Windows 7 on a Netbook
I recently installed Windows 7 Professional on my Asus Eee PC 1000HE so I thought I would give an initial review for those interested in doing the same or similar. So far the experience has been very pleasant the install was quick and painless and as soon as it booted up it had every single driver necessary to run every hardware component – bravo Microsoft. I even plugged in an obscure USB wireless card that I bought for $8. As soon as I plugged it in I started going to the manufacturer’s website to download the drivers, but before I could finish my google search Windows 7 already had it installing, and yes, working. So my next wonder was battery life, and much to my pleasure it was the same as in XP, roughly 8 hours give or take based on abuse. All of my initial concerns were instantly satisfied: compatibility, battery life and internet connectivity.
So then I loaded up MS Office and my normal batch of software tools, every worked. Then it was time to play with the interface. The toolbar and start menu, though very familiar are immensely better and more useful now. With Word pinned to my start menu i can hover over and see my recently opened word docs and pin ones I open frequently, same goes for Remote Desktop Connection – very smooth. Working with 5 office windows open was made much more practical with the hover thumbnails – no more trying to read all that junk, just a little image of each document. By far the biggest interface improvement though is the wireless network connection tool, now its just a popout menu andvery streamlined and quick.
You may have noticed that some of these features aren’t super new unless compared to Windows XP, but having them on a netbook is new and now possible with Windows 7 since Vista was way too cumbersome, and yes, even compared to Vista, Windows 7 is greatly improved, things are easier and just work and don’t look half bad either.
-Max