Nokia phone owners who want to access the contents need to restore them to the phone in order to do so. That’s not very practical considering that some users may have switched to other phones in the meantime.

The free open source software NBU Explorer offers help for users who want to access their Nokia phone backups on the PC. The software program is easy to use and offers to parse, extract and view the contents of the backup.

Nokia NBU, NFB & NFC backup file (produced by Nokia Content Copier) and ARC backup file (phone side backup to memory card) parser, extractor and viewer. It can help you to check content of backup or extract files from it. Requires MS .Net Framework 2

Nbu backups can be loaded into the application via the file menu. The program displays the contents of the backup file automatically, with options to browse and view the contents directly in the application window. It is for instance possible to view images that have been taken or stored on the phone directly in the interface.

It is furthermore possible to extract backup contents to the local system, so that they become accessible directly.

NBU Explorer is a helpful application for users who want to access Nokia phone backups directly on their PC to access SMS, pictures, contacts and other contents.

The application requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0. It is compatible with most Microsoft operating systems including 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

The software integrates itself on the other hand tightly in the operating system which is something not all users want. This often results in leftover entries after uninstalling the Nokia PC Suite which can afterwards only be cleaned up manually which takes lots of time and searching to find them all.

The official Nokia PC Suite Cleaner is an alternative to cleaning up a computer system after uninstalling the PC Suite.

The program is provided by Nokia. Official uninstallers are often a sign that a noticeable percentage of all users are experiencing difficulties uninstalling a product from the computer system.

This is similar to antivirus software uninstallers that are provided by the program’s developers.

Nokia PC Suite Cleaner removes file and Registry leftovers of the Nokia PC Suite from the computer system.

With Nokia PC Suite Cleaner, you can:

• Remove old or unnecessary Nokia PC Suite-related files from your PC to make way for a new installation
• Clean both Nokia PC Suite files and registry data

It is recommended to perform a standard uninstallation first and run the Nokia PC Suite Cleaner afterwards to remove the leftovers that the uninstaller missed. It is also recommended to backup any data that might still be needed. This can for instance be phone backups or firmwares that are located on the computer system.

Nokia PC Suite Cleaner can be downloaded from the Nokia website. It is compatible with all Microsoft operating systems from Windows XP to Windows 7 plus limited support for Windows 2000.

Basic functions that Nokia PC Suite 7 provides are backing up important data of the mobile phone, synchronizing all kinds of data like contacts, emails and calendars and providing Internet access for the computer the mobile phone is connected to.

That is obviously not all. The PC Suite can check the availability of new firmwares for selected mobile phones and instantly download them to the computer. Besides that you get a file manager and administration of messages, contacts and multimedia files on the mobile phone.

It’s furthermore possible to install applications on the mobile phone. My personal opinion is that it looks like the new version of the Nokia PC Suite comes with improved performance, everything feels a tad faster and more responsive.

I did not want to uninstall the Nokia PC Suite because I did need it from time to time. The Nokia Phone Browser entry in My Computer is connected to the PhoneBrowser.dll and all that has to be done is to unregister the dll in windows to remove the entry in My Computer.

Open the command line by pressing Windows R, typing cmd and hitting enter. Now navigate to the folder where the Nokia PC Suite is installed. In my case it was C:\Program Files\Nokia\Nokia PC Suite 6 so I did type “cd C:\Program Files\Nokia\Nokia PC Suite 6″.

The command to unregister the PhoneBrowser.dll and remove the Nokia Phone Browser entry is “regsvr32 /u PhoneBrowser.dll”. Refresh the My Computer window to see the change which should be visible immediately.

The software installed just fine on my home computer but I did receive a very strange error when trying to install it on a friends computer. The error “Error 1305. Error reading from file:” appeared followed by the local path to the Nokia PC Suite installer. I quickly found out that this is a permissions issue.

I did the following to fix the PC Suite Error 1305. I copied the Nokia PC Suite software to my computer, right-clicked the file and selected properties from the menu. Click on the security tab, select SYSTEM from the Group or Usernames menu and check the Full Control Allow checkbox.

Exit that menu by clicking Apply and OK. Now start the installation of the Nokia PC Suite again and the error message should not appear anymore.

Generally speaking a firmware update can add new functions and features to your mobile phone, can make it faster, update software so that you can run advanced applications or fix security holes. I’m not sure if there is an official Nokia website that lists release notes for current and previous firmwares of Nokia phones – I was not able to find it if it exists.

This means it is not really possible to determine the new features and improvements of the new firmware version. The only information about firmware updates was that they will improve performance and functionality. The update will update the operating system of your phone which includes applications like the Calendar, the Messenger and the Contact List.

Please note that it is not possible to downgrade the firmware of your Nokia phone once it was updated. Some applications and games from third-party developers might need to be installed again after updating the phone firmware. I suggest you take a look at the extensive FAQ on the Nokia website.

How to update a Nokia a Nokia Mobile Phone:

1. Download the Nokia PC Suite and backup all of the files on your phone

To do that simply start the Nokia PC Suite application and click on the Backup button. Make sure you save everything on that phone. This might take a while if you have lots of personal files like images or music stored on the phone. The files will be transfered with the Nokia Content Copier software.

Backup the contents in the Nokia phone as well. You find that option in Tools > Memory.

2. Download and install the Nokia Software Updater application which will be used to update the firmware of the Nokia phone. Please note that you have to use this software and can’t use the Nokia PC Suite to update the mobile phone.

Make sure you connect the charger to your phone before you start the process because a failed update can brick your Nokia phone.

The update that I was downloading had a size of nearly 80 Megabytes and upgraded the firmware of my Nokia N73 Music Edition (RM-133) from 3.0638.0.0.30 to 4.0736.3.2.1 which I would consider a huge version leap.

The benefits:

I can’t really tell what has been changed but the phone does seem a little bit more responsive. The only new application that did not seem there before is a Anti-Virus application. There is probably more and some definitely have been updated but I can’t really tell without the release notes.

The first one was that my notebook is running Vista Home Premium and I was not sure if the software that was delivered with the mobile phone could be installed. Fortunately it was not a problem. The second obstacle was the question whether I was able to use the fast UMTS protocol or not.

If UMTS was not supported I would have a bad download rate which would make it nearly impossible to work with. Luckily UMTS was available as well.

All I had to do was to install the Nokia PC Suite, connect my Nokia N73 using the data cable with USB connector and click on connect from within the Pc Suite.

It took only a few seconds and I was online. Download speeds are fine and I’m able to work and write articles for Ghacks. This article is actually written using my mobile phone.

The connection is very reliable and it is a pleasure working this way. The only thing that is not that nice is that I have to pay for every minute that I’m online. I had the chance to purchase a monthly package that would give me a certain transfer rate for free but I was not sure if I would be able to use it at my location.

I’m pleasantly surprised that it was so easy to go online with my mobile phone.