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 Microsoft Vista, family-tree Web sites and utilities that allow the use of Mac iPods on PCs.

You recommend waiting to buy a new PC until the new Windows Vista arrives in January. But isn’t it a bad idea to use the first version of a major new program, especially from Microsoft? Should we be concerned that Vista will be “not quite ready for prime time” even when it is released early next year?

It’s true that Microsoft has a bad record with “Version 1.0″ software, and that, too often, it takes a couple of revisions for the company to get things right. Vista might follow the same pattern. But Vista has been worked on for five years, and has undergone extensive beta testing. I suspect that, if there are problems, they will mainly be with third-party companies that may not have their software and hardware updated and ready to work with Vista. This is especially true for software called “drivers,” which is needed to make various peripheral hardware, like printers, work with a new operating system.

My guess is most with common software and hardware will find that Vista will work fine. But if you are concerned about it, and you must buy a PC soon, you could always buy a Windows XP model and upgrade to Vista later. The downside of this is that upgrading can be tricky and may result in a botched installation, compared with simply buying a PC on which Vista has been installed at the factory. That’s why I suggested waiting for Vista. I will have a full review of the final version of Vista when it’s available, and will let you know then if I think it’s ready.

Do any of the family-tree Web sites or software packages allow different family members to update a common family tree? It seems they are all designed for one individual’s control and maintenance. A joint effort would enable families to eliminate or minimize redundant efforts.

The Web site ancestry.com has a feature that allows you to collaborate with others whose family trees overlap with your own — through common relatives. You can share trees, and even merge them.

I recently purchased a Windows PC to replace my iMac. I’ve learned to my horror that I can’t simply plug my Mac-formatted iPod into the PC’s iTunes software. I understand that there are some utilities out there, like XPlay 2, that will allow me to use the Mac iPod on a PC. Are there any drawbacks with these utilities? Is there an alternative?

All iPods come from the factory with their internal disk drives or memory formatted for Windows, because most iPod buyers use Windows. If a new iPod is first plugged into a Mac, however, it gets automatically formatted as a Mac drive, to make it work more efficiently. But Windows computers can’t read Mac-formatted disks — including the disks inside iPods that have been formatted for the Mac.

MediaFour’s XPlay 2 (www.mediafour.com) software for Windows solves this, and it has worked fine in my tests as a way to read a Mac-formatted iPod on a Windows PC. But it doesn’t support video, and it’s more cumbersome than iTunes. Also, you would need to use the Windows version of iTunes to buy songs from the iTunes Store. A better solution might be to just reformat your iPod for Windows, and then you can use it normally through the Windows version of iTunes, without needing XPlay or any other special software. Note that reformatting will wipe out the contents of your iPod, so it’s essential that all your music and videos be first moved to your new Windows machine and imported into iTunes there. Then, you can simply use iTunes to re-load all your stuff onto the iPod after it’s been reformatted.

To reformat your iPod, make sure the Windows version of iTunes 7.0 is installed, and then plug the iPod into the Windows PC. You should get an alert saying that “iTunes has detected a Macintosh-formatted iPod” and advising you that you must “restore this iPod before you can use it on Windows.” Click OK, and then click the “Restore” button in iTunes, which appears in the screen that is shown when you select the iPod from the list at the left.

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Because of the volume of email I receive, I can’t routinely answer individual questions by email, 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

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 waiting for the new Mac OS, using an iPod with an old version of Windows and getting broadband in rural areas.

I am planning to replace my aging Dell desktop with one of Apple’s iMac machines. Now that Apple has announced that the new OS X Leopard will be released next spring, is it advisable to wait for Leopard’s release to buy a new iMac? Or will the current iMac be able to run Leopard when it is released?

If history is any guide, an iMac you purchase now, or in the next few months, should easily be able to handle Leopard, which is the sixth version of Apple’s Mac OS X to be released since 2001. Since Apple upgrades its operating system far more often than Microsoft does, the upgrades tend to require less of a jump in hardware capability. (Microsoft’s forthcoming new version of Windows called Vista, due in January 2007, is the first major overhaul of Windows since 2001.)

However, Apple hasn’t promised that every new feature of Leopard will run on any iMac sold now, and the company has coldly cut off users of older models in the past. So, if you can wait, do so. It’s always better to buy new machines with a new OS preinstalled, even though Apple’s OS upgrade process has generally been much quicker and more reliable than Microsoft’s. Another benefit: Apple typically charges existing users $129 for an upgraded OS, even if their machines are only, say, six months old. But new Macs next spring will include Leopard free of charge.

Even if you can’t wait until spring (you said your Dell was “aging”), consider waiting a few months to see if Apple brings out a new iMac with Intel’s latest processor, the Core 2 Duo, which is faster and more efficient than the Core Duo in current iMacs. I have no information that this will happen, but you should know by November or so.

I’ve got a new iPod I want to use with my Dell Dimension 4100 running Windows Me, but the iTunes software will apparently run only on XP or 2000. What’s my best bet for software to load files onto my iPod?

Try a product called XPlay 2, by Mediafour. It is specifically designed to work with older versions of Windows, including Windows Me. It costs $30 and can be downloaded at mediafour.com/products/xplay/. There is a free trial, but it is limited.

We live on a dirt road in rural Virginia with no cable and can’t get DSL. How can we get broadband? We would prefer not to do a satellite connection because you still need a phone modem to send material. Is there some kind of fast wireless connection we could get from our PC to our ISP? I see laptops with wireless antennas sticking out of them around here and they must transmit to somewhere.

Satellite Internet access has improved, and no longer requires a dial-up modem for the return path — in fact no use of the phone line is needed at all. Of course, as with any satellite service, your house must have a clear line of sight to the area of the sky where the particular satellite you use is situated. For more information, see www.hughesnet.com.

Another option, if you have good cellphone coverage, is a broadband cell-phone modem. It uses the cellphone network to connect you to the Internet at speeds roughly comparable with a slow home DSL line — which is still much, much faster than your current dial-up connection. This is probably what all those laptops with antennas are using.

These cellphone modems, using a technology called EVDO, are offered by Verizon and Sprint, and Cingular is slowly building a similar wireless broadband capability. For more information, see the Web sites of the phone carriers.

In some parts of the country, but not Virginia, a company called Clearwire is offering wireless broadband to rural homes.

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Because of the volume of email I receive, I can’t routinely answer individual questions by email, 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