LAPTOPS FOR DUMMIES

339 Pages·2021·24.858 MB·English

by  Dan Gookin

Laptops

Laptops
7th Edition
by Dan Gookin
Laptops For Dummies®, 7th Edition
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020952025
ISBN: 978-1-119-74027-8; 978-1-119-74028-5 (ebk); 978-1-119-74029-2 (ebk)
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents at a Glance
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Part 1: This Laptop Thing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
CHAPTER 1: The Portable Computing Quest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
CHAPTER 2: A Laptop of Your Own . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Part 2: Say Hello to Your Laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
CHAPTER 3: From Laptop Box to Lap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
CHAPTER 4: To Turn On a Laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
CHAPTER 5: To Turn Off a Laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
CHAPTER 6: Traditional Laptop Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
CHAPTER 7: The Tablet PC Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81
CHAPTER 8: Your Laptop and Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Part 3: Out and About with Mr. Laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
CHAPTER 9: You and Your Laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
CHAPTER 10: Portable Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
CHAPTER 11: The Printing Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
CHAPTER 12: Expanding Your Laptop’s Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
CHAPTER 13: O the Places You’ll Go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
CHAPTER 14: Presentation Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
CHAPTER 15: A Laptop at Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Part 4: Laptop Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
CHAPTER 16: The Networking Thing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
CHAPTER 17: Network Life in Laptop Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
CHAPTER 18: Your Files from Afar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Part 5: Security and Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
CHAPTER 19: Internet Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
CHAPTER 20: A More Secure Laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
CHAPTER 21: Laptop Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
CHAPTER 22: Laptop Maintenance and Upgrading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Part 6: The Part of Tens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
CHAPTER 23: Ten Battery Tips and Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
CHAPTER 24: Ten Handy Laptop Accessories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
CHAPTER 25: Ten Things to Throw in Your Laptop Bag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
About This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
And Just Who Are You? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Icons Used in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Where to Go from Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
PART 1: THIS LAPTOP THING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
CHAPTER 1: The Portable Computing Quest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The History of Portable Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Xerox Dynabook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Osborne 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The loveable luggables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Model 100 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The lunch buckets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Dawn of the PC laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The search for light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Modern Laptops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
The notebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
The subnotebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
The tablet PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
CHAPTER 2: A Laptop of Your Own . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Do You Need a Laptop? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Why you need a laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Why you don’t need a laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Laptop Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Things to ignore when buying a laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Things to heed when buying a laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Software for Your Laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
The operating system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Other software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Laptop Hardware Buying Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Important laptop hardware guts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Communications options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
The green laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Service, Support, and Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
The Final Step: Buying Your Laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Table of Contents vii
PART 2: SAY HELLO TO YOUR LAPTOP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
CHAPTER 3: From Laptop Box to Lap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
Laptop Box 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Removing the laptop from the box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
“How long should I keep the box?” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Submitting the warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Set Up Your Laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Finding a place for the laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Charging the battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
“Should I plug the laptop into a UPS?” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Bye-Bye, Old Laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Deciding when to retire an old laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Disposing of the old laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
What to Do Next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
CHAPTER 4: To Turn On a Laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Turn On Your Laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Step 1: Open the lid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Step 2: Adjust the lid for optimal viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Step 3: Locate the power button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Step 4: Punch the power button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
It’s Windows! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Running Windows for the first time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Activating Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Signing in to Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Migrating your files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Reinstalling your programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Adding other accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
CHAPTER 5: To Turn Off a Laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
End Your Laptop Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Keeping the laptop on all the time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Finding the shutdown options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Shutting down your laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Restarting Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Putting Mr . Laptop to sleep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Hibernating the laptop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Locking Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Signing out of Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Switching to another user . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Shutting down when the laptop doesn’t want to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
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