Useful Netbook Software
With short battery lives and small resolution screens Netbooks, unlike many other computers on the market, could so with some specific software for their use.
Now, not all of those I’ve found are specifically designed for Netbooks, but all are relevant. And they’re designed for Windows XP.
Battery Display
If your Netbook didn’t come with model-specific battery display then you’ll be left with the rather weak XP default. My favourite options is BatteryBar, although there is also Power Meter Plus.
CPU Accelerator
Mz Cpu Accelerator does a simple thing, but it does it well. It increases the priority of the current application that is in use. If, like me, you normally just view one application at a time, such as Firefox, then this work brilliantly.
Display Improvement
F.lux is a rather curious utility that makes the colour of your computer’s display adapt to the time of day – warm at night and like sunlight during the day. Obviously this is neither specific to Netbooks nor Laptops in general, but due to the nature of Netbook being used anywhere and everywhere, often on a lap and up-close.
I run it on my Acer and don’t notice it. But that’s a good thing – tell it to return to normal and you will notice the difference. But otherwise it remains discreet and just does what it says it will.
Drive Image
If your hard drive is made by Maxtor or Seagate, then you can download the free MaxBlast or DiscWizard software from their sites. This is a rebadged version of the, usually chargeable, Acronis True Image software.
USB Boot Disks
With a lack of CD drives in Netbooks, the ability to boot from USB keys is essential in the case of any problems. UNetbootin will download one of a number of OS’ and install them onto a USB key ready to be booted from. Not only can you choice from their rather long list, but you can also add your own options.
Performance Booster
Ahh, if only XP could have the ReadyBoost technology that they use in Vista, where a USB key can be used to increase performance. But you can! eBoostr is an XP equivalent of ReadyBoost. I’ve not tried it myself, but there is a trial to download and it then costs from £13 depending on your requirements.
Power Management
Including a battery meter, Notebook Hardware Control allows you to control and modify CPU and battery information on your system. What functionality is available is pretty dependant on your system, but it’s worth giving it a try. But watch out for that huge EULA during installation…
HotKeyz (added 15/07/2009)
A wonderfully discrete and compact piece of software, HotKeyz allows you to create shortcut keys for running applications.
Update: Read more Netbook software recommendations
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- Choosing a Netbook So, yes, I’m still in the market for a Netbook but I’ve changed my mind about have an SSD. Now, call me fussy but here...
- Netbook Easy Mode Many of the Linux powered Netbooks come with a simple “Easy Mode” front end – large, chunky icons, all categorised into tabbed menus for you...
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I miss PhraseExpress in the list. It expands short text into longer text and is pretty useful for Netbooks lacking a full-size keyboard.
http://www.phraseexpress.com
It is free for personal use.
Merryl
I’ve not tried it myself, but I’d also like to suggest that High Sign may also be worth investigating.
It allows you to easily create and map custom mouse gestures.
http://highsign.codeplex.com/
The BBC’s Click technology programme has their own recommendations for Netbook software, none of which are on my list! I don’t agree with many of them, but here they are anyway…
360Desktop – Scroll through an extra wide desktop
Littlefox – A replacement theme for Firefox
RocketDock – An apple style application launcher
Launchy – If RocketDock is too graphical, this will help you launch applications by keyboard
PortableApps – A raft of applications that you can run from a USB key
If you want to save space on a netbook get rid of Adobe reader 86MB
and replace with Foxit Reader at only 7.7MB. Personally I find it better, as well massively smaller.
True, but probably only so if you have a relatively small SSD installed. Most of the popular Netbooks now have 120GB+ hard drives in them though – in this case, I’d suggest otherwise (see my review here).
Just came across this post.
I actually compile all the softwares that I find good for netbooks.
Check out the site : http://www.netbookfiles.com
How about touchfreeze – a free utility that locks out the touchpad when you’re typing.
http://code.google.com/p/touchfreeze/