My mom keeps checking out what sites I visit and I want to clean up my tracks. It’s not that I’m going anywhere I shouldn’t - of course - but I just really want some privacy and just want to be able to wipe my MSIE8 (Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0) browsing history. How do I do that?

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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?

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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??

Dave’s Answer:

There’s good news and bad news. What do you want to hear first?

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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?

Dave’s Answer:

Glad that other article was helpful. I think it’s pretty darn important to be aware of these privacy and security issues on your computer, whether you’re running Windows or Mac OS X. It’s just too likely that between kids, colleagues, pranksters and actual delinquents that someone can spin your laptop around and do something you don’t want while you’re in the bathroom, ordering a new drink at a cafe, or even at the store, computer sitting on the table at home.

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I know how to open a command prompt in Microsoft Windows, but the normal methods for cutting and copying and pasting — like Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V — don’t seem to work inside a command prompt window. How can I do copying and pasting with a command prompt?

Dave’s Answer:

It’s possible to copy and paste within a Microsoft Windows command prompt, and to copy and paste text to/from other programs, but the commands and keyboard keys to do so are different from most other Windows programs.

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Microsoft launced Windows Live Events, a new service underneath Windows Live Spaces that lets you schedule events, invite your contacts and handle who’s coming.

When you click to create an event, you have to choose the type of event, which in turn give you a Live Spaces-like page template, completely ready with everything you’d normally want for an even of that type.

In other words, you get a fully detailed page, customized to your type of event, with a single click.
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Microsoft has launched a new service/feature for Windows Live Search, a Windows Live Translator Beta that lets you translate to and from English.

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Microsoft has launched a new beta home page for Windows Live, available now at home.live.com.

Presumably designed to eventually become the default page you get when visiting at live.com, the page tries to both be clean and simple while showing off what Windows Live has to offer, and it succeeds.

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Jordan McCollum, Harrison Hoffman and Mary Jo Foley are talking about Microsoft’s earnings report, especially the new numbers for the Online Services Business (OSB).

The OSB grew significantly in size, but had a larger operating loss than a year earlier. For fiscal 2007 (July 2006-June 2007), revenues were $2,474 million, up $175 million from fiscal 2006. The operating loss, however, rose from $74 million in fiscal 2006 to a much higher $732 million in fiscal 2007, thanks to $3,206 million in expenses. (more…)