{"id":99279,"date":"2018-03-27T20:04:43","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T20:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=99279"},"modified":"2025-07-01T23:34:55","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T06:34:55","slug":"5-uses-for-an-old-pc-you-no-longer-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/5-uses-for-an-old-pc-you-no-longer-use\/","title":{"rendered":"5 uses for an old PC you no longer use"},"content":{"rendered":"

You just switched your old PC for a new one and don\u2019t feel like getting rid of your dusty old dinosaur. Maybe you\u2019ve grown fond of it, spent lots of time with it, want to keep it for sentimental value\u2026 or you\u2019re going to put it on a shelf until you find a good use for it. If you\u2019re in the last group, you\u2019re in luck: here at Softonic, we\u2019re bringing you<\/span> five uses for an old PC you no longer use. <\/b><\/p>\n

5 uses for an old PC you no longer use<\/h2>\n

1. Connect it to the TV<\/b><\/h3>\n

If your PC is a laptop, check out this possibility: <\/span>use it to connect to the TV. <\/b>Unless you’ve got a brand new TV, it’s probably not a Smart TV, while most PCs from 2008 onward generally come with an HDMI port.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks to this port, you can make the most your TV and laptop: you can connect your PC to the TV and let HDMI magic do the rest. You can watch <\/span>Netflix<\/a>, HBO<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, Amazon Prime <\/a><\/b>or any other service. After all, you\u2019ll have everything on your PC available on your screen.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. As a retro console<\/b><\/h3>\n

Believe it or not, your old PC may work as an improvised <\/span>retro console<\/b>. All you need to do is add a lot of <\/span>emulators and ROMs<\/span><\/a> to have thousands and thousands of past video games at your fingertips.<\/span><\/p>\n

MSX2, Spectrum, SNES, NES, Megadrive\u2026 All the classic consoles can run on any PC from the last decade, so this option is pretty doable (and recommended, by the way).<\/span><\/p>\n

3. As a text editor<\/b><\/h3>\n

Most customers walk into a computer store and say,\u00a0<\/span>\u201cI want a computer to write, read, and little else.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

If these are the features you\u2019ve got in mind, maybe your old computer could be a good tool for this. Microsoft Word<\/a>, any of its free clones like LibreOffice<\/a>, Notepad<\/a> or any text software (see Calibre<\/a> for example) take up few resources, so you can assign your old PC to just writing notes, stories or articles.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n \"LibreOffice\"\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n LibreOffice<\/span>\r\n Download LibreOffice<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n <\/path><\/path>7<\/text><\/svg>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n <\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/span><\/p>\n

4. As a hard drive<\/b><\/h3>\n

If you know how to take apart a PC, you can use your old PC by removing the <\/span>hard drive<\/b>. It works as an external drive by buying a simple case for it. <\/span><\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t know how to take apart your computer, don\u2019t worry: you can do the same thing but by leaving it turned on. By using the cloud and flash drives, you can do wonders so your new computer is always clean and uncluttered.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Donate it<\/b><\/h3>\n

This is our last tip: <\/span>donate it<\/b>. There are lots of people who need a PC for school or work and can\u2019t afford one. Lots of families worldwide don\u2019t have the spending power, so you can do a good deed by giving yours away to charity. Just be sure you’ve wiped your hard drives or reformatted the computer completely before turning it over.<\/span><\/p>\n

Related Articles:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

5 uses for a tablet you no longer use<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You just switched your old PC for a new one and don\u2019t feel like getting rid of your dusty old dinosaur. Maybe you\u2019ve grown fond of it, spent lots of time with it, want to keep it for sentimental value\u2026 or you\u2019re going to put it on a shelf until you find a good use … Continue reading “5 uses for an old PC you no longer use”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9091,"featured_media":99476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-99279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9091"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328130,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99279\/revisions\/328130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99279"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=99279"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=99279"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=99279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}