Computers On The Run

If your laptop always (or usually) runs on external power, you may be decreasing your battery life. At least once a month, let the device use up all the battery power and then recharge it.

Running Disk Cleanup once or twice a month will reduce garbage on your computer and keep it running at pleasing speeds.

Disk Clean Up is located under System Tools under your Program Files and Accessories

Windows Vista Aero feature may look cool but did you know that it slows your system performance when enabled?

1. Right-click on the desktop and choose Personalize
2. Click the “Window Color and Appearance”
3. Then in the next screen, click the link near the bottom for “Open classic appearance properties for   more color options”
4. Choose Windows Vista Basic

Microsoft Office 2003 has integrated a research button on the interface with office applications. The tool will let you search for word definitions and more in-depth sources like an Encyclopedia.

On the Tools menu, click Research in whatever Office 2003 application you use.

Disable the Windows Vista Sidebar if you’re not really using it for anything important. All those gadgets take up memory and processing power.

How To Remove Sidebar

1. Right click on Vista Sidebar and select Properties
2. Uncheck the “Start Sidebar when Windows starts” checkbox
3. Then right-click on the icon in the Taskbar and choose Exit to close the sidebar.

When filling in forms on a web page you can press the tab key to skip from one box to the next instead of clicking in each box.

To quickly minimize all open windows and show your desktop just press the windows key and the D key on your keyboard at the same time.

You can increase or decrease the font size on a webpage by pressing and holding the control key on your keyboard and the plus or minus keys at the same time on your keyboard. Another way to do this is to hold down the control key on your keyboard and then use your scroll wheel on your mouse and move it forwards or backwards to increase and decrease the size.

You can double click on a word in any document or webpage to quickly and easily highlight it. This makes it quicker to highlight a specific word when you need to do a copy and paste.

If you are doing a search for something specific that contains more than one word try putting quotation marks around the phrase. This will make it only search those words together and not separate.

For example: if you are searching Computers On The Run you could type “Computers On The Run” so it will only return that group of words together.