Supercharge your laptop with 6 powerful utilities

February 26, 2013

It's a dark day. Your shiny new laptop has arrived, but it doesn't deliver the performance or usability you expected. You've taken for granted all the tricks your desktop system has delivered on a daily basis, and now your new (and much more mobile) PC pales in comparison. The display seems cramped, your games run slower than expected, and battery life isn't anywhere near what you were promised. But don't resign yourself to choosing between a desktop behemoth and a finger-smudged smartphone. Below are a handful of utilities that can help get your laptop up to speed—and bring that new-computer smile back on your face. Extra screen space gives you room to roam Unless you spring for the elusive built-in 1080p display, chances are your laptop is starved for desktop pixels. The more portable your system, the worse this problem gets. You don't have to lasso your laptop to a monitor with an HDMI cable to get more screen real estate, however. MaxiVista ($40, free demo) lets any display on your network act as an extra monitor or mirrored view. MaxiVista's interface may not turn heads, but the extra screen space it gets you is well worth a look. You can also go the other way and use your laptop's screen to extend your desktop system's display or use MaxiVista as a virtual KVM switch, allowing up to four computers to be connected to a single keyboard, display and mouse. Although vendor Bartels Media has recently added iPad support to MaxiVista, laptop users with Mac-centric hardware should also take a look at Avatron's similar Air Display, which was designed from the ground up with Apple products in mind but includes Windows support. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2028764/supercharge-your-laptop-with-6-powerful-utilities.html