Windows 10: 10 on a Netbook? SUCCESS!

Intel Mobile 945 Express chipset has onboard Intel 945G graphics for which there are Vista and newer drivers. So you have full hardware acceleration and it is fast enough for everyday use. I don't know about latest drivers, but when trying Windows 8 in a similar netbook I had to hack the registry to enable 1024x768 resolution so I could have the Metro interface (start screen) enabled. Probably newer drivers don't need this hack...

 

The Win10 resolution (recommended) 1024 x 600.
Start screen works ok - I do like 'Classic Shell' provision of real start button etc, I guess any overhead would unwanted tho'.
Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements

-0-

 

I have an ASUS Eee PC model 1018P-PU27-BK netbook with original main specifications of an Intel Atom N550 2 core 4 thread 1.5 MHz CPU, 10.1 WSVGA display, 1 Gbps network card, one USB 2 port, two USB 3 ports, and a 250 GB hard drive. It came with 1 GB or RAM and Windows 7 Starter which I upgraded to 2 GB of RAM, a 1 TB hard drive, and Windows 7 Home Premium. I recently took the free upgrade to Windows 10 Home and that went flawlessly, as have other Windows 7 machines that I have upgraded. The video adapter on the netbook is "Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150" and surprisingly enough Windows 10 loaded a driver for that as well. Windows 10 Home is more responsive than Windows 7 Home was, and (in my opinion) this is probably because Windows 10 does not have the fancy "Aero Glass" feature that Windows 7 has. I miss the fancier graphics in Windows 7 (especially on my more powerful systems) but suspect the loss of it improves the netbook's performance. The wireless in the netbook was not very fast (only connects at 75 MHz) and it did not appear to be possible to replace the existing 150 Mbps wireless card with an 802.11ac one. Being a power user, I decided to buy an "Edimax AC450 Wireless LAN USB Adapter" and it typically connects to my TP-LINK AC1900 router at 433 Mbps so that really improves my web browsing experience and access to shares on my home network. The "Edimax AC450 Wireless LAN USB Adapter" only sticks out about 1/4" from the USB port, works well with Windows 10 using a newer driver that I downloaded, and can be used in a USB 2 port since it does not exceed the 480 Mbps speed of USB 2. The only concern I have about this USB wireless adapter is how long it will last as it is so small and it gets warm, but since it was on sale for $20 when I bought it, I bought two so I would have a spare.

 

How fast of an internet connection do you have that 150Mbps isn't fast enough? There really shouldn't be any difference while browsing with a 150Mbps adapter vs a 433Mbps adapter (unless your internet connection is faster than 150Mbps). Where the faster wifi speed would benefit you is while transferring files from one computer on your network to another.

 

Maybe 1024x600 in Windows 10 is OK, but back in Windows 8 you could not access the Metro interface (start screen) unless you had at least 1024x768 resolution, hence the need for the patch. The patch enabled resolution 1024x768 which as resized to the actual 1024x600 and it was not very sharp, but you could use the start screen in Windows 8, instead of only working in desktop.

 

On the netbooks that I upgraded to Win 8 from Win 7, the patch was needed but no patch was needed for ones I upgraded to Win 10.

 

But it doesn't hurt to enable 1024X768 resolution, should you need it for a game or anything... I would do it and then use 1024x600. But when I would need it, it would be available

 

My Internet is 150 Mbps but the wireless built-in to the netbook usually only connects at 75 Mbps. I could probably tweak the settings to get higher. I should have mentioned that I like the faster speed for transferring files or streaming video across my LAN. All of the wired machines on my LAN are connected at 1 Gbps.

 

Currently making the same "new-life-giving" process to old Atom N450 netbook (Samsung NP220plus). I'm currently upgrading Win 7 Starter directly to Win 10 Anniversary Update (build 1607) via web upgrader for assistive users (since normal upgrade no longer available for free).
Will report soon.

Meanwhile i would like to comment some posts *Cool*Cool*Cool

1024x600 is also native resolution for 10" netbooks lcd panels, and it's generally advised to use NATIVE and not higher resolutions in order to get optimal performance and no things off-screen. Why would one use 1024x768 or 1280x800 etc if vertical pixels available are always 600???

No offense man but if you would be a power user, you would know that in order to connect at full 150mbps and not 75 you should just enable "20/40 Mhz channel modulatio" in your wifi access point settings. If your internet is 150mbps, you should have at least 270mbps constant wifi connection to use all available bandwidth

I would say "...unless your internet connection is faster than 60% of 150Mbps (approx. 90mbps)..."
Wireless connection speed and effectivly available wireless throughput are two totally different things, in other words - Bandwidth available is at maximum 50%-60% of connection speed, so being connected with 150mbps gives you approx. 90mbps of transfer speed in best possible conditions (no interference, copying one big file, copying to another device connected with wire at faster speed).

P.S. Sorry for my bad english. I'm just ukrainian living in Italy and speaking english....*Rolleyes

 

About your comment on native 1024x600 resolution. The only reason to use the fake 1024x768 resolution is to be able to use the Metro Interface (modern tablet-like start screen) in Windows 8.0 and 8.1 You are not allowed (at least in Windows 8.0) to use the start screen with less than that (eg 800x600). Also some old games have fixed resolutions such as 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768. They do not support weird resolutions such as 1024x600. So unless you want to play them in "low" resolutions, you have to enable 1024x768. This resolution is scaled to the native 1024x600, so everything is on screen but of course a bit blur. If you want the sharpest display you have to always use the native resolution 1024x600 where possible.

 

I have a soft spot for Atom powered Netbooks and recently bought a Packard Bell Dot SE3 off ebay for £25. It has an atom n570 cpu, 320gb hdd and I fitted a 2gb stick of ddr3 memory. I did a fresh install of Windows 7 pro + Office 2010 pro plus then upgraded to Windows 10 pro. Its all good so far I was expecting poor video playback but it handles 720p movies and streaming just fine when hooked up to a TV. Gaming performance is poor ( Snes, N64 and Megadrive emulators work well though) I reckon Windows 10 is the best version yet for the humble Atom powered netbook.

 

Hi

Could you give a quick rundown on how to disable the windows 10 stuff, got windows 10 running on a aspire one notebook, intel atom n550 (1.5ghz, 1mb l2 cache) 1gb ddr memory, 250gb hdd
I say running but so slow, think Royal Mail might be quicker lol
Cheers
Pat

 

Sounds like you didn't install all the drivers, you just left what Windows found automatically. If you install the latest Intel graphics driver you should have some more hardware acceleration and improve speed. Probably this is a Windows Vista or 7 driver, use Aida64 to find out. If the graphics card is not detected properly, Windows 10 install the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter (no hardware acceleration, software only) and this makes the netbook look 2-3 times slower than it really is! If possible increase RAM to at least 2GB and it will make huge difference.

 

Hi
Have increased ram but having trouble using the program you suggested so have deleted-the ram has improved things, have also deleted most of the default windows 10 stuff, bing news, sports etc. & removed a couple of programs from the start-up menu.
Running much better
Cheers

 

Deleting apps like Bing News & Sports shouldn't have any effect on the performance of your netbook but will give you a little more free space on your hard drive. As far as "removed a couple of programs from the start-up menu", did you mean to say you removed items that are being started during boot and running in the background? Stopping those things from running that will help with performance and free up some of your RAM. You can manage those items using the Startup tab of Task Manager in Windows 10. Any services or apps listed there that aren't essential should be disabled.