On Sunday, December 13th 2009, I dared to switch from the pre-installed Windows XP Home to Windows 7 Professional on my Samsung NC10 NetBook* ("Nessie"). Beforehand, I have had already checked whether Samsung would support Windows 7 for the NC10 or not, with the result that they actually really do. So I downloaded all Windows 7 drivers* and tools* from Samsung, made a full backup of all data on the NC10, and downloaded that little tool from Microsoft, which enables you to use an ISO-image of Windows 7, and create a bootable USB-Stick and/or DVD from it. I used my 8GB USB-Stick, and started the installation process.
The installation process went through without a problem. Even Aero started right away and the base-installation of windows was done after about 30 minutes or so - may be it was 45, I did not really stop the time. Wireless LAN (Atheros) was supported directly with native drivers, as was the sound, graphics, and most important periphal systems. I installed the drivers from Samsung nonetheless, as well as all the tools, and now the NetBook runs with Windows 7 as well as it did with Windows XP before. The memory footprint of the base-system is almost identical (approximately 600MB), and as the NC10 has been upgraded from 1GB RAM to 2GB, everything runs really nice atm.
What seems to be way faster is the SMB-stuff. When initiating a connection to a shared directory on a remote machine, I was used to some waiting before the actual content-listing could be viewed in XP's explorer window. Now the listing "is just there" as soon as I hit enter after typing the host's name - though on the remote host nothing was changed.
All in all, my first impression of Windows 7 is all-positive. I really like to use it, it looks nice with this Aero-design, and seems a lot safer with this "elevated-mode" one has to use when attempting to change system-settings. This will definitely slow virus-attacks a bit (at least until they find ways to circumvent this barrier).
I will provide more information about Windows 7 on the NC10 (as well as in general) soon.
For all interested: The NC10 has a performance rating of 2.1 (The rating you see when selecting "Properties" in the rmb-menu of the "My Computer"-icon on the desktop). I will provide the complete rating-result in a seperate posting soon.
*) Please note that links marked with an asterisk are links to Samsung Germany. As it seems, samsung.com redirects you to your local Samsung-Site depending on your IP. The tools are localized (thus german), but work just fine with any Windows 7 (I am using a us-english Windows 7 professional).
Update:
Microsoft seem to have pulled the ISO-Tool from their Websites, as the link above is not working anymore. It seems to be a consequence of an accusation that Microsoft has violated the GPL, under which the tool was released, somehow in the tool's code. If the accusations prove to be rightful, and if the tool will be downloadable again (one way or another), remains yet to be seen.
Tags: @nyNet, computer, Microsoft, NC10, netbook, operating system, Samsung, Win7, windows
Thanks a lot , really help ful..I upgraded my nc10 with 1gb ram…system is kind of slow…I am planning to upgrade to 2 gb memory…hopefully it will help…what is your opinion..
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mjoellnir reply on January 5th, 2010:
Well, most computers today running only on 1GB RAM seem slow, because the OS is usually using at least half of that GB for itself. At least in case of Windows XP or Windows 7 this is the case, and regarding Linux or NetBSD it depends on the Desktop-Environment you use, how much RAM is spent before you actual applications come into account. It is always wise to upgrade to 2GB, if you intend serious work with your computer (which is possible even with NetBooks).
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