Introduction: Hacks #95-100

You're wondering how the heck to get all the "stuff" from the old PC to the new one. Unless you've got all of the installation disks for your software and want to reinstall all of it—and have backed up datafiles to another tape, CD, disk, or network—you've got a big chore ahead.

The next series of hacks presents applications you can use to copy files, settings, and even some applications from one PC to another.

Previous chapters showed you dozens of ways to tune up a PC, and of course you'll apply the most appropriate hacks to this new PC. You built it, configured it, got it set up just the way you like it, and you probably don't want all that work on your new PC to go to waste. The programs and data you work with are invaluable to your life and your occupation. Leaving them and your whole PC at risk makes as much sense as leaving your car or home unlocked in a high-crime neighborhood. The Internet is as much a "friendly global village" as it is a seething hotbed of malicious activity covering everything from questionable marketing methods to multimillion dollar identity theft and fraud scams.

In my anxiety to tinker with fresh PC installations, I have let unprotected Linux and Windows systems connect to the Internet and subsequently come under attack or become infected within a matter of seconds. It is not a pretty or pleasant sight. An essential part of setting up a new PC is making sure it becomes and stays safe and stable. This three-tiered approach to protecting yourself, your family, and your employer can save you hours of work and potentially thousands of dollars of personal or corporate worth:

Virus protection

Whether you prefer AVG, Trend, F-Prot, McAfee, Norton, or Panda, you simply must have virus protection on your PC. Even if you download little or nothing to your PC, exchange files with no one or only with people you trust, and don't use Outlook or Outlook Express for email, a virus will find its way to your PC eventually.

Network protection

I include both hardware and software firewalls as well as anti-malware [Hack #98] protection in this category. What you do with your PC is your business—you didn't buy it or build it just to let someone else take control of it. Hardware firewalls block most if not all undesirable incoming traffic, and software firewalls protect you from what may get through a hardware firewall and from programs running on your own PC, including some malware. Malware protection is necessary to eliminate hidden applications that may circumvent the firewalls and consume your resources without your knowledge.

Backups

Backing up your data is considered long-term protection, but a failure can happen at any time and may be self-induced as you're hacking your way through this book. Whether you make a complete image of your PC's hard drive or merely copy your documents to a CD, you owe it to yourself to perform some kind of backup.

The first thing you must do when setting up a new Windows, Linux, Unix (the list goes on and on!) PC is to get the latest operating system updates. On Windows, you can do this with Windows Update (available off of Internet Explorer's Tools menu). On Linux, Unix, and other operating systems, the method varies. Apply these updates early; apply them often. Every new install involves a bootstrapping problem: you can't securely connect to the Internet without running the updates; you can't get the updates without connecting to the Internet. The solution to this is simple: get a firewall [Hack #99]