Testing Windows 7 on an Asus EEE PC 1000HE netbook

I recently decided to install the Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 on my netbook, an Asus Eee PC 1000HE, which had been running Windows XP on 2GB RAM. Getting Windows 7 installed in the first place was a bit tricky since the netbook has no optical drive, but this was easily solved by using an external DVD-burner. If you don’t have access to one of these, you are going to have to go through the rather involved process of formatting a USB-key as a bootable drive. Total install time was about 40 minutes.

Visually, Windows 7 looks worlds different than XP and even Vista, which I’ve had the unfortunate opportunity to use. From the taskbar, Start menu/Windows button, and desktop, the overall user interface has been revamped resulting in a very refreshing, uncluttered experience. The old Start menu has been given a more logical hierarchy and the taskbar now shows image buttons that you can hover over for a preview of the window.