Install Windows 7 on a Netbook in 2 Easy Steps
Installing Windows 7 on a netbook can be hard because no netbook features a built in disk drive, but don't let that stop you. There is a very easy way to install Windows 7 on your netbook and I am going to show you how.
I've read a few guides on how to install Windows 7 and found most of them to be unnecessarily complicated. I am sure my guide is easy enough that even a beginner computer user can follow along without a problem (if you have any issues please contact me and I will help you).
The best part is that the only item you need that isn't free is a USB flash drive that is at least 4 GB or larger (I bought this one and it worked great
1. Download Windows 7
First you need to download the Windows 7 beta .iso file. (it's free of course, but you'll need a Windows Live ID to get a key - also free). Once the download has finished copy the 2.4 GB file onto your USB Flash Drive
2. Download and Install and Run Daemon Tools Lite
Next, download Dameon Tools Lite (yes it's free too!) and install it on your netbook (you will need to then restart the netbook). To put it simply - what this program does is allow you to "mount" an image or iso file virtually on your netbook as if you were using a physical DVD drive with a Windows 7 DVD inside.
Now right click on the Dameon Tools icon in the lower right hand corner of your screen > scroll up to Virtual CD / DVD Room option > Mount Image > Navigate to your USB Flash Drive and select the Windows 7 .iso file you copied onto it in the earlier steps.
The Windows 7 installation splash page should pop up as soon as you select the Windows 7 .iso file and you're set! Now simply click install Windows 7 and choose your installation settings.
Wrap Up
On my Asus Eee PC 1008HA I choose to install Windows 7 on the second hard drive partition so I can dual boot Windows XP and Vista. (Asus ships their netbooks with the hard drives partitioned in two which I discovered with the Asus Eee PC 1000HE.)
You're done and now you're using the OS that Vista should have been in the first place 
. Please pass this along in Twitter and share with anyone else, I'll also gladly help if you email me.
Tagged: install windows 7, windows 7 netbook
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Great post, thanks.
How’s the performance? Better or worse than XP?
Hey Ed,
Glad to see you consistently commenting on the posts
Actually I haven’t had enough time to do benchmarking yet actually. However, I plan to run some battery tests and just generally use the OS a lot to get a feel for it.
From what I’ve heard it runs even better on Windows 7 though.
[...] out Chris Guthrie’s guide to installing Windows 7 on a netbook “in 2 easy steps” over at NetbookReviews.com. All you’ll need is a copy of Windows 7 (which you can get from Microsoft), a USB flash drive (a [...]
Just wondering if this would work for a complete clean install on the hard drive – ie wipe all partitions and create a new single Win 7 partition?