I travel all the time with a laptop (although not to Europe yet). Returning to the US from Canada requires the laptop to put out. In some cases, the screener will ask you for you laptop to do an ETD (explosive trace detection) test. That's where they wipe a small cloth over the case and then have a machine "sniff" the cloth for explosives. Takes a minute to do. In Canada, the screener takes your boarding pass with the laptop -- I guess for several reasons: 1) they know who belongs to the laptop if you wander away without it 2) they know you won't be too likely to get on the plane with out the BP and your laptop and 3) if they find something, they know who was checked in with it.

Wi-fi is a little challenging if you haven't played with it much. I'd suggest going to a Starbucks or a Panera Bread or some other place with wi-fi and play around with the settings and process. Depending upon how you're set up, when you try to connect, you may also have to give the wi-fi connection permission to connect to an "unsecure network" by checking a box. Again, play around and get used to the functionality. You may also want to get an idea for how the orientation of the laptop affects the signat. I've found that sometimes you have to move around a bit to get a good signal.

In general, travelling with a laptop is easy and they do tend to work fairly well. Most power supplies will auotmatical adapt to European current (read your owners manual for that). You'll also need to purchase some power outlet adapters for the countries you're going to. Most luggage stores and travel stores will have kits that have adapters for most European countries. Here's a website that is helpful.