1) When you turn your laptop on for the first time it will search for the nearest wifi signal with the best signal, keep in mind this may NOT be yours. If you click on the little icon it will show you the wireless networks that are within range or YOUR laptop at that moment. Choose yours, enter the password, and then you are good to go.

2) Battery, its a battery, not an electronic mind-blowing thing that you need a manual and a degree to understand. Its a battery. Your laptop should survive on its own for about 3 hours under normal use. When the battery gets low, plug it in, if you need to go to the kitchen with it to cook a recipe on the food network, unplug it, if you take it to bed with you to play solitaire, leave it unplugged overnight on the floor, its a battery....charge it while you leave the house for a couple hours or if you are just sitting at the dining room table.

Be comfortable with it, dont treat it like a King

One of the things I like to do with a new to me laptop is change all the power settings in the control panel. Laptops are defaulted to go to sleep after XX minutes...that drives me nuts...I set mine that there are NO screensavers, NO diming of screens and NO sleeping while plugged in. In battery mode I like to have it sleep after 20 minutes of inactivity.

Play with the settings, you cant break it.....

Unless you turn into a total gamer for 8 hours a day you wont need a cooling fan either, but if you think they are cool (no pun intended) go for it...

I like a wireless mouse too, as the touchpad can be a pain for certain tasks for long periods...

I just sold an Alienware laptop on eBay...got $600 for it without an operating system...and the damn thing weighed 15lbs....sheesh....

But I do recommend having a password (a good one, not "password") as they are portable and there is a black market for them....be careful....

Other than that...ENJOY!