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Long Answer: Reword you request and the risk becomes a little clearer. "I'm starting a new job soon, and I will be issued equipment which I have agreed not to use for personal use. I am compelled to use it for personal use anyway. How can I do that." You have to first weight the cost and the benefit. Is surfing the web worth losing your new job?

On the other hand, screw Greyface, here's how you do it. Don't try any of the approaches you've mentioned. If they have tracking software installed they may have software keyloggers and remote desktops as well. They MAY have hardware keyloggers. They probably don't, but that's the risk you're taking.

Get an live Linux distro you can boot off of USB, one that allows you to store stuff back to the USB stick. Damn Small Linux is a good one. Do your personal stuff EXCLUSIVELY when booted to the stick. That's about the best you can do. Best of luck. May the Source be with you.

Assuming that laptop does in fact have tracking software that can report on the applications that are running and/or be used to send screenshots back to your employer, your ideas to run standalone apps from a USB drive would only land you in "trouble" because the screenshots would still show "rogue activity". The other idea of imaging the whole HDD, re-installing, and imaging back sounds like more hassle than it's worth. But at least from this I know that your BIOS isn't locked down to the extent that you can't boot from external media. So...

What I would suggest is to run a standalone OS from a USB thumb drive or CD / DVD. In doing this, you can run the alternate OS of your choosing, while sidestepping the considerable hassle of creating the backup image, installing the other OS... Here is a rather comprehensive list from which you can choose. Knoppix, Ubuntu, or Mint are the ones I would try first.

there are a bunch here
http://livecdlist.com/purpose/windows-antivirus

I've had better luck finding rootkits with bitdefender and kaspersky than Hiren, but taking a look at their page it looks like they've shored up the rootkit detection (MalwareBytes is pretty good at that - didn't have any luck with rootkitrevealer when I tried it, though - it failed to detect a rootkit that bitdefender found, and I knew the machine was rootkitted as well as the rootkit name - I also pulled off 3 yet unidentified virus variants off of that box and submitted them, and they began appearing in antivirus software within 2 days). I also have my trick of finding rootkits while windows is running, as most don't hide file complete (usually I find a registry entry with HijackThis and then go to the location and start typing in the name and hit tab - if I see the file but don't see it if I just do dir filename, I know I'm working with a rootkit and probably not an ordinary virus). I prefer to have antivirus software remove viruses and rootkits, but can do it by hand if necessary (would rather have it magically go away rather than poking around system files for hours to see what all it corrupted).

Not to detract from your Big Blue commercial.My fly by night Pavilion laptop runs Ubuntu Studio slickly. My experience with Ubuntu forums is excellent. Debian, from which Ubuntu springeth, hath billions in dollars in people time, coding,hacking and sundry work. We could put out a commercial for any linux and laptop for any number of reasons.

            My advice is research some laptops over at http://www.linux-laptop.net/ and get a feel for what you like/can afford, then find a linux that suits your needs. http://www.livecdlist.com/ is a fun easy way to browse/test/fondle various distros before commiting to tweaking an install. Tests your hardware pretty fair, but to their credit most drivers not included in a distro can be downloaded and compiled if you just gotta have a certain distro.
http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/compiling.html should take some mystification out of it if you need it.

          If you really wanna do the linux/bsd/*nix lifestyle, poking around, customizing, tweaking are all part of it. Support is netwide anytime.

"Put on CD and try" has nothing to do with "install on my hard drive." Google liveCD or go straight to
http://www.livecdlist.com/

"what is the easiest version based on Linux for me to put on CD and try?"
Burning a CD should be equally easy no matter what distribution is chosen.

It's true Ubuntu will probably end up on the machine in question.

It may also be a good idea for the articles poster to try out a bunch of live discs to see whose distro works out best for him.

http://www.livecdlist.com/ would be a good place to start. Live disks are a good introduction to linux anyway. Most have installers and it gives you a fair idea whose driver installers work on the box in question.

"Linux is still not refined enough for most home users, nor does it have all the software. If all someone does is surf the internet and write letters it would be good, provided someone set it up for them. But unlike windows it's not as easy as say, buy printer -> Put in Disk -> click install"

All I can say is, that you experience isn't the same as my experience. What equivalent software isn't available on Linux that the average home user would need. Installing printers under Linux is as you described, except you don't need to 'put-in-disk' or click install, it picks it up automatically.

"For Linux you have to start by downloading the correct package and work from there. It is a lot more of a pain in the ass"

For a network engineer who built beowulf and rocks cluster you do seem to be most ignorant of the current distros. Just get a hold any current liveCD insert and boot the machine, and that's it. With Ubuntu you then have an option to do a full installation, and most/all the software the average home user would need comes on the DVD and don't need to be bought in as extras ..

Don't just switch browsers, switch Desktop Distros. If fact, for any kind of online financial activity use a bootable CD. Before you say it, you won't have to pay rent on these Live CDs

IIRC, nessus does network security scans that check for holes in software on the network (missing patches, etc.). You could do a pen. test using a live CD like Arudius, INSERT, PHLAK, etc. Check out the security live CDs at Frozentech's Live CD site. Many have the nessus package on board.

130. Eric S. Raymond. Yes, Microsoft, the guy who's been harshing your mellow since I wrote The Cathedral and the Bazaar in 1997. Linux user since 1993, so I've been violating your nonexistent patents for fourteen years. Sue me first. Please, oh please! Because I don't think I've kicked your sorry asses enough yet, and I'd love another round with you chumps.

1458. Patrick Berry, Linux User #65,411, since 1997, I have been converting thousands of businesses, schools, charities, and users, to FOSS. Microsoft is a small pathetic multiple convicted felon pirate, whereas I am a voting retired disabled veteran, and I welcome the opportunity to expose more of Microsoft's greedy insanity! I am Patrick Berry, TSgt., USAF (Retired) technician, and I run ALL the FOSS at http://livecdlist.com/ http://distrowatch/ http://linux.org/ http://yolinux.com/ I am curious, do you also intend to sue your VP Hilf, who runs 200 Linux machines, in a lab, and Akamai, who run all your websites behind their 15,000 Linux servers? Don't worry, I will name them in my countersuit. Microsoft is the DOOMED multiple convicted felon pirate!

I see this as being very useful in big cities where warwalking is easy. Imagine the data you could gather by walking around Manhatten for a day with this device. I know that a while back 2600 made a color-coded map of open/secured wifi APs in Manhatten, but it would be even more interesting to learn which of those APs are suceptible to different attacks.

I live on 2nd and 10th in Manhattan, and one day "a friend" did a passive scan with kismet. Quick summary, from my apartment over 75 wireless devices detected. Lots of unencrypted packets, I'll leave the rest of the details up to your imagination. Also there are several security related LiveCD distros already. Its the same as taking a laptop (wireless and bluetooth enabled) with a good set of security tools on it.

Personally, I would like to see an OS that is put onto a ROM and cannot be updated without pulling it and bringing it to a special machine

A lot of the LiveCD router/firewall distros work on very modest hardware, have traffic shaping features, are easy to setup, and are free. Here are a few.

The LiveCD List has several bootable CDs which include cpuburn. Check out Stresslinux and Overclockix. If they don't meet your needs you could modify them.