Setting Up Windows Vista/7 on Toshiba Mini NB205

Toshiba NB205 comes pre-installed with Windows XP. I wiped out windows XP from the netbook and installed both Windows Vista Home Basic and Windows 7 Home Premium. I will use Windows Vista as my primary workspace and Windows 7 as my experimental workspace.

Installation of Windows Vista requires the SATA driver to be installed at the partition selection step (See the picture below). Download f6flpy3289 from Intel and unpack it onto a USB floppy or a USB thumb drive. Plug it into a USB port, click Load Driver and choose Intel(R) ICH7M/MDH SATA AHCI Controller. If you don't load the SATA driver, Vista will crash after reboot. This problem doesn't happen with Windows 7.

This post serves as a journal I keep in order to keep track of the installed software and configuration. It'll ease the task of reinstalling Windows Vista or Windows 7.

1. Drivers and Utilities

   
   
   • Atheros AR9285 Wireless LAN adapter driver (for Vista)
     
     After installing the Wireless LAN driver, go online and use the Windows Update to install the other drivers.
     
   • Realtek RTL8101e PCI-e Ethernet controller (for Vista)
     
   • Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Windows Vista* 32 (zip) (for Vista)
     
     On Vista, you'll see pop-ups asking your perimission to run igfxtray.exe, hkcmd.exe and igfxpers.exe at boot time. To get rid of these pop-ups, disable UAC. Alternatively, locate the files in C:\Windows\System32, right-click and choose Properties from the right-click menu. Then, select the Compatibility tab and check Run this program as an administrator.
     
   • Realtek High Definition Audio
     
   • Alps TouchPad driver 7.4.2002 (for Vista and Windows 7)
     
     If you're using 32-bit Windows, extract Vi32 folder using 7-zip and run dpinst.exe.
     
   • Camera Assistant Software for Chicony Built-in Camera (for Vista and 7)
     
   • Toshiba HDD Protection Software with vibration sensor driver (for Vista and 7)
     
   • Toshiba ACPI Value-Added Logical Device (for Vista and 7)
     
     This package only contains a driver for the “Unknown device” which is hidden unless you select Show hidden devices from the View menu. Just extract setup.exe with 7-zip and run it. No window will show up, but installation will start and end silently.
   
   
   
   
   

2. Windows Update

   
   

   If you don't want to wait for Windows to update itself, download the following service packs and hotfixes.

   
   
   • Windows Vista Service Pack 1 All Language Standalone (KB936330)
     
   • Windows Vista Service Pack 2 - ALL Language Standalone (KB948465)
     
   • System Update Readiness Tool (KB947821) [September 2009]
     
     Use this tool only when you get errors using Windows Updates.
     
   
   
   

3. Applications

   
   
   • 7-zip archiver
     
   • Adobe Flash Player for IE and Firefox
     
   • Adobe Reader 9.0
     
   • aMule
     
   • Aria2
     
   • avast Antivirus
     
   • GIMP
     
   • HashCheck Shell Extension
     
   • ImgBurn
     
   • Java
     
   • Microsoft Office 2007
     
   • Mozilla Firefox 3.5
     
   • OpenOffice.org 3.0
     
   • Skype
     
   • VirtuaWin
     
   • WinImage
     
   • XVI32 hexadecimal editor
     
   • ZumoDrive cloud storage
     
   
   
   

Related Posts

• To Activate Windows 7 on Toshiba Mini NB205
  
• List of Useful Software for Windows