Just inherited a computer from my Dad and it's very nice, except it has a generic WINPC computer name. I want to change it to something a bit more memorable. How can I easily change the name of my Windows 7 laptop PC?

I know how to install and change themes in Windows XP, but I haven't figured out the same in Windows 7 yet. Can you step me through the process of downloading and applying a new Windows 7 theme, Dave?

I'm confused: It used to be that when I closed windows -- really, minimized windows -- in Windows 7 that they'd show up as a tab along the bottom in the Taskbar. Now, however, a lot of them just vanish. They're still there, the app's still running, but the Taskbar is all too often empty. What happened to my Win7 programs?

I've just upgraded from VMware Fusion 3 to the latest 4.0 release since I'm running Lion and the company says it's a lot faster, but now it's complaining that Windows 7 is out of date and needs to be updated? What's going on and how do I fix it?

I want to start exploring the new Microsoft Windows 8 developer preview that was released but I don't want to overwrite the OS on my Win7 laptop. Instead, I was wondering if I could successfully install Windows 8 DP on my MacBook Pro using the latest version of VMWare Fusion (v 4.0)? Possible?

Dave, I have a new PC that is running Microsoft Windows 7 and I really like it, but I've got a problem: a few of the programs I used for data analysis in my job haven't been updated since the days of Windows XP and I can't run them on Win7 at all. Can I install Windows XP and dual boot or otherwise have the best of both worlds?

A while back you wrote about how to use the PrtScrn and MS Paint to capture or grab screen images in Microsoft Windows [ed: link added], but there's an easier way, Dave, a utility included in Windows 7 called Snippet Tool. You should definitely check it out and share it with everyone!

I don't know if I'm just getting old or what, but the text in my version of Microsoft Windows is tiny and I want to make it bigger. You know, the labels underneath icons, the text in dialog boxes, etc. I know there's a way to do that: how do I make the text in my Windows theme larger or bigger?

My brother gave me his Apple iPod Nano because he's now just using his iPhone and it's sweet, but it's paired to his Mac. I have a Dell laptop running Windows 7, tho, and want to put my music on it. What's the easy way to reformat it and start from scratch with my iPod?

I'm working with a group of software developers and recently had a problem where my copy of Windows 7 automatically updated to change something and the app we're building stopped working on my computer. After we figured out what had happened they told me to disable the automatic system update feature in Windows 7. But how do I turn the autoupdate feature off, it seems like it's built-in to Microsoft Windows now??

I'm a leftie and when I use the mouse on my PC it drives me crazy because the buttons are reversed for the way I want to use them. I knew how to switch the mouse from right-handed to left-handed in WinXP but now that I'm running Windows 7, what's the trick?

Recently I've found this error message windowthat says "HpSdpAppCoreApp" cannot be found whenever I try to install certain softwares. Any idea what that might be, and what I should do about it?

i have Windows 7 and all the settings are totally different to WIndows XP and I cannot find the display settings to alter sleep time. Help!

This may seem obvious, but I'm used to "Update Windows" as an option in my Start menu and it's not there any more in Windows 7. How do I update my Windows 7 installation to ensure it stays up-to-date on patches, etc?

How can I print a document "sideways" in Microsoft Word (or print a Web page in Internet Explorer sideways, for that matter), so that the words run lengthwise down the length of the paper, rather than running from side to side parallel with the shorter sides of the paper?

Every so often I go to download some software for my Acer Windows PC and have to decide between a 32-bit and 64-bit version of the application. I'm running Windows Vista but when I look, it just says that I'm running "Home Premium". How do I know if I'm running 32-bit or 64-bit Windows?

I just got an Apple iPod Touch, which is super cool, but I have no idea how to get it to work with my Dell PC. I'm running Windows Vista and use Windows Media Player 10 (WMP10) for the music on my computer, but WMP doesn't seem to see my iPod. How do I proceed and get it to work??

I saw your earlier article about how to set up your Mac so that it requires a password when waking up from sleep or from the screen saver (see password required to wake Mac from sleep). Nice. Now, how can I do that with my Microsoft Windows Vista PC laptop?

I want to set Internet Explorer so that when I start it up, it always goes to a webpage other than the default startup page. How can I change the "startup page" or "home page" in Internet Explorer?

How do I get back the menus across the top of the screen ("File", "Edit", "View", "Favorites", etc.) that used to be displayed in Microsoft Internet Explorer?

Many people have their computer unprotected by a password, so that when you turn on the computer, Windows loads up automatically without the user having to type any password to gain access to the computer. If you decide you want to put a password on the computer after all, here's how to do it.