The techniques used for cleaning alaptop LCD screen, whether it's for a desktop or laptop computer, are filled with controversy! 

Generally, no one recommends using any liquids because they can damage the LCD's delicate surface. Even so, you've gotta have something to rub with if you ever plan on getting that sneeze residue off the thing!

1. For general cleaning, get a soft, lint-free cloth.

   Use it to wipe the dust off themonitor.

2. Dampen a sponge or lint-free cloth with water.

   Be sure to wring out all the excess moisture. Rub the screen's surface gently, and don't get any excess liquid on or inside the monitor.

3. Let the monitor dry completely before closing the lid!

Here are some other things to remember:

• Often times, the keyboardcreates "stains" on the screen. They're hard to avoid and even harder to clean off. To help prevent the stains, consider storing the soft, lint-free cloth that you use to clean the monitor inside the laptop, between the keyboard and screen.

• Office-supply stores carry special LCD screen cleaners as well as the lint-free wipes that you can use to clean your screen and the rest of your laptop.

• One product that is recommended is Klear Screen, from Meridrew Enterprises (www.klearscreen.com). No, it's not cheap. You want good, not cheap.

• Avoid using alcohol or ammonia-based cleaners on your laptop screen! They can damage the LCD screen.

• Never squirt any cleaner directly on a laptop's screen.

All modern PCs, laptops included, have a special Startup or Setupprogram. 

This program is not a part of your computer's operating system (Windows). Instead, it's built in to the computer's circuitry, orchipset, and it might also be referred to as the BIOS Setup program.

What the setup program does is configure your laptop's hardware. It keeps track of such things as how much memory (RAM) is installed, the type of hard drive, whether or not you have a CD-ROM or DVDdrive, plus other hardware options. The Setup program also keeps track of the time with the computer's internal clock as well as other random things.

Be sure that you know how to get into your laptop's Setup program. The method used to access it differs from computer to computer. Commonly, to get into the Setup program, you press a specific key or key combination on the keyboardwhen the computer first starts (and before Windows starts). On most laptops, the special key is Del or F1. If your laptop uses a different key, be sure to make a note of it.

One important item to know about in the Setup program is the security system, which usually includes a password. You shouldn't set that password when you're just getting used to your laptop. Instead, wait until you're more familiar with it. If you do use a password, make sure you write it down, or you will not be able to access your computer.

If you miss the full size and action of a real PC keyboard, get one! Just plug it into your laptop, either into the keyboard port or a USB port, whichever is available. 

You can start using the keyboard the second it's plugged in.

Note that adding an external keyboard often doesn't disable the laptop's internal keyboard. You can use both! But you're probably not crazy enough to do that.

When you're done using the full-size keyboard, simply unplug it.

• If all you're yearning for is to have a separate numerickeypad, consider getting only that item. You can pick up a USB numeric keypad, which is just the keypad and not the entire keyboard, at most computer stores and office-supply stores.

• Sometimes, the only way you can add a non-USB keyboard to your laptop is by getting a port replicator or docking station.

• The standard color for a PC's keyboard connector — the hole somewhere on your laptop for plugging in the keyboard — is purple.

All laptops have a special low-power mode, called Stand By mode or Sleep mode. 

In this mode, the computer is still on but power to certain areas is shut off. That way, you can keep the laptop ready for an extended period without wasting a lot of battery juice.

Your laptop can slumber in Sleep mode for quite some time, much longer than it would otherwise stay alive when it's turned on. The amount of time the laptop stays in Sleep mode depends on various power settings in Windows. You can direct Windows to sleep for maybe 30 minutes and then have the laptop automatically turn itself off or switch into Hibernation mode.

The method for putting your laptop to sleep varies, depending on whether your laptop has a sleep button and which version of Windows you're using. Keep in mind that you should always save your work before your laptop enters Sleep mode.

Putting your laptop to sleep by using the sleep button

When your laptop is blessed with a sleep button, pressing it puts the laptop to sleep instantly. But, hang on! The sleep button's function can be changed, so pressing that button may not always put the laptop to sleep.

Putting your laptop to sleep (Stand By) in Windows Vista

To "sleep" your laptop when Windows Vista is the operating system, heed these steps:

1. Click the Start button.

2. Click the triangle next to the Padlock icon.

3. Choose Sleep from the pop-upmenu.

   

Putting your laptop to sleep (Stand By) in Windows XP

To put your laptop to sleep in Windows XP, follow these steps:

1. Click the Start button.

2. Click the Turn Off Computer button.

When there hasn't been anykeyboard or mouse activity for a set amount of time, Windows may go into Stand By mode when you're using battery power.

The idea here is to save power; when the computer thinks that you're distracted or off for a walk, it slips off to sleep to conserve power.

To revive a snoozing laptop, simply press a key on the keyboard or tap on the mouse pad. That wakes the sucker up, bringing it back to active duty.

After waking up the laptop, you may have to log in to Windows again. That's okay — in fact, it's what you want; it's very insecure not to have the Windows logon appear when the laptop wakes up from Sleepmode.

• If your laptop doesn't wake up after you press a key, press the power or sleep button to wake it up again.

• If you closed the lid to put the laptop into Stand By mode, opening the lid wakes it up.

• The key you press to wake up the laptop isn't passed along to whatever program is running. So, if the screen says "Destroy all your data files? Y/N" and you press the Y key to wake up the laptop, nothing dastardly happens. Even so, you may want to push the Ctrl key on the keyboard to wake up your sleeping laptop.

• One reason a laptop may not wake up is that the battery is probably dead. Check the laptop's power-on lights. If they're off, the battery is dead.

• If the laptop still doesn't wake up, you may have a problem with the system's power management software. Try pressing (and holding) the power button until the unit turns either off or on again. Then try starting up the laptop as you normally would. Ask your dealer or laptop manufacturer for updated power management software.

Because most laptops lack a printerport, USB printers are the way to go. You can connect your USB printer by following a few easy steps:

1. Plug in the printer, and ensure that it's turned off.

   Also, set up the printer with ink and paper and all that other good stuff, according to the directions that came with the printer.

2. Connect a USB cable to the printer and to your laptop.

3. Turn on the printer.

   Because you're using a USB printer, it knows the printer's name and brand, and it even completely installs software for you, setting everything up just so.

After the printer has been set up and recognized by Windows, you can either print or save some energy and turn the printer off. You can even disconnect it when you don't need it. Reconnecting the printer simply reactivates its support in Windows.

• Leave your printer turned off when you're not using it.

• You can unplug the printer's USB cable without having to use the Safely RemoveHardware icon on the system tray. Just unplug the cable, and Windows bids adieu to your printer.

• No, it's not a good idea to unplug or turn off your printer while it's printing.

• If you're having trouble adding your printer, open the Control Panel and double-click the Printers or Printers and Faxes icon to display the list of printers available to your computer. The Add a Printer or Add Printer task can be clicked to run the Add Printer Wizard, which helps you complete the printer setup task.

For small networking operations, you can connect your laptop to apeer-to-peer network. This includes everything from a home office that has only one other computer to a smaller company that doesn't need a large network setup. In that case, it helps to add your laptop to a specific workgroup. This stuff is cinchy.

The key to joining a specific workgroup is to supply your laptop with the workgroup's name. That way, your laptop appears on a list with other computers in the workgroup, and it makes workgroupresources (printers and hard drives) easier to locate.

The secret? Nope, don't bother looking in any of the networking icons in the Control Panel. For this task, you need to use the Control Panel's System icon, like so:

1. Choose Control Panel from the Start menu, and then select System.

2. In Windows Vista, click the Change settings link in the Computer Name, Domain and Workgroup Settings area. In Windows XP, click the Computer Name tab.

   

   If you're asked for permission here, click the Continue button.

3. Click the Change button.

   

4. In the Workgroup text box, type the name of the computer workgroup.

   

   Unless you messed with things, the name is WORKGROUP, and that's okay. If you chose something else for your local workgroup, put that name into the box.

5. Click OK to close the various dialog boxes, and close up any windows you opened as well.

   At this point, you may have to restart your laptop for the changes to take effect. Do so when prompted.

Your laptop is now a part of the named workgroup and can more easily access other computers and system resources attached to that workgroup.

It's a good idea to clean your laptopkeyboard regularly. However, to avoid damaging it, there are some things you need to keep in mind when you are removing dust and particles, or cleaning the keys.

Every so often, you can use a vacuum to clean your laptop keyboard. Use the little portable vacuums, with either the tiny (toothbrush-size) brush or the upholstery-cleaning attachment. This effectively sucks up all the crud in the keyboard. It's amazing to watch.

Some people prefer to clean the keyboard by using a can of compressed air. This is not recommended, because the air can blow the crud in your keyboard further inside the laptop. Instead, use a vacuum.

Remember to have the computer turned off when you do this!

To clean the tops of the keys, use isopropyl alcohol. Soak it up into a soft, dust-free cloth, or use a cotton swab and gently rub the key tops. Try not to drip any alcohol inside the keyboard, and never use a spray cleaner directly on the keyboard.

In addition to cleaning your keyboard regularly, you should also consider washing your hands from time to time.

Consider locking your computer, rather than logging out. You can lock your computer if you need to go do something else but don't want to shut everything down, like when you log out. To lock your computer:

• Press the Win+L key combination on the computerkeyboard (Win is the Windowskey, shown in this figure).

  

  Windows key features the Windows logo.

• Click the padlock button in the lower-right corner of the Start button menu (see this figure).

  

  Clicking the padlock icon locks your PC.

As soon as you press Win+L or click the padlock, the initial login screenappears; no one can access the computer at that point unless they have an account and know the account's password. The computer is locked.

Locking the computer is a good, secure thing to do when you need to step away from your computer in an unsecured environment, such as any public place.

It took laptop developers years to come up with the current solution: the mouse pad. Originally called atouch pad, the mouse pad allows you to control the mouse by gliding a thumb or finger along a flat surface. Buttons nearby emulate the left and right buttons on your typical bar-of-soap mouse.

There's an art to using the mouse pad:

• It helps to use your forefinger to move the mouse. Use your thumb to click the left-right buttons on the bottom of the mouse pad.

• A light touch is all that's required.

• You must be careful not to touch it in more than one spot. If you do, the pointer jumps about on the screen as though it were being electrocuted. Touch the mouse pad in only one spot and with one finger.

• The most difficult mouse operation is the drag. That's where you have to hold down a button while moving the pointer. With practice, this can be done — but you must practice! (It's another excuse to play FreeCell.)

• Try to avoid accidentally hitting the right mouse button when you mean to hit the left one. This causes context menus to pop up in Windows — very frustrating.

• Some mouse pads let you tap the pad to simulate a mouse click. You can check the Mouse icon in the Control Panel to enable or disable this feature.

When you're away from yourbroadband connection, you can dial out using your laptop's modem. But before you can dial out, you must create a dialing location inWindows.

 Enlarge

3

Click the New button.

The New Location dialog box appears. Use it to customize the way the modem dials the phone from any location.

Connecting your keyboard andmouse to your PC is a breeze. Before you connect your keyboard and mouse to your computer, you need to decide where to place both the keyboard and mouse in relation to the PC:

• Set up the keyboard right in front of where you'll sit when you use the computer, between you and where the monitorgoes.

• The mouse lives to the right or left of the keyboard, depending on whether you're right- or left-handed.

Now that you have your mouse and keyboard where you want them, you can actually connect them:

• The PC keyboard plugs into the keyboard port on the back of the console.

• The mouse plugs into the mouse port.

Note that the two ports look identical but are different. Don't plug the keyboard or mouse into the wrong port or else neither device works. However, if you're using aUSB keyboard or mouse, you can plug the keyboard or mouse into any USB port.

Some USB keyboards and mice come with a tiny adapter, designed to convert the USB port into a keyboard or mouse port connector.

Don't plug the keyboard or mouse into their ports while the computer is turned on. It may damage the keyboard, mouse, or computer.

If you want to upgrade your computer's memory, you need to know what kind of memory it needs. Here are two methods to determine which type of memory modulesyour current motherboard requires and which memory speeds it can handle:

• Check the specifications. Refer to the motherboard manual. Or, if you purchased your PC from a manufacturer, check the documentation that accompanied the computer.

  If you didn't get any manuals with a used PC, visit the company's Web site for memory compatibility information or specifications.

• Check the existing modules. If you can't find any documentation, specifications, or data on the Web concerning your PC's RAM modules, it's time to remove the case from your computer. Look for the memory slots on your motherboard.

Your PC probably sports one of these types of memory:

• DDR: Double data rate (DDR) modules were the first 168-pinstandard Dual Inline Memory Modules (DIMM) available for PCs; DDR modules are still in general use.

  

• DDR2: DDR2 modules double the data transfer rate between your RAM and your motherboard, providing the best performance around, but they basically look the same as a DDR module.

• RDRAM: Rambus (RDRAM) modules are much faster (and also more expensive) than standard DDR modules. DDR2 has largely taken RDRAM's place.

• SDRAM: SDRAM (sometimes called SyncDRAM) takes the form of standard 168-pin DIMMs. SyncDRAM runs at an access speed of 133 MHz, which is too doggone slow for today's fast processors.

  

• EDO: Older Pentium motherboards used Extended Data Output (EDO) memory in the form of 72-pin Single Inline Memory Modules (SIMMs).

  

If your PC has EDO memory modules, your PC is so far behind the performance of new models that it just isn't worth adding EDO memory to your older motherboard. Just upgrade your CPU, motherboard, and memory at the same time.