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I've been fixing Windows annoyances for more years than I care to remember. Now I'm going to fess up: Dumb, in-a-hurry, and just plain careless users--like me--often bring PC problems upon ourselves. Here's the good news: Four simple tricks can help keep your PC humming despite all your inadvertent efforts to destroy it.

Go Virtual

I try many more free utilities and oddball programs than I should. (I may complain that it's a tough way to earn a living, but I love doing it.) Unfortunately, many of these paragons of the coding art put the kibosh on my system. So I use Microsoft's free Virtual PC 2007 to run another session of Windows within Windows. The internal session is where I try out programs I'm not sure are keepers.

This second version of Windows (called a virtual machine) loads and looks like any other app; imagine a window with Windows in it. It looks, acts, and crashes (of course) just like Windows. But if something gets hosed in your virtual session, you can just delete and reinstall Virtual PC (it's a file). Getting around the licensing limit of one version of XP on a single PC is easy: I simply uninstall and then reinstall Virtual PC just before its 30-day activation deadline.

Batten the Hatches

A PC armed with the most recent updates for Windows and for your applications is less likely to suffer security breaches and related problems. I use Secunia Software Inspector, a free Web service that scans my PC and examines dozens of programs--including Windows and other Microsoft apps--for updates. It then reports on installed or missing updates, and lets me know where to get them. (Secunia offers a software version of its own for download; see "Free Security Tool Flags Old or Unpatched Apps".)

Quick tip: If you have $25 to spare, try TouchStone Software's Driver Agent service. It finds driver updates for your display, system board, and other hardware.