Remember Netbooks? Windows 10 makes them good again!

The Register ^ | Feb 8, 2016 | Simon Sharwood

[dayglored]

And rather better than a US$35 tablet, if you need a Windows 10 machine lurking around

Among the many bizarre and stupid mistakes Microsoft made with Windows 8.x was the decision to require screens to have resolution of at least 1024 x 768.

That decision meant that hordes of Netbooks, the very small laptops popular in the late noughties, had no obvious upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 8.x.

Back in November 2013 I therefore tried to figure out how to extend the life of my own Netbook. Along the way I confirmed that Windows 8 was indeed a terrible idea for Netbooks, especially my Lenovo S10e and its 1024 x 576 screen.

That Netbook's been gathering dust since that 2013 story, but a few weeks back I found myself in need of a spare computer to serve as a data mule carrying data to the cloud. Microsoft seemed only too happy to let me upgrade the Netbook to Windows 10, so I gave it a try.

I must say works rather nicely. The upgrade required a single download and about an hour of work. Once that was behind me, the single core of the computer's 1.6 GHz Atom N270 did a reasonable job running Windows 10. The machine doesn't exactly zip through its day, but nor have I been left waiting for hourglasses to stop turning screens to refresh or apps to act.

Importantly, the machine's 1024 x 576-pixel 10.1-inch screen is no hindrance to Windows 10.

As we've discussed elsewhere, Windows 10 is a worthy upgrade that makes Windows sensible again. That experience repeats on the S10e.

[dayglored]

"...Long story short, my experience suggests that if your Netbook is still working and Microsoft's nagware is nagging you, a Windows 10 move probably won't leave your Netbook in worse condition than XP..."

[dayglored]

Windows 10 works well on Netbooks, who knew?... PING!

You can find all the Windows Ping list threads with FR search: just search on keyword "windowspinglist".

[Responsibility2nd]

So now a $10 Netbook can nag me as well as $1000 plus advanced Microsoft systems?

No Thanks and No Thanks.

[Zathras]

I think Netbooks was Intel’s idea.
At the time (pre-tablet), customers were asking for an email-web tool that was cheap.

It turned out to be a one year, flash in the pan.

[r_barton]

There are Linux distributions that will make the Netbook run twice as fast as it ever did with any version of Windows. Try Linux Lite for one.

[Da Coyote]

Microsoft?

What is a Microsoft?

I thought that all state of the anti virus apps took care of such things..

[BuffaloJack]

Two years ago, I upgraded my wife’s Dell 10” netbook from Windows XP to Windows 7. A few months back, I took advantage of the Windows 10 free upgrade. The netbook finally works as advertised. Going to 10 was a good move.

[catbertz]

The netbook form factor had so much potential, but got screwed by industry timing and politics. They were hobbled even before release, with underpowered hardware and lack of enthusiasm from MS and others. Current laptop chipsets and oled screens would make a netbook blaze, and last all day at least.

[VanDeKoik]

I have one that I’ve been hesitant on putting 10 on it because it was horrible with anything but Win 7 Starter.

But I guess it can’t hurt to try.

[poinq]

Windows 10 is the best thing that Microsoft has done in quite awhile. Mostly because of whats not in it. Microsoft stripped huge amounts of legacy code out of Windows 10 making it incompatible with things which have been long extinct. Windows 10 is actually smaller. And can run on smaller computers. It’s also safer, with far fewer holes for viruses to penetrate. Everyone should move to Windows 10. But note that Windows Edge, which replaces Internet Explore, is now the main browser. If something does not work, you will have to find Internet Explorer which is still there. And use that. I found that almost everything runs better and faster on Edge, but there are some old things that require Explore.

[Made In The USA]

The browser that was included with my Win10 ‘upgrade’ sucks. Pages load slowly, the swipe to the right to go back reloads slowly... Not digging it.

[Little Pig]

Seconding this. Linux has no issues with screen resolution, and you can avoid loading out the notoriously-small netbook drives with useless bloatware. Plus, if you’ve got reasonable amounts of RAM, you can also cut the swap space on disk way back, so you don’t lose as much to the OS.

[lula]

Ping

[mowowie]

I have a netbook with a huge 10 hour battery collecting dust with XP on it.
If i was to upgrade to win10 i would have to pay for it though right?

[Stentor]

I have one that I've been hesitant on putting 10 on it because it was horrible with anything but Win 7 Starter.

lubuntu

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

My Asus netbook uses WinXP and an eBook reader only. I have no intention of putting any other OS on it.

It doesn't get as much use as it once did now that I have a free tablet from my ISP. That makes a very sweet eBook reader.

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Thanks for that feedback. I was wondering.

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Well, how hard is it to run Chrome?

[dayglored]

> I have a netbook with a huge 10 hour battery collecting dust with XP on it. If i was to upgrade to win10 i would have to pay for it though right?

Yeah, no freebies upgrading from XP. Maybe it might be worth finding a cheap Win7 license somewhere (depending on where you look for such things), putting that on, and -then- upgrading. Just be sure whatever version of 7 you get will allow a free upgrade.

[mowowie]

Thanks for your reply.