Acer Aspire One and MSI Wind hacks: Adding a touchscreen

One of the things that sets most netbooks apart from UMPCs (Ultra Mobile PCs) is the fact that while many UMPCs have touchscreens, few netbooks do. This is partly because touchsreens cost more than standard LCDs. And it’s partly because most netbooks are almost by definition clamshell devices with keyboards and trackpads. Well, they would be if there was a standard definition of a netbook anyway.

But as we’ve repeatedly seen, some folks really want to be able to poke their fingers at their netbook screens and see something happen. And it turns out, it’s not that hard to achieve this effect. This week two different folks posted details about touchscreen hacks. One set of instructions is for the Acer Aspire One, while the other is for the MSI Wind.

Neither hack looks all that difficult for anyone who’s comfortable mucking with the insides of a laptop. But you’d better make sure you know what you’re doing before performing this kind of surgery, because it will void your warranty.

Check out a video showing an MSI Wind with a touchscreen display after the break.

thanks Mike and jkkmobile!