The year prior, my father had offered me a Macbook as present. Yet, I was stubborn about not wanting to make the switch from a PC to a Mac, and I declined. After my first HP crashed, my dad made the offer again, which I declined. Again. However, after the second hard drive crash, I wasn’t offered a choice. Instead of supplying me with a new PC, my dad sent me a Macbook.

Since it was midterm week, I had no choice but force myself to acclimate to the Macbook quickly. I needed to learn how to use the Apple laptop, and I needed results from it with pressing deadlines. Surprisingly, the switch was fairly simple. In fact, it was probably the easiest transition I had ever made.

The difference between a Mac and a PC interface is that the Mac is practically designed for a younger market. Apple understands what college students want most in any electronic regardless of use – availability and speed. Macbooks ask permission before installing anything onto the hard drive, so students know exactly what they have installed without having to wonder what programs are hidden in the background.

They’re also easy to search with the Spotlight feature, which is faster and more precise than any search function on a PC. The Spotlight even goes through Word documents, photo keywords, and browser history – talk about thorough!

Finally, Macbooks are made for speed. They have lightning fast processing and internet browsing, as well as media players that make it more enjoyable to watch a movie from iTunes rather than on a movie screen. Overall, I simply couldn’t have made it through college without my Macbook. In my opinion, they are the best laptops for college. My only regret is that I did not make the switch sooner.

Apple computers are worth every penny of their price tag, and they’re specifically designed for young people like me. I know that I’ll be sticking with Macbooks far into the future past graduation!

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Indeed, my MacBook has been both of those things. It is easy to carry which makes it good for a student that wants to bring it to class with them. I was very surprised when I went back to school after eight years of working, how many people now take their notes directly on their computer. It’s definitely one of the best laptops for college. Another really nice thing about the MacBook is how long the battery power lasts. There is room in my classrooms for every student to plug in their own computer but I imagine that is not the case at all schools.

My Mac will last for note taking for several hours on a full charge. It is also a great help that the computer automatically goes to sleep when you close it and you do not lose very much power at all. It saves a lot of time and frustration as you do not need to reboot your computer every time you go to class. In fact, you can leave your computer on all the time, even as you carry it from place to place. You should not be concerned about programs not working with Mac. Most software automatically converted. Many schools have agreements with Mac through which students can get discounts for a computer and software. Some schools even offer the software for free (although the cost is probably included in tuition).

The MacBook that I have is very light weight. It is not a “thin” laptop but it is much easier to carry then the PCs that I have used before. It fits easily in a backpack. Instead of a carrying case I use a memory foam sleeve which so far has protected it very well. The charger is also compact and fits in the front pocket of my backpack. My Macbook also has a built in camera which is very useful for video conferencing with friends and family. If you are going to school far away from home this is a must.

My Macbook is a very basic model and does not have a lot of memory but so far that has not proved to be a problem for me. It runs very fast and I have plenty of room to store my files. I chose a basic model because Macs in general were pricey but it is worth it to me, as a student that depends on my computer, to have a laptop that is durable and reliable.

First of all, you might want to look at factory refurbished laptops before you look at the newer models. The savings on refurbished models are often quite surprising to people who haven’t given any thought to buying reconditioned instead of new. So, let’s get started.

The first laptop that comes highly recommended for college students is the Acer Aspire One AO531H. Acer is a company that specializes in low-cost (but high quality) laptops, specifically for those who may be on a budget. For those looking to do homework or other tasks that don’t require much processing power, this is a great little netbook. It has a 10.1 inch screen, which is just about the right size when you need to haul this computer back and forth from your dorm room to your classes. It’ll easily fit in a backpack, so that’s not a worry at all. Even better is that it only weighs 2.5 pounds, which is considerably less than most laptops. You can snicker at all the people lugging around their huge 17 inch laptops!

This Acer has a very respectable 1.60 GHz Intel Atom processor and 1 GB of RAM, making it plenty powerful enough for just about every application you’d ever need. High end games might be a bit of an issue, but remember that we’re talking about keeping you on a budget! This laptop also boasts a very nice 160 GB worth of hard drive space, which is better than most laptops its size. How much does the Aspire One cost? A bit less than $300 refurbished, and just under $400 brand new. Either way, it’s a steal!

Speaking of the best college laptops, you’ll love this next one: The HP Pavilion DV7-1464NR is really a performance laptop with a small price tag. This thing will play all of your games and more; it even includes a Blu-Ray player standard. It has a 17.0 inch screen with a 1440 x 900 resolution, 4 GB of DDR2 RAM straight from the factory (expandable up to 8 GB!), and a 500 GB hard drive. It also has a 2.2 GHz AMD Dual-Core processor, making it one of the more powerful laptops on the market. How much is this going to run you? About $700 refurbished. If you want to go new you’ll pay about $1300 out the door, so I highly recommend the former. $700 is still a fair amount of money for a college student, but if you can get your family to help you out you’ll be all set!

Thanks for reading, everyone! I certainly hope that this post has given you a head start on choosing one of the best college laptops available to you today.

Brent is the author of http://www.refurbishedlaptopsguide.com.

You won’t go wrong with a Dell Inspiron laptop. The Inspiron 15 has plenty of power, with Intel Core2 Duo processors. At 2.0GHz, it will keep up with your term papers, music files and editing the video of last week’s party. And storage space won’t be a problem with a 320GB SATA Hard drive. (Your parents were lucky to have 100 Mb on their first computer!) No problem toting your computer to class to take notes and surf for tidbits to impress the professor. The Inspiron has an 8 cell battery with up to 8 hours of power.

The built-in WiFi lets you access the Wi-fi your campus provides. (Not to mention your Starbuck’s, your McDonald’s, your Barnes and Noble…) Burning your own CDs and DVDs is a snap with the 8X burner. And watching DVDs on the gorgeous, slick, wide, glossy 15.6 inch HD screen (with a 16:9 aspect ratio!) puts you in your own personal theater. Pop in some headphones and it’s movie time without bugging the roommate. (Add the optional Blu Ray for eye-popping video.)

Keep worms and viruses and nasty Trojan horses at bay with the included subscription to McAfee SecurityCenter; 15 months, yes over a year, of worry free virus protection! No shortage of places to plug in your USB dancing hula girl, or the external monitor, or the microphone. The 7-in-1 media card reader lets you pop in the card from your camera so you can share those game pictures before the hand-stamp wears off.

Of course, Mom will need to know that you AREN’T wasting away, and you HAVEN’T gotten your nose pierced. The integrated 1.3megapixel webcam lets you send her regular updates on your hair color, or chat with Skype. You’ll want to see what she’s done with your room, now that it’s the new “media center.” And although Mom may tell you looks aren’t everything, your laptop CAN say something about you! Choose cool glossy black for a sophisticated outer shell. Or not. The Inspiron comes in 8 eye-catching colors. Or personalize your new machine with over 200 artist designs, from your favorite MLB team to fractals. And what Mom loves the most? (Besides you.) The Inspiron is a great machine at a great price that will keep up with you as you jump into the college experience. Dell is the way to go.

Unlike a large, bulky laptop, the HP 110 doesn’t require a separate carrying case or a special “laptop bag,” which is wonderful for a student because it doesn’t necessitate lugging around two bags (books are heavy enough already!)

With 160GB of hard drive space, you’ll find plenty of storage on this computer, and the Intel Atom N270 is enough processing power to handle whatever you can throw at it. As you can see from the hardware setup, this laptop functions just like a full size computer system, but it is truly portable. This is especially important for a college student. While a typical laptop user may only transport their computer once or twice a day (to work and back home), a college student may move their laptop up to 10 times a day because of their busy class schedule. This compact system will not only save your back, but it will save your pocketbook, as well.

Because it doesn’t contain a bulky over sized screen (one of the most expensive components of a computer), the HP 110 is able to be very competitively priced. For the college student on the move, this laptop is a perfect choice. It is highly recommended for anyone with an active lifestyle who plans to carry their computer around frequently.

IBM ThinkPad X40 from Lenovo is ultra thin and sleek and is quite ideal for many professionals as well as students. The style and performance along with its being extremely light in weight, makes it the best choice. However the most attractive and remarkable feature of this laptop is keyboard, which is simply great rather perfect. The keyboard helps in solid typing and offers a ‘full body’ feeling in addition. It is just 3.2 pounds in weight and 1.3 inches tall. It has 40GB hard drive and 256MB of RAM that is built in. The screen is 12.1 inch and is quite bright and crisp. It has all the basic features like couple of USB ports, a monitor connection, network and modem jacks, an SD Card slot and basic audio facility too.

Another remarkable feature is the Thinklight, which enables the user to type even in the dark, which really is extremely helpful for students. This also helps while traveling so that you do not disturb anyone else because of your work. The only thing lacking is the absence of touchpad, which is very helpful and easier, actually for the students. Despite this drawback, X40 proves to be one of the best laptops that has the quality of IBM and is ultra portable.

First you need to run the Disk Clean Up utility to remove those files that were stored in the temporary file folder along with the ones in the temporary internet folder, recycling bin and set-up files. Every site you visit is stored in the temporary internet folder so you computer can have faster access to it for a later time. The utility also allows you to choose which (if any) of the files you want to remove.

The next step would be to run the Disk Defragmenter utility. When information is stored on your hard drive, the system will (in most cases) fragment files and or folders. When you run this utility, it organizes the files in a more uniformed way for your hard drive to access them quicker. The computer will mover quicker when it doesn’t have to piece files back together after it’s located them.

The Error Checking utility is another utility that you should run after the other two to help optimize the hard drive performance. After using your computer or laptop, it can develop bad sectors that will cause the hard drive to run slower. Bad sector will make it difficult for you computer to save files as well as retrieve them. The utility qill also look to locate any misplaced files or folders. Quarantining any bad sector from storing any files on them in the future.

These few steps can save you headaches as well as lost time.

Some time back, my 3-year old laptop was running so slow that I had to buy a new one. Or at least I thought I needed a new one. Then within a matter of weeks of surfing on the Internet, my new laptop was also running so slowly. In addition, some programs did not run well and I did not recognize some of the programs that were running on my laptop. Were these programs that were tracking my keystrokes on my laptop or programs I just not remember installing? I knew I had to find a answer and solution fast.

The truth is, we can all put up with a slow laptop but very few of us would want others to have access to our information, but that is exactly what can happen when spyware or malware is loaded on our laptops without our knowledge.

According to Spyware Nuker’s web site, “Spyware applications are programs and files that hide on your PC’s hard drive without your direct knowledge. These programs allow hackers and advertising companies to track your every move, both online and even when you work offline. They can track the websites you visit, the items that you buy online, the emails you send and receive, your Instant Message dialog, and worst of all they can even record your credit card number, personal identification numbers, and all of your passwords. If you use dial-up to connect to the Internet then spyware can be used to bill 900 numbers to your phone bill. This is just a short list of the harm that spyware can cause.”

The web site also provides statistics that show spyware is a huge problem effecting many people. “27.3 million Americans have been victims of identity theft in the last five years, including 9.91 million people or 4.6% of the population in the last year alone.”

In addition, it is very easy for your laptop to become infected with spyware as “The majority of all downloadable games, music, screensavers, etc., can infect your laptop with SpyWare or AdWare. Most people do not know that after simply clicking on a random “pop up” ad, their computers may have been infected with SpyWare or AdWare.”

No matter how we get spyware, here are 10 very real reasons you don’t want spyware on your laptop.

1. Your laptop may start running slower
2. Some programs on your laptop will not run correctly
3. You may not recognize programs that are now on your laptop because they may have been installed there by a spyware related web site or program you loaded on your laptop.

In addition, you might be worried that:

4. Someone might be able to read your e-mails
5. Someone might be able to access your e-mail list
6. Someone might be able to see you track the keystrokes you type
7. Someone might be able to access your credit card information on your pc
8. Someone might be able to access your passwords list on your computer
9. Someone might be able to steal your social security number
10. Someone might be able to track all the web sites you visit

As I mentioned, most of these programs get on your laptop with out you even knowing, but another frustrating part is I recognized a few of these programs because I remember installing AND uninstalling them! So now I know that when we install some of these handy little utilities to track passwords online or programs to help with e-mail or keep track of the weather, even if we uninstall them, they may not be gone from our laptops. They are still in our laptops, waiting to spy on us, at the least.

A great way to find and remove spyware is to run a spyware detector and remover. Most spyware detection and removal software today offers a free scan to verify that you do or do not have spyware on your laptop.

The person who goes on the internet just to check their e-mails or to chat with their friends will only require a basic computer with minimal amount of RAM as well as programs. They wouldn’t need to get all the up grades or even fill their laptop with major amount of gigs.

A college student, depending on what type of classes he or she are taking, must decide if they would want to get graphic programs or not. A big issue with students is that they want the laptop to be conveniently mobile. Some laptops are bulky and have some weight. The best college laptop is the one that works for that particular person.

As for the business man or women, their needs will also vary. First of all they need one that will not fail them. They will require a dependable laptop that can be mobile as well. Since a businessperson travels quite a bit he will need to make sure that he or she gets a long life battery and a back up one as well. The programs that they’ll need will also depend on what field of work they are in. In advertising one would need a laptop that has a few different graphic programs, while someone in banking would need spreadsheets and financial programs.

Whatever the need there’s a laptop out there for you. Making a list of exactly what you’ll be doing with it and using it for will help you in your decision.