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Netbooks are great, especially if you are on the move, or you’re a student, or just want to be able to browse the Internet  and be able to do some work from anywhere. And you don’t want to be carrying a big heavy laptop with you. That’s the case with me – I travel a lot and got really tired of dragging my laptop during the day and my shoulder aching in the evening!

Some people say that netbook are only for browsing the web and running lightweight applications. Of course, that’s partly true, but you can always enhance your netbook experience with a little optimization.

1. First of all, if you’re getting (or already have) a netbook with a 3-cell battery, get a second one or a 6-cell one instead. A 3-cell battery won’t last long enough, which doesn’t really go with the “on the go” idea. This is not really an optimization tip, but will save you a lot of trouble nevertheless.

2. Some netbooks are running Vista. If that’s the case with you, I’d recommend downgrading to XP. Vista is not the OS for netbooks.

3. Upgrade RAM, if your netbook has the capacity. Some of them can be upgraded to 2GB, which is not bad at all and matches some larger laptops specs.

4. Uninstall try-and-buy applications that come pre-installed on some netbooks. Most likely you will never need them and they are only demos anyway.

5. Configure your startup list. The more programs are loading on startup, the longer your netbook takes to boot. Go to Start - Run - type in msconfig – hit Enter and review your startup list.

6. Disable unnecessary services. You don’t want them to waste system resources! One way to do it is to click Start - Run - type in msconfig and hit Enter. Then go to the Services tab and disable what you don’t need. A good list of Windows services can be found here. Be careful and don’t disable any vital services. And backup first!

The easier way to disable services is to download Auslogics BoostSpeed and run Service Manager. It gives you detailed description of each service and advises you which ones are safe to disable and which ones are not.

7. Use the built-in Windows Disk Cleanup tool (Start - Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Disk Cleanup) to get rid of junk files. You can’t afford to waste disk space, especially if your netbook has an SSD.

8. Download free Auslogics Registry Cleaner and Auslogics Disk Defrag. Both are lightweight and will help you keep your Registry and disks in top form.

9. If you are like me and Firefox is your web browser, use small toolbar icons. Right-click on the toolbar – click Customize - a new window will open – check the Use Small Icons checkbox.

10. Another tip for Firefox users -  press F11 when you need more space. All toolbars and the status bar will disappear. You won’t have any problems if you want to access tabs – just put your cursor on top of the screen and your tabs will reappear. I found this quite handy when browsing through photos or looking at maps.