I could probably google this but i won't.

What is the maximum available amount of ram for the OS?

i.e. i have 3 gigs installed (2x512 and 2x1G) running in Dual Channel

My system sees the full 3 gigs.

Yet certain applications, (sorry i forget where exactly i noticed this) indicate the OS has 2 Gig available. I'd imagine that's 2 gig for Vista itself, yet other applications can address memory higher than 2 gigs.. correct?

While i'm here:

I installed Vista Ultimate onto my HDD(s). I installed this (maybe while i was under the influence) onto 2x160 GB striped drives for a partition/drive/volume of C:\ with a size of 298 GB reported by the OS.

I know what a stupid move. I would like to perhaps True Image the OS and restore it to a smaller striped array. Is this possible? I have read some horror stories on acronis related forums.

thanks all.