Q. Is it true there is no e-mail program included with Windows 7?
A. Windows 7, due out on Oct. 22, is expected to be more streamlined than previous versions of Microsoft’s flagship system, which included a bunch of bundled programs. In the Windows 7 test versions released this year, the built-in Windows Mail program was gone, along with the Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Movie Maker applications.
But while these programs are not automatically included with Windows 7, you can get them free by taking a quick trip out to the Web and downloading them from the Windows Live Essentials site at download.live.com. Here, you can get Windows Mail and Messenger (for exchanging instant messages), as well as Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Movie Maker and a program called Writer for composing blog posts.
If you use a Web-based mail service like Yahoo or AOL, you may not even need to have a separate e-mail program installed.
But if you want or need a stand-alone program for mail, free software like Mozilla Thunderbird (www.mozillamessaging.com) is another option. (Some people have reported problems with Thunderbird on early test versions of Windows 7; the Addictive Tips site has a guide with workaround suggestions at bit.ly/BsJF2.)
Q. What’s the easiest way to get full-resolution photos from iPhoto ’09 copied to a CD for printing at the neighborhood store?
A. Although iPhoto ’09 has a Burn command under the Share menu, this particular option makes discs viewable only in the iPhoto program itself. To get your pictures to the store for processing through a self-serve kiosk or other service, you need to export them out of iPhoto and burn them to a disc with another program.
Once you select the photos or album in the iPhoto window, go to the File menu and choose Export. In the box that pops up,…