Get the best from Windows 7 on a netbook

Customise settings
Windows 7 also enables you to create your own power plan. Back at the main Power Option window click ‘Create a power plan’ to devise your own, which is handy if you want to have settings for use at home and at a second specific location. The settings are the same whichever method you choose so let’s create our own plan for using the netbook while on a train.

First choose the settings you want to change, Power Saver in our case, and give it a name before clicking Next. Then set how long to wait before dimming the display and entering Sleep mode before clicking Create. Our plan now appears in the ‘Select a power plan’ window, where we can click ‘Change plan settings’ and then ‘Change advanced power settings’.

Wonderful wireless
Wireless networking also eats into battery life because the network adapter in the computer is continually using energy. Many netbooks have a switch or keyboard button to deactivate wireless when not needed – ­ consult your computer’s manual to find out about this.

You can also reduce the power consumption of the wireless adapter in your power plan (although this might affect your web access if the signal strength from the wireless network is low).

Open Wireless Adapter Settings, then Power Saving Mode and left-click ‘Setting’ to reveal a dropdown menu where you can choose your preference. You can always undo changes by clicking ‘Restore plan defaults’.

Our final tip concerns the netbook screen. The relatively small size of some netbook displays can make it difficult to read documents and websites. You should check that your display is set to its native resolution; open the Start menu, click Control Panel and then double-click Display followed by Screen Resolution.

The resolution of the display is normally included in the netbook’s manual, although Windows 7 can detect this. Click the resolution dropdown menu and ensure the figure selected has ‘(recommended)’ next to it.

Another way to reclaim a valuable proportion of display space is to set the Taskbar to appear only when it is needed. Right-click the Taskbar and select Properties. In the dialogue box that appears, click the box labelled ‘Auto-hide the taskbar’, followed by OK. The Taskbar now appears only when the mouse pointer is moved towards it.

There’s no doubt that Windows 7 performs well on most netbook computers. There are more options to conserve battery life, networking is easier and with more touchscreen netbooks due to launch later this year, using a computer while travelling looks set to become even easier.

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