By JAMES DERK, Scripps Howard News Service

I get a lot of letters about backing up computers and hard drives and the best tools to make this process happen.

Some letters have clogged the box in recent weeks as we have avoided reader mail. So let's get right to the festivities.
Q. You mentioned that Windows 7 would be released in the fall. The version that is out now, can it be installed right over Windows XP without harming the files on the computer?

OK, I am getting excited.
Not just because I got my Defense points back in Mafia Wars (thanks Zynga!) but because Microsoft has unleashed a "release candidate" for Windows 7. What pundits like me think this means is a 2009 release for this new version of Windows, which is designed to push Windows Vista to the curb and get us all to buy new computers.

I promised myself I wasn't going to write this column, but Alan in Colorado made me.

Microsoft Corp. is fighting for its life on the desktop and it is not where you think.
Windows remains important and the release, maybe even this fall, of Windows 7 is critically important. But what is more important is the continuation of Office, the hugely popular collection of office tools like word-processing, spreadsheet and presentation software.

Letters have clogged the mailbox this week as people are preparing for summer and doing some spring-cleaning. Let's get right to it.

-- Q. I can't believe you recommended Internet Explorer 8. I installed it a couple weeks before your article ran and had all kinds of problems with it and had to uninstall it to get my computer back. What a piece of junk it is.

One of the innovations in recent years in the world of online gaming has been the MMOG or "massively multiplayer online game." These games, like the ever-popular EverQuest and World of Warcraft, have taken on lives of their own for many people, some of whom spend all of their waking hours online playing with and adding to their online characters.

In case you had not noticed, Microsoft unleashed Internet Explorer 8 onto the cyber world this month, which brought with it some good news and bad.

If there is one area in my PC business that is growing, it's the task of removing fake virus warnings.
These gems pop up in the corner of your computer screen and attempt to scare the heck out of you by telling you how infected your computer is by all kinds of terrible viruses, Trojans, bugs and other nasties.

One of the single, cheapest upgrades a computer user can make today is a memory upgrade.