10 TIPS TO KEEP YOUR LAPTOP IN SHAPE

10 TIPS TO KEEP YOUR LAPTOP IN SHAPE CREATED BY CECIL CONLEY

1. SHUT IT DOWN  Laptops have both sleep and hibernate functions, one of which (depending on your settings) will engage when you close the lid. This is useful when you want to be able to quickly access what you were previously working on or bypass the booting up process. However, it’s recommended that you shut down your laptop at regular intervals to benefit performance.

2. BE CAREFUL OF HIDDEN FREE SOFTWARE ADD-ONS  We’ve all done it – downloaded a free software program like a pdf reader or file converter and overlooked (which is easily done) the pre-ticked checkbox to download a new browser add-on or antivirus trial hidden in step five of your install!

3. CLOSE IDLE PROGRAMS  Imagine you had multiple refrigerators in your home. Now imagine you left each fridge door open after grabbing something from inside. Not only will in waste electricity, but your fridges also won’t perform optimally and won’t last very long. It’s the same with the programs you’re running on your laptop. Closing down programs you’re not using will speed up your system and boost performance.

4. KEEPYOUR DESKTOP TIDY  Tidy desktop, tidy mind. Or so it’s been said. The truth is that reducing clutter on your laptop’s desktop can enhance the running speedy of your machine. Similarly, don’t go click-happy installing too many widgets, toolbars and sidebars. They all require resources from your laptop that could make other more important programs and features slow down, especially if it is looking for shortcuts that no longer exist.

5. GET WIRED  We know that using an Ethernet cable to connect your laptop directly to your Internet modem can be cumbersome, but it offers some major benefits over Wi-Fi, namely faster speeds, no signal drops and no wireless interference problems.

6. PLUG IN TO POWER  It’s advisable to keep your laptop connected to a mains power source when possible. Not only do you never know when you’ll need to rely on a fully-charged battery, but running on battery-only power reduces the performance of your system.

7. UNPLUG IDLE DEVICES  Anything plugged into your laptop is requiring something from your machine, even if it’s only to recognize the device. Unplug memory drives and USB devices such as drawing pads and number pads when you’re not using them to boost performance.

8. KEEP IT CLEAN  It is recommended that laptop users run regular PC cleanups to remove temporary files, browser history and cache, to optimize the performance of their laptops. You can also delete shortcuts to files and folders that no longer exist.

9. REMOVE OLD PRINTER DRIVERS  PC cleanup software often doesn’t remove old printer drivers which can slow down your laptop. To speed up your system make sure you uninstall printers you no longer use and delete the drivers associated with them.

10. EAT ELSEWHERE  We’re all guilty of working through our lunchbreak and eating a sandwich over our laptop keyboard and you may relate to how annoying it can be to have a rogue crumb stuck beneath one of the keys. That is the least of the problems that can be caused by food falling into the inner workings of your laptop.

THANK YOU