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Windows Secrets > Re-examining Dropbox and its alternatives

Windows Secrets Newsletter • Issue 291 • 2011-06-02 • Circulation: over 400,000


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Windows Secrets Newsletter

Table of contents 
  • Top Story: Re-examining Dropbox and its alternatives
  • Lounge Life: Young hacker thwarts Parental Controls — how?
  • Wacky Web Week: Guest lizard doesn’t lounge on show
  • LangaList Plus: Holy …! My Win7 backup folders are empty!
  • Hot Tips: WP7: Are flash and function too much to ask for?
  • Patch Watch: The need for Windows 7 Service Pack 1

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Top Story

Re-examining Dropbox and its alternatives

Woody leonhard By Woody Leonhard

Recent revelations about privacy concerns with Dropbox have led many people — including me — to think about changing my practices regarding online file-storage and -synchronization providers.

If you use Dropbox or some other cloud storage and sync program, let me explain what you do — and don’t — need to be concerned about. And what you can do to sleep better at night.

Michael Lasky wrote about Dropbox in his October 28, 2010, Top Story, Dropbox: File synching and sharing made easy. Dropbox lets you drag and drop files into a special folder on your Windows desktop. The dropped files then magically appear on all other PCs, laptops, phones, and iPads that use the Dropbox service and are set up to share the folder you have. It has good password-based security and fine file-sharing options.

We here at Windows Secrets use Dropbox all the time, both as individuals and as a group. As Michael said, “Every once in a while some product — or service in this case — comes along that we soon find we can’t live without. Dropbox, an online file-backup, -sharing, and -synchronization service, fits that category.”

I personally like Dropbox so much I recommended it in my January 27 Top Story, Seven simple steps for setting up Windows 7.

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Lounge Life

Young hacker thwarts Parental Controls — how?

By Kathleen Atkins

The careful parent needs to be tech-savvy.

Lounge member John S0603 is the wary parent of a clever child, who can get around Windows XP Parental Controls, change file and folder ownership, and delete or disable Norton Internet Security. He wants to know how she did it so that he can block future hacking adventures on the family machine.

Other Lounge members describe possible ways and means, offering a range of Admin/Parental remedies that you can see here. More»

The following links are this week’s most interesting Lounge threads, including several new questions to which you might be able to provide responses:

Office Applications
General Productivity 
Larger icons in Office 2010?

Word Processing 
Page numbering in Word 2010

Spreadsheets 
Get year, month, day returns

Databases 
Writing Excel VBA arrays to MS Access tables

Visual Basic for Apps 
Macro to hide footer?

Microsoft Outlook 
Outlook 2007 BCC: field

Non-Outlook E-mail 
Send to Mail Recipient errors

Windows
General Windows 
Inside-family hacking job — how to block
☼
Windows 7
Have I bought a fake?
Upgrading Acer Black AX3400G-U4802 PC
Printer driver for all users?



Windows Vista 
How to recover from “safe mode” problems in Vista
☼
Windows XP 
Drive has two drive letters for the same partition

Windows Servers 
Adding user groups to public-folder permissions

Internet/Connectivity
Internet Explorer 
IE 9, other browsers have trouble finding YouTube
☼
Third-Party Browsers 
Firefox 4 on old computer: now or later?
☼
Networking
Win7 sees, but can’t open, XP folders
☼
Other Technologies
Non-Microsoft OSes 
Linux Mint 11 Katya RC

Security & Backups 
Trouble with malware and System Restore

Other Applications 
ReadIRIS Pro: Is it worth it?
☼

☼ starred posts — particularly useful

If you’re not already a Lounge member, use the quick registration form to sign up for free. The ability to post comments and take advantage of other Lounge features is available only to registered members.

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Wacky Web Week

Guest lizard doesn’t lounge on show

wacky By Revia Romberg

W.C. Fields said you should never work with animals and small children. This is advice that anyone who works in front of a camera should keep in mind. And that’s especially true for TV journalists, given the range of their possible interview subjects on any given news day.

The reporter in this video learned that lesson the hard way — and would have undoubtedly preferred a less up-close-and-personal engagement with his guest. Play the video

...

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LangaList Plus

Holy …! My Win7 backup folders are empty!

Fred langa By Fred Langa

It’s alarming: the folder that you thought held all your backups shows a size of zero bytes!

But it’s also normal; your Windows backups are there — just hidden. Here’s how to see them.


Revealing files Win7 hides by default

Reader Jean-Pierre was understandably concerned:
  • “Hi Fred, I have done a complete image backup as you explained [in the May 12 Top Story, ‘Build a complete Windows 7 safety net’]. However, when I went to where the image was saved and clicked Properties, it showed the size was 0 bytes. Is it right? Or did I do something wrong?”
Although it can be startling, Windows 7’s backup tool hides its backup sets from casual view (and casual access) via a special permission privacy attribute. This attribute keeps standard file-management tools — such as Windows Explorer — from easily seeing or altering what’s inside the backups.

Here’s an example. Figure 1 shows the Properties box for a Win7 backup folder on a test PC named “NV4K.” As you can see, Windows Explorer can’t see inside the backup folder and reports it as zero length, zero files, zero folders.

hidden backups
Figure 1. Don’t be alarmed when standard file browsing makes it seem that your backups are missing; Win7 hides them for safety.

You can choose several ways to reveal the backup’s contents, but by far the easiest is to simply double-click the seemingly empty backup folder. Assuming you’re in an admin account (or otherwise have permission to access the backups), a Windows Backup dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 2 should open.

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Hot Tips

WP7: Are flash and function too much to ask for?

Katherine murray By Katherine Murray

Does your age influence your savvy assessments of technical gear more than you’d like to think?

Katherine Murray and her son Chris compare their experiences in a two-part review of Windows Phone 7.


Here’s Katherine’s first-hand account of her decision to try a Windows Phone 7. Next week, Chris Murray gives his perspective on using the same phone.

I’m geeky and not really old, right?

I don’t like to admit this, but maybe I’m just too old for a Windows Phone 7. I’ve been writing about technology for 25 years, and I love being in the flow of things as changes in both hardware and software make it possible for us to choose where, how, and when we want to connect — online or otherwise. But with age and experience comes pragmatism, perhaps; toys must also be functional tools.

When I was writing my last round of Office 2010 books for Microsoft Press, I decided I needed a Windows Phone 7 so that I could use the latest Windows Mobile OS to write about the mobile capabilities of Office 2010 and Office 365. My first look at my new HTC HD7 wowed me: the colors, how vibrant! The touch, so responsive! I was smitten. I happily took my new phone home to customize it and show it off to friends and family.

But the honeymoon didn’t last long — soon, my pretty new phone started locking up. The image on the touchscreen seemed to be telling me to plug the phone into my PC for updates. OK, I did that. Then the Zune software kicked in, and after several moments of what looked like an update in progress, I got an error message that the update was not possible at that time. The only thing to do was to remove the battery and restart the phone.

This process was marginally annoying when it happened only once every few days. But after a few weeks of use, the phone was locking up daily — even though I synched it regularly and updated the software whenever changes were available. Eventually, the phone would lock up several times a day — usually when I had an incoming call.

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Patch Watch

The need for Windows 7 Service Pack 1

Susan bradley By Susan Bradley

I’m revisiting my advice and guidance on Windows 7 SP1, because many Windows Secrets readers had questions.

And we’ll revisit issues with that Patch Watch problem child, .NET 4.


976932
When is Windows 7 Service Pack 1 mandatory?

In the last Patch Watch, I gave the thumbs-up to Windows 7 Service Pack 1. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean some user won’t encounter installation issues. Despite its problems, I’m sticking to my recommendation to install SP1; I believe the process won’t get any better, and sooner or later we’ll need this service pack on our systems. Sometime in the next year or two, Microsoft will probably make SP1 mandatory for you to receive needed security updates.

► What to do: Although Microsoft recommends that single-PC users go to Windows Update for SP1, I still recommend that you manually download and install it. Manual downloads have given me the best updating results. You’ll find KB 976932 on the Win7 SP1 download page.

Note! Before you install SP1, back up your system and review The Windows Servicing Guy’s blog, “General guidance before installing Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2,” for tips on what to watch for.

2541014
My rule for application-compatibility updates

Updates such as Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool or Outlook junk filters I typically install as soon as they’re offered. But I’ll often hold off installing any new Windows updates that appear on the unofficial, second Patch Tuesday (usually, the forth Tuesday of the month). These updates seem to have more problems. For example, if I see a Windows Application Compatibility Updates (WACU) offered, I’ll typically add the patch to a test system, then watch the update forums for problems discovered by others.

Sometimes these late-month patches are worth trying immediately, such as the fix in Microsoft Support article 2541014, which addresses a hybernation problem that might appear after installing Windows 7 Service Pack 1.

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YOUR SUBSCRIPTION

The Windows Secrets Newsletter is published weekly on the 1st through 4th Thursdays of each month, plus occasional news updates. We skip an issue on the 5th Thursday of any month, the week of Thanksgiving, and the last two weeks of August and December. Windows Secrets is a continuation of four merged publications: Brian's Buzz on Windows and Woody's Windows Watch in 2004, the LangaList in 2006, and the Support Alert Newsletter in 2008.

Publisher: WindowsSecrets.com, 1218 Third Ave., Suite 1515, Seattle, WA 98101 USA. Vendors, please send no unsolicited packages to this address (readers' letters are fine).

Editor in chief: Tracey Capen. Senior editors: Fred Langa, Woody Leonhard. Copyeditor: Roberta Scholz. Program director: Tony Johnston. Contributing editors: Yardena Arar, Susan Bradley, Scott Dunn, Michael Lasky, Scott Mace, Ryan Russell, Lincoln Spector, Robert Vamosi, Becky Waring. Product manager: Andy Boyd. Advertising director: Eric Gilley.

Trademarks: Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The Windows Secrets series of books is published by Wiley Publishing Inc. The Windows Secrets Newsletter, WindowsSecrets.com, Support Alert, LangaList, LangaList Plus, WinFind, Security Baseline, Patch Watch, Perimeter Scan, Wacky Web Week, the Logo Design (W, S or road, and Star), and the slogan Everything Microsoft Forgot to Mention all are trademarks and service marks of WindowsSecrets.com. All other marks are the trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: Anyone may subscribe to this newsletter by visiting our free signup page.

HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: To unsubscribe from the Windows Secrets Newsletter,
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Copyright © 2017 by WindowsSecrets.com. All rights reserved.

Table of contents

Top-scoring articles in the past 12 months
  • Private systems generate corporate error message 5.00
  • How to fully test your malware defenses 5.00
  • Problems foil ‘Safe Mode with Networking’ 5.00
  • Using Windows’ powerful <i>Recovery Environment</i> 5.00
  • Program Manager prevents proper Win10 shutdown 5.00
  • Reactivating Windows after a hardware upgrade 5.00
  • Ransomware attacks get more personal 5.00
  • Why Google and other toolbars fail on IE 11 5.00
  • The five main causes of Win10 slowdowns 5.00
  • Deeply flawed system runs slow, won’t upgrade 5.00
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Trademarks: Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The Windows Secrets series of books is published by Wiley Publishing Inc. The Windows Secrets Newsletter, WindowsSecrets.com, WinFind, Windows Gizmos, Security Baseline, Patch Watch, Perimeter Scan, Wacky Web Week, the Logo Design (W, S or road, and Star), and the slogan Everything Microsoft Forgot to Mention all are trademarks and service marks of iNET Interactive. All other marks are the trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.
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