Netbook Network

Windows has become more and more capable with each release, with the addition new built-in features such as system images for backup which would usually require third party software on previous versions of Windows. Even Internet Explorer, which was considered a joke when compared to modern browsers, got a much-needed refresh in IE9, a Vista and 7 exclusive. The built-in software may be enough to satisfy most users, though they could be much better in terms of resource usage – something not just netbook users need to pay attention to when it comes to what kinds of software they’re using.

Web Browser

Internet Explorer 9 packs speed and features at the cost of CPU usage – which can generate a lot of heat on smaller, more compact devices, and may even damage the insides if things get really hot on a regular basis. Opera, Chrome, and Firefox are all viable options for a more lightweight alternative to IE9, and if you’re stuck on Windows XP, an alternate browser to IE8 is pretty much a necessity. We’ve gone into more detail as to what browser works best on netbooks, which you can read about here – Firefox and Opera seem to be the best options, seeing as they have a good balance of CPU usage and memory usage.

Media Player

Windows Media Player 12 doesn’t have too many new features in comparison to WMP11, instead packing more built-in codecs – making it much more capable right out of the box. It’s not too slim on resource usage though, so instead we would recommend the very capable VLC Media Player or the simpler Media Player Classic. Both use much less memory and CPU than WMP12 when playing back media, and support many file formats that WMP12 won’t even touch. Watch out however – depending on your setup, you may not get as good performance in VLC or MPC due to their hardware acceleration.

Windows Search

Losing files can be lots of trouble, especially when Windows’ built in file searching tools are too slow to find anything. Even with a standard, 7200 RPM desktop hard drive, finding files isn’t exactly lightning fast (netbook and laptop hard drives typically run at 5400). Everything is an excellent hard drive search engine that will bring up results as you type with no hesitation or loading at all. Even if you disable its indexing service, it only takes a few seconds when launching to index new files on your hard drive and will proceed to deliver them at lightning speed when you search.

Backup and Restore

Just like all system backup programs, Windows 7′s Backup and Restore sucks away your disk bandwidth during use and can sometimes take hours depending on how many files you have. There’s no good lightweight software alternative to backup your system, so instead, you can take some caution and use a simpler method of backing up: make system restore points on a regular basis, and backup (using a tool like 7-zip) your personal data manually on a separate hard drive. System restore will essentially ‘backup’ your Windows and Program Files folders in which you can restore them via a repair disc if something goes wrong. Watch out though, nothing beats the security of a full disk image, so when using this method, take more caution with where you go on the Internet.

What else?

You can find more lightweight software not meant to replace, but to enhance Windows’ capabilities in our long list of Free Netbook Software Essentials. Remember, while netbooks are handy little devices, they aren’t designed to do heavy duty tasks – and no matter how much optimizing you do, you should still leave those up to a desktop computer.