Key Takeaways
- Turn old laptop screen into privacy shield with a simple DIY project using polarizing filter.
- Transform old laptop with broken screen into a desktop with an external monitor for new life.
- Repurpose old laptop for retro gaming or digital cookbook in the kitchen, and donate CPU for science.
If you’ve upgraded to a new laptop, chances are you still have the old machine lying around your home. After all, most notebooks don’t hold their value well over time, so the likelihood that you traded in your old device is slim. Maybe you wanted one of the latest AI PCs so you could get teachable AI assistants to help with the drudgery of office work. Whatever the reason, unless your prior laptop can be upgraded, you might be wondering what you can do with it aside from collecting dust. Sure, you could recycle the old laptop if you’re near an e-waste facility, or spruce it up a bit to gift it to a younger family member, but those are frankly boring options. We’ve found some quirky but easily attainable projects to give that old laptop a new life.
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5 Turn your screen into a privacy shield
Fun and functional
Did you know that the LCD screen on your old laptop could work better by removing the polarizing filter? Without it, the LCD would look like a featureless white panel, but that’s exactly what you want for this project found on Instructables. By taking off the polarizing filter and then putting the material into a pair of sunglasses, you gain a private screen that will only work when the glasses are worn. This means you don’t have to worry about eavesdroppers, since anyone trying to read your passwords or banking details will see a white, featureless screen.
This is a little bit involved, but as long as you have a steady hand and some time, it can be done. When finished, your old laptop can be used for all of your sensitive transactions or to work in public without worrying about snooping eyes. Many business laptops have optional privacy screens that also make it harder for people to see your screen, but this modification makes it so that nobody can see your computer screen unless they’re wearing glasses made from the polarizing film that was on your display.
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4 Use it as a desktop
The best computer is the one you don’t notice is there
If you’ve got a laptop with a broken screen, did you know that it could work just fine if you plug it into an external monitor? Then it can be used as a headless computer, giving it a new life as a portable computer-in-a-keyboard. That’s what XDA’s own Brady Snyder did with a broken M1 MacBook Air from eBay, which he picked up for under $200.
The reason this is often the best use of a MacBook with a broken screen is the exorbitant cost of replacing the screen. Buying a new display from either Apple’s self-service repair store or iFixit will cost roughly $400. Add on the cost of the tools you’ll need, and it’s getting close to the price of a new MacBook Air. But, turning it into a headless computer only requires a few screws to be removed, so the broken display, top shell, and hinges can be uncoupled for a novel use of the healthy equipment.
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3 Turn it into an emulation machine
Retro gaming doesn’t need much power
Older laptops might be struggling with current games, but there’s one class of gaming that they’re perfect for. That’s retro gaming, and while it can revitalize any old laptop, it’s even easier on a MacBook running Apple Silicon. That’s because you can run iOS apps on the desktop, and Delta on iOS is the app you want for this purpose.
You just need to download the app from the App Store on your Mac and find some ROMs to play. While making your own ROMs from physical games you own is an advanced process, you can legally download a load of indie free-to-play games to repurpose that MacBook for retro gaming. You’ll probably want a good Bluetooth controller as well, since controlling games from the keyboard can be tricky, but it’s a great way to get some more life out of that old laptop.
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2 Turn it into a digital cookbook
You won’t worry about splashes in the kitchen if it’s old
Source: Microsoft
Having a permanent laptop situated in your kitchen might not be as odd as it first sounds. You can use it to play music, browse recipes, or store your own recipes in a digital cookbook. Any old laptop will have plenty of power for these tasks, and since it’s not really being used for much, you might not mind the occasional splash of marinara sauce.
To make it even more permanent, you could mount it upside-down under your kitchen cabinets. I found a quick tutorial at Instructables that uses L-brackets to hold the laptop, so the screen can flip down when needed and then back up for storage. If your laptop is running Windows 11, it’s a simple task to rotate the display 180 degrees so it shows the correct orientation while mounted in this way. Add a cheap wireless keyboard and mouse, and you’ve got a kitchen computer.
1 Contribute CPU cycles for science
Be a part of new discoveries
If you weren’t already aware, there are hundreds of large-scale distributed computing programs that you can donate CPU cycles to in the hope of solving some of the mysteries of our universe. Researchers always need more computing power, and you can help if you don’t mind keeping that old laptop powered on and connected to the internet.
One of the most well-known projects, Folding@home, uses your CPU cycles to fold proteins, and the results go on to help medical science with new drugs or to learn more about how our bodies work. That’s pretty cool, and it’s far from the only project that your old laptop can contribute to. Who knows, the CPU cycles you donate could be the ones that make a difference in research on currently incurable diseases.
Think about reuse opportunities while you browse for your new laptop
While looking for its replacement, it’s a good idea to think about how you could reuse the old laptop. Maybe you want to keep it around as a replacement in case something goes wrong with the new laptop, and that’s okay. Maybe grab a good toolkit and take it apart, so you can clean it and replace the thermal paste on the CPU, which will give it some extra life. If you’re feeling particularly crafty, you can try one of our ideas or any number of other ways to repurpose the old laptop as a NAS, a PiHole for adblocking, or turn it into a digital picture frame. Or you can recycle it, but if so, make sure to wipe the storage or take the drive out of the laptop first so that you don’t give away your personal data.