Windows 7 on my Netbook!

Last week, I realized that my Dell laptop was getting pretty heavy & bulky to carry around (not to mention noisy – thanks to the always running on high fan).

I went to Costco & took a look at the two Ultra-Mobile PC’s (a/k/a Netbooks) that they had in stock: one was an HP model with a nicer case & slightly larger keyboard, and the other, the one that I ended up getting, was an Acer AOD150-1322, with a 10.1” widescreen, Intel Atom processor, 160GB hard drive etc. In fact, all of the same stuff as the HP except a larger hard drive, better memory card support and a VGA out port (important if you might do some presentations from it).

The netbook came with Windows XP Home with SP2. While that worked well enough, the fact that it was the home edition (that can’t connect to our home domain) eventually annoyed me enough that I decided that I wanted to put Windows 7 on it.

I began the process by digging out the external CD/DVD drive I had bought about a year ago & plug it in. After doing some research (ok, I tweeted a help message!), I determined that the best path to go was to upgrade to Windows Vista first. Fortunately, I have a set of Windows Vista DVDs at home, so I began the process by upgrading XP to Windows Vista. Note: I specifically chose NOT to activate Windows Vista when online, so as to not burn a Vista key. Then, I downloaded & installed Windows Vista SP1 (which is the minimum required to upgrade to Windows 7) and installed it. I then let the computer install all the critical (and important) updates from windows update that it wanted.

There were a couple of driver issues – I ended up searching for & installing the Windows Vista version of the Synaptics Trackpad driver (found on the Synaptics site) and the Realtek Audio driver for Vista from the Acer site (note: one of the other Aspire one models includes Windows Vista by default, so I got it from there).

Once Windows Vista SP1 was successfully installed & critical updates installed, it was time to move on to Windows 7. I installed the RC from DVD, choosing to upgrade – and it went along without a hitch.

The one negative that I had was that, at the suggestion of the windows 7 installer, I removed the McAfee Security platform that had come pre-installed – and I haven’t figured out how to get it back – since it’s not on the Application backup disk.

Anyway, I continue to install updates as they come – but right now, I’m sitting typing this using Windows 7.

Oh, and as a bonus, the experience index turned out to be high enough to enable full Aero support.

Overall, I’d say this rocks. Big time.