Topic: Windows 7 question

[Nemesis]

It appears (unless I'm being faked out) my mother is getting a Windows 7 (starter edition I believe) netbook for Christmas which means I'll be setting it up for her.  I'll be partitioning the HD along the following lines:

C: OS only

D: Swap Only

E: Applications

F: Data

With 1 gb of RAM how big should should the C: and D: partitions be?  I'm not up to date on the size that Vista/7 takes.

Any help will be appreciated.  Thanks in advance guys.

[Pestalence_XC]

C Drive.. I would give it about 22 to 25 GB for OS only.. this allows room for huge service packs that may come in the future. The OS itself takes up 18.6 GB on my system.

As for swap file.. well first, you need to upgrade the memory to at least 2 GB for Windows 7 to run smoothly.. 3 to 4 GB if you actually want to run applications on it in real time. Swap file should be 2X Ram size at least. the Windows 7 OS uses 1.5GB st startup.. especially if the Areo is enabled in the Starter edition.

Also get her a USB memory stick approx 4GB for using as Ready Boost (off loads system OS resident memory to the memory card thus freeing up system ram and also somehow making the OS faster)

If you can.. skip Starter edition and go streight Ultimate edition and if the netbook can handle it, 64 bit.. much more stable and the PC won't suffer from the problems Vista faced (lower versions removed key functionality.. as such the Ultimate Edition is the only VALID version of the OS to use)

[Nemesis]

Thanks for the space requirements.

For some of the rest I think you forgot the "Netbook" part.  Netbooks don't do Aero and are generally hardware limited. 

It is going to be used for internet access, E-Mail and running one other program that shouldn't be a heavy load (its for creating/loading patterns for my mothers sewing machine). 

I'll have to see how well it works with 1gb because upgrading RAM on a netbook is significantly more difficult than on a desktop.  You have to virtually disassemble the whole machine to get at the RAM slots.  Later on I may look at the "Ready Boost", I assume it would work off an SD Card not just a thumbdrive, most netbooks as you may recall have built in SD card readers.

For the limited usage she plans Ultimate would be overkill and likely more than the hardware could properly use.

[Pestalence_XC]

Correction.. total uncompresed space is 32.2 GB for the full Windows 7 OS Ultimate edition 64 bit.

[Javora]

I'll have to see how well it works with 1gb because upgrading RAM on a netbook is significantly more difficult than on a desktop.  You have to virtually disassemble the whole machine to get at the RAM slots.  Later on I may look at the "Ready Boost", I assume it would work off an SD Card not just a thumbdrive, most netbooks as you may recall have built in SD card readers.

From the netbooks that I read about, upgrading the Ram shouldn't be that much more difficult than upgrading a regular laptop.  Your mileage may very.

[Nemesis]

In any case according to Microsoft the Windows 7 Starter Edition is limited to 1gb.  That explains why I haven't seen a netbook delivered with over that amount of RAM.  For my mothers limited usage plans I think Starter should be fine.  I'll know by New Years hopefully.

I have several SD cards I can check to see how they rate for Ready Boost (2 and 4 gb) and from several on line reports it seems to be a significant performance boost for relatively low RAM machines like a netbook.

[Nemesis]

I had a chance to "play around" with it a little earlier while doing the basic configuration.  There is the usual amount of preinstalled "cruft" to remove

Please tell me that there is a way to make it stop asking you about whether you want to move the desktop icon you are moving.  How often do you actually want to copy a desktop icon elsewhere on the desktop anyhow?

[Czar Mohab]

Hrmmm... Just for grins and giggles I installed Win7 RC on an old (old as in "new for 2001!")  HP desktop - 2.4ghz P4 (socket 478, 400 FSB), 2 x 256 MB DDR-200, 30GB HDD, ATI Radeoon 9600 (128 MB, AGP 4x), 2x PCI USB 2.0 cards (total of 9 added USB ports), and a PCI firewire card; onboard sound, networking, and anything else that I might have missed. Wireless is handled through a Belkin Wireless g USB dongle. Monitor is an ancient (1996) 21" CRT. Ended up taking this dino to work as my own personal PC there; where the purpose of the PC is for Office programs (word, excel, etc.) and Visio, with several network and hardwired printer/scanners.

Runs like a champ. Did upgrade to a 1x 1GB DDR-333 to improve Office's open/close time and web surfing ability with IE8.

So, moral is 1GB should be fine. Upgrading to 2GB should be easy enough, provided the OS can support (I know so very little about Win7 Starter) and you can find the mem access cover. Do as Pesty says and get a 4 GB thumb drive (or, if you're netbook is awesome enough, an SD card; some netbooks have 1x multi card reader and 1x SD only reader, making this the better option, imho, since you won't have a extra things poking out of the machine, and can still use the multi-reader should it be required) and dedicate it to readyboost. While the option does exist (in Win7 RC at any rate) to use more than one flash drive for readyboost, you shouldn't need more than one at 4GB ($12 at wally world for a sandisk cruzer 4GB, often on sale for $9-10) - and on both PC's I have running Win7, did not notice much of a difference past 2-2.5 GB.

To answer your question about moving icons: I don't have an answer 

Czar "good luck" Mohab

[Nemesis]

So, moral is 1GB should be fine. Upgrading to 2GB should be easy enough, provided the OS can support

I'll be reconfiguring it in stages. 

1/ Backup the install

2/ "de crufting" of it by removing all the junk that isn't wanted or needed.  (2nd backup)

3/ Then repartition the HD as mentioned earlier. 

4/ going over configuration details, network, internet etc. (3rd backup)

5/ installing updates to the OS (4th backup)

6/ Finally installing the desired software. (5th backup)

7/ Start teaching my mother to use it. 

At the current stage the OS is taking 14gb of space.  De crufting it should reduce that at least a little.

[Nemesis]

I now have 2 of the machines to set up to my specifications. 

I'm doing the 1st backup on it now and it is positively g  l  a  c  i  a  l.  I wish I had noted the time but it looks to take hours in spite of the fact that I have made minimal configuration changes and have added no programs or data yet.  I think I'll be skipping some of the incremental backups.

[Pestalence_XC]

as for the permissions that keep popping up.. That is caused by UAC.

Do not turn off UAC since it works with Windows Defender to prevent programs from over-writing the OS specific files (major Virus and Trojan and Malware protection).

Instead, use TweakUAC (free download) and set UAC to quiet mode and restart system.. all those annoying permission screens disappear however if something tries to access system sensitive files, Windows Defender will notify you (if you have Defender set to be your malware/Trojan/Spyware protection in your system security options).

Don't get me wrong, I use other programs as well.. AVG Anti-Virus, Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D, but I run those manually 2 times a week, However Defender is the best for watching and guard dogging the OS.

Anyhow, I hope that this helps.

[stoneyface]

pesty i am running dual boot win7 now and for win7 ultimate install it is still under 10gb for me.

[Nemesis]

as for the permissions that keep popping up.. That is caused by UAC.

The one machine I have turned the UAC down a notch so it lets me do what I want but still questions the actions of programs. 

I still have a number of programs that are preinstalled to review but my install was down to 10.9gb.  Part of the saving was by moving the swap file to its own partition.

The backup wasn't so glacial when I used newer DVD R/Ws. 

GPartEd handled partitioning without problem.

[Nemesis]

I've concentrated more on the 2nd unit and have its boot time down from 3 minutes to 50 seconds.  Battery life seems to be 3-3.5 hours.  Overall quite satisfactory.  Now to get back to working on the 1st machine.

[Nemesis]

From the netbooks that I read about, upgrading the Ram shouldn't be that much more difficult than upgrading a regular laptop.  Your mileage may very.

I had previously seen video of upgrading a Netbooks ram (probably an eeePC model) and it was a disassemble the whole machine type of deal with tiny screws to drop or strip. 

Fortunately I just saw a video on changing the RAM in an Aspire D250 (the 2 I am working on are D250-1759) and it is remove 1 screw lift panel, remove ram insert new ram replace panel and screw then reboot.  Simple enough for most people.  Easily done if I ever change out the Windows 7 starter.  Windows 7 starter does seem fine for the limited use of these machines.

Now I'm looking for what is behind the OTHER 2 panels.  Likely the HD and maybe an internal SD card slot.

[Nemesis]

Now I'm looking for what is behind the OTHER 2 panels.  Likely the HD and maybe an internal SD card slot.

The other 2 are HD and a mini PCI/E slot.