What to install on a tiny Windows laptop

When you're hard-pressed for RAM, you've got to choose your applications wisely. At the end of December, my colleague Seth Rosenblatt put together a thoughtful and in-depth Windows Starter Kit that collects the best-of-breed freeware applications for all categories. But what if your new Windows computer can be balanced on the palm of your hand and contains only a whiff of RAM? Take, for instance, the tiny Acer AspireOne notebook computer that my mother purchased on little more than a whim and a phenomenal deal. Not for kitchen lookups of recipes or way to win dinnertime debates, as I had imagined when we slipped the preemie out of its box first, but as a real way to look up Wikipedia articles, send late night e-mails, and play a Hulu or YouTube video before nodding off perhaps. With a piddly 512MB of RAM, my mother's new little gem can ill afford to suffer extras, when meeting specific especially, domestic demands. No, it's time to get ruthless. Despite its diminutive capacity, Little Gem came with plenty crapware on it, and more auto-installed after registration. I fired up the thorough Revo Uninstaller (to uninstall after all is said and done) and fed it an appetizer of Google Desktop and Google Toolbar. (There will be few files to find.) Adobe Reader went out likewise, the free, lighter FoxIt Reader taking its place. Internet Explorer gets to stay for the right time being, only to facilitate Microsoft's computerized updates. While the lighter Chrome would be the natural browser choice, Firefox won over for the right time being, so that the Foxmarks can be utilised by the folks Bookmark Synchronizer extension to share bookmarks with the primary computer. McAfee's Site Advisor security add-on for Firefox (and IE) is another perk, and one which offers peace of mind also. Googlepedia is another useful, time-saving add-on that will bring my mom's Wikipedia articles to her if she starts a search within Google. I might consider installing CustomizeGoogle to blast away advertising also.