When laptops came into existence more than a decade ago, other than the obvious advantage of size and weight over a regular PC, they also served another important purpose - freedom from wires. A fully charged laptop of today runs for two hours at least. Netbooks, due to the use of low-power consuming internals, stretch that uptime to more than four hours on an average.
Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when not in use
This is a common mistake many tend to commit - leaving Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on even when not in use. These two wireless modules (especially Wi-Fi) can eat up your battery life pretty fast, as they keep searching for new networks and devices to connect.
Decrease screen brightness
A considerable chunk of power is used to illuminate your laptop's display. By having a conservative approach towards screen brightness, one can shoot those battery life figures upwards. For the uninitiated, brightness controls are typically on the Function (F1-F10) keys.
Improve your power-saving etiquettes
Now that you've selected the right kind of settings in your power profile, it's time to make good use of them. For example, when you're walking away from the laptop, close the lid, so that the laptop goes to "Sleep" mode (in Vista/7) or "Stand-by" (in XP).
Replace the battery
Laptop batteries, like cell-phone batteries, lose their capacity to hold power as years pass by. That's why you may see that your new laptop back then used to give you two to three hours of life, but after a few years struggles to run for even one hour.
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