Ten Ways to Optimize Your Netbook

The advent of netbooks has recently taken the PC market by storm—accounting for nearly 20 percent of global laptop sales in Q1 2009. Many have tested the performance of these mini-notebooks and compared them to laptops (check out Cisco Cheng’s PC Magazine article and John Morris’ ZDNet post). Netbooks are a little slower than their full PC cousins, but with the right tweaks, you can squeeze the last bit of speed and functionality out of these mini-machines.

TuneUp Blog presents the 10 best tips for your netbooks

1. Use a lightweight Media Player and codec pack to play all your favorite videos and music (e.g. Cole2k Codec Pack and Media Player Classic HC 1.2).
   

   Media Player Classic

2. Disable all of the unnecessary background programs on your system. These are likely to slow down any computer—not just netbooks. Check back on this blog for a more detailed guide on how to do that.
3. Check to see if your netbooks allow for a RAM upgrade. This can usually be done in a matter of minutes!
4. Uninstall programs you no longer use, especially trial software, as these can clutter up the drive. Also, try to note the date that these versions will expire; this will remind you to get rid of the programs that you can no longer use.
5. Defrag the hard drive to better manage your data and keep your computer running fast. We recommend using a utility to safely and consistently conduct this on a regular basis.
6. Reduce the user interface of Internet Explorer, Firefox, and other Web browsers to better utilize the smaller “real estate” on your netbook. Right-click on the upper menu bar of your browser and uncheck unnecessary menu items such as status bars, favorite bars, and the like.
   

   Menu Bar of Internet Explorer

7. Go back to the classic Windows look and feel. Animations can hinder the system’s performance. To do that under XP, right-click on your desktop and go to “Properties”. Under the “Design” entry, select the classic design and hit “OK.” For Vista, right-click on your desktop and select “Personalize”. Go to “Window Color and Appearance” and select “Open classic appearance properties for more color options”. Select one of the classic designs and click “OK”.
8. Adjust Windows’ power management settings. For example, NetBook Maniac suggests turning the monitor off after two minutes of idle time.
9. Disable unnecessary devices, such as Bluetooth, FireWire, and Wi-Fi, to save battery power.
10. Don’t run too many applications at the same time. As Michael J. Miller notes, multitasking is better suited for a notebook, whereas netbooks are designed for basic use like word processing and basic Web browsing.
    
    UPDATE – Our Reader Raphael just shared these two excellent tips with us:
11. Browsing in fullscreen mode (F11 on keyboard) is much more comfortable on the tiny screen.
12. In Windows, it is possible to auto-hide the taskbar. This will give you more visible space for the applications! The taskbar shows up when you hover your mouse near the specified area. To do that, right-click on the taskbar and select “Properties”. Check “Auto-hide the taskbar” and hit “OK”.

You’re a netbook owner?

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