Windows 7 will be officially released on Thursday (10-22-09). In anticipation of (eventually) converting our systems to the new OS (once we're satisfied that it's an improvement), I wanted to install the Release Candidate that Microsoft distributed a couple months ago. The Windows 7 RC (Build 7100) allows me to install any of the versions of Windows 7 (Basic, Home, Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate), with the only restriction being that the RC will stop working sometime in the middle of 2010. I wanted to put the new OS on a machine that I use semi-regularly, but that's not absolutely essential for my day-to-day activities. The older tablet that I use for sketching and storyboarding seemed like an ideal candidate.
Little did I know how deep the rabbit hole really was...
Right off the bat, the install went very smoothly. Because I'm upgrading from XP Tablet Edition 2005, I can't upgrade to Windows 7 and keep my apps and settings. This is okay, because this particular machine only has 2 or 3 apps that I really need to use, and I have copies of those on hand. But just in case, I ran a full backup of the hard drive onto an external drive.
(Windows comes with a backup program, which you can usually find on the Start menu in Programs>Accessories>System Tools. NOTE: For my install, I did a standard backup. However, for various reasons too complex to be outlined here, I recommend using the "Automated System Recovery" wizard. You'll need a floppy drive and a blank floppy disk (you can get a USB floppy drive for cheap). This will help you avoid irritating incompatibilities that could pop up if you ever need to restore your computer back to the old OS.)
Okay, once the backup was taken care of, I popped in the Windows 7 disk, booted from the CD (using F2 on power-up to choose my boot device), and went through the setup process. It was painless. I just kept all the default options, hit "Next" a bunch of times, and it did its thing. Soonit rebooted and there I was, running Windows 7!
I like the cleanliness of this new OS. There's not all sorts of popups asking you if you need help learning how to use it. The taskbar is nicely compact, and yet finger-friendly and informative. The graphics are muted and clean, and don't feel like window dressing. Best of all, it feels quick and slick, even on this old 1.5Ghz Pentium M Centrino system with 1GB of RAM.
When I decided to upgrade, I was concerned about functionality of the various parts of my machine. I remember this being a big deal But the built-in Wacom tablet on the screen worked just fine, the touchpad worked, the graphics were full-res and full-color, the wireless and wired networks worked perfectly, as did the sound. Even the specialized tablet buttons did what they're supposed to. It was way more than I expected. However, after some use I realized that things weren't as spot-on as I'd hoped. There were several niggly issues that, individually, might be ignorable, but taken as a whole would make this particular setup unusable for my needs.
1. The touchpad scroll areas (side and bottom) didn't work. The touchpad itself worked, but when I wanted to scroll a webpage, for example, I couldn't just swipe the side of the touchpad to make it happen. Not a HUGE deal, but definitely annoying.
2. The Function+Keys didn't work. So I couldn't do tasks like change screen brightness, turn on and off the wireless and touchpad, change monitor displays, etc. These functions are still available, but you have to dig into the Control Panel to use them, which is a pain when you're used to just hitting a couple keys.
3. While the tablet functionality was there, I couldn't change the graphic orientation of the screen. This is an essential part of using a tablet PC, because the portrait orientation is ideal for sketching in tablet mode. If I couldn't make that work, then I would definitely have to revert back to XP.
Now, don't get me wrong. These issues aren't a problem with Windows 7, particularly. They're a problem with the drivers used to run the various parts of the system. Windows comes with a bunch (actually, a TON) of drivers, enough to get pretty much any machine up and running. But it obviously doesn't cover every single driver for every possible configuration. So I was going to have to figure out how to get those things working myself.
My first resource was the Toshiba support site. I was hoping I would be able to just download the latest drivers for Windows 7 straight from that site. After selecting my particular system, however, I realized that they don't yet have any drivers for Windows 7. I'm not sure if they ever will, considering the age of this machine. Fortunately, there were a bunch of Vista drivers and utilities available, and my understanding is that Vista stuff usually works with Windows 7, since they're based on the same platform. So I grabbed all those files and copied them onto the tablet.
I tried installing drivers for the trackpad, the wireless card, the wired network card, and the utility for the tablet functions. The trackpad driver worked like a charm, so I had my scrolling abilities back. The wired and wireless drivers didn't install: they said they were the wrong hardware. I'm not concerned about that, since those parts are working perfectly with the default Windows 7 drivers. However, I still couldn't get the function keys to work, and the rotation capabilities still didn't work, despite the fact that one of the utilities I installed was specifically for that purpose.
So I had to do some more research. And I'll tell you about it... in part 2! Keep your eyes peeled. :)
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