Use your LiveCD, DVD or USB to boot your computer into Linux when you need to do some banking, and you're effectively removing yourself from the vast ranks of the Windows-based targets most malware seeks. Instead, you can launch a browser and do your banking in comparative safety, away from most malware's prying eyes.

Then, when you're done, you can boot back into Windows again, safe in the knowledge that your money is still in your bank account.

3. Reviving Old Hardware

Linux is generally far less resource-intensive than Windows is, but some distributions minimize their requirements down even further. --which I looked at not long ago--and also Damn Small Linux (DSL) are two such examples and can be particularly useful for getting new life out of an old machine.

With a Linux LiveCD, DVD or USB, you can get your old machine up and running and productive once again. Depending on the hardware you've got, you can probably even go on to install Linux--particularly a diminutive distribution such as Puppy--and run it off the hard drive without any trouble.