Optimize Your Laptop’s Battery With BatteryCare

One of the most annoying issues I have faced lately with my laptop is that it gets overheated. The most common reason why it happens is that nowadays, laptops are equipped with fast processors and hard drives. When they work in a small space, they end up reaching a high temperature.
I found out about this issue when my laptop automatically went to sleep after getting overheated. Since then, I started looking for a handy utility that can help me manage my laptop’s temperature and find out if its overheating. If you dont manage the temperature of your laptop, you may end up with a dead hard drive from which you cannot recover any data at all. It can even cause a greater damage to your processor as well which may not be the most cheapest thing to repair.
To make things easier, I started looking for apps that can help me manage my laptop’s temperature and ended up using BatteryCare.

What is BatteryCare?

BatteryCare is a very nifty little utility that can help users manage their laptop’s battery and most importantly, monitor its temperature. Higher temperature may cause your system to malfunction and may damage your hardware. The program has some useful built-in settings that can also help users manage their laptop’s battery efficiently.

Installing BatteryCare

Installing BatteryCare is pretty simple and straightforward. Like many free softwares, BatteryCare does recommend you to install third party add-ons and toolbars or in simple words, bloatware. So make sure you read the on screen instructions carefully and uncheck any unnecessary program installation.

I installed BatteryCare on two laptops at home and it showed me a different recommendation on both, so just uncheck any option that requires you to install any additional software. Other than that, there is no virus or Trojan in the bundle. I ran a scan using Microsoft Security Essentials as well as VirusTotal and it showed no signs of infection (this is for those who are extra cautious about installing different software).

Using BatteryCare

Once installed, the application will place a small icon in your Windows taskbar. One of the most important things you should see here is the battery percentage and temperature. On the main screen of BatteryCare, it will show you complete information about your battery i-e battery status, remaining time, current battery percentage and battery discharge information. A full discharge means the number of times you have fully used your laptop’s battery. It’s always a good idea to use your laptop’s full battery at least 3-4 times a month or more if possible. The most important feature is that it displays the temperature of your CPU as well as your hard drive on the main screen. To be on the safe side, make sure that the temperature does not cross 50 degrees.

Clicking on Detailed Information tab will show you in depth details of your laptop’s battery such as the company name, total capacity, current capacity, charge/discharge rate and much more.

Let’s take a look at some configuration options of BatteryCare. It offers users with useful optimization options in order to improve your laptop’s battery. From the General tab, make sure that it runs on Windows startup. On the same tab, it will show you some optimization options such as disabling aero effect and themes when your laptop is not connected to a power source as well as other windows services which consume high amount of energy when you are running your laptop on battery. You can also select which method should be used to calculate the remaining battery time.

You can also setup battery notifications as well. If you want, you can enable low/critical battery notifications for your laptop as well.

One useful feature is that you can automatically let BatteryCare select the power plan for your computer based on the current energy source. It will help users automatically manage their battery efficiently. You can also select which power plan should be used when there is no connected power source and vice versa.

Sometimes, it may not display the temperatures of your laptop. The reason behind this is that BatteryCare needs privileges to read CPU temperature. In Windows, UAC may block access to BatteryCare to read the information so you can either disable UAC (which I never recommend) or use can use the software’s bypass tool that will add the software to the exceptions list. Just go to Advanced tab and check the “Run at startup in Administrator Mode”. If it still does not show you the temperature, it may be because your hardware is not compatible with the application.

Conclusion

BatteryCare is a very handy utility when it comes to optimizing your laptop’s battery and hardware temperature. As far as the installation of bloatware is concerned, just make sure you read the on screen installation instructions carefully. All free software recommends users to install other applications and toolbars but that doesn’t mean that the software is not good.
It may not show you 100 percent accurate results but it still gives you a pretty good idea about the temperatures and laptop’s battery information.
Which application do you use to monitor your laptop’s battery and temperature? Feel free to share your views in the comments below.

15 Best Windows 7 Tips and Hacks

1.Use Keyboard Shortcuts

Using the mouse, you can drag-”˜n-dock windows to either side of the screen, or drag it to the top to maximize it. These keyboard shortcuts are even faster:

• Win+Left Arrow and Win+Right Arrow dock the window to the left and right side of the screen
• Win+Up Arrow and Win+Down Arrow maximize and restore/minimize
• Win+M minimizes everything
• Alt+Up, Alt+Left Arrow, Alt+Right Arrow navigate to parent folder, or browse Back and Forward through folders in Explorer
• Win+Home minimizes/restores all open windows except the active window
• Alt+Win+# accesses the Jump List of program number ‘#’ on the taskbar

2.Rearrange System Tray Icons

You can rearrange icons on the taskbar as you wish and start new (or switch to running) instances of the first ten taskbar programs using Win+1, Win+2, and so on. The cool thing is you can also rearrange system tray icons. Reorder them on the tray or move them outside or back in the tray. Take control of what you want to always keep an eye on, and from which apps you’ll require notifications.

3. Access Jump Lists with the Left Mouse Button

Jump Lists usually show up when you right-click on a taskbar icon. However, they can also be accessed by holding the left mouse button and dragging upwards. If you’re using a laptop touchpad or a touch screen, this is convenient because you do not have to click any button to access a context menu.

4. Add Any Folder to Favorites

You can add any library or folder to the Favorites section in Windows Explorer. To add a folder, navigate to it in Explorer, right-click Favorites in the left navigation pane, and select Add current location to Favorites. Now you get quick access to your favorite folders in all File->Save As dialogs!

5. Pin Frequently Used Folders to the Taskbar

Right-click, drag, and pin your favorite folders to Windows Explorer on the taskbar. They will now show up in the Jump List when you right click on Explorer giving you quick access to your favorite folders.

6. Pin Control Panel to the Taskbar

You cannot pin the Control Panel to the taskbar via the Start Menu or by drag and drop. Open the Control Panel and right-click its taskbar icon to pin it to the taskbar. An advantage of this is that Control Panel’s Jump List allows quick access to recently used functions.

7. Create Keyboard Shortcuts for Programs

You can create keyboard shortcuts for any program in Windows 7. Right-click the program icon and select Properties. Select the Shortcut tab, click in Shortcut key, to set the keyboard shortcut for that program.

8. Open Command Prompt in Any Folder

Like the command prompt? Miss the “˜Open Command Window Here’ Windows XP power toy? Press “˜Shift’ when right-clicking on a folder to get that option in the context menu. This also works on the desktop. No power toy required!

9. View Expanded ‘Send To’ Menu

Press Shift when right-clicking on a folder to get an expanded Send To menu.

10. Adjust Screen Text with Clear Type

Use Clear Type Tuner for the best look on your LCD monitor or laptop screen. Run “˜cttune.exe‘ from the Start Menu search box, or go to the Control Panel Display applet, and select Adjust ClearType Text from the left.

11. Get Exact Colors On Your Screen

If you are an artist or you work with colors, use the Calibrate Color option in the Control Panel Display applet or run dccw.exe from the Start Menu search box. You can adjust gamma, brightness, contrast, and color balance, ensuring that colors are displayed correctly on your screen.

12. Customize the Power Button

If you restart your computer more often than you shut it down, change the default Shutdown power button to Restart. Right-click on Start, select Properties, and choose the Power button action that you use the most.

13. Customize Number of Items in Jump Lists & Start Menu

Right-click Start, select Properties, click Customize and choose the number of recent programs to be shown in the Start Menu and the number of items displayed in Jump Lists from the Start Menu Size section below.

14. Search Internet from the Start Menu

Enable Internet search from the Start Menu using your default browser. Run GPEDIT.MSC from the Start Menu search box to start the Group Policy Editor. In the left pane, go to User Configuration->Administrative Templates->Start Menu and Taskbar. In the right pane, right-click to Edit and Enable Add Search Internet link to Start Menu.

15. Add Videos to Start Menu

Windows 7 does not place a link to your videos on the Start Menu by default. To add a link to your videos on the Start Menu, right-click Start, select Properties, click on Customize. In the Videos section at the bottom, choose Display as a link.

Did you like these tips? Tell us or share your tricks with us in the comments!

10 Windows 7 Secrets, Tips and Tricks you didn't know!

Windows 7 can possibly be ranked as the best OS so far because of its simplicity and user friendliness. However, if you're using Windows 7, there may be a LOT about it which you wouldn't be knowing. Read along and APPLY what you like-

1change the background of windows media player:
1) Go to Run and type “Regedit”, It will open a registry editor.
2) locate this key in registry editor
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\P references
3) Double click on the key LibraryBackgroundImage and enter a value between 0 to 6 (each number represents a background).

2 move open windows:
If we press windows logo key + arrow key, then we will see the hover window is moving in the different sides according to the pressed arrow key. We can also minimize our opened hover window by pressing windows logo key + two times down arrow key.

3Windows 7 trick to access hidden themes:
Windows 7 doesn’t come bundled with a huge set of themes with it, so here is a simple windows 7 trick by which we can use windows 7 themes which aren’t made for us.
Just type C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT in the search box and press enter. You will see some folders of themes which are made for other countries like USA and Canada.

4Install windows 7 on netbook with a pendrive or flash drive:
To install windows 7 on a net book with a pendrive, Take a 4GB pendrive and format it with FAT32 file system, Then just copy an ISO image to the pendrive by xcopy d:\ e:\ /d /e (where d: is the DVD drive which contains windows cd in it and e: is the pen drive location). It will create a bootable pendrive by which you can easily install windows 7 on netbook.

5Make a system repair disc:
Almost all versions of windows supports this handy feature, making system repair disc is helpful in situations when we are facing problems booting windows.
System repair disc restore the windows to an old state without affecting your hard disk data. To create a system repair disc go to start, then maintenance and then create a system repair disc.

6.New windows 7 calculator:
New windows 7 calculator looks like vista one, but if you look it closely then you will find a lot of advance modes like standard, scientific, programmer and statistics. These modes support thousands of operations to solve a complex problem. To activate any of the mode just click on view and select mode.

7 Experience the new windows 7 WordPad:
The all new windows 7 WordPad supports format like .docx and .odt, so now you don’t need to download Microsoft office 2007, in order to open a ms office 2007 word document.

8 Zoom in and Zoom out in an easy way:
Windows 7 made accessing of magnifier lot more easier than its predecessor, to zoom in press windows key and + and to zoom out press windows key and -

9 Burn Cd and Dvd’s with windows 7 built in burner:
Windows 7 provides its own burner to burn cd’s and Dvd’s, So we don’t need to download softwares like nero to burn ISO. To burn an ISO file, Right click on the ISO file and select Burn Disc image, or easier just double click the ISO file.


10 Change the order of taskbar options:
many windows users worry for their taskbar, so if you are one of them, Here is a great news. You can easily arrange the taskbar options in any order by dragging and dropping.

12 Expert Google Search Tips

1) Explicit Phrase

Let's say you're looking for content about inbound marketing. Instead of just typing inbound marketing into the Google search box, you will likely be better off searching explicitly for the phrase. To do this, simply enclose the search phrase within double quotes.
Example Search: "inbound marketing"

2) Exclude Words

Let's say you want to search for content about inbound marketing, but you want to exclude any results that contain the term advertising. To do this, simply use the "-" sign in front of the word you want to exclude.
Example Search: inbound marketing -advertising

3) Site-Specific Search

Often, you want to search a specific website for content that matches a certain phrase. Even if the site doesn’t support a built-in search feature, you can use Google to search the site for your term. Simply use the "site:somesite.com" modifier.
Example Search: "inbound marketing" site:www.smallbusinesshub.com

4) Similar Words and Synonyms

Let’s say you want to include a word in your search, but also want to include results that contain similar words or synonyms. To do this, use the "~" in front of the word.
Example Search: "inbound marketing" ~professional

5) Specific Document Types

If you’re looking to find results that are of a specific type, you can use the modifier "filetype:". For example, you might want to find only PowerPoint presentations related to inbound marketing.
Example Search: "inbound marketing" filetype:ppt

6) This OR That:

By default, when you conduct a search, Google will include all the terms specified in the search. If you're looking for any one of one or more terms to match, then you can use the OR operator. (Note: The OR has to be capitalized).
Example Search: inbound marketing OR advertising

7) Phone Listing

Let’s say someone calls you on your mobile number, and you don’t know who it is. If all you have is a phone number, you can look it up on Google using the phonebook feature.
Example Search: phonebook:617-555-1212 (Note: The provided number does not work. You’ll have to use a real number to get any results.)

8) Area Code Lookup

If all you need to do is to look up the area code for a phone number, just enter the 3-digit area code and Google will tell you where it’s from.
Example Search: 617

9) Numeric Ranges

This is a rarely used but highly useful tip. Let’s say you want to find results that contain any of a range of numbers. You can do this by using the X..Y modifier (in case this is hard to read, what’s between the X and Y are two periods). This type of search is useful for years (as shown below), prices, or anywhere where you want to provide a series of numbers.
Example Search: president 1940..1950

10) Stock (Ticker Symbol)

Just enter a valid ticker symbol as your search term, and Google will give you the current financials and a quick thumbnail chart for the stock.
Example Search: GOOG

11) Calculator

The next time you need to do a quick calculation, instead of bringing up the Calculator applet, you can just type your expression into Google.
Search Example: 48512 * 1.02

12) Word Definitions

If you need to quickly look up the definition of a word or phrase, simply use the "define:" command.
Search Example: define:plethora
Hope this list of Google search tips proves useful for your future Google searches. If there are any of your favorite Google expert power tips that I’ve missed, please feel free to share them in the comments.

15 Awesome, Useful Internet Tricks

1. For clumsy fingered folks, if you accidentally close a tab on Google Chrome, press Control+Shift+T and it’ll come back from the dead.
2. If you’re in a particular country that can’t access important content on US websites like Hulu or Netflix, Firefox and Google Chrome offer a free extension called Media Hint that can have you watching Orange is the New Black and other American exclusives in no time.
3. Control+F or Command+F will allow you to find specific terms on a page. If only life had a version of this for when we lose our keys, phone, dignity, etc.
4. Want to surf the web in private with no recording of your web habits? For Firefox users, press control+shift+p, or for Chrome it’s control+shift+N, and you’ll be browsing off the record. This isn’t just for porn watching purposes as one might think, but for several other benefits such as websites that track your cookies and use ‘em to their advantage (I’m looking at you, hotel & airline companies). This simple incognito window defeats their swindling ways.
5. If you hate YouTube’s (or other website’s) ads before the start of your videos, Adblock Plus is what you need in your life. It’s basicallylike having Dikembe Mutombo protecting your eyes from any type of advertisement.
6. If you put define: in front of a word and Google it, you’ll get that word’s definition.
7. What you type into the URL bar can be surrounded by www. & .com by pressing control + enter.
8. For more specific search results, try utilizing the AROUND feature. It allows you to find separate phrases, not just mentioned in the same article or page, but inside of a specific amount of words apart. For example, if you wanted to find writings about ‘Kanye West’ and ‘pizza’ within 12 words of each other, your search would look like this:
“Kanye West” AROUND (12) “Pizza”
Having the terms you’re searching in quotation marks, the word AROUND written in ALL CAPS and the number in parenthesis are all necessary for this to work.
9. Another way to improve search accuracy is by taking advantage of the minus sign. E.g. Selena Gomez -Bieber. Boom! – you’ll get all the glorious Selena results without any of Justin’s douchey, mop bucket urinating shenanigans killing your vibe.
10. If you’re too lazy to lift a finger and click on your desired tab, control+tab (or control+shift+tab) will switch you between ‘em. As a lethargic tab hoarder, this is a great way to minimize hand movement while allowing that article from three weeks ago, that you swear you’re going to read, to remain open.
11. Corrupt A File is an enabler that can be a procrastinator’s best (or worst?) friend, allowing them to corrupt a file and make it seem like they did their work on time, but it’s unfortunately malfunctioning.

12. You can find a lot of textbooks on Google if you enter their title, then the desired file type. So an example would look like this: Book Title filetype:PDF
13. Too lazy to get up and grab your glasses? Control + or control – will allow you to adjust text sizes larger or smaller.
14. Need a disposable e-mail to avoid putting yourself at risk for spam? There’s a place called 10 Minute Mail that’s pretty self-explanatory.
15. If you’re going to do online shopping, try leaving your desired purchases in your cart for a while, and eventually you’ll get some type of discount code in an email that gives off desperate ex vibes, borderline begging you to finish the purchase. (This doesn’t ALWAYS work, but it happens enough that it’s worth trying if you don’t need whatever you’re ordering hastily.)

Why do some web pages take so long to download?

Many factors affect how fast a Web page travels from its Web site to your computer. Web pages may load slowly for these reasons:

• Your modem transmits data slowly.
• Traffic on the Internet is heavy.
• The page's file is large. Some of Butterworths Report series are quite large and will take a while to download. Please be patient.
• The server and connecting lines used by your online service, your Internet service provider, or the Web site transmit data slowly.

To decrease download time, try these pointers:

• Get the latest version of your browser software.
• Buy a faster modem that transmits at a rate of at least 56,000 baud.
• If a page is loading so slowly that you think it may be stuck, click the Stop button on your browser's toolbar, and try to load the page again in a few minutes.

If your internet connection seems slow.

• Refresh the page. Press the STOP button on your browsers toolbar. Hold down the SHIFT key and click on the REFRESH or RELOAD button on the toolbar.
• Clear your internet cache:
  When you explore the World Wide Web, your browser keeps track of the pages you've visited and saves them on your hard disk so they'll load faster when you return to them. This saves you time and money because you can view the saved pages without being connected to the Internet. The saved files, your "temporary Internet files," are stored in your disk cache.
  
  To empty your disk cache
  When you browse, your disk cache can fill up with files you no longer need. Here's how to empty your Internet Explorer disk cache.
  
  For Internet Explorer:
  1. On the Tools menu of your Internet Explorer toolbar, click Internet Options.
  2. Click the General tab.
  3. In the Temporary Internet Files area, click Delete Files, and then click OK.
  4. Click OK to close Internet Options.
  
  Netscape Communicator:
  1. Click on EDIT and then PREFERENCES.
  2. Expand the ADVANCED Tab.
  3. Click on CACHE.
  4. Click CLEAR MEMORY CACHE and CLEAR DISK CACHE
  5. Click OK and then reload the page and everything should work fine.
• Try accessing another page to see if you have access to the internet in general. Try to enter a web address that you would not have been to in a long while as it may run from your cache or proxy server and not give you a correct representation
• If a page is loading so slowly that you think it may be stuck, click the Stop button on your browser's toolbar, and try to load the page again in a few minutes.