Hermann Schinagl has a new version of his hard link shell extension online. Get it while it's hot.

http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html

"Link Shell Extension (LSE) provides for the creation of Hardlinks , Junctions , Volume Mountpoints , and Vista's Symbolic Links, (herein referred to collectively as Links) and a Folder Cloning process that utilises Hardlinks or Symbolic Links. LSE, as its name implies is implemented as a Shell extension and is accessed from Windows Explorer, or similar file/folder managers.  The extension allows the user to select one or many files or folders, then using the mouse, complete the creation of the required Links - Hardlinks, Junctions or Symbolic Links or in the case of folders to create Clones consisting of Hard or Symbolic Links. LSE is supported on all Windows versions that support NTFS version 5.0 or later, including Windows XP64, Vista and Windows7.  Hardlinks, Junctions and Symbolic Links are NOT supported on FAT file systems, and nor is the Cloning and Smart Copy process supported on FAT file systems. "

Tech tip: Volume Shadow Copy Services (Vss) on Window Server 2008 can make a copy of active, open files on the fly. It works on the block level similarly to an open file agent. This works a treat if you need a quick-and-dirty command line backup.

To make a copy of the (C:) volume:

C:\> vssadmin create shadow /for=c:

To view copies of the (C:) volume:

C:\> vssadmin list shadows /for=c:

To mount a shadow copy as a browseable folder:

C:\>mklink /d <folder name> <shadow copy volume from list>

C:\>mklink /d C:\mycopy \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy6

For more information, see:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754968(WS.10).aspx

I find the Windows shareware and nagware tools for Gzip and Tarball files lacking. Some of it is adding unnecessary clutter to my OS. Part of it is compatibility with 64-bit Windows Server 2003. I also do not want to pay for a feature that I rarely use. Since I run Cygwin, it is easy enough to drop into the Bash shell to unzip and untar.

Copy the file to the Cygwin home folder (C:\cygwin\home\Administrator). Then start Cygwin and run the commands to unzip and untar.

$ gzip –d file.tar.gz

$ tar –xvf file.tar

The expanded files will then be in a folder called C:\cygwin\home\Administrator\file.