Today I installed the newer version of Windows 7 on my Asus Eee PC 900 using the tutorial to install Windows 7 on netbooks using USB memory sticks. The installation was fine and went slightly faster than the installation of Build 6956, after around 1 hour I could see the desktop.
You can download Windows 7 Beta 1 either from the official Microsoft Windows 7 download site or via Torrent, which should be 100% legal since the official version has been released for public testing. Download torrent file.
I will test out whether I can get Aero running on this version, see if it’s more stable than the old release and stuff like that.
New functions/issues and changes to the previous version (Build 6956):
- Graphics driver for “Mobile Intel(R) 915GM/GMS” included, so full screen resolution (1024×600) now possible without driver installation
- Keyboard function buttons (volume up, volume down, mute, …) still not working without installation of Asus ACPI
- Even after installation of Asus ACPI drivers the buttons are not working… the volume up/down window shows up, but nothing happens, and a window pops up saying “Missing Audio Driver, disable Fn+F7,8,9. Please install Audio Driver” but the audio driver is installed.
- Internet Explorer 8 has now a “InPrivate” mode like Google Chrome’s “Incognito Mode”
- When trying to watch HD videos on Youtube with Internet Explorer 8/Flash Player 10 Windows completely freezes. Only restart helps
- After this Youtube HD crash, the whole Windows 7 system is fucked. Automatic system restore took 10 minutes to fix it, then I could finally reboot. So HD videos can destroy your Windows installation? Interesting…
- The Desktop Gadget Gallery is finally working! In Build 6956 nothing happened when you tried to access it.
- Windows 7 doesn’t recognize the other SDD with Windows XP installed on it. The explorer just shows the Win7 SDD as C:\ and nothing else
- When you click at the images in the task bar that replace the old image and text there, even tabs inside Internet Explorer are shown so you can go directly to the tab you want
- Everything runs much faster and smoother than before. Now you can have multiple applications running in the same time without them crashing all the time.
- Shutdown is still awful slow (takes around 3 minutes, that’s longer than starting up!)
- Windows still crashes when trying to run the Windows Performance Assessment Tool (WinSAT), at “Running: Media Foundation Playback Assessment v1.0.0.0 ‘-input C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\winsat.wmv -nopmp”, thus you can’t get a rating for your computer and Aero won’t be able to run.
- The built-in microphone is still not really working. It can hear something, but is soo silent, when you scream into it, the bar goes up only 0.5%. Something is wrong there.
- When one tab in Internet Explorer 8 crashes, Windows 7 will terminate it, but all the other tabs are still working (like in Chrome). After a few seconds, the tab is restored. This feature is actually not that bad.
- Reactivation from Stand-By is not working, the screen just stays black all the time.
More stuff will follow…
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Are you sure that the Intel GMA 915 drivers are included? Even though I didn’t remove them with vlite, they’re not there
BTW… I’m creating images of the SSD’s right now in order to get Windows 7 to work on the 4GB SSD
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:44 pm
The drivers are definitely there. Perhaps not the newest version, but when you go to the change screen resolution menu it shows Mobile Intel(R) 915GM/GMS as graphics card and both screens, the internal and the external one, and you can set screen resolution to 1024×600 and even to 1280×1024 (you have to scroll over the screen then).
So the drivers are there, but Aero isn’t working because they don’t support this WDDM
January 3rd, 2009 at 10:38 am
My graphics cards hasn’t been recognized by Windows 7 so I assumed that the drivers are not included. But since the wifi doesn’t work either I’m trying an untouched installation now
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:27 am
You’ve also got the Eee PC 900? I never tested other models, and are you sure you’ve got Build 7000? Then it should be working fine.
If you find a way to strip it to 4GB so it fits to the small SSD and is still working, that would be awesome! Please tell me then.
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:16 pm
I do have an EEE 900 (shipped with Windows XP, 4GB + 8GB SSD). I already stripped it down to 3.89GB when installed but the problem is that the setup still says that it needs something around 4.8GB fo installation so you’ll have to install to the 8GB SSD, turn of the system restore and change the recycle bin size. Afterwards you could use Acronis (or any other imaging software) to capture the system disk and restore the image on the smaller SSD. But im afraid that this doesn’t work properly since the Windows 7 setup creates a 200MB (maybe EFI-) partition which is not recognized by Acronis. The early beta versions of Vista did the same so this procedure might not exist in future versions. But you could give it a try. Just use the vlite configuration file I uploaded (see comments to your first eee + Windows 7 post) to strip it down. You could strip it a little more if you don’t need the german language
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I definately have the build 7000 but the so called virgin installation doesn’t work at all on my eee. The error is still there:”Windows could not be installed on his computer’s hardware”. Funny that it works with a vlited version…
Did you already tried the vlite – acronis thing?
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:17 pm
I would like to try this vLite thingy, but as soon as I start it, it tells me that the WIM Filter is required. When I click the “Install” button, it brings me to the download center and lets me download a 1.34GB disk image file. I’m currently trying to get this WIM filter in order to work with vLite.
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:31 pm
You have to download and installthe WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit) to get vlite to work. After installation of the WAIK you’ll have to copy one dll to vlite’s root folder (vlite will tell you
).
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:37 pm
But it’s correct that this WAIK is 1.34 GB big and that I have to mount the image using sth. like Deamon Tools first and install it then? It’s much effort to just install one small driver…
Or do I get something wrong there and it’s all so easy?
January 3rd, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Ok I think I’m to dumb to do it. Daemon Tools won’t work on Windows 7, I can’t extract the WAIK image, … I just stop trying it now
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Did you already download the WAIK? If so you can just mount the image and install it. Don’t know why this doesn’t work out for you. I might give Virtual Clone Drive a try which worked perfectly for me
January 4th, 2009 at 1:06 am
Ok then I will try this, but Daemon Tools doesn’t work. I use it usually on all my other computers, but Windows 7 can’t seem to recognize the virtual drive driver it installs, after rebooting it wants to install it again and again… tomorrow I will try Virtual Clone Drive! Thanks
January 4th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
I did a new installation today and ended up with total amount 3.84GB on the second SSD. Now I’m trying to recover the captured system partition on the first SSD but I bet it won’t work since there’s still this freakin 200MB-for-whatever partition which I cant’t get rid off.
January 4th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Ok… just to give you an exact description of what I’m trying to do:
1. stripping Windows 7 build 7000 with vlite
2. installing Windows 7 to the 8GB SSD
3. capturing an image of the system partition and restore on the 4GB SSD
And here’re the problems I’m running into:
1. don’t know what else to remove with vlite
2. when installed the vlited Windows 7 takes around 3.84GB of space so it does barely fit on the smaller SSD
3. there’s a 200MB partition which is somehow needed to boot the system and unfortunately has to be the first partition on the first disk – but there isn’t any space left
Any idea is welcome now
January 4th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Just to everybody informed… I’m back on track again: 2.84GB right after installation and a few tweaks!
January 4th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Seriously? Did you install it on the small 4GB SDD? Can you upload your vLite config file again? Thanks
January 5th, 2009 at 11:16 am
The setup won’t let me install on the 4GB SSD since it pretends that there’s 4.xxxGB needed for installation. So I installed on the 8GB SSD again and created an image which I restored on the 4GB SSD. But there’s still some work to do because now there’s something wrong with the bootloader. I’m trying to fix that when I’m back from work. From this point I can say it definately is possible to put Windows 7 on the 4GB SSD – even though it doesn’t start
. Let’s see if I can fix the bootloader this afternoon
January 5th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Sounds good.
My WAIK installed finally and now vLite is running, currently trying to create my own mini Windows 7 image.
January 5th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Hmm, this is weird. I created my custom Windows 7 Lite version now, and excluded really a lot of stuff, like all languages (saved 1.1GB), TV card drivers (100MB), Games (140MB), I really kicked anything out that’s not 100% necessary, but still my ISO file is 2.6GB big? Is that normal?
January 5th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
My ISO is around 1.2GB. You have to remove the components of Windows 7 Ultimate, even though other editions are offered.
I’ll upload my config file when I’m back from work.
January 5th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I chose Windows 7 HomeBasic as edition and really removed all kind of stuff. In the end it told me that I removed 2.9GB, but still my ISO is so big. That’s weird.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Sorry that I didn’t upload my config and stuff yesterday but I was too exhausted after the first day of being back at work after two weeks of holidays
But I’ve got good news… very good news. I finally made it! Windows 7 Beta 1 build 7000 is finally running on the 4GB SSD of the EEE PC 900! I’ll post a tutorial including my vlite config and Screenshots.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Oh… I almost forgot about this… you HAVE TO apply all changes made with vlite to Windows 7 Ultimate. Doing all that stuff to any other edition will ether mess the setup or simply won’t work
January 6th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Ok thanks for that information, it explains a lot…
January 6th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
You’re welcome. By the way… is there a character limit for comments? Or maybe I should give you a detailed tutorial first in case you want to post a new topic for that. Just tell me what you like better
January 6th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
I think there is a character limit, although it will be quite high (the spammers post sometimes 1000 characters or more). But better send me the tutorial via mail (you can find my address on the “Contact” page) and I’ll post it. I think that’s more comfortable to read than lots of comments
(and of course I will put your name there, don’t want to steal your credits^^)
January 6th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Ok, then I’ll do that. Just give me an hour… maybe two
January 8th, 2009 at 4:41 am
Any news on this subject?
January 8th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Basti sent me the tutorial, and I’m going to post it here, but I got my wisdom teeth operated today and so I’m not in the best mood to do this now
January 9th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Could you post it now? XP just died on my 901 and I would love to give 7 a go, but only on the 4gb disk. Pretty pweaaaaase ^^
January 9th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
I did, see here: http://www.multimolti.com/blog/2009/01/09/shrink-windows-7-to-fit-on-asus-eee-pc-4gb-sdd/
January 12th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
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January 13th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Now my blog arrived on the other side of the world =)
January 18th, 2009 at 2:05 am
Trying it now with a vlite of 1.4 Gb and SD 8Gb (had to format it within 7) had to install it via boot loader, no way with setup (was complaining about some space issue, not true)
let s see…
January 18th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
After watch Youtube HD crash…that is 915GM driver’s problem, the one,915GM driver on win7 cannot paly any kind of video, if play,it crash need forced to reboot, after i remove the VGA driver, it can play video normally, but witout the driver ur screen RES only 800X600,my test machine is EEEPC 1000HD(80G , Celeron 900 ver.)
January 19th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
not coming back from standby is related to the sd card. if i disable it in the bios it comes out of standby. when i turn it back on, even if i disable it in windows 7, it still won’t work
January 25th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
@eric grinstead:
Thanks for your tip, I gonna try it in a second.
@Michael:
That makes sense. I had a similar issue when trying to run the Windows Performance Assessment Tool (WinSAT), it permanently freezes at “Running: Media Foundation Playback Assessment v1.0.0.0 ‘-input C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\winsat.wmv -nopmp’”. This sounds really like a driver video playback problem.
February 13th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
With EeePC 900, after disabling SD Card Reader in BIOS, the computer can wake up from standby…
But after half a minute of so, the whole computer will freeze up.
anyone for a solution for that?
February 13th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
@Lok Leung:
I tried that, even after disabling my SD card reader in BIOS, my Windows 7 still won’t wake up.
The freeze may be due to the graphics drivers, I had that quite often when I did anything that uses the video decoder, e.g. YouTube videos or the WinSAT test (see the list above).