Tech Tips Category

How to Prolong your Notebook / Laptop Battery’s Life

Knowing how to take care of your notebook or laptop battery will prolong its life saving you from buying a replacement or a second battery.

Taking care of your notebook or laptop battery is as important as taking care of the laptop or notebook itself. It’s the very thing that makes it mobile in the first place. Properly taking care of your battery will prolong its life.

That’s why when I read an article by Chris Yano on a forum on notebookreview.com about notebook batteries, I can’t help but share the information here for all of you to know. I know several ways to take care of a laptop battery, but Chris’ article makes it crystal clear. The article may be 2 years old, but the information he provided is still applicable today. (Read on below to quickly know how to take care of your laptop or notebook battery or you can go directly to Chris Yano’s article using the link above)

Note: Since majority (if not all) of laptop or notebook batteries manufactured nowadays are Li-ion batteries, that is what we will be discussing here. If in doubt, check your battery if it’s Li-ion. There’s a very big chance that it is.

How to Prolong Laptop or Notebook Battery Life

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How to Activate Your License for Kaspersky Internet Security 2010

Here is how to activate your Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 if you’ve recently purchased one through a shop or online.

Kaspersky Internet Security is one of the highest rated security software in the market today. It boasts the same antivirus packaged in Kaspersky Antivirus and packs in other Internet security features as well – such as protection from Hacker attacks, Spam, Phishing, and Identity theft.

So if you’ve purchased Kaspersky Internet Security, how do you go about on activating it?

(If you’ve downloaded Kaspersky Internet Security and plan to immediately activate it, skip to number 3. Also, if you’ve purchased it through a store, skip to number 3 as well. If however, you’re activating Kaspersky from a trial version start from number 1.)

 

1. Click on “License” located at the bottom of Kaspersky

How to Activate License Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 graphic01

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How to Choose a Good Notebook / Laptop Cooler

Learn how to effectively choose a good cooler for your laptop or notebook.

A laptop/notebook cooler or cooling pad is a device which is supposed to help cool your laptop when you are using it. This would prevent damage done by excessive heat and thus prolong your laptop’s lifespan.

Most coolers have fans which are powered through the USB of the laptop. Some do not have fans and just elevate the laptop to allow air to circulate. There are also coolers which act as mats which absorb the heat away from the laptop.

If you just pick any cooling pad thinking they’re all the same, then it might not cool your laptop at all. You might even think that laptop coolers are just a waste of money and should not be bought at all.

DSCN1827 by raybdbomb

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How to Boost the Signal of your Wireless / Wi-Fi Router

Here are several ways to boost the signal of your wireless router so as to extend your wireless network or give your wireless internet or Wi-Fi more coverage.

The most obvious advantage of boosting the signal of your wireless router is that more places on your area can now connect to the wireless network or wireless internet you’ve set-up. This basically means your wireless internet or wireless network would have more coverage.

So if you want to boost your wireless router’s signal, there are several ways to do this:

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How to Create or Make a Free Photo Mosaic

Photo Mosaics give more life to our usual photos which make them great gifts for our family and friends. Making photo mosaics is free using Andrea Mosaic.

I’ve always loved photo mosaics as they bring so much life to photos. Photos themselves are great but photo mosaics bring them to another level especially when photo mosaics are big.

My previous photo mosaics have all been done by other people mostly by photo or imaging shops. I usually give them the main photo and the photos which would compose the main photo (called the tiles).

With the free software AndreaMosaic, you can make your own photo mosaics easily. Just download it on the link I just provided and install it.

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Scan your Computer for Free: Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool

Paired with good anti-virus software, Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool is an on demand scanner that can dramatically increase your security.

Using only one kind of antivirus isn’t usually enough to protect you from the different kinds of viruses that are present today. Especially with users of free antivirus software, the protection it offers is usually not enough – even when you are using one of the best free anti-virus softwares from Avira Antivir.

That’s why when you’re a user of free antivirus software, it’s recommended that you also use an On-Demand Scanner which acts to protect you from viruses that could have been missed by your main anti-virus software. Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool for many reasons is a recommended pick.

Scan your Computer for Free Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool graphic01

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Play QuickTime Movies/Videos (.MOV) in Windows’ Media Player Classic

By simply installing a freeware application you could already play QuickTime Movies/Videos (.MOV) using Windows’ Media Player Classic.

I recently wrote about how you can play almost any video file using the K-Lite Codec Pack. By just installing this codec pack, you would already be able to play almost any kind of video file in the small Windows application Media Player Classic. However, the one thing it lacked is the capability to play QuickTime Videos/Movies.

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Password Protect a USB Flash Disk / Portable Hard Drive

Here are two applications which could password protect your USB flash disk or portable hard drive with and without administrator rights.

USB flash disks and portable hard drives are already a part of our modern lives. Almost everyone has a USB flash disk and most people are thinking of buying a portable hard drive nowadays. With that, the question I often get about them is how do you password protect a USB flash disk or portable hard drive?

Why is It Important to Password Protect your USB Flash Disk or Portable Hard Disk?

You carry your USB flash drive or portable hard disk with you all the time. Most of us put sensitive information and files in there that can be used against us or that we simply don’t want others to see. If you lose the flash disk, you risk other people seeing or accessing your sensitive files.

How to Password Protect a USB Flash Disk or Portable Hard Disk?

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Open .RAR, .ZIP, .CAB, .ACE, .ARJ, .7z and other archive formats

The most popular archive is the ZIP format. So how do you open the other archive file formats such as .RAR, .CAB, .ACE, .7z, .TAR, .ARJ, .LZH, .GZ, etc.

The WinZip program is pretty much a standard installation in all my computers including the one at work. When I got my computer replaced at work, our IT department installed WinZip in the computer before it was even delivered to me. When I bought a new computer last year, one of the installation CDs had WinZip in it for me to install.

WinZip can open the ZIP archive format but what about the other archive formats like .RAR, .CAB, .ACE, .7z, .TAR, .ARJ, .LZH, .GZ, . UUE, .BZ2, etc?

I can name two good programs which can compress and decompress many archive formats other than .ZIP.

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Password Protect and Hide a Folder Containing Important Files

Here are three easy steps on how to password protect a folder containing important files located in your hard drive in a Windows operating system.

I’m sure most of us all have files which we don’t want anyone else to see. Our PC may have password protection during logon, but this usually isn’t enough as some (like in my case), have several users.

I’ve even tried hiding files and folders to no avail. The search function of Windows is too good that it can search hidden files and folders.

So how do we really secure our personal files?

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