Travellers guide - make your laptop less data-hungry

So you're about ready to head off an your big adventure. Bags are packed, house is clean, and your tech is at the ready. You've got your phone which will double as a mobile hot-spot, and your trusty laptop. Here's the catch - the moment you turn that laptop on and connect it to your hot-spot, how much data will come hurtling down? Maybe it'll be an avalanche of data! Maybe your poor mobile phone plan with it's measly amount of data will be no match for the onslaught?

The solution - prep your laptop so it's not so hungry.

Turn off Microsoft OneDrive

Find your OneDrive icon in the system tray (bottom right corner of the screen – the white cloud)

Right-click it and select settings

Go to the Settings tab and ensure ‘Start OneDrive automatically when I sign in to Windows’ is unticked (it’ll be ticked, you’ll need to untick it)

Click OK

Right click the OneDrive icon again and select Exit

Click Close OneDrive

And voila, no more OneDrive on your computer. Well at least it's not starting when you start your computer. It's still there and you can reverse the above process to make it start when you start your computer again at any time - preferrably once you're home and back on your home internet connection, you know, the one with heaps of data?!

Turn on Metered connection

This will tell Windows 10 that the WIFI connection you’re using is a metered connection, so don’t go crazy downloading stuff – perfect for you.

Click on the network icon in the system tray, then click on your WIFI connection (the phone hotspot)

Click properties, then flick on the ‘Set as metered connection’ switch

And there you have it - a much less data-hungry laptop perfect for your big trip.