Answer Line

Does the Windows logon password protect your data?

Your Windows logon password--the one you type every time you boot--does not protect your files in any meaningful way. (There's an exception, which I'll discuss below.)

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Is Your ISP Spying On You?

Not quite, but it's frightening close. Your Internet service provider tracks what IP addresses you contact, which effectively means they know the web sites you're visiting. They can also read anything you send over the Internet that isn't encrypted. Whether they actually do that is an open question.

According to Dan Auerbach, a Staff Technologist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, what they mostly collect is metadata--things like IP addresses and port numbers. With a little bit of work, this information can tell them who you're communicating with and help them make an educated guess about whether you visited a Web page or sent e-mail. As Auerbach told me in a phone conversation, they're tracking "who you're sending mail to but not the content."

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When Your PC is Likely Infected

Malware, once it has infected your PC, has a way of protecting itself. It may not want you to install a new antivirus program--or update your current one. So you need to scan your hard drive in a way that gets around the malware. The simplest way to do that is to do the scan outside of Windows.

Luckily, there are several bootable malware scanners. You put one of these on a CD or a flash drive, boot from that, and scan your hard drive. If they find something, they'll remove it.

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Is There Enough 3D Content to Justify Buying a 3D HDTV?

After buying a 3D HDTV, Chulbul complained to the HDTV & Home Theater forum about the lack of 3D content.

It's difficult to say exactly how much 3D adds to the cost of a new HDTV. The number of variables would be too great. But I would guess that it would be in the neighborhood of $300 to $400.

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Organize Your Photos

Two programs dominate the field--Microsoft's Photo Gallery (formerly known as Windows Live Photo Gallery, and before that, as Windows Photo Gallery) and Google's Picasa. Both are excellent, and free.

They also share many features. For instance, both can use the tags (sometimes referred to as generic or descriptive tags) built into the .jpg file format. If you use the

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My Internet Connection Randomly Drops Off

I can't diagnose this problem from a distance, but I can suggest a few tests that will help you help yourself.

First, check some other Web sites. There's no reason to worry about access to the entire Internet if only one site is down.

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I Can't Open Files of a Particular Type

Windows uses a file's extension (.xls, .docx, .mp3, and so on) to know what program should open it. But if the extension isn't associated with a particular application, Windows has no idea what to do with it.

Here's how to make that association in Windows 7, XP, and Vista:

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