I like my data.  Pictures, music, videos, documents…great stuff.  I cry a little bit to think that it could all vanish should one of my kids cannonball off the top bunk onto my laptop.  Hence the need for a complete PC backup to a network share.  Vista has a slick new method for backing up your data.  A complete Vista backup essentially creates a Virtual Hard Disk file (VHD) which could, in theory, be mounted with Microsoft Virtual PC.

So off we go in search of the new backup features in Windows Vista:

1. Start
2. Control Panel
3. Backup and Restore Center
4. Back up computer

The first thing you’ll notice is that you can only backup to a local hard drive or multiple DVDs.  This is fine if you’ve got a USB hard drive or a bunch of DVD’s.  However, I want to backup to a network location (i.e. UNC path).  Enter the powerful WBAdmin utility.  TO THE COMMAND PROMPT ROBIN!

Here’s how your would do a one time backup to a network share:

1. Command Prompt
2. wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:UNC_PATH_HERE -include:C: -quiet
3. Grab a healthy snack and watch your ones and zeros zing across the network

Now let’s take a look at automating this job with the Task Scheduler:

1. Start
2. Control Panel
3. Administrative Tools
4. Task Scheduler
5. Action
6. Create Basic Task
7. Give it a name like “Technullogy Rocks”
8. Set your schedule on the “Task Trigger” screen
9. Select “Start a program” on the “Action” screen
10. Enter “wbadmin.exe” in the “Program/script” textbox
11. Under “Add arguments” type “start backup -backupTarget:UNC_PATH_HERE -include:C: -quiet” (without quotes)
12. Click Finish and do a happy dance (be sure your friends don’t see this step – it could lead to a an awkward moment)

While working on a “community” PC at work, I noticed that several language packs were installed (along with all their updates).  While there is nothing inherently wrong with this, they can take up a lot of hard disk space and will unnecessarily install patches for languages we just don’t use.  This KB article contains the details about language packs. Here’s a quick tutorial that should guide you through the process of removing unwanted language packs for Windows Vista (taken from the KB article):

How to remove a language pack

1. Click Start , and then click Control Panel.
2. In Control Panel, click Clock, Language, and Region, click Regional and Language Options, and then click Change display language.
3. On the Keyboard and Languages tab, click Install/uninstall languages under Display language. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Continue.
4. In Choose to install or remove languages, click Remove languages.
5. Under Select the languages that you want to remove, select the language that you want to remove, and then click Next.
6. Click the language that you want to remove, and then click Remove.

The only downside I’ve found is that you can only remove one language pack at a time; though the user interface teases you with a check box list of languages to be removed.  If you select multiple language packs and then click “Remove”, the first item selected will be removed, but all subsequent packs are left installed.  After each is removed, a reboot is required.