I previously reviewed the HP Mini 1000 and not only found a lot to like, but it has become my standard traveling machine, allowing me to leave the MacBook behind, most times. It’s a small enough form factor netbook, with an almost full-size keyboard, that makes it a pleasure to use for extended amounts of time.
By default the HP Mini 1000 comes with XP. Since I had recently installed Windows 7 on a Dell Pentium M and had experienced only minor glitches, I figured I’d give it a go on the HP Mini 1000.
Installation of Windows 7
The first issue I encountered when trying to install Windows 7 was the HP Mini 1000’s lack of a CD/DVD drive. I found some instructions on CrunchGear on how to boot Windows 7 from a thumb drive, which required me to download the ISO from Microsoft first, but unfortunately they didn’t work for me. I then tried the ones on thelazyadmin, and still had no luck. After some investigation I concluded that the USB drive I was using (an old one that’s 12GB but uses a microdrive instead of flash) may not be capable of being a bootable USB drive.
I then figured I’d try to launch Windows 7 from inside of XP. I previously tried this when installing on my Dell by booting from the CD, but figured I’d extract the ISO to the Mini’s hard drive this time and see what would happen. To my surprise, it worked perfectly. I chose to do a fresh install and it launched inside of XP and then eventually rebooted with a fully functioning Windows 7 installed.
At this point everything was working great, with no tweaking required. The only noticeable issue was an occasional pop coming from the speaker.
Customizing Windows 7
Changing the text size
While I love the Mini, it’s only a 10 inch screen and my eyes aren’t the best so I figured I’d do some customizing. First up was to find a way to increase the text size. I found that under the Start/ Getting Started and it was aptly named make text larger or smaller.
I chose the medium setting, which makes text 125 percent bigger, and then was asked to log-off and then log-on again. Once I did that I could see the text perfectly, even with the 10 inch screen more than 2 feet away from me.
I then launched Internet Explorer, which automatically had adjusted its zoom to 125 percent–nice integration. Unfortunately, Firefox didn’t play the same way but a simple menu option to zoom in did the trick.
Changing the theme
Inside that same Getting Started area is a Personalize Windows option. The first thing you see is the ability to change your theme. I’ve never been one for themes but for some reason this was enticing enough that I changed my theme to the Theme for the United States. There are more themes available online, too, and they change instantly and you can even see them change in the background while you still have the dialog box open.
User Account Control (UAC)
This is the most complained about feature in Vista and 7 has made it a bit easier to navigate. I completely forgot about it since I shut mine off on day one of using Vista, but I was reminded about it when I installed Firefox and was stopped in my tracks.
Windows 7 makes it nice and easy to find the UAC settings, again under Getting Started. You then click on Change UAC Settings and from there are presented with a sliding bar that lets you decide which level of control you want to have.
Other than the changes above, I haven’t done any customizing to the HP Mini 1000 since I first installed Windows 7 almost a week ago. That said, I have found more issues with Windows 7 running on the HP Mini 1000, which I’ve detailed below.
Webcam too dark
At first I thought it might be Windows 7 but this is actually more of an issue with the HP Mini 1000’s webcam. The part that is Windows 7’s fault, though, is that there’s no way of adjusting this with a built-in application. You instead have to install Windows Messenger, Skype, or some other webcam-oriented program that lets you do some base level adjustments of the webcam. Since video is a key selling point of any new OS, I would expect a rudimentary video program that allows the user to adjust settings. Granted you can find the adjustment settings buried in IM applications, and even Movie Maker, but it’s not the same as having them in System Tools or something similar.
As for the webcam itself, you can see from the pictures below that once you start boosting it, it’s terribly grainy and almost unusable. I haven’t taken it outside yet, but I was in a pretty bright room and it still was too dark to use without major boosting.
Webcam before adjustment
Webcam after adjustment
Microphone
After repeated attempts to get the microphone working, Windows 7 assures me it’s functioning but no audio is being recorded.
EVDO card not recognized
One of the most frustrating problems I’ve encountered is the inability to use my Sprint EVDO card. As you can see from the screen capture below, everything works except the driver. The card worked great with XP so it might just be a minor tweak–I haven’t had time to try to resolve it yet.
So far the experience of Windows 7 on the HP Mini 1000 continues to be very solid, especially for a beta. There are a number of known bugs, and I have encountered some, but otherwise it’s been a relatively stable ride.
I’ll continue to use it as a alternative to my MacBook and will also write a follow-up article on some of the new programs that Windows 7 has bottled in to enhance productivity so stay tuned.
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