Create a PC First-Aid Kit
No matter how well you take care of your PC, sooner or later something will go wrong. This is fact. But you don't have to let it take you by surprise-here's how you can make a simple emergency kit that can save your bacon when things start to go wrong.
Create a USB Thumb Drive Toolbox
To start you'll need a suitably large USB thumb drive. We're going to load it with some apps that will help you troubleshoot your PC, fix problems, and recover from disaster. A gig or two will be plenty to hold all of the apps, but in the worst case scenario you may be using this thumb drive to hold data that you recover from a damaged hard drive, so bigger is always better.
Here's the list of apps we recommend for your toolbox:
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, Super-AntiSpyware, and Combofix: One of the most common causes for a misbehaving PC is malware-viruses and other malicious apps that spy on you and slow down your computer. Unfortunately, no single app can find 100 percent of malware, so we recommend keeping at least these three cleaning programs in your toolkit. Run Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and SuperAntiSpyware first, and then Combofix if the problem persists.
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is great, but you should run multiple anti-malware programs.
CCleaner and Revo Uninstaller: Another way to speed up a beleaguered PC is to declutter the hard disks. We recommend CCleaner for general housekeeping (removing useless files, registry cleaning) and Revo Uninstaller for targeted removal of unwanted programs that are too sticky for the standard Windows Add/Remove Program utility.
Revo makes getting stubborn programs off your computer a breeze.
ZoneAlarm Free: When dealing with a poorly maintained computer with lots of out-of-date software and potential malware, it can be hard to tell what data is being sent from or to the PC. A good first step to getting things under control is to throw up a good, free firewall, such as ZoneAlarm.
ZoneAlarm is a great first line of defense against web-based attacks.
Create a Recovery Image
Of course, you want to be able to fix every problem without losing any of your data, but that's not always possible. Sometimes you have to cut your losses with a bad PC, and when that time comes nothing will make your life easier than a good recovery image. You can make a recovery image at any time, but the absolute best moment is immediately after you perform a fresh Windows installation and install your must-have apps. That way, whenever you need to, you can reload that image onto your drive and be back to a pristine environment with just the apps you need. Of course, you'll still need a backup solution for your important documents and data.
Normally, we like to find free software solutions to all of our problems, but backup and recovery is one area that's so important we think it's worth paying for. Acronis True Image Home (www.acronis.com) makes it incredibly easy to make a recovery image and to keep your important data backed up.
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