Personal Tech

Programming Note: Beginning this week, as Rob Pegoraro's Fast Forward column in The Washington Post moves to Thursdays, so will his online chat.

The Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro was online Thursday, Feb. 1 at 2 p.m. ET to discuss recent reviews and answer your personal tech questions.

This week, Rob writes about Microsoft's new operating system: Vista, for Better and Worse and Microsoft's Office Remodeling.

The transcript follows.

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Rob Pegoraro: Welcome to the first Thursday of Fast Forward. Today's column reviewed Microsoft's new Office 2007, while the last Sunday edition of FFWD covered Windows Vista. Will this be an all-Microsoft chat?

Let's find out...

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Perth, Australia: HOW MUCH IS THE PRICE OF WINDOWS VISTA?

Rob Pegoraro: Perth, can you fix your Caps Lock key, please? :)

There isn't a single answer to that question. Microsoft has released five different flavors of Vista with varying features and prices (see them at its site: Windows Vista: Choose an Edition). The cheapest one is the $99 Vista Basic, but that leaves out the Aero interface; for most home users, "the" price will be whatever it costs to get Home Premium ($159 to upgrade from XP, $240 otherwise).

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North Port, Fla.: My computer is a 1999 model w/a a very messed-up XP OS (due to my tinkering). Anyway, I wonder if I should expect to find a good sale prices on XP desktops now that Vista has arrived. My computer is used to surf the web, run a small web site and use Photoshop Elements. I don't see any particular advantage of buying Vista with whatever unknown issues it will have. Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: I think you should be able to get some discount-priced XP desktops for a little while if you look in the "sale" or "refurbished" sections of major computer vendors' online stores. As far as new hardware, it all seems to be Vista now--just beware of the low-end models that only ship with the Basic Edition.

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Reston, Va.: I'm a long-time computer user (still have a TRS80 somewhere), but not very knowledgeable and have trouble keeping up with the download requirements, add-ons and such. My Dell Dimension 4600 needs a bunch of upgrades, and I'm not sure whether it can handle the new Vista. It has the home version of XP (bad advise from Dell). Would it make more sense to buy a relatively inexpensive new one with Vista already installed? Would I be able to move files between them relatively easily.

Rob Pegoraro: My hunch is that your Dimension won't work well under Vista unless you add a bunch of memory and pop in a new graphics card. (That could still be cheaper than buying a new "Premium Ready" Vista PC.)

Vista includes a "Windows Easy Transfer" utility that can automatically bring over your files and settings--via a special USB cable you have to buy separately, over your home network or over CDs or DVDs--but it doesn't copy over everything. For instance, I had to move over my iTunes library and Firefox bookmarks "by hand" after the, er, WET program didn't get them for me.

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Springfield, Va.: I started looking for a new laptop on sale with Vista and I found that many of the new models use Core Duo T2250 or similar processors instead of Core 2 Duo like T5500, 5600 7200, etc. Also I noticed that some come with what I believe is a slower memory 533 instead of 667. Since this is a relative big investment for me and should last at least 3 years, could you please explain and advice us on the difference among those processors and memories. Thank you very much for your interesting columns and chat.

Rob Pegoraro: I wouldn't worry that much about the minor differences in processor and memory-bus speeds you're finding. Focus instead on *how much* memory you've got--in my experience, Vista on 1 gigabyte feels like XP on 512 megabytes--and on what kind of graphics card the computer has.

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Washington, D.C.: Rob- I'm still trying to find a way to have users open attachments on Outlook and running a script to force them to save, open in read only mode, or cancel so they can avoid the headache of working on a document and having it save in the OLK folder. Any advice?

Rob Pegoraro: I don't do business-computing questions and don't know the answer to this one anyway. But it does seem odd that you want to find a way to make their copies of Outlook run a script when they open certain e-mails... you'd have to disable almost every security setting in Outlook to make that happen, since the whole point of e-mail security is to make sure that things *don't* happen automatically when you read a message.

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Charlotte, N.C.: I read that its impossible (?) to do a "clean" install of VISTA over an existing XP installation -- to avoid residuals that sometimes vex upgrades. The article went on to say that a way around this is to install a "trial" version, then install the upgrade. What's the real story on this?

Rob Pegoraro: I've seen stories about this as well, but I don't think the situation is quite as you described. You definitely can do a clean install of Vista *as long as XP is already installed on the machine.* Just opt out of the upgrade install option--or boot off the Vista DVD, in which case the upgrade option won't be possible at all. Vista will then nuke your existing system and put a clean copy of itself on the PC.

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Perth, Australia: SORRY ABOUT THAT. IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE, CAPS AND LOWERCASE ARE REVERSED.

Rob Pegoraro: i don't know if this is from the original perth poster or not... but what the heck...

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Winchester, Va.: Rob, Re Vista, did MS manage to clean up the feature in Word that tries to capitalize the first letter of a line of text even after you've changed it once. It's my pet peeve and I'm still fighting it. I've never figured out how to turn it off.

Rob Pegoraro: It's still in Word 2007, but it's no harder or easier to turn off than before. You just need to open the AutoCorrect Options window (in Word 2007, there's a button to do that under the Word Options window's "Proofing" category) and uncheck "Capitalize first letter of sentences."

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Eagle Lake, Fla.: How long do you reckon it will be before we will have to change from XP to Vista, and how long before Vista is demonstrably better (i.e., more reliable) than XP?

Rob Pegoraro: The market-share forecasts that I've seen don't suggest the Vista transition will be particularly fast. Gartner, for instance, predicts that Vista won't hit 50 percent of the market until 2009.

As for the reliability question--I'm not sure. The first Service Pack update to Vista is supposedly due this fall, and at that point I'd expect most of the obvious bugs and many of the non-obvious ones to have been fixed.

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New York, N.Y.: Want to buy notebook pc to watch baseball streaming since cable is losing games to Direct TV. All PC's come with Vista now. Can you advise the best setup to see these games (i.e. streaming video) re processor, memory, and graphics card? Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: Doesn't matter. You don't need any special hardware to watch streaming video online; if you have enough memory and whatnot to run Vista fine, your machine can certainly handle mlb.tv.

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Washington, D.C.: I have a quick (?) question about whether analog VCRs will become obsolete after April 2009. Will I still be able to tape and watch videos on my 'old fashioned' VCR machine? Currently I tape a lot of TV programs as well as have a lot of movies on VCR tape (versus DVDs), and I don't want to have to buy replacement DVDs and/or a new DVD machine with a recordable feature. Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: A non-Microsoft question! (and not the only one.)

After 2/17/2009--mark that date on your calendars, folks!--you won't be able to tape anything *off the air.* You'll still be able to record stuff off cable or satellite and, of course, play any tape you want.

FWIW, many DVD recorders include a VCR as well, allowing users to duplicate their tapes to disc without having to wire different boxes together.

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Ijamsville, Md.: An increasing number of devices appear to us a mini-USB plug for the power adapter. I've seen this on a blackberry, RAZR phone, Mio GPS unit, bluetooth headset, etc. Are the AC and car adapters for these interchangeable. Can I use any mini USB adapter including a USB cable connected to a PC to charge any of these devices?

Rob Pegoraro: That's usually been my experience, but I can't guarantee it will work every time. (Still: Imagine if the industry could just settle on the mini-USB port as its universal battery-charging interface... dare we even dream this?)

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Tina in Falls Church: Vista has some ability to use RAM that is in the form of a special (of course = expensive) USB flash unit. Talk is if you need more RAM for a specific function you can use the key to head-fake Vista into thinking there is more native memory available and get it to use the flash as a resource.

Rob Pegoraro: Right! (In her next post, Tina pointed out that it's called "ReadyBoost.") When you plug in a USB key, the AutoPlay prompt--yup, that's about as annoying as before in Vista--will ask if Vista can use some of the device's capacity as an extra stash of prompt.

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Vienna, Va.: Rob, Thanks for all the great info and saving us from vaporware! Today you mentioned a free translator tool from Microsoft that older Offices can use to read the Office 2007 file format. How can we get this translator?

Rob Pegoraro: The exact Web address is horribly long... here's a link: Download details: Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats.

If you try to open a 2007 document in earlier versions, however, you'll get a dialog box with a button to take you directly there.

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Columbia, Md.: Hi Rob. I appreciate your explanations of modern tech - for me, you're an interpreter. My son (college student) needs to replace his WinXP PC, and I guess the new one has to run Vista. Is there anything thing wrong with getting Home Basic with 512MB as opposed to Home Premium with 1GB? If the Aero interface is mostly cosmetic, we can live without it. Also, what do you think of integrated video rather than a graphics card? He uses a CRT monitor and his non-school interests are more music-focused rather than graphics and gaming. Thanks for your thoughts!

Rob Pegoraro: Good questions here...

* Vista is going to be really slow with "just" 512 MB. Trust me, this isn't an OS where you can cut corners on memory.

* Aero looks pretty, but Microsoft also says that some new applications will require it.

* Some integrated cards do support Aero now. Check with the computer manufacturers for the details.

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Pensacola, Fla.: Hi, Rob. I'm in the market for a new PC, and I have a pretty good idea about what I want. I know that I want Vista Home Premium, 2 GB of RAM, and Intel's Core 2 Duo processor. What I'm not certain about is whether I should shell out a little more money for a 4 MB cache version of the processor, rather than one of the 2 MB cache versions. I don't do any gaming, but I do plan to use the PC for some DVD-watching and photo-editing. What do you think? Thanks!

Rob Pegoraro:2 GB might be overkill; if you get a machine with a gig or a gig and a half that has an extra memory slot left open, you can always add more later on if you find out you need it.

Don't worry about processor-cache sizes, especially not for the uses you outlined.

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Reston, Va.: Is Vista prepared to deal with the change in Daylight Savings Time? I understand that the patch for existing systems is full of problems and that it doesn't even cover Windows 2000 and earlier.

Rob Pegoraro: Yup, it's all set for the new DST schedule.

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Chicago, Ill.: I drooled over the LCD flat-panel screens, but couldn't take the plunge. I bought a flat-tube CRT digital TV, so it's too late for now. What would be the circumstances where an HDTV wouldn't make sense right now?

Rob Pegoraro: If the set's relatively small--say, below 30 inches. In those cases, you just won't see the extra pixels unless you stand in front of the set. (I'm being a little conservative in this size estimate; you might not get any benefit from a living-room HDTV even if it's 32 or 36 inches. To some degree, this issue depends on other things, like the condition of your eyeballs... and how many beers you have while watching the game.)

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Jackson, N.J.: Really look forward for these Q and A's....What is the Easiest/fastest/cheapest way to store Itunes and photos without using up what is left on my HD on my G4 I Mac...only have 25gigs left...Can I have something where I can get INSTANT access and leave it plugged in or on all the time...What about firewire.....Thanks....Bob

Rob Pegoraro: You answered your question right at the end: Get an external hard drive, plug it into your Mac's FireWire port (no point taking up one of the too-few USB ports for this) and change your iTunes Music folder to the external drive.

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16th and M streets, Northwest Washington: Rob, what's your take on the OSx86 project? Seems like the best of all worlds -- the finest all-purpose operating system, Mac OS X, on el cheapo PC hardware. Apple will complain about the legality of this effort, but really they brought it on themselves. Apple has made the decision to make Macs resemble PCs to take advantage of lower commodity costs. Often this meant going with an inferior hardware standard (dropping SCSI hard drives for IDE/ATA, letting go of PPC chips in favor of those from Intel).

The downside is that there is no discernible advantage to a Mac from a HARDWARE perspective. You're simply paying a 10 to 60 percent premium for the "Apple" label on the computer, a computer that is otherwise indistinguishable from a Dell, HP, etc. Macs used to be about better computers, not just better OSs. If it has become the latter, then OS X -- which is based on BSD -- is just another open source alternative for people running Windows on a PC. The sooner Apple realizes that, the better.

Rob Pegoraro: Hmm, who do I know at 16th and M who'd be into things like OSx86?

I hear what you're saying, 16thandM, but I don't completely agree. Nobody who's spent any time with a Mac would say that it's "indistinguishable" from a Dell or an HP; you're really selling Apple's hardware design short. (Would you say that an iPod is also "indistinguishable" from a Zune or a Zen?)

From a business case, I don't know that Apple would *want* to sell OS X directly to PC owners. It would then have to take on the burden of writing drivers for every imaginable hardware config out there, vastly inflating its tech-support budget in the process. Look at how much trouble Microsoft and Linux developers have had with that effort--and they've had years and years of practice.

The best solution for Apple, from a bottom-line perspective, might be to ignore efforts like OSx86. Don't help them, but don't hinder them either. Treat this as a form of free advertising that can win over a lot of techies who wouldn't otherwise be exposed to Apple's work.

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Falls Church, Va.: Rob, does Microsoft have any plans to update Hotmail? It's old, clunky, and increasingly buggy.

Rob Pegoraro: Yes--Microsoft has been rolling out a new version called Live Mail (mail.live.com) with painful slowness. It's much better than Hotmail, although I still don't like it as much as Gmail: Web-Mail Tests Without End

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Moscow, Idaho: I've been using office 2007 for about a month now and my biggest complaints so far are about the complete lack of any improvements to Outlook, still likes to download emails from pop servers that it already has downloaded, tried using IMAP but it kept crashing on me.

The other is the Circle button in the left corner, It took me literally hours of going through Home/Insert/Page Layout/Formalas/Data/Review/View in Excel before I gave up searching in for Save As, finally used the help button which talked about the circle button, but I guess I know now and it works fine.

Been using Vista for about a month as well and it seems to work just fine for me. I really don't see much of a difference except for some graphical changes and the start menu. I finally found out about the windows button-tab rolex window feature, which is cool but my laptop's windows button is in the far upper right corner of the key board so its very very inconvenient to use. Nice Eye candy though.

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks for the comments. I did get Outlook to work with a couple of IMAP accounts, but Outlook's support for this protocol is as stilted as ever. I really have to wonder what on Earth the Outlook developers have been doing the last few years to yield so little improvement. Did they all forget to set their alarm clocks until September, or what?

The circular "Office Button" may be the least intuitive part of Office. It's almost guaranteed that beginners won't know what it does until they park the cursor over it long enough for the explanatory tooltip to surface.

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Columbia, Md.: I just don't understand why anyone would not buy a windows computer, when Macintosh computers are available that can run windows, though it is beyond me why anyone would want to, but the option is there. Macs are just so superior in every way. I just don't get it.

Rob Pegoraro: Not quite so simple, Columbia. I do like Macs and Mac OS X--my most recent purchase was an iMac desktop--but there are plenty of reasons you'd need or want a Windows machine. What if most of the software you run is Windows-only? You'd be wasting money to buy a Mac just to run Windows on it (you need a full, non-upgrade copy of XP to run it on a Mac via Boot Camp or Parallels).

And what if you need a machine in a size and shape that Apple just doesn't make? (That's why I take a Windows laptop when I travel; a 5-pound MacBook or MacBook Pro is too big and too heavy for me to lug through four days of CES or whatever.)

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Potomac/N.Bethesda: Confused on HD. Thanks for all you advice in the past. Like Arlington last week, I've got over-the-air reception with a roof antenna. I was going to "splurge" (at least for me a $1000 for a TV is a splurge) on a near-top-of-the-line 32" HDTV for my family room. It will be our main TV, and I don't have room for anything bigger. The sofa is about 6-8 ft away from the TV. Is it not worth it? It sounds like for the bedroom, though, I should definitely buy an "Enhanced" DTV 26" for abut 1/3 to 1/2 of the price of high-def.

Rob Pegoraro: What I'd do is this: I'd go to a store that sold 30-inch HDTVs and bring a tape measure. Then I'd stand 6-8 feet away from one of those sets and see if you noticed the difference. (When you can detect the extra pixels of HDTV, it's pretty obvious--look at things like scoreboards in a game.)

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Herndon, Va.: Since the new Tivo Series 3 box doesn't work with satellite, which would you recommend, the DirecTv HD DVR or the Dish TV HD DVR? I currently have DirecTv and old Series 1 Tivo box and have heard there are issues with the DirecTv HD DVR. Is it worth switching to Dish to record HD?

Rob Pegoraro: I've gotten some complaints about the DirecTV DVR as well. But I haven't tried that firsthand--or the Fios DVR, another option that Herndon should have--and it's been a while since I checked out Dish's HD DVR. Any suggestions from y'all?

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Chesapeake Beach, Md.: Did anyone, anywhere, at any time line up for the launch of Vista like the do for the late-night launches of Mac's OS?

Rob Pegoraro: Um, some of our reporters did. Anyone else? Anyone?

[crickets]

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Confused, Va.: Your story today said: "This new version of Office uses a file format that takes less disk space but can't be read by older versions of Office and Office-compatible software without an update." And:

"The new release devours considerably more disk space (clear out a gigabyte and a half to install it), memory and processor speed than Office 2003." Less disk space or more? I don't understand, but then I'm confused about many things most of the time...

Rob Pegoraro: The files you create in Office--Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint marketechture--take up less space on the disk than they would in the older format. But the Office 2007 apps themselves need more disk space than their 2003 equivalents. (Outlook 2007 is the worst offender; it needs over half a gig on its own.)

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Arlington, Va.: I have an iPod mini that I've had for a few years. Battery life has gotten to be pretty poor with it barely holding enough charge for an hour or two of play. I'm trying to decide if it's worth getting a new battery for the current mini or just give in and get a new one (then nano or the video ones). Advice?

Rob Pegoraro: Battery-replacement from Apple--which really means "Apple sends back a refurbished iPod that matches yours but has a new battery inside--will cost you $60. A new iPod nano starts at $150 but will probably have more memory than your mini and be able to display photos as well as play music. (Don't knock that ability; I like being able to carry around my favorite pictures and subway maps on my iPod).

I'd probably spring for the new model in this case. If you take your old iPod into an Apple Store, they'll give you 10 percent off the price of a new one.

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Ithaca, N.Y.: I was wondering if you think Open office is a good alternative to MS office? Sounds like Office has improved nicely but I don't need anything really except for Word documents. I work on a mac however and am worried about other people being able to read my files.

Rob Pegoraro: OpenOffice is a great alternative to Microsoft Office--but it's not as great as it was before Office 2007 shipped. The OpenOffice developers did too good a job of imitating the old Microsoft interface, and now they're pretty far behind Office 2007 in usability. (Note that OO doesn't include any equivalent of Outlook... which may be a selling point to some, I know!)

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San Francisco, Calif.: In regards to the DirecTV question. I would highly recommend NOT getting the HR20-DVR. I have to reboot mine at least 2 a week. In addition DirecTV's HD signal is highly compressed and the quality at least here in SF pales in comparison to the local cable HD (Comcast). Read the user reviews from CNET, I've had all the problems that people report there.

http://reviews.cnet.com/DirecTV_HR20_DirecTV_Plus_HD_DVR/

4505-6474_7-32065196.html

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks, SF!

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Frederick, Md.: Rob, two completely separate questions, so bear with me: 1. Want to (finally!) ditch my old cell phone and my old iPaq and upgrade to a smartphone with Windows Mobile. If I'm deciding between products that offer Windows Mobile's Smartphone Edition vs. its full version, where's the biggest shortcoming? If I'm not much more than a calendar/contacts user who is constantly sync-ing it to my laptop, is the difference even noticeable?

2. The Zune. We haven't heard a peep out of it since its debut. How's it doing? Did MS expect a rough road? And is it safe to say once the standard-fare 1G bugs get shaken out that next gens of this product can be a (pardon the pun) legitimate player in this market? Is MS committed to this product? Thanks!

Rob Pegoraro:1) Get the Smartphone Edition. That version can't run most of the add-on programs developed for Windows Mobile and doesn't include any note-taking program (duh), but as a calendar/contacts user you should be fine.

2) Yeah, how about the Zune? Microsoft says it's established itself as *the* number-two player in the market after Apple, which seems like a dubious honor at best. (I read a great about the Bill Gates keynote at CES: a tech reporter walked up and down the aisles of this immense auditorium before the start of the keynote with a Zune in his hand, looking for any other Zune users he could share music with. He couldn't find a single fellow Zuner.)

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16th and M (again): Hey, what happened to the anonymity of the Web? Are you picking up my IP address?

Rob Pegoraro: Y'know, you *really* shouldn't be surfing those kinds of sites at work.

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Seattle, Wash.: I just bought a laptop with Windows Vista. I'm not that impressed with the improved graphics, though I like the increased security and don't mind Vista's security pop-up prompts. Overall, I think Vista serves the modest goal of keeping new computer buyers from straying to Apple or open source operating systems.

I prefer to use Zone Alarm as my anti-virus software, but Windows Vista keeps giving me an error message when I try to install Zone Alarm, saying Zone Alarm isn't compatible. I then chose the path of least resistance and just accepted the anti-virus software (McAfee) that came bundled with Windows Vista. Is there any way to get Zone Alarm to work with Windows Vista? Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: Hit ZoneLabs' Web site and look for an update that adds Vista compatibility.

This problem happens almost every time an operating system gets updated; things like anti-virus utilities, which have to function right in the guts of the system, normally need to be revised to work in the new software.

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Burlingame, Calif.: My present PC has windows XP and I am reasonably comfortable with its performance. Since I want to consider a new PC but without Vista, can I buy the new unit with an unformatted hard drive and put my XP O/S in it as I get rid of my older PC?

Rob Pegoraro: In general, no. You'd have to do some serious looking around to find a so-called naked PC... Wal-Mart's Web site has sold some basic models like this, but I don't know if it still carries them.

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Seattle, Wash.: Rob, I've had Vista for a bit less than a week (I received the Business edition from the Power Together program) and think that mostly, it's a solid OS. However, I don't like that Vista and iTunes, VLC, and Media Player Classic don't seem to get along. Every time I close iTunes, Vista tells me the program has stopped responding. Annoying to say the least. Any idea when some of the more popular alternatives to WMP will function properly with Vista?

Rob Pegoraro: I haven't had any problems running iTunes in Vista--I was able to burn and rip CDs and sync with an iPod without any problem. I don't think there's a widespread problem with iTunes and Vista... but there could be more random glitches. I'd check the message boards on Apple's tech-support site (discussions.apple.com) and see if others are having these issues.

Oh, wait, Apple already has a tech-support note up that details some (relatively minor) issues that Apple's working to fix: iTunes and Windows Vista

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Fort Meade: Hi Rob. Just one quick piece of advice about Microsoft's Vista. Readers: Do NOT install any XP drivers on Vista. Make sure your mainboard has Vista drivers available before you load up and search internet for any additional drivers needed from manufacturers and choose only those that are written specifically for Vista. Then you will have greatest of experiences. Any XP, bless its' Heart, Will at least start corruption process and often simply crashes system. Some 64 bit Vista drivers are delayed until March, '7. I appreciate your move to Thursdays, We all seek your honest opinions, closer to manufacturers news launch.

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks for the tip and the kind words, FM.

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Virginia: Regarding anti-spyware software, please answer as I am a computer neophyte. Is PC Tools Spyware Doctor necessary if I have Norton Internet Security?

Rob Pegoraro: Strictly speaking, no; current versions of NIS have their own spyware remover. But sometimes it's necessary to use a second spyware fighter if your first choice can't get the job done.

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23112: Just a comment...I love Office 2007, although my place of business won't commit to upgrading to it without probably a year of "study" and planning how to roll it out to a company full of users who're just now getting used to Windows XP SP2 and Office 2000.

Rob Pegoraro: I think your office has plenty of company... you don't want to know how old some of the software in the Post newsroom is!

(Seriously. Just don't ask.)

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for Herndon, Va.: The DISH DVR's are second only to TIVO. They are just better than any equivalent from DirectTV or any rented cable DVR. DISH also has the most HD channels, adding A and E this week. However, if FIOS is available they have the best HD quality of all cable/satellite services. It is the closest to OTA reception I have seen. So what feature is more important to you Herndon?

Rob Pegoraro: Uh, being able to watch MASN, which Dish still doesn't carry? (I have a question out to my contact at Dish about this very issue.)

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Arlington, Va.: Is Vista prepared for all of the problems that are going to occur on New Year's Eve in the year 9999, when the date rolls over to five-digit years in the year 10000? Oh sure, it's easy to say that "we'll deal with the Year 10000 Problem closer to the time," but what are the odds of Microsoft actually completing another upgraded version of Windows by then?

Rob Pegoraro: It's all set for the Y10K switchover, but all hell will break loose after 12:59 p.m. on Dec. 31, 999999.

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Nashville, Tenn.: Well, I didn't have a question today until I read your remark that after 2/17/09 the vcr "won't be able to tape anything -off the air.-"

I have a new HDTV and use an antenna for OTA digital reception. Am I not able to use my VCR to record shows now? Obviously I haven't tried this with my new TV yet (or I wouldn't ask). What you say makes sense, since I can't program the VCR for a channel like 2.1, 4.1, etc -- but I'd planned to try taping sometime using the "record now" button. So I can't go out and buy a new VCR capable of recognizing channel 2.1? Sigh... Is the logical next step for me a DVR?

Rob Pegoraro: You can't buy that VCR yet. By March, you should be able to. Look for a model with an ATSC digital tuner.

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Charlotte, N.C.: In November I bought an HP widescreen Pavilion with a T2400 dual processor, 2 GB RAM, two 100 GB HDs, and Media Center Edition OS. I bought it for the screen size, not the entertainment "value." It has a sticker that claims its VISTA Capable, but the verification utilities that Microsoft and others offer suggest it lacks a few things and, of course, some of the pre-installed software has to be upgraded to run with VISTA. How much of a hassle is this likely to be?

Rob Pegoraro: I wouldn't worry much if the Upgrade Advisor only reports problems with installed programs; those can be updated pretty easily. I *would* worry if it said the graphics card can't handle Aero.

Also, check at HP's site to make sure that a full set of Vista drivers are available for your model.

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Rob Pegoraro: That's gonna have to do it for today, folks. Thanks for showing up, and I look forward to seeing you all on future Thursdays.

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