#2782

Windows 7 RC on the Samsung NC10 Netbook

Update: New version of this for the final Windows 7 release is here!

Here’s an update on my Windows 7 Beta on the Samsung NC10 Netbook post from January. I’ve installed the Windows 7 Ultimate RC on my NC10.

I’ve only been running it for a few days but so far my experience has been very positive. The RC seems slightly more responsive than the Beta but otherwise seems very similar. I was amazed how solid the beta was especially after a couple of updates from Windows Update. Hopefully the RC will continue in the same vein. Details on the download page say it’s good through to June 1st 2010 so that gives you a while to play with it!

Now. On to getting things installed…

So now we’ve gotten that out of the way… Thus far my Windows 7 RC install has been pretty straightforward.

• Install Windows 7 RC
• Run Windows Update, this will update the graphics and network drivers

Next install some of the additional software that worked with the beta. This gets the hotkeys, microphone, camera and touchpad working properly:

• Easy Display Manager 2.1.10.1 – Manages display brightness. This seems to be working better on the RC. On the Beta it had some issues and would only brighten the screen when a key was pressed (not from mouse movement etc). My install seems to brighten the screen when either the touchpad or keyboard is used. 
• Easy Battery Manager 3 3.2.1.8 – This will install an additional power plan “Samsung Optimized” which will hopefully improve the battery life. After install right click on the battery icon in the tray and make sure the right plan is selected. You may wish to edit the plan to set the processor speed when on battery power, this is set to 750MHz (half speed) by default.
• Synaptics touchpad Vista x86 driver this is version 12.2.11.0 (the first download on the page). It’s more recent than the one on Synaptics’ downloads site, I’m assuming its OEM specific
• Realtek HD Sound Drivers for Vista
• Numaga camera drivers 343.2001.4001.7 for XP
• Play Camera 2.0.0.15 for XP 
• Two finger scrolling tool – After installing you can right-click on the tray icon and use the Settings dialog to configure the application to start with windows.

All of these should be installed with Administrator permissions. I’m running the NC10 with 2Gb of memory. This is a relatively cheap upgrade (details here). Windows 7 Ultimate is using less than 1Gb most of the time with applications open but I’ve not tried running in less than 2Gb. 

There are additional applications you could install like Magic Keyboard. These may have unpredictanble results (Magic Keyboard effects the auto-dimming power management feature for instance). I”ve only tested what’s listed above.

I’ll update this post as I find more. Previous posts on my adventures with… NC10 and Windows 7.

Updated May 5th: Thanks to Claus for his help getting the two finger scrolling feature working (see comments below).

Updated May 7th: Added easy battery manager link (above) to install the power management profile for Windows 7. Thanks to mbsfotos and Zee (see comments below).

Updated May 11th: Added memory and Easy Display Manager details.

Updated May 12th: Added details on problems with Magic Keyboard and processor clock speed settings when on the battery power management plan. Thanks to Thomas for his help on this (see comments below).

Updated May 20th: Trying to get a modem or G3 card hooked up to your NC10? I’ve not tried this but several people have. Read the comments below for further details.