New AVG release

One of the best free anti-virus programmes is AVG, which has just released a new upgrade. If you don't have it, I would strongly recommend doing so. Use this link to get the free version, as AVG is rather sneaky, and make it quite hard to find the free one from their front page. They try their best to trap you into accidentally downloading a paid version, when the freebie is quite adequate. No security program, however, catches everything, so it should be only one of a number of guns in your holster. Others which I use are Threatfire, Ad-Aware, Spybot, CCleaner and WinPatrol - all free.

System restore

Sometimes your computer crashes for no easily determined reason. You may have been invaded by a nasty virus, or it may be an incompatibly between two bits of software, it may be that there was bad conjunction between Jupiter and Mars. One resort is to employ the System Restore capabilities of XP or Vista. (To access it, on XP at least, go to the Start menu, and choose Help and Support. You'll find System Restore under the Pick a Task options.) It's pretty self-explanatory to use, and in theory it will restore your system to a date and time you choose (eg, before you installed that last bit of suspect software), without changing any of your data, as in your working documents. This article at PC World tells you more. Be aware, though, that System Restore is not perfect, and I have even heard of instances where it so corrupted the Registry that a complete reinstall of the operating system was necessary. In its defence, I have to say that it has saved my bacon on several occasions, and so far I have had no problems with it. To be safe, it is recommended you back up all important files before you do a restore.

Recovering lost photos

Whoops! I accidentally deleted some pics from my digital camera this morning. I realised as soon as I hit the delete button I had done the wrong thing. I have a utility to restore files I have deleted from my computer, but what about the camera? An online search yielded a big array of utilities, so I downloaded and tried one called Zero Assumption Digital Image Recovery. It took around half an hour to scan my camera, during which time I could do nothing else, and then said it could find no images to recover. What a dud! Next I tried Recuva. What a joy! Simple to use, fast (it took only a few minutes to scan the camera), and gave me a thumbnail of every image it could bring back, including many I would have thought were long gone. The one I wanted was there, and took only seconds to restore to my computer. Once again I'm a happy chappie.

Customise your PC

Some people make technology a bit more bearable by decorating the walls of their room or cubicle. Others by super-customising their computer. But a computer in a pumpkin? Meanwhile, this chappie is big on art deco. You can customised just about anything, so the keyboard is a likely candidate. Not satisfied with the standard QWERTY layout? Try one of these. What's good for the keyboard is good for the mouse, especially if you have a few thousand dollars to spare.

Pan and zoom photographs

A US moviemaker by the name of Ken Burns pioneered a TV documentary technique, whereby he panned and zoomed around still photographs to create the effect of live action footage. The technique is still called the Ken Burns Effect. While video editing programs can usually do something similar, the less expensive ones are often somewhat limited in their range of movement across the photo. Windows MovieMaker for the XP operating system lacks the ability completely (although you can purchase add-ons to achieve it). MovieMaker for Vista has added some ability, but can pan only in a straight line. Enter one of the least-known Microsoft products, called PhotoStory. This wonderful free program can wander anywhere you want around a photograph, and output the result either as a stand-alone movie, or a file which you can incorporate into another movie. It has a bundle of other tricks, too, such as adding soundtracks or narration. Microsoft barely ever mentions this little freebie, which I only stumbled across by accident. It deserves to be better known.