Did they also have bins labeled "profile shoes" and "non-profile shoes"?

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.

If you get security screened with a laptop, make sure you remember to pick it up afterwards. About 18 months ago, a colleague of mine was in transit from Europe to MFE via DFW. At DFW, they pulled him out for secondary screening as he was boarding and took his laptop out for another scan. It took ages for the screening so when they were finally finished, he grabbed his briefcase and jumped on the plane.

It was only in the hotel bar in Mexico that evening (just over the border from MFE) that he realised that his bag was lighter than it should have been - yes, the laptop was still in DFW!!

Fortunately for him, he had a colleague travelling down from DFW the next day and she managed to get it back from security for him...

Glad to help...

My laptop and I traveled over 150k miles last year and more than 30k already this year. You'll find a number of beat up gray rubbermaid bins at the screening checkpoints. Look for the stack of them by the gum-cracking folks in the white shirts with the sewn on badges. They're the ones complaining about their schedule and when they get to go on break.

Take your laptop OUT of its carrying case and put it, with nothing else, in the bin. I then put everything else I need to rid myself of (wallet, keys, phone, rings, pocket change...) My belt has only set the metal detector off at PDX, everywhere else it's OK. I then put my computer case on the belt behind the laptop. If you have a coat, put it in a separate bin.

Quite frankly, you'll get more of a hassle about your shoes from many of the TSA people (see which ones at the threads marked "Shoe Carnival") and you too will enjoy the TSA and their famous foot fetish.

While SOME of the TSA screeners are truly professional and speak the king's english (I just had very good experiences at ORD and LAS last week where there was no gum cracking, no "deeze, dem, dat and doze" and NO shoe carnival) you will also unfortunately find a lot of people who were formally unemployable and stand with their mouths perpetually open about 1/4 of an inch.

Also expect to show your boarding pass to at least three people within 20 feet of linear distance, one fo them will be a TSA screener, and one of them will be someone from "Prospect Airport Services" or some other organization which, more than likely, USED to do the security screening at that airport, then the TSA came in to complain about breaks and sniff your shoes, and these other morons are employed as a big jobs program after the local city administration had to react to so many locals losing their jobs because they couldn't pass the TSA's background checks and the local airport authority had to find a way to keep paying them good money for doing pretty much nothing.