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You have spent all your hard earned dollars and are now the proud owner of a classy little Laptop. Now you are ready to fly around the www like a vehicle running on super charged gas. No? Why not?

Slow down my friend - your laptop is a complex machine and there are many things you have to keep in mind when using one. No sense in misusing it and complaining later that it does not perform as well as you anticipated. Lets see if we can come up with some tricks that will make working with your laptop more efficient.

You have to treat a laptop much differently than you’d treat a desktop. Since a laptop is not confined to the warm tender care by constantly being within your home it is only reasonable that you prepare it for the rugged world waiting outside. Follow these hints and you will ensure a long life for your laptop along with maximum productivity for you in return. Respect between yourself and your laptop should be mutual!

One can never too much battery power. We always more, more and even more! The truth is that like most things in life, it costs a lot of money. But you can choose to use it sensibly and maximize the unplugged time.

»»‡The screen draws the most power from the battery so when you are working unplugged dim the screen to the lowest brightness setting possible.

»»‡There are certain running processes ( like Bluetooth and a WiFi network detection ) that eat up the CPU in turn affecting the battery. It is a good idea to switch them off when you are on battery.

»»‡Refrain from watching movies or playing graphic intensive games and you will see your battery lasting longer.

»»‡If you are using a USB mouse, unplug it every once in awhile and use the touchpad. It will save you the power that the mouse is drawing from the USB port.

Most of us like to be online at all times without realizing that it draws quite a bit of battery power. So, it is imperative that you learn how to function offline.

»»‡Use Outlook Express or Thunderbird to save all your e-mails offline. This way you can work with them while you're disconnected from the Internet.

»»‡Use a desktop RSS reader to download all your feeds and read them while you are offline.

»»‡Save Web pages on your hard drive so you can view them offline. Not only are you saving battery power, but you are also ensuring that your work does not stop if you are in some place without an Internet connection.

Since you take your laptop everywhere the chances of it being damaged are a lot more risky. All that wear and tear could easily lead to a component failure. Usually it is the hard drive that fails first. Losing vast amounts of data is never a pretty sight.

»»‡Always back up data to your desktop, a zip drive or an external USB hard drive. It will help you sleep better knowing your personal desktop at home has all your laptop data saved safely.

Chances are your laptop is traveling to all sorts of places. From the bus / rail station to the office to the restaurant to your child's school etc. The cracks in the keyboard could be home to anything from dust to hair to bread crumbs.

»»‡To save your laptop from this menace, buy a laptop keyboard cover to protect your keys.

»»‡Some of the keyboard covers also perform the task of protecting the screen from keyboard scratches.

»»‡If you already have the dust between the keyboard cracks, use a Post-it sticky note to clean it. Just run the adhesive edges through the cracks to clear out the dust. To do it more effectively, use compressed air with cotton swabs to clean between the keys.

If you are someone who likes to use open wireless networks make sure you have a good firewall installed on your laptop. Make sure that any sort of folder sharing is turned off and that no local servers are running. If possible, encrypt your data and use very strong passwords. This helps to protect your personal information when you use these open wireless connections or in case your laptop gets stolen.

Laptops tend to get hot very easily especially if you run a lot of CPU hogging software, games or if you work long hours with it. Unless your house does not have heating you will not be overjoyed with all the heat. Use a non-heat conducting material between the laptop and your legs. Sometimes the top of the keyboard might also get hot so you could wear long sleeved shirts to reduce the effect. The easiest way to get rid of this problem is to use a desk while working with your laptop.

Transporting a laptop is a daily chore for most of us. We hang them from one shoulder; they bump into people, things, doors and worse. This does not do the laptops any good. Try to invest in a good carry bag for the laptop. It might seem expensive but it is a very useful one time investment you can make.