12 tips for your laptop(Part 1)

1. Clean and speed up your laptop OS

It’s all too easy to fill your laptop’s hard drive with files and applications, and the more software you add the slower it’s likely to run. Traces of programs are even left behind after you’ve uninstalled them, potentially slowing your laptop further. Thankfully, it’s easy to spruce things up using an application called CCleaner. Read on to discover how to download and use it.

2. Protect your laptop’s data

Due to the portable nature of laptops and netbooks, the data it holds is unfortunately always at risk of both theft and loss. While it’s impossible to keep your laptop 100% safe at all times, you can ensure that your data is kept safe, even if your laptop is stolen or lost, by encrypting it. One particularly easy free solution you can use is TrueCrypt. Read on to discover how to download and use it.

3. Help your laptop run cooler

While the fantastic mobility of laptops makes them great for working on the sofa or on in bed, it’s always important to make sure your laptop has adequate ventilation, to avoid overheating. Since the majority of laptops have vetilation fans to keep internal components cool, you must always ensure that these vents are unobstructed. This means no working on a duvet or cushion, as the extra heat it will cause your laptop to store could be fatal and cause your laptop to critically overheat. If in doubt, place the laptop on a tray when working in bed.

4. Help your battery live longer

When running a laptop at home from mains power, many users leave the battery plugged in at all times, so that it’s always fully-charged for when they want to hit the road. What they often don’t realise though, is it by never letting the battery fully discharge every now and then, they’re actually damaging the battery and guaranteeing that it’s lifespan will be greatly reduced. As a result, it’s always a good idea to remove the battery as soon as it is fully-charged, and then let it fully discharge when using, before recharging again.

5. Change your netbook screen font size

While the compact size of netbooks makes them ideal for regular travel use, their tiny screens can often be awkward to use, when reading multiple pages of text or browsing the internet. Their low screen resolutions somewhat compensates, but to make life easier, it’s well worth increasing your netbook’s defualt font size, to make text bigger and more comfortabel to see.

To do this in Windows XP - the current netbook favourite - browse to Start > Control Panel > Display > Appearance, then set the Font size to either Large or Extra Large, depending on your needs.

6. Speed your laptop up

Most laptops that are brand new come with loads of software pre-installed a lot of it trial-only, and many applications that you may not even use. The more software you install, the longer it’ll take your laptop to start up, but with a free third-party app it’s a simple process to speed things up.Using Autoruns, which can be downloaded here for free, you’ll be able to choose which programs your laptop runs on start-up, deselecting the ones you don’t use very often to speed things up considerably.