Laptops for Dummies Quick Reference (ISBN - 0470240563)

242 Pages·2021·4.66 MB·English

by Corey Sandler

Laptops

FOR

DUMmIES

‰

Q U I C K R E F E R E N C E

2 N D E D I T I O N

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by Corey Sandler

Laptops

FOR

DUMmIES

‰

Q U I C K R E F E R E N C E

2 N D E D I T I O N

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Laptops For Dummies® Quick Reference, 2nd Edition

Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774

www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used
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Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The Hewlett-Packard Company, the Hewlett-Packard Development Company,
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About the Author

Corey Sandler has written more than 150 books on personal computers, business
topics, travel, and sports. A former Gannett Newspapers reporter and columnist, he
also worked as an Associated Press correspondent covering business and political
beats. One of the pioneers of personal computer journalism, he was an early writer
for publications, including Creative Computing. He became the first Executive Editor
of PC Magazine in 1982 at the start of that magazine’s meteoric rise. He also was the
founding editor of IDG’s Digital News.

His bestselling books include Fix Your Own PC, Upgrading & Fixing Laptops For
Dummies, the Econoguide Travel Book series, Watching Baseball (coauthored with
Boston Red Sox star and broadcaster Jerry Remy), and Henry Hudson Dreams and
Obsession.

Sandler has appeared on NBC’s Today, CNN, ABC, National Public Radio’s Fresh Air,
and dozens of local radio and television shows, and has been the subject of many
newspaper and magazine articles.

He lives with his family on Nantucket island, off the coast of Massachusetts, at the
very end of the information superhighway. From his office window, when the fog
clears, he can see the microwave tower that carries signals from his keyboard to
the mainland 30 miles away.

He has lugged his laptop across the United States and around the world. Recent
trips have seen him searching for and sometimes finding WiFi web connections
and cell phone signals in Machu Picchu at 14,000 feet in the Peruvian Andes,
around Cape Horn at the bottom of South America, in New Zealand and Australia,
the Canadian Arctic, and in Svalbard, the northernmost inhabited territory of
Europe, within the Arctic Circle at the edge of the North Pole ice pack.

He can be reached through his web sites: www.econoguide.com or www.
hudsondreams.com.

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Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at
www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to
market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Project Editor: Tonya Maddox Cupp
Executive Editor: Greg Croy
Technical Editor: Lee Musick
Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen
Media Development Project Manager:

Laura Moss-Hollister

Media Development Assistant Project Manager:

Jenny Swisher

Media Development Assistant Producers:

Angela Denny, Josh Frank, Shawn Patrick,
and Kit Malone

Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth
Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Katherine Key
Layout and Graphics: Stacie Brooks,
Carrie A. Cesavice, Reuben W. Davis,
Erin Zeltner

Proofreaders: Broccoli Information Management,
Laura Albert, David Faust

Indexer: Sherry Massey

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher
Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher
Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director
Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services
Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

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Contents at a Glance

Part 1: The Laptop Computer..........................................................................1

Part 2: Built-in Stuff ......................................................................................25

Part 3: Ports ..................................................................................................47

Part 4: Windows Essentials ..........................................................................59

Part 5: Storage................................................................................................85

Part 6: Folders, Subfolders, and Directories................................................99

Part 7: Files ..................................................................................................111

Part 8: Networks ..........................................................................................131

Part 9: The Internet ....................................................................................149

Part 10: Road Tips........................................................................................159

Part 11: Keyboard Shortcuts for Laptop Users ..........................................179

Part 12: Emergency Kit................................................................................189

Glossary: Tech Talk......................................................................................207

Index ............................................................................................................215

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Table of Contents

Part 1: The Laptop Computer....................................1

Checking Out Basic Hardware..........................................................................2
Cornering Input and Output ............................................................................5
Current I/O options ......................................................................................5
Legacy I/O options........................................................................................7
Delving into Basic Software ..............................................................................8
Diving into Laptop Types and Models ..........................................................10
Basic laptop ................................................................................................11
Fully equipped road warrior......................................................................12
Lightweight champ ....................................................................................13
Entering the Box ..............................................................................................14
Motherboard ..............................................................................................14
CPU ..............................................................................................................15
Memory (also known as RAM)..................................................................15
Chipset ........................................................................................................16
Input/Output................................................................................................16
Foraging for Hardware ....................................................................................16
Plug-ins ........................................................................................................16
Attachments ................................................................................................17
Going Through Windows ................................................................................19
Hitting the Internet ..........................................................................................20
The World Wide Web..................................................................................21
Electronic mail ............................................................................................21
Instant messaging ......................................................................................22
Voice over Internet Protocol ....................................................................22
Organizing Files, Extensions, and Folders ....................................................22

Part 2: Built-in Stuff ............................................25

Checking Out the Screen ................................................................................26
Screen resolution ........................................................................................27
Color quality................................................................................................28
Screen brightness ......................................................................................28
Screen angle ................................................................................................29
Going with an External Monitor ....................................................................29
Configuring a second screen ....................................................................30
Setting screen positions ............................................................................31
Choosing the primary monitor ................................................................31
Extending a desktop across both monitors ............................................32
Grabbing the Keyboard ..................................................................................32

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Laptops For Dummies Quick Reference, 2nd Edition

Letting Your Light Shine and Button Press ..................................................34
Turn on, turn off..........................................................................................34
Multimedia controls ..................................................................................34
Indicator lights............................................................................................35
Lighting Up with Batteries ............................................................................35
Hibernation and standby modes ..............................................................36
The ultimate battery recharge ..................................................................38
Listening to the Sounds and Furies ..............................................................39
Pointing and Clicking ......................................................................................40
Putting It in Storage ........................................................................................41
Hard disks ....................................................................................................42
Optical drives: CD and DVD ......................................................................43
Flash memory..............................................................................................43
ExpressCard (also known as PC Card or Cardbus) ................................44
Floppy disk drives ......................................................................................45

Part 3: Ports ........................................................47

Communicating at High Speed ......................................................................48
USB ports ....................................................................................................48
iLink/FireWire/IEEE 1394............................................................................50
Infrared ........................................................................................................50
WiFi ..............................................................................................................51
Bluetooth ....................................................................................................52
Enjoying Audio and Video ..............................................................................53
VGA monitor connector ............................................................................53
S-video..........................................................................................................54
Microphone jack ........................................................................................54
Line-in jack ..................................................................................................55
Headphone jack ..........................................................................................55
Line-out jack ................................................................................................56
Networking for Fun and Profit........................................................................56
Ethernet........................................................................................................56
Telephone modem ......................................................................................56
Pairing Up with Legacy Ports ........................................................................57
Parallel/serial ports....................................................................................57
Keyboard/mouse ports ..............................................................................58

Part 4: Windows Essentials ....................................59

Accessing the Desktop ....................................................................................60
Biting into the All Programs Menu ................................................................62
The Startup submenu ................................................................................63
Creating a desktop shortcut to a program ..............................................63
Organizing the All Programs menu ..........................................................64
Boarding the Control Panel ............................................................................64
Coming to My Computer (Also Known As Computer)................................66

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