If you’re one of the many who took the leap to try Windows 7 for free when it was in the RC stage, then you have found many things different between this OS and Vista. Many changes mean many new tweaking opportunities. Windows 7 Manager has come out on top for me, allowing me to tweak and customize Win7 in every way I could want.

If you’re an Asus laptop user like me, then you will find the customization of the OEM info necessary to install your Asus-specific software like DirectConsole and SmartLogon. There’s a screenshot where you enter that information below.

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Here’s the official description from YamicSoft’s site:

Why Should I use Windows 7 Manager?

Windows 7 is the newest Operating System for home users and professionals alike. Windows 7 brings clarity to your world, so you can more safely and easily accomplish everyday tasks and instantly find what you want on your PC.

Windows 7 Manager is the powerful software tool to tweak and optimize your Windows 7, it bundles more than 30 different utilities in one and help your system faster and more stable, secure and personal!
Features and Benefits of Windows 7 Manager

• Information
  Get detailed system and all hardware information on your system; show all detailed information of running processes and threads on your machine; Windows 7 Manager offers 1-clicking cleans your system automatically.




• Optimizer
  Tweak your system to improve windows startup and shutdown speed; tweak your hardware to increase system speed and performance; Optimize Task Schedule to turn off unnecessary system tasks.




• Cleaner
  Find out which files or folders engross your disk space and shown with chart; Find and clean junk files to increase Hard Disk space; Duplicate Files Finder can scan your computer for files with the same size, name and modification time; Registry Cleaner can easily checks your registry and repair incorrectly linked registry entries, automatically remove invalid entries; Registry Defrag rebuilds and re-indexs your registry to reduce application response time and registry access time.




• Customization
  Control what is started on Windows startup; tune up Windows 7 boot menu; edit context menus of mouse Right-Clicking; customize system desktop, menus, toolbar and notifications settings; automatically change your desktop wallpaper on background.




• Security
  You can improve desktop, menus, Windows logon securities, and enable numerous hidden performance options of system, disable system updates and error reports; hide and restrict to access drives, specify which applications are not allowed to be executed on your computer; encrypt/decrypt and shred files, change the location of system folders; Privacy Protector can maintain your personal privacy by eliminating the tracks that you leave behind; create lots of randomization password once.




• Network
  Optimize your Internet connection speed, manage all shares items; tweak your Internet Explorer easily.




• Misc. Utilities
  Show the collection of Windows utilities; help you find out the installation key of Windows, Office products; shutdown your PC or remind you automatically.

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Screenshots

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Downloads

*Since Windows 7 is officially still in the pre-release stage, Windows 7 Manager is also in it’s Beta stage. This means you can download it for free until Win7 becomes officially released to the public. After Win7 is released, expect to pay for this program.

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Tags: asus g50v and windows 7, Windows 7

*UPDATED: July 14, 2009 – The “unofficial” RTM build 7600 leaked yesterday and I jumped on that stuff. I installed it from a 8GB flash drive, and everything went perfectly. When you get to the part where it asks for a serial number, just click next to complete installation without a serial. If you want to crack the activation limit of 30 days, then you torrent freaks need to visit Demonoid for it. The activation patch will say Windows is activated without any time limit. As for the Asus apps for the G50, they all work the same as other Win7 RC builds before this one.*

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Since the Release Candidate (RC1) for Windows 7 was made public, I figured I’d test it myself on my Asus G50V. The build I tested was RC 7100.

The install was quick, much faster than the days of the 1-hour XP installation. When it was finished, it booted to the desktop with high speed. The first thing I had to do was see which drivers it didn’t install automatically. This is where I was surprised the most.

Looking at the Device Manager (Right-click on Computer, choose Manage, on left side of new window go to Device Manager), all I found was 7 missing drivers. Those missing were the Ricoh Memory Card drivers, ITE Infrared Receiver, nVidia High Def Audio, and of course the video card (nVidia GeForce 9700m GT).

Microsoft caused my jaw to drop at the discovery of my Wireless Card (Atheros AR 928x), even though the card is quite common. After the install finished, I was asked if I wanted to join my wireless network. No other Windows version did THAT! About time.

Here are the drivers you will need to fill those empty spaces in your Device Manager that are filled with exclamation points.

*Note: The Vista drivers that came on your G50V Driver Disc work just fine, except for the video card.

1. Ricoh Memory Card Reader – 3.4 MB
2. ITE Infrared Receiver – 5.1 MB
3a. nVidia GeForce 9700m GT – x64 64-bit – 63.2 MB
3b. nVidia GeForce 9700m GT – x86 32-bit – 53.9 MB

*Note: The video card drivers will also install the nVidia High Def Audio drivers.

Leave a comment if you need help with getting these installed properly. If there are more drivers you need, see this post: Asus G50 Driver Files

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Tags: asus g50 drivers, asus g50v and windows 7

These are all of the most recent drivers posted on asus.com.tw as well as other hardware manufacturers’ sites. Each file will be marked as to where it comes from.
I omitted the Video drivers for the GeForce 9700m GT. They change constantly, so I will provide the links to each file located at laptopvideo2go.com, along with my results from testing each driver.

These are the drivers for Vista x86 & x64. I will soon add the XP drivers to the list once I finish compiling the package.

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BIOS – ROMs and Flasher Utility

BIOS ROM v213 – 735 KB – Solve ODD can’t be detected under DOS. (May 4, 2009)
BIOS ROM v210 – 734 KB – Solved bug that HDD password can’t set when there are 2 HDDs. (January 19, 2009)
BIOS ROM v209 – 717 KB – Solved the bug of the CPU speed full run issue. (November 24, 2008)
BIOS ROM v207 – 716 KB – Firmware Update (October 30, 2008)
WinFlash – 1.2 MB – BIOS Flashing Tool

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VIDEO DRIVERS – nVidia GeForce 9700m GT

New in Release 186.03:
*Many Optimizations for GPU Performance & Many Bug Fixes – To see the specific release notes, scroll down on nVidia’s download page.

Windows 7 x64 – Latest: 186.03 – June 9, 2009 – WHQL Certified Driver
Windows 7 x86 – Latest: 186.03 – June 9, 2009 – WHQL Certified Driver

Vista x64 – Latest: 186.03 – June 9, 2009 – WHQL Certified Driver
Vista x86 – Latest: 186.03 – June 9, 2009 – WHQL Certified Driver

XP x64 – Latest: 185.85 – May 7, 2009 – WHQL Certified Driver
XP x86 – Latest: 185.68 – May 7, 2009 – WHQL Certified Driver

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DRIVERS – Vista x86 & x64 ONLY

01. Intel Motherboard INF Update – 2.1 MB – Required
02. ATK Hotkey – 2.2 MB – Required
03. ATK Media – 1 MB – Required
04. ATK OSD – 7.2 MB – Required
05. AGFNEX – 2 MB – Required
06. Realtek HD Audio – 53.8 MB – Required
07. Wireless Console – 4.1 MB – Required
08. Atheros WLAN – 28.9 MB – Dependent Upon Hardware
09. Intel WLAN – 36.8 MB – Dependent Upon Hardware
10. Bluetooth BT250 – 57.2 MB – Dependent Upon Hardware
11. Ricoh Card Reader – 3.4 MB – Required
12. TV Tuner Yuan MC570 – 4.3 MB – Dependent Upon Hardware
13. TV Tuner Yuan MC872-1D – .4 MB – Dependent Upon Hardware
14. Modem – .7 MB – Optional
15. ITE Remote – 5.1 MB – Dependent Upon Hardware
16. ATK 0100 – .2 MB – Required
17. KB Filter – .2 MB – Required

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UTILITIES – Software Solely for Asus Notebooks

01. Turbo Memory – 25.8 MB – RAM Memory Booster
02. Splendid – 15.8 MB – Video Enhancement
03. Power 4 Gear eXtreme – 10.7 MB – Power Profile Manager
04. Smart Logon – 6.4 MB – Log into Windows only with Your webcam!
05. Direct Console – 3.8 MB – Controls the OLED screen above the keyboard.
06. NB Probe – 2 MB – Monitors Motherboard Activity (temps, fan speeds, etc.)
07. Virtual Cam – 1.7 MB – (Totally Useless)
08. Copy Protect – 8.9 MB – Helps protect…aww, I really have no idea what it does.
09. Life Frame 3 – 19.7 MB – (Totally Useless)
10. MultiFrame – 2.9 MB – (Totally Useless)
11. Asus Data Security Manager – 5.3 MB – Data Backup Manager
12. Express Gate – 158 MB – Bootable Linux OS that allows you to play media or browse the internet without fully booting your laptop.

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MANUALS – PDF User Manuals

You will need a PDF reader to view the following files.
I’d recommend using Foxit PDF Reader instead of Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can find it on the Software Page.

1. Asus G50 Manual – 16.5 MB
2. Asus Express Gate Manual – .7 MB

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Tags: asus g50 drivers, asus g50v

This is the driver disc for the Asus G50V laptop line. These drivers were made for Vista OSes only. If you try to use them for XP, you will fail.

I removed 2 things from the original disc – Norton Internet Security Trial & Adobe Reader. I don’t believe in either for their uses (and their removal made the ISO smaller by 300 MB!)

I’m not sure if this will work for other G50s, but my guess is that many series’ have similar hardware.

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Extracting & Installing:

1. These files are compressed with ZIP & 7-Zip. You will need 7-Zip or WinRar or similar to extract the files and the ISO image. You can find a copy of 7-Zip on our Software Page.
2. Extract the ZIP file, which will give you 6 7-Zip files that end with .001, .002, etc. The 6 files need also to be extracted, which will give you an ISO file. This is the image of the driver disc.
3. Next, you can either extract the ISO itself with WinRar or other ISO file manager or you can mount the ISO if you know how to do that. You can also burn the disc with any burning software. I personally use Nero Burning ROM.
4. Once extracted or mounted, you can install each driver or application individually or you can run setup.exe in the root of the extracted folder or the mounted drive to begin the automated setup.

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Tags: asus g50 drivers, g50 driver disc, g50 driver iso

The Asus G50 comes preinstalled with Vista. My G50Vm-X1 bought at Best Buy came with Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 installed.

One of the first things I attempted to do is install XP Pro 64-bit on the G50. Since Microsoft released Vista to the public, all computers sold at U.S. retailers come with some version of it. My thought is that Microsoft made a deal with the PC and hardware companies that involved removing the possibility of installing XP on machines. I think they did this by curbing the hardware drivers that would be compatible with XP. As for the G50, I only found a few drivers for some generic hardware items such as the sound card (Realtek), network card (Realtek), and video card (nVidia 9700m GT). Where the motherboard drivers are concerned, Asus made it so there are no XP drivers. This left me in a place of missing many of the features that the G50 includes that are built into the motherboard. Also, some of the Asus branded software that makes this laptop cooler are not made for XP, although some may work. If you search the Asus driver site for drivers for the G50, the only Operating System that drivers are available for is Vista 64-bit. I found myself in a highly disappointing place, as I got to a point where I had XP tweaked perfectly and installed all the software I wanted that was compatible with XP 32-bit. The Universe is probably telling me that I need to move forward and expand my brain into the realm of Vista…ugh.

If you feel like being adventurous, you could try another Asus laptop model that has similar hardware and XP drivers available and see if they work with the G50. When I searched Google, I found very close to nothing in that area. Either the G50 is so new to the market or the people who buy it are not techies like you and me.

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UPDATE! October 12, 2008
I found a solution for using XP on the G50V via the Asus Forum.

You can get compatible drivers for the G50V by using those for the F8Sa Model. Almost all of the drivers are the same, except the chipset, Bluetooth, Atheros Wireless, and nVidia 9700m GT. Below you will find the necessary links for each.

F8Sa Drivers

Intel Chipset Drivers

Atheros Wireless Driver

nVidia 9700m GT Driver

I have not verified that these drivers work when installing XP on my G50Vm-X1, but the people on the Asus forums have reported that they do work. Remember to backup your Vista installation if you are going to attempt this…just in case.

Tags: g50 vista vs xp

I will be posting my experiences with the Asus G50Vm-X1 laptop. This model is exclusive to Best Buy and has many of the same features and specs of the general G50 series laptops sold by Asus. At the time of this article, I’ve only had it for 2 weeks, so I will learn more and more and will post my progress about the things I like and dislike about it.

Here are the current specs:

Brand: Asus
Model: G50Vm-X1
Processor: Enhanced Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo Mobile, 2.0GHz 64-bit
Memory: 4GB DDR2 667MHz
Hard Drive: 7200 RPM SATA 200GB
Optical Drive: Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW, CD-RW with LightScribe
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 9700m GT 512MB
Screen: 15.6 inch WXGA Widescreen with Asus Splendid Enhancement, 1366 x 768 Resolution
Networking: 56k Modem, GigaBit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wireless
Speakers: 4 Altec Lansing, 2 high, 2 mid
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit
Misc.: Built-In Webcam, 1 HDMI Output, Media Card Reader, SATA input, 4 USB, Asus Direct Console (CPU, Memory Stat window above keyboard), Asus SmartLogon (logon with webcam), many blue LEDs on panel above keyboard and on top of cover, Play DVDs and CDs without booting laptop.
Color: Black with Orange accents

Tags: asus G50