Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Unlock the power of your Netbook

You cannot do this by upgrading from Windows 7 Starter Edition or figuring out a way to display hidden BIOS options.

I run many Windows 7 computers with Windows Starter Edition through Home Premium to Professional. I have not noticed any big difference between any of the versions of the operating system for the work that I perform.

The biggest short coming of Windows Starter Edition is that you cannot customize the theme (background image, window appearance and screen-saver).

Professional allows you to join a domain in networking, however, I get the feeling that this would not be a problem if I needed to join a corporate network. As far as the security and the backup options offered by Professional - I don't use them.

Your Netbook is likely to have an Insyde H2O BIOS. This will mean that you will have limited options on the BIOS screens. You will not be able to enable Hardware Virtualization or change any of the processor and memory settings.
As such you will not be able to overclock your Netbook.
I have an Asus Netbook that has Super Hybrid Engine that allows the overclocking and underclocking of the Atom processor. I have not experienced any marked difference in the Netbooks performance when it is overclocked.

Therefore I conclude that there is little to be gained from overclocking a Netbook.

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