I think I will like Windows 7.  I completely skipped Windows Vista,  both in business and at home.  Windows XP is still everywhere on all my computers.

But Windows 7, especially 64 bit,  is inevitable. XP is aging and it will be out of the mainstream in a couple of years. Just like Windows 98 SE, great OS’es, a pleasure to use most of the time, but part of history now. While Windows 98  SE was not always stable, Windows XP was the first Microsoft OS as stable and versatile as you can expect for software and well, very well supported by the industry.  Everything runs on Windows XP.
Whether Windows 7 is already that versatile, I am not sure. Seeing the many praises and the inevitable,  but not alarming,  error reports on Windows 7, with good driver support, it is in a much better shape than Windows Vista.
Like Windows ME paved the way for the migration of the Windows 9x to the Windows  NT/2000 desktop, Vista was an essential step to Windows 7.  Not that Windows 7 is just a service pack for Vista,  it contains much more improvements to the Vista codebase. It performs, it works out of the box and looks good.

The first production machine to get Windows 7 will be the Acer Aspire netbook D250. Not the last to upgrade, I got myself a cheap family 3 PC upgrade.

Installing (I have an external USB DVD writer, though making a bootable USB stick installation is possible with Microsoft tools) was the most dullest experience for Windows ever.

This is what I did:

1. Made a backup of bootblock and the XP system and restore partition (see my blog howto here)
2. Created a partiton (with GPARTED) of 60GB for Windows 7. Yes, XP is still on the netbook as second OS!
3. Installed Windows 7  (32bit, no 64 on Atom!) via a boot from the DVD drive.  Custom-advanced of course to select the new empty partition. Very few questions, went to see a episode of a tv show, and it was up and running quite soon.
4. Entered product key and activated.
5. Windows update, already some security updates and new drivers for netwerk and wireless and webcam.
6. Microsoft Essentials will be the antivirus software, works fine.
7. Tested everything, device manager shows all devices found and working.
8. Had to download and install the Synaptics driver for the touchpad, as it was detected as a general mouse.  As this is the only driver to be installed manually, not bad, not bad at all.

It seems the battery life is just the same as with Windows XP as I saw last night, but no real experience data yet.

Now to install all my favorite programs. I know watching video, listening to music, editing photo and video and programming in Delphi works on 7, so it looks good sofar. I can visit Microsoft Teched next week with this machine

But where are the Powertools, like TweakUI,  Command Windows from here, etc?

Enjoying my Acer Aspire One with XP! But Windows 7 is the way of the future, so I am tempted to upgrade, once I have a permanent W7 license for it. 

EIT november 1st 2009: Windows 7 is now isntalled, read here)

I am studying how to protect the D2D eRecovery facility. At boot time all Acers Aspire notebooks  have a D2D (disk 2 disk) restore facility, activated by pressing ALT-F10 at boot time. It works by having a special MBR and a hidden partition of 7 GB with a fresh OEM XP install.
Installing Windows 7 will for sure change the MBR and prevent the recovery process.

This is what I have found and done sofar. No Windows 7 installation done yet, need a RTM version with a valid key. Hope to get one at Teched in november!

1. Created the recovery dvd’s. I have an external usb dvd writer, a big brick one, not for the road but usable for these kind of tasks at home)
   I got the PTEDIT32 utility and set the partition entry type for the first, hidden,partition to 07 (was 12)     After booting Windows XP the before hidden PQSERVICE partition appears as drive D:, 7 GB    Made a backup of that partition (about 6 GB. And yes, I used explorer for the copy after making sure it shows hidden+system files
2. Did the same (just to check how it works) before using ptedit32 with ubuntu and knoppix live cd. Works fine with knoppix,  the PQSERVICE can be mounted with a click on the drive on the desktop. No surprises either, same files.    
   Except for the wireless, a known problem, all seems to work fine with both Linux’es.
3. Searched the PQSERVICE for the utility and file to restore the MBR and no luck. Nothing that  even vaquely resembles that can be found.
4. Used a disk editor (http://jawade.nl/) to see the first block, which is the mbr, and yes, it is an MBR as far as I can see.
5. Used a small utility to make a backup of the mbr (http://mbrwizard.com/) to file, so now I have the equivalent  of the missing     Acer supplied utility, I can restore the mbr with that utility.
6. The forementioned Knoppix  and Ubunty live cd’s contain the partition editor (GPARTED), so I can create a  new partition for Windows 7 and have a dual boot system.

I hope I now have everything in backup to start the Windows 7 installation.

 Or do you see a snag I forget?  Oh well,  I will also do a disk clone before further experiments.

As you can see in this blog, I recently started programming again in Pascal, eh, Delphi Object Pascal. The version I use (since it is the last version close to traditional Windows programming) is version 7. The best version to use  is the version that floats around as Delphi 7.2 Second Edition (search a torrent site) which is a trimmed and bugfixed small package.

Of course this package runs fine on Windows XP. But how on Windows 7?

This is how I got it to work.

Installation

• Make sure you run this as administrator,  you will need the privs.
• Run the Delphi installer. Use defaults for the file locations, ignore the incompability warnings.
• Dont start Delphi 7 as it will complain when starting a project  about unable to rename delphi32.$$$ to .dro in the /program files/delphi directories . And something about debug options requiring a change.
  So there are access problems, as to be expected. Windows 7 is a lot more robust, so directories are better protected.

Solve the access problems

1. Run this as administrator.
2. Open the properties on c:/program files/delphixxx directory.
3.  On the first tab Clear the Read-only attribute and press Apply for all files including subdirectory.
4.  Open the security tab
5. Give users (and admins if necessary) full access to  c:/program files/delphixxx directory   

Now Delphi can be used to write programs again.

Edit August 2010: Windows 7 64 bit is also not a problem. Delphi is installed in C:\PROGRAM Files (X86)

Fix Winhelp

Help does not function, a windows pops up telling “winhelp is not supported anymore on this Windows version, go to microsoft.com for a fix” .
The fix for Vista is already made, the Windows 7  fix will be here Real Soon Now. 

Edit january 2010:  Search ‘ Windows Help program (WinHlp32.exe) for Windows 7′ on microsoft.com, currently here ,  install that and you do not need the next trick.

So this will be fixed in the future, but for now it can be solved as follows.

1. Remove the Read-only attribute from winhlp32.exe and winhelp32.exe in c:/windows
2. Set  ownership of the winhlp32.exe file (properties, security tap, advanced)  to administrators (and remember, you are logged on as admin!)
3.  change the security to full control
4.  rename winhlp32.exe to something like winhlp32old.exe just in case
5. copy from a Windows  XP system the files winhlp32.exe and winhelp.exe in c:\windows

Now help functions also.

I have been thinking about it some time now,  what to take as computing device on the road.
When I am traveling my faithful Ipaq (4350) serves me well, since 2006. Playing mp3, watching video, it all went well. Accessing internet via wireless if available. And will do so in the future, good in the airplane or train or bus for music and movies. With three batteries I can fill several hours,
It is old by current  standards,  and replacement by a modern pda will be  expensive, since they became smart phones like Windows Mobile or Android based.

But a pda/smartphone could not offer me the support I need for my kind of usage and as complement to the electronic devices  I take along on my travels. A simple digital photo camera has changed into a Canon 710IS and now a Canon 1000D dslr. Video has changed from a mini-dv type to a flash based Canon FS100. And all these equipment, from Ipaq to photoo and video have something in common: SD flash cards. The amount and size grows each year, for music, and photo and video files. Nice to save a copy on a hard disk and do some editing early. And store fresh music and movies on the Ipaq.

Another missing feature was true internet access. Wireless, and better fixed ethernet. And a modern browser is better, many sites fail at the limited browser of the Ipaq.
One cant program on the Ipaq. My work on Pascal in Delphi for example,  often the opportunity is there, the tool is not.

The alternative is taking a fullsize notebook. I did so in 2007 to Venezuela, and again in april 2009 to Berlin.  A bit heavy and bulky to be honest, but what a luxury.

The solution is available, and has now become affordable:  a netbook. I choose the Acer Aspire One D250. The lower price model, it will not be  the day to day working horse.  Small, 10 inch display, 1024×600 resolution. Capable cpu,  like most netbooks it has an Intel Atom N270, 160 GB hard disk, wirelles, ethernet, vga connector and ofcourse a SD slot (SDHC accepted). Audio out,  microphone in, webcam. 3x USB.  Windows XP home.  Small! 3 cell battery, so I wont expect it to last over 2 or 3 hours.

The Acer next to the DELL Latitude D820.
I did change the 1 GB memory to a 2 GB module. I found this makes apps on XP run better and it will be right for Windows 7 in the future.

What I found installing all my favorites:

- XP is XP. Quite boring actually, just supports every aspect of this PC. Wireless works without a glitch, second monitor (1280×1024) functions fine, sound from internal speakers is ok, and via headphones it is good. Reading and writing SD cards is fast and painless.

XP home, all my other installations are Professional. So simpler file sharing,w which is mfine,  and no remote desktop! VNC comes to the rescue, but I do miss RDP. 

The keyboard is small but easy to type on. The touchpad and mouse keys are small also, but work fine. It is the display where the netbook really shows its limitations. It is bright, easy to read, though small in size. The resolution is a problem for some applications, they just expect 1024×768 as a minimum and cant be resized smaller. That is against the Windows UI rules, but Adobe seems not to care

Everything I have thrown on it works:
- Adobe photoshop 7. Does expect a height of 768 and refuses to resize to 600. The work area is visible and editing is fine.
- Adobe Premiere Elements 7. No problem here, video plays smoothly.
- GOM Player, VLC player, Winamp. The divx movies show fine. The screen really works well for video. Big improvement on the Ipaq.
-  It is just boring old XP, everything works fine. I have seen Adobe products being confused by resolutions on other machines too, so thats nothing new.
- The CPU and 2 GB memory make it a workable machine.  Ofcourse  in classic mode and optimal display settings for performance!
- Acer did try to pollute the machine with unnnecessary gimmicks,  , so uninstalling garbage took some time.

I am sure that the full functionality, the  low weight and small size and acceptable perfomance will make it a pleasure to take this machine along on the road!