Dan Gookin - Laptops for Dummies: 7th Edition

Laptops For Dummies, 7th Edition

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Copyright 2021 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020952025

ISBN: 978-1-119-74027-8; 978-1-119-74028-5 (ebk); 978-1-119-74029-2 (ebk)

1. Chapter 6
2. Chapter 7
3. Chapter 12

1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 3
3. Chapter 4
4. Chapter 5
5. Chapter 6
6. Chapter 7
7. Chapter 8
8. Chapter 9
9. Chapter 10
10. Chapter 11
11. Chapter 12
12. Chapter 14
13. Chapter 15
14. Chapter 16
15. Chapter 17
16. Chapter 18
17. Chapter 19
18. Chapter 20
19. Chapter 21
20. Chapter 24

Its lightweight, high-tech, and portable; the product of years of research, a longtime dream of engineers and scholars, something people all over the world crave. Its wireless. Its about communications. And it will help you become the ultimate mobile computer user. Of course, Im talking about this book: Laptops For Dummies.

This is the seventh edition of Laptops For Dummies, updated and spiffed up for the latest in PC laptop hardware and software as well as for Microsofts latest operating system, Windows 10.

This book covers your portable computer from laptop to lap-bottom, inside and out, on the road or resting at home. The information here runs the gamut, from introducing your laptop to making your first wireless connection at your favorite swanky cybercaf. Youll find this book useful whether you want to go laptop shopping or you consider yourself an old hand.

Im glad that youre still reading this introduction. Most people stop reading after a few paragraphs, or they dont even bother reading the introduction. Consider yourself special.

This book covers laptop computing, from buying and setting up to going on the road, from networking and the Internet to power management and security and everything in between. Theres a lot of laptoppy advice to be had between this books yellow covers.

I dont intend for you to read every chapter in sequence. Thats because this book is organized as a reference: Find the tidbit of information, the knowledge nugget you need to know, and then be on your merry way. Everything is cross-referenced, so if you need to look elsewhere in the book for more information, you can easily find it.

In writing this book, I assume that you may know a bit about computers, as most folks do today. But you may be utterly fresh on the idea of portable computing. Despite what they tell you, a laptop computer isnt merely a desktop computer with a handle attached. Theres more to it, and this book is here to show you the ropes and to let you take full advantage of what the laptop has to offer.

Let me jump to the conclusion that you're a human being, not a cleverly disguised owl. Furthermore, either you own a laptop PC or you want to buy one. You may already have a desktop computer, or perhaps you had a laptop a long, long time ago and noticed that things have changed.

I use the word laptop to refer to all types of portable computers, from the traditional notebooks to the teensy Ultrabooks. A new category is the 2-in-1 laptop, which is more like a tablet. Those are covered here as well and fall under a general category that I term tablet PCs. Any laptop with a touchscreen display is a tablet PC, and I wax eloquently on that topic in .

This book assumes that your laptop is PC-compatible, that it runs the Windows operating system. The current version is Windows 10, which is a great operating system for laptop users. This book doesnt cover older versions of Windows, nor does it cover using Linux, which is fun but way too nerdy.

This book doesnt describe the basic operations of a computer, Windows, or your software. I've tried to keep the information here specific to the portable aspects of the laptop computer. Beyond that, if you need more information about running your computer, any standard PC or Windows reference works fine.