How to Use Your Old Laptop Again
Everything old is new once again. That applies not only to bell-bottoms and cassette tapes (seriously, tapes are staging a comeback), only also your old tech.
You've already learned how to repurpose an old tablet; at present permit's focus on that laptop you've kept in the back of your closet these many years. Even if information technology'southward a slow, virus-infested mess, you might be surprised at how much more life you can squeeze out of it. You lot probably won't have to spend any coin, either.
But, starting time: Appraise its status
First things first: Does it kick? If information technology has, say, a bum difficult drive, a cracked screen or missing/broken keyboard keys, information technology might be time for the junk/recycling heap. It'southward not hard or expensive to replace a hard drive, only evidently at that place is a cost.
But if the hardware is still good, you've got lots of options. The virtually obvious i: reformat the difficult drive and reinstall Windows. (You've already moved your data to your new laptop, right?) That's worth considering if you take the necessary media (namely a bootable Windows disc and/or flash drive), merely it might not be necessary. In fact, assuming the machine runs an older version of Windows, it might not even be wise from a security standpoint. (Best bet if you plan to stick with Windows: Exercise a clean install of Windows 10.)
Allow'south take a look at some cool and practical means to get that old laptop up and running again.
The old standby: Install Linux
This is possibly my favorite option, because it accomplishes so many things at one time. When you install Linux, it overwrites (optionally, but preferably) your existing OS, warts and all. In its place is a fast-booting, virus-resistant, Windows-like environment capable of but about anything.
In instance you're unfamiliar with it, Linux is an open up-source operating system that can run thousands of programs -- including, notably, function suites like LibreOffice and OpenOffice. It tin run browsers such equally Chrome, Firefox and Opera; games, like Culture Five and Minecraft; mail clients, similar Thunderbird; and Photoshop-level image editors, like GIMP.
Need a program that's only available for Windows? A tool called PlayOnLinux can probably run it inside Linux.
If there's a downside, it's that some areas of Linux have a learning curve, particularly when information technology comes to configuring certain settings. And you may encounter some compatibility problems with external devices like printers.
That said, I highly recommend giving your old laptop a Linux makeover. The only real question: Which version (or "distro," short for distribution) of Linux? There are lots to cull from, with Mint and Ubuntu beingness arguably the nearly pop, the former coming closest to replicating the Windows UI.
Not sure how to continue? Stay tuned for a how-to guide on installing Linux.
Plough it into a Chromebook
Welcome to Chromium, old laptop!
NeverwareWhat is a Chromebook but a regular laptop with limited processing power and a Google-powered interface that doesn't demand a lot of processing power?
Thus, your one-time laptop should be more than upwardly to the task of running that OS, which is called Chromium. Why cull that over Linux? In part because it runs nimbly on even the most modest hardware, and in part because it'due south Google through-and-through -- a fact that might appeal to Android users and others who partake of Google's ecosystem.
Indeed, if all you lot desire from your one-time PC is a spider web browser and cloud apps, Chromium might be your best bet. And there are at least two complimentary and easy ways to get it: Cub Linux and Neverware's Cloudready. I'm fractional to the latter, but it'south very easy to try both.
Make your own network-attached storage (NAS) organisation
If your old laptop has a reasonably spacious difficult bulldoze within, consider dedicating it to a single, awesome purpose: network-attached storage, or NAS.
It's not a new concept; the idea is basically to connect a big drive to your home network, and then make the contents of that bulldoze accessible to all your devices: PCs, phones, tablets and the like. Even meliorate, you can access the drive not merely at home, but anywhere you're connected. Instead of dumping all your photos to the cloud, you lot can dump them to your NAS. Instead of storing movies on your phone, you can stream them from your NAS. Get the idea?
The oldie-but-goodie choice for this: FreeNAS. Information technology's designed for sharing files both locally and online, and it offers media-streaming features equally well. It runs off a bootable CD or flash drive, from which information technology sets up an IP address for your PC. Presto: Quick and easy remote access to the laptop hard drive.
Build your own home media heart
This is a slightly different animal than a media server. The idea is to turn your laptop into a media center that serves your Television, connecting directly to it for everything from recording circulate Telly stations to watching Netflix on the big screen.
I'll be honest: I don't see a ton of value in this option. Netflix isn't hard to come up by, and many older laptops lack the horsepower necessary for DVR duty. (Plus y'all demand a tuner, antenna, remote, so on.) Heck, if yours doesn't have an HDMI output, the project is pretty much washed before it starts.
That said, if you desire to give it a try, bank check out this tutorial on setting up a home media center with Kodi.
Donate its brain to scientific discipline
Call up SETI@home? It's nevertheless a matter. In fact, it started being a matter so long ago, you might non recognize the proper noun. SETI@abode connects your PC to a distributed network, harnessing its processor to help analyze radio telescope data. In other words, at present your leftover laptop can help with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
All you lot practise is download the Boinc software (available for Windows, Mac and -- hint-hint -- Linux), then choose SETI@habitation from the list of bachelor projects.
If aliens aren't your thing, Boinc as well enables this kind of "volunteer computing" for things like medical research and climate analysis. The only cost to you is the electricity and (very minimal) bandwidth needed to keep the laptop running.
Turn it into a webcam
Acknowledge it: You've always worried that someone was using your laptop's webcam to spy on yous. Turn the tables with iSpy, an open up-source video-surveillance app for Windows. With information technology your old laptop becomes a surveillance camera, one you can use to monitor kids, pets, babysitters, the outdoors or just almost anything else.
This could come in really handy if y'all want a cheap way to proceed tabs on, say, a sleeping baby. On the plus side, iSpy is free for local utilise (pregnant within your own domicile), but if you desire to view your webcam remotely, the service costs $7.95 per calendar month.
Turn it into a digital photograph frame
"Say, didn't that used to be your laptop?"
PatxiptFor the serious DIY-er, there's nil quite so satisfying equally stripping down a laptop to its bare parts, and then turning one of those parts into something cool -- in this case a digital photo frame. After all, that large, high-resolution screen should exist put to expert employ, right?
At that place are lots of online tutorials devoted to this subject; I recommend the aptly named Digital photo frame from laptop on Instructables. It'south pretty straightforward: take apart the laptop, put the screen into a frame, mount the guts of the PC backside the frame, now running a photo-frame software. But at that place are many other ways to go, so striking up your favorite search engine for more options.
Oh, and seeing as you lot've already stripped it for parts, put that hard drive into an external instance and apply it as a USB drive!
Do you have any other ideas for repurposing old laptops? Share them in the comments!
Source: https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/how-to-reuse-an-old-laptop/
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