I think this is the biggest risk for serverfault. Stackoverflow only has to contend with homework and 'give me teh codes pleez' questions. But the world is full of more or less clueless people with PCs who do know how to use Google... This is where the low barrier to entry (no login required) could become a problem, long term. I guess rep may be the saving factor, as clueless people aren't likely to get much. I expect that once serverfault gets to a critical mass of questions/users, the downvoting and closing will become a lot harsher, as the community becomes more engaged and will want to protect the value of the site. So in short I would answer - ask away for the time being. If your question is for your home PC but is also of relevance/interest to a sysadmin, I don't think there's a problem.