Before we start, here are a few terms you may need to know:

Mb/Gb: measures of storage; in this order, a megabyte (1,000 kilobytes) and a gigabyte (1,000 megabytes).
RAM: Random Access Memory. The temporary storage location for a computer.
Hard disk: the drive that stores your files.
Processor: the "heart" of the computer. Data that is pumped into it is routed to wherever in the computer it is needed. (Please note that I will not be recommending any AMD processors in my article, below; this is because, in my experience, they are unreliable.)
Ghz: measure of processor frequency; higher means faster (well, there is some debate on that, but it is generally accepted that a higher number is faster).

Also note that I may recommend values with a "~" in between them. For anything with that value, the lower end is better suited for your need and less costly; the higher value will work better and last longer, but will be more expensive.

Can you give me a basic rundown?

There are way too many factors for getting a new PC to just give a basic rundown. However, I can at least tell you this much about PC's: if you don't know much about PC's, go with a manufacturer's PC's. I recommend Gateway highest out of all of them; I have good experiences with their tech support and with the performances of their PC's. Hewlett-Packard (HP) is also a very reliable PC manufacturer. The worst choice would be Dell. Their computers are built sloppily and their tech support is more likely to not assist you in a moment of need.

However, if you're technically proficient, you should try to build your own PC. I'm going to cover that in a later article posted here. But the advantage to that is that your PC's performance is going to be much better due to the missing manufacturer crapware that negatively affects the performance.

Or, there's a third option, for those who want to do a little more work: contact a local PC builder. I'm one in my area; PC builders get parts from wholesalers, meaning that the parts are cheap. They don't install crapware on your PC. And most importantly, they won't overcharge you for a good PC.

What specifications do I need for a sturdy at-home PC?

I would recommend something that's not high in specifications, if you're not going to be using it for very intensive applications (running Internet Explorer or checking your e-mail, and maybe typing up word documents, for example; the occasional online game works as well in this package). Here's a sample build:

Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
Processor: Intel Pentium Dual Core, 2.0~2.4ghz.
RAM: DDR2, 1~2gb.
Hard Disk: 80~100gb, any speed.
Graphics Card: go with an onboard card, don't buy a separate adapter.
Sound Card: go with an onboard card, don't buy a separate adapter.
CD/DVD Drive: just get a CD writer/DVD reader. You'll be able to make your own CD's and watch DVD movies on your PC.

How about a PC for business use?

I'd recommend to follow almost the exact specifications as above, but go with Windows Vista Business instead of Home Premium, and maybe to get a hard disk that is slightly larger (120~150gb) so that you can hold more files.

I need a PC that can handle home media. It's not quite a gaming PC.

This would be a good thing for those who use digital media quite a bit. To complete the package, I'd recommend (if you don't already have one) a TV that has a DVI (white; its shape is like a rounded parallelogram) or S-Video (black, round, small) on the back of it so that you can watch movies on your TV that are on your computer.

Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium.
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo, 1.8~2.4ghz, or for better performance, Intel Core 2 Quad at 2.33ghz.
RAM: 2~4gb, PC6400 (if you don't know what that is, then don't worry).
Hard Disk: 120~200gb (more towards the 200 if you want to store movies on your PC), at a speed of 7200RPM.
Graphics Card: any card that has a DVI port or S-Video port in back so that you can use your PC and TV in conjunction.
Sound Card: you don't necessarily need a separate sound card, but for best sound quality, get a Turtle Beach Riviera (uses the PCI standard port), which can handle surround sound.
CD/DVD Drive: go with a CD writer/DVD reader for writing CD's and reading DVD's on your computer, or get a CD/DVD burner if you want to be able to make your own DVD's.

I need a low-level gaming PC...it doesn't have to handle multiple games at once.

You might need to learn your terms better. Gaming PC's require some special specifications for the equipment used. I can try to define them better, but in reality, you may want to use Wikipedia or a Google search to figure out better what you need.
The term I'll introduce here is latency. Latency is the time between when data is received and when it is written to the memory. Latency configurations usually look like this: X-X-X-XX (where each X is a number). Lower numbers are better when dealing with latency.

Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.66~3.0ghz for standard performance, Intel Core 2 Quad 2.44~2.8ghz for improved performance, or Intel Core 2 Extreme (Dual or Quad) at 2.93ghz.
RAM: 4gb of PC6400 or above at a latency of 5-5-5-18 or better (lower).
Hard Disk: 250~500gb at a speed of 7200 or 10,000 RPM.
Graphics Card: an EVGA GeForce 9500 GT, which supports 512mb of onboard memory (so that your standard RAM isn't touched by the graphics card, for better performance) or better.
Sound Card: anything goes, unless you have a surround sound configuration, in which case I recommend a Turtle Beach Riviera (for good performance, up to 6 channels of sound) or a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE (for best performance; it supports up to 7.1 channels of surround sound, and is actually quite inexpensive). Do not, however, just go with whatever is built into your motherboard.
Multimedia: CD/DVD burner, hands down. Unless you want to watch Blu-Ray movies or play Blu-Ray games on your PC, in which case I'd recommend a Blu-Ray reader (which is very expensive, so watch out).

I'm a gamer that needs it all. I mean, ALL. What are the specs I need?

Despite being a geek, I'm no gamer. Well, maybe on occasionally, but no WoW or any of that. I really wouldn't know. But I can put together a PC with all the best parts. Note that this will be, hands down, EXPENSIVE. So if the regular gaming PC I've specified above cuts it, take that. If not, then read on.

Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate.
Processor: for great performance, a Core 2 Extreme Quad at 3.2ghz or for ultimate performance, a Core i7 or Core i7 Extreme Edition at 2.66~3.2ghz.
RAM: 8gb of DDR3, between PC12800 and PC15000, with latencies close to or lower than 7-7-7-24.
Hard Disk: 1tb (that's a terabyte, or 1,000 gigabytes), at a speed of 10,00RPM.
Graphics Card: actually, you'll want a two-pack of cards for best performance. My recommendation would be the PNY XLR8 GeForce 9800 GTX, which has 1 GB of GDDR3 memory between two cards. It can be found at TigerDirect.
Sound Card: see what I said in the last computer category for sound cards.
Multimedia: CD/DVD burner, Blu-Ray reader.

Final thoughts.

Finding a computer with these exact specs is a hard job. You'll need to call around to a lot of manufacturers and ask each for a custom PC; many of them can't customize to exactly what you need. Especially when we're talking about gaming PC's (unless you call Alienware, but they'll charge you thousands for a PC as good as the last one I describe).

For gamers, you'd more than likely want to build your own computer, both for cheapness and so that you get EXACTLY what you need from a PC. Not to mention that processors in manufactured PC's won't overclock (getting your processor to operate at a higher frequency than the default, which also helps gamers a lot).

In the near future, I'll be writing a guide to building your own PC. It's a lot simpler than you'd expect, actually. But for now, enjoy your new PC. I hope it works the way you want.

Windows while is working generates a lot of temporary files that are stored in a special folder called TEMP and the files stay there for eternity sometimes. A person with no authorized access can see exactly what you've been doing with the computer. Sometimes you will find here some critical copies of important files. Sometimes the thief can even see which sex movies you were watching. That's not nice at all. The only advantage is the recovery of a deleted file just by going to the TEMP folder. This is the biggest security threat Windows has, even Vista has this threat, and since you can't make a huge password for Windows Log On, any person with a special software found on the Internet could easily recover Windows password and enjoy your TEMP folder and all the files inside. The solution is using Deleting the entire folder content. No, it's not dangerous, I do it regularly. If the hard disk was encrypted no one could ever see the content of it even bypassing Windows with crack software because they need either the password or the key of the algorithm.

Another example of how unsafe you are is when the thief has full access to your Internet Explorer history and passwords. If you don't use a master password you are at the mercy of any hacker and thief. The passwords are stored in the hard disk non encrypted and in .TXT extension! This is a critical security threat for beginners who don't really know how a computer works.

Private photos of you and your entire family as well as where you live. Can you imagine this information in the wrong hands? They could blackmail you or sell the information to people who are real professionals doing this.

Documents, credit cards and very sensitive information. Some people store a copy of all their documents in a digital file. In the wrong hand this would mean your ID, your Social number and Driving License and other documents available to the lucky thief.

As you can see leaving the computer and specially the hard disk non encrypted is insanity! PGP whole disk encryption is a good solution for people who want to spend some bucks in security. It's easy to use and you have full support. However is you don't want to spend any cash you can always use True Crypt which supports disk encryption as well. Just don't you ever leave your computer neither the disk non encrypted. I guarantee you that it's very easy to bypass Windows password.

The easiness issue comes up. Which one is easier to learn to use? They are both the same level of easy to learn. Mac comes with a window environment with icons that represent programs and guess what? So do PCs. Macs come with ITunes regardless if you have an iPod, and just as easily you can install it, by cd, on to a PC, with any iPod. Macs have a titles screen at the top of the page where you can select other options. So do PCs. The start button opens all kinds of other programs and functions for the general user. Now in the past I would have agreed, Macs are easier, but it was this reputation that spurred Microsoft to build version after version of windows and to make it easy enough for anybody to use, just like a Mac.

Basically it comes down to this, if you like computers but are a novice. Don't okay anything that says delete, format, or change setting on a computer until you have mastered the other parts of the computer. A computer is like an electronic keyboard. Everyone knows how it works. You press a note key and music comes out but to make music you have to practice, practice, and practice. It's kind of like driving, you saw your mother or father drive but it wasn't until you took driver's Ed that you came to realize how hard it was to drive. They made it look easy because they have been practicing long enough to get the right reactions.

It is the same with a computer. It's okay to press buttons. I have met many people who are afraid of computers because they accidentally deleted a file, formatted the hard drive, change a setting which was detrimental to the computer. Basically a PC or a Mac will have a screen that will pop up and either warn you that you will delete this program forever are you sure you want to do this? Will say deleting will affect your computer, or the option you have picked will change the computer, are you sure you want to do this? Someone else did this, complained about it, and these help messages were added to keep idiots like you and me from doing something really bad to the computer.

Obviously if you get a message like this, you say, "Okay I need to find someone who has more skills to help me with this problem." It could be an older brother, a friend, your mom or even your wife. Whoever it is, that is the person you want to go to and ask should I do this? Other than that each computer is a book. You fan through the files and programs, experimenting with each one to see what each one does. As you experiment you learn what to do the same to get back to that program or what to do differently so as to next time get the best results.

That's why I don't believe there is a difference between a PC and a Mac, except in price, and that may come down as more of Apples computers are made with Intel microchips and maybe one day AMD chips. They both are cheap chips in comparison to the procceding chip maker IBM.

So whenever the commercial for Apple about Mac and PC computers come on I laugh and say poor PC how they pick on you and Poor Mac how bloated an ego you have.