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A new year is upon us, and that can mean only one thing: resolutions. For most folks, these tend to be of the "get in shape" or "quit smoking" variety. But if you're a PCWorld reader, consider adding some PC-specific resolutions to the mix.

I have three suggestions for improving the quality of your computing life in 2013.

1. Make regular backups: I know you've heard it before. Like flossing your teeth and emptying the cat box, backing up your PC is one of life’s annoying necessities. Consider what the consequences would be if all your data—your Word files, photo library, Quicken data, and everything else—were to vanish suddenly. It’s a chilling thought, but it happens to unprepared people all too often.

It doesn't have to happen to you, though. Make 2013 the year you sign up for a cloud service—CrashPlan, Mozy, or SugarSync, for example—and configure it to archive your most important files and folders automatically. Once the configuring is done, you'll never have to worry about it again.

Sure, a local, whole-system backup is important, too. But your data is what's most critical, and a cloud-based approach to backing up protects you from home-based disasters like fire, flood, theft, and virus infestations. Don't wait another year to safeguard your data.

2. Look before you click: Fake download buttons. Toolbars and other junkware. Phishing links. Users get into trouble with these things all the time because they click without thinking. So in 2013, my advice is to look before you click.

It's all too easy to whisk through a software installer, clicking Next over and over just to get through it quickly, but that's one way to end up with unwanted toolbars in your Web browser(among other shovelware). And by clicking fake downoad buttons or important-looking links that arrive via email, you may end up with spyware, viruses, or even an identity-theft situation.

Before clicking anything that's unfamiliar to you, pause for a second. Look more closely at the link. Consider the circumstances. That little bit of precaution can save you from hassles—and maybe even disasters.

3. Keep it clean: I wrote about this just the other day in "How to clean your laptop's cooling fans": Dust can kill a PC, clogging the works and causing everything to overheat, with potentially disastrous results. And if you have a pet in the house, the hair it sheds can exacerbate the situation.

Luckily, the fix is simple: Schedule regular cleaning sessions where you use a can of compressed air to blow dust and pet hair off your cooling-fan blades and out of your case. This goes for laptops and desktops alike.

The easiest way to keep this resolution is to set a recurring reminder in your calendar. I recommend performing this kind of cleaning every three months.

Have you come up with other PC-related resolutions for the new year? Tell me about them in the comments!

It seems fair to say that Linux users enjoy a degree of choice that's unmatched by the proprietary players in the desktop computing world, what with the wide variety of bothdistributions and desktop environments from which they can choose.

For that reason, it's all the more striking when large numbers of users express a marked preference for the same thing.

Case in point? GNOME 2.

Despite the best efforts of projects including Ubuntu and GNOME itself to entice users with new, mobile-style interfaces—namely,Unity and GNOME 3—legions of Linux users have resisted with equal vigor, demonstrating in no uncertain terms that their longtime favorite still holds the key to their computing hearts.

GNOME 2, of course, was long the default desktop interface in numerous Linux distributions, including Canonical's popular Ubuntu.

In 2011 the dramatically redesigned GNOME 3 arrived on the scene, however, right around the same time that its like-minded cousin, Unity, was made desktop Ubuntu's default interface. Both sparked considerable controversy.

Such has been the strength of many Linux users' preference, in fact, that over the past year or so we've seen the emergence of multiple efforts to recreate the good, old GNOME 2 experience, including the MATE and Cinnamon desktops and even whole distributions such as Fuduntu and SolusOS.

Then, finally, to the joy of many, the GNOME project announced that it was bringing GNOME 2 back.

This situation is by no means restricted to the Linux world, of course—just look to Windows 8's Modern UI for a parallel example on the proprietary side.

It is, however, a vivid illustration of the disconnect that seems to have arisen recently between software makers and large numbers of their users.

Both Unity and GNOME 3 have their fans, to be sure—as, no doubt, must Modern UI—but the fact is that new and shiny isn't always what users want; sometimes, they just want what has worked for them for years.

On that critical criterion, I hereby crown GNOME 2 this year's king of the Linux desktop.

The year is drawing to a close, so there's a very good chance that you now find yourself staring straight down the gaping maw of Windows 8.

Maybe someone gave you a new Windows tablet or PC as a gift. Or maybe you decided to use your holiday down time to upgrade an old PC. The details don't really matter. You're now using Windows 8 for the very first time, and you're searching for answers on how to make the OS an integral, productive part of your high-tech life.

Sound familiar? Then walk with me as we take a tour of recent PCWorld Windows 8 coverage. I trust we have answers to all your Windows 8 questions.

Right when the new OS launched, we published a number of essential how-to guides for first-time Windows 8 users. You can start your orientation process with this handy guide to maximizing your first 30 minutes with the new OS. But perhaps even more useful is our compendium of 20 must-know Windows 8 tips and tricks, which starts off with a thorough look at keyboard shortcuts—you should know them all if you don't have a touch screen.

But if you do have a touch screen device, then head straight to our guide to Windows 8 gesture commands. In this article (and in its accompany video) we describe how to navigate the initially confusing touch commands that leave many first-time users wonderingwhat the heck just hit them.

And if you don't have a touch screen monitor for the new OS, you should definitely read our guide to picking the right upgrade display for full Windows 8 compatibility.

Once you've become somewhat acclimated to the new Windows 8 landscape, it's time to fine-tune the OS experience to your personal preferences. At the top of the list is driver management. It's very possible that your new Windows 8 device boots up fine, but unless all your device drivers are up-to-date, you won't get the most high-performance experience possible (and driver issues may stop some peripherals from working altogether).

See our exhaustive guide on the whys, hows and wheres of Windows 8 drivers to nip all these issues in the bud.

Some Windows 8 problems have nothing to do with drivers. Instead, the OS itself is just innately challenging. To alleviate some of the built-in pain points, you absolutely must read our guide to the 8 worst Windows 8 irritations and how to fix them. Microsoft's decision to omit the traditional Start Button is among a host of bizarre development decisions, but luckily three different third-party utilities—Win8 Start Button, StartMenuPlus8 and Start8—can return the erstwhile Windows mainstay to your desktop.

But, hey, Microsoft didn't kill all the good things from previous versions of Windows. It just relegated many of them to hidden, second-class status. For a bunch of great tools hiding beneath the surface of Windows 8, check out this collection of 6 awesome Windows 8 utilities that no one knows about.

In the weeks since the new OS launched, we've published a number of deep-dive tutorials that explore the system's more innovative, richer features. For example, BitLocker To Go is built directly into Windows 8, and helps you quickly encrypt external storage devices like USB flash drives and portable hard drives. If you're concerned about your data security, you should also read our how-to on activating Windows Defender, a basic anti-malware tool that's not immediately exposed in many default installations of the OS.

Another great built-in Windows 8 feature is Storage Spaces, a tool that lets you combine all your sundry storage hardware into a single, virtual data pool—which you can then allocate more efficiently, for data redundancy and general file management. Besides explaining Storage Spaces, we also posted a great article on using Client Hyper-V, a tool that lets you virtualize older versions of Windows from within Windows 8.

Finally, it's possible that you just installed Windows 8 on a machine from yesteryear, and your gear isn't up to the task of running the new system in all its glory. If you find yourself in this sorry lot, read our tutorial on optimizing Windows 8 for older hardware. It explains which features to turn off, or otherwise disable.

Windows 8 comes with a bunch of pre-installed "modern UI" apps, so you might as well familiarize yourself with the most high-profile entries. We have detailed primers on Music,Photos, Mail, Calendar, SkyDrive and People. None of these apps is perfect, though theSkyDrive cloud service is an integral part of the new Microsoft ecosystem, so you really should check out its implementation in Windows 8.

Precisely because Microsoft's built-in apps are so lacking, you'll want to hit up the Windows Store for Windows 8 apps to populate your new Start Screen. On the day Windows 8 launched, we published our top 10 list of the Windows 8 apps to download first, but just this week we updated the concept with a new article geared specifically to Windows 8 tablets.

New Windows 8 hardware owners should also read our suggestions of the best streaming media apps for cord cutters, the best Windows 8 casual games (our author tested a vast selection, and then chose the 15 most worthy), and best productivity apps.