The bootable rescue environment I reach for when systems won’t start.

I switch between computers a lot, so I use a persistent Linux USB that keeps my workspace consistent anywhere.

David Nield is a technology journalist from Manchester in the U.K. who has been writing about gadgets and apps for more than 20 years. He has a bachelor's degree in English Literature from Durham ...

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. As someone who's been around the block a few hundred times with technology, planned obsolescence has long bothered me. When Microsoft released ...