A Complete Operating System Optimized For Anonymous Surfing [1]

If you want to use the internet while remaining completely anonymous, there are plenty of tools that you can use.  Encrypted email programs, an operating system that never stores any files on your hard disk and which wipes all your RAM memory when you've finished, and a web browser that uses the Tor network of anonymizing proxies to ensure that your IP address is untraceable.

The bad news is that setting up an environment like this is hard work.  The good news is that someone's done all the hard work for you, so all that's left is to download it onto a bootable DVD to get started.

The result of all the hard work is something called Tails, or The Amnesic Incognito Live System.  It's a Live Linux distribution, which means that it runs from a DVD and doesn't need installing.  When you're done using it, just remove the disc from your drive and boot straight back into Windows as normal.

The advantage of Tails over other Linux Live distributions is that everything's configured for the ultimate in anonymous usage.  The web browser automatically uses the Tor system, for example, so your activity is untraceable.  It's easy to send encrypted email too.  And when you're done, reboot into Windows and no one will ever know that you were using Tails.

In addition to the web browser and email client, Tails includes a collection of other useful Linux programs, such as the OpenOffice suite and the Gimp image editor.  

Tails is a fairly hefty 900 MB download from https://tails.boum.org/ [3] and you'll need a blank DVD disc too (it's too large for a CD-RW).  Once booted, you'll need to wait a couple of minutes for it to set up the Tor connection, after which you're ready to go anonymous.