With Asus is predicting that their Windows based Eee PCs will outsell the original Xandros version by a ratio of 6 to 4 by the end of this year things will be very watched very closely by the consumer and ScaleGamer alike. Based on this Asus will ship 3 million Windows-based units.

Asustek Computer has officially announced its Windows XP-based Eee PC, and expects Windows versions to account for 60% of its five million unit shipment goal in 2008, according to Jonney Shih, chairman of the company.

The Windows XP-based Eee PC will launch in two versions, the 4G with a 3-megapixel webcam and 4G Surf model without webcam, priced at NT$14,490 (US$471.79) and NT$12,499, respectively. In contrast, prices for the same spec Linux-based models in the Taiwan market are NT$11,655 and NT$10,499.

Although Microsoft is scheduled to stop supplying Windows XP software licenses to OEMs and system builders by the end of June this year, since channel vendors and OEMs will normally hold a certain level of supply, the software should not see shortages until the end of the year, according to Davis Tsai, general manager of Microsoft Taiwan.

Tsai also pointed out that several other vendors, including Acer and Hewlett-Packard (HP), are also considering Windows for their upcoming small-size notebooks which are scheduled to launch later this year. Negotiations are still underway over whether these notebooks will adopt Windows Vista directly, Tsai added.

Source

Requirements:

• USB_PREP8
• PeToUSB
• Bootsect.exe
• Windows XP CD with SP2
• If using Nlite remember to keep the manual installation files.
• A computer with Windows XP/Vista – x86
• Download – eeepc-ppack-winxp.zip

Note: The following steps need to be performed on any system that meet the requirements before attempting this guide.

Step 1:

Extract downloaded files, Inside of the USB_prep8 folder double click the file

usb_prep8.cmd

Then Press any key to continue

Step 2:

Click start.
When the format is complete leave all windows open and open another cmd window from Start > Run > cmd

Step 3:

In CMD go to the directory where bootsect.exe is located, example – cd c:\Pre-packed\bootsect\

Type:

bootsect.exe /nt52 G:

G: is the disk letter for the USB flash drive.

The correct boot sector will now be written to the USB stick, Now your pc can boot from the USB flash drive.

“Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes.” Will display when this task is complete.

Step 4:

Close the cmd window for bootsect and petousb windows, make sure the usbprep8 window is still open.

Step 5:

Press 1 and then enter. Browse to the location XP setup files, CD/DVD Drive with disk for example.
Press 2 and enter a letter not currently assigned to a drive on your PC, this is used for temp files and will be removed once the entire process is complete, default this is T.
Press 3 and enter the drive letter of your USB flash drive
Press 4 to start the process

You will be prompted to format drive T, Press Y then enter.

When the format is complete press enter to continue, The program will now copy files to the temp drive it created. Press enter to continue when files have copied.

You will be asked to copy the files to USB drive yes/no, click yes.

When prompted if you would like to USB drive to be preferred boot drive, click yes.

Click yes to un mount the virtual drive (Temp drive eg T:).

Close the usbprep8 window.

Step 6:

Make sure the USB flash drive is the primary boot device, Put the usb flash drive into your EeePC and boot from it.

You will have two options, Select Text mode setup.

Format the HDD using NTFS

When complete you will be prompted to reboot, If the GUI setup does not start first time reboot the EeePC and press ESC to launch the boot menu, select the USB flash drive and

boot from it…when prompted with the original menu with two options select GUI setup.

Finished!

This works perfectly and is a great way to install Windows XP without a external CD/DVD Drive.