Priced at $129 for a single-user license, Leopard offers some 300 new features–“Even Leopard innovations have innovations,” says Apple–among them, a solution to the “Fix the F-ing Finder” problem, a significant update to Mail, a virtual desktop application called “Spaces” and Apple’s eagerly awaited backup solution, “Time Machine.”

Looks to be an impressive release. Certainly, Wall Street expects it to be. Just last week Piper Jaffray & Co.’s Gene Munster predicted Leopard would add $240 million to Apple’s next quarter, nearly double the $125 million in revenues that Tiger brought in during its opening quarter.

Chris Swenson of the NPD Group, too, figures Leopard will outperform its predecessor. “Tiger was the best launch of Mac OS X ever according to our data,” he told ComputerWorld, “and I expect Leopard to do even better.”

Priced at $129 for a single-user license, Leopard offers some 300 new features–“Even Leopard innovations have innovations,” says Apple–among them, a solution to the “Fix the F-ing Finder” problem, a significant update to Mail, a virtual desktop application called “Spaces” and Apple’s eagerly awaited backup solution, “Time Machine.”

Looks to be an impressive release. Certainly, Wall Street expects it to be. Just last week Piper Jaffray & Co.’s Gene Munster predicted Leopard would add $240 million to Apple’s next quarter, nearly double the $125 million in revenues that Tiger brought in during its opening quarter.

Chris Swenson of the NPD Group, too, figures Leopard will outperform its predecessor. “Tiger was the best launch of Mac OS X ever according to our data,” he told ComputerWorld, “and I expect Leopard to do even better.”

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 deciding when to buy a Mac after the delay of the Leopard operating system, removing old versions of iPod software and alphabetizing your favorites in Explorer.

I had been waiting to buy my first Macintosh until this spring, when Apple’s new Leopard operating system was supposed to be released. Now that Leopard has been delayed until October, I am wondering if a Mac I buy now will be compatible with the new system?

Leopard isn’t an entirely new operating system, but a major new version, or edition, of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system, which made its debut in 2001. It will replace the current version, which is called Tiger. As you noted, it was supposed to become available this spring, but now has been delayed until October. Apple will say only that “We’re designing Leopard to deliver full functionality and performance on the widest number of Macs possible, and upgrading a system to run on Leopard should be simple and smooth.” I believe that it is highly likely that Leopard will run with all its functions and with decent speed on any Mac purchased today, and in fact on any Mac purchased in the past 18 months or so, at the least. Compatibility could go back much further than that, though some old Mac models will certainly be incompatible, or will slow down unacceptably. Upgrading to new Apple operating system versions has generally been a very good experience in recent years, much better than similar Windows upgrades. If you intend to upgrade to Leopard, then the biggest downside to buying a Mac now may be financial, not technical. If Apple’s past practice prevails, Leopard is likely to cost $129 for any Mac purchased today. If you wait until you can buy a Mac with Leopard preloaded, you will save that extra cost. Also, memory could be another cost issue. Some Macs sold today have only 512 megabytes of memory. Even today, with the current Tiger version of the operating system, I recommend doubling that to 1 gigabyte. I suspect that advice will hold for Leopard, but nobody knows for sure. So, if you buy a Mac now there is a risk you’ll have to shell out later for more memory.

I’m trying to free up some space on my hard drive by removing programs that I don’t need. Going through the “Add/Remove Programs” list on Windows XP I’ve run across three separate iPod updates that date from well over a year ago. Is it safe to remove these earlier versions? Is it typical that the newest version incorporates the features of the older ones?

Yes, the latest version of iPod software contains all the features and bug fixes from the older updates, so it is safe to remove the older ones.

In Internet Explorer, is there a method to alphabetize my Favorites list?

I get this question at least twice a month, and have answered it many times over the years, but am happy to answer it again. Obviously, Microsoft hasn’t made the process of alphabetizing Favorites obvious enough. Here’s what to do. Display your list of Favorites, then select one, and right click on it. Somewhere in the menu that appears you should see a choice called “Sort by Name.” Click on that choice, and your Favorites should be rearranged in alphabetical order. This works in both IE 6 and IE 7.

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Because of the volume of e-mail I receive, I can’t routinely answer individual questions by e-mail, 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

This year, however, Microsoft will up the ante with a new version of Windows called Vista. Due in the fall, in time for holiday computer shopping, Vista is an effort to make Windows truly secure from the ground up, while also making it easier to use and pretty enough to rival Apple’s current version of OS X, Tiger. (Apple is planning yet another new edition, called Leopard, due around the same time.)

Vista will be the most dramatic upgrade to Windows in more than a decade. But there will be a price for Vista’s improvements — most current PCs won’t be able to take advantage of all its features. To get full use out of the new system, you will very likely need to upgrade or replace your current computer. Vista will adapt to older or less powerful machines by disabling some of its features, but that’s likely to be unsatisfying for many users. Also, as of this writing, Microsoft is planning to sell Vista in as many as seven different configurations for different types of users. That will be not only confusing, but if you select the more capable configurations, probably expensive, too. (Microsoft hasn’t released pricing yet.)

So here’s a preliminary look at Vista’s major new features, as well as some guidance on hardware. Microsoft’s mantra for Vista is “Confident, Clear and Connected.” By “Confident,” the company means that it promises to clean up the security mess that has been the main headache for users of Windows. Microsoft says Vista will be much harder to hack into, and much less prone to viruses and spyware, than today’s Windows. For instance, Vista users will be asked for their user name and password anytime software is being installed –designed to prevent the surreptitious software installations that plant spy-ware on a PC. And Vista will have built-in systemwide parental controls, so you can limit what your child can see and do on the computer. Both features are already built into Apple’s Tiger and work well, so if they are executed properly on Vista, they should be a boon.

By “Clear,” Microsoft is referring to new ways of finding and visualizing your files. Vista will have rapid, modern, built-in desktop searching. And it will have something called “virtual folders” that capture all files meeting certain criteria you can set, no matter where you store them. For instance, you could set up a virtual folder to show all files and e-mails mentioning a certain person or topic. Again, both features are already in Apple’s operating system, where they have proved popular. Some editions of Vista will also incorporate the features of today’s Windows Media Center edition, including the ability to play and record TV programs.

The “Connected” promise from Microsoft includes a centralized synchronization feature, like the one already present on the Mac, that can keep data in sync on cell phones and PDAs. Vista will also look dramatically better — and more like Mac software — with 3D icons, transparent windows and tiny previews of file contents.

So what kind of hardware will you need for all this? Well, Vista won’t work well with the processors sold in today’s budget PCs. I suggest you consider a new computer with at least a midrange processor, and preferably a so-called dual-core processor, which packs two brains into its innards, though a single-core model will do. You might even look for a processor capable of handling future software called “64-bit,” though it’s not absolutely necessary.

Memory will also be crucial for Vista. I expect Microsoft to recommend 512 megabytes, but since the company tends to understate memory requirements, I suggest a full gigabyte, far more than what’s on the average PC today. You’ll also need a bigger hard disk, especially if you want to use the new TV-recording capabilities that will be built into some editions of Vista. I suggest at least 160 gigabytes. Luckily, large hard disks are now pretty inexpensive.

Likewise, video capability will be key to utilizing Vista’s new visual effects. Today’s PCs often use integrated graphics chips, which are pretty basic and drain memory. That won’t cut it for Vista, at least until integrated graphics chips are beefed up next fall. If you seek a Vista-capable machine before then, look for one with a separate graphics card with its own dedicated memory, preferably 128 megabytes, though 64 will do.

Vista will boost DVD recording — it will support the new, high-definition DVDs currently in development and make it easier to burn DVDs for both multimedia and file backup. You’ll need a high-end DVD-recording drive to reap the rewards.

I can’t say how good Vista will be until I test and review the final, or near final, product, in late summer. But from the demos I’ve seen, Vista has great promise — if you have the right hardware.

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 alternatives to instant messaging at work, what to look for in an inexpensive PC and using Macs to make trades.

If you have a question, send it to me at mossberg@wsj.com, and I may select it to be answered here in Mossberg’s Mailbox.

My company has banned us from using instant-messaging programs on our work computers, claiming they are a security threat. Is there an alternative way for me to keep using instant messaging, which I consider a useful business tool?

Yes. You just have to use a service that replicates the functions of instant-messaging software inside a Web page. That way you aren’t downloading an instant-messaging program onto the company’s computer, you’re simply using the Web browser already on that computer.

I’ve recently seen a cool new Web service of this type called Meebo, at http://www.meebo.com. It’s only 11 weeks old, and it’s still in testing, but it enables users to sign into four different instant-messaging services — Time Warner’s America Online’s AIM (or ICQ); Microsoft’s MSN Messenger; Yahoo Messenger; and Google’s GTalk (or Jabber). You even can log on to all four simultaneously and see a combined buddy list. Meebo is basic and hasn’t yet added fancy features like file transfers, but it works well on Windows PCs and Macs. And, it’s very slick. You even can move the message and buddy-list windows around within the Web page.

If the Meebo site won’t come up on your company computer, try the secure version, at https://www.meebo.com. If your company blocks this, too, I suspect it just hates the idea of instant messaging at work for reasons that go beyond security.

How can you suggest that people consider buying a Macintosh now when Apple Computer will be coming out with all-new models based on Intel processors starting next year?

With any digital-technology product, the pace of change is so rapid that there is always a newer, supposedly better model on the horizon. But people buy these products when they need them. If you wait and wait, you lose the use of the new computer or other product in the meantime. And the next model may be flawed or otherwise unsuitable.

My recommendation last week of the best desktop computer on the market this holiday season, the Apple iMac G5, was meant for people who plan to buy a computer this holiday or within the next few months. Apple’s changeover will be gradual; there is no indication when the iMac G5 will be replaced by a Mac with an Intel processor. It could be as late as 2007, according to Apple’s public statements. There is no way to know if a future Intel-based model will be better or less expensive.

In addition, current Macs will remain highly useful for years even after the Intel models arrive. Makers of software and peripherals are highly unlikely to restrict their products to Intel-based Macs, which will be few in number compared with the tens of millions of Macs based on the current design. Apple has devised a system for creating software that runs on both designs.

I would like to purchase a PC for my mother but do not have much money to spend. All she uses it for is email really. But I think if she had decent processing speed, she’d surf the Internet more. What PC would you recommend that is the least expensive, works with wireless Internet technology, and has decent processing speed?

The least expensive PCs are bargain-basement Windows desktop models. I haven’t tested these machines lately, but almost any of the sub-$500 desktop models should do the trick for these simple uses. You likely will have to pay extra for wireless Internet connectivity, since most desktop computers — even costly ones — don’t come with that feature, which is meant mainly for laptops. Also, make sure your bargain model has security software, a CD drive, and speakers — some don’t. You may have to add those features at extra cost.

As for “decent processing speed,” your implication that fast processors are needed for Web surfing is just plain wrong. The slowest processor on the computer-store shelf is more than powerful enough to handle Web browsing. If you have any extra money to spend in your tight budget, don’t spend it on a faster processor. Instead, make sure the memory is at least 256 megabytes, or 512 if you can afford it. That will have a bigger effect on Web performance.

In your favorable review of the new Apple iMac G5 computer last week, you said it may be the wrong choice for day traders. Why? Are Mac owners unable to trade stocks?

Although I believe Apple’s Macintosh computers and its Tiger operating system are superior to Windows computers today for mainstream consumers and small businesses, I have long advised that there are some niche groups for whom Windows is still the best choice. This is mainly because the Mac can’t compete with Windows for cutting-edge games and niche software.

The biggest examples of people who should stick with Windows are heavy-duty game players, or users who rely on specialized Windows software provided by their employers. I mentioned day traders in this list, because heavy traders sometimes rely on special software available only for Windows, or on Web sites that work best in Windows.

But I was speaking only about the most intense, full-time, stock traders. You certainly can buy and sell stocks on a Macintosh, using the popular Mac Web browsers, and many people do.

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Because of the volume of e-mail I receive, I can’t routinely answer individual questions by e-mail, or consult on individual problems or purchasing decisions. I read all questions I receive and select three each week to answer in the column.

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 how to make text appear sharper, slowness in Apple’s Tiger operating system, and synchronizing Internet Explorer Favorites.

If you have a question, send it to me at first offered it last year. In Windows XP, you can dramatically improve the sharpness of text by simply turning on a hidden feature called “ClearType.” Just right-click on the desktop and select “Properties.” Then, select the tab called “Appearance” and press the “Effects …” button. In the screen that appears, check the box reading “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts,” and select “ClearType” in the drop-down list. Next, click on “OK” and the press “Apply.”

ClearType works especially well at sharpening text on LCD monitors, but it also can help in some cases on old-fashioned CRT screens. However, it is available only in Windows XP, not in older versions of Windows such as Windows 98, Windows ME or Windows 2000.

Q: When you first reviewed Apple’s Tiger operating system, you found only one notable flaw: slowness in some functions, especially email. Have the subsequent updates to Tiger improved the speed?

Yes, in my experience. Speed will vary from computer to computer, depending on what is running and how the user works. But I am seeing far fewer instances of spinning beach balls (Apple’s icon representing delays) than I did when the operating system first came out. The built-in Apple Mail program also is running much more crisply for me.

There’s still room for improvement in this area, but in my case, Tiger now runs about as fast as its predecessor, Panther. And Tiger has fewer delays and hang-ups than Windows XP does on my Dell, IBM and Hewlett-Packard computers.

Q: I have a desktop PC and a laptop, both of which run Windows XP. What is the easiest way to have the same Internet Explorer Favorites on both computers?

The easiest, best method would be to use the terrific file synchronization software I recommended last week, FolderShare. Install the software on both computers, designate the folder containing your Favorites on each PC for synchronization, and FolderShare will constantly, instantly and invisibly keep them identical. In fact, the software has a built-in, preconfigured option for synchronizing Internet Explorer Favorites.

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Because of the volume of e-mail I receive, I can’t routinely answer individual questions by e-mail, 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

Tomorrow, Apple Computer will introduce a new edition of the operating system for its Macintosh computers that finally solves the missing file problem, and introduces other features as well, including a new “Dashboard” that instantly displays small, frequently used programs like a calculator, dictionary and stock tracker.

The new release, called Tiger, is the latest version of Apple’s excellent Mac OS X operating system. Its key feature, called Spotlight, is the first universal, integrated search system ever offered as part of a mainstream consumer PC operating system. In seconds, Spotlight can peer inside e-mail, office documents of all kinds, photos, songs, address books, calendars, and all manner of other files to see which ones match a search term you type in.

Spotlight is vastly better than prior built-in search functions on either the Mac or on Microsoft’s Windows operating system. It also beats the add-on search programs for Windows. Spotlight can rapidly find almost any file, any time — even years after it was created, and even if it is hidden among tens of thousands of other files. So as users learn to trust it, they no longer will have to worry about where they store files and what they name them.

This is a big deal. Along with a similar built-in search capability Microsoft is working on for its next version of Windows, Spotlight could spark a major change in the way people use computers. Instead of hunting for documents or clicking on programs, people may now start activities by searching for relevant files and then opening them as needed.

Spotlight is only one of the impressive new features in Tiger, which will be free on all new Macs and will cost $129 for existing users. The others include the Dashboard feature; parental controls on what kids can do on the computer; dazzling built-in video conferencing; and a revised Web browser that allows private surfing and quick reading of news headlines.

Tiger’s built-in search system, Spotlight, finds soccer-related files (bottom) no matter where they’re stored on the Mac; the Dashboard feature (top) offers quick access to stock quotes, yellow pages, flight data and other information.

Overall, Tiger is the best and most advanced personal computer operating system on the market, despite a few drawbacks. It leaves Windows XP in the dust.

It also adds to the Mac’s general superiority over typical Windows computers as the best choice for average consumers doing the most common computing tasks. Apple’s hardware already was the best in the business, and Mac OS X has, so far, escaped the virus and spyware problems that plague Windows.

The new Apple system boasts some key capabilities Microsoft won’t introduce for another 18 months or so, when it finally rolls out its long-awaited next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn. Chief among these is the integrated, universal search. A second is “virtual folders,” called Smart Folders by Apple, which can automatically scoop up files that meet criteria you set.

In my tests, on three different Macs during the past couple of weeks, Tiger performed generally well. Installation took about an hour and went smoothly in each case. None of the computers ever crashed, and every program I tested worked fine, despite the change in operating-system versions.

The only significant problem I noticed was that the computers seemed to run into slight, but greater-than-normal, delays from time to time. Certain functions, like Spotlight searches and the updated Safari Web browser, were very fast. But with other tasks, I noticed more spinning beach-ball icons, Apple’s symbol for delays, than I had with the prior Panther version of the Mac operating system.

In particular, the built-in e-mail program, Apple Mail, was slower. There was a perceptible lag in opening a new e-mail form, beginning a reply, and displaying the drop-down contact list that appears when you begin typing in an e-mail address.

Apple acknowledges it will need to tweak Tiger to eliminate the delays, and it promises to address the problem within a few months. It might be wise for users with older, slower Mac models to wait until then to upgrade to Tiger.

The company claims Tiger has 200 new features. Here is a rundown of the most important ones.

Search: The new Spotlight search system can be summoned by just clicking on a small magnifying-glass icon that appears in every menu bar at the upper right. You simply start typing in a word or series of words, and as you type, an organized list of results instantly appears. The list tells you how many hits were found and displays the results in categories by file type, like e-mail messages, contacts, documents and so forth.

If you click on “Show All,” you get a larger window with a handsomely formatted list of results that you can organize by date, file type, person mentioned or other methods. Spotlight even finds words inside Adobe’s PDF files. It also can search on the data stored inside music and photo files, such as the names of artists and camera information. If picture files are found, thumbnails of them are displayed right in the list, and you can view them in a slide show.

Spotlight is far superior to add-on desktop search programs available for Microsoft Windows from Google and others, because it doesn’t have to constantly “index” the hard disk, looking for new files while the disk spins constantly. Since it is built deeply into the operating system, Spotlight learns about each new file as soon as it is created, saved or downloaded.

Prior built-in search functions in the Mac and Windows operating systems were slow and couldn’t search on some kinds of data, like e-mail. So you had to use separate search features in each type of program. Spotlight makes that unnecessary, though separate search functions are still available.

Dashboard: With the press of a single function key, a new translucent screen appears that holds large, stylish icons for useful little programs you might want to get to quickly. These programs, called Widgets, include a dictionary and thesaurus; a calculator; a weather display; a calendar; a language translator; a weights and measures converter; a stock tracker; an electronic yellow pages program; and a flight tracker.

These things are already available on the Web or through separate programs on many PCs. But with Dashboard, they pop up instantly, over whatever screen you are using, without disturbing any work you are doing. You don’t have to launch separate applications or employ a Web browser.

Apple ships 14 Widgets with Tiger, and starting tomorrow, the company will make available downloads of many more written by third parties. Some of these, already posted on other Web sites, include Web cam viewers, simple games, and small panels for searching encyclopedias.

Parental Controls: Tiger is the first operating system I have seen with built-in, system-wide parental controls. You can create a separate user account for a child that restricts his or her computing actions in a wide variety of ways.

Parents can limit what programs a child can launch and ban the child from burning CDs and DVDs, changing system preferences, or even printing.

You can restrict a child’s Web surfing to the sites you specify, and limit his or her exchanges of e-mails and instant messages to the people you specify. If anyone else sends the child an e-mail, it is forwarded to the parent. If the child wants to send an e-mail to a nonapproved person, the parent can be asked for permission electronically. The e-mail controls require both the child and the parent to be using Tiger.

Video Conferencing: If you have a video camera on your Mac, Tiger allows you to hold a video conference via its instant-messaging program with up to three other people simultaneously. Each participant is shown in a large panel of a handsome, three-panel display. I tested this, and it worked perfectly. Other built-in video chat systems, on Windows and earlier Mac operating systems, typically allow video conferencing with one other person.

Smart Folders: Tiger allows you to create special folders, which are, in effect, saved searches. For instance, you could set up a folder to hold all files containing the word “Fenway” that were created after a certain date and are above a certain size.

This kind of special folder isn’t a new idea. Apple has had them in its iPhoto and iTunes programs for awhile, and Microsoft included them in the latest version of its Outlook program. Third-party programs have them as well. But in Tiger, they can now be created right on the desktop, to capture many kinds of files, with no added software needed.

The only drawback is that you can’t directly turn a Spotlight search into a Smart Folder, and desktop Smart Folders can’t include some of the file types Spotlight can retrieve, including e-mails. Apple has added a separate Smart Folder feature to its built-in e-mail program.

Web Browsing: Apple’s built-in Safari Web browser was already better than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, and in Tiger it is now much faster and has some great new features.

One is called Private Browsing, which allows you, with two clicks, to enter a mode where the browser doesn’t save most traces of which Web sites you visited.

Another is a built-in RSS reader. This function, usually found only in separate software programs, displays summaries of the latest headlines for items posted to many news sites and Web logs, or blogs. In Safari, these can be viewed right from within the browser, in pages that are formatted handsomely and can be sorted in various ways. Tiger even includes a screen saver that displays the latest headlines Safari has retrieved.

Security: The Mac already had a key security feature missing in Windows. On a Mac, most software installations require the ID and password of the computer’s owner. That makes it harder for digital criminals to carry out the kind of surreptitious software installations that place spyware on computers.

In Tiger, this has been ratcheted up a notch. When you download anything from the Internet using the Safari browser or Apple Mail program, Tiger examines the download for hidden application programs and warns if one is present. Unless the user approves the download, Tiger won’t save it to disk in a form that allows the application to open.

In addition, Tiger seeks the user’s permission any time any application program is run for the first time.

Automation: A new feature called Automator allows nonprogrammers to string together common tasks to automate them. For instance, you could create an automated sequence that would play certain songs, or retrieve and change certain photos. It’s a nice idea, but I found it too complicated for most average users.

In addition to the delay problem, I found one other small thing lacking in Tiger. The new version of Apple Mail, while sleeker looking, offers less information on what is happening in downloads of new mail, unless you bring up a special window.

Still, Tiger is a beautiful and powerful operating system that advances personal computing. It is a big gain for Mac users right out of the box. If Apple can wring out the delays, it will be a home run.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com.