MobileViews Blog

Category: Microsoft

  • Windows 7 Release Candidate Boot to Login Screen Time on a Netbook (video)

    Like Windows 7 Beta, Windows 7 Release Candidate took just under 35 seconds to boot from a cold start to the login screen.

  • Windows 7 Beta 35 Second Boot on Asus Eee PC 1000HA Netbook

    Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix took about 36 seconds to boot to the Ubuntu login screen on an Acer Aspire One netbook with 512MB RAM and a 8GB SSD. This time I recorded the boot time of Windows 7 Beta booting to the login screen on an Asus Eee PC 1000HA netbook with 1GB RAM and a 160GB hard drive. It took about 35 seconds.

    Of course, Windows gets really busy after the login process with anti-spyware, anti-virus, and bunches of different app update background processes. So, it takes about another 30+ seconds to settle down.

  • Microsoft Atheros AR5007EG Wireless Driver Bad for Windows 7’s Health

    win7wifidriver

    I installed the optional Atheros WiFi chipset update provided by Microsoft for Windows 7 Beta on my Asus Eee PC 1000HA netbook this morning. Unfortunately, after the installation and reboot, I was able to see but NOT connect to my wireless network. So, I used Windows 7’s System Restore to get me back to the pre-update state and was able to get online.

    =======================
    Microsoft driver update for Atheros AR5007EG Wireless Network Adapter
    Download size: 1.3 MB

    You may need to restart your computer for this update to take effect.
    Update type: Optional

    This driver was provided by Microsoft for support of Atheros AR5007EG Wireless Network Adapter

    More information:
    http://winqual.microsoft.com/support/?driverid=3846

    Help and Support:
    http://support.microsoft.com/select/?target=hub

  • Windows 7 Beta Atheros Ethernet Driver Works on Asus Eee PC 1000HA

    asuseeepc_ethdrv_small

    I discovered that I couldn’t use the wired Ethernet port on my Asus Eee PC 1000HA running Windows 7 Beta while in Seattle visiting Microsoft earlier this month. This was a problem since the Seattle Sheraton Hotel room I was in didn’t provide WiFi access – just wired Ethernet access.

    However, when I fired up the Eee PC this evening, Windows 7 Beta had a notification icon telling me that a solution had been found (see screenshot above). So, I downloaded the Atheros AR8131/AR8132 Ethernet Controller driver that was linked in Microsoft’s notification page and installed it. Atheros provides the driver in a RAR archive file. So, I had to download and install 7-Zip to unpack it.

    I tested wired Ethernet access after installing the driver on the Eee PC 1000HA and everything worked fine. I wish this driver was available 4 weeks ago!

  • Live Mobile Reformats Web Pages For You

    One Live Mobile feature I like is its option to reformat web pages you jump to from its search results to fit on your phone’s screen. The screen cap here shows the settings option to turn this on.

    photo

  • MSN Direct Send to GPS

    This won’t help my old Suunto Spot watch. But, if you have a Garmin nuvi GPS (780, 880, 5000, 750, 760, or 2×5 series) that supports it, MSN Direct Send to GPS…

    MSN Direct Enables Web Sites to Deliver Location Information to GPS Navigation Devices

    …allows any Web site to offer visitors the ability to send addresses, business listings, or other locations directly from the site to their GPS unit, eliminating the cumbersome step of re-entering or searching for the same information on their navigation device. Nice…