Greetings. First Post!
Just thought I might chime in with my
W7 experiences. I've been busy testing W7 media center(7MC) functionality but, as a welcome distraction took beta 1 as the build Id have a play with on the tc1100 :) Installation of 7000 was 25 minutes. I installed the xp drivers as per HP's site in compat mode of course. This included:
*nvidia drivers(Jan 2004) >>I dont see the point of modded drivers when they dont work
A mod including a 94.xx xp version would likely be a stable uprade as 420M was supported until this version. Still, Id wager the improvemens wont be hugely significant from a functionality aspect.
*soundmax audio drivers
*wLan
*tablet pc button
*Q-menu
On restart, I was pleased to find all worked well, including the orientation button. I then ran windows update which identified 4 available updates for hardware:
*wLan
*irda(lolz)
*wacom digitizer
*multimedia slot >>I havent tested the sd slot since this as I dont have one
What I like:
*Installed and boots quicker than vista
*The roomy OSK and the way pressed keys flash and fade
*old school drivers deployed ok, for most part.
*The (non aero of course) basic theme is a bit less garish than vista basic
Build 7000 is perfectly functional for what I use it for, surfing, emails, a bit of xml fiddling. The TIP enhancements are great
What needs work:
*As the dx9 bypass hack (in its previous form) is no longer valid, wmc is mostly useless. I can get some dvrms/wtv files playing...sometimes!
*video files are a mess.. the new integrated windows media foundation codecs just dont do it like ffdshow can. Quite often, files I open in wmp freeze the whole device.
>>I know the indicated 3d acceleration tweaks make wmp a bit more stable - but not enough for my liking. For now I am making do with VLC, which works ok, even at fullscreen. It does infrequently stall though
*TC1100 gets confused with sleep/wake. I dont use this much, but did notice it.
Conclusion
If basic text based activities are what you use your TC1100 for, you will likely have a very pleasant experience playing with W7 build 7000. If you are used to more multimedia functionality, there are some issues that plague both W7 itself, coupled with some of the TC1100's own limitations.
Looking forward to subsequent improvements and workarounds!
Special tip: (whatever OS you are using)
Firefox has some great extensions to maximise screen real estate, especially for those of us that like to work in portrait mode:
*A nice dark theme. Black on screen -- good for battery life. Midnight foxy and rulerdark are nice
*stylish plus tabs on top extension - a la google chrome
*fast dial - like opera's speed dial
*omnibar -fuses search and address bar
*fission - fuses address and status bar
*tiny menu - decrease space taken up by menu items/text by reducing it to one menu
*hide chrome - toggle hide/show the top title bar for a bit extra space
Here's the end product if youre curious(newb link prohibited -so plz fix start)
h t t p://s215.photobucket.com/albums/cc288/Astrotoy7/?action=view¤t=TC1100screencap.png
cheers --- great site you have here btw!!
astrotoy7