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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.