Gadgetman: Windows 7 Beta – Impressions running on a Tablet PC

Introduction

For the past couple of weeks I have been running the public beta (build 7000) of Windows 7 on my tablet PC, an HP TC1100.  This unit is quite old now (in terms of PC hardware) but amazingly enough it runs Windows 7 very well indeed.
Hardware specs are: 1Ghz CPU, 768MB RAM (supports up to 2GB), 30GB HD, 1024×768 display.  Nothing fancy but good enough.
I brought the tablet off Trademe several months ago as a non-working unit, but luckily it came complete except for the charger, and having a Compaq laptop already with the same type of charger, I was able to recharge it and test the unit.  The TC1100′s have common fault where over time the stress of having the tablet attached to the keyboard flexes the motherboard and creates a hairline crack (since the tablet part leans backwards slightly), usually near the RAM chips.  Since the video chip of the TC1100 uses shared memory, the first sign of a problem is either random ASCII characters or a chequered board effect on the screen.
The recommended fix is a motherboard replacement, but after having a quote of over $1000 to do this I decided to see if I could get by, and much to my surprise I was able to get the unit working by gently pulling it back on itself to temporarily repair the crack (with the unit docked into its keyboard, I titled it gently towards me and then disconnected it from the keyboard.  There are other methods on the Internet, such as shimmering cardboard between the motherboard and the case, but that means opening the unit).  It has been working now with no problems for over a week, and as long as I don’t use the keyboard too much I don’t see it becoming any worse, so I try and just use it as a pure tablet with the pen.
So anyways, back to Windows 7, once I charged the unit and the screen was working again I installed Windows XP, but without having the tablet version on hand it was impossible to use, so I tried Vista.  bad idea, it was so bloated and slow I couldn’t even use the OS let alone any apps.  So having previously downloaded the Windows 7 beta and never having a device to install it on, I got busy wiping off Vista (which ALWAYS feels good!) and installed Windows 7.  Initial impressions where that it was a LOT faster and more responsive than Vista, and used far less memory.  The built in tablet support let me use the device with a pen straight away, and after a quick calibration I was in business.
Windows 7 does have quite a few interface changes from both Vista and XP, the most obvious being the new task bar.  By default this lies at the bottom of the screen, where it has sat for several versions of Windows, but I found that moving it to the right of the screen was much better.  For a start, items which are ‘pinned’ to the task bar are far easier see when they are running or not, plus the amount of information displayed is slightly more (date AND time, icon text is horizontal not vertical).  Of course this does cut into the horizontal resolution of the display a bit but that’s something I can live with.

Applications

I have tried a number of applications so far and have not had any issues, however I have purposely kept the number of applications down so as not to slow down the machine too much.  Over time I may install more, and as the next release of Windows 7 approaches I will have to wipe it anyway for a fresh install.
The following list is what I have tried so far:
* Windows Home Server Connector – works great and backs up the PC not problems (it is identified as Vista Ultimate inside the Home Server console)
* Firefox 3 – works great and I have tried a few plugins with no problems (DownThemAll being the main one I actually use)
* AVG 8
* iTunes
* uTorrent
* Office 2003
* Visio 2003
* Adobe Reader 9
* Windows Live (Messenger etc)
I also plan on trying the Nokia software to sync my phone, however I have read one report that this doesn’t work because of driver issues, but I will give it a go anyway.
Hardware
So far I have only tried 6 external hardware devices:
* Woosh PC Card for Internet Access (this is a W-CDMA service in New Zealand)
* USB WLan Card – An Asus unit that worked once I installed the Vista drivers
* External DVD – had to use this to install Windows 7, so I guess it works!
* Digital Camera – its just a USB storage device so you would hope it works, and it does
* USB mouse – kinda essential but I tried it anyway, and works no problems
* iPod – 30Gb model works fine, and syncs perfectly to iTunes
The big surprise was the Woosh PC card for Internet access.  I had zero problems getting this working and the speed it just as good (or is that bad…) as XP etc.  Since Woosh is a wireless service with a reasonable footprint in Auckland (better than trying to find a hotspot) it created a very usable tablet for moving around, and without the cost that a 3G device would entail.

Performance

Boot times are good (I will measure and update this posting) and in use the hardware is more of a hindrance that the OS.  I REALLY need to upgrade the RAM and HD, which I will hopefully do in a few weeks (endless hardware upgrades happen in my house so have to be planned and budgeted out!).  The CPU is old now and so there is not the instant ‘snap’ you get on more modern hardware, but it is definitely usable and I would be happy to have the combination (TC1100 and Windows 7) as my main device.  It handles Office great, Firefox well, iTunes OK (its a bit of a resource hog especially when downloading podcasts), and multi-tasks them all fine, and with ‘guesture’ support on the pen interface I can ‘flick’ up and down webpages.

Handwriting

Having only used a tablet a few times in the past at trade shows etc, I am quite amazed at the accuracy of the recognition engine in Windows 7.  My handwriting it reasonably neat, which helps, but even with numbers and symbols I had no problems.  Additionally the Windows Journal applications (that comes with Windows 7) is great with the pen; notes can be scribbled, information moved around, resized etc.  it it pretty close to electronic paper.  I have started using the ‘training’ application to train the recognizer to my style, but with 50 pages of text to enter and the fact I will reformat the device soon, I have only done 15 and probably won’t do any more.

Problems

The biggest problem I have come across so far is getting the wireless networking running; there seems to be a problem with either the card or the drivers but other people on the web have no issues, so it may be a hardware fault.
I have experienced one BSOD, and one lockup (ironically when I was writing this review on another machine) but otherwise it is super stable.
Also the video card is too old for DX10 so is just a generic driver, which means the hardware rotation feature doesn’t work.  I did try a Vista specific driver which did work, and enabled the screen rotation, but I couldn’t do anything else as it kept locking up.  This was supposed to be fixed by changing the settings for the driver, but opening the control panel application caused a lockup!  Oh well, the generic driver works fine, and Youtube and iTunes videos play fine, just don’t expect HD video to play (I did get 720p video play but only at 50% size!)
When plugging in headphones the external speaker doesn’t mute; a bit embarrassing at work when I tried it to listen to some music!

Not Tried

I have not tested the Media Centre functionality as I have no tuner card and the video card is too old, plus I already have a dedicated HTPC so probably wouldn’t use it anyway.
Summary
Based on my experiences I will definitely be upgrading to the release candidate (RC1) when it ships soon, and then to the retail version after than, and probably move some of my other machines to Windows 7 as well.