[daoist]

Looks like Windows 8 will be available tonight. Who's going to try it on their Mini 9!?

---------- Post added at 07:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:39 PM ----------

Windows 8 Developer Preview Available Tonight | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

[holmes4]

I read that it won't run on GMA9xx graphics chipsets, such as the Mini 9 has. Let us know how it works out if you try it.

[rrfranczak3]

I have had the Alpha version for awhile and I am not real impressed by it....YET

[daoist]

Windows 8 seems to work great so far. Wireless, graphics, etc. So far, the resolution is stuck at 800x600, looking for a device driver....

---------- Post added at 06:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:29 PM ----------

I downloaded the latest Windows 7 device driver and it works fine!

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...=2300&lang=eng

[kwheaties]

Great news! I will install Friday. How much space did the install take up? I have the stock 16GB SSD.

[daoist]

The upgrade process from Windows 7 required 16G free. I deleted a 5G game and after the install it seemed there was the same amount of free space... So... you'll have to do a clean install to 16G.

---------- Post added at 12:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:16 PM ----------

1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
Taking advantage of touch input requires a screen that supports multi-touch

[daoist]

The Metro apps won't start because Windows 8 doesn't think the system has enough screen resolution, but the traditional desktop mode works great at full resolution after installing the Windows 7 device driver linked above.

This is what Windows 8 looks like on (old) netbooks - Liliputing

[frank]

daoist, thank you for the Intel graphics driver link and Liliputing article link.

No one has created a guide yet, so I thought I'd give a try.

1. Download Windows 8 Developer Preview 32-bit from here.

2. On a 4GB or larger USB flash drive, create a Windows 8 USB flash drive installer with Microsoft's own Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool. It is fairly straightforward, Ars has good instructions on how to use it here. Others have used another utility like WinToFlash.

3. Download the Intel graphics drivers here and copy the file to the installer drive. Thanks, daoist.

4. Confirm that USB BIOS Legacy Support is Enabled in the BIOS. (Hard to boot off USB without this, but is this option is Disabled once Mac OS X is installed, so there you go.) While you're in the BIOS, you might want to make the internal SSD (labeled "Hard Drive") the first boot source, as the installer reboots when it finishes, and if the USB source is higher up the boot queue, it'll start the installer again.

5. If you previously had Mac OS X installed on your Dell Mini, you may run into problems with the drive format. The Windows 8 setup wouldn't allow me to format the drive. I actually had to boot a Windows XP install CD to format the drive, then stop the installation after all partitions were removed, drive formatted, and WinXP files were starting to be copied over.

6. Windows 8 installs much like Windows 7. Go figure.

7. Install the Intel graphics drivers you put on the installer drive in step 3.

I'm actually only on step 6 now. I think my flash drive is slow, and we all know the Mini 9 isn't the fastest PC ever made.

Updates as they happen.

[kwheaties]

Installed from scratch last night with no issues. Installed the graphics drivers and all was good. Shows 5GB free space on my 16GB SDD and i haven't started removing anything.

[frank]

Windows 8 on my Dell Mini 9 works fairly well. Man, that ribbon on Windows Explorer is fugly! It just froze on me at 12:01PM ET, not sure why. Might be that it doesn't like the old, dead battery which no longer charges. Anyone have luck with aftermarket batteries like these?

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 - BattDepot.com - Inspiron Mini 9, 312-0831, 8Y635G, D044H, 312-0831, 8Y635G, D044H, H075H, J864, K110H, M297J, M300J, N254J, N255J, PP39S, W953G ,
Dell Mini 9 Series Battery

---------- Post added at 04:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:45 PM ----------

I should add that the Dell Mini 9 boots in about 30 seconds from pressing the power button to the mountains time and date display.