Is there ny other way by which we can use it as a desktop w/o damaging the battery?
My lappy comes for 4 hours (4.5 hrs without HDD activity) and using for over 6 months like a desktop. Anyways battery damage is inevitable. But with some effort and care you can prolong it's life.
Here some tips which helps:
1. Never keep charging your lappy. When it's fully charged, remove from the AC power.
2. Also never let your battery to drain fully and shut/sleep automatically.
3. When you don't need Wifi and BT, switch it off.
4. Reduce the brightness of the LCD. Keep at bare minimum where you're comfortable.
5. Don't install programs you don't use. Apps which use less system resource also helps.
6. Turn the display off when you don't need to 'see' like when playing music or downloading.
7. Remove external devices (like USB mouse, External HDD) if you don't need it.