Windows Fundamentals

If you prefer to have Windows with your Asus Eee PC but find all the tutorials regarding stripping XP down to fit the limited memory too confusing, you may want to try Windows Fundamentals instead.

Windows Fundamentals for Legacy CPs (WinFLP) was released by Microsoft mid-last year with little fanfare. (That is why very few are aware of it.) It is basically a version of Windows XP Professional stripped down to the absolute bare bones of what is needed for it to run.

It is intended for companies that can not afford or don't want to upgrade all their hardware just to be able to run XP. Unfortunately, WinFLP is available only via Microsoft's Volume Licensing Scheme, or via other means that I prefer not to discuss.

At any rate, it comes with Windows Media Player 10 and Internet Explorer 6, Direct X and fully supports new driver installation. However it does away with a lot of stuff such as the games, Paint, Sound Recorder, and Windows Task Manager, so that it takes up only about 700MB and uses only 120 MB RAM on a fresh install. Missing applications can generally be copied over anyways.

WinFLP is intended for legacy hardware, which may have computing power even less than that of the Asus Eee PC's. So if you are lucky enough to have a copy of WinFLP, you may want to try it out instead of cramming Windows XP into your Asus Eee PC.