AOL Email Issues

[jayeem]

I have a brand new HP 14 Laptop - HP Stream 14" uses Windows 11 Home S Mode.  My AOL email can not be used with the Microsoft Edge browser. VERY SLOW impossible to use.  On my other HP Desktop older model. I use Google Chrome which is the best so far of AOL Email.  2nd Choice is  Mozilla Firefox.   Can not get either Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox on Microsoft Store for this Windows 11 Home S Mode.  What should I do?    I'm allowed to change out of W 11 S mode to regular W 11. Should I do this so I can get Google Chrome?   Or should I just return this HP Stream 14" back to the store. Still within return policy.  Terrible operating system / browser for my AOL Email.  Please help with any suggestions.  Checking with MS AI Copilot it says changing out of S mode will make me have worse performance and etc.  Any suggestions.  Thank you all for help and guidance.  

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You didn't mention the exact model number, but I don't know of any HP Stream notebook that provides decent performance with its weak entry level processor and small amount of memory.

I'd return it and recommend you don't buy any notebook with less than an Intel i5 processor or AMD Ryzen 5-processor and no less than 8 GB of memory--preferably 16 GB.

[jayeem]

Thank you Paul.  My model number is HP 14cf2111wm.  This is a back up or when I travel so I can get my email.  **bleep** is no problem.  Only AOL Email.  Microsoft Edge Browsers are very slow even on my good HP Desktop and my wifes good HP Laptop. But this new HP 14" which has Windows 11 Home S Mode and your forced to only use MS Edge or unknown browser in the MS Windows Store.   I will probably return it to the store unless I hear from someone about going from S Mode to regular Windows 11. Then I can get any browser I want.   Again, thank for your feedback.  J 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

You can always switch out of S-mode so you can install any app you want, but that isn't going to make your notebook run any better.

Switching out of S mode in Windows - Microsoft Support

But I imagine if you did that, you may not be able to return the notebook.

You could upgrade the memory to 8 GB (there's only one memory slot) but that would be about it.

[BarryMo67]

 Not that I would ever recommend doing hardware mods in a warranty period, but as well as adding 8GB RAM, you can drop the M.2 WIFI/BT module for an adapter and NVME SSD 128GB to speed things up. Celerons are not the bottleneck, eMMC drives  are trash. 

[jayeem]

Thanks for your information. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.