Complete Guide to Breathing New Life Into Your Old PC or Laptop

You could sell it, but not get much for it.

Here we bring you a guide on how to bring it back to life.

But what about the older machine?

You could sell it, but probably won’t get a whole lot for it.

This guide will cover different methods including upgrading hardware, reinstalling Windows, and installing light versions of Linux.

Before making any changes to your hardware, confirm you backup your system first.

Memory

The easiest way to add better performance to an older machine is to add more memory.

Not sure what punch in of memory you have installed?

Check out our article on how tofind out the kind of memory your box has.

Hard Drive

Another way to improve performance is to install a larger and faster hard drive.

Note: Before doing a reinstall of your OS ensure you backup your important data!

A good start to get rid of it is using a free utility likePC Decrapifier.

When using it verify to use the option to create a Restore Point in case something goes wrong.

Then pick the junk to get rid of.

Our favorite services for installing the more popular free and Open Source apps without any crapware is Ninite.

For more tips on doing a reinstall of Windows take a look at ourChecklist Guide for Reinstalling Windows.

These will run from your USB flash drive and don’t require installation.

Your data can also be saved to the flash drive as well and not clog up your local drive.

Plus you’ll have the added benefit of bringing your favorite apps with you to any machine.

The download is only 130MB and it will run pretty much any machine from the past 15 years.

The minimum Requirements are a Pentium 166MMX CPU and 128MB of RAM.

The cool thing about Puppy Linux is that it runs in RAM from a Live CD or USB install.

It also has a lot of advanced features that advanced Linux geeks would love to tinker with.

It’s a cloud based OS and has a lot of features.

So no matter what you might need it should be available.

It also gives you a chance to try your hand at Linux and other free apps.