Originally Posted by Army

1) If you suspend the computer then you are still using battery power. If you hibernate the computer all of the information in RAM gets put onto the hard disk and the power goes off.

See

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/h/hibernate_mode.html

2) I guess so - there will undoubtedly be a setting in preferences - I can't tell you exactly as I don't use Microsoft products. If I were you I'd install Firefox - it is free - safe (arguably safer than MS products) - and easy to use. The add ons are also great. If you use Firefox you can get extra protection with Add ons such as Better Privacy and NoScript.

See http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/