Laptop - HP ab292nr - i7-6700HQ - Upgraded to Windows 11

Breathing New Life into My HP ab292nr Laptop

I recently managed to upgrade my trusty HP ab292nr laptop—featuring a 6th-gen Intel i7-6700HQ processor—to Windows 11. Considering I primarily use it for minor tasks, this upgrade easily extends its life by another 5–7 years. It’s pretty satisfying to see a nearly decade-old machine still going strong!

Maxing Out Upgrades: RAM and SSD

To boost performance, I upgraded the laptop to 16GB of RAM and swapped in a 1TB SSD. Honestly, it might be a bit overkill given what I use it for, but DDR3 RAM is so cheap nowadays (around $12) that it felt like a “why not?” decision. The upgrades definitely made the system feel snappier, even if I don’t push it to its limits.

Purpose and Practicality

My goal has always been to maintain at least one computer for each major operating system, and this laptop fits nicely as my go-to Windows machine for everyday tasks like web browsing, Word, and Excel. Even with Windows 11 onboard, I’m still a bit hesitant to rely on it for more secure work—that’s reserved for my iMac M3 and, eventually, a MacBook Air.
Meanwhile, my older 4th-gen Linux laptop is still performing well too, leaving me with a bit of a dilemma on how to balance them all. It’s nice having options, but now I’m wondering which one will take on the daily grind.

The Fun of Tinkering

Part of the satisfaction came from the tinkering itself—figuring out how to squeeze more life out of a laptop I bought way back in 2016. There’s something rewarding about keeping old tech running smoothly, especially when it still holds up after all these years.

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