Question: What’s the best way to prolong the life of a laptop battery? If you’re not going to use the computer for a while, how should you store the battery? Should you leave it installed or take it out?

Answer: Laptop batteries have changed a lot in the last 10 years. Today, most of them are lithium-based.

Apple Inc. seems to be leading the way in battery trends, with more time between charges and recent laptop models that lack user-changeable batteries. (You can have the company switch out a battery if it goes bad.)

According to Apple, it’s important to keep the battery’s electrons moving around. That means you need to use the battery to keep it working properly.