HP invited a number of foreign and domestic press to tour its campus in Houston, Texas where HP notebooks are designed and engineered. On the first day, upon arrival, HP left a welcome kit that introduces the theme of the three-day tour: HP’s Making of Elite, which will highlight not only the technological innovations behind the company’s flagship EliteBook notebooks, but also the strength, durability, and material selection in the design process. I’ll be updating this space with more information from my stay with HP in Houston, Texas in the coming days, but for now, you can get a quick look at the USB key (hidden inside a pen cap) that will unlock the mission.

The Key to Unlocking the Secret to HP’s Elite Tough is a post by Chuong Nguyen from Notebooks.com.

If your computer is not performing as fast as it should be, you can do some quick fixes to speed things up a bit. One of them is turning off the Windows Aero theme.

Introduced in Windows Vista, this new experience focused on providing an elegant user experience for the Windows environment. Most modern systems can run Aero, but older systems can struggle to keep up with the graphical demands of Aero, resulting in a slower computer.

The best thing to do in such scenarios is to turn off the Windows Aero Glass theme. Doing this is very simple, just right-click your Desktop then click Personalize

Turning off Aero

This will open the Personalize Control Panel item which includes a variety of tools and options for customizing your Windows user experience.

Windows 7 Personalize Settings

Windows 7 includes three types of themes: Aero Glass, Basic and High Contrast themes. Aero Glass is the premier theme that includes effects such as semi-transparency of window border along with the ability to utilize desktop effects such as Aero Peek, Snaps, Taskbar Thumbnail Previews and others such as Flip 3D. Aero Glass requires that you have a GPU (graphical processing unit otherwise known as your video card) powerful enough to compose the desktop. To run Aero Glass, you need a video card that supports DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver.

If you don’t meet the requirements to run Aero Glass, it doesn’t necessarily mean you cannot run Windows 7. Many older computers work just fine with the Windows Aero Basic theme which provides some of the features of Windows 7, but not the more visually stunning aspects such as the semi-transparency.

If your computer is capable of running Windows 7 Aero Glass, but performs slow, you can turn off some visual embellishments to improve the speed of the interface. To do this, click Start, type: Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows

Hit Enter on your keyboard

Adjust performance in Windows 7

Select the Visual Effects tab

Here you will see a number of options available for you to choose from. You have Windows choose the best experience or you adjust according your hardware capabilities. You can even select the Custom option and uncheck options that can give you more speed while still enjoying the benefits of the Aero Glass user experience.

Additional Resources

Making Windows 7 Your Own: Personalization and Themes

How to Turn off Windows Aero: To Speed Up Windows 7 is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Whenever you install programs they tend to add a program to your Startup folder, which allows the program to start immediately when Windows starts. This can greatly affect the performance of your system and even cause some instability. Some startup programs can even prevent other programs from installing or starting properly.

How to Remove Programs from Startup

Click Start, type: msconfig

Hit Enter on your keyboard. This will open the Microsoft Configuration Utility

Go to the Startup tab. There you will see a list of checked that set to start and load with Windows. You can see I have quite a few checked, some might be important, it’s up to you to carefully decide what you believe is not essential and what might be slowing down the system.

My recommendation includes avoiding your Antivirus utility, audio programs such as Kmaestro or Sound Blaster. Some of the common ones I like to disable include, iTunes, Quicktime, WinAmp, Adobe Acrobat, Windows Live Family Safety. For a list of others, please check out the Notebooks.com article, How to make your Windows 7 System Even Faster

Once you have identified the programs you don’t want to start with the system, uncheck them then click Apply and OK.

You can choose to Restart now or Restart later if you want.

How To Remove Items From Startup In WIndows 7 is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer is an exciting device that is at its base a tablet like the iPad, but can transform into a notebook with an optional keyboard dock that also adds battery life to the Android HoneyComb 3.0 tablet/notebook. We’ve been following the Eee Pad Transformer closely, and now it looks like we have confirmation of a U.S. release by the end of April and a confirmed starting price of $399 for the 16GB WiFi only model, which is $100 less than the iPad. The optional dock has also been priced at $150.

The reason we at Notebooks are so interested in this device is because it looks like it will fit nicely into the consumer segment that wants an iPad-like tablet, but aslo wants to turn the iPad into a notebook with software and hardware accessories.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer Side

The Eee Pad Transformer is a 10.1″ Nvidia Tegra 2 powered tablet that will retail for $399 with 16GB of storage, $100 less than the iPad 2. The Eee Pad Transformer itself will work as a slate tablet with apps, access to the Internet and multimedia power. Where the device stands apart, and why we think consumers will be drawn to it, is the optional $150 keyboard dock that adds a keyboard, mouse and an additional battery which should bring the battery life up to a combined 16 hours.

You can see a collection of Eee Pad Transformer videos which show you the hardware, software, speakers and pretty much everything the device can do in our Eee Pad Transformer Video Roundup to get a better idea of what the Eee Pad Transformer can do. You can see the Transformer hardware video overview embedded below.

Stay tuned for more details and coverage of the versatile and affordable Asus Eee Pad Transformer tablet and notebook. It looks like we may be seeing the first real competition for the iPad, and the device a sizable set of consumers is looking for.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer April U.S. Release and $399 Price Confirmed is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer is finally making its way into the hands of consumers in the UK, and we expect a U.S. release very soon. In anticipation, Asus has posted a collection of Eee Pad Transformer videos showing off the Hardware, Sound, Cameras, HoneyComb 3.0, Performance and GPS. These videos have only left us wanting the Eee Pad Transformer – a tablet and a quasi notebook – even more.

The Eee Pad Transformer is expected to launch soon, possibly at Best Buy in the U.S., for $399 for the 16GB WiFi only version and $150 for the dock which adds a keyboard and essentially double’s battery life.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer Walkthrough Videos

Hardware Overview: How the Eee Pad Transformer Fits together and works.

Performance and Gaming: How the Tegra 2 processor handles gaming

GPS and Google Maps: A look at using Google Maps and GPS on the Eee Pad Transformer

Sound and Speakers: The SRS powered speakers sound like they deliver a loud and clear sound.

External Storage: Need more than the base 16GB? You can hook up a USB Drive or Hard drive to the Eee Pad Transformer.

Eee Pad Transformer Software Walkthrough: A look at the included software and tools on the Transformer tablet.

Angry Birds Demo: The all important Angry Birds test.

Eee Pad Transformer Camera Test: Showing off the front and rear cameras.

Android Market on the Eee Pad Transformer: A look at the Android Market on HoneyComb 3.0

HoneyComb Android 3.0 Video Overview: A look at the software powering the Eee Pad Transformer

Via NetbookNews

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Walkthrough Videos Arrive & Excite (video) is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Benchmarks of the new MacBook Pro are showing that the refresh is going to bring a nice performance boost for users. The biggest difference between the older models and this year’s is the processor and graphics chipset. Apple went with Intel’s brand new Sandy Bridge version of the Core i3, i5 and i7 CPU.

That’s a big boost especially for the 13″ model which previously only had an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Apple is also adding AMD’s faster Radeon graphics chips that will automatically engage when needed. The Intel HD 3000 graphics that are part of the Sandy Bridge platform runs the rest of the time, saving battery life.

The combination of the above pair of upgrades to the specs should produce an escalation in benchmark numbers and real-world experience. The test results do not disappoint.

One set of benchmarks comes to us from Primate Labs. Their Geekbench 2 test showed a nearly 100% increase in the 17″ model with an Intel Core i7-2820QM 2.3GHz Quad-core processor. It went from a score of 5,837 to 10,165. You would expect that when going from dual-core to quad-core processing power.

When comparing dual-core systems from this year and last, there was also a nice increase. A MacBook Pro 13″ with a dual-core i7-2620QM 2.7 GHz processor reached a total of 6,796 on the test. The comparable system from 2010, with only a Core 2 Duo hit 3,645. So when you compare the fastest 13″ from 2010 to the fastest from 2011 you also see the benchmark scores nearly double.

9to5 Mac is showing similar results in their tests. If you want to test it out yourself, download Geekbench 2, a free program. Below is an unboxing of the new 15″ base configuration of the MacBook Pro. The video also shows how fast it boots.

Benchmark: Apple MacBook Pro Refresh Shows Performance Boost is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Gmail likes to brag about being up and running 99 percent of the time, but for many users it has been extremely slow. When we experienced this here at Notebooks.com, we wondered if it was just on our end, but after looking around we found that we were not alone.

The Huffington Post reports many users are experience performance issues with Google’s web mail solution.

And this is not a small problem if you search Twitter, you will find many Tweets of users experiencing the problem.

Gmail may have 99.99% uptime but that doesn’t factor in how MADDENINGLY slow and unresponsive it can be (@codinghorror)

If you need access to Gmail during slow times like this you may have better luck checking and sending your email through Pop or IMAP. You can learn how to check Gmail in many ways at the Gmail help website.

Are you experiencing performance issues with Gmail? Most of the time it is just a case of a delay before loading email messages or showing the contents of a select message. However, while writing this post we experienced a total failure seeing the dreaded message from Chrome below.

Gmail May have 99% Uptime, but it’s Extremely Slow for Many is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Defragmenting is one of the maintenance tasks you have most certainly heard about when it comes to using Windows, but not everyone knows how it works or how to defragment your hard drive.

What is Defragmenting?

Disk Defragmenter rearranges fragmented data so your disks and drives can work more efficiently. When you don’t fragment your hard disk, it has to work extra hard and this can ultimately slow down your computer. Of course this can be one factor.

We looked at other options for optimizing the performance of your PC by doing regular task such as removing programs you no longer use, using Ready Boost, moving frequently used files to an external storage device.

How to Defragment Your Hard Drive:

To start defragmenting, click Start, type: Defrag

Then hit Enter on your keyboard

This will open the Disk Defragmenter utility:

Before we begin, we should first find out if the disk does need defragmenting. To do so, click the Analyze disk button.

Analyzing the disk to see if it needs defragging.

The results show that only 6% percent of my hard disk is fragmented, so that’s not such bad deal for me, but I will go ahead and defrag it anyway. If yours is considerably more than this, it is definitely recommended you defragment the disk.

Defragment in progress.

This is a very boring task, I suggest you find something else to do or defrag at a time that you find most convenient. Disk Defragmenter might take anywhere from several minutes to a few hours to finish, depending on the size and degree of fragmentation of your hard disk.

Although you can do other tasks while Defragmenter operates in the background, I recommend you don’t use the computer during this time. Also, you can setup a schedule you find appropriate to run the Defragmenter.

Quick Tip: How to Defragment Your Hard Drive is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

When Windows Vista reached the beta 2 stage of development, one of the touted features of the new operating system was a feature called ReadyBoost. The purpose of this new feature was to give PC’s a performance boost that actually needed it to efficiently run the new operating system by supplementing RAM using affordable Flash Drive storage devices that were gaining in popularity at the time.

The significance of ReadyBoost these days is not readily seen considering the average notebook comes with 3 to 4GBs of RAM. If you still have an old desktop or laptop around running Windows 7 especially if its one not adhering to the minimum requirements of Windows 7, ReadyBoost might be able to give it some extra oomph.

ReadyBoost works by caching areas of the operating system along with applications you use most often. When you plug in a Thumbdrive, Windows 7 will give you option of use some of the drives free space to improve performance. If you choose to do so Windows will move some files from your hard disk to the USB thumb drive to optimize the speed of accessing those files.

Setting up ReadyBoost is very easy, all you need is a Thumb drive with enough storage, 1 to 2 GB is recommended. Insert the Thumbdrive.

Click Start, then click Computer

Right click the Thumbdrive, then click Properties.

Go to the ReadyBoost tab

The minimum amount of space you can allocate for use by ReadyBoost is 256 MBs. Here I am using a 16 GB thumbdrive which Windows recommends I reserve 4094 MBs for optimal performance. The system I am using it on has 4 GBs of RAM already, so I don’t think I will need that much for it.

Options

You have a number of options when using a Thumb drive with ReadyBoost such as dedicating the device just for it. If you find it unnecessary to use the thumb drive for such purposes you can always go back to the ReadyBoost tab and select the option ‘Do not use this device’.

A Thumb Drive optimized for Windows ReadyBoost

In some situations, you might not be able to use all of the memory on your device to speed up your computer. For example, some flash memory devices contain both slow and fast flash memory, but ReadyBoost can only use fast flash memory to speed up your computer. To find out if a Thumb drive is optimized for ReadyBoost, look for the ‘Enhanced for ReadyBoost’ logo on specially marked thumb drives.

Here are some tips on what to look for when selecting a USB flash drive or flash memory card to use with ReadyBoost:

• The minimum amount of available space recommended for ReadyBoost to effectively speed up your computer is 1 GB.
• For best results, use a flash drive or flash memory card with available space of at least double the amount of memory (RAM) in your computer, and preferably four times as much memory. For example, if your computer has 1 GB of RAM and you plug in a 4 GB USB flash drive, set aside at least 2 GB on the flash drive to get the best performance gain from ReadyBoost, and preferably the entire 4 GB. How much memory you need depends on how you use your computer. Keeping a lot of programs open at once uses more memory.
• Give ReadyBoost 2 GB to 4 GB of space for best results on most computers. You can reserve more than 4 GB of space for ReadyBoost on most flash drives and flash memory cards. (Storage devices formatted with the older FAT32 file system can’t store more than 4 GB.) You can use a maximum of 32 GB of available space on any single removable storage device with ReadyBoost and up to 256 GB total per computer (by inserting up to eight USB flash drives or flash memory cards into the same computer).
• To work with ReadyBoost, a USB flash drive must support USB 2.0 or higher. Your computer must have at least one free USB 2.0 port where you can plug in the flash drive. ReadyBoost works best if you plug the flash drive into a USB port directly on the computer, rather than into an external USB hub shared with other USB devices.
• If you want to be sure a USB flash drive works with ReadyBoost, look for a note from the manufacturer that the flash drive is “Enhanced for ReadyBoost.” Not all manufacturers list this on their packaging. If there is no mention of ReadyBoost compatibility, the flash drive still may work with ReadyBoost.
• There are many different kinds of flash memory cards, such as CompactFlash and Secure Digital (SD) memory cards. Most memory cards work with ReadyBoost. Some SD memory cards don’t work well with ReadyBoost due to issues with the SD card interface. ReadyBoost will display an error message if you attempt to use one of these cards.

Solid State Drives (SSDs)

The new rage in storage devices are Solid State Drives, popular especially in laptops such as the Apple MacBook Air and the Dell Adamo or as an upgrade like the Intel X-25M. SSD’s are more efficient because they have no moving parts compared to mechanical hard disk which do. So, if you have a hard disk that uses solid-state drive (SSD) technology, you may not see an option to speed up your computer with ReadyBoost when you plug in a USB flash drive or flash memory card. This is because some SSD drives are so fast they’re unlikely to benefit from ReadyBoost.

How to use Windows ReadyBoost To Speed Up Your Computer is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

If you use Windows Virtual PC with Windows XP Mode on any of the supported editions of Windows 7 (Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate) you might realize that the default allocated memory (256 MBs), just might not be enough for your needs. There is a quick solution for that, give it more RAM.

Now this all depends on your system, as you need to have enough memory to run both the Host operating system (Windows 7) and the Guest (XP Mode) so this tip might not be an option until you install additional physical RAM in the system.

If you do have the additional memory to allocate, here is how you do it. First, you need to make sure you have shutdown the Virtual Machine entirely or else the option to give it more memory will be grayed out. To do that, close the Virtual Machine, click in the list box and select the option to Shutdown, click OK.

If you don’t get that option, then it means your virtual machine has not been set to prompt you for an action. To change this setting, click Start in Windows 7 > All Programs > Windows Virtual PC > Windows Virtual PC.

Select the Windows XP Mode.vmcx file and click Settings on the Command Bar.

On the Settings dialog, select Close, then select the Prompt for action radio box and click OK to apply. This will now give you the option to shutdown the virtual machine.

Once you have shutdown Windows XP Mode, go back to the Windows XP Mode – Windows Virtual PC Settings window and select the Memory option.

You will now be able to enter additional memory in the Memory (RAM): box. Again, this depends on the total amount memory you have installed in the system. Allocating too much can adversely affect the performance of the Windows 7 host. The good thing about this though is, you will be able to increase the performance the the Virtual Machine and applications running in it. That’s it!

Quick Tip: How to add more memory to Windows XP Mode is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.