Acer Aspire One D257 Windows 8 Installation :
I have decided to add this as an individual post to make it easier for anyone looking for specific information in relation to installation of windows 8 on a netbook, so apologies for the double post.
They say it couldn’t be done! They say it wont work! I say, ‘Bring it on!’
Every one loves a challenge right? So here is the thing Windows 8 is out, I have it. It was on my Mac, I got rid of the Mac, so I had a licence of Windows 8. I wanted it on my netbook. It requires a minimum resolution of 768. My netbook has a resolution of 600. They say nothing will work, I say we will tell it to work!
If you are in the same position and have a 600 resolution netbook and would like to see what Windows 8 is like, it is entirely possible. The upscaled resolution would look completely polished but it is entirely usable and more importantly fully functional!
This machine comes with Windows 7 Starter Edition so the first thing to do is to make sure it is fully updated so run windows update.
– Now Install Windows 8 – as you would if upgrading any machine. Run the ‘Setup’ from the USB / media…Windows 8 will install.
– After the installation if you try to run any ‘Metro’ Apps you will see the problem :
– The resolution of this machine as we know is 600 and it is now we need to make it believe that it can go more.
Here is the important part :
There is a simple modification requited in Windows registry to let you increase the screen resolution of any system. Use the below mentioned steps to increase screen resolution.
– Hit Win + R keys together on your netbook’s keyboard
– Type “regedit” without quotes in the dialogue box
– Locate the following location in Registry window,
– HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E 968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}000
– HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E 968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}001
– You may have only one registry key (especially in Acer machines) mentioned above, don’t worry. Just follow below steps
– In both of these locations, find “Display1_DownScalingSupported” in the DWORD list
– Right-click on the DWORD and select modify, change the value from 0 to 1 for that DWORD
– Restart your netbook after closing the registry window
– Now open screen resolution window (Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Display\Screen Resolution) on your netbook and there you can see more option to choose from.
– For example, you may choose 1024 x 768 pixels
– Select that resolution and apply the changes
– To get back the original pixel, just hit the Intel display app and select 1024 x 600.
As now you netbook’s display resolution is equal to the minimum required screen resolution for running Metro Style apps of Windows 8, you may run the apps without any problem.
You now have a Windows 8 Netbook – Enjoy!
With a fresh install of Win 8.1, the setup asks for a media driver that is missing and won’t continue without it. This can be found on the Acer site here: http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers. Just extract the zip to a USB key and navigate to the appropriate drivers folder on the device.
I failed to mention, it’s the Media Card driver that it wants. None of the others appear to be needed
Thanks for this useful update, as however this site has now moved and will soon be deleted I shall transfer this info to the new site which is located at https://www.tbni.co.uk
Unless of course you wish to ad it there as a comment yourself?
Thanks again!
I TRIED TO LOOK FOR THE {4D36E 968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}000 and the “Display1_DownScalingSupported” in the DWORD list
WELL ITS USELESS… “Display1_DownScalingSupported” in the DWORD list DOES NOT APPEAR!
It is there, as you can see from the screen shots posted. Sorry you couldn’t find it, the only thing that may have happened is some recent update has changed the registry. If that is the case I’m afraid you may simply be defeated.