Exclusive: Easing XP Netbook owners' path to Windows 7
After months of grappling with the issue of how to allow Windows XP Netbook owners to move to Windows 7, Microsoft is ready with its answer.
Starting on Thursday, Microsoft is adding a tool to its online store that will allow those who buy Windows 7 to create a bootable USB drive with the operating system that can then be used to upgrade a Netbook.
"There are lots of XP Netbooks out there," Microsoft's Chris Flores said in an interview. "We wanted to make it as easy as possible for the enthusiasts that want to do this."
Microsoft plans to make available on Thursday a tool that will walk users through the process of moving a downloaded copy of Windows 7 onto a USB drive, be that a memory stick or portable hard drive.
The challenge is that Netbook owners must still tweak their computer's BIOS (Basic Input Output System) to look for a USB drive before booting off the PC's hard drive.
"We're still not recommending this for the average person," Flores said. A rule of thumb is that if a user doesn't understand what is meant by tweaking the BIOS, they probably shouldn't do it.
Consumers should also make sure their USB drive has at least 4GB of free space and check Microsoft's compatibility center and run an upgrade adviser to make sure both their hardware and software will work with Windows 7.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
Creating a bootable USB drive is super easy. Diskpart can do it and then you simply copy the installation files from an installation disk. This works for Win95/98/XP/Vista/Win7.
What would be REALLY cool is if they just offered the installation already ON the USB stick in the box. Drives are cheap enough to make this very doable.
I'm being told constantly that you don't have to tweak anything for Windows. Dont' have to be a computer guru. Only us nerds that run Linux do. Let's see how many 'average' users will even think about upgrading as stated in this article. My guess, 0. Unless they consult with their neighbourhood geek. Or they are the geek.
Netbooks sell in both Windows and Linux versions. Why the heck would the "average" user buy a Windows netbook and install linux to it? Since most netbooks already sell with Windows installed your argument makes no sense.. The "average" user isn't going to buy a Windows netbook then turn around and install Linux on it. The hassle would be in buying a Windows netbook, that already has a licensed installed and working copy of Windows on it, then turning around and installing Linux to it. A Linux user would buy a Linux version of the netbook, they wouldn't go thru the BS you said they would.
It only obvious that you live and breath Linux and are too emotionally attach to be objective and rational. You're too much of a geek to go around pretending to know what the "average" user would actually do.
I tried several distros and only got one to working without having to do several pages of commands and compliles...although i did try. Linux Mint worked although it just stopped working a few days later.
Back to Windows 7: works perfectly (love it or hate it).
What was the last release of Ubuntu you tried? The last two releases have had very easy access to broadcom WiFi drivers. You just need to be connected via wired connection the first boot. Then simply go to System>Administration>Hardware drivers, select the broadcom driver, and click "Activate".
Enough Said and I thought MS said 7 was more efficient than XP!!! when a CD was enough
The installation disk has *all* the different versions of the OS in one image. Try including all the XP versions on one disk and it would be even gigger.
Windows XP was released in 2001, now if you were to imply pc's have increased computational power and storage capacity as the rate of moores law, then you'd be talking almost 2^6 times the size of the windows xp disc - say 400MB for arguments sake times 64 times the size? hardy what Windows 7 is!
And that goes for anyone who keeps banging on the drum about how slow Vista and 7 is compared to XP. I would argue that XP was a much greater resource hog relative to the PC's of 2001. Especially when sitting next to a Win98 Machine. Only thing is, even Vista never had the bugs XP did when it first came out.
Very short sighted. You do better, or don't buy it. Simple, your not forced to.
Until Intel allows (by creating) modern CPUs for netbooks, it's utterly naive to argue 7 should be installed on them.
You know, it's funny you should use the word naive when you say that Windows 7 shouldn't be installed on netbooks. If you look up the word Naive in the dictionary, it says "deficient in worldly wisdom or informed judgment," and you've just proven that you're talking out of your ass here. If you'd actually used or even seen Windows 7 running on a netbook, you'd know that it actually runs quite well.
It's obvious by your statement "... Atom CPUs that are slower than the obsolete Celerons" that you really don't understand much about the topic. Efficiency and performace is more then simply the number of Mhz the CPU runs at.
I think something got missed in all the talk about USB drives, Ubuntu, etc.
The lady's words were: "...bootable USB drive with the operating system that can then be used to upgrade a Netbook."
Swell, if you have such a toy. For those who have a laptop, PC, etc. it still means a pain in the lower anatomy to move all your stuff.
If you're gonna do that...might as well get a Mac and be done with it!
Run CMD.EXE and type the following. Note: This set of commands assumes that the USB flash drive is addressed as "disk 1". you should double check that by doing a list of the disks (type "list disk") before cleaning it. If you have multiple hard drives, like an SDFlash drive or a Multibay drive, you could end up wiping your second drive using this command.
(This was a warning that Josh added to his post along with the following commands that I copied from him, so kudos to Josh)
1. diskpart
2. select disk 1
3. clean
4. create partition primary
5. select partition 1
6. active
7. format fs=fat32
8. assign
9. exit
3. Copy Windows Vista's DVD ROM content to the Flash Drive
Simply issue the following command to start copying all the content from the Windows Vista DVD to your newly formatted high speed flash drive.
o xcopy d:\*.* /s/e/f e:\
Microsoft makes things very simple and is a very common ground for most users, new and old. It can handle almost any application out there simply because the operating system is very popular. with windows 7, virtualization has begun to move to client side more and is gaining common ground.
The bad side to microsoft is licensing, lots of known exploits, hacks, viruses, spyware, etc.
Linux is a great operating system from servers to regular computers. If installed right with what you want for programs, the system can be one of the best out there. It is steadily gaining more applications or alternative applications in comparision to the microsoft cartel.
The bad side to linux is that with anything you want to do, you have to go through tutorials, search forums after forums. There is standardized support for the system. Some derivitives are gaining support, for example, Ubuntu and Red Hat.
Macintosh computers are smooth to look at, reliable, and friendly. The system has been generally "unhackable" or the past 25 years. Decent amount of programs now are available for macintosh that once were not.
The bad side to Macintosh is they can be pricey. They are starting to become exploitable because of their gaining popularity. A user who says, "I am safe! I use a mac!" is just asking for trouble. just like with any operating system, there are people finding ways to hack them.
Your not going to win a person over to a new operating system. The choice is theirs to make.
What compelling feature does Win7 have to justify giving Gates / Ballmer my money?
Where's the "wow factor".
My Ubuntu box runs version 8.04, and I still haven't upgraded it -- I skipped 8.10 and 9.04, even though both upgrades were free.
My Mac runs Leopard, and I'm not considering the upgrade to Snow Leopard -- even though it costs only $29.
Windows 7 can cost hundreds of dollars. I suppose that most people will not upgrade to Windows 7.
Snow Leopard is actually a step backwards and many third party software that works on Leopard will not work with Snow Leopard and many features of Leopard are no existent with Snow Leopard. I find XP works fine and I find Mozilla works best on both MS OS and OSX.
Windows 7 is suppose to be what Vista was suppose to be. For early Vista users, I would was amazed MS would not give the a free version of Windows 7. For those that already purchased a computer that Vista was forced on them, I don't an upgraded version worth more than $20. Since MS has so many versions of its OS instead of it's better version that most were buying,for some reason it's selling for a lost more money than everyone purchased XP for.
For Vista users, despite what they read on MS literature, the Ultimate version did nothing more than other versions despite the higher price. I don't know what Windows 7 can do that XP cannot. I have made XP look and function exactly like Vista and it runs better and faster than any of my friends with the real Vista. I discovered that Apple runs MS software better than any, better than all computers that sell the OS on PCs.
If you get a new PC, you should get Window 7 or Snow Leopard or both. If you are upgrading, I would wait until you can see a demonstration that the price is worth upgrading. My guess is Windows 7 is worth the upgrade. I'm finding that I'm using the Apple OSX
For those that think Apples are the best...Let me just say there are many trade offs. Both systems are closed to prevent competition. I personally like the Matte screen over the Glossy. I like the way it looks and is cleaner without showing thumbing. It was also a reason why I purchased my Apple. But, Apple has discontinued that on the 15" laptop. Because of that and what appears to me a lack of ports and lack of a robust entertainment system, I will probably end up going back to a PC. Apple does have a lot more share ware that is useful than PCs.
In the meantime, it also appears Apple has been making some poor decision about some of its latest models hardware. I'm thinking the PCs, with the drop in hardware prices are looking much better.
- by szilagyic November 9, 2009 5:06 AM PST
- If you use Windows 7 on your netbook, I hope you enjoy using a crippled operating system. Microsoft has purposely held back on features to trim off some of the fat. Linux is NOT crippled, and in fact it offers more features on netbooks than Windows does.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(34 Comments)<a href="http://members.apex-internet.com/sa/windowslinux">http://members.apex-internet.com/sa/windowslinux</a>