Win7 RC 7100 dropped on MSDN Yesterday

[hardrivn]

Works well so far automatically downloaded a VIA Chrome driver for the video card came directly from Microsoft Update
performance tests got scores of:

Processor 1.5
RAM 4.0
Graphics 2.0
Gamaing Graphics 2.2
Hard Disk 5.9 (I upgraded to a 7200 RPM 320 GB).

I have the 1.6 Ghz MiniNote 2133 with Bluetooth etc

[willpower]

I'll have to wait until the public release next week, but then I will go for it!

[tonylinde]

It is out now...

[willpower]

Yes, and I am installing as we speak. Ehh... "Type". :-D

[rlarson_mn]

Its nice that you can download the OS as a single file from the web.

[willpower]

And now I'm up and running again. Win7 RC installed on my HP 2133.

It couldn't connect to my WiFi network (WPA2/PSK-protected) until I rebooted the router. I have no idea if this was a random event (perhaps I would have been forced to reboot it to make Vista or Ubuntu too?) or if it had anything to do with Win7. Anyway, the automatic Windows Update was thereby unable to pick up Chrome9-drivers and the screen resolution was restricted to 640x480. :-| Kinda frustrating until I attached UTP-cable and did a manual update, which of course solved the screen issue. After that I came up with the idea to flick the power on my router and everything worked!

Now it is time to try it all out. I have already installed AVG Free. :-)

[rlarson_mn]

And now I'm up and running again. Win7 RC installed on my HP 2133.

It couldn't connect to my WiFi network (WPA2/PSK-protected) until I rebooted the router. I have no idea if this was a random event (perhaps I would have been forced to reboot it to make Vista or Ubuntu too?) or if it had anything to do with Win7. Anyway, the automatic Windows Update was thereby unable to pick up Chrome9-drivers and the screen resolution was restricted to 640x480. :-| Kinda frustrating until I attached UTP-cable and did a manual update, which of course solved the screen issue. After that I came up with the idea to flick the power on my router and everything worked!

Now it is time to try it all out. I have already installed AVG Free. :-)

If you did not use an optical drive for your installation care to give us a step by step process you did use successfully.

[eto]

I tried Windows 7 on my 2133 (2GB, 1.6GHz) but I uninstalled it, as the cooler was running at a much higher speed than with Windows XP installed and I prefer a silent system.

After the installation, windows update found some drivers for the touchpad and the webcam, but not for the via graphics chip. I installed the latest drivers from viaarena for Vista and it worked without problems. Everything was smooth, however I think XP is a little bit smoother on the 2133.

One hardware device was not identified, but I didn't investigate which one. I think it was the card reader, but maybe it was the wlan chip as I was connected to a LAN... sorry, I should have looked closer which one.

Just a hint: Don't install Windows 7 RC in any other configuration but Ultimate: the keys from MS will only work for ultimate, not home premium or anything else.

hth

[willpower]

OK, rlarson_mn, here we go:

Of course I downloaded the 32-bit Vista RC from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win.../download.aspx to begin with. Note that at this point only Vista Ultimate is available for public testing.

I put in a 4 GB USB-stick in my desktop PC that runs Vista. A 1 GB or 2 GB won't do as the installation files take up slightly over 2 GB themselves.

Next step was to run the command-line program diskpart, in which I started off with list disk to identify the disk number of the USB-stick (in my case 5).

I then entered the following commands into diskpart (be aware that it completely erases the files stored on your USB stick, also please replace the number 5 with the correct disk number of your USB stick):

select disk 5
clean
create partition primary
select partition 5
active
format fs=fat32
assign
exit

This makes the USB stick bootable.

After that, using any file-compressing software (as 7-Zip or WinRAR) I simply moved the contents of the downloaded .ISO file to the USB stick. Putting the USB stick in my HP and selecting it as boot medium is quite straightforward, as is the basic installation.

If you have the computer attached to a wired network, or if you do not have a WiFi router needing power-toggling, you can easily do a Windows Update an pull the recommended and optional updates after the first login.
At the time of writing, the available updates for HP2133 are Synaptics touch pad drivers, VIA Chrome9 drivers, HP Quick Launch buttons, Windows Defender updates and Sonix Streaming Media for HP Webcam. I have no idea what I need the last update for as the webcam drivers were installed before I pulled that update...

I am not a HP or Microsoft professional. You follow my lead at your own risk - don't blame me if it doesn't work. :-)

[willpower]

I have found that Windows 7 RC does not identify any drivers for the HP 3D Drive Guard. It shows up in the device list as "unknown device".

Downloading and installing SP42565.exe (Vista 32-bit drivers for Drive Guard) from HP website solves the problem!