Why Is My E-Mail Landing in Friends’ Spam Boxes?
Maybe because you misspelled Viagra.

Seriously, some spelling checkers get suspicious when they see “cute” spellings or unusual characters inserted into words, so it’s best to avoid these.

When possible, use your domain’s outgoing mail server. An outgoing server whose name doesn’t match your domain name raises a red flag, unless it’s a well-known one, like Gmail or Yahoo.

Also, avoid links to graphics on the Web. And visit Robtex (www.robtex.com) to see if your IP address or host name is blacklisted. It happens, even to the innocent.

Is It Safe to Overclock My CPU?
Unless you know what you’re doing, no. A CPU is rated at a certain speed for a reason. The excess heat generated by an overclocked CPU can reduce your PC’s stability, shorten the CPU’s lifespan, damage other components, and introduce data errors. You can counter heat problems with more and better fans and larger heat sinks—but again, you need to know what you’re doing.

If you want to take the risk anyway, first read Kirk Steers’s article, “The Cheapskate’s Guide to Supercharging Your PC” (find.pcworld.com/59720).
Should I Turn Off My PC at Night?
Leaving your PC on permits your system to scan for viruses and to back up data while you sleep, and it lets you avoid the hassle of booting in the morning. But shutting down saves power. What’s more, Windows tends to build up garbage and problems as it runs, and a fresh boot a day keeps the errors away.

You should be aware that compromises are possible. One option is to hibernate the PC, which won’t get rid of the garbage but will save as much power as shutting down the PC. Alternatively, you can put the PC into sleep mode (also known as Standby), which saves some power (though not as much as hibernation does) and allows your PC to wake up very quickly.

If you use the sleep or hibernate option, you can run maintenance programs in the middle of the night. Can I Boot From a USB Drive?
USB flash drives make good emergency and alternative boot devices—unlike CDs and DVDs, they’re writable. Put Linux on a flash drive, and you don’t have to fool with hard-drive dual-boot options.

And you can probably do it. Most modern PCs can boot from a USB device if you set them up to do so.

You’ll need to go into your hardware setup screen to find out whether your system will let you boot from a USB device. When you boot up, watch for a message about entering the setup program. Once in Setup, look for a Boot menu and then for USB options on that menu. You may need to enable booting from a USB drive and place it ahead of the hard drive in the boot order.

What can you boot from a USB drive? Not Windows XP or Vista, which only work from an internal drive. But DOS, Windows PE, programs that are built around Windows PE, and many flavors of Linux will boot from USB devices.

What Are the Best Sites for DRM-Free Music?
I’ve taken the pledge! I will no longer buy music in any form that limits the devices I can play it on once it’s mine. For that matter, I won’t buy music from online stores that insist on installing software on my PC, either.

And upholding that pledge is easier than ever, thanks to sites like Amazon, Audio Lunchbox, and eClassical.

Amazon.com: The big retailer gets the big labels with the big artists. As I write this, Sony BMG is the lone music studio still fighting the DRM-free movement. Amazon offers plenty of artists, both well-known and obscure. Amazon wants you to install its download manager, but it doesn’t insist that you do so. Annoyance: Each selection is handled as a separate purchase—so if you buy ten individual tracks, you have to plod through the purchasing forms ten times.

Audio Lunchbox (audiolunchbox.com): The selection leans heavily toward little-known independents, many of whom deserve a larger audience. The familiar names tend to be well-aged, including greats like Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, and Jimi Hendrix. Prices for single tracks and albums are a bit higher here than at Amazon, but subscription services can save you a bundle if you buy a lot. Annoyance: You can’t get a single track without being told how much better off you’d be with a subscription.

Classical options: If you’re part of the “Don’t applaud between movements” crowd, you have two excellent specialty sites. eClassical (eclassical.com) offers a huge collection of respected and eccentric recordings at bargain prices—the complete Brandenburg Concertos for $6, for example. But even better for aficionados, the venerable Deutsche Grammophon label (deutschegrammophon.com) now sells its magnificent recordings online in full-throttle 320-mbps MP3 transfers. Selections aren’t cheap— tracks can cost more than $2 each—but hey, its Deutsche Grammophon. (Full disclosure: I’m married to a professional classical musician, and some of the opinions expressed here are hers.)

How Do I Automate Boilerplate Text in My E-Mail?
You can transform anything that you type regularly—such as multiple signatures or your street address—into boilerplate text so that you can insert it anywhere without retyping. Here’s how to set up boilerplate text in Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, or any Web-based e-mail system.

Outlook, Outlook Express, and Windows Mail support multiple “signatures” that you can insert into any message at will. To set up one of these automated text blocks in Outlook 2003 or 2007, assuming that you aren’t using Word for e-mail, select Tools•Options•Mail Format, and then click the Signatures button. (If you are using Word, you can enlist that program’s AutoCorrect tool to perform boilerplate work.)

In Outlook Express or Windows Mail, simply select  Tools•Options•Signatures.

To insert boilerplate text into a message while using any of these programs, all you have to do is select Insert•Signature and then choose the right signature.

If you do your Web surfing with the Firefox browser, you can use the free Signature add-on (available for downloading at find.pcworld.com/59721) to add boilerplate to Gmail or any other Web-based e-mail program.

How Long Can a PC Go Unprotected, and Yet Uninfected?
In 2004, tests by the SANS Institute Internet Storm Center suggested that a Windows PC with no firewall, no security software, and no router would likely be infected within 20 minutes.

But security expert Ben Edelman calls the SANS 2004 data “too pessimistic.” He says, “These days, infections tend to originate via Web exploits, rather than port-scanning worms. Plus, many glaring security gaps have been closed.”

But how long can an unprotected user wander around online before visiting the wrong Web page? According to a McAfee SiteAdvisor study, “The average search engine user performs 43.1 searches per month and clicks on 2.3 results per search—yielding one dangerous site every 8 days, on average.”

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What’s the Easiest Way to Back Up Data?
Over the Internet—since that approach gives you both a constant, background backup and physical separation.

The easiest Internet backup service I know of is MozyHome (mozy.com/home). Once you set it up, it quietly backs up your files in the background as you work. The first, full backup can take days (you didn’t ask me for the fastest way to back up data, did you?), but you’ll barely notice it after that. Unlimited backup (for one PC) costs just $5 a month.

Should I Scan From a Print or From the Negative?
In theory, you should use the negative. It’s the best version of the picture.

In reality, however, not all scanners support transparencies (negatives and slides). And some that do—my Epson 2480, for instance—don’t produce a satisfactory image that way.

Also, if you’re scanning only a few shots, rather than an entire roll, you’ll find it easier to identify the ones you want from prints than from negatives.

If you do scan from negatives, use a resolution of 2000 dots per inch or greater. A negative contains more information than a print does, but packs the information into a much smaller space.

What Is the Best Way to Create Strong Passwords?
No encryption is secure if the password you use is easy to guess, and these days any word in the dictionary falls into that category—as do your kids’ names.

So use a long string of seemingly random letters and numbers. Make up an easy-to-remember but impossible-to-figure-out formula using family names, birthdays, and memorable words. For instance, you might use your kids’ name spelled backward, with every third letter capitalized, followed by your birthday squared— except that a formula printed in PC World might not be safe either. Come up with your own formula.

For more on the subject, read our forum topic, “How to Create a Strong Password” (find.pcworld.com/59719).

You shouldn’t depend on a single password everywhere you go. Use different ones for various Web sites and bank accounts. Write the passwords—or better yet, the formulas for coding them—on a business card, and carry it in your wallet in case you forget.

Or download Password Safe, a free, open-source password manager, from find. pcworld.com/59831. Then you’ll need to remember only the password for Password Safe itself.

How Can I Get My Wi-Fi Signal to the Far End of My House?
I have plenty of potential solutions to this problem, but no guarantees.

First, try moving the router. The higher you put it, the better. Keep it away from wireless phones, microwave ovens, washers, dryers, and large CD collections.

If that approach doesn’t help, consider buying one of the following items:

A large external antenna. These are very easy to set up and put to work.

A range booster. These tend to be a pain to set up. You have to plug them directly into a PC so you can optimize all of those pesky Wi-Fi settings, and then you have to find a good location for them on the outskirts of your router’s range and near an AC outlet.

An 802.11n router. Installing one solved my range problem—and without a single 802.11n-equipped PC in the house.

Do I Need a 64-Bit PC—And If So, Why?
No, you don’t. Not yet, anyway. And probably not for a long time.

A 64-bit CPU has two strengths: It can run 64-bit apps, and it can handle more than 4GB of RAM. Of course, a 64-bit system won’t run unless you have a 64-bit operating system (like Vista 64-bit).

In the indefinite future 64-bit applications will probably run faster than their 32-bit counterparts, at least for CPU-heavy jobs like video editing. But as yet almost no 64-bit Windows apps exist. Luckily, the 64-bit versions of XP and Vista support 32-bit programs, too.

More RAM improves performance, but we’re not yet at a point where we need more than 4GB. Undoubtedly, you will eventually need more, but you’ll want a whole new computer by then.

Finally, Vista 64-bit has even more compatibility problems than Vista 32-bit has, starting with the fact that it won’t run 16-bit Windows or DOS programs. And since it comes with a 64-bit version of Windows Explorer, standard Explorer extensions won’t work.

Wait a few years. Eventually, 64-bit will become an intelligent choice.

Why Should I Buy a Desktop Instead of Laptop?
If you don’t need a laptop’s portability, a number of factors favor a desktop.

Better price-to-power ratio: You can buy a cheap laptop, and you can buy a cheap desktop, but a cheap desktop has the power of an expensive laptop.

Cheaper ownership costs: Because they are made from off-the-shelf components, desktops are cheaper to upgrade and to repair. They’re less likely to need repairs, too. No one ever drove away after putting a desktop PC on the roof of their car and forgetting it was there.

Less likely to be stolen: Desktops don’t disappear during a bathroom break in a café or a nap at the airport.

Ergonomically friendlier: You can’t have good posture if your keyboard and your monitor are just inches apart, although you can get around this problem by plugging a full keyboard and a mouse into your laptop whenever practical.

On the other hand, laptops use less electricity, and you can take them places.

How Can I Get My PC to Boot at a Scheduled Time?
If you can arrange for your computer to boot at a scheduled time, you can shut it down at the end of the workday and then come back to a freshly booted PC the next morning—or even to a freshly booted PC that has just completed a virus scan.

Your PC’s setup program may let you schedule a boot. To find out, start your computer and watch the screen. Before Windows loads, a message will tell you which key to press to enter Setup. Once the program has loaded, search its menus for an appropriately named option.

If the option isn’t there, consider using Windows’ Scheduled Tasks tool to establish a regular wake-up call for your system. This call will rouse your PC from hibernation or standby mode (called sleep in Vista), but not if the machine is fully shut down.

You’ll find the Task Scheduler inside the Start menu’s System Tools submenu; to get there, select All Programs•Accessories•System Tools. Creating a new task is easy and obvious.

To make any task a wake-up task, check the Wake the computer to run this task option. In XP, that option resides in the Settings tab of the task’s Properties dialog box. In Vista, it’s on the Conditions tab. Scheduled Tasks won’t work in XP unless you have a log-on password.

What Features Are Most Impor-tant in a Digital Camera?
Assuming that you aren’t a professional photographer, consider these essentials:

Resolution: More is better, but don’t get hung up on it. A 4-megapixel picture makes great prints, though it doesn’t leave much flexibility for producing outstanding prints after cropping.

Optical Zoom: Digital zoom is essentially a fancy term for “no zoom.”

Short lag time: You see the perfect shot and press the button; 2 seconds later, your subject has left the frame and your camera clicks. The shorter the lag time, the less often this will happen.

SD Card slot: Since they’re the industry standard, SD Cards are inexpensive and widely available, and you won’t have trouble finding readers for them.

Right size: Does it fit comfortably in your hand and in your pocket? Are the dials large enough that you can set them easily? Is the LCD large enough?

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Over the past 25 years, readers have asked PC World thousands of questions about technology. Some —like “Why won’t DOS recognize my dot-matrix printer?”—have lost a bit of their urgency. But even as the standards and specs change, the central questions of the tech savvy remain remarkably consistent: How do I get my devices to work together, how can I work more safely, and why is Windows so damned annoying?

How we come up with the answers, though, is changing. In the past, responses appeared in the form of personal messages from editors or in my column, Answer Line. But the Web lets us invite you into the conversation. We’ve put all 25 of these questions, with my answers, into PC World.com’s community wiki. I’ve already received some great feedback from our community members. Want to join the discussion? Head to http://forums.pcworld.com. You’ll find documents dedicated to each question.

Is There a Downside to Using Free Security Programs?
Yes, but not so problematic a downside as to make free security programs unacceptable. You lose the convenience of a one-program-does-all security suite. And companies that don’t charge you seldom offer great tech support. (Then again, neither do some companies that do charge you. In fact, some of the biggest hassles readers report about security programs involve billing snafus.) Also, the last time PC World looked at spyware fighters (to see the full report, visit find.pcworld. com/59713), the free programs performed relatively poorly.

Yet if you know what you’re doing, a software combination like Comodo’s fire-wall (find.pcworld.com/59714), AVG’s free antivirus (find.pcworld.com/59715), and Spyware Blaster (find.pcworld.com/ 59716) will probably keep you safe.

Not all free security programs can be trusted. Some are scams and amount to malware themselves. So don’t use one unless you’ve heard good things about it from a reliable source.

For just such a source, consult Preston Gralla’s “15 Great, Free Security Programs” (find.pcworld.com/59717).

How Can I Make Vista’s UAC Less Annoying?
Many Vista users hate User Account Control, the security system that pops up a warning every time they try to do something as serious as installing software or as innocuous as changing the system’s clock. Luckily, a free program called TweakUAC can turn UAC off for Administrator accounts but leave it on for everyone else. Just run the program (which you can download from find.pcworld.com/59829), select Switch UAC to the quiet mode, and click OK.

But this expedient has its risks. Vista deems this setting a problem and so notifies you. Sure, you can turn off the warnings or learn to ignore them—but either way, you risk missing other, more important warnings.

Another option: If you use Vista Pro or Ultra, you can fine-tune your system’s UAC settings. Select Start, type secpol.msc, and press <Enter>. Navigate the left pane to Local Security Settings• Local Policies•Security Options, and scroll to the bottom of the right-hand pane for several User Account Control options. Experiment with them until you find something to your liking.

Why Can’t My XP PC See My Vista PC on the Network?
Microsoft designed Vista’s networking to be both secure and simple. So much for what they intended. Some networking headaches are specific to Vista, and others existed before Vista and continue to exist. To eliminate problems of the latter type, read, “What to Do When Network PCs Don’t See Eye to Eye” (find.pcworld. com/59718).

If that article doesn’t solve your PC’s problem, the issue may hinge on how you share the computer’s folders. Vista’s default setting lets you share folders only with yourself.

Right-click a folder you want to share, and select Share. If Vista responds with the message “This folder is already shared,” click Change sharing permissions.

In the resulting File Sharing dialog box, type everyone into the unnamed field next to the Add button, and press <Enter>. The word “Everyone” will appear in the list of people with whom you can share the folder. On the right side of the dialog box, select the permission level you want to assign to people sharing the data. Click Share to close the dialog box (which may take some time to process your request).

Is TV Burn-In a Real Problem?
Yes, it is—especially for plasma and CRT sets. A static image that remains on screen too long can burn into the screen’s phosphors and remain there, possibly permanently. And if a portion of the screen goes unused for extended periods of time—for instance, if you watch a lot of TV programs in “normal” (that is, 4:3 aspect ratio) mode—the outline of the black bars that your set uses to frame the image could become a permanent part of your television.

If you have a plasma TV, you may want to restrict the amount of time you spend watching stations with permanent logos or ticker tapes, or watching in 4-by-3 mode— or you may want to switch from black bars to the TV’s gray bar option. This is especially true during the first few months you own the set; the older a TV gets, the less likely it is to suffer from burn-in. If you like older TV shows or movies made before the mid1950s, and you prefer to watch programs as they were meant to be seen, you should probably not buy a plasma set. For more information on handling aspect ratios and avoiding burn-in, read Becky Waring’s article, “How to Get the Most Out of Your HDTV” (find.pcworld.com/59830).

LCDs aren’t as susceptible to retaining images as plasmas are, but it can happen. I know of one instance where a new LCD television was permanently damaged by very heavy 4-by-3 viewing (about 6 hours a day). Of course, since they lack phosphors, LCD screens can’t suffer from true burn-in. Call it “image retention” instead, but for all practical purposes it’s the same thing.

With any of these technologies, lowering the set’s brightness and contrast improves your odds of avoiding damage.

As far as I know, DLP sets don’t suffer from image retention problems.

Can Failing to Drain Batteries Completely Before Recharging Them Still Cause Problems?
No. Only nickel cadmium batteries exhibited the notorious “memory effect.” In fact, today’s lithium ion batteries have the opposite problem: Draining the battery can shorten its life. So avoid letting the charge drop below 10 percent.

Heat affects lithium ion batteries, too. A laptop battery will last longer if you remove it before running the notebook for lengthy periods on AC power.

But anything you do merely delays the inevitable. These batteries start wearing out on the factory floor, and eventually they’ll go bad even if they never see an electric current. Remember that before you buy a spare battery as protection against the day your current one dies.

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