My Office Manager
 

Secunia PSI is a great program to keep your software up to date and I'm not talking about your operating system (98, XP, Vista). This is for individual programs, it's not perfect and can't update everything, but it sure beats remembering to open common programs and check for updates.

 
 

Be sure to take out both the memory and the hard drive. You can re-use the memory in other computers or sell it on ebay. By the way, when you are looking to upgrade the memory in your computer keep an eye on the price for at least a week or so to get the best deal; the prices go up and down on a daily basis.

Now, as for the old hard drive; if it still works you can buy a hard drive enclosure and use it as an external back up drive. If it no longer works, you should destroy it. You can do this by leaving it in a bucket of water for a few days or taking a hammer to it (wear eye protection). Unfortunately, there are people out there who pick up used computers just to see if they can retrieve someone's financial information from the hard drive!