In the computer world, icons are an app’s visual representative and personal identity. In terms of marketing, icons are the packaging and one of the selling points. I know some people who would try out (or even buy) applications just because of the beautiful icon. If you think I’m exaggerating, visit the iTunes Store and go to the iPhone applications department.

Mac is famous for its good looking icons. Apple has set its icon standard so high that third party developers have to match or surpass the quality if they want to survive in the demanding community of Mac users.

Giving Files & Folders Some Personalities

Even though Mac users can feast their eyes with tons of beautifully crafted Mac icons, some general items always use the same old icons. I’m sure that, just like me, sometimes most computer users would love to give their personal files and folders unique personalities.

I’m not talking about changing the whole set of Mac icons for the whole system using some icon packages. I’m talking about changing icons for individual items using your own customized creation.

There are at least two ways to do that quickly and easily in Mac, manually and automatically. The first method could be done if you’ve already have ready to use Mac icons.

Getting Mac Icons

Due to the different file format, you can’t just use Windows icons in Mac – and vice versa. Mac icons are in .icns format while Windows’ is .ico.

While a great number of sites with free downloadable Mac icons are only a search engine away, a free web service to create your own Mac icons is a rare breed. The only one that I could find is iConvert. This service will help you to convert images into Mac icons. The service is also able to convert images to icons, and icons to icons for other platform like Windows and Linux.

So we can use this service to convert and use Linux and Windows icons in Mac (should you ever need and want to do that ), or convert Mac icons to be used in those other platform.

To use iConvert, you need to browse and upload the image or icon file and click “Convert“. As simple as that. After the converting process is done, the icons are available in Mac, Windows and Linux formats, ready to be downloaded.

With the icons ready, we can continue to the next step: replacing the old icons with the new.

Changing Icons

Replacing icons in Mac is very easy. You just choose a file or folder with the icon that you want to change and hit Command + I (or File –> Get Info menu) to open the File/Folder Info window.

Then drag and drop the new icon to replace the icon image at the top left corner of the Info window.

That’s it.

And as if the above method is not simple enough, the second option of changing an icon is even easier.

The Automatic Method

All the above steps can be done offline in a more simple manner using the help of a small application called img2icns. The app is available in the paid version and the free version – with some features disabled. But the free version is more than enough for daily uses.

Just drag and drop the image that you want to change into icon to img2icns and it will be automatically converted.

The next step is another drag and drop. This time, ‘the victim’ is the file or folder which needs the facelift. The new icon will be attached without all the hassle.

Alternatively, you could save the new icon as an .icns file to be used later.

Do you know of another application to create and change Mac icons? Share using the comments below!

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Of course it’s with Google and it is hard not to trust in them after all they do to honor your privacy. Another such attempt by Google is the new Google Dashboard that makes you feel a little bit safer about keeping the majority of your virtual life on their servers.

Here’s what Google Dashboard is all about:

The Google Dashboard gives you quick access to all kinds of information that Google knows about you. Accessible here, it requires you to re enter your password even if you are logged into your Google Account, because the Dashboard contains all kinds of information about you. Once you log in, a summary of the services you use and what Google knows about you through those services is presented.

The Dashboard tracks a number of Google Offerings including your profile data, web history, Gmail, Docs, Talk, Reader, Orkut, Calendar, Picasa, Youtube, Blogger, iGoogle, Contacts, Friend Connect, Voice, Custom Search engines, Mobile Sync, Health, Alerts and Tasks.

Other offerings like Analytics, App Engine, Bookmarks, Groups, Sites, Notebook, Page Creator, Webmaster tools and the latest addition Google Wave are not yet included in Google Dashboard.

Dashboard lets you know which data is private – that is visible to only you (and Google) and which is public – meaning you, your contacts or anyone can see those details (depending upon the context). Such shared and public items are marked with an icon and details are presented wherever applicable.

In addition to personal information, Dashboard also provides quick access to settings for any particular service you use. So you can easily change or share/unshare information from the Dashboard. Alongside are listed the various privacy policies of each letting you know how your personal information is stored and used.

The Google Dashboard is not the first effort from Google’s side to give you greater control over your personal information and data. There is also an Ads preference manager that addresses similar issues as well. To add on to that, Google has a special Data Liberation Front, a team that caters to, vaguely similar if not exactly, the same issues.

It is all about making it easy for users to switch. As an example you may love Google Docs right now, let’s say you don’t like it two years on, but you have a number of documents that are now sitting on Google’s servers. Ideally you should not be tied down into using Google docs just because you have your data on there. So Google Docs also offers an export as zip feature, that lets you export all your documents in one go.

Google is certainly leading the efforts in empowering users with an ability to have a greater say as to who can view their information and data and what can be done with it. Purists may find that it is a little too less a little too late and that Google can easily hide what they don’t want you to see. That they are giving you glasses to look through, but what if the glasses only show the brighter picture?

It would be interesting to know what you think of the issue. No doubt Google makes great products that makes us use them, but are we putting too much information about ourselves in their hands? Let us know your thoughts.

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You can download and install Fbackup from here. Once installed, you can create backup jobs to quickly backup the files you want.

Create a job, specify the destination you want to backup to (local, external or network), specify the directories, include or exclude files using wildcards, encrypt and password protect the backed up files and you have a backup job set up.

You can then specify if you want to run any actions before or after the backup and schedule when you want to run your backups. So far so good, it does pretty much everything you would expect of a backup program. But wait, there is more, something that sets Fbackup apart from other backup software out there.

Its the plugins. Fbackup supports plugins that help you take better backups of your program data. What is program data, you ask? As an example let’s consider Firefox, all the extensions you install, bookmarks you create and other tweaks and customizations you perform — constitute the program data for Firefox. Something that doesn’t come with the software, and something you might lose if your hard drive crashes or if you re-install the operating system.

The savvy users would suggest to take backups of the %APPDATA% directory, that would include program data for a number of your programs. However, Fbackup makes the task even easier and almost a no-brainer with the help of plugins.

All you have to do is visit the plug-ins page (it’s for Fbackup and Backup4All-another backup solution from the same developer but not free) and download the required plugin. There are plugins for a wide range of software.

You can find plugins for Firefox, iTunes, RoboForm, Pidgin, Photoshop, Picasa to mention a few. Each plugin gives you a simple way to backup your profile/settings in that program so that you can easily restore it later.

Once you get plugin on your side of the tubes, go to Tool > Plugins. You can add, remove, enable disable the plugins from in here. With the plugins added, you can now find the corresponding entry under the sources tab when setting up backup jobs. Here is an example with the Firefox backup plugin installed:

Fbackup really makes it easy to backup program data along with other important files. The interface is clean and easy for the regular user without too many options.

It would be interesting to know what backup solution you would use? Would you consider Fbackup for its plugin and ease of use? Sound off in the comments and assuage our curiosity!

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During the installation you will be prompted if you wish to use the recovery console to repair a Windows installation. The recovery console is rather limited in its use, so just press the Enter key to proceed with the installation as you would normally.

Press F8 to continue past the Licensing Agreement.

The next screen should display a prompt asking you if you wish to repair an existing installation.  Select your Windows installation (most likely it is the only one) and press R.

This will begin the repair and reinstallation of Windows. The installation will copy files to the hard drive, reboot the system, and then proceed just like a normal installation. Follow the prompts just as you normally would any normal Windows installation.

When the installation completes, you should still be able to access all of your documents and installed programs.

Full Windows Reinstall Without Loosing Data and Programs

I personally prefer to perform a full clean reinstallation of Windows. With the clean install, the hard drive is formatted and programs are reinstalled. If you want to use this method, you can use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (AKA FAST).

To use FAST, you first have to run it from the old Windows installation. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.

Tell FAST that you are on the Old Computer, then click Next.

Finally, select the location where you would wish to save the files.  Portable USB drives were born for stuff like this.  Be warned though, the drive may not be big enough.  Another option would be to save the settings somewhere on your hard drive first, and then move them over to multiple USB drives or burn them to CDs/DVDs.

Click Next, and wait for the files to be copied. If you have a lot of data, it may take quite a while for the process to complete.  Once it has completed, your settings are ready for the new installation.

Once you’ve reinstalled Windows, launch FAST just as you did initially to save your settings:

Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.  Click Next. This time when prompted which computer you are using, select New computer. Click Next.

The following screen will ask you if you have a Windows XP installation CD for creating a wizard disk.  A wizard disk can be used for loading settings from another computer. In this case, a wizard disk is not necessary since the files have been saved to another location.

Select I don’t need the Wizard Disk. I already have collected my files and settings from my old computer. Click Next to proceed.

Finally, you will be prompted for the location of the files and settings. Select the Other radio button and browse to the location where you saved the files and click Next.

The files and settings will then be copied to the new computer. You may want to install all of the same programs you had on the old computer that you intend to use, before you run FAST. This will help to ensure that your settings will work properly with them.

What tools do you use to reinstall Windows without losing data?

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The application itself is free for personal use and it is very simple to use, as found in the guide below:

Backing Up Your Files

Firstly you will need to download KLS Mail Backup and install the application.

When you first run the program, you will be required to select which items you wish to backup:

Once you have selected which items you wish to backup, you will need to specify where and how the files will be stored. To do this, click the “Properties” icon on the top toolbar. Here you will be prompted to setup the profile options.

Inside the Profile Properties screen, you will be required to enter the settings for where you wish to save your backup. Here you are able to choose your backup location, whether it be a network or local file path, a CD or DVD burner or even an FTP server.

The options on the left panel will allow you to specify the compression method of the backup file, backup type and will also present you with a summary of the processes the application is about to undertake.

Once all your settings are applied as you would like, click “OK” and return to the main application screen, where you will be shown what you have selected to backup. The final step in the process is to run the backup and securely save your system files. This is as easy as clicking the “Run” button on the top toolbar.

You will be presented with a progress screen of what the application is saving.  You can at any time cancel the process and change some of the settings. Once this is done, check that the file is located in the correct directory, save this to an additional storage location should just in case the worst should happen.

Restoring Your Backup

The restoration process can be initiated by clicking the “Restore” button on the top toolbar. KLS Mail Backup should automatically recognise where you saved your previous backup to, and will present you with a Restore Wizard window that should already have selected your saved file location.

If you wish to restore a backup from another computer, you will need to either copy the file to the location selected in the application or you will need to change the backup/restore location to the location of your saved archive file.

KLS Mail Backup is a very user friendly and powerful backup application that can save time and effort when saving your important mail and browser system files.

MakeUseOf had several other posts on backing your email and browser settings. Check them out as well:

• Back up your Firefox profile with MozBackup
• 5 Ways to Backup your Email
• Quick Tip: Backup Firefox Preferences
• Back Up Files To Email With Just One Click
• Amic E-Mail Backup – A Good Thing in a Small Package
• How To Backup Your Gmail Account To YOUR Hard Drive

What do you use to safeguard your mail and browser settings? Leave a comment below.

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