Tony, your Microsoft article was awesome and beneficial. Didn’t quite understand the below though. We have AT&T Elite speed and wish we didn’t have to pay too much for a moderate speed. Does this apply to AT&T tech? What questions should we be asking? Thanks for information and we will keep your home page a favorite. Good luck!

802.11b is the most common type of wireless network, but 802.11g is about five times faster. 802.11g is backward-compatible with 802.11b, so you can still use any 802.11b equipment that you have. If you’re using 802.11b and you’re unhappy with the performance, consider replacing your router and network adapters with 802.11g-compatible equipment. If you’re buying new equipment, definitely choose 802.11g.

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A quick question from a reader:

I’m running Vista 32-bit and would like to know which programs are the only ones absolutely required for startup. Thanks.

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I sell digital photos on my home page, and the most common question I get is, “Are these pictures 300 DPI?” Unfortunately, I usually can’t answer definitively, because they don’t tell me the size they’re going to print at.

DPI (dots-per-inch) depends on two factors: the resolution of the picture (“dots”) and the size of the image as you will print it (“per inch”). My website shows the resolution for every picture at the top of the page, as part of the pictures description.
For example, this picture has a resolution of 3072 x 2048:

If you wanted to print it at 3×5, it would be 614.4DPI (3072/5=614.4). Vertically, it would be 682.6DPI (2048/3), but you’d need to crop it vertically to get the 3×5 proportions, so the DPI will be the same once it’s cropped.

If you’re missing the Aero glass effects and 3D-flip in Windows Vista or Windows 7, here’s how you can fix it.

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Quick answer: Use 64-bit Windows if you have 2GB or more memory in your computer.

Some of the most common questions I get from readers involve the differences between 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Vista or Windows 7. Here are some articles I wrote in the past on this topic:

• Should I install 32-bit or 64-bit Windows Vista?

• Maximum Memory in 32-bit Windows Vista

• 32-Bit Vista Memory Limits

• Can I run 32-bit programs in 64-bit Windows Vista

In a nutshell, 32-bit Windows can only address 4GB (or less) memory. In the past, I recommended using 32-bit Windows even though 64-bit Windows 7 can address 8GB (in Home Basic), 16GB (in Home Premium), or 192GB (in Enterprise, Business, or Ultimate). The reason: you couldn’t always get drivers for 64-bit Windows.

Good news–in the years since Windows Vista was released, Microsoft has convinced hardware vendors to produce 64-bit drivers for everything. So, unless you have some really old hardware that you’re not willing to upgrade, you shouldn’t have a problem finding 64-bit drivers.

So, I now officially recommend using 64-bit Windows Vista or Windows 7 if you have 2GB or more RAM in your computer.

Unfortunately, you can’t just upgrade. You’ll need to backup all your files, install 64-bit Windows, and then restore all your files. Then, you’ll need to re-install all your applications.

Tony,

Do you have a keyboard shortcut for switching between monitors? I have two monitors at work where I can drag things inbetween them. Is there a shortcut key so I don’t have to use my mouse?

Thanks!

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I go on and on about how important backup up your data is. All hard disks fail eventually, and when they do, you’ll lose all your stuff–including your personal pictures and home videos.

So, you need to backup. I tell most people to buy a USB drive a bit bigger than their computer’s C:\ drive and use that for backups. That works well and protects you from a failed hard disk or accidentally deleted files–but it doesn’t protect you from fire or theft, because you’d lose your backup drive, too.

Businesses do off-site backups for disaster recovery. Basically they take their backup drives or tapes to a different location that they can get to if something goes really bad. That doesn’t work well for people, though, because even if you buy a second external drive and take it to a friend’s house, you’ll forget to do it regularly. For the home user (myself included), backups must be automated or they’ll be forgotten.

Enter online backup services, which copy files from your computer to a server on the Internet. When you lose your data, you download it back from them. I checked out the major online backup services and found one that’s working for me.

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