Notebooks & Netbooks

[rcriswell]

I gave my dad an Acer Aspire One ZA3 years ago. He would like to upgrade to Windows 8.1. Is this possible?

Thanks!

[JackE · Accepted solution]

Not recommended. Is it running XP now? You would at least need to add more memory to run any of the newer Win versions, let alone 8.1, and they'd probably run poorly. Shopping around for good deals on a new Win8 machine would be more practical.

Jack E/NJ

[rcriswell]

Thank you for the straight-forward answer!

[peterpiper]

Yes, installing windows 8.1 on your Dad's ZA3 is a really good idea.  Windows 8 or 8.1 will install on nearly all netbooks but the Windows Store will not open (work) if your screen resolution is 1024x600 (which is what most 10.1" netbooks are) but your Dad's Acer ZA3 has a screen resolution of 1366x768 which is perfect for windows 8.1

In the last month I have noticed Acer has stopped suport on driver downloads from their web-site, hopefully windows updade should install the most important drivers you need.  Just incase your wifi doesn't work when you first install windows 8.1 use an ethernet cable till windows update installs it.  As a last resort you can use Driver Pack Solutions cd to install drivers which you can order from ebay but it would be better if you get the original drivers/display drivers.

I wouldn't worry about the ram but if you want to spoil yourself you can always upgrage to 2gb.