How to Use Strong and Secure Passwords

In all probability, most of us would be aware that using obvious or guessable passwords such as “password” or your pet's name isn't a good idea at all.

But then what options do you really have to come up with a strong and secure password?

First things first, you should have a different, fairly long and very strong password for each account. It's tempting to use the same password for all of your online accounts, but doing so puts every account in jeopardy if one of them gets hacked.

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Ecopad Concept Tablet Powered By Touch

Can you imagine having a tablet that you’ll never need to plug in to recharge? That’s what a team of designers have dreamed up with in their tablet concept called the Ecopad. The Ecopad is powered simply by your touching and pressing of the screen, where typing, swiping, and tapping actually does the recharging.

Utilizing a nano piezoelectricity film, the Ecopad can harness the energy from your interaction with the screen to power the device. The design layers the LCD panel on top of the electricity generating layers that all rest on top of the battery. A power gauge is also incorporated so that you know when to start typing away at a term paper to recharge your Ecopad.

This certainly isn’t the first time we’ve seen design concepts integrate piezoelectricity to harness energy from movement and vibrations to generate power. Remember that traffic intersection powered by footsteps and vehicular vibrations? Don’t you just wish these ideas could move faster into reality?

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Concept of Solar Panel Powered Laptop PC!

This wireless device is cable-free, powered by nature, and represent the future for a sustainable development focused on user’s real needs. After mega earthquake in Japan, the designer realized how important to develop natural self-powered devices for the future

Luce in Italian means light. You can see why it was named like that. Luce is a double solar panel powered laptop-pc made from clear polycarbonate. The solar panels at the top and bottom provide the power for the laptop to work and it will continuously recharging during the day (standby or being used).

Designer : Andrea Ponti  

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Improve Computer / Laptop Performace

Fade up with your slow PC response. Do simple step shown in article. Delete unwanted files which consume space and make pc slow

Delete unwanted files which consume space and make pc slow

Start -> Run -> type "prefetch" -> delete all files.

Start -> Run -> type "temp" -> delete all files.

Start -> Run -> type "cookies" -> delete all files.

Start -> Run -> type "msconfig" -> disable all checkbox except antivirus.

Defragment your hard disk.

Cleanup your hard disk.

Use Registry cleaner software to clean up your unwanted registry file.

This Step will surely improve your System performace to great extend. Do this once in a week.

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How to Protect Your Eyes When Using a Computer...

Since the majority of us spend hours in front of a computer monitor, it is good practice to protect your eyes from potential damage. Keep in mind that the following recommendations apply only to properly setting up your workstation to best protect your eyes and does not address other ergonomic needs related to working in front of a computer.


Instructions

Taking Proper Care of Your Eyes

1.Take five-minute breaks every hour by looking off into the distance and looking away from the computer monitor.

2.Just close your eyes for a few minutes when your work requires prolonged data input into the computer.

Keeping Proper Distance and Other Safety Measures

1.Keep the distance of the monitor from your eyes between 16 to 30 inches. Most people find a distance of 20 to 26 inches comfortable.

2.Make sure that the top of the monitor is at a level slightly below the horizontal eye level.

3.Tilt the top of the monitor away from you at a 10- to 20-degree angle. Most monitors are provided with tiltable display screens, which enable you to tilt the monitor to create an optimum viewing angle.

4.Keep your screen free of dust and fingerprints.

5.Use an adjustable chair that enables you to sit at a proper angle and distance from your computer monitor screen.

6.Use document holders to secure any reading material or reference material, if your work involves prolonged data entry. Place the document holders close to the monitor and at the same distance from your eyes as your monitor. This enables your eyes to remain focused as they look from the monitor to the reading material.

7.Use a work surface whose height is 26 inches from the ground.

8.Keep the distance from the front of your chair to the hollow of your knee between 2 to 4 inches.

9.Use a character size that is visible. The character size is an important factor since it determines the distance at which the user prefers to view the monitor.

Changing the Appearance of the Text Fonts on Your Computer Screen

1.Point your cursor anywhere on your desktop and right click on Properties. The Display Properties window appears.

2.Click the Appearance tab on the Display Properties window.

3.Go to the Font Size pull-down menu and choose either "Large Fonts" or "Extra Large Fonts" instead of the "Normal" font that has already been pre-selected by default. That is, if you are working on a Windows XP system. Once you have made a choice, you will see a sample of what you have chosen in the upper part of the Display Properties window. Choose what is comfortable for your eyes.

4.Click on the Apply button.

5.Close the Display Properties window.

Ensuring Proper Lighting

1.Use fluorescent tubes to achieve lower illumination levels. Higher illumination levels wash out the image on the screen. Illumination levels refer to the amount of light falling on a surface measured in lux or foot candles (metric and English systems of measurement respectively).

2.Provide supplementary task lighting through lamps. Task lighting allows workers to adjust the illumination level according to their own preferences, if the illumination level is below the suggested ideal of 50 foot candles.


Ensuring Proper Lighting in Your Work Environment To Prevent Glare

1.Glare is caused by non-uniform distribution of luminance within your visual field, as well as bright luminaires or windows. You can prevent glare by reorienting your work station and moving the sources of glare out of your line of sight.

2.Cover windows with Venetian blinds, draperies, shades or filters to reduce glare from sunlight or the luminaires in your work environment.

3.Use panels to block the intensity of light, thereby reducing glare.

4.Adjust the computer's contrast knob to change the brightness of the screen and characters, which will also reduce glare.

5.Position the screen at right angles to the source of light.

6.Avoid wearing bright clothes which may cause a glare by causing a reflection on the screen.

7.Cover your monitor with an anti-glare screen.



Read more:http://www.ehow.com/

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How to Boost a WiFi Signal

Some years ago, we came face to face with a world changing technology called the Internet. In order to be able to use the Internet, we had to connect our PC's with long messy wires. Over the years, technology kept advancing and today, we use wireless networking systems. These wireless networking systems have given us the much needed freedom from wires that held us down to a particular desk. Today, we can move about freely using laptops. Not just laptops, but also tablet PC's and our old faithful desktop computers too, can be connected to the Internet with wireless networks. However, a common complaint, faced by users, is a weak WiFi signal while using wireless technologically. We shall take a look at a few tips that will help us learn how to boost a WiFi signal on laptops, as well as computers.


Ways to Boost a Weak WiFi Signal

WiFi signal is a type of radio wave. As the distance of the router from the laptop or computer increases, the signal becomes weaker. The wireless router acts as a transmiter, which is a source of WiFi signal for the wireless adapter of the laptop that receives the signal. So, the output of the router and the distance between the router and adapter are dependent on each other for the WiFi signal strength. Some simple modifications to your state-of-the-art routers will help in boosting the WiFi signal received. If you are suffering from weak signals received on your laptops or computers, then the ways to boost a WiFi signal may prove to be helpful.

Firmware Upgrade
The first thing to check is the router firmware. Most of the time, outdated versions of the router firmware tend to cause weak WiFi signals. You should upgrade your wireless router's firmware to the latest version available. Also, installing the latest driver to the wireless adapter will also help in boosting a weak WiFi signal.

Booster Antenna
Installing a WiFi signal receiver booster antenna to the laptop will help in making the signal stronger. The WiFi antenna booster will help to boost WiFi reception and increase the speed of download considerably.

Signal Repeater
If you are using a WiFi system in your office, or a large apartment, then you need to make sure the signal is received over large distances. For this, you need to install a WiFi signal repeater. This device is very useful in catching the original signal and then amplifying the strength of the signal. This amplified signal is then transmitted over long distances. You should go in for long range WiFi repeaters that will help enhance WiFi signal reception over distant places.

Output Power
The output power of the wireless router should be increased to boost the signal. You can do this by referring to the router manual and enhancing the signal reception on the laptop. Increasing the output power is one of the best ways of boosting WiFi signal.

Extender Antenna
Again, people who are looking for wider coverage area, should go in for extender antenna. When attached to the router, the extender antenna will help increase the coverage area of the router and provide better Internet connectivity.

Router Position
It has been found, placement of the wireless router is very important to boost a weak WiFi signal. If your router is placed in a particular room and you use your laptop or desktop in another room, the distance increases. The signal needs to pass through walls and furniture in order to reach your device. The best place to keep a router is in the center of the room. You can either place it on a table that is in the center of the room or else get it fitted on the ceiling if space is a problem. This will allow the signal to reach all the rooms in your apartment or office. In some cases, placing the router over a bookshelf or table also helps. Align your large furniture along the walls. This will help in increasing the range of WiFi signal better. Wall mount the router, instead of placing it under or at the back of a desk.

New Router
The last option to boost a WiFi signal is buying the latest router that provides high speed of transmission as well as better signal strength. You can upgrade to wireless-N (802.11n). It is found to be faster and has better range along with stability.

This is all about how to boost a WiFi signal. In case of home computing systems, the wireless-N (802.11n) is found to be the best router for long range signal transmission. Try these simple ways to boost a WiFi signal and see an improvement in your Internet connectivity.

Source: Buzzle.com

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Beware of danger when playing PC games online!!

The Internet is a place where the user can find a lot of information, entertainment or work, but on the other side, the same user can “catch” viruses, spyware or malware. Many people don´t understand why somebody creates these harmful programs (see the notes below about these programs). However, the answer is easy – similarly in the common life we can meet a lot of people with wicked goals. And gaining money through special programs is an appropriate goal of many Internet thieves. There are various methods how to do it. On the Internet the user may visit some Web pages which contain viruses or spyware or malware. It can very often happen to the pages with games because games are considered to be typically connected with gamblers and for this reason it can be a source of money.

But the harmful code may not be only on the Web pages, games themselves can include it. It means that the player, when downloading some game and installing it on the local computer, also installs the harmful code without any suspicion. It can be very dangerous – one small example. Imagine the user installed the game that involves a so-called keylogger. The key logger is a small program that records stealthily all keys which the user presses. Many antivirus programs consider this software as a virus (usually as a Trojan-horse – see A worm, a virus or a Trojan horse?). So, the key logger writes all pressed keys to the txt file and sends it to the thief´s e-mail. Suppose, after that the user visited his online betting on the www.tipsport.cz, where he had to write the text “www.abcd.cz” following by username “honba” and password “dfjni123″. The key logger put this string of characters in the txt file “www.abcd.czdfjni123″. The thief received the file, found this text and was very fast able to connect to the honba-account and transferred all the money from Honba´s Internet account to his (thief´s) own account. It was easy, wasn´t it? Of course, the probability of this coincidence is not very high, but who knows.

Notes:

Malware means malicious software – authors of malware create programs for harming other software. Malware includes PS viruses, trojan-horses, spyware and adware.
Spyware is a program that uses the Internet for sending data from the computer without awareness of a user of the computer. It differs from the backdoor by a content of sending data, i.e. it sends only statistic data (e.g. overview of visiting pages, installed programs) and can be used for advertising. The spyware is typically widespread in shareware programs and the authors of the shareware know about it and conciliate it because they want to earn money.
Adware, or advertising-supported software, is any software that automatically downloads advertisements to a computer. The goal of the adware is to generate revenue for its author. Adware, by itself, is harmless; but some adware may come with integrated spyware such as keyloggers.

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14 Best Windows 7 Tips and Hacks

1. Use Keyboard Shortcuts

Using the mouse, you can drag-”˜n-dock windows to either side of the screen, or drag it to the top to maximize it. These keyboard shortcuts are even faster:

.Win+Left Arrow and Win+Right Arrow dock the window to the left and right side of the screen
.Win+Up Arrow and Win+Down Arrow maximize and restore/minimize
.Win+M minimizes everything
.Alt+Up, Alt+Left Arrow, Alt+Right Arrow navigate to parent folder, or browse Back and Forward through folders in Explorer
.Win+Home minimizes/restores all open windows except the active window
Alt+Win+# accesses the Jump List of program number ‘#’ on the taskbar

2.Rearrange System Tray Icons

You can rearrange icons on the taskbar as you wish and start new (or switch to running) instances of the first ten taskbar programs using Win+1, Win+2, and so on. The cool thing is you can also rearrange system tray icons. Reorder them on the tray or move them outside or back in the tray. Take control of what you want to always keep an eye on, and from which apps you’ll require notifications.

3. Access Jump Lists with the Left Mouse Button

Jump Lists usually show up when you right-click on a taskbar icon. However, they can also be accessed by holding the left mouse button and dragging upwards. If you’re using a laptop touchpad or a touch screen, this is convenient because you do not have to click any button to access a context menu.

4. Add Any Folder to Favorites

You can add any library or folder to the Favorites section in Windows Explorer. To add a folder, navigate to it in Explorer, right-click Favorites in the left navigation pane, and select Add current location to Favorites. Now you get quick access to your favorite folders in all File->Save As dialogs!

5. Pin Frequently Used Folders to the Taskbar

Right-click, drag, and pin your favorite folders to Windows Explorer on the taskbar. They will now show up in the Jump List when you right click on Explorer giving you quick access to your favorite folders.

6. Pin Control Panel to the Taskbar

You cannot pin the Control Panel to the taskbar via the Start Menu or by drag and drop. Open the Control Panel and right-click its taskbar icon to pin it to the taskbar. An advantage of this is that Control Panel’s Jump List allows quick access to recently used functions.

7. Create Keyboard Shortcuts for Programs

You can create keyboard shortcuts for any program in Windows 7. Right-click the program icon and select Properties. Select the Shortcut tab, click in Shortcut key, to set the keyboard shortcut for that program.

8. Open Command Prompt in Any Folder

Like the command prompt? Miss the “˜Open Command Window Here’ Windows XP power toy? Press “˜Shift’ when right-clicking on a folder to get that option in the context menu. This also works on the desktop. No power toy required!

9. View Expanded ‘Send To’ Menu

Press Shift when right-clicking on a folder to get an expanded Send To menu.

10. Adjust Screen Text with Clear Type

Use Clear Type Tuner for the best look on your LCD monitor or laptop screen. Run “˜cttune.exe‘ from the Start Menu search box, or go to the Control Panel Display applet, and select Adjust ClearType Text from the left.

11. Get Exact Colors On Your Screen

If you are an artist or you work with colors, use the Calibrate Color option in the Control Panel Display applet or run dccw.exe from the Start Menu search box. You can adjust gamma, brightness, contrast, and color balance, ensuring that colors are displayed correctly on your screen.
12. Customize the Power Button

If you restart your computer more often than you shut it down, change the default Shutdown power button to Restart. Right-click on Start, select Properties, and choose the Power button action that you use the most.

13. Search Internet from the Start Menu

Enable Internet search from the Start Menu using your default browser. Run GPEDIT.MSC from the Start Menu search box to start the Group Policy Editor. In the left pane, go to User Configuration->Administrative Templates->Start Menu and Taskbar. In the right pane, right-click to Edit and Enable Add Search Internet link to Start Menu.

14. Add Videos to Start Menu

Windows 7 does not place a link to your videos on the Start Menu by default. To add a link to your videos on the Start Menu, right-click Start, select Properties, click on Customize. In the Videos section at the bottom, choose Display as a link.

Did you like these tips? Tell us or share your tricks with us in the comments! Don’t forget

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Windows XP slow shutdown

Windows XP slow shutdown
You may experience Windows XP slow shutdown sequences when something is wrong with your Windows installation. Shutdown problems are one of the most common computer problems.

It may be a small comfort, but one thing is for sure : if you are experiencing shutdown problems, you are not alone.
ome of the symptoms that may occur :

Slow shutdown
Shutdown seems to hang
Computer reboots instead of shutdown
These problems often remain unsolved for several reasons. Most of the time it only slows you down, but you can still work on your computer. Most people don't even try to solve it because they think it requires expert skills to fix Windows XP slow shutdown situations.

Don't be like most people.

Troubleshooting Windows XP slow shutdown sequences can be a lot easier than you think.

Your computer reboots rather than shutting down
A lot of computers with shutdown problems do this. It's because Windows XP has a default setting to reboot the computer in the event of a system crash. When something goes wrong during the shutdown event, Windows may think that it crashed and restarts your computer.

First thing to do when this happens to your computer is configure Windows so that it doesn't automatically restart after a critical failure :

Click the start button, right-click "My Computer" and select properties
Click the "advanced" tab
In the "Startup and Recovery" section, click the "settings" button
The "Startup and Recovery" dialog appears
In the "System failure" section, deselect the "Automatically restart" checkbox
Click ok
Click ok

Turn off the auto-reboot option to prevent reboot instead of shutdown

Hardware device drivers
Problematic device drivers are another well-know cause for shutdown problems. To quickly check if your system contains devices with problematic drivers :

Click the Start button
Right-click "My Computer" and select "Properties"
Click the "hardware" tab
In the "Device Manager" section, click the "Device Manager" button
Windows shows the Device Manager with a complete list of all the hardware it finds in your computer. Look for any devices with an exclamation point or a question mark in a yellow circle. These are devices that have problems with their drivers and that can cause you a lot of trouble.

Some feature-rich keyboards or other input devices are known to cause trouble during the shutdown sequence. If you see any of those easy-replaceable, problematic (yellow circle) devices in your device manager, try replacing it with a more standard piece of hardware and test shutdown.

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Windows XP Secrets

1.Notepad secrets
Create a log
Open Notepad
On the very first line, type in ".LOG" (without quotes) then press Enter for a new line
Now you can type in some text if you want, then save the file.
Next time when you open the file, notice its contents. Notepad automatically adds a time/date log everytime you open the file.
Text becomes unreadable
Open Notepad
On the very first line, type in "dont eat the donut" (without quotes) then save and close the file. Note: the file should have only one line of the text above.
Now, open the same file. You'll notice the text becomes unreadable squares. (try this with different text with the same format and length).

2.Paint Secrets

Create a trail image
Open Paint, then open an image.
Right-click on the image and select "Select All"
Now hold the "Shift" key and move the image around. The image will be drawn with trail.
10x Zoom
Open Paint, then open a small image.
Select the zoom "Magnifier" tool.
Windows Paint lists out the zoom options from 1x to 8x, but there is a 10x...
After selecting the Magnifier tool, point the mouse right at the border line right under "8x" and left-click. There you go.. the hidden 10x.

Other secrets
Where is the relaxing music that you've heard during Windows XP Installation?
The file is in:
C:\Windows\system32\oobe\images\title.wma

Game secrets
Solitaire: Instant Win
Press Alt + Shift + 2 to instantly win
Solitaire: Draw only 1 card (instead of 3)
Hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift then click on unopen cards to draw.
FreeCell: Instant Win
Hold down Ctrl + Shift + F10 while playing, then click Abort.
Now move one card.
FreeCell: Hidden Game Modes
Go to "Game" menu choose "Select Game"
Here you can choose from game mode 1 to 1,000,000. But -1 and -2 will also work (hidden modes)
Hearts: Show All Card
Warning! this requires a modification on your registry. Be sure you follow the steps carefully. Damage your registry might damage your Windows.
Open the "Registry Editor" by: "Start" >> "Run" then type "regedit" and press Enter
Expand to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Hearts
Right-click on the right panel and create a new String value with the name "ZB"
Double-click to open this key "ZB" to edit its value. Then enter "42" and close the Registry Editor.
Start Hearts and Press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + F12 to show all the cards
Minesweeper: Stop The Timer
When you start to play a new game, the timer is ticking...
Press Windows Key + D to show desktop.
Now come back to the game by selecting it from the taskbar. The timer is stopped.
Pinball
Unlimited Balls: Type bmax at a new game to get unlimited balls (no notification).
Extra Balls: Type 1max at a new game to get extra balls.
Gravity Well: Type gmax at a new game to activate Gravity Well.
Promotion: Type rmax at a new game or while playing to get instant promotion and raising rank.
Extra points with partial shots: Partially shot the ball just to pass the yellow light bars. There are 6 bars. With the first bar, you'll get 15,000 points, 2nd: 30,000,...
Extra points with partial shots: Partially shot the ball just to pass the yellow light bars. There are 6 bars. With the first bar, you'll get 15,000 points, 2nd: 30,000,...
Test Mode: Type hidden test with a new ball or new game. Now you can use your mouse to drag and move the ball where you want.

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Create a desktop icons

Create a desktop icon with attitude
Want to create a desktop icon on steroids ? The Windows XP Desktop offers some powerful customization possibilities that can highly automate your everyday tasks.

Here is a nice tip to create a desktop icon that writes an entire email message with one single click.

Note : This Windows XP tips and tricks technique has its limitations because the command line length cannot be longer than 255 characters, but nevertheless it can be a huge time-saver.

Right-click an empty space on your desktop
Select the option "new" and then "shortcut"
In the "Create Shortcut" dialog, type mailto:someone@someisp.com?subject=Todays_Report
Of course you should change the email address and the subject into something more useful. Please note, however that the "create new shortcut wizard" is not smart enough to handle spaces. This is no problem, because you can edit the properties after the shortcut is created and then it's ok to use spaces. We'll get to that in a minute, but let's finish this step first :

Click next
Enter a descriptive name for the shortcut
Click finish
The new shortcut will show up on your desktop. Double-click it to try. Windows fires up your email program with the addressee and subject already filled in. Of course you can complete the message before you hit "send".

Automatic email with message body pre-written ?
It's easy to create a desktop icon that pre-writes some generic text in the message body.

Right-click the icon you created in the previous step
Select properties
In the input field enter mailto:someone@someisp.com?subject=Todays Report&cc=someoneelse@someisp.com&body=Hi Mike, here is today's report. (without the quotes and it's ok to use spaces this time)
This is a powerful technique to create pre-written email message icons. You can create complete pre-written email messages with one single click.

Meaning of the special characters in the shortcut command line :

; is used to separate multiple email addresses
? is used to separate the email address field from other fields like "cc" and "subject"
& marks the end of a field and the beginning of a new field

Create a desktop icon to open multiple documents with a single click
Maybe you have several documents that you always use together. It can be very convenient to pop them up with one single click. Here's how to create a desktop icon for that :

Minimize all running programs so that your desktop is visible
Click the start button
In "all programs", navigate to the program of your choice (Let's say Word), right-click it and drag it to your desktop
Select "copy here"
Word's shortcut is now on your desktop. Time to add your documents to your desktop :

In Explorer, navigate to the documents that you want to open together
Right-click the first document that you want to add and select send to -> desktop (shortcut)
Repeat for every document you want to add
Ok, now that you have the necessary icons on your desktop :

Step 1 : Right-click Word's icon and select properties. Leave this window open as you continue with the next step
Step 2: right-click the icon of one of the documents that you want to open in group and select properties
Step 3: The content of the "target" field is already selected in the properties dialog, all you need to do now is press Ctrl+C to copy the content to the clipboard
Step 4: Click cancel and go back to the properties dialog for Word
Step 5: In this dialog, click somewhere in the "target" field, hit the "end" button on your keyboard and then hit the space bar
Step 6: Now press Ctrl+V to paste the document name behind the program
Step 7: Repeat steps 2 through 6 for every document that you want to add
Step 8: Windows always puts the complete path to the documents in the target field. If you notice that the total length for all the document paths is too much to fit in the Word "target" field, you can put the path in the "start in" field and leave it out from the "target" field.
Step 9: When you are ready, click ok
Step 10: Double-click the Word shortcut on your desktop to see if it works.

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Easy Ways To Maximize Your Laptop's Battery Life

The original title of this write-up was going to be some thing along the lines of "Why does my laptop battery life suck?" due to the fact that's precisely the question most of us ask as soon as our battery life starts acquiring shorter and shorter. It is not uncommon to uncover an old laptop that has a lifespan of about 20 minutes. They're essentially absolutely nothing far more than an pricey Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS). This seriously limits the laptop's portability.

It turns out that probably the most critical factor for maximizing your battery life is some thing most of us would by no means have thought of: matching your battery to the correct charger. Based on Jerry, you'll need to make sure that the charger and battery match and that the charger is of top quality. Genuinely, the only factor it is possible to do to make certain this would be to invest in your laptop supplies from the manufacturer and only invest in them for your precise model.

The truth is that even a tiny distinction in output voltage between chargers can have a severe effect on the overall lifespan of your battery by either over- or under-charging the battery.

You could get a less expensive charger pretty much anywhere, but if it truly is off by even as small as 10 millivolts, you might get much less of a charge and won't get optimum performance. By way of example, a four.1V battery charged having a four.05V charger might be beneficial for about four,000 charges. Growing the voltage of the charger to four.250 volts, can lessen that number to much less than 100!

Not just is it a fantastic thought to buy chargers and additional batteries from the laptop manufacturer, however it is ideal to buy these issues at or close to the very same time as you get your laptop. This can minimize the chances of manufacturing adjustments or differences inside the accessories.

The second vital aspect of battery life is temperature.

It is strange but accurate: laptops aren't truly developed for laps. Searching at the bottom of a laptop shows rubber bumpers or feet, which maintain it lifted off of surfaces just sufficient for appropriate ventilation. When that space is blocked (as an example, by putting it on your lap), you close that space along with the laptop is forced to run significantly hotter than it must. Performing this on a standard basis will almost certainly shorten the life of the HP laptop battery.

As a general rule, if your laptop leading is burning you or is too hot to be comfy in your lap, the cooling system is being interrupted and you are shortening its lifespan.

Instead of placing the laptop directly in your lap, try using a laptop desk, which are designed to rest in your lap but still allow the laptop sufficient airflow.

You also want to avoid temperature cycling (allowing your laptop to get very warm and very cold repeatedly) can also seriously damage your Dell inspiron battery life. This means you should try to avoid leaving your laptop in the elements or even inside your automobile on a really hot or cold day.

One widespread concern is whether or not leaving the laptop plugged in too long would damage the laptop batteries. Today's models, nonetheless, are made for this type of practice, so it really is a non-issue.

Needless to say, all of this guidance assumes your laptop has a well created power supply and charger. Some lower end models are not ideal and our widespread minds may possibly not be able to tell the difference. Most of us just have to trust that the manufacturers know what they're doing.

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Finding and Removing Spyware from your PC.

What is it? "Spy-Ware" is a malicious little program that comes from various sources, most often hidden in an innocent-seeming download or self-loaded onto your system from a pop-up. So, if you have downloaded music files or games from some unknown source or had a pop-up that wouldn't close right away your PC may be infected with Spyware.

But don't worry. It's not fatal, but it is a major annoyance and an invasion of your privacy, as you will see by the following symptoms:

You get pop-up ads when your browser is not running or when your PC is not online... sometimes you may even see a pop-up that addresses you by name.

When you sign on, your browser start page has changed to something you've never seen before. You change it back, but before long it changes again.

You start a web search with the browser, and a website you've never used before handles the search.

New websites show up in your favorites - but you didn't put them there. Sometimes they even re-appear after you delete them.

A new, strange toolbar appears on your browser even though you didn't install it. Removal attempts fail, or it reappears after you restart your PC.

Your PC suddenly starts running really slowly... usually because some unknown program is using almost all of your system resources.

The modem icon in your system tray flashes like mad even when you're not using the web. Or if you are online, it flashes as if you were making a download when you aren't.

But the worst one of all - everything seems normal. The worst spy that hides in your PC won't leave any obvious warning signs... it just watches everything you do, then runs and tells it's master all about you.

But what can you do about it? The most common ways a PC can become infected is through Pop-ups and downloaded programs.

So, here's what you do:

1) Get a good pop-up killer. I'd recommend either the Alexa Toolbar or the Google toolbar, they're both free and both have good pop-up stoppers.
Alexa Toolbar
Google toolbar

2) Scan for Spyware regularly, and remove it with a tool designed to remove them without messing up anything else.

At least once a week use SpyBot - Search & Destroy
It's a Free download, it's free to use, and you get free updates. This is very likely the best spyware removal tool you will find anywhere. It's free, but the developer asks for donations... normally I would not recommend or ask that any of our visitors make donations for something like this, but they have done a lot of work and the program is so necessary - so please consider a donation.

That's about all it takes. Once you get used to doing it, it's no more of a pain than sweeping the kitchen... something that you gotta do, but you don't really have to pay all that much attention to it.

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How To Speed Up Your PC Today... Without Buying New Hardware!

Is your PC slower now than when you first got it?

You're not alone in that, but don't worry - I will show you how you can eliminate most of the problems without spending money for upgrades.

Spy-Ware and Ad-Ware

Spy-Ware often accounts for most of the speed loss in the average PC. SpyBot, a good spy-ware removal tool, defines spy-ware this way:
"Spyware is a relatively new kind of threat that common anti-virus applications do not yet cover. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you didn't intentionally install, if your browser crashes, or if you browser start page has changed without your knowing, you most probably have spyware. But even if you don't see anything, you may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging that is silently tracking your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile of you that will be sold to advertisement companies." [courtsey: SpyBot]

So make removal of spy-ware and ad-ware your first priority. There are various software tools that you can get for very little or for free...

AdAware is a privacy tool, that scans your memory, registry, hard, removable and optical drives for known data-mining, aggressive advertising, and tracking ...

Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.2 ~ Free application to scan for spyware, adware, hijackers and other malicious software.

Cleaning Up the Registry

One of the reasons for a slow-moving PC is a cluttered registry. Remember how fast your PC was when your first got it? Since then your registry has become filled with unwanted 'values'. Most software adds custom settings to your registry but won't delete them even when you uninstall the program. These settings accumulate over time ~ and that slows down the speed of your CPU.

So, clean it out every few months, or more often if you have a lot of software going in and out, or multiple users on one PC. I use a program I bought with a 'bundle' but you can get a good free one here - JV 16 PowerTools - I haven't used it but it's highly recommended.

Temporary System Files

You would be surprised how much junk your hard drive accumulates when you use your PC. Temporary system files and cookies fill a large portion of your disk space. Getting rid of it will help your PC to perform better... I use the Windows 'Disk Cleanup' utility that came with the PC about once a week.

Firewalls

"An Ounce of Prevention is worth a pound of cure" - you've heard this before... so you want to prevent unauthorized access to your computer while you're online. A computer connected to internet is sometimes vulnerable to hackers, who may install unwanted programs on your PC or download files from your hard drive. Stop that simply by installing a firewall, which will prevent unauthorized access to your PC.
The one I use came with the McAfee program I bought but there is very good free firewall available at the ZoneAlarm Website

De-Fragment Your Hard Drive

Every time you install a program, make a new word document, uninstall something on your PC it places little bits of data in any unused 'zone' it finds - without regard to what is already 'next door' on the disk. Over a period of time these little fragments get scattered pretty badly... de-fragmenting pulls all these little bits together and makes it easier on the hardware of your PC and saves time when you run a program.
Run your De-Fragment program at least once a month. This will make sure that your programs run faster, because your PC won't be searching all over for the bits-n-pieces.

Follow all these steps and I am sure that you will see a good improvement in the performance of your PC.

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Dramatically improve PC performance / Fix computer slow using WinMate

What we can do if our computer is running slow? WinMate is a free system optimize tool for Windows XP, VISTA user. It can't be easier than using WinMate that even a newcomer can master it well. Why does computer run slow? One major reason is the registry. The registry gets blocked by daily use and virus attacks, which slows down the computer, causes Blue Screen and computer freezing. Thus, cleaning the registry with WinMate will speed up your computer. What's more, it removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up hard disk.

Other features

* Remove junk system files
* Repair IE problem
* boost computer startup by disable unwanted OS services and programs.
* Protect your online privacy by remove IE trace.
* Easy way for Windows update, Security updates eliminate vulnerability to known malware and security exploits.
* More system utilities are available.

Try WinMate : http://www.t55.net/

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Porting Android on your desktop PC

Android is a mobile operating system upon the Linux kernel and GNU software. Android which developed by Google, is famous for it high performance and open source mobile phone operating system.

Visit android-x86 site here, I’m going to explain HOWTO run android on x86 based desktop.

1. Download img or iso file from android-x86 here
2. You can do CD image or USB image using Unetbootin for windows.
a. Download the UnetBootin.
b. Install the UnetBootin.
c. Select “USB DRIVE” and Drive Letter “H:\”
d. Press Ok, and Wait for finish
3. After making bootable image , connect USB to system and then restart your system. You need to set USB boot priority high in BIOS.

4. After restating you will see following Screen.

5. Initially don’t install Android to hard disk . Just select “R un Android-x86 without installation”

6. Follow the booting screen you will see android screen after some time.

7. Enjoy Android on your Desktop.

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