Question: If I buy a new PC with Windows Vista, can I move my iTunes music over to it and still have it work reliably?

Answer: Conflicts between Apple ’s iTunes software and iPods and Windows Vista cropped up this year right after Vista, Microsoft ’s latest operating system, went on sale. Vista users discovered that iTunes songs they had bought did not play on the PC, that iPods would not synchronize with it and, in some cases, that iPod content became corrupted.

Things have improved for Vista users over the last few months. Both Apple and Microsoft have released software updates to fix the majority of reported issues. When setting up your new Vista PC, be sure to download and install all available updates from Microsoft. The company has specific information on the software patch for the corrupted iPod problem at support.microsoft.com/kb/936824 .

You should also download and install the latest version of iTunes before it connects to the Vista PC. Apple has an illustrated guide to getting iTunes on a Vista machine and a link to the latest version of the software at tinyurl.com/2ezwu2 .

Source: The New York Times