10 Great Netbook Upgrades

I continue to like and use my netbook more than I ever thought I would. As travel PCs go, it's almost perfect. Of course, I'm not alone in thinking a few tweaks would be nice, as evidenced by PC World's recent story: 10 ways to upgrade your netbook.

In addition to some obvious improvements, like a bigger hard drive and better battery, the author offers a few ideas I'd never considered -- like rearranging the keyboard:

Is the default layout of your netbook's keyboard conflicting with the muscle memory you've built for desktop keyboard layouts? Pop an offending key off of your netbook by wedging a tiny screwdriver under the key and gently applying upward pressure. As long as the keys you're swapping around are of the same size, you'll be able to interchange them as you please. Once you've made the physical transformations, use the Sharp Keys utility to reassign how your operating system interprets the keystrokes. If you don't mind a bit of visual confusion, you could leave the physical keys exactly where they are and simply redefine their purpose with this helpful application.

For more netbook goodness, check out these recent posts:

• Download Netbook-Ready Movies at Film Fresh
• ZumoDrive Stores Files in the Cloud, Solves Netbook Storage Woes
• Presto Turns Your Notebook Into a Fast-Booting Netbook
• 5 Tips for Buying an Ergonomic Netbook