Useful Tips to Refresh Your Laptop

Do you have an aging laptop that you want to save from the recycling center? With a few software and hardware upgrades, you could bring that old notebook back to life and possibly avoid having to plunk down cash for a new laptop or a secondary device such as an Apple iPad or an Android tablet.

Refresh the Operating System: Three Options

Back up first! Before making any operating system changes, be sure to back up your data to an external hard drive (or two), and confirm that you have all of your application discs handy so that you can reinstall them. Check our tips on what you should back up, as well as on how to back up manually or through Windows.

1. Reinstall Windows: Over time, Windows naturally slows down. A fast way to bring your laptop back to square one is to use your system-restore disc (or the restore program installed on the laptop) to reformat and reinstall Windows. After a fresh install, your system will run much faster, undoing the years of application installs and uninstalls, disk fragmentation, and everyday wear and tear. See oureight-step complete guide to reinstalling and restoring Windows for assistance in starting over from scratch.

Unfortunately, reinstalling Windows from your laptop manufacturer's restore disc or program will also reinstall any bloatware that initially came with it. A few utilities can help you remove those useless programs: Previously we've mentioned Revo Uninstaller Portable, which is free and doesn't need to be installed on your laptop, as well as Total Uninstall ($30), which has more features, handles uninstalls that require a reboot, and can remove 64-bit programs. If you want a more automatic tool that finds bloatware for you, check out the free PC Decrapifier.

2. Upgrade to Windows 7: If you're running Windows XP or Vista, you may find much better performance under Windows 7--if your laptop meets the requirements for upgrading. Download and install Microsoft's Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to determine whether your laptop can run Windows 7.

At Microsoft's suggested retail price of $120 for the OS upgrade, this option isn't cheap. If you intend to use your old laptop as just a secondary computer, the investment might not pay off. But if you'll be using the laptop heavily, keep in mind that Windows 7 has been shown to run well on even very old and underpowered laptops and netbooks, and that it boasts a ton of nice features for connecting to other computers, finding your documents and other files, and using your laptop in general.

Want to upgrade? Check out our instructions for upgrading to Windows 7, including how to perform the custom (that is, clean) install required for XP users, as well as the upgrade path for Vista.

3. Try Linux: For a free, lightweight, and secure operating system upgrade, consider trying Linux, specifically Puppy Linux. My PCWorld colleague Katherine Noyes pointed out several features of Puppy Linuxthat make it a nice option for older PCs, including its ability to run off a CD or USB flash drive, as well as its small footprint. It boots quickly, too.

Easy Hardware Upgrades: Three Options

1. Add memory: The easiest, and often the most cost-effective, way to add a performance boost is to install more RAM. If your laptop has 512MB or less of memory, you can boost its speed by a third by upgrading to 1GB. (Find out how much memory is installed by clickingStart, going to the Control Panel, and clicking System. In the General tab, you'll see the amount of RAM.) Memory is cheap these days--1GB of RAM can cost as little as $20--so I recommend upgrading to the maximum amount of memory your laptop can use. As mentioned in ourguide to upgrading PC RAM, memory vendors Crucial and Kingston both offer easy-to-use tools for finding the right memory for your computer.

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2. Upgrade the hard drive: Replacing your laptop's hard drive will not only get you more space, but it can also significantly increase the laptop's performance. Older laptop hard drives may have a low, 4200-rpm rotational speed; upgrading to a 5400-rpm or 7200-rpm drive will produce a noticeable speed difference during boot-up, data transfers, and general use.

For about $50, you can buy a 5400-rpm hard drive with 320GB of storage space, or a 7200-rpm drive with 320GB of storage. (Compare prices on notebook hard drives.)

You can upgrade the hard drive yourself in just a few minutes. Before ordering the replacement drive, confirm what type of hard drive your laptop currently has (look on the drive itself for the interface type and height, or note the model number and look up the information on the drive manufacturer's website). A notebook hard-drive upgrade kit, such as those from Apricorn starting at $19, can clone your old drive and make transferring your data to the new one very easy.

D-Link DWA-1313. Upgrade your Wi-Fi to Wireless-N: If your home router uses Wireless-N (aka the 802.11n protocol), you can get faster network connectivity on your laptop by upgrading the notebook's wireless card from the older 802.11b or 802.11g standard to the latest protocol. Wireless-N products have been shown to be as much as seven times faster than 802.11g. Another benefit: Since older wireless devices can drag down the rest of a Wireless-N network, upgrading your laptop can improve your network overall.

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Samsung Chrome doesn't offer all the functions of today's laptops

Google took two years to work out the concept for its Chrome operating system. Now the first Chromebook - from Samsung - is out. It's fast and secure, but it doesn't offer all the functions of today's laptops - and it can do next to nothing without internet access.

But there are bright spots too. For instance: boot-up time. A Windows laptop can take two or three minutes until it's ready to run. It's a whole different story with the Samsung Chromebook: it takes nine seconds from pressing the start button until the login window pops up. Only two more seconds elapse after the password is entered.

It takes about the same amount of time for the netbook to make a wi-fi internet connection, pulling up the web-based user interface.

Things go even faster - a total of three seconds - when it's time for the Chromebook to wake up from standby and re-establish its wi-fi connection. That's a feat so far only mastered by laptops like the MacBook Air, which has an SSD hard drive. But those SSD-enabled laptops usually cost twice the €400 asked for the Samsung device.

The operating system is key to the speed. Most laptops using either a Windows or Mac OS system open multiple layers of the system, as well as components and programmes during start up, creating the impression that the process takes an eternity.

Meanwhile, the Chromebook, at its core, is just a Linux operating system and the Chrome browser. Programmes like email clients, word processors, spreadsheets, games or photo processing programmes are not stored on the computer, but accessed via the browser as web services.

For working while online, Google has made available its reliable suite of web applications, including Gmail, Calendar and a series of apps like Google Docs. But users are not limited to Google programmes. There's also access to competitors like Yahoo and Microsoft.

And, if the laptop is operated in guest mode, a Google login isn't even necessary, meaning the user leaves no data trail on the Chromebook.

Dead when offline

A Web Store has about 5 000 applications available. But a lot of applications that laptop users have come to expect on their machines -video editing software or Skype for internet calls - aren't there, even if Google does offer its own voice-over-internet-protocol service.

But the biggest drawback isn't selection of programmes - which is always growing - but the need to rely on a stable internet connection. The Chromebook is capable of almost nothing when offline.

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Thus, the Chromebook, for now, is only of interest to people who can spend their entire day in a networked environment, like students on a campus or people with reliable internet connections in their home or office.

Of course, one can ensure a full time connection with a €450 UMTS version that accesses the internet via mobile services. But that still means you're offline if you wander into an area without service or get onto an airplane.

Chrome developer Sundar Pichai told the German Press Agency dpa that, in the near future, key applications like Gmail and Google Docs would work when offline.

"Those already work on my personal Chromebook. We'll free up this function for everyone soon, after we've cleared up a few small problems." But he didn't give a date.

Another advantage of the Chromebook is that updates are automatically uploaded in the background. "Whereas as a standard laptop will generally get slower in the course of time, Chromebooks will always get better," promises Pichai.

One area where Google could expand its offerings is in the selection of multimedia formats for recording and playback. Right now that's limited to MP3 and AAC files or pictures in the JPEG and PNG format. Quicktime films and data in the popular MKV format cannot be viewed.

Integrity check

Users, however, don't have to worry about regular updates of anti virus software. That's because the Google system's architecture cannot be attacked by Trojans and other malware.

Also, the Chromebook checks the integrity of the system at every start up.

If the check finds damaged or dangerous code the computer starts a second version of the system software from a protected backup.

In theory, one can work all day long with the Chromebook. Of course, if you spend all your time watching high-definition videos on YouTube, you'll drain your battery in six hours, since the Dual Core Atom N570 Intel processor requires a lot of energy.

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