Using Windows Embedded POSReady 7 as a daily driver

Since Windows Thin PC is only available in x86 version, which is quite uncomfortable, I decided to give POSReady 7 a try instead. (wanna download it?)

It has the x64 version, which is nice. However, it's even bigger than Windows 7 Ultimate x64 ISO (4.06 GiB vs. 3.09 GiB), and it's bundled with a language pack that takes like over 1GB of disk space. I suggest that you just delete it, unless if it contains one of the languages you wanna use (Indonesian isn't bundled and I won't bother listing all the available languages here).

I started off by making a 24GB partition using Minitool Partition Wizard, then I made a bootable USB drive using Windows USB/DVD Download tool.

On the setup, there's something quite interesting. Normally, Windows won't allow you to install Win7 on a USB drive or external HDD (it makes the "Next" button greyed out). However, it appears that POSReady 7 allows that, which is great, so that you don't need to use something like WAIK just to install Win7 on a USB drive or external HDD.

Installation is the exact same as Win7, so nothing to explain for this one.

Interestingly, POSReady 7 doesn't come with gadgets. When you right-click on the desktop, "Gadgets" is nowhere to be found. 8GadgetPack can't solve this either because Gadgets and all of its components are totally unavailable in this version of Windows.

UPDATE: It appears that Windows Sidebar installer from win2008r2workstation.com works with this version of Windows. However, you MUST run the install.cmd file from the system32 folder for whatever reason. Also another problem is that some of the files can't be copied automatically with the installer (it gives the access denied message), so copy the files in the x86 folder to Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar and the files in x64 folder to Program Files\Windows Sidebar. If you use the 32-bit POSReady, just copy the files in x86 to Program Files, and overwrite everything on the folder. After that, go to desktop, right click, and voila. Gadgets will become available.

The original win2008r2workstation article about installing gadgets in Server 2008 R2 can be found here.

Search functions exist on POSReady 7 unlike Thin PC, so you don't need to worry about that.

Unfortunately POSReady 7 doesn't have some of the Aero features such as Aero Peek, Aero Shake, and Flip 3D. However, it has the Aero glass transparency. This can be easily fixed by using Aero Patcher.

"Turn Windows features on and off" seems to be disabled by default. Enabling it by setting NoWindowsFeatures in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Programs just leads to a blank box. Weird. A site suggests that I should use System Update Readiness tool to fix it. However, this is untested due to the huge file size of SUR, and I currently have a limited cell data (I'm about to hit the data cap anytime soon).

For activation, use Microsoft Toolkit. Both Daz Loader and KMSPico can't seem to do it. However, it requires .NET Framework 4, so install it first.

Another interesting thing is that it sometimes identifies itself as Windows Embedded Standard, even though this is Embedded POSReady 7. This can be seen in the System options in control panel, or when you select an OS to start (if you use multi-OS-booting like me)

Nvidia drivers work just fine, since this is based off Win7.

Page file needs to be enabled manually, since it's disabled by default just like Thin PC.

It has this thing called "Subsystem for UNIX-based applications" on the start menu just like Thin PC. Not sure what it's used for.

How to use Aero patch to enable missing Aero features

 * 1) Download the patch.
 * 2) Extract the files (both Aero Patch and Personalization Panel).
 * 3) Run Aero Patch as administrator (right-click it, then click "Run as administrator"), and then run Personalization Panel as administrator.
 * 4) Open task manager, go to Processes, then see if both Aero Patch and Personalization Panel aren't listed on it. If they aren't, that means they've been installed successfully.
 * 5) Restart your PC.
 * 6) After logging in, open an app, and see if you can see the thumbnail of it by hovering your cursor over the app button on the taskbar. Also try pressing and holding Start + Tab, and see if Flip 3D works (requires having an app open).

What works

 * Most normal apps should work, since this is based off Win7 SP1.
 * All Aero features (requires Aero Patch to bring back all the Aero Peek/Snap/Flip 3D functionality)
 * Gadgets (requires Windows Sidebar installer from win2008r2workstation)

What doesn't work

 * If you don't use Aero Patch, some Aero features won't work
 * 8GadgetPack (can't solve the missing gadgets problem because it begs you to turn on gadgets, which doesn't exist)
 * Turn Windows features on or off