{"id":3433,"date":"2019-09-17T07:00:09","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T11:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/langa.com\/?p=3433"},"modified":"2019-09-16T09:20:53","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16T13:20:53","slug":"what-upgrades-and-modifications-have-you-made-to-your-old-netbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/17\/what-upgrades-and-modifications-have-you-made-to-your-old-netbook\/","title":{"rendered":"“What upgrades and modifications have you made to your old netbook?”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I recently wrote about my still-working, antique, “made-for-XP” netbook as part of a fun PC-vs-Mac discussion here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently — judging from the popularity of the post — there are a lot of other people out there maintaining seriously old PCs, too! For example, correspondent “twinmustangranchdressin<\/em>g” asks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What upgrades and modifications have you made to this netbook? What OS is it running now? I have an old Atom-based ASUS netbook myself that I use to keep the backup of my KeePass database (which I update manually whenever I make any changes to the database on my main PC) in order to keep it away from ransomware. (I don\u2019t have this netbook connected to my network.) I\u2019m wondering if there\u2019s more I could be using it for.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the hardware is on the mainboard, and thus is not upgradable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RAM is theoretically upgradable, but this was never intended to be a long-term use PC (it was a temporary, emergency replacement), so I’ve never added to the original 1GB of RAM. It’s still a very<\/u><\/em> low-RAM PC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did change the HDD: A few years back, I replaced the old 160GB hard drive with a hand-me-down 128GB SSD of very early vintage. That change made the old netbook somewhat tolerable to use — functional, but not fast or fun — even up to Windows 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get useful work done at a reasonable pace, and without putting new parts into antique hardware, I converted the netbook to Linux Lite<\/a>, a lightweight Debian\/Ubuntu distro that’s actively maintained and updated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Linux Lite is free, and lives happily even on underpowered hardware.<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

There are a gazillion other small-footprint Linuxes available, too (examples<\/a>), and just about any of them can live happily on yesterday’s underpowered hardware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t particularly recommend using 10+ year old hardware, but it’s nice when you can. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I recently wrote about my still-working, antique, “made-for-XP” netbook as part of a fun PC-vs-Mac discussion here. Apparently — judging from the popularity of the post — there are a lot of other people out there maintaining seriously old PCs, too! For example, correspondent “twinmustangranchdressing” asks: “What upgrades and modifications have you made to this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,30,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-reader-asks","category-hardware","category-windows"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paaiox-Tn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3219,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/08\/08\/is-a-32gb-ssd-memory-on-a-netbook-enough-to-run-windows-and-microsoft-office\/","url_meta":{"origin":3433,"position":0},"title":"“Is a 32GB SSD on a netbook enough to run Windows and Microsoft Office?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-08-08","format":false,"excerpt":"In a word: No. On this page, Microsoft states (emphasis added): \"Starting with the May 2019 Update, the system requirements for hard drive size for clean installs\u00a0of Windows 10 as well as new PCs changed to a minimum of 32GB.\" That's Windows itself. MS Office also needs room, although the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2225,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/05\/a-reader-asks-my-old-pc-has-a-virus-is-it-safe-to-move-its-files-to-my-new-pc\/","url_meta":{"origin":3433,"position":1},"title":"A reader asks: “My old PC has a virus. Is it safe to move its files to my new PC?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-03-05","format":false,"excerpt":"No, of course it\u2019s not safe! But if you're patient, you can make it safe. Here\u2019s how: First, scan the old, infected system using an external, self-contained, bootable, DVD- or flashdrive-based anti-malware tool. (Examples; many are free.) Boot and run the old PC from the anti-malware DVD or flash drive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1329,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/13\/a-reader-asks-my-pc-has-an-ssd-and-hdd-installed-will-adding-an-old-slow-hdd-make-my-whole-pc-slow\/","url_meta":{"origin":3433,"position":2},"title":"A reader asks: My PC has an SSD; will adding an old, slow HDD make my whole PC slow?","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2018-12-13","format":false,"excerpt":"Nope --- not if you're smart about how you set it up! Older, slower drives are great for medium-to-long-term data storage --- files that you want to have handy and accessible, but that are not in constant use. Think of things like music, photo, or video collections; backup copies; system\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4020,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/07\/why-do-laptops-take-so-long-to-reset-to-factory-settings-compared-to-smartphones\/","url_meta":{"origin":3433,"position":3},"title":"“Why do laptops take so long to reset to factory settings, compared to smartphones?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2020-01-07","format":false,"excerpt":"(Answer requested by Trevor Noble) Why does it take so long to paint a house compared to a garden shed? :) Laptops are typically much more capacious than phones, and carry far more software and files. EG: My phone (an S10) has 128GB of internal drive storage, with 75GB currently\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3020,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/05\/if-you-clone-the-os-hard-drive-will-windows-require-a-new-license\/","url_meta":{"origin":3433,"position":4},"title":"“If you clone the OS hard drive, will Windows require a new license?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-07-05","format":false,"excerpt":"Probably not. The Windows license process generates a unique numeric ID or \u201cscore\u201d for your PC\u2019s specific hardware configuration and copy of Windows. Microsoft knows that PCs get upgraded, so the system is flexible enough to allow the score to change, some, without triggering a need to re-license. For example,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2493,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/28\/a-reader-asks-are-my-old-deleted-yahoo-e-mails-stored-somewhere-on-the-hard-drive-can-i-recover-them\/","url_meta":{"origin":3433,"position":5},"title":"A reader asks: “Are my old, deleted Yahoo e-mails stored somewhere on the hard drive? Can I recover them?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-03-28","format":false,"excerpt":"Maybe \u2014 but probably not. It depends on how you set things up. Most web\/cloud-based email services (not just Yahoo) live almost entirely on their host servers, not on your PC. In a typical default setup, your browser accesses your web\/cloud-based email and displays it locally (on your PC); but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3433"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3452,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3433\/revisions\/3452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}