Wednesday, September 25, 2019

New Laptop Tips



This month with many of you or your offspring going to third level I thought I’d pen a few hints to help avoid some of the problems I encounter when laptops are presented for repair. If you heed the tips your chances of becoming a casualty of this particular technology will hopefully be reduced (fingers crossed).

Hint 1. – Generate A Recovery Image
This particular hint refers only to windows based laptops and does not apply to chromebooks or Apple laptops. Once you have all your apps installed, your accounts setup, printer added you should generate a system image of the laptop. In one of my prior articles I outlined and gave specific links to how to achieve this so there is no need to revisit it. If you can’t find the relevant article on my blog email me and I will send it to you.

Periodically you should generate additional images so should they be needed you won’t lose any apps installed or Microsoft or other app updates.

Hint 2 – Avoid Too Much Data
Most new laptops in the affordable price range now come with SSD (solid state drive) technology. This technology is less prone to damage if you drop the unit, the storage capacity compared to older hard drive systems has reduced. With Windows 10 you need to keep as much storage free as possible for updates.

Earlier models and indeed a few today came equipped with ridiculously small SSD’s which caused a lot of problems with updates.

Hint 3 – Backup Your Data
Your windows laptop will give you a certain amount of free cloud storage but I always recommend you also store a backup of your data on a local device such as a usb flash drive or hard drive. Take advantage of other free cloud storage providers to keep multiple copies of key data files.

Hint 4 – Accidental Damage Insurance
When purchasing your new laptop you can take out accidental damage insurance which is a good buy for a laptop purchased for college. Unlike extended warranties damage insurance can covers you against all eventualities but obviously not operating system or virus infections! Read the terms carefully before taking one out.

Hint 5 – Anti-Virus
Ensure that once your free trial expires you install a good anti-virus on your laptop. Virus writers have not gone away they are just more sneaky in their approach. Periodically old viruses are reworked and appear to haunt the pc user including the now infamous ransom viruses so don’t make the mistake of thinking they are gone.