Netbooks are extremely portable and the sub-$400 price tag makes them a great buy.
However, once you get past the honeymoon period it becomes clear it’s not going to outperform a laptop that cost twice as much if you put a gun to its head.
The following tips will unlock the full power of your netbook and turn it into the mobile powerhouse it was meant to be.
1. Upgrade your memory- If there is one thing I recommend doing over anything else, it’s this. Netbooks come stock with 1GB of memory installed. You can double this for around $30 – $40.
Installing RAM is a snap. If you can play with legos you can do this upgrade. Under your netbook you should a see a small door that can either be popped open with a pen or a small screwdriver. All you need is a 2GB DDR2/667 SODIMM like this one. Just swap out the old module and reboot.
Too techy for you? Leave me a comment with your netbook model and I’ll let you know what you need with a link to buy it.
2. Clean out Trailware – Clean out all the free apps and trailware apps that came with your netbook. First use PC Decrapifier to automatically remove the most obvious suspects. Once it’s done the job use “Add Remove Programs” to uninstall any others by hand. If you don’t use it, you don’t need it.
3. Remove Antivirus – Use Microsoft Security Essentials instead.
4. Abandon your Email client – Use Gmail instead. If you just can’t let go of your old email addresses, you can setup gmail to get messages with POP or forward your other email account to gmail. Check out these resources here and here on how to do this.
5. Use Google Chrome – Internet Explorer is a slow resource hog and Firefox can’t match the speed of Chrome. Get it here.
Bonus – Hit the F11 key on the keyboard to run Chrome in full screen mode and get the most of your small screen. Just hit F11 again to toggle between the two views.
6. Remove Adobe Reader – Use Fox It Reader instead. It’s faster than Adobe Reader and doesn’t add background tasks to your startup.
7. Ditch Microsoft Office – Use OpenOffice.org. It’s more lightweight then MSOffice.
8. Sync with Cloud Storage – Use Dropbox instead of sending files to yourself using email or searching for a USB drive. This is the easiest way to sync your netbook with your main PC.
9. Use Meebo for Chat – Save CPU clock cycles and memory by using Meebo web based chat client. Anytime you can use a web based client to replace a locally installed app is a plus for your netbook.
10. Install Windows 7 – If you’re still using the dated Windows XP on your netbook it’s time for an upgrade. Windows 7 boots fast and is designed for the current mobile computing era.
11. Switch Off Aero Glass – Turning off Windows 7 Aero Glass will reduce CPU load and free up precious memory. To do this you need to right click anywhere on the desktop>click Personalize> Scroll down in the personalization menu, and select Windows 7 Basic or Windows Classic as your theme.
12. Replace Windows Media Player – Use VLC Player. It launches faster than Windows Media player and uses less resources.
Bonus – VLC Player will play almost any media file format out of the box. No more “can’t find codec” errors.
13. Clean out the Crap – Use CCleaner to scrub all the crap that can gum up the works. I use it every day.
14. Install only essential apps – You should only have the bare essentials installed on your netbook. Here is a list of additional apps I recommend.
15. Upgrade the hard drive – If you really want to get the most from your netbook you should replace the slow 5400rpm hard drive for a faster and larger drive. Upgrading to a 7200rpm drive or a SSD (Solid State Drive) will defiantly give your netbook and boost.
If you’re willing to get your hands dirty and need help taking this on, leave me a comment with your netbook model.
How do you keep your netbook running fast?
Still need help? Leave a comment and I’ll be happy to assist.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Just downloaded that CCcleaner. Thanks for the link. My computer has been slowing down recently and it found loads of redundent files that needed to be deleted.
Great article and nice and easy to scan.
My pleasure Dave. I’m glad it helped. I can’t live with out CCleaner.
Hi Jovan,
Great tips. Like you I use CCleaner on the netbook and my main computer as well. I also use VLC player.
I started using Google Chrome but for some reason when posting on wordpress sometimes it stays on the page and spins for over instead of completing a simple edit. So I still use firefox.
Thanks for all the useful info. This is a keeper for sure
I have bookmarked the article to try the other stuff out.
You can never go wrong with Firefox. When I first started using Chrome I had issues with sites, but now it’s a lot less common. I’ll switch back to Firefox if I need to, just like your example, but I keep Chrome as my default browser. I’m just addicted to the speed and the minimalist design.
Hey Jovan…this site is beautiful!! I really love it, and will try to keep up with your great info!
Thanks for the kind words Jane! I’m really happy on the way the site turned out. I had just as much fun building it as I do writing. I also had a lot of help from everyone at the Bootcamp.
Really decent post… I love it. Keep ‘em coming…