Running on an X61 Tablet - first impressions

[j-dawg]

Just got the beta installed and running on my tablet. It seems pretty nice but I never had problems with Vista, so I don't know if I'll see much improvement. So far, I can say that...uh, I like the new widget system better than the Sidebar. The new Control Panel layout is more intuitive but I am used to the old style; fortunately, as has been the case in all of its numerous iterations, the Control Panel can be set to a "classic" view.

I had a little hiccup with drivers: my keyboard and mouse simply did not work. After updating the drivers in the Device Manager everything is peachy. I have not even bothered trying to get the fingerprint reader working because it's more annoying than useful.

A clever little feature: the Tablet Input Panel stays completely hidden until one brings the pen into range and disappears if the pen goes out of range for a while. This means it's not kind of sticking out of the side of the desktop as it was in Vista.

Thinkvantage Power Manager still works, as does HDAPS. I note that the ThinkVantage button does nothing, though the Productivity Center menu can still be pulled up from the programs list.

Trackpoint scrolling does not work the way it used to; instead, the middle button works as though it were a regular middle button and activates that...circle-with-arrows thing. I suspect the old Trackpoint drivers are no longer functional here, but I want my Trackpoint scroll! If anyone gets this working like it used to, let me know.

[coldfire]

I also clean installed windows 7 x64 on my tablet (X61T,4GB) but now I am back to Vista. some problems here:
1. trackpoint scrolling works occasionally. each time I restart windows, I can not predict if it will work or not.
2. default fingerprint reader software always freezes aftre launch, one has to run ctlcntrx.exe to register fingerprint.
3. Fn+F5 works initially, for unknown reason it disappeared lately and there is no way to get it back.
4. presentation director can not be installed.
5. no tablet shortcut menu
6. system update does a less decent job of installing necessary compoents
7. Atheros WLAN card works without the driver from lenovo (indicator LED does not work though), actually lenovo driver will render it unusable.
8. I also tried to do an upgrade installation, it failed at the last step (something like converting/migrating files ...)

Windows 7 does boot and run faster, memory footprint is smaller. hibernation seems to be also faster than vista.

[coldfire]

Another clean installed Windows 7. most problems were solved.
1. most of time the trackpoint scrolling works.
2. the same, but I can live with it.
3. Fn+F5 is still working
4. it works now, the trick is to install intel driver provided by Lenovo first. otherwise it complains that it can not found OEMDSPIF.DLL
5. same
6. can not rely on SU
7. same
Daemon Tools is not compatible with win7, an alternative is virtual CloneDrive. However, on my tablet, when the CloneDrive is active, the explorer will become unresponsive after hilber or sleep.

[ronan_zj]

any update on Win7 ?
does win7 eatting up the dirve?
how about lenovo software? does it work?( lenovo access connection, bluetooth, battery management ect)

[bigwormie]

Working great after about a month. Bluetooth, wireless, etc all working great. If you are afraid, I would suggest a drive image with your current O.S. then install 7 and give it a go. Better yet, buy a $60 hard drive and install 7 on that, that way you will have the other drive ready to go in case you dont like it.

In either case you want to do a clean install rather than an install to a separate partition. Mind you, that is my un-expert opinion.

Good luck!

[ronan_zj]

i am thinking to get a new ssd, and do a clean install on it.
but for some concerns:
1. I am running AutoCAD 2009 on my vista, so i am not sure if i can still use it on Win7.
2. ALso, i have other software, like minitab, word2007, onenote ect.
3. Does Win7 operates like vista? eatting up the harddrive eventually? I have turned off all recovery, superfecth stuff, and still experience the lack of drive C.

[Marin85]

To:
1. the best way to verify this is to try it out
2. Office 2007 seems to work flawlessly (and quite fast) under Win 7.
3. If you have system restore and superfetch turned off, there shouldn´t be a reason why Vista (or Win 7) would eat up your disk space But, yes, for that matter Win 7 operates like Vista.