Additionally, please check out Tablet PC Freaks for more information about tablet PCs.

Step 1 : Format the USB Key

Because a USB key is seen as a removable device in Windows XP, the Disk Management console won’t let you partition it, nor make a partition active. That option will be grayed out.

It won’t even let you format a USB key using the NTFS file system.

To get around this limitation, you have to use a third-party utility.

We’ve trawled through countless guides on the Web, and found that the easiest way to format our USB key and give it an active partition is to use HP’s USB Disk Storage Format Tool. Not only can this format your USB key using the NTFS file system, it also automatically makes the formatted NTFS partition an active one.

You can download the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool from HP’s Business Support Center.

To use it, simply select your USB key from the ‘Device’ list, change the ‘File system’ to NTFS, select Quick Format and click on Start. The whole process will take a few seconds.

HP’s USB Disk Storage Format Tool is simple to use and it will work with most USB keys.

To confirm that your USB key has been correctly formatted, right-click on My Computer, click on Manage, and then click on Disk Management. Your USB key should now be listed with a ‘Healthy (Active)’ status, and it should say NTFS next to the capacity.

Before we formatted the USB key with HP’s tool, the status simply read ‘Healthy’ and the file format was FAT32.

Step 2: Make USB Bootable

Now that the USB key has an active NTFS partition, the next step is to make it bootable. For this step, you will need your Windows 7 DVD and you will need to get your hands dirty in the Command Prompt.

Windows 7 uses a loading program called Bootmgr. The active partition on the USB key needs to have code written to its boot sector that is compatible with Bootmgr. This code can be written to the USB key by using the bootsect.exe program that is present in the Boot folder of the Windows 7 DVD. To extract this code, we have to use the Command Prompt. From the Start menu select Run, type cmd and press Enter.

Once the Command Prompt is open, switch to your Windows 7 DVD by typing the drive letter for your DVD drive, which is usually d:. Then, you must type the following line:

boot\bootsect /nt60 j:

In this line, we are telling bootsect to use the /nt60 command to write the compatible boot code to our USB drive, which is the j: drive. Substitute the letter of your own USB drive for j:.

When this is successful, your screen will look like this:

Step 3: Copy Windows 7 to the USB key

Now that the USB key is prepared, all that remains is to copy the contents of your Windows 7 DVD to the USB key.
The root folder of the Windows 7 DVD contains five folders and three files, and the entire disk is 2.32GB.
This will take approximately 7 min to copy, depending on the speed of your computer and USB drive.

Step 4: Change Your Netbook’s Boot Option

In order to install Windows 7, your netbook will need to boot from your USB key, rather than its hard drive. To change this, you need to enter the BIOS and alter the boot settings. How this is accomplished varies depending on the make and model of the netbook. In general, to get into the BIOS you have to press either the DEL key or one of the Function buttons. Look for a message on the screen when you first switch on the netbook; often there will be an indication of which key or key combination you should press in order to enter the BIOS.

Plug in your USB key, and switch on the netbook. Once in the BIOS, go to the Boot menu and look for the ‘Boot Device Priority’ setting. In this setting, change the ‘1st Boot Device’ option to ‘USB’. On some netbooks (such as the MSI Wind 12 U200), it may even give you the name of your USB key.

The MSI Wind 12 U200 shows us the actual name of our USB key.

Once you’ve changed the boot device, save your changes and exit the BIOS. The netbook will now load from the USB key and proceed to install Windows 7. When the installation reaches the point where it restarts the system, be sure to remove the USB key, otherwise the netbook will boot from the USB key once again and will restart the installation.

Despite being designed for Windows XP, the current netbook with Intel Atom allow you to use Windows 7 without major problems. This early update (the release of the new Microsoft operating system is in fact scheduled for 22 October) could mean the Asus will make it easier to transition to the new Seven, or the imminent presentation of a EeePC 1101HA Windows 7 pre-installed.

The new BIOS (ver. 0313) can be downloaded as compressed archive from the support site of the house or through the Asus Update software.

I do not like software test that never show a peculiar and extreme use of a machine, they have the advantage of synthesizing a legible results. Legitreview has used such tests to compare performance EeePC 1005HA Windows XP and Windows 7. The site gives very little information on installing itself except that the ACPI management of energy saving machine requires special handling. It is not clear how much of the original software from Asus is present when testing the machine under Windows XP. Still, the result is to the advantage of Windows XP for the autonomy of the machine.

This advantage is low, additional 10 minutes, in IDLE mode where it does not operate the machine. 26 minutes more video playback, but it’s important we do not really know what causes such a change. The software suite, the Super Hybrid Engine, has been installed in the test Windows 7?

If so, if everything has been done in the state of the art, it is a very bad news. The latest generation of machine displaying almost a half-hour autonomy and less with Windows 7, the loss is important for an operating system that will cost more to the user.

On these last there tests of software power and graphics processor, the results are more mixed.. They are sometimes in favor of Windows 7 and other times in favor of XP. These tests are quite unrepresentative of the actual use of a computer by a human being, I think the performance difference will not change much. Perhaps it is indeed the problem, why pay more for an operating system like Windows 7 if the result is the same under Windows XP?

It is still only the beta of Windows 7, not the final system, Microsoft has a few more weeks to improve performance or at least make them in every way equal to those of XP. The additional costs generated by the new version of Windows could then be offset by new services it offers. If this is not the case, it will be difficult to convince manufacturers and buyers of the value thereof.