One of the biggest frustrations when recovering a computer from a serious crash or moving to a new one is not reloading all the data and reinstalling the programs, but getting those programs set up again the way that you like them.

I’ve found an interesting free app called CloneApp by Mirinsoft that backs up and restores all those tweaked settings. It comes as a zip file for you to extract to somewhere useful – it doesn’t need to be installed. Run it as an administrator and you can place the back up where you want.

On the day of reckoning install the programs and them restore the settings using cloneapp.

It’s pretty fast on the whole and might save you a whole heap of frustration.

I’ve been busy recovering Windows computers after major updates harmed the computer. It is important to accept updates so that your computer stays secure against the bad guys, but we also need a plan if it goes wrong.

A system image is a snapshot of your computer drive. If the computer goes wrong then one can reload the image and your computer is as it was when the image was taken (e.g. 11:12 on the 14^th March). This includes your data if it is stored on the same drive as Windows, so make sure you keep the data backed up. I have my data stored on a different disc to get round this issue but many laptops don’t give you this benefit.

The main benefit of a system image is that we don’t have to spend a day or two in front of the computer reinstalling Windows, all your programs and updates. Just load the image in one action.

To create a system backup, go to settings | update & security | backup. Then ‘Go to backup and restore (Windows 7)’. You will see ‘create a system image’ at the top left. It will take quite a while so don’t plan to use the computer for an hour or so – and save the image to a different disc