Install Windows 7 On Almost Any Netbook

I put Mac OS on my netbook this last weekend, and it runs better than Ubuntu, XP, or Windows 7 did.

Rob Johnson

@Doomstalk: Good job! I was thinking if anyone said they have already done that.

mados123

@jkrell:

Yes....an unexpected bonus use of the XBOX 360 HD-DVD Drive....wheeee

GoonieGooGoo2

why not create a virtual disk? that seems more straightforward than messing around with an external drive or a usb stick. (I actually did this for my install)

rymich

@jkrell: good thing you pointed that out. I have an external dvd drive, and b/c of this article, I assumed that I could not use it for loading win7 on my netbook.

qrius

I just did a simple copy of the Windows 7 install DVD filesystem onto a flash drive, plugged it into my EeePC 701 (Yes, the original model) with the 8 Gig SSD, and it installed and ran perfectly. Even the built-in wireless worked fine.
The only thing I am currently missing is the Aero effects (Win7 reports the video card as generic VGA instead of as in Intel chipset, so I'm looking around for a driver designed for Vista for that).
Also, I am left with about .75Gig of free space, so any documents/media/etc go onto the SD card. I'm sure there are also a lot of useless things installed - maybe different language support, backups of all possible drivers, etc, that I can remove too.
But it was nice to just pop in the USB stick, install, and have it boot up fully working on the old 7 inch EeePC

Until this last weekend, I was dual booting XP and Windows 7 on an Acer Aspire One 10.1". It was bombing out (BSOD!), and I tried to restore the netbook from the recovery partition... Alt-F10 no longer worked!

Took a bit to restore the MBR using Hiren's Boot CD from a flash drive. If I could install Windows 7 again without having to completely bonk the MBR again, I'd try.

I've had Windows 7 RC on my Dell Mini 9 since mid-April, and I really enjoy it. I had to use a USB stick to install it, but the forums over at MyDellMini.com were a big help. Everything just works out of the box, and the interface is snappy and crisp, especially with some tweaks for SSD's, which I found here:

[www.mydellmini.com]

I've heard that Build 7127 (a post-RC build) is a bit faster than the RC, so I might try installing that soon.

I can't get it to work on my Macbook Pro notebook!?!?!

Sum1 halp plez?

i've got it running on a sony TT-190. installed almost perfectly. little issue with native things (the TT normally slowly dims or brightens the screen based on ambient lite and i'll be damned if i can figure out how to make it work). the TT is not really a netbook, with the dual cores, and 4GB RAM. but its definitely netbook-esque and i am loving windows 7 on it.

@aarste: Seems it does, Sandisk U3 Titanium 4GB stick (with U3 removed), formatted as NTFS, copied files over and boots fine on the MSI Wind.

aarste

@aarste: I can confirm. This is how I installed both build 7000 and the RC 7100 on my Samsung NC10. It worked perfectly.

mye

Win7 RC has been running perfectly on my MSI Wind for two weeks now. In fact, switching to Win7 seems to have fixed two big issues I was having with the Wind and XP. I was having daily random freezes and hourly drops of my wi-fi signal, but since installing Win7, both problems have vanished. I even seem to be getting considerably better battery life, now.
I have it set up as dual boot, in case I run into something that I can't do in Win7, but so far I haven't found any reason to boot into XP yet.

Robert Engle

@superrrguy:
hahah portege 2000 is the same. freakin targus DVD drive. Windows 7 didn't work for me. locked up after the computer overheated.

Joseph Smrekar

@jkrell: I'd guess that more people have capable thumb drives on hand than have external CD/DVD drives.

@Kostazu: I have the same Eee PC and didn't even use the thumb drive. Got an .iso of the RC, mounted it to Daemon Tools, then bam it was ready to go.

Patrick J Held

Apparently you can just copy the file/folder contents of the Windows 7 ISO/DVD straight to a USB flash stick and it will just boot according to what I've heard, no need for making it bootable with USBboot or mgr tools. Will need some confirmation on that though.

aarste

If I had a netbook, I would definitely put Windows 7 on it. As it is, I have 7 on two 2005 Pentium 4 Dells and it's working really well.

I actually installed Windows 7 on my Asus Eee PC 1000HE over my network using this guide: [preview.tinyurl.com] . The guide isn't specifically designed for netbooks, so I had to download my NIC driver and load it manually, but other than that it worked wonderfully.

installed on acer aspire one, no probleums works great, booted from flash drive.

Thomas Alan

I've installed Win7 on a Portege 3505 tablet using an external Targus PCMCIA DVD Drive.
Pentium 3-M 1.33ghz 512mb RAM 40gig harddrive.

Works just as good/bad I remember XP working on this thing. Most stuff worked right after the install. WiFi, sound started working after a Win Update through a wired connection. SD Card, screen rotation, I got working from the original XP drivers from the Toshiba support site for the 3505.

I really only tried to install 7 on this thing because I couldn't get XP to reinstall for whatever reasons using the original Toshiba disks. I think they may only work with an original Toshiba external drive. (Mind you, the Targus came in the box packaged from Toshiba.)

None of the Aero stuff works considering the shared 16mb video card but it's a pleasure to use Win7 for day to day computing on this thing like media sharing and homegroup stuff.

@jkrell Actually, I was unaware that those were common at all. Most people I know keep very little on disc media these days. Quite frankly, movies are about it, and not everyone has an itching to watch DVDs on such a tiny screen since for most folks, a netbook is a supplement to another computer and/or entertainment system

@Kostazu:

That's due to TrueCrypt not supporting Win7 yet. They hope to have it ready for Win7 RTM.

Michael Iain Douglas

this just complicates my decisions even further. I've been looking for a netbook with flash/solid state memory of about 20Gb with built in Camera and running XP. Any ideas? Or do you think it may be worth waiting for a Windows 7 netbook? I don't want a hard drive.

iamellis

Works like a charm.

Firasco

@jkrell: I don't...

AliShaikh_Returns

@jkrell: Unfortunately, not everyone has one. They still cost over $50 most places, I believe.

@jkrell: size.. just maybe.

godlyzombie

I installed a vLite stripped version of 7 on my Dell Mini 9 this weekend. It runs great (though I made the mistake of stripping out Windows camera support, so I cannot get my camera working unless I reinstall).

I was actually kind of surprised at how well it runs, but I think I will definitely keep it on there. At least until the RC goes dead...

kyre

As Kostazu said, why not just avoid the USB stick hassle and use an external cd/dvd drive? Doesn't everybody have one?

jkrell

Installed on an Eee PC 1000HA via external usb dvd drive to a spare hd this weekend. Installed fine, ran fine. Had a little issue with true crypt and creating a large container though, so decided to stick with xp for now.

Kostazu

@jkrell: I agree that it's likely easier, and an external CD/DVD would be useful to have around, but remember that they say about assuming... ;)

@Robert Engle: Good to hear the Win7 RC works well on your Wind. I've been running the Win7 Beta for a while now, and installed the RC only to find that the Wind ran much slower (boot time quadrupled). That was an RC build I grabbed off a torrent site, though, so perhaps I'll give it another go with the official RC build.

@DeadPlayerWalking: I had the same problem dual booting with Arch on my test box. If you don't mind using GRUB (Text based boot manager,) it's pretty easy to fix the MBR after installing 7 using an Ubuntu LiveCD.
I know it says recover Ubuntu, but it's just instructing you too install the bootloader which should work for many OS's.

RecoveringUbuntu

Jacob Kimmel

Rob, Can an amatuer do this or does it take someone with a good bit of computer skills?

AngeloBabality

I have an HP 2710p tablet PC... would anyone have an idea on whether installing Win7 on it would mess with the tablet input (or any other) functions? It's currently running XP Professional.

YestinHeracles

@Robert H: awesome! thats great news for those of us with simialr spec'd netbooks! I have an Acer Aspire One with an 8gig ssd - I am still a little hesitant about W7 - but I am sure I will give a whirl at some point....

was cake for me on my ASUS N10J i have a super old external usb case that has a DVDrom in it..

Randy Treibel

I have install Windows 7 RC on my Aspire. It has 1GB of RAM amount, along with my Windows XP Operating System.
It working find. It looks great and feel fast as windows xp.

@iamellis: i own a eee pc 901 with 12GB (which is fast 4Gb (C: System) + slow 8Gb (D: Programs and User Data) in fact). XP sits on the 4Gb drive and even though I nlite'd my copy (to about 600Mb installed) there's not much space left.
As long as there won't come a much smaller Win7 version for netbooks I would not recommend using it on those small drives. You'll need only a few Windows Updates to fill up the few MBs left. Even a 20Gb drive will be filled up quite fast and you will spend a lot of time cleaning out uninstallers of updates and such things. Just have a look how fast your desktop Win7 grows during a few updates and installs. On drives smaller than 40Gb it is a nice proof-of-concept but not more, I think.

bobby.tables

There is an easier (and cleverer) way to install W7 RC, if you have either XP or Vista already installed in the netbook.

1) extract W7RC.iso to a folder.
2) Copy the contents of this folder to a thumb drive (I use Fast Copy -covered in LH before-for really fast copying)
3) Log-in to existing windows (XP/Vista) in the netbook. Insert thumb drive. Double-click setup.exe and follow graphic instructions :-)

Note that you first need to partition your hard-disk if you need it dual-boot. I tried it in my Lenovo Ideapad and working smooth. Again, some drivers like webcam and blue tooth are missing in W7, or no supported versions are available from the manufacturers website.

@Adam Pash: I think that would be a good guess.

Since I've had my Eee, I've never even considered getting an external CD/DVD drive. Why would I, when my 8gb USB stick or portable hard drive seems to be just as capable when it comes to installing things, playing movies, or music?

In fact, the only time I use my *internal* drive on my larger, more beastly notebook, is when I want to burn something... generally for somebody else.

CD/DVD is the past. Flash/SS memory is the future!

tali3sin

I used the pre-tweaked version from [modmyeee.com] with my own serial. It let me install Windows 7 on my Eee 701. I gave it a 128 MB swap file and still had around 300 MB free after all my usual programs were installed. It booted and ran almost as fast as XP and I used it for a month or so before switching back to XP. YouTube videos weren't quite as smooth, which is really the only reason I switched back.

I installed Win7 on my Asus Eee PC 1000HE the day I received it. I created a bootable image on a USB hard drive.

So far, so good -- Win7 runs great, and with only 1 Gb of RAM (I have a 2 Gb upgrade on order). When I first ordered my netbook, I had intended to install Ubuntu on it, but after reading some blog reports of how well Win7 runs on the little machines, I decided to try it.

ecd1211

@guycross: Definitely look around on forums/blogs to see what you can trim - I'm pretty sure I've read that people have gotten the install down to 4 gigs so you still have enough room left over for some apps/docs/etc. I have not tracked down the articles yet because days have yet to be upgraded from 24 hours, but I know that this is being done to save a lot of space :)

@YestinHeracles: I installed WIN7 on a TABLET PC (Toshiba) that originally ran WinXP, and all the tablet functions were intact. The WIN7 install has the tablet functions in it. Good luck on the install.

Edgar Patrick McGauley

Installed Win7 about a month ago on my EEE PC 901, and it works far better and faster than WinXP did. I booted from a 4gb SD card, and it installed smooth and had all my drivers working. Here is a run down:

Installed on the 8gb SSD, since the faster 4gb SSD was not large enough. With all my applications installed into the faster 4gb SSD, everything runs smooth and fast.

Aero works perfectly. Wallpaper transitions and themes are nice.

Program compatibility lets me run everything I need.

Windows Media Player 11 plays DivX natively.

I took that 4gb SD card I used to boot and am now using it for Ready Boost.

I am waiting on a Crucial 2gb RAM to come in; double the RAM, hopefully more speed.

Edgar Patrick McGauley

@jkrell: installing from USB stick is a bit faster (i installed win7 on my desktop from a flash drive in ten minutes!), and there's not really much hassle to it. I've used several different sticks for installing different versions of win7 and vista; all it takes is copying the contents of the ISOs to the drive and having the BIOS boot from it.

planetarian

@32ndnote: I have Windows 7 on my Macbook Pro just fine. No shenanigans like the ones in this article necessary. Your Macbook Pro is not a *netbook* like the article is talking about.

The main thing you need is to make sure you have the Boot Camp 2.2 drivers. I got 'em from a torrent site, since my 10.5 discs don't have the right versions for loading Windows 7.

My bluetooth doesn't work, however.

wffurr

Well my aspire one actually runs better with Win7 than with the old crap called win xp...

as for installing it... well just mount the image and install or as i did usaa an external dvd reader...

Leonick

Installed and running very nicely on my HP Mini 2140.

With Windows XP installed to a 40 GB partition, I created a second partition on which to install Windows 7. Using Virtual CloneDrive to mount the downloaded ISO file was all I needed to do. (Said file could have been stored locally, on a thumbdrive, on an external DVD drive or on the network.) I know that's not the original point of this article, but I would guess that half the target audience (who have adequate disk space) would choose to dual-boot, and that's exactly what I did.

@Robert H: Good info! I was wondering how well Windows 7 would work on this model Eee pc. I'll have to fire up the old external dvd drive and give it a shot. Thanks!

I installed Win7 on my Acer Aspire One with the 160gb HD and it works great. I had to turn off System Protection tho, it was thrashing my drive constantly. The only reason I even did it was because I could not reinstall WinXP after a bad Unbuntu install would not let me boot off the HD anymore. I tried for over a day to get XP on there, and it only took 90 minutes to get 7 up and running. All hardware works and I haven't looked back since. I noticed something interesting also. On a fresh install on my PC, Win7 had 40+ processes running taking almost 1gb of memory. On the netbook, 32 processes and just under 500mb of memory being used.

jjcarmonajr

I have Win 7 running in my HP Mininote 2133 (Via cpu 1.2 ghz and 2gb or ram) and it runs great... way better than Vista, It is true it runs like Xp even with Aero, I haven't disable any service and it is awesome, the install was very fast too... nmow it is my main OS

PetrinaIsmene

I have a Samsung NC 10 and Windows 7 RC works like a charm.
I had some issues with the bluetooth and sound during the beta days but those are solved now that i am using the RC. I am using the netbook as a commuter- podcast-vcast-mp3player-bookreader-development machine.

Martin Koose

I just installed Windows 7 on my lenovo s10e. The hardest part was backing up the install of XP home that came with the system just in case. I used EASEUS partition manager to split my hard drive so I can dual boot. Then i followed [www.thinkcomputers.org] to install the new OS. It ran smooth without having to install any drivers (including the webcam and mic) and my battery life increased by around 30-60 minutes. If you're thinking about trying out 7 on a netbook, its definitley worth the time.

IAmBatmanShhhh

It is amazing! I used Tutorial from gizmodo to install Win 7 on my Samsung NC10 Netbook, it rocks. I like how powerfull it is, simply nice look, driver recognation etc.
:-)

Esad Kokic

Installed it on my MSI Wind u120 via usb dvd drive. Works like a charm.

Matthew Rutherford

@jkrell: I don't have one. But I agree that it would make the installation much easier.

jc364

Windows 7 works better than XP or Vista on my Acer One Netbook. No problems installing it from a USB key and the complete install was done in about 15 minutes. Great battery life with Win 7 RC and everything runs pretty fast. Picked up all the drivers automatically. Try that in Ubuntu!

Mark Monica

@PetrinaIsmene: nice post and good to hear that win 7 works well on the hp 2133 Mininote. I have the exact same model with Vista on it and didn't have the patience to install xp to it and make the necessary config. changes.

But your post motivated me to try out Win 7 and not sell it. I was so frustrated with the slowness in Vista even with more RAM, I wasn't using it. I'll rethink based on your comment. Another valuable lesson learned on LH.

nyccpa

@Esad Kokic: How does Skype work?

@Martin Koose: I have just bought an NC10 and am thinking about installing 7. Being an expat, Skype is very important to me. Does it work OK under 7? Cheers.

works great on my macbook air (ssd)

JustinVitani

@rymich: Currently installing this way on a Samsung NC10. It's just a waiting game"now.