Well, I finally got my fish wallpaper!
I had to ask a few questions and read around a bit, but installing the Windows 7 RC was actually pretty painless.
Some caveats: I just moved, so I haven't unpacked my DVDs yet. I was trying to do what I could with what I had, so I ended up installing off an SD card (4GB MicroSDHC, actually). It's easy -- just extract the ISO and make the SD card "active". I followed these instructions to set up the SD card.
Once I had the card set up, I booted from it. I left the PC unattended and came back to find it turned off. Hrm. I pushed the power switch, and the lights all came on for about half a second before turning back off. Hrmmmm... then I noticed the top-right corner of the PC was burning hot -- it was actually impossible to keep my finger on the underside for more than a second or two. My theory is that during the "Windows is copying files" portion of the install, it doesn't do proper power management. I wound up getting the install to work by sitting the laptop on a ziploc bag of ice, in front of a desk fan set on high. Overkill, maybe, but it did the trick.
Once the install completed, it seemed to manage more sane power / heat management. Everything pretty much worked out of the box, though I had about 150 megs of Windows Updates waiting. I still haven't gotten the fingerprint reader or auto-rotation working, but both pen and touch seem to be doing fine without any extra drivers from HP. And it's faster than Vista too! All in all, a pretty good experience.
I had to ask a few questions and read around a bit, but installing the Windows 7 RC was actually pretty painless.
Some caveats: I just moved, so I haven't unpacked my DVDs yet. I was trying to do what I could with what I had, so I ended up installing off an SD card (4GB MicroSDHC, actually). It's easy -- just extract the ISO and make the SD card "active". I followed these instructions to set up the SD card.
Once I had the card set up, I booted from it. I left the PC unattended and came back to find it turned off. Hrm. I pushed the power switch, and the lights all came on for about half a second before turning back off. Hrmmmm... then I noticed the top-right corner of the PC was burning hot -- it was actually impossible to keep my finger on the underside for more than a second or two. My theory is that during the "Windows is copying files" portion of the install, it doesn't do proper power management. I wound up getting the install to work by sitting the laptop on a ziploc bag of ice, in front of a desk fan set on high. Overkill, maybe, but it did the trick.
Once the install completed, it seemed to manage more sane power / heat management. Everything pretty much worked out of the box, though I had about 150 megs of Windows Updates waiting. I still haven't gotten the fingerprint reader or auto-rotation working, but both pen and touch seem to be doing fine without any extra drivers from HP. And it's faster than Vista too! All in all, a pretty good experience.
