How to revive an old PC

One of my interests is in recycling and reusing older computers. If a business has a room full of fairly recently-pensioned-off kit, I point them at ComputerAid, but it wants recent kit, preferably by the van-full, not the odd knackered-old one-off. I regularly take such doorstops that clients are discarding, upgrade them with some marginally newer bits, put a lightweight OS and apps on them and give them to impoverished - or just tightwad - mates. With the right choice of software, even a five-year-old computer can be a fast, responsive machine with bags of life left in it.

Read the article HERE.

A close friend of mine who uses his home computer for financial transactions, also has a young son who uses the same computer to download a variety of suspect programmes. I have had to rescue this computer more than once. But no more. Using a philosophy similar to the story above, I have created a "secure box" for him only to use. This computer is available to him only, and is used solely for financial transactions. No surfing, no email - just a secure money machine. Seems to be working.