely easy to send compressed files via email to your contacts.

Being someone that works quite a bit with .ISO files, WinZip allows me to open .ISO files and extract the files. I often find myself wanting to extract the contents of an .ISO file onto a USB drive to install something on a PC instead of burning the .ISO and its contents to a CD or DVD. WinZip supports a variety of compressed file formats outside .zip and .cab files I mentioned above including .zipx, .rar, .b2z, .lhA, .img, and .iso.

If you’re creating compressed files that need to be secure, WinZip offers a quick and easy way to encrypt your compressed files with passwords. And there is an Auto-wipe feature that will “shred” temporarily extracted copies of encrypted files using the U.S. Department of Defense standard (DoD 5220.22-M) to prevent data theft in certain scenarios requiring more security around the compressed files. In combination with the above mentioned backup features, WinZip can take care of the encryption and backup all at once!

You can buy WinZip 14.5 for $29.95 or the Pro version at $49.95. For a breakdown of Standard features versus Pro, click here.

WinZip 14.5 is a perfect example of one of our partners using technology and features in Windows 7 to create a better user experience for their customers. And WinZip 14.5 is a must-have application for those of you working extensively with compressed files and file compression.

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.