I haven’t tested campusbackup.org, whose Student Backup service copies an unlimited quantity of word-processing, spreadsheet, presentation and PDF files, once nightly, to a remote server for $50 a year. But there are other, more versatile options I have tested that, unlike Student Backup, copy photos and music and other types of files. These include MozyHome ($4.95 a month for unlimited storage, at mozy.com) and Carbonite ($55 a year for unlimited storage at carbonite.com). All three work with either Windows or Mac computers.

I read that importing the newly remastered Beatles CDs into iTunes and listening to them on a computer or portable player is like buying a masterpiece and staring at a photocopy of it. Any truth to this? Does importing really lose that much quality?

It depends on how sensitive an ear you have. In most cases, when you import a CD into iTunes or any other software jukebox program, you are converting the songs into a compressed file, such as an MP3 or AAC file. This saves a ton of space on your hard disk, but at least subtly diminishes quality. To an audiophile, that can make a big, negative difference, especially when you add the insult of listening to the music through iPod headphones or small computer speakers. To most of the rest of us, though—especially with rock, pop, urban or country music—it’s no big deal.

However, there is a compromise. If you don’t care about the songs taking up lots more space on your hard disk, iTunes will allow you to import them in a much less compressed format called Apple Lossless or an uncompressed format called WAV. You can choose which format to use in the iTunes Preferences settings. In the latest version of iTunes, called iTunes 9, this particular option is found under the General tab in Preferences, by clicking on the button called “Import Settings.”

Previously I had a Dell and Windows and used Family Tree Maker for genealogy records. Now that I’m an Apple owner, I find that Family Tree Maker does not work on an Apple, only Windows. What can I do about this?

It seems to me that you have three obvious options. If you still have your old Dell, you could crank it up again just for the purpose of running Family Tree Maker. Or, you could buy a boxed copy of Windows and install it on your Mac, which is fully capable of running Windows and Windows programs (assuming it’s an Intel-based Mac). Finally, you could switch to one of the native Mac-based genealogy programs and import your data from Family Tree Maker via the standard GEDCOM file format used in genealogy. One such program, called Reunion, includes specific instructions on importing data from Family Tree Maker on its “Top 10 Questions” page, at leisterpro.com.

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

Is it possible to download a YouTube or similar file to my computer?

Yes. One program that does this is TubeSock. It works on Mac and Windows, and creates a file you can keep for offline viewing on your computer. It creates the necessary formats for use on your iPhone or iPod, your Sony PSP or Palm Treo. The program works not only with videos on YouTube, but with those on some other sites. It’s available at stinkbot.com/Tubesock/, for $15. But while the makers of TubeSock believe their product is legal, as long as videos aren’t used for commercial distribution, Google (which owns YouTube) may not agree. A quick scan of YouTube’s terms of service reveals that the company sees most of its videos as intended solely for online streaming.

I have this thumb drive which I used to copy of the info from my old computer. I want to transfer all these files to my new computer. I want to transfer my 2007 Microsoft Outlook contacts and emails, and the My Documents folder. When I insert the drive into my new computer everything pops up, but how do I get it to transfer to the hard disk?

Your computer sees the portable drive just as it would an internal drive or folder, so you would just drag the folder or file icons from the portable drive into the folders of your choice on the hard disk. It’s just like copying folders and files from different places on your internal hard disk. Then, you can remove the portable drive, and the files and folders will be on your new computer. For the Outlook files, there’s one extra step, if you want them to actually appear in Outlook. You will have to use Outlook’s import function, found on the File menu, to incorporate them into Outlook’s own Mail and Contacts section.

Does the My Book World Edition networked hard disk you reviewed last week work with Apple’s built-in Time Machine backup software?

No. Western Digital, which makes the My Book, said it doesn’t, and, in my tests, Time Machine didn’t recognize the My Book as a possible backup drive. That’s one reason the company supplies its own backup software for the Mac, as well as for Windows. It’s likely that there is, or will be, some technical workaround, but, out of the box, this drive doesn’t work with Time Machine.

• 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.

To my mind, this is more a parenting issue than a technology one. The easiest method would be to join Facebook yourself and become one of your teens’ ”friends” on each account they have. That might not sit well with your kids, but if you’re willing to be tough, you could make that a condition of their being on Facebook. You could also insist they use the network’s extensive privacy controls to guard their detailed information and activities from strangers.

There is a paid service called YouDiligence that claims it will notify you if certain words appear on a child’s Facebook page. But it requires that you be one of your child’s Facebook friends, so it is mainly a time-saver. Also, because it focuses on words, it doesn’t flag photos or other Facebook activity.

Another paid service, called imView, automatically takes pictures of the screen of the PC your child uses, at intervals you select, and allows you to view these screen shots at your leisure, from any Internet-connected PC. Its maker touts this as a way to monitor Facebook activity. I haven’t tested either of these two services.

I want to transfer my Mini DV taped videos from my video camera to my Mac. But my new MacBook has no Firewire port, which is the only port my camera includes — only USB ports. Am I stuck?

Maybe not. One option would be to see if you can borrow a Mac or Windows PC that does have a Firewire port, convert the videos to digital files on that borrowed machine, and then transfer the resulting files to your new Mac using an external hard disk or flash drive. Obviously, you wouldn’t want to have to do this often.

Another option: A company called Pixela (pixela-1.com) claims to have a Firewire-to-USB cable meant for exactly your situation. It is for Windows only, but might well work if you installed and ran Windows on your Mac. However, a glance at the company’s Web site shows it is out of the version of the cable that works with the North American, as opposed to European, video standard. If you are in North America, you might check with the company to see if and when the correct version will be available. One important caution: I haven’t tested it, so don’t know how well it works.

My computer crashed last fall, and I lost thousands of iTunes songs. I would like to copy all the songs to my new computer from my iPod, which still contains them. However, iTunes allows only purchased songs to be returned. Is there software that would help me?

Yes. There are several utility programs designed to copy the contents of an iPod back to a Windows or Mac computer. The one I usually recommend, because I have found it works well, is called Music Rescue. It costs 10 British pounds, or about $15 at current exchange rates. It can be purchased at kennettnet.co.uk.

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.

Do Macs last longer than Windows PCs? I am willing to pay the additional cost for a Mac if it will last significantly longer, but if it has approximately the same lifespan as a PC from a reputable manufacturer, I will stay with PCs.

In my years of using both types of computers daily, I have never noticed a significant difference in when Macs and Windows PCs become unfit to use, and I have never seen claims from Apple (AAPL) that its computers last longer than competing models. Obviously, on the Windows side, there’s a much greater variety of manufacturers and of quality levels, while Apple makes all Macs, and receives generally high marks in well-known surveys of reliability. But so do some Windows PC makers. All computer makers turn out the occasional lemon, and how long a computer “lasts” depends tremendously on how you use it and how you judge its usefulness over time.

My laptop hard drive crashed last year and I lost some digital pictures that were on it. My daughter had accidentally copied those digital pictures onto her iPod but she didn’t select the option to store them at full resolution. I know I can get the pictures back off the iPod, but is there any software that can get them back at full resolution?

Not as far as I know. Unless you tell iTunes to store the photo at full resolution, what is on the iPod is a version of the photo that has been scaled down for the iPod’s screen resolution and storage capacity, and that is the resolution they would retain if you copied them back to a computer.

I have an H-P (HPQ) laptop using Windows XP and Microsoft (MSFT) Office 2003. If I purchase a new H-P laptop with Vista and Office 2007, what must be done to make the two machines compatible? My goal is to be able to take a copy of Office files from one computer and use them on the other.

The difference in the operating systems won’t affect your plan, but the difference in the Office versions might. The newer 2007 version of Office can easily handle your files from the older version. But Office 2003 can’t handle files in the new default Office formats introduced in the 2007 version. These formats use file suffixes that end in the letter x. For instance, the new Word format has an extension of docx, instead of the old, familiar doc.

Luckily, the new Office can still save files automatically in the old formats, if you change a setting. Here’s how.

On the computer with the new version of Office, click on the round “Office Button” at the top left of the 2007 versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Then, in the window that appears, click on “Options.” In the next screen that comes up, click on “Save” in the column at the left. In the panel that appears at the right, you’ll notice an option called “Save Files in this format,” with a drop-down list of choices next to it. Display the list of choices by clicking on the arrow and select the format that corresponds to Office 2003. Then, click OK at the bottom of the window. For instance, in Word 2007, the format you want is called “Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc).”

The other option is to enable Office 2003 to handle the new formats, by downloading a free “Compatibility Pack” from the company’s “Download Center,” at www.microsoft.com/downloads. You’ll find it listed there under “Popular Downloads.”

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

We plan to buy a new computer running the XP version of Windows, not Vista. We are afraid to take the step to the Mac since we are in our 70s, and are just average on the computer. We rely on our children for help when we get into a jam, and they have no experience with a Mac. Would you recommend we venture into Mac land, fear and all?

No. While I believe Apple’s (AAPL) hardware is very good, and the Mac operating system is better than either version of Windows (MSFT), I also believe that average users whose operating system works well for them, and who can buy new hardware that runs the same system, shouldn’t feel pressure to change. That’s especially true when they have a ready source of support.

However, that course of action will become more difficult this summer, when Microsoft plans to stop licensing Windows XP to computer makers for preloading on new machines. That will make Vista the only version of Windows available to new computer buyers. Buying a new Vista PC does require users to learn new techniques and to cope with hardware and software incompatibilities.

I heard that you could still use your AOL email address without paying for the other AOL services, which are no longer used in our household. I am wondering if this is true.

Yes. AOL (TWX) has made its email free. The email service is also now available from a Web site, and no longer requires special AOL software.

I have purchased a new laptop. How do I transfer the songs from the iTunes library on the old laptop into the iTunes library on my new laptop? None of these songs are copy-protected. I created them from my own CDs.

If your setup is typical, I would recommend copying the entire iTunes folder that is found under My Music or Music on a PC, or under Music on a Mac. This folder should contain both a subfolder called “iTunes Music” (which contains the actual song files iTunes manages) and one or more files containing the words “iTunes” and “Library,” which tell the program about your playlists and other details. If your setup is atypical, you may have to copy music files from other folders and have the copy of iTunes on your new machine re-import them.

Another approach is to use an iPod, if it has all your music and playlists on it. There are small utility programs available on the Web that will copy the contents of an iPod, including playlists, into a fresh version of iTunes on another computer. One that I have used successfully is called Music Rescue and is at www.kennettnet.co.uk. It comes in both Windows and Mac versions. But there are others.

Reminder: if you are discarding or giving away the old computer, be sure to deauthorize it from your iTunes Store account before doing so. Just go to the “Store” menu in iTunes and click on “Deauthorize computer…”.

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.

I listen to opera and other music in languages other than English. Much of this music comes with lyrics and English translations. I like listening on my MP3 player, but I don’t like having to carry around the CD notes to read while I listen. Is there a portable player that would allow me to read the lyrics while I listen?

Yes. The Apple iPods are capable of displaying lyrics while you listen. This capability has been on the standard iPods and on iPod Nanos for a while, and has just been added to the new iPod Touch and to the iPhone. It requires the lyrics to be entered into the song file, either manually or by cutting and pasting.

You enter lyrics using Apple’s companion iTunes software, on either a Windows or a Macintosh computer. To do so, you select the song, then, from the File menu, click on “Get Info.” You then select the tab called “Lyrics,” which brings up an empty window. You can type in the lyrics or first copy them from a Web site (or other source) and then paste them into this window. You then click OK, and, when you synchronize the song with your iPod, the lyrics come with it.

On the standard iPod itself, to view the lyrics while listening, you press the large center button multiple times until the lyrics appear. On the iPod Touch and iPhone, you tap on the image of the album cover while a song is playing. If the song file contains lyrics, they appear.

Does Kodak’s photo software allow one to add titles to the photo — for instance, names of people in group shots?

Yes, as with most photo software, you can add captions or titles to pictures organized inside the Kodak EasyShare software that runs on your computer. You can also add captions to pictures you upload to Kodak’s online photo organizer, which is called Kodak Gallery.

I want to give our five-year-old Dell with Windows XP to a charitable organization. How do I assure myself that all my personal files are safely removed?

One option is to reformat the hard disk, which would leave the computer unusable unless you or the charity bought and installed a copy of Windows, or obtained and installed a free copy of the Linux operating system.

The other option is to leave the operating system and programs intact but “wipe,” or permanently delete, all the personal files that concern you, using a “file wiper” program that overwrites the contents of the file with nonsense data. There are a variety of such programs, including some that are free. To find these, go to download.com and search for “file wipe” or “file wiper.” If you’re willing to spend $30, you might want to use a program I have tested and can recommend called Window Washer, available at webroot.com. It has a “bleaching” function that wipes files, and also has the ability to erase any tracks left by your Web browser.

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.

With the new iPods coming out, how do you deactivate an old one? I think Apple only allows a certain number to be used with an account.

You don’t have to deactivate an iPod if you replace it. The copy-protection rules imposed on Apple by the entertainment companies allow for copy-protected music and videos purchased from the iTunes Music Store to be stored and played on an unlimited number of iPods.

The only “deactivation” iTunes users have to perform is on a computer — Windows or Mac — because the copy-protection rules allow purchased, copy-protected songs and videos to be played on no more than five computers at a time. So, before you replace a computer on which you are storing such purchased, protected iTunes material, you should deauthorize the machine by going to the “Store” menu in iTunes and selecting “Deauthorize Computer…”.

Of course, if you aren’t at or near the five-computer limit, this issue may not matter. It’s also irrelevant if none of the music or videos you play from within iTunes is copy-protected material purchased from the iTunes store. You can happily use iTunes and iPods without buying any copy-protected stuff from Apple. You can restrict your music and videos to those you copy from legally obtained CDs, those you create yourself, or those you buy in unprotected formats from iTunes, or other sites, like eMusic.

I have a printer hard-wired to a desktop computer, but would like it to be available to my laptop wirelessly over my home network. How can I do this?

There are two main methods, assuming the printer doesn’t have a built-in networking port or Wi-Fi transmitter. One method is to buy a small box called a print server and plug it into your router. Then, you plug the printer into the print server, and, with the right software and settings, it will appear on your network and be available to any computer on the network, wired or wireless.

The same companies that make routers, such as Linksys and Belkin, also often make these print servers. The other method is to buy a wireless router that has such a print-server function built-in, with a USB port for connecting a printer.

If I have a laptop with Wi-Fi capability, does that mean I can surf the Web while sitting in a car?

Yes, but only if the car is in range of a Wi-Fi network that is either open (not password-protected) or for which you know the password. And it would only be practical if the car was stopped or parked, since a car moving at normal speed would very quickly drive out of range of any networks you encountered.

A better option, which works even when a car is moving, is to purchase a high-speed cellular wireless modem for your laptop, or buy a laptop with such a modem built-in. These modems, which get you on the Internet via citywide cellular-data networks instead of Wi-Fi, can remain in range for miles. But they require hefty fees, typically $60 a month. And, of course, you should only be surfing the net in a moving car if you are a passenger in that car, not the driver.

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

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

I can’t figure out how to remove a song from my iPhone. How do I do it?

Unlike an iPod, the iPhone has no purely manual-mode option, which would allow you to drag songs on and off of it. However, there are alternative methods.

The simplest approach is to connect your iPhone to your Windows PC or Mac, and allow it to synchronize as usual. Then, select your iPhone in the list at the left edge of the iTunes window in order to bring up the iPhone-settings functions in the large window at the right in iTunes. Click on the Summary tab, and check the option called “Only sync checked items.” This will limit the songs and videos the computer places on the iPhone to those for which you have checked the little box that appears next to their names in iTunes. Next, go into your music library, or into any playlists you have selected for syncing with the phone, and uncheck any songs you no longer want on your iPhone. The next time you perform a sync, these songs will be removed from the phone.

Another method is to place all the songs you want on the iPhone into a single specially designed playlist, or several such playlists. Then, go to the Music tab in the iTunes settings screen and click on “Selected Playlists.” Next, check off only your special iPhone-bound playlists. Once this is done, you can control which songs are, or aren’t, synchronized to the iPhone by adding or removing songs from these playlists. If you remove a song from one of these playlists, it will be deleted from the iPhone the next time you perform a sync.

Neither of these methods will delete the songs from your computer or your iTunes library, or prevent them from playing on your computer.

I have tried to download some pictures recently and use them as wallpaper. I am storing them in my My Pictures folder. But, when I choose to make them my wallpaper, they appear multiple times on my desktop. How can I have a picture cover the whole background on my monitor?

Assuming you are using Windows XP, go to the Display control panel and select Desktop, then find the image in the Background list and select it. Then, under Position on the right, select Center or Stretch. Note, however, that if you have downloaded a small image from the Web, and your monitor has a relatively high resolution, the Center option won’t allow the image to fill much of the screen. The Stretch option, while filling the screen, may result in a grainy and/or distorted image.

I was wondering if you could recommend a good service for automated online backup of a PC running Vista. All the services I have found require the user to manually transfer files to the online site. In my ideal world, I could set up my machine to transfer the files during the evening.

There are two automated online backup services I’ve tested and reviewed, Mozy (mozy.com) and Carbonite (carbonite.com).

Both work on Vista, neither requires manual file transfers, and both are good, though I preferred Mozy when I last tried them in December 2006. However, Carbonite has released a new version I haven’t tried yet, and Mozy has also been updated since then. I don’t think you’d go wrong with either. You can read my review at ptech.allthingsd.com/20061214.

Mozy offers two gigabytes of backups free, and charges $4.95 a month for unlimited backup, though you can save by paying one year or two years in advance. Carbonite offers a 15-day free trial, after which you pay $50 a year for unlimited backup, though you can save if you pay upfront for two years.

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

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

Here are a few questions about computers I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability. This week my mailbox contained questions about Windows Vista complaints, using antivirus software when running Windows on a Mac, and transferring large files.

In various past columns, you have complained that Windows Vista boots slowly and that it is incompatible with some software and hardware. Is this situation improving?

Microsoft claims that neither complaint affects most users, and that the minority of cases where they do is being whittled down steadily. I expect that the incompatibility issues, at least, will diminish over time. But I am still receiving reader complaints about incompatibility, so I have to assume that this issue remains real, at least for some people. The slow start-up issue will be harder to cure, as it involves factors like add-on trial software, called craplets, that are beyond Microsoft’s control. Officials at a number of Windows PC makers tell me they are beginning to get the message that people hate craplets. But I am still observing slow boot times in new Vista PCs I test and still see plenty of craplets.

If I run Windows on a Mac, do I need two copies of antivirus software, one to run in the Windows environment, and one to run in the Mac operating system?

You need only one copy, to run in the Windows environment. Macs have essentially no virus problem, and thus don’t need antivirus software. However, some Mac users install it to be extra safe, or to kill viruses that they fear might be passed on via email or over networks to people using Windows.

In last week’s Mailbox, you advised someone that he could copy a 25-gigabyte file from a Mac to a Windows PC using an external hard disk formatted for the Windows FAT file system. But I believe that won’t work. Do you have another solution?

You are correct that I erred. I forgot that the FAT file system, the only Windows format to which Macs can save files, is limited to file sizes of up to 4 gigabytes. This is almost never a problem, except in the case of extraordinarily large files. I did offer several alternate solutions last week, including using a network or cable transfer. But here’s another: You can use a Mac-formatted external hard disk, or a Mac-formatted iPod acting as a hard disk, to transfer the file, provided you have installed on the Windows PC special software that allows Windows to read Mac-formatted disks. This software is called MacDrive, costs $50, and can be purchased at mediafour.com.

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.

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

Here are a few questions I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability. This week my mailbox contained questions about moving a 25 gigabyte file from a Mac to a PC, switching the iPhone to horizontal mode, and enlarging font size.

How can I move a 25 gigabyte file from a Mac to a PC?

If the two computers are on the same network, you could simply transfer the file over the network. Or, you could establish an ad hoc network using what’s called a “crossover” network cable, though that might require some technical expertise. You might also try uploading the file from the Mac to one of the online backup-and-storage services and then downloading it to the PC. For instance, a service called MediaMax, at mediamax.com, offers 25 gigabytes of storage free, and claims to work with both Macs and PCs.

For the best combination of simplicity and speed, I suggest you purchase an external USB hard drive, formatted for Windows. The Mac should be able to instantly recognize it, since Macs can read Windows disks and can write to them as well, as long as they use a standard Windows format called FAT. You would just plug the drive into the Mac, copy the file to it, then remove it from the Mac, plug it into the PC and copy the file from the external drive to the PC’s internal hard disk. Update: Due to technical limitations, you can’t copy a file larger than four gigabytes in size to a disk drive formatted using the FAT file system.

A 30-gigabyte or larger Apple iPod can also be used as an external hard disk and thus would do the trick — provided it is formatted for Windows, is set to work in disk mode, and has enough room to hold the file.

Is it possible to switch the iPhone into horizontal mode when typing emails, which would allow for wider spacing on the onscreen keyboard when typing, thus helping to eliminate typing errors?

No. While the iPhone’s Web browser, built-in iPod and photo program can operate in landscape, or horizontal, mode, its email program works only in vertical, or portrait, mode. However, in my daily experience with the iPhone, I have actually found the horizontal version of the keyboard (which appears in the browser) clumsier to use than the narrower vertical version.

My grandmother, age 85, recently stopped our weekly emails and when I asked why, she said the 14″ screen has become difficult to use. I considered a 20″ LCD, but the bigger screens seem to shrink the font, and the Magnifier option under Accessibility isn’t agreeable to her. What other options are there?

I assume from your question that she is running Windows XP. If so, you can enlarge the fonts she uses in several ways, to offset the shrinkage you noted on the higher-resolution monitor. First, in Windows itself, go to the Display control panel, click on the Appearance tab, and in the Font Size menu, select “Extra Large Fonts.”

Most email programs and Web browsers also offer options to enlarge the size of text. For instance, in Outlook Express, go to Tools, then Options, then click on the Read tab and the Fonts button. Change the Font Size setting to “largest.” In the Compose tab, click the “Font Settings” button and select a large font size. While reading an email, she can increase the font size by clicking on the View menu, selecting “Text Size,” and then selecting “Largest.” There is a similar “Text Size” setting in Internet Explorer, under either the View or Page menu, depending on which version she is using.

Finally, if she is reading her email inside Internet Explorer, you might try a very good $25 utility called WebEyes, which enlarges the type on any Web page. I tested it in 2004 and liked it (Read the review). You can get it at www.ionwebeyes.com.

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.

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

Corrections & Amplifications:

Due to technical limitations, an individual can’t copy a file larger than four gigabytes in size to a disk drive formatted using the Windows file system called FAT. A previous version of this column incorrectly advised that a 25-gigabyte file could be copied to such a disk drive.