Keep it Backed Up, Cool, and Private

[Lode 4]

I have saved myself weeks of work in total over the years by making a System Backup now and then. In the beginning when mistakes I made or when a new program or its update caused severe problems, and I didn't know how to fix it, as even a System Restore sometimes wouldn't solve it, I would reformat and work two or more days to get everything back the way it was before the problem began.

Now to make it really easy on myself I always make System Backups, which include all the settings, so I don't have to do them again.

For that I simply do this: Control Panel > System and Security > File History > "Backup" (all the way down in the left bottom corner, below "Recovery." After the word "Backup" a few more words might appear depending on your OS). I have my external drive already plugged in, and after a few seconds Windows finds it. Then "Next" > "Start Back-up" and the System Backup is made while I go do something else. Takes about 20-25 minutes.

It has happened after a program update that I got a black screen after a reboot, which wouldn't change even after 10 minutes. So I had to get into my machine using a Recovery USB I luckily had made right after getting my laptop. After I was back in I choose "Advanced" and in the end was able to use the latest System Backup made before the issue arose.

The maker of your machine should have or provide a tutorial on how to make a Recovery Disk or USB Flash drive, and how to use it.

.............

I discovered that my laptop was idling at 50 Celsius. After I set Windows updates to only let me know when new updates were available but let me decide about downloading and installing them, the temperature dropped 10 degrees to around 40 Celsius idling. I saw that utilizing the free version of CoreTemp. (Making sure to uncheck any unwanted "extra's" I don't need while installing.)

.............

To not give information of everything I do on my laptop to Microsoft -more out of principle than anything else- I installed and ran a free program called "Spybot Anti-Beacon for Windows."