How to Take Good Care of Your Laptop

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1. Keep liquids away from your laptop. As tempting as it might be to drink coffee, soda, water or any other liquid near your laptop, accidents can happen all too easily. Spilled liquids may damage the internal components or cause electrical injury to the laptop. Short circuits can corrupt data or even permanently destroy parts. The solution is very simple: Keep your drinks away from your computer. Even if you're careful, someone else might bump into your desk or you. Or you can use a cup with a cover on it, so even if it does spill, the liquid doesn't go any where!

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2. Keep food away from your laptop. Don't eat over your laptop. The crumbs can go down between the keys in the keyboard and provide an invitation to small bugs. The crumbs can also irritate the circuitry. Worse, it makes the laptop look dirty if there are crumbs and food stains on it.
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3. Always have clean hands when using your laptop. Clean hands make it easier to use your laptop touchpad and there will be less risk of leaving dirt and other stains on the computer. In addition, if you clean your hands before use, you will help reduce wear and tear on the coating of the laptop caused by contact with sweat and small particles that can act upon the laptop's exterior underneath your wrists and fingers.

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4. Protect the LCD display monitor. When you shut your laptop, make sure there are no small items, such as a pencil or small ear-phones, on the keyboard. These can damage the display screen when shut; the screen will scratch if the item is rough. Close the lid gently and holding from the middle. Closing the lid using only one side causes pressure on that hinge, and over time can cause it to bend and snap.

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5. Hold and lift the computer by its base, not by its LCD display (the screen). If you lift it by the screen part alone, you could damage the display or the hinges attaching it to the base. The display is also easily scratched or damaged by direct pressure – avoid placing pressure on it.
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6. Don't pull on the power cord. Tugging your power cord out from the power socket rather than putting your hand directly on the plug in the socket and pulling can break off the plug or damage the power socket. Also, if you have the power point near your feet, avoid constantly bumping into the plug or you could loosen it and eventually break it.

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7. Don't roll your chair over the computer cord. Stick the cord onto your desk with tape or a special computer cord tie which can be easily undone when you've finished using the laptop. Always try to keep most of the cord away from the floor or your legs; sometimes you can be so engrossed in what you're doing that you move your legs and forget the cord is there.
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8. Plug in accessory devices into their proper slots. Always look at the symbols on the laptop carefully before inserting devices. Jamming a phone line into an Ethernet port or vice versa could damage the sockets, making it impossible to use them again. It is very important to observe this step.
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9. Handle any removable drives with care. Floppy drives or CD drives that have been removed from your laptop can easily get crushed, dropped or pressed if you are careless. Put them straight into a bag or a storage box/case for safe keeping if you are not putting them back into the laptop.
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10. Insert drives into their slots carefully and at the correct angle. Pushing the wrong drive into a socket, or at an angle, or even upside down can jam it.
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11. Check to see if labels are affixed securely before inserting media into your laptop computer. Media such as CDs, DVDs or floppy disks should not have any loose label parts that might jam inside the laptop drive. Never insert undersized CDs, as these can damage the disk player permanently.
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12. Don't expose your laptop rapid temperature fluctuations. When bringing your laptop indoors during winter, don't turn it on immediately. Instead, let it warm to room temperature first. This will avoid any potential for damage to the disk drive from condensation forming inside the machine.

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13. Don't leave your laptop in a car. Not only do the insides of cars experience large temperature swings that could damage a laptop, but a laptop (or laptop bag) is an inviting target for a smash and grab thief.
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14. Have the unit cleaned once a year to remove internal dust. Get this done by a computer professional. If dust accumulates, the system cannot cool itself correctly. Heat can destroy the motherboard.
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15. Use a properly-sized laptop case. Whatever you use to carry your laptop around in, be it a case, a bag or something you have made yourself, make sure that it it large enough to contain the laptop. This will avoid scratching, squeezing or even potentially dropping it.
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16. Look into getting a laptop bag Many breaks happen because of laptops being dropped or bumped. A bag greatly reduces the risk of damage.
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17. Use and store in a well circulated area. When you are using your laptop, do so in a place that has a constant air-circulation. Lots of people ruin their laptop by using it in an enclosed area and thus making the laptop overheat. It also helps if you store it in a well circulated area.
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18. Use an old tooth brush to clean the area around the exhaust fan screen. If that gets plugged up, air flow is diminished and overheating can most certainly occur.
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19. Try and keep the laptop on a flat surface. This prevents damage to the laptop. This step can be hard, particularly if you are going out with your laptop, but if there is a flat surface available to put your laptop on then do so.
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20. Don't use your laptop on the bed. Repeated use of the laptop on the bed will cause the fans to suck up the dust and further debris which lies in the bed, ultimately blocking the fan. Refrain from this by using the laptop somewhere else than the bed.
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Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts

Let's kick off with keyboard shortcuts – the first thing every power user must memorize with working with a new operating system. In Windows 7, we’ve uncovered several new sets of essential time-saving shortcuts that will make your mouse jealous with neglect.

Alt + P

In Windows Explorer, activate an additional file preview pane to the right side of the window with this new shortcut. This panel is great for previewing images in your photos directory.

Windows + + (plus key)
Windows + - (minus key)

Pressing the Windows and plus or minus keys activates the Magnifier, which lets you zoom in on the entire desktop or open a rectangular magnifying lens to zoom in and out of parts of your screen. You can customize the Magnifier options to follow your mouse pointer or keyboard cursor. Keep in mind that so far, the Magnifier only works when Aero desktop is enabled.
Windows + Up



Windows + Down
If a window is not maximized, pressing Windows + Up will fill it to your screen. Windows + Down will minimize that active window. Unfortunately, pressing Windows + Up again while a window is minimized won’t return it to its former state.
 
Windows + Shift + Up

Similar to the shortcut above, hitting these three keys while a window is active will stretch it vertically to the maximum desktop height. The width of the window will however stay the same. Pressing Windows + Down will restore it to its previous size.  
Windows + Left



Windows + Right

One of the new features of Windows 7 is the ability to automatically make a window fill up half of your screen by dragging to the left or right. This pair of shortcuts performs the same function without your mouse. Once a window is fixed to one side of the screen, you can repeat the shortcut to flip it to the other side. This is useful if you’re extending a desktop across multiple monitors, which prevents you from executing this trick with a mouse.



Windows + Home
This shortcut performs a similar function to hovering over a window’s peek menu thumbnail in the Taskbar. The active window will stay on your desktop while every other open application is minimized. Pressing this shortcut again will restore all the other windows.
 
Windows + E

 Automatically opens up a new Explorer window to show your Libraries folder.

 Windows + P

Windows + Shift + Left
Windows + Shift + Right 
If you are using two or more displays (and who isn’t, these days?), memorize this shortcut to easily move a window from one screen to the other. The window retains its size and relative position on the new screen, which his useful when working with multiple documents. Utilize that real estate!
 
Windows + [Number]
Programs (and new instances) pinned to your Taskbar can be launched by hitting Windows and the number corresponding to its placement on the Taskbar. Windows + 1, for example, launches the first application, while Windows + 4 will launch the fourth. We realize that this is actually one key-press more than just clicking the icon with your mouse, but it saves your hand the trouble of leaving the comfort of the keyboard.
 
Windows + T

 Windows + Space

 This combo performs the same function as moving your mouse to the bottom right of the Taskbar. It makes every active window transparent so you can view your desktop. The windows only remain transparent as long as you’re holding down the Windows key.

Ctrl + Shift + Click

Hold down Ctrl and Shift while launching an application from the Taskbar or start menu to launch it with full administrative rights.

Ctrl + Click

Hold down Ctrl while repeatedly clicking a program icon in the Taskbar will toggle between the instances of that application, like multiple Firefox windows (though not browser tabs).

NotePad Trick : Notepad as Diary -

In daily life Notepad is a very small application comes along with each Windows Version. This is real cool tip for people who use notepad to write down any info on a day to day basis...

In Notepad :

* Create a blank text file with .LOG (CASE SENSITIVE) as the first line of the file, followed by a carriage return. [ Enter ]

* Save and close the file .

* Double-click the file to open it and notice that Notepad appends the current date and time to the end of the file and places the cursor on the next line.

* Type your notes and then save and close the file.


Each time you open the file, Notepad repeats the process, appending the time and date to the end of the file and placing the cursor below it
It simply serves as a virtual diary !

Remove Programs from the Add or Remove Programs :

Some junk programs make you Delete manually, but on deletion the entry remains in Add or Remove program list. here is a solution to it.

***Registry editing is Dangerous. Always have backup of your registry before editing.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedt32, and then click OK.
3. In Registry Editor, locate the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
4. In the left pane, click the Uninstall registry key, and then click Export on the File menu.
5. In the Export Registry File dialog box that appears, click Desktop in the Save in list, type uninstall in the File name box, and then click Save.
6. Each key listed under Uninstall in the left pane of Registry Editor represents a program that is displayed in the Currently installed programs list of the Add or Remove Programs tool. To determine which program that each key represents, click the key, and then view the following values in the details pane on the right:
DisplayName: The value data for the DisplayName key is the name that is listed in Add or Remove Programs.

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UninstallString: The value data for the UninstallString key is the program that is used to uninstall the program.
7. After you identify the registry key that represents the program that you removed but which is still displayed in the Currently installed programs list of Add or Remove Programs, right-click the key in the left pane of the Registry Editor window, and then click Delete.

Click Yes in response to the "Are you sure you want to delete this key and all of its subkeys?" message.
8. On the File menu, click Exit to quit Registry Editor.
9. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Add or Remove Programs.


In the Currently installed programs list, verify that the program whose registry key you deleted is no longer listed

Reset folder file type associations and default execution protocols !

When your Folders start to open up with applications you may not want them too then here is a simple fix on how to restore there defaults and default execution protocols.

1. Go into ''Control panel''

2. Locate the Icon Folder Options and double click on it.

3. Once you have entered go to the tab named ''File types''

4. You will not be presented with all the File types currently on your system and there association to other programs.

5. To change the specified ''File type'' to its default program association, Highlight the File type you wish to change and click the button ''Advanced'' As shown below

6. You will now be presented with another Window. Within here hit ''Set default '', When you do this it will set what the Default execution of the program will be for example ''Open'' as shown below.


Now If you wish to choose which application a File type responds to when its asked to open then do all the above to STEP 5

Once you have done that highlight the File extension you wish to change and then hit the button named ''Change''. From here you will be presented with a list of suitable programs that can be used to open that particular file extension. You are now free to choose any program you wish to use to open up that file extension. As shown in the 2 pictures below.



Changing program used :

I Hope This Will be Helpful for you.