Windows 7 on the Samsung NC10
May 22, 2009
I’ve been running the release candidate on my, more than capable, desktop machine since it was released to the masses at the beginning of May. After hearing about how well it was performing across a range of machines; with differing specs, I was determined to get it on my Samsung NC10 netbook.
Despite it exceeding the minimum system requirements, I was still a little concerned about how well the 1.6GHz processor would cope. I need not have worried, it’s scaled brilliantly, even when running several apps. My only remaining concern was battery life, as there was seemingly no way to reduce the screen brightness through the Windows 7 power management. So, using an external DVD drive, I installed some software that came with the netbook to enable the brightness hot keys. Whilst it doesn’t seem to like booting up with the application to do this, at least it’s now possible to lower the brightness to make the most out of the battery life.
With two machines running Windows 7, and a third running Vista, I’ve found that they network better than ever before. I thought Vista was easy to network, but using Homegroup for the Windows 7 machines makes it so easy to print wirelessly from the netbook to the printer connected to my desktop.
Incidentally, it’s only been the printer software that caused any trouble in terms of compatibility. Compatibility mode didn’t work, as the installer itself was checking the version of Windows, as it didn’t match any of the versions it thought it could work with). Nonetheless, Windows resolved this easily using the plug and play feature, it recognised it correctly as a printer. I also love the way that the progress of file transfers appears on the taskbar, as well as the tweaked preview feature.
I’m not a fan of pinning things to the taskbar, but have since found an alternate way to reactivate quick launch (which I still find more effective than pinning stuff to the taskbar – as pinned items move around making the taskbar unorganised and messy). When I first blogged about my first impressions of the beta, I found it weird that Windows 7 no longer bundled its own photo viewer. Instead, you have to get it with a Windows Live Pack, which bundles other optional software, including Silverlight (a Flash alternative), Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Writer (which I’ve used for a long time to post to my blog), and Windows Movie Maker amongst others.
Always good to read another win 7 vs NC10 success story. Think I’ll wait for the official release but definitely looking to give it a go. I skipped Vista but there is only so long you can live with a 10 year old operating system (XP).
Thanks for sharing.
Glad to find an NC10 owner at long last. All the other people I know who have netbooks buy Eee PCs. Nevertheless, I do like the T91, but the NC10 is undeniably the best!
I have pretty much the same opinions of Windows 7 that you do.
The only driver problems I’ve had are the printer & brightness issues – at least with the beta.
Upgrading to the RC seems to have fixed my printer installation issues, but the brightness ones still exist (as I mentioned on Twitter). I’m not too worried however. I installed the RC on the family desktop last week and it’s running fantastically – no problems whatsoever.
All I have to worry about now is the cost of the OS when it’s officially released and my RC serials expire :S
Great post.
@Andrew Booth
Windows 7 is probably the best operating system Microsoft has ever developed. I’m absolutely in love with it, and not just because of the improved interface; functionality and practicality seem tons better, too!
The NC10 really is a great netbook, mainly for the epic battery life.
I think it’s the first time ever that MS have launched an OS that requires less system resources than the previous OS. I liked Vista, but it was demanding, and only really viable on the right machine and .
Likewise, I hope that the price won’t be too expensive, particularly since it already runs fine on existing hardware.
Thanks for the comments guys.
Sadly, it might not be as cheap as we’d expected it to be. http://blog.stevewiilliams.me.uk/2009/05/18/windows-7-cost/
Has anyone been able to get the “Hide modes that this monitor cannot display” to not be greyed out in Windows 7? This was something I used quite a bit in WinXP for a specific piece of software. I’ve tried changing the monitor drivers and have the latest intel graphics drivers. Any help?
Nice blog. I added to my twitter. Your topic Windows 7 on the Samsung NC10 very good. i post it to my forum