If I have an analog TV and get a government-subsidized converter box, will I still be able to use my VCR after the 2009 switchover to digital over-the-air broadcasts?

According to government and industry statements, a VCR will still work, but it will have to be connected to the output jack on the converter box to receive the programming it records, because its internal TV tuner will no longer work. Also, the quality of the taped program will be limited to the quality available in the older VCR, and won’t necessarily match the crisper quality of the new digital broadcasts when viewed live.

Recently, you recommended a program that tells people what programs start up when they boot up a PC. I have installed it. But how do I know which programs should be retained? There are a lot there, but I have no way to know which I can eliminate and which I should retain.

This is one of the maddening issues nontechnical folks face with PCs. Even when you know what invisible background tasks might be slowing down your computer, you lack the knowledge to decide which to kill or spare, because their names don’t necessarily tell you their functions.

One way to tell is to look them up on the Web. A Web site I have found useful for such research is called AnswersThatWork, at answersthatwork.com. Click on the icon labeled “task list,” and you will find a directory in which you can look up such programs. The site tells you what they do and recommends whether to delete or keep them.

Can you suggest a hardware box that can be attached to my TV that will keep all stations and commercials at the same level of volume? I’m going nuts having to keep my finger on the volume control of my remote.

A quick Web search turned up a couple of boxes that claim to do just that. These boxes connect between the TV set and a cable or satellite receiver.

One, a $30 device called the “TV Volume Regulator,” is sold by a Web site called Smarthome and is at: www.smarthome.com/7848T.html. The second, a $70 box called the “Automatic TV Sound Regulator,” is for sale at a Web site called firstStreet. Its Web address is: www.firststreetonline.com/product.jsp?id=55851.

There may be other, similar products out there. But I can’t recommend any of them, including the two listed here, because I haven’t tested any.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free of charge at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

My Dell PC, which is an older model running Windows XP, is very slow to boot up and I have a lot of icons on my desktop. Does the number of icons on my desktop have any relationship to the time it takes my PC to boot up?

Everything a PC must do when it starts up takes some time, and that includes drawing the desktop. A desktop with fewer icons takes less time to re-create. But, if your machine is “very slow” to start up, you may also have accumulated too many programs that are set to run upon start-up, including programs that you can’t see because they are launching behind the scenes. So, it would be wise to examine these programs and remove or disable as many as you can, keeping only those you really need. I suggest you obtain and run a program designed to help you do this. One good one comes from PC Magazine and is called Startup Cop Pro 3. It costs $8 and can be found at pcmag.com/downloads.

If I buy a Mac, can I move all the programs on my Dell over to the Mac?

While most common Windows file types can be copied to a Mac and will work there, the Windows programs on your Dell won’t run on the Mac’s operating system, so there’s no point in moving them to a Mac. There is one exception: If you plan to install and use Windows on your Mac, then your programs should run. However, some programs are designed to be locked to a single PC and won’t run on a second machine, even if it is a new Dell instead of a Mac running Windows. Furthermore, it can be difficult to move Windows programs to a new machine, because they are often made up of parts that are scattered in various places on the hard disk.

Two of the companies whose software allows you to run Windows on a Mac, Parallels and VMWare, do offer utilities that will copy the contents of a Windows PC to the portion of the Mac devoted to running Windows. The Parallels utility is called Transporter and the VMWare utility is called Converter.

Like many Internet users I have used Wi-Fi in airports, hotels and coffee bars. I have used it to access banking and brokerage accounts. Just how much at risk have I been? I am a Mac user. Am I more or less at risk than a Windows user?

No matter what kind of computer you use, there is some chance, however small, that a crook can intercept any data you send or receive over a public wireless network. So, my advice is to never, ever conduct financial transactions, or any highly sensitive communications, over any network you don’t control. It’s the same principle people should use when making voice calls on cellphones, which are easier to intercept than voice calls made on land lines. Be cognizant of the content of your communications of any kind when you are using public wireless networks.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free at the new All Things Digital web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

If you have a question, send it to me at mossberg@wsj.com, and I may select it to be answered here in Mossberg’s Mailbox.

Recently, my laptop is taking an inordinate time to boot up. I have tried disk cleanup, defragmentation, and multiple scans by antivirus programs but nothing seems to speed up the full bootup process. Do you have any suggestions?

This probably indicates that you have a large number of programs, many of them invisible to you, that are configured to launch at startup. Some may even be spyware and adware programs. I suggest two steps. First, get a good antispyware program, like Webroot’s Spy Sweeper, and do a thorough scan of your system, deleting all the spyware and adware you can find. Spy Sweeper, which costs $30, is available at www.webroot.com. (A free trial is available.) Then, reboot.

If the system continues to reboot slowly, you should run a program that tells you which programs are trying to launch at startup. Get rid of those you don’t need. A built-in Microsoft utility, msconfig, can do this for you. Just select Run from the start menu and type “msconfig.” Look over the programs listed in the “Startup” tab of the program, and uncheck all that you’re sure you don’t need. This may be tough, because msconfig doesn’t give the English names of the programs or explain what they do.

Even better, download and run a startup utility like Startup Cop, which explains things better. It costs $5.97 and is available at www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,2173,00.asp.

We would like to use the Internet wirelessly in our home, but we have a dial-up service. We were told by others that one has to have a cable or DSL modem to go wireless. Is that true?

No, you can do it with dial-up, though the speed is so slow that the experience over wireless may be disappointing. A company called Always On Wireless makes a wireless base station called the WiFlyer that is specifically designed for sharing dial-up connections wirelessly. It costs $150 and is available at www.wiflyer.com. I have seen it demonstrated, and it worked, but I haven’t tested it.

I run Windows XP home edition and also Word. After installing a newer edition of Word, I began to have a problem when I went to look for my newly prepared files. They don’t show up in the folder that I thought I put them in. How can I resolve this aggravating problem?

In Word, go to the Tools menu, and select Options. Go to the File Locations tab, and click on Documents. Set the location for saving documents to whatever folder you prefer, and click OK or Close until you are out of the Options window. That should take care of it.

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Because of the volume of e-mail I receive, I can’t routinely answer individual questions by e-mail, or consult on individual problems or purchasing decisions. I read all questions I receive and select three each week to answer in the column.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com