Windows 7 Starter Edition

My hand was iching.... Can't resist the temptation to leave my daughter's Asus Eee 900 alone, running Windows XP. I really need to give it a shot and see how Windows 7 is performing on a Celeron 900 netbook (not even ATOM)

Let's look at the spec, nothing special.

Asus Eee 900

- Celeron 900 processor

- 1GB RAM

- 4GB SSD + 16GB SSD = 20GB SSD

- 10.1" LCD panel with 1.3Mp Web Cam

First up, I downloaded the Windows 7 Starter edition from MSDN ;)

I copied the ISO file into my DELL E6400 (Win7 x64) and load it up using MagicDisc; Daemon tool had lost my favour after it started to charge for the software and burried the FREE version deep down in the forum.

Next,... wait a minute. Great. I forgot to bring my USB DVD-ROM drive. Ok, need to switch to Plan-B. I will have to install the OS using a thumbdrive or a mobile hard disk. I have no done it before (via USB storage) but what the heck, I started googling and within seconds, voila, I found this site to be very helpful and started following the procedures after backing up those data in my mobile hard disk. Kudos to the writer, it was just barely 20 minutes and I am ready to rock & roll. My mobile hard disk is bootable and has all the Windows 7 CD contents in it.

Time to change the BIOS of the Asus Eee. I booted up the Asus Eee (make sure it is connected to power) and start playing with the BIOS configuration. I changed the boot up sequence to enable my USB mobile HDD as the primary device to boot up. Once that is done, I just need to save the settings and the netbook will reboot.

The netbook automatically booted up from the mobile HDD and started the installation sequence. The installation was a breeze but again, hindered by the computing power and slow USB connectivity, it really take a long while (appox. 1 hours) to complete the installation. Nothing too fancy or surprise here, it's the same process as per Vista.

Upon completion of the installation, do remember to disconnect or reject the media (in my case, the mobile HDD) before the first restart. It took a couple of minutes before the netbook finally showing the configuration screen (asking for user name and password), once past that stage, you're at the desktop of Windows 7 starter.

I had a quick check and first thing came to my attention was the screen resolution. It is running at 800x600. Asus Eee 900 screen res should be 1024x600 and this requires a quick fix. I fired up the Windows Updates knowing most fixes and drivers shall be available online and as expected, just a moment later, the drivers are downloaded (Intel GM910) and installed, well, not after 2 reboots to get it all installed.

Windows 7 starter is running reasonably well on the Asus Eee 900 now. The CPU usage is constantly hovering around 9%-20% with one IE instance running with a download in progress. However, I had witnessed that the CPU utilization hits over 90% and stayed there when I am installing a driver. This should be normal since Celeron 900 is a single and rather old processor.

Of the 1GB memory that this unit is having, 512kb+ is being allocated as Cache while 640K is available with about 100K Free. I would say, this is rather sufficient for executing those run of the mill applications.

Windows 7 ... finally (part 2)

There are many changes made to Windows 7. It is like a reincarnation of Vista, just that, this time around, it is lighter, fitter and faster. Many key functions are easily available, well, may be one or two levels of menu down, but definitely not Vista that you will need an excavator to dig it out, burying those key functions deep down. In short, user ergonomic is a plus.

My usual applications like Firefox, Chrome, Office 2007 Professional, etc. even the Lotus Notes 8.5 survive in this migration effort. I would say that my experience so far being great and running the x64 version on this DELL E6400 hardware has been satisfying. Next up, I will be installing the Windows 7 starter edition into my daughter's Eee PC 900 running Celeron with 16GB + 4GB SSD and 1GB RAM.

Windows 7 ... finally

I was disappointed when I can't get the Lotus Notes running on the RC1 of Windows 7 as per my previous posting. Well, not anymore. I had been running Win7 with Lotus Notes 8.5 flawlessly for almost 4 weeks (August 13, 2009) since Win7 first available as RTM on MSDN. Lucky me :) have access to MSDN subscription!

I had changed from DELL D630 to a soup up E6400 with all the bells and whistles. Having 4GB RAM gives you the peace you need whenever you fire up multiple apps all the same time. Interestingly, it is not as resource hungry as its predecessor.

Nevertheless, I still face some challenges with the IE8. It keeps giving the application error whenever it feels like it and frankly, I have no clue at all of what causes these errors. But, I have to admit, MS had done a greater job this time. Although the error dialog box appears, it has never even once, closes the IE or a tab or restarting the app. This is a vast improvement from the past.

Symantec EndPoint 12, on the other hand, was barely working as it is not fully updated to support Win7. Win7 keeps alerting the status of SEP although it is working. I can't recall which messsage, but it was reported that ...

...cont'd

Lotus Notes 7.02 & 8.0 on Windows 7

I managed to get Windows 7 RC1 running successfully on my DELL D630. It recognized all the devices of the laptop with ease and I only need to perform a windows update to iron out the driver issues. It was up and running in less than 40 minutes (including time for me to grab a cup of coffeee, take a peek at the magazines, etc.).

However, I had my first stumbling block when I try to install Lotus Notes 7.02 (later 8.5) mail client. The installer just unable to complete the installation with an error message (will get that message again to share). I had tried almost all the tricks and tips that I can find on the internet but to no avail.

Finally, I had decided to download the Virtual PC and work on the XP mode. I was hoping that the issue only happens in a native Windows 7 environment, but, to my disappointment, it also takes place in the XP mode. Well, I assume that running the Lotus Notes installation in XP mode would shield me from whatever bugs/issues that I may have with Windows 7 since XP is being tested and proven working well with Lotus Notes.

I am still searching for an answer to that although I had read some postings on the internet that cited success attempts in getting Lotus Notes to run on Windows 7, I am suspecting that probably my copy (downloaded from MSDN) is not the same as those who had managed to get it up and running.

Anyway, I would appreciate if anyone can shed some lights on this and help me out!

Thanks a million.

Windows 7 and DELL Latitude D630

I had installed Windows 7 into my office Dell Latitude D630 in preparation for my 5-days trip to Australia (Sydney-Canberra). The installation of Windows 7 was very straightforward almost a no brainer. It recognized all the computer's components automatically, admittedly, D630 is rather new uses most of the common and standard stuff (e.g. Intel chipset, etc.), you know what I meant.

The challenges started only after I tried to install applications. First off, I need a DVD/CD emulator, I am a big fan of Daemon Tools but this time, I am out of luck. Daemon tools caused Win7 to BOD (Blue screen of Death) upon restarting the notebook. No luck, I search the internet and bum into few articles that recommended the alternative.

Installing Lotus Notes .... (to be continued)
Installing Microsoft Office .... (to be continued)

to be continued

Coming up ... Swine Flu & IT Contingency Plan

There may be uncountable number of articles exist in the Internet today on Swine Flu and its impact to human health and businesses. However, other than medical advices, no one seems to talk about the role & responsibilities of an IT Manager in this context. This shall bring us to the issue of How do we use IT as enabler to cushion the impact, e.g. ensuring business as usual even in the crisis situation where key personnel or decision maker being down with the flu and quarantined? ... Guys, we are talking about a crisis here! Don't you think it is time for us to switch to our Contingency mode? I will talk more on that later, stay tuned. Signing off from Port Dickson.

MSDN subscriber service (profile error) - download Windows 7 RC

Being a MSDN subscriber, I was eagerly awaiting for the coming of 30th April 2009 when Windows 7 Beta will be made available to MSDN subscriber. Guess what, MSDN loads up the page as usual, but wait a minute, what is going on? Instead of the usual "Manage Your Subcription" link, what I got is an error message (see below) claiming that my profile cannot be retrieved.

An Error Has Occurred

There was an unexpected error while attempting to retrieve your profile data.

You can try to:

* Close your browser and retry the operation again in a few minutes.

* Contact Support

* Read the On-Line Self Help

Reference Id: CFE16446

This error has been logged with the reference number noted above. Please use this reference number if you contact support.

Is the MSDN server being overwelm with the large number of request for downloads or simply put, priority is not given to ASIA subscribers? Reading the On-line Self Help is not helping anyway, instead of telling you to fix your problems of not able to access your subscription, you're being told how to fix your File Transfer Manager issues with your IE or Firefox. Interesting huh?

Wait a minute, while writing this blog posting, habitually, I clicked on the Refresh button of my IE that has the MSDN page loaded with the error message, guess again, the page loaded successfully and everything back in order. I had just signed in with my Live account and waiting for the page to load.

Alright, off we go... I am in. First up, let's download Windows 7 RC (x64) and soon, to be followed by x86. I will continue the blogging in the next 24 hours after the Win7 being downloaded.

What I intended to do is to try running it on my daughter's ASUS Eee 900... let's see how it performs and obviously, my office notebook, a DELL D630. Just hope that 2GB RAM is sufficient to get Win7 up and running...

More on that later... signing off @ 1:33am (1st May 2009) - Labour Day - for those who works with passion and live everyday to the fullest!