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Up Your Efficiency with these HP Laptop Settings for Hybrid Work
Jessica Childres
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April 3, 2024
Creating the perfect hybrid work setup requires much more than choosing the best laptop and portable hub. One of the most important yet overlooked steps is changing your laptop settings to enhance the hybrid work experience.
If you’re wondering how to set up your work laptop from home, remember that altering specific settings for work can keep you focused and maximize your performance. Taking care of this as soon as you get a new laptop or switch to a hybrid position could help you spend less time scrambling to use key features and more time working on your latest presentation.
Read on for a look at how to optimize your HP laptop best for a hybrid work setup.
Optimal display settings
With the integration of technology in nearly every industry, you’ll likely spend several hours a day looking at a computer screen regardless of your profession. Setting your hybrid work laptop to enhance the blue light filters is one of the best ways to improve your comfort level while working.
Many laptops are now equipped with blue light reduction settings, allowing you to set the level of exposure you’re comfortable with or even change the brightness and contrast of your screen to further reduce your exposure. This important setting can save you from many headaches while working in a hybrid environment.
Adjusting the brightness is another key feature that can save you time while working in various settings throughout the day or week. Turning on the auto-adjust brightness setting can help you see your screen while working on the subway or plane. It’s also helpful if your home office has several windows that let in natural light, which can create a pesky glare on your screen without the auto-adjust brightness turned on.
If you have a large laptop or work with graphic design, photography, or anything requiring you to see detail on the screen, you’ll want to adjust your laptop’s resolution. The larger your computer, the higher the resolution you’ll want. This will allow you to clearly see the picture or images you’re working with, and adjusting this setting right away will help you jump right into work with the clarity you need.
Maximizing battery performance
Hybrid work often means travelling back and forth with your device from the office to your home or hotel room. Maximizing your battery performance can keep you up to speed and help you jump straight into work once you’ve landed in your current work environment.
Changing settings like a lower brightness on the screen, closing out unused apps or tabs, and turning off unnecessary notifications can increase the battery life. These are great ways to ensure you have the power to complete your work.
You can also utilize battery saver mode if you’re running low on battery but need to finish working on a big project or file. Turning on this setting can give you the power to complete your task before you can make it to an outlet and plug in the computer.
The sleek and lightweight HP ZBook Power 15.6-inch G9 Mobile Workstation comes with a strong 6-cell, 83 Wh Li-ion polymer battery and utilizes energy-efficient technology to give you hours of use on a single charge. This device is a fantastic option for your work-from-home or hybrid setup.
Connectivity enhancements
When using a laptop for work, it’s important that you optimize your WiFi performance since you won’t be hardwired into a network. Although most offices, coffee shops, hotels, and homes have WiFi, changing your settings is important to make the most of your hybrid work experience.
Make sure you click “remember this network” for your office, your favourite coffee shop, the hotels you frequent, and any other place you find yourself settling in to get work done. Choosing this option automatically connects you to the WiFi when you arrive at these workplaces, allowing you to spend more time on your projects and less time trying to remember the correct passwords.
Adjusting your computer’s VPN settings is another important step in work-from-home setup with your laptop. The VPN setting allows you to use a private connection while working. This protects your important files, documents, and projects while working on WiFi or other mobile connections like a hotspot. It’s important to turn on this setting if you’re working from a coffee shop, hotel, or any public WiFi network because it keeps your information and work private.
One helpful setting that may seem insignificant is choosing your preferred web browser. If you often utilize Google apps such as Docs, Sheets, and Drive, choosing Google as your automatic web browser can save you time and take you directly to the apps you use most. Changing this to your default browser and homepage once online can enhance productivity and save you time.
Audio and video settings for meetings
A common part of hybrid work includes video calls for meetings, interviews, and presentations. It’s important to have a laptop that has a high-quality webcam and provides strong audio feedback to enhance your experience during these virtual meetings.
Devices such as the HP ProBook 440 14-inch G10 Notebook are made for hybrid work and provide optimal video settings to sound and look clear while on video. With this specific device, you can choose your specifications to create the perfect hybrid laptop for your needs. The lightweight frame, long battery life, and multiple ports allow this device to work hard for you while you’re focusing on your latest projects.
If you already have a laptop you love, consider optimizing the resolution and microphone settings. Take several test videos and adjust the sound input and output until you’re happy with the outcome, and do the same with different camera and resolution settings. Testing these as soon as you transition to a hybrid schedule will prevent you from scrambling the morning of a big meeting to get your sound and picture quality to the level you need.
Quick access & organization
Using quick access features and organizing your files can save you valuable time when working with tight deadlines. On your taskbar, pin your most-used applications, whether that’s Word, File Explorer, a calculator, or your preferred web browser. Having these applications pinned to your taskbar gives you the quick access you need to keep work efficient.
Once you’ve created a taskbar with your most used applications, look at your file organization. Taking an afternoon to organize your documents and projects into labelled folders can make a huge difference in the long run.
This organization can help you quickly find the documents you need without reading through hundreds of file titles. Using folders can keep your most important projects and records grouped by importance or relevance, making it easy to locate exactly what you need.
You can also purge the applications and files you no longer use to cut back on virtual clutter. Taking one day a month to delete old files, documents, and apps you no longer need can keep your laptop clean and clutter-free, and save time when trying to find the files you need.
Security settings
Security is one of the most important settings to adjust when working in a hybrid environment. Whether you work from home, the local cafe, or a hotel room, ensuring online security and discretion is essential.
The HP EliteBook 840 14-inch G10 Notebook utilizes HP Wolf Pro Security to protect your documents and files and keeps you safe while using public WiFi networks. It’s a fantastic option as a hybrid work laptop not only for the additional security but also for the lightweight frame and long-lasting battery.
You can ensure additional security measures by using a strong password to open the laptop, using the fingerprint function if available on your device, and utilizing antivirus software. If your work is sensitive and you need additional privacy, you can turn off your location and ad tracking, and block all browser pop-ups.
Summary
Customizing your laptop settings for work in a hybrid environment can increase your productivity and work output. Between using quick access features and improving your security, you can focus on the task at hand instead of worrying about the settings on your device. Even small adjustments like customizing your taskbar and changing the camera and microphone settings can make a big difference in your productivity.
Adjusting these settings as soon as you transition to a hybrid position will allow you to immediately see positive results while working and set you up for success in the future. It saves you time and keeps your data safe while using public and private WiFi networks, giving you one less thing to worry about.
