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I finally got around to installing Windows 7 beta on my Asus Eee PC 1000H last night. I downloaded it shortly after returning from CES, but I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to use it. But last night I set aside a few hours to install Windows 7 and CrunchEee on my netbook and watch some bad TV while waiting for files to copy.

My initial impression is that Windows 7 runs great on the Eee PC. This doesn’t really surprise me, since people have been saying for weeks that Windows 7 runs like a dream on netbooks ranging from the Eee PC 900 to the Apricot PicBook Pro, both of which have less capable processors than the Eee PC 1000H.

But now that I have a triple boot system, I was surprised to note that Windows 7, Windows XP, and CrunchEee Linux all take just around 60 seconds to boot into a fully useable desktop. To be fair, I’ve been running Windows XP for about 4 months and there are probably a few programs that are slowing down the system startup in XP. So it’s likely that on a clean install, it would take about 50 seconds to boot Windows XP, 58 seconds to boot CrunchEee, and about 60 seconds to boot WIndows 7.

I shot a short video showing the boot times for each OS, which you can see after the break. Keep in mind I have two different bootloaders to sift through here, GRUB and the Windows 7 bootloader. So if I want to launch CrunchEee I just hit the button for it at the first menu. But to launch Windows XP I need to first select Windows and then scroll down to select Windows XP. This slows the boot process down a bit.

I’ll be using Windows 7 a bit more over the next few months and you’ll be able to keep up with my latest tips and impressions both here and at Download Squad, where I’ll be covering the less netbook-specific aspects of the operating system.

Oh, and for anyone looking for Windows 7 drivers for the Eee PC 1000H, check out this thread at the EeeUser forums. Some of the utilities and drivers on the Asus install disc will work without any problems, but you’ll probably want to download the ACPI drivers designed for Windows Vista. Thanks Robert Nelson!

Now on to the video: