4) Resist The Lure Of The Beta
Betas are unfinished prototypes of new products, usually with known bugs or deficiencies. Yes, betas are fun. They can be interesting. They can be free. But when you install a beta, you're actually deliberately choosing to add bugs and other problems to your system--and why would you want to do that? Talk about asking for trouble!

There are three exceptions to this rule. First, if you've followed the earlier resolutions about backups and system maintenance, your system is probably current, stable, and able to be "rolled back" to an earlier, known-good state. In this case, using a beta carries minimal risk.

Second, if the beta application, driver, or whatnot is so essential or so cool that you absolutely have to see it, then the hassles of bugs and incompatibilities might be worth the benefit of the early look at the new product. In this case, you can consciously choose to install the beta, knowing and accepting the risks, especially if you carried out the earlier systems-maintenance resolutions so you can get yourself out of trouble.

Third, there are safe betas (though they're rare). For example, beta Web sites that install no software and change nothing on your system are quite safe--any bugs in the Web site itself can't introduce trouble to your system, so there's no risk.

5) Never, Ever Install A Final Version Over Any Beta
OK, despite the warnings above, you'll probably install one or more betas anyway. So, then what?

Well, if you do use a beta version of something, always, without fail, fully uninstall the beta before installing the final version of the software, even if the vendor says you don't have to. Ideally, roll back your system to a pre-beta state to ensure that your system has no trace of any EXE, DLL, registry setting, or INF file left over from the known-buggy, known-incomplete beta. Fully removing all traces of any beta app is the only way to ensure you've also removed all the beta's bugs and other problems.

This isn't a theoretical issue. Many tens of thousands of people ran into this "gotcha" last year when they installed the final version of Internet Explorer 6 over earlier beta versions. Because some files were not always correctly updated, huge numbers of users suddenly started seeing incomplete or truncated Web pages and HTML E-mail messages. Once the beta files were fully rooted out and replaced with the correct, final versions, the problem went away.

6) Many Minds Make Light Work
In fairness to vendors, it's almost impossible for anyone to anticipate all the ways that things can go wrong with hardware or software. Just think of the nearly infinite number of possible combinations of hardware and software, and all the permutations of user settings and personal usage.

As a result, no vendor's FAQ, help file, or tech support can address every potential problem, and they may not address a very specific problem you're having.

The answer to many highly specific, more-obscure problems is in online discussion forums. For example, the Listening Post forum associated with this column contains a treasure trove of information from your fellow readers, and often can be used as a place to post questions and get expert answers in reply. For example, see the reader posts associated with The Best PC Help, Reference and Test Sites or Ten Ways To Make Windows XP Run Better.

Then there are the 40,000-plus public UseNet "newsgroups" that cover every topic imaginable--including some that you probably haven't imagined. You probably can find a discussion involving a particular problem or a particular brand of hardware or software. Use your news reader (Outlook, Free Agent, etc.) and the newsgroups access URL provided by your Internet service provider or use your Web browser to access the world's largest Usenet/Newsgroup database; there are currently over 700 million pages of data available for searching.