Backup/Sync

back and forth from menus to ribbon whenever you want. Free; $13.50 for businesses

vista Start Menu www.vistastartmenu.com

Vastly improve the look of the Start Menu in Windows and get faster access to just about all aspects of the OS with this replacement menu tool. It’s also accessible from the system tray. Free; Pro edition, $19.99

Winroll www.palma.com.au/winroll

Right-click the title bar of any window and you can roll the window inside of it, and do the same to all open windows at the same time. Free

BAckup/Sync

Carbonite Carbonite.com

Carbonite monitors important files and backs them up online for future restoration, should you need it. It also provides remote file access, so you can access your data from any computer. $54.95 per year for unlimited space

Cucku Backup www.cucku.com

Why back up to extra storage or online when you can stash files with friends? This social-backup tool sends encrypted files to storage you share on your buddies’ PCs using Skype’s file transfer abilities (without Skype, Cucku handles only local storage). You, of course, should share back. Free

DriveImage XML

www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

This utility will create a disk image even while the PC is in use (using Microsoft’s Volume Shadow Services feature). Later you can restore a drive entirely, or browse that image to retrieve select files. Free

DriverMax www.innovative-sol.com/drivermax

Use it to back up hardware drivers, then restore them after a fresh nuke-and-reinstall of Windows. DriverMax will even check for driver updates. Free

Dropbox www.getdropbox.com

The darling of the world of online sync is Dropbox: Put all your files in the My Dropbox folder and they’re immediately stored online; set up the software on other computers (even Macs and Linux PCs) and the files synchronize whenever changed. Free for up to 2GB; Pro plan, $9.99 per month or $99 per year for 50GB

hDhacker dimio.altervista.org/eng

On start-up, your PC looks for the master boot record (MBR), typically the first sector in the first partition of the disk. The MBR reads the partition table that tells your PC where the OS is—it’s essential to booting properly, in other words. Make sure your PC’s MBR is backed up so the PC is always bootable. HDHacker will back up and restore the MBR instantly when you’re in Windows. Free

Mozyhome mozy.com/home

Running completely in the background, MozyHome monitors folders you specify, and when all is idle on your PC, it backs up