One of the most important things a user can do to keep their computer secure is make sure they are using the latest security updates for Windows and their installed programs. Unfortunately, staying on top of these updates can be a time consuming and frustrating task when you have hundreds of programs installed on your computer. Thankfully, we have a utility called Secunia PSI, which is vital component for any Windows user's toolkit.

DriveImage XML is my program of choice for backing up and protecting my data. When I first began using this application, though, I had some difficulties restoring my backup image on my test boxes using the instructions found in other tutorials. Due to this, I pooled info from a variety of available tutorials, and with some work, I was able to figure out how to restore my data. With this in mind, I have put all of the information I researched into one guide so that others can properly restore their data without running into the problems that I encountered.

As many of you know, today's digital world comes with a lot of things that make our daily life easier. However, as time goes on you rely more and more on the information stored on your PC. No one is completely safe from power outages, corrupt hard disks, an infected system through a backdoor or Trojan, or even a fire. To make sure that a computer can easily be restored to a previous point, software developers created what is called backup software or imaging software.

Damn you Microsoft! I am a notepad addict. If you look at my taskbar at any time and you will see at least 5 notepads, usually a lot more running at one time. Why? Because it is fast and small I use it to keep notes, to do lists, phone numbers, write code, search and replace, etc. The reasons are endless....

A CD/DVD image is a file that contains all the information necessary to make an exact duplicate, or clone, of a CD or DVD. Images are created by software that writes every bit of information contained on a CD or DVD into a file on your computer. This file can then be made available for download so that other people can make an exact duplicate or your original CD or DVD on their own computer.

Windows 95/98/2000 does not have have built in ZIP file support. It is therefore necessary to use a 3rd party software to create and extract ZIP files. I will base this tutorial on a popular Zip utility, which has a free trial, called WinZip.

CleanUp! is a freeware utility created by Steven Gould to protect your privacy. This tool has the ability clean your browser's history, bookmarks, favorites, cookies as well as other privacy related locations on your computer.