I did not want to confuse them with pictures that may not make sense. Remember, this is written for all versions of Windows, so if I had a picture of a Win2k window and they had NT, it would not make sense to them. I wanted them to just follow the steps that I outline, which covers most of the versions of Windows. I found that it is easier to say click here, click here and let them focus on following directions rather than looking at pictures. I was concerned that if they saw a picture they may go off on a tangent.

A proportion of my readers are youngsters heading off to college. Do any schools have programs in the field of digital forensics?

Yes, several colleges now have these courses. Fairleigh Dickinson University (the college I graduated from) as well as many others across the US now have them.

I recently interviewed a author who had written a novel about terrorism in the US. I asked her if she was concerned that she might be producing a plan that terrorists might follow. Her response was that she had asked the FBI and Homeland Security, and no problems were foreseen. Your book, while strictly speaking is a cookbook for looking, could easily be adapted for changing the information. This could create a whole new set of problems. Any Comments?

I do not see that at all. There is no where in my book where I show people how to modify anything or how to thwart the forensic process.

Remember, if someone is fooling with the data they are breaking a law in civil and criminal courts (spoliation). Computer forensics will show that they are doing this and they now have additional charges against them.

Postscript: So all you cheating spouses, the solution is to format your hard drive after using the computer. Of course this does mean that you will have to reload Windows every time you want to check your E-Mails!