A new year brings new resolutions. Below you will find a very short list of things we can all aspire to accomplish this year.

1: Check for Updates

Have you been ignoring the little bubble near your clock that constantly opens and tells you about updates? You are not alone. Keep in mind however, the longer you wait to install the Windows updates, the more taxing it will be on your system.

Also these updates are there for a reason, they mostly plug newly discovered security holes which allow hackers and viruses access to your system. 10 seconds of your time now could save you hours of frustration later.

By the way the same holds true for your antivirus software. Is it up to date?

2: Backup, Backup, BACKUP!

If there’s one thing that nags most computer users in the “I-know-I-should-but-I-don’t” way, it’s hard drive backups. We’ve all been there: as long as your hard drive keeps on spinning, it’s easy to ignore the whole back up thing – until the Grim Reaper comes knocking at your door in the form of the dreaded Blue Screen of Death, that is.

Rather than fearing the reaper, just find yourself a cheap external hard drive and set up a simple, automated back up for your hard drive using SyncBack Freeware. Or if you are the proud new owner of Windows 7 you can use the built in backup and restore center.

Do not forget though, as an extra security precaution, that you should also maintain an off-site backup. For this We recommend a great service called Mozy. Which is free if you are backing up less than 2GB of data (or $5 a month for unlimited data.)

3: Keep Track of and Use Strong Passwords

Do you tape a key to your front door when you leave the house?

Using a simple password has the same effect. Passwords MUST be complicated to be effective. A strong password would consist of the following:

• At least 8 (eight) characters long
• Uses UPPER and lower case letters
• Uses Numbers
• Uses Other symbols like % or $

Of course these rules usually mean that we lean towards using less than secure passwords so that we can remember them. This no longer has to be the case.

You can use a Password Safe to store them all and simply remember one (strong) password!. We use and highly recommend Password Safe by Bruce Schneier.

4: Fresh Start

If you’d love to follow some (or all) of these PC resolutions on your computer, but you’ve got that lost-cause feeling that comes from years of neglect, maybe it’s time to start over from scratch?

That’s right, time to wipe your hard drive and install Windows from scratch. Or you can have CompRx do it for you (It’s only $59)!