10 on a Netbook? SUCCESS!

jimbo45 said:

For typical consumer grade uses (e.g email, e-commerce, online banking, office type documents etc)Windows doesn't require a huge amount of CPU -

I agree, well said- and that's what the WIN10 netbook IS best at- being a 'convenience computer" for word processing. As some remote-work or work-from-home users may know, there's a benefit to having a 'glorified typewriter' that doesn't really allow you to go surf YouTube, and forces you to stick to what you were writing.

jimbo45 said:

Use Firefox as the browser instead of edge / chrome or even use OPERA.

I'll have to check again after the latest update, but the newer Firefox-derived Edge (and TOR Browser) seem to work fairly fast.
I didn't see much difference in usability, nor much difference in Task Manager regarding CPU time, but I guess I'll have to check again now that all of them have been updated.

jimbo45 said:

You can't compare these old netbooks / laptops with modern mobile phones-

Correct. (GRIN) Which is why I have a Bluetooth full sized Dell keyboard & Dell mouse tucked away in the trunk of the car.
If I'm driving family around, and have to wait for an hour, I head over to a local park. find a table, and can check email, write a word document.
The Win10 Netbook does the same in one-package, you just have to remember to sync it.

jimbo45 said:

Using Micro SD cards for auxiliary storage is an OK idea but remember their I/O rates are even slower than old PC spinners.

Agreed, they're helpful, but mostly for document storage. I can HIGHLY suggest getting an old Netbook (or even desktop) and then cloning your main computer hard drive to the secondary computer. (I use Macrium Reflect) You WILL have to do some updates, delete some drivers, but I've found that an old netbook, with a mid-sized SSD drive, makes a very nice "live backup" of your primary computer.
Everything works, but a bit slower. Which is more than acceptable, if you can't access your main computer because of "unforeseen" events (drive failures, power supply, children or senior family members who protest 'But I need to use YOUR computer')

When I had this old Acer Aspire, I had upgraded from Windows XP to Vista and then to Windows 7. I did not intend to use it seriously, but I installed Adobe Photoshop (among other applications), just to be able to fix some photos, if needed. Provided your photo is 8MP or lower, you can do simple fixes such as auto color, auto contrast etc. Surely it will be a little slow, but you are not using it professionally, just for amateur photo fixing. I would even try to edit some SD (720x576 PAL) video in VirtualDub but it would take too many hours to be usable.

What I mean is these little things can do literally everything with the appropriate software, just a little slower than a desktop PC of the same age. If I had it now, I would try to capture HDMI video from my HDMI to USB adapter, but I doubt it could do anything above 1024x768. Forget 1280x720 or 1920x1080, no way! It would stutter too badly!