Normally when we write "you do this at your own risk", the AAWP team would recommend you take a back-up if you can. But when the story is about homebrew methods to back-up your phone, we find ourselves with a tautology. Anyway, WP Xbox has noted down three tools that will let you back up your Windows Phone to your deskbound computer, all at your own

The tools all work on the same principle - the Zune PC software will take a backup of your handset when a software update is applied. The trick is to let Zune think an update is under way so the process gets under way.

• WP Easy Backup Beta by Marc Hoover.
• WP7 update Cab Sender by Xboxmod Yuki.
• Backup Tool by hx4700 Killer.

And yes, use them at your own risk, these are not officially supported tools, and without the comprehensive software testing, you may experience issues with various handset / network / computer configurations.