Used Mac Laptops - Warning Signs People Miss Very Often

Whenever someone hears about used Mac laptops, a warning sign is the last thing on their minds because it's a Mac! What can possibly go wrong with it right? If it's used or refurbished, everything and anything can go wrong very quickly. I'm going to help you with your next Mac laptop purchase so you can avoid this.

The 3 Main Warning Signs

1. A low price is fine, but an extremely inexpensive price is usually a bad buy! - if you already know the average price on most refurbished Macintosh laptops, when you find a used one that is ridiculously low, bring your eyes to the seller review page as quickly as you can to make sure the seller's reputable. You may very well be tricked into buying a MacBook without a screen or without any software, whichever is worse for you.

2. No warranty - no matter what, any purchase you make online from used Mac laptops to candy apples, make sure there's some kind of return policy or else you could be stuck with a piece of junk while the seller keeps your money and spends it on their new MacBook.

3. Less than 4 highlighted stars - stars are huge thing for me, a 3-star rating is fine but a 5-star rating is great!

How to Correctly Purchase on Amazon
Once you've found your used Mac laptop of choice, read the description and make sure there is a good warranty. Also in the description, make sure you know every piece of equipment that comes with it. Finally, go over to the seller reviews by finding the "used" and "refurbished" links located to the right of the brief description and make sure the buyer's feedback is over 90% positive.

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Converting Word Files to PDF - Advantages of Having PDF Files

Managing a business, practicing your profession and many other things we do in life indeed involves a lot of paperwork and files - from receipts to contracts to many other important documents. With the convenience of the internet these days, business and personal documents are also being kept as files in the hard drive and archived electronically. With this, converting word files to PDF or portable document format has become popular as well.

With the many software and applications that we have today when it come to online files, it is important as well to find a file format that makes our files easy to manage but not easy to alter. PDF files have then become a good choice for businesses and even for personal files that you want to store electronically.

To help you understand the advantages of converting word files to PDF, here are some the good points of using PDF files.

- One good thing about PDF files is that, the software that you will need to open your PDF files is free. All you have to do is download it online and you can already open and read your files without having to spend a huge sum of money.

- Files set in PDF format can be opened anywhere - from your PC, your mobile phone, or your PDA, and that makes it easy and convenient. Of course, the most obvious and main advantage of converting your files to this format is all about portability and being able to access your files anywhere is a good advantage in these times that we prefer services that are fast, convenient and easy.

- Files in portable document format are also convenient because it can be opened in many platforms like Windows, Linux and Mac, thus you don't have to worry about opening your files in different computers and wherever you want to access your files.

- Another good thing about files converted to PDF is security. Files in this format cannot be easily manipulated without leaving any electronic proof that it has been altered, thus it can indeed be useful in easy storing your personal and business documents. Documents in portable document format can also be signed digitally for authenticity, as this document format also supports good encryption. Of course, this will provide integrity to your documents as well.

- Converting word files to PDF is also a good way to make your files safe, as documents in this format have almost no chance of being infected with a virus.

- One of the conveniences of having your files in the portable document format is that, it also allows compression of your files. Especially if you have lots of graphics in your word file or your Powerpoint file, converting them to the portable document format will help you save memory on your PC and helps you upload your documents faster and easier.

Aside from all these, PDF files can also be created not only from word files but from many other sources. You can create them from scanned images or documents, you can create them from web pages as well as any electronic documents.

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Three Most Important Tips When Buying a Refurbished Tablet PC

Have you been panting after the new crop of beautiful tablet laptop on display every where just in time for the up coming holiday season? Thinking you couldn't afford even the most basic model? Well, don't cross off this mobile computing tool off your list yet. By buying a refurbished tablet PC, you could own one for yourself and still have left over money to buy additional accessories.

Most people might be leery of purchasing electronic items when they hear the word refurbished. But if you understand the process of why and how manufacturers offer refurbished merchandise, then you can buy with confidence while saving money at the same time.

Armed with a typical return policy, a customer can return a purchased tablet PC to the store and he often doesn't have to have to offer the reason why he doesn't want it anymore. The store, protected by the manufacturer's policy, returned the same item to the manufacturer's warehouse. This electronic product then is inspected and if needed repaired to like new condition. It is then offered to customers under the refurbished label often at incredibly discounted prices.

Buying a refurbished tablet PC can be a great experience if you follow these three most important tips:

How do you plan to use your tablet computer?

Do you travel a lot? If you need to take notes in class or do presentations for clients, then an ultra-portable type or the thin and light type would be perfect for you. Their extremely compact size even with battery can be as light as a little over 3 pounds. Make sure to write down all the features you must have come with your tablet laptop.

Reputable Vendors - Price Comparisons

Most manufacturers of most popular tablet PC brand names also sell them as refurbished as well. Manufacturers such as HP, Lenovo, Dell, Gateway, Fujitsu, Asus, make tablet PC which are often rated very highly among users. Their websites often post promotional offers or clearance and closeout deals. Many of these manufacturers also have an Ebay seller account so make sure to search there for refurbished tablet PC.

Warranty Period and Return Policy

Before purchasing your refurbished tablet PC, you need to find out how long is the warranty period and how lenient is the return policy for each of these vendors. I actually called the customer service department to clarify how long after my purchase of the refurbished tablet PC can I still purchase additional warranty.

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Five Tips For Speeding Up Your Computer

In the past I have written an article describing how to improve your computer performance. This time I have decided to write an article with five additional tips that could help with increasing your computer speed. If you haven't read my other article, I highly recommend checking it out at. Those are the main ways to increase your computer speed. These are just small additional tips. Anyway, let's get to them. They are in no particular order.

1. Using The Classic Theme

One way you can increase the speed of windows is by not using one of the newer Windows themes. Instead, try changing your theme and use the Windows Classic theme. This theme is a lot easier on your computer.

To change your theme, go to the control panel, then display properties, then themes.

2. No Wallpaper

Having a wallpaper on your computer is nice, but it also is just another item for your computer to load on startup. Instead of having a big high resolution photo, why not have your wallpaper blank? Yeah your computer looks dull, but you might notice an increase in your computer speed since it doesn't have to load that wallpaper.

3. Turn Off The Indexing Service

I don't know why this was even enabled by default on Windows XP. The indexing service is supposed to help speed up file searches on the computer. Most people don't do file searches very often though. And if you do use one, just download a separate program to do that! There are many available that do a better job at it such as Agent Ransack.

To disable the Indexing service, go to control panel - administrative tools - services. From there, double click on the indexing service and change it to disable.

4. Reload FireFox

Ok, I can't believe I put this. But, if you use FireFox, you might be aware of Firefox's memory leaks. After using Firefox for some time, it can quickly take up a lot of your RAM. This can especially slow down your computer. If you've had Firefox open awhile, clear your cache, reload FireFox, and continue web surfing.

5. Use Trillian

Do you use a lot of IM Messengers? If you do, consider downloading Trillian. AIM, MSN, and Yahoo Messenger all use up a LOT of memory. With Trillian, you can connect to all of them with just one messenger. And honestly, Trillian uses less memory then either AIM, MSN, or Yahoo. Imagine how much memory it takes to run all three at once. If you are doing that, just download Trillian.

Hopefully these tips will help you to speed up that old computer. Good luck!

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How to Get Rid of TEMP Files on Windows XP

If you are reading this it means your computer is slow, you noticing your hard drive is getting smaller or you just plain want to get rid of temp files. Maybe it's all of the above. Whatever the case may be, temp files are an annoying bunch of files that remain behind in your Pc or laptop even after you deleted the folder or program. Even disk clean up cannot get rid of them. Here it's how to get rid of them once and for all.

The first thing you want to do is close ALL open programs, including any running in the background, like Messenger, your anti-virus program, or anything else.

Next we're going to Click on the start button, then Search. Now in the dialog box, make sure where it says "what do you want to search for" pick files and folder option. Next window on the part where it says "look in" make sure it is looking at your C: drive (if you have other hard drives or partitions, be sure to select "All Local Drives") Now make sure there is a check in the box next to where it says "include sub folders". (This is in the "More Advanced Options" in XP. Also, in Windows XP you need to put checks in the boxes that say "Search hidden files and folders" and "Search system folders".) Next were going to click your mouse pointer in the box that says "All or part of the file name and type the following, exactly as I have put it here.

*.tmp,*.chk,~*.*

That's........ asterisk period t m p comma asterisk period c h k comma tilde asterisk period asterisk .....Remember NO SPACES.

This is very important; The "tilde" which is the little squiggle above the Tab key on the left end of your keyboard.....DO NOT FORGET THE TILDE as ~*.* will find all files which begin with ~, but *.* but if you don't add it XP would find all files on the drive and you DON'T want to do that!! To be sure you've got it right, just highlight and copy paste this ---- *.tmp,*.chk,~*.* ----copy it and paste it in the search file name box.

It may take a while but once it finds all the files, there may be a long list depending on the last time you did this. At the bottom, it's going to tell you how many TEMP files it found. In Windows XP, if it didn't find any files, you need to go to My Computer, click on the Tools menu and choose Folder Options. Next you will click on the View tab and scroll thru that list to make sure the "Show hidden files and folders" is checked and that the "Hide protected operating system files" is NOT checked. Do this, and then try the search again.

Next you going to Hit ctrl+a to select them all, or select all from the edit button. Next hit your delete key. Chances are it won't delete some of them, that's because the files may be attached to a program running in the background. In that case you may have to delete them one at a time. You may have to select a few at a time until you are left with only the ones the current program is using. If one or two won't delete, they may delete when you reboot. Remember Windows XP tends to hang onto temp files more than the earlier versions of windows, so you may run into a few that you can't delete. At this point they may only be like 2 or 3 if that many. If you have more than that, then try doing it in SAFE MODE.

Typically most of all of these files and folders are safe to delete. Removing them can speed up your Pc or laptop and help you regain space. It may even get rid of a problems your Pc or laptop may be having. Of course some people will naturally be concerned about deleting these files. I was one of them when I did this to my Pc and laptop. If that is the case then you can simply leave the files you deleted in your recycle bin for a few days until you are sure everything is working properly. In the event you have a problem, you can always restore the files from the recycle bin... But I am sure in a few days you will be going into your recycle bin to permanently delete them all.

Remember, if you are unsure of the files; just leave them in the recycle bin for a few days. It's what I always do. That way you can be safe. Hope this helps.

READ MORE - How to Get Rid of TEMP Files on Windows XP

Windows 7 Test Setup

Windows 7 is available for testing and I wanted to check it out. How to do this safely without buying a new machine?

There is a short and simple answer, but it isn't always straight forward. It does come in the form of free software, which is always good.

The solution is to install Virtual PC (Microsoft Virtual PC) on your computer. This software emulates a computer, and you can install an operating system on this emulated computer, which is independent of your host operating system.

This is a great solution because it means you don't have to trash your current operating system just to test a new operating system that you may or may not like, not to mention all the time spent to configure your machine to be just the way you like it.

It means you can boot up your current operating system, and then boot up Windows 7 from there when you want to mess around with it, and then shut it down when you're done.

It didn't take me long to find the free download page on the Microsoft website, and grab a copy.

Very convenient, just the thing, ever so simple ...

Or is it?

I came across a number of obstacles and roadblocks, which I will explain in this article, along with how I overcame them.

First of all, I had to decide which computer to install the virtual machine on: the one with more memory, or the more convenient one? Why not both?

I first installed Virtual PC on my laptop with 2G of memory, running Vista Home Premium. That is when I found out that Virtual PC will not run under Vista Home Premium, or so I thought at the time. I later discovered that if you ignore the warnings, it should still be possible to install the virtual software, but I didn't know that at the time and didn't try.

Next, I installed in on my laptop with 1G of memory, running Windows XP Pro. It installed quickly and easily, and setting it up to install the Windows 7 operating system went smoothly.

However, the virtual PC/Windows 7 combination was very sluggish. There just wasn't enough memory available to run comfortably, and the CPU could be faster as well.

So I went out and bought a new hard drive, partitioned it, and set it up with Windows XP Pro. This was long and involved as I had to find all the right drivers for the laptop. In the end I got it up and running.

I installed Virtual PC, then Windows 7, and this time it worked quite well, running a bit slow, but fast enough to be usable.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, it may be cheaper and easier to buy a second had computer with XP Pro or Vista Pro installed, and then go from there.

READ MORE - Windows 7 Test Setup

Desktop Wallpaper Tips

Most people love to have profound and good looking wallpaper as the background. The computer users may stuff the computer with all kinds of software and games to make the best use of system. But still they might find something is missing. In most cases, it might be the wallpaper which is not good enough to bring liveliness to the system. Perfect and good looking wallpaper will add more beauty to laptops and normal desktop computers.

There are certain factors to be kept in mind while choosing the desktop wallpaper. Some of them are

· It can be an image, picture in most standard cases.

· The public might get a chance to see the desktop wallpaper. So let it not be any personal photo or picture.

· The resolution and pixels must not be highly proportionate. They might get damaged if they cannot fit with the monitor settings.

It is feasible to download wallpapers from websites at free of cost. But most of them may contain viruses and other spywares. When users download such programs, it might affect the system. Hence it is a daunting task to find a legitimate website to get clean wallpapers. Certain users might be interested in creating their own wallpapers. Here are some of the tips for them.

· Choose any image whose resolution is 700 pixels high.

· It is not advisable to select any screenshot of any video or enlarging any low resolution images and pictures.

· Google image search can be a better option to select the right kind of wallpapers.

· Users can edit the wallpapers if they know Photoshop. It can be customized in this way. The usage of filters and effects options must be utilized to the core.

· The choice of desktop wallpaper needs some intuition and users must have a good thought on the pictures and their adaptability.

· Do not over compress the image as it might reduce the quality.

The choice of desktop wallpapers does not only add beauty to the monitor but also reflects the user's mentality. Hence spend enough time in choosing the best one that suits the requirements.

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