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.

I currently spend about $50 to $60 per year for Norton Security software. Is this necessary when Windows XP has its own security built into the operating system?

Windows XP doesn’t include antivirus or antispyware programs, so you definitely need some sort of add-on security software. If you don’t want to pay for it, there are free alternatives available.

How do we determine when to purchase a new PC? Our current Dell is about five years old. I’m feeling a little worried because I have my music and photos on the computer and don’t want to lose them.

There’s no universal answer to your question. In general, I don’t believe people should replace computers that are working well for them just because they reach a certain age. On the other hand, five years is pretty old for a PC. At that age, the odds increase that the hard disk may develop problems, and that newer versions of the software you like will require hardware upgrades that may cost more than you want to invest in an older machine.

Assuming your Dell is working fine, that you aren’t a power user, and that your music and photo activities are simple and basic, there’s probably no urgent need to replace the PC. But, to assuage your concern about “losing” your pictures and music, you might back up those precious files to an external hard disk or an online backup service.

Last week, you compared the start-up time of Windows Vista to Apple’s new Leopard operating system, and found Vista to be much slower. But you used different laptops for each. What would the numbers be on the same Macintosh running the two operating systems?

I ran the tests again on a single computer, a fairly new Apple iMac, which can be started up, and restarted, in either Vista or Leopard. I used the Mac’s Boot Camp feature, in which only one operating system is running at a time, has its own dedicated portion of the hard disk and fully controls the hardware. The machine uses an Intel processor and other key components commonly found on Windows machines, and runs Windows just like a Dell or any standard Windows PC, without any involvement from the Mac operating system.

This Vista installation doesn’t include any of the speed-robbing trial software commonly included by PC makers, though it does have security software from Symantec. However, the test results were very similar — Leopard started and restarted much more quickly than Vista did.

In this simple test, I timed both operating systems from a cold start and a restart until the computer was fully ready for operation, with the hard disk quiet and the network connection established. The cold start, beginning with the computer completely off, took Leopard 46 seconds, but took Vista one minute and 42 seconds. A restart, beginning with the computer running an email program, the Firefox Web browser, and Microsoft Word, took one minute and two seconds for Leopard, and three minutes and 17 seconds for Vista.

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

Q. Is there any way to watch high-definition TV on a Mac in real time — not downloaded from a service?

A. As on Windows computers, there are add-on TV tuners for Macs that can both receive and record TV programs in real time. Some of them can handle high-definition programming. The best-known company that sells such tuners for the Mac is called Elgato, at elgato.com.

Q. I’m interested in your perception of the Treo’s future. I currently use (and generally like) a Treo 650. I’d like to upgrade, but I’ve read recently that Palm’s future is uncertain. I wonder if you think the Treo is on a slippery slope down, while the Apple iPhone will likely improve.

A. I do believe that Palm has allowed its software to stagnate and hasn’t moved fast enough to make its hardware thinner and cheaper. However, there are also some positive signs at Palm. Its new Centro phone is pretty good, smaller and less costly than a Treo. And the company is receiving an influx of funds and talent from a group of outside investors with experience at Apple, among other places.

Palm’s fate and future may depend on the success of a project it has undertaken to create an entirely new operating system. But the outcome of that effort won’t be known for quite some time.

The iPhone, which is already very good, will likely get better, as it is just at the beginning of its life. It has raised the bar for other smart-phone makers, such as Palm, especially when it comes to software. But I expect other companies to match at least some of the iPhone’s features and style, which means Apple will have to hustle to keep its lead. In the past five years, Apple has done very well at staying ahead of competitors in the design of its computers and portable music players. But the cellphone business is full of companies with more imagination than the typical PC maker and more resources than many makers of portable music players, so the challenge for Apple will be greater.

Q. My mom is legally blind and has difficulty working with email and downloading files. I try to help her by phone, but it never works, and we live far apart, so I can’t just go over to help her. I would like to install an application on her PC where I can take over remotely from home. Do you have any suggestions for this type of application?

A. There are a number of possibilities. One very simple option is a program called CrossLoop, at crossloop.com. Some versions of Windows, such as Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista Ultimate, also have remote desktop control built in.

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

Can you recommend a device that would allow me to surf the Web on a bedroom television connected via Ethernet and to control the device via a wireless keyboard or remote control?

Perhaps the most direct approach would be to buy the MSN TV 2 device from Microsoft that is specifically meant for browsing the Web on a TV from a distance and can be used with Ethernet. It costs $200, plus a monthly fee, comes with a wireless keyboard and remote, and can be ordered at msntv.com.

A second option would be to buy a small computer with a wireless keyboard and hook it up to the bedroom TV instead of to a computer monitor. For instance, I have surfed the Web this way using a tiny $599 Mac Mini computer from Apple, which comes with a wireless remote and accepts almost any wireless keyboard, though it doesn’t come with one. There are numerous Windows computers that could do the same, and many cost less, though most are larger.

Another method would be to use a game console capable of surfing the Web, even if you have no intention of playing games. These are made to work with TV sets, and some can use a wireless keyboard and/or wireless controller to do the job. For instance, the $250 Nintendo Wii game machine has an optional Web-browsing function.

Apple has released a Windows beta version of Safari. Is it any safer to use than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer?

It’s too early to tell, as the Windows version of Safari is still in beta and is very new, to users and hackers alike.

Certainly, operating in Windows will make Safari much more vulnerable to attack than it is on the Macintosh operating system, if only because the writers of malicious software aim their firepower overwhelmingly at Windows. While Internet Explorer is hardly impregnable, it has become safer over the years, and Microsoft certainly has much more experience battling Windows security issues than Apple does. Apple has already issued some security updates for this new version of Safari and will undoubtedly have to keep issuing more to keep ahead of the bad guys.

I am thinking of buying a ThinkPad laptop from Lenovo with AT&T BroadbandConnect. Do I still need to buy some sort of card from AT&T and insert it into the laptop, and must I pay a subscription fee to them?

No, and yes. The laptop likely has the modem for AT&T built in, so you can connect to the Internet via AT&T’s cellular network without buying an external card. However, the service isn’t free. You can’t use it without a subscription, which typically runs $60 a month.

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