UMPC Windows 7 setup guide

hermocom Setup guide for Windows 7 on UMPCs


On this page I give you an overview of tweaks for the Microsoft Windows 7 Starter system of the Viliv N5 UMPC.
They are mainly aided towards performance enhancement and improving usability, to make the Viliv N5 an even more powerful tool for you.
I have tried to find freeware tools, rather than commercial software, for the tweaks which involve third-party software.

An optimized setup, similar to the one described here, is also available for the Viliv N5 UMPC from hermocom as a service for you, so you don't need to follow all these steps yourself to optimize your system.
Contact me, if you are interested!


Many of these tips and tricks also fit other UMPCs using Windows 7 Starter, some even fit other UMPCs using other flavours of Windows, some even fit normal PCs.
So you may use these tips for other computers as well, as you see fit.

The following screenshots show, how my Viliv N5 Windows 7 desktop looks like before and after all the tweaking.

This is the default look, after a system restore. Many fonts and items are too small and hard to handle and to use:

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After all the tweaking, the desktop is simple and clean, as is the system itself. However, the power of the system, the applications and the installed helper tools are always accessible quickly using various hotkeys, minimizing the need to use the mouse or touchscreen:

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Please be aware that I am not a friend of cloud computing. I like to keep all my data and programs locally on my own computer, being independent from a working Internet connection.
This is one of the principles of this setup guide.

Other principles are:
- Simplicity
- Ease of use
- User-friendliness
- Productivity

Table of contents

1. General notes
1.1. If you need help with your Viliv N5
If you have problems with or questions regarding the Viliv N5, don't hesitate to contact me.

I provide services, such as

- Development of concepts for custom hardware setups
- Development of concepts for custom software setups
- AutoHotKey programming for the N5 (enhance usability, automate operation etc.)
- Repair of broken units (limited, please ask before sending in the unit)
- Data retrieval of your N5's SSD (drive C:) if your N5 broke and you cannot access the drive anymore
- Upgrade / exchange compatible hardware components

If you are interested in buying a Viliv N5 preconfigured with the optimized setup described here, or if you like your own Viliv N5 to be set up by me this way, contact me, so I can make you an individual offer.
1.2. Disclaimer
The tips and tricks given here are recommendations, derived from my own experience with the system.

Everything you do following this guide, you do entirely on your own risk!
I am not liable in case following any step in this guide does any harm to you, such as data loss or even hardware defects!
1.3. Windows XP or Windows 7?
Windows XP does not work correctly on a 3G-equipped N5! So I decided to use Windows 7 Starter.

I have considered to install Windows XP on my N5 (3G model), in order to get more performance out of it.

In general, this should be possible, and after tweaking Windows XP, it should be really snappy.
Viliv even offers a page with drivers and software for the N5, including the drivers for Windows XP:

Click here to get to the Viliv N5 driver and software download page.

However, I had no luck using Windows XP on my N5 model with a 3G modem:
As soon as a SIM card is inserted into the 3G modem, Windows XP locks up for long time and can be revived only for a short time by pressing the power button shortly.
It seems ot be an ACPI or IRQ issue.
Even the Windows XP setup locks up, and also the small Windows XP system which is installed in the recovery partition of the N5, in order to control the Windows 7 recovery.

So remember: Whenever you want to recover Windows 7 with pressing F10 on bootup, remove the SIM card from the 3G modem!

On an N5 without a 3G modem, Windows XP should run well.
Also, on an N5 with a 3G modem, but without a SIM card inserted, there should not be the described problem.

If you have a 3G unit and succeed in installing and using Windows XP with a SIM card inserted, please let me know!
1.4. Control Panel view mode
There are a lot of setup steps which involve the Control Panel.
There are several ways in Windows 7 to display the Control Panel.
I try to explain the steps using the default view of Control Panel (sorted by Category).


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2. The Operating System
2.1. Recover Windows 7
The Viliv N5 is delivered with Windows 7 Starter or Windows 7 Home Premium (64GB model) preinstalled.
Also, there is a dedicated recovery partition on the SSD drive, which holds a Windows 7 backup image and an installation routine (driven by a small Windwos XP system, by the way).

Attention: All programs and data on the internal SSD drive will be erased by the recovery process!

In order to prepare your N5 for configuration according to this guide, or in case you like or need to revert the N5 to factory-default state, press F10 (Fn-0) during the Viliv logo on boot time is displayed (or, depending on your BIOS configuration, during the BIOS messages are displayed).

This will start the recovery environment. Choose "AMI rescue" from the displayed dialog in order to start the recovery process.
Use the arrow keys to navigate inside that dialog, and the Enter key to confirm. The mouse won't work there.

After successful recovery, your N5 will reboot into the factory-default Windows 7 system again. All hardware-specific drivers are alreday installed in that system, so that all hardware components of the N5 will work.
2.2. Ensure access to all dialog buttons / Moving windows up and down easily
First, before tweaking the system using a lot of different configuration dialogs, you should make sure that you will be able to access all buttons of the dialogs. Otherwise it can be frustrating.
Many Windows dialogs exceed the screen height of 600 pixels, so their "OK", "Cancel" and "Apply" buttons are hidden under the bottom edge of the screen or under the taskbar.

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For this purpose and for many other purposes I strongly recommend you to install the freeware "AutoHotKey".
"AutoHotKey" is a scripting language, which can assign almost arbitrary actions to almost arbitrary inputs (keyboard, mouse etc.).

For easy moving of dialog boxes, there is a script called "EasyWindowDrag_(KDE)".

Here is how to install everything:

1. Download AutoHotKey from here. (Use the "Installer for AutoHotkey_L" link.)

2. Install AutoHotKey.

3. Download the EasyWindowDraw_(KDE).ahk script from here.

4. Put the script into your Documents folder or a subfolder of your choice, create a link and move that link into the start menu's "Startup" folder. That way, this script will always be started on system start.

5. For now, doubleclick the script to start it. In the tray there will be a new icon: A white "H" on green background.

You can now move windows easily by putting the mouse pointer anywhere inside that window, holding the Alt key and the left mouse button and moving the mouse.


There is a second way to move Windows, if you prefer pure keyboard usage:
In my script AHK_common.ahk there is a section which enables usage of the Windows key together with the arrow keys to move a windows.
So, in case of a windows like the one in the above example, where the buttons are hidden below the bottom screen edge, hit Win-ArrowUp to move the window upwards (Win-Alt-ArrowUp to move it faster upwards).
2.3. Performance boost for Windows 7
The default Windows 7 Starter installation on the N5 is quite snappy already.
However, if you want to get the most performance out of Windows 7, here are some tweaks you can apply.
If you are unsure if a tweak limits functionality too much, just don't apply it.

2.3.1. Choose "Windows classic" color scheme:
This will make Windows appear similar to the default appearance of Windows 95/98. A lot of eye-candy will disappear. The advantage is not only better GUI performance, but also, in my opinion, that buttons and other handles are easier to access and see on the small screen.

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(This is how the desktop will look like after you have applied some additional changes, e.g. using small icons in taskbar, described later on. But you get the idea of the simple "classic" Windows look and feel of the "classic" color scheme.)

In Control Panel, choose "Appearance", then "Display" and then on the left side "Change color scheme". Choose "Windows Classic" and confirm with "OK" or the Enter key.
(You probably don't see the "OK" button, so remember the "EasyWindowDrag" script explained above and move the windows with Alt-LeftMouseButton up a bit to access the buttons.)
2.3.2. Switch off unnecessary visual effects:
Windows has some nice effects, making the visual appearance nicer, but eating a lot of CPU power, e.g. fading menus, animated window minimization etc.
You can switch all these effects off:
Control Panel --> System and Security --> Click on "System". --> "Advanced System Settings" on the left side --> Tab "Advanced" --> Button "Settings" in section "Performance" --> Tab "Visual Effects" --> Choose "Adjust for best performance" or customize the settings to your liking.
2.3.3. Disable unneeded services
From Wikipedia:
A Windows service is a long-running executable that performs specific functions and which is designed not to require user intervention. Windows services can be configured to start when the operating system is booted and run in the background as long as Windows is running, or they can be started manually when required. They are similar in concept to a Unix daemon.
(See the entire Wikipedia article here)

Disabling unneeded services can free up RAM and save CPU processing power.

The most important service to disable is certainly the "Themes" service, together with the "Desktop Window Manager Session Manager" service, which also only provide GUI eye-candy and can take hundereds of MBs of RAM.

There is an excellent overview over the available Windows services and the effects of disabling them on http://www.blackviper.com/Windows_7/servicecfg.htm

I recommend disabling the following services:

- Distributed Link Tracking Client
- IP Helper
- Themes
- Desktop Window Manager Session Manager
- Windows Search (indexing)


The "Windows Search" service makes searches for files faster by indexing all the files in the file system. Switching that off makes file searches slower (it doesn't disable t hem), but can save quite some disk space and CPU processing power.

You can switch off services the following way:
Start Menu --> enter "services.msc" into the search field an hit enter.
To disable a service, right-click on it, choose "Properties", in tab "General" choose "Disabled" for the "Startup type".
You can press the button "Stop" in order to instantly stop the service. This is a good test, if there are problems disabling the service.
2.3.4. Disable unneeded program launches at startup
Windows starts programs at boot time using several ways.

The most obvious way is the "Startup" folder in the Start Menu.
Unneded entries can simply be removed from there with a right-click on them and choosing "Delete".

The other location where you will find a lot of programs started at boot time is here:
Start Menu --> "Administrative Tools" --> "System Configuration" --> Tab "Startup".
(this location includes the Start Menu Startup folder items!)

You can remove the checkmark in front of all programs which don't need to be started at boot time.
Upon confirming, agree to making the changes permanent.
You will later be able to re-enable the programs if you find that you need them.
2.3.5. Turn off the Disk Defragmenter Schedule
Windows 7 by default schedules defragmentation of the hard drive.
This makes sense on real hard drives, where defragmentation has a positive effect on the performance.
But the SSD of the N5 does not benefit from defragmentation. So this scheduled defragmentation is useless and only costs processing power.

Disable it this way:
Start Menu --> "Accessories" --> "System Tools" --> "Disk Defragmenter"
In the "Schedule" section, click the button "Configure Schedule" and unckeck the checkbox "Run on a schedule".

You may want to defragment the SSD manually in certain situation, e.g. if you plan to install a second operating system on the SSD or if you plan to repartition the SSD for another reason without reinsallting Windows 7.
2.3.6. Don't use Desktop Gadgets
Needless to say, any activated Desktop Gadget reduces system performance more or less.
So you may avoid using them at all.
2.4. Save SSD disk space
Again: If you are unsure if a tweak limits functionality too much, just don't apply it.
2.4.1. Limit the paging file size to 512MB in size:
In order to save some SSD space, you can limit the paging file of Windows to 512MB. This should be sufficient for most applications. By default, the paging size is set to 1 GB.
I have tried switching the paging file off entirely, but then I got "low memory" warnings often, so I cannot recommend this.
Control Panel --> System and Security --> Click on "System". --> "Advanced System Settings" on the left side --> Tab "Advanced" --> Button "Settings" in section "Performance" --> Tab "Advanced" --> Button "Change" in section "Virtual memory".
Check "Custom size" and set both values "Initial size" and "Maximum size" to 512 MB.
Then press the button "Set".

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Don't try to create a paging file on the microSD card (probably D:). The dialog will let you do this, but on net reboot you will get an error message, saying that there is a problem with the paging file.
2.4.2. Turn "System protection" off:
System protection is a mechanism which stores snapshots of the system configuration, which you can easily restore in case that something bad happens to the system.
E.g. if you install a new device driver, which messes up the system entirely, you can restore the last snapshot before installation of this driver and have a running system again.

If you do system backups by creating partition images, like I do (see below), you may want to turn off System Protection to save a lot of disk space:

Control Panel --> System and Security --> Click on "System". --> "Advanced System Settings" on the left side --> Tab "System Protection" --> Button "Configure" --> Choose "Turn System Protection off". Alternatively, you may limit the amount of disk space used for restore points in that dialog.
2.4.3. Clean up the SSD
There is a Windows feature called "Disk Cleanup", which deletes some unnecessary files.
Additionally, there is a temporary directory which, in my case, held about 2GB(!) of unnecessary files.
I recommend to delete all that after all important installations and Windows Updates are done.
Hence I have described these steps further below.
2.5. GUI adaptions for more convenient work
Windows 7 is not made for UMPCs like the Viliv N5.
By default, fonts are too small, vertical screen space is too small (just 600 pixels, some dialog windows are missing their "OK" and "Cancel" buttons, because the dialogs exceed the height of abt. 550 pixels, which are visible above the task bar) and all that Eye-candy of Windows 7 sometimes makes it difficult to see where's a pressable button and where is just a label dialog text.

Some GUI issues have been solved by the performance tweaks already (see above).
The following section explains GUI-related modifications I can recommend:
2.5.1. Move Taskbar to the right side of the screen:
This unleashes the full screen height of 600 pixels, and it makes the task bar accessible more easily using the touch screen.

If you are left-handed, you may rather move the task bar to the left side of the screen.
In order to move the task bar by dragging it with the mouse, you need to release it first by right-clicking into it and remove the checkmark from "Lock the taskbar". After moving the taskbar, you should lock it again.
2.5.2. Increase the default font sizes:
In Control Panel, under "Appearance" and then "Make text or other items larger or smaller", you can change the font sizes to 125%.
2.5.3. Enhance visibility of the mouse pointer:
The default mouse pointer is very small and, if moved quickly, almost invisible on the TFT screen of the N5.

In order to enhance visibility, you can do the following:

Increase its size:
In Control Panel, "Appearance", "Ease of Access Center", "Make the moue easier to use", choose the mouse pointer scheme "Extra large White".


Activate mouse trails:
Click on "Mouse Settings" at the bottom, choose tab "Pointer options", set a chackmark at "Display Pointer Trails". If you like, also enable "Show location of pointer when I press the Ctrl key".


Activate Snap-To:
If you additionally activate the Snap-To setting in that dialog, you will need to move the mouse less when going through dialogs. This can be very handy, but it can also be annoying. It's a matter of taste.
2.5.4. Keyboard control enhancements
Turn on shortcut underlining:

Control Panel --> "Ease of access" --> "Ease of Access Center" --> "Make the Keyboard easier to use" --> "Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys"

This makes keyboard shortcuts in menus (e.g. Alt-E for the Edit menu) visible by underlining the shortcut letter permanently:

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Cursor thickness:

By default, the text cursor is only 1 pixel wide, making it hard to see on the N5's small screen.
You can enhance the cursor thickness:

Control Panel --> "Ease of access" --> "Ease of Access Center" -> "Make the computer easier to see" --> "Thickness of blinking cursor"

I recommend a value of "2".
2.6. UltimateWindowsTweaker
"UltimateWindowsTweaker" is a tool for Windows 7 similar to "Powertoys TweakUI" for Windows XP.
It allows to set a lot of parameters manuipulating the system behavior, which are not otherwise accessible easily (only via the registration editor).

You can download UltimateWindowsTweaker here:
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/ultimate-windows-tweaker-v2-a-tweak-ui-for-windows-7-vista

You may change settings as you like.
I have changed the following items:

Personalization:

- Explorer / Enable check boxes to select items: YES
This is very useful for selecting several items in Explorer using the mouse without holding down Shift or Ctrl keys.

- Startmenu / Disable highlighting newly installed programs: YES
I find this highlighting "feature" to be very annoying

- Taskbar / Use large icons: NO
This saves a lot of space in the taskbar.

Additional Tweaks:

- Context menu / Show "Open Command Window Here": YES
This is a very useful feature if you tend to use the command line. That way, you can choose the directory in advance using the Explorer and open the command window with the choosen directory as the current directory.

- Context menu 2 / Show "Copy To Folder", "Move To Folder": YES
This can be quite useful, too.
2.7. Configure Windows Update
An UMPC is usually used a lot on the road, and in these situations you probably don't want the device to download hundrets of megabytes of data automatically, especially if you have a rather costly 3G data plan.

Hence it may be desireable to configure Windows Update in a way that it only notifies you about available updates, but requires interaction in order to download and install these updates.

You can configure this in Control Panel: Under "System and Security" you find the item "Windows Update". Then on the left you can "Change settings".
I have set it to "Check for updates but let me choose wether to download and install them".
Also, set a checkmark in front of "Give me recommended updates the same way I recceive important updates".
2.8. Get longer battery life (Power management)
#TODO
Custom power plan for long battery life
sswitch off display after 1 minute
Processor power 60%
etc.

For long-term activity witout standby etc.
sleep after 30 minutes
3. Applications
3.1. Uninstall unneeded software
The Windows 7 system as delivered from Viliv or as restored using the recovery process contains software which is not needed in most cases.

For example, you may uninstall
- Norton Internet Security and
- Norton Online Backup

You may want to use a free alternative, such as Avira AntiVir or AVG instead.
If installing that, you should disable Windows Defender, as these two products could interfer and identify each other as malware.

With uninstalling the Norton products, you also get rid of the annoying startup screen of Norton, asking you for costly registration.

Rather do not uninstall the VIliv-specific components, such as vilivManager, Mobile Partner (the 3G connection tool), ModemSwitch etc.
3.2. Which Internet browser?
I recommend Google Chrome.

It is by far the browser with the best performance, even much better than Opera.
Especially if you use Google web applications, such as Google Mail or Google Docs, Chrome is the best choice.

Of course you can also use
- Opera,
- Mozilla Firefox,
- Apple's Safari,
- the preinstalled Microsoft Internet Explorer,
- or any other Windows-compatible browser.
3.3. Office applications
Of course there is Microsoft Office.
From the Microsoft Office package I only use Outlook on the N5.

Personally I prefer Softmaker Office, which is a very Microsoft Office compatible office package consisting of a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation application and a very comprehensive dictionary.
It costs much less than MS Office and lacks lots of the unneeded features of MS Office which make MS Office so big and clumsy. It rather concentrates on the important and often used features, and those are implemented very well.
Sharing documents with Microsoft Office is only a problem in very rare cases of very complex documents.
http://www.softmaker.de


There is also OpenOffice of course, a completely free Office solution, but it is partially written in Java, which makes the whole thing a bit slow (at least this is my impression).
I have not tried it on the N5 yet, but it should work without problems.
http://www.openoffice.org/


Other free alternatives are Abiword as a word processor and Gnumeric as a spreadsheet. Both are also file format compatible to the MS equivalents, but not as good as Softmaker Office and OpenOffice.
http://www.abisource.com/
http://projects.gnome.org/gnumeric/
3.4. NoteCase Pro
One of my absolute favorite applications on all of my computers, especially the mobile ones, is NoteCase Pro.
It is basically an outliner, but it has so many additional features that it can be used for a large variety of purposes.

E.g. I have created this document, which you are currently reading, with NoteCase Pro.

I also use it for many other purposes:
- All kinds of notes and knowledge collections
- todo lists / task management using a sophisticated Getting Things Done system which I have developed
- as a database for confidential information using NoteCase Pro's strong file encryption
- for authoring websites and reports
- for journals and diaries
- for taking meeting minutees and rapidly generating meeting protocols from them
- for brainstorming and sorting thoughts
etc.


Read more about NoteCase Pro on my NoteCase Pro page.

If you descide to buy a NoteCase Pro license, you can support me by using the "buy" link on my NoteCase Pro page, because then I earn a small commission. For you, it will be the same license price and the same conditions.

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3.5. PIM (Personal Information Management: Contacts, Calendar etc.)
PIM means "Personal Information Management" (see related Wikipedia article), which usually includes components such as
- a contats database
- a calendar
- a todo list

Optional components are:
- a database for your passwords
- email (mainly in conjunction with some groupware, enabling to invite colleagues to meetings via email, which is directly connected to the calendar)
- a journal or diary
- notes
and possibly other components.

I describe one possible setup here, which is not meant as a general recommendation, but maybe you can make use of this description.


For todo lists, notes, personal information collections and journals, I use NoteCase Pro, as I have described above.

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For offline email and RSS news feeds I use Thunderbird Portable on an encrypted drive (for online email I use the Google Mail web interface).
Thunderbird Portable and the use of Portable Applications on an encrypted drive for data security reasons is described later on.

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And for calendar and contacts, I use Microsoft Outlook 2003.

While for Email I consider Microsoft Outlook too clumsy, inflexible and too vulnerable to virus attacs and hence use another email client, and while I consider it too limited for effective task management and hence use NoteCase Pro for that matter, as a calendar and contacts database Microsoft Outlook is a very applicable tool.

All the more because it can well be synchronized with another Outlook on a PC, so you can take your complete calendar and contacts database with you on your UMPC, if you are an Outlook user anyway.

Microsoft Outlook has a very convenient and quite flexible calendar view for example (This screenshot shows a German installation of Outlook 2003):

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Outlook's contact database is rather standard, but given its synchronizablity with such a big number of mobile devices and other applications and online services, this makes it superior to a lot of other options, which may even be more powerful or flexible in the application itself.


3.5.1. Synchronization with other devices and software ( Google Calendar
If you are a person who relies on synchronisation of PIM data between mutiple devices, and if you are even a person who often changes devices, you may look into Google Calendar and Google Contacts..

Besides Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar and Google Contacts are very commonly used PIM solutions nowadays. MS Outlook and Google Calendar / Google Contacts can be synchronized with Google Apps Sync.

There is a good chance that any arbitrary device or software for Personal Information Management can be synchronized with either MS Outlook or Google Calendar / Contacts (or both), so using one of them or even both you will be quite safe if you often change your mobile devices that you will always be able to synchronize with new devices.
3.5.2. Outlook to Outlook synchronisation (e.g. Easy2Sync)
Usually, if you are an Outlook user and have a mobile device, you may synchronize both with the synchronizer software supplied with your mobile device.

In case of a Windows UMPC this does not work, as it is a full-featured PC with an adequate version of Outlook and no supplied sync software.

Outlook itself does not have any built-in feature for synchronisation with another normal Outlook installation.

But there are thrid-party programs which allow this kind of synchronisation.
Depending on your Outlook setup(s), you need different kinds of such programs.

There is software which only accesses PST files for synchronisation. You cannot use such software if you use an Outlook setup which is tied to an Exchange server.

If you use Outlook with an Exchange server in background, the choice of possible synchronisation programs is very limited.
The best and most user-friendly application I found was Easy2Sync by Thomas Holz.
It's not free, but it is certainly worth the license fee.

The program is very self-explanatory with good wizards, and, unlike some other programs, it provides confidence, because it asks the user, if it is unsure what to do with conflicting elements on both sides, and it does so using very clear dialogs.
However, these inquiries by the program are not annoying, but rather make you feel safe (and they can be disabled of course).
I have not experienced any double or lost entries so far with Easy2Sync.

Main window of Easy2Sync:

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Dialog, which is shown in case Easy2Sync is unsure what to do:

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4. Disks, Data and Security and Power Management
4.1. Where to store user data?
My preference has always been to strictly separate the operating system with the installed programs from the user data.
Therefor I had moved my entire users directory (user profile) to the microSD card for some time
However, I soon encountered problems with system image partition backup and restore, which made the entire backup strategy cumbersome and prone to errors.

So I decided to let the user profile directory reside on the SSD drive, and only manually put user data files of programs which are able to use different directories (most programs are able to do so!), into a data directory on the microSD card.
Especailly programs which deal with large and/or important files should be configured to use the microSD card for file storage.

- Large files, in order to save precious SSD space and keep system partition images smaller, and
- Important files, so you can easily pop the microSD card out of the N5 and insert it into some other computer, in case that you need to work on the files using another computer, for example if the N5 is broken.

I have configured some most important programs to use D:\Data instead of the "My Documents" folder, which resides by default in the user profile insode C:\Users.
These programs include:
- Microsoft Outlook (outlook.pst file, i.e. calendar, contacts)
- NoteCase Pro (all my notes, diaries, knowledge, website authoring etc.)
- The office programs (spreadsheet, word processor, presentations)

And of course:
- the TrueCrypt encrypted drive with all sensitive data (read about that later on)
- all Portable Applications (read about that later on).

In most applications, simply choosing D:\Data\... as the save path for a document is enough to make the application remember that path for future use.
Sometimes, you can set default data paths in the options of an application.

That was the "Safe and easy" setup.
The complicated and dangerous one follows now:
4.1.1. Keep all user data on a microSD card
Now follows the complicated and rather error-prone setup for complete separation of user data from the system partition.
Follow this only if you are brave enough and if you exactly know what you do!
Otherwise, simply skip this chapter.

Note that I had problems with this setup in case I restored a system partition image backup. Windows would not recognize the original user profile on the SD card and would create a temporary profile. It was not easily possible, without major hassles, to make Windows use the old user profile stored on the microSD card in that case.


Purpose of this setup:
In case your N5 stops working for some reason due to a defect, you cannot access the built-in SSD easily (if at all), so your user data is probably lost. If you keep user data on a microSD card, you can simply pop out the card in such a case and continue to use it in another computer.
That way also sharing user data with other computers is much easier.

How to do that:
I have done it by moving my entire data directory under C:\Users onto a 16GB microSD card which is always inserted in the N5. If this is done, the microSD card must not be removed anymore while the N5 is running, in standby or hibernated, but only if it's completely shut down! And as soon as you boot the N5 again, the card must be inserted, otherwise you won't have access to your settings and files.

So please do this seperation only if you can accept that the microSD card becomes a fixed component of the N5 system. It won't be a true removable medium anymore.

My user data directory was called
C:\Users\daniel
I will use this name as an example below. Use your own login name instead of "daniel"!


There are several ways to make Windows use the new user data directory on the microSD card.
Most tutorials on the Internet only describe the way to move the "My Documents" folder to another medium, but this is not what we want to do. "My Documents" is only a part of the user directory.
We want to move the entire user directory to the microSD card.

Also for this tasks there are several ways. I tested two of them:
1. Move user folder to microSD and create a link from C:\Users\daniel to D:\Users\daniel
2. Move user folder to microSD and tell Windows via the registry that the new location of the user directory is D:\Users\daniel

Way 2 is more robust, so I will describe that way here.
With way 1 I had problems, especially after restoring a system partition image, which resulted in an unusable user profile.


So here is way 2 in detail:

First:
Create a backup of all your data! Chances are good that you will mess up your entire setup with the following steps, and maybe even lose some data.
Even better would be to perform this procedure on a new Windows 7 install or recovery, so that you avoid the risk of losing important data or settings. If you do it ona new install / recovery, just make sure that you already have created your user login ("daniel" in this example) and that you have logged in and logged out at least once.

The following assumes
- that you are corrently logged in with your user login which has administrator rights (example: "daniel"):
- that the microSD card inserted into the microSD card slot of the N5 has drive letter D:
Adapt the descriped steps to your setup accordingly.

1. Activate the hidden administrator account

Open an Administrator shell by going into Startmenu, Accessories, Right-Click on "Command Prompt", choose "Run as Administrator", then enter the command
net user administrator /active:yes

The command should return a success message.
Attention: Now the Administrator account of your system is active, and it does not have a password by default!
So anyone who gets access to your computer may log in as administrator and have access to all files and features.

2. Shut down Windows entirely, then reboot

 (this is to release all files from any access lock).

3. Log in as Administrator:

The welcome screen will show the "Administrator" account in addition to your usual account. Log in as "Administator". No password required, if you didn't set one yet for that account.

4: Create new Users directory:

Open Windows Explorer and create a directory "Users" on the microSD card (D:),

5: Copy the users directory to the new location:

Copy the directory C:\Users\daniel with all its contents into D:\Users, so that the result is that there is the directory D:\Users\daniel with the original contents of C:\Users\daniel.


6: Back up the old users directory:

Rename the old users directory C:\Users\daniel to C.\Users\daniel_backup


Note:
If steps 5 and 6 cause problems due to unsufficient access permissions, locked files / directories or similar issues, you may need to do these steps outside of normal Windows 7. You may boot Windows 7 in safe mode for example, or boot into Linux, e.g. a SystemRescueCD Linux, installed on a USB thumb drive.

Here are the commands used in a Linux system (only relevant if copying and renaming doesn't work under Windows/Administrator directly). If you are not familiar with Linux, ask someone who is!
   mkdir /mnt/m1
   mkdir /mnt/m2
   mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda2 /mnt/m1
   mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/m2
   mkdir /mnt/m2/Users
   cp -av /mnt/m1/Users/daniel /mnt/m2/Users
   mv /mnt/m1/Users/daniel /mnt/m1/Users/BACKUP_daniel
   reboot

Make sure that you use the correct device names. /dev/sda2 is the Windows 7 partition of the SSD. /dev/sdb1 is the (FAT) partition of the microSD card. The device names can vary. For example, the microSD card may not have a partition table, then the card is /dev/sdb (without a partition number). You can test if there is a partition table using the command fdisk -l /dev/sdb .


7: Prepare checking for success:

Create a new text file with an arbitrary but unique name, e.g. "00CHECKME" in D:\Users\daniel\Desktop (we will use this after the change to check that we are really working on the new directory and not on the old one). The file doesn't need to contain anything. It's just important that it exists.

8: Start Registry Editor:

Now open the start menu and enter "regedit" into the command field. The registry editor starts.

9: Seach key (1):

Navigate to the registry key
“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList”
You will see at least two longer entries. These are the user profiles for "Administrator" and for the user(s).

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10: Seach key (2):

Find the entry which belongs to user "daniel" (the key "ProfileImagePath" must point to the user directory "daniel") (replace "daniel" with your own user name of course):

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11: Change ProfileImagePath value:

Change the value of key "ProfileImagePath" to "D:\Users\daniel" (Right-click on "ProfileImagePath" and chosse "Modify"):

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12: Close the Registry Editor

Your change will be saved automatically without confirming.

13: Reboot

14: Log in as "daniel"

Now, after your normal login, you should be using the profile / user data at the new location.
Everything should be as before the move. If something is different (task bar at a different possition, different icon/font sizes, different desktop background etc.), something went wrong.
In case Windows reports that you are working on a temporary profile, which was created because the original profile is not accessible, something went wrong. You should check the success of each of the above steps in detail and, if necessary, repeat the steps.

15: Check for success:

You should see the "00CHECKME" document somewhere on the desktop now. This is the sign that you are working with the user folder at the new location now. You may now delete the file.

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Clean up:

16 (important!): Deactivate the Administrator account again!

Open an Administrator shell by going into Startmenu, Accessories, Right-Click on "Command Prompt", choose "Run as Administrator", then enter the command
net user administrator /active:no

Check that the command reported success.


Now you are finished with the mandatory part!
You may continue with these steps if you want:


16 (optional): Adapt all registry entries:

 Some programs write path names into the registry, which use abolute paths to point to the user directory.
In order to allow these programs to also find the new locatoin of your user folder, you may do a global search-and-replace over the entire registry for replacing all occurrences of C:\Users\daniel by D:\Users\daniel.
You can probably use a tool such as Registry Replace:http://bladesdev.com/regreplace.htm

(this is untested by me!)


18 (schedule this for later!): Delete Backup

You should delete the backup copy C:\Users\daniel_backup of the data directory on C: as soon as you are sure that everything still works as expected, in order to free up the space on C:. You may keep it as a fallback for some time, in case you encounter problems with the new setup.




Note:

You may encounter "desktop.ini" files appearing here and there after this change is done.
This is not a serious problem. Here is the explanation and solution:
Probably the microSD card is formatted with the FAT file system. FAT does not have all the features of the SSD's NTFS file system.
Moving all the user files over from an NTFS to a FAT file system may break some file attributes.
desktop.ini files are normally hidden, i.e. not showing up in normal views. This "hidden" flag may have been lost on the copy process.
This is solved simply: Right-click on each desktop.ini, which you come across, e.g. in the start menu or in Explorer, choose "Properties" and check "Hidden" in the "General" tab. Hit OK and the according file should not appear anymore, either instantly, or after the next reboot.
4.2. System security
An UMPC is easily lost or stolen. So in order to restrict access to the N5 by people who are not authorized to use the device and view your data, you should safeguard the system accordingly.

Define a secure login password:
Control Panel --> User Accounts and Family Safety --> User Accounts --> Change your Windows Password.

Don't use autologin:
This is disabled by default anyway. So if you have enabled it before, you also know how to disable it. (Command prompt: "control userpasswords2")

Activate the screen saver and screen saver password:
Control Panel --> Appearance --> Display --> Change Screensaver.
Recommendation: Screensaver "Blank" (for best performance), wait 5 minutes, and make sure to check "On resume, display logon screen".
Don't close the Screensaver dialog!:

Activate password after standby:
In the screensaver dialog, click the link "Change Power settings". This takes you to the "Power Options" in Control Panel. You see a link "Require a password on wakeup" on the left. Then activate "Require a password" setting.
Don't close this dialog yet!
4.3. Power management options
Now that we are in the Power Options dialog anyway, let's configure the power management to good values.

Summary of my settings (which are explained below in detail):

Power button:
--> Hibernate

Lid close:
--> "do nothing", goes into Standby after 10 minutes automatically when on battery

Hotkey Shift-Ctrl-H:
--> Standby instantly (no matter if on battery or AC)

After 10 minutes when on battery:
--> Standby


Here are the settings in detail:

In the dialog which is currently open, choose what to do when lid is closed and when the power button is pressed (event-triggered behavior of power management).

I have configured lid closing to always "do nothing" (after a few minutes, the system goes into standby anyway, when on battery. When on AC power, I often need the N5 to run when closed, because in the office I use it often via file sharing / VNC from another PC).

The Power Button setting is configured to always "Hibernate".

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If you want to shut down or restart, hit Alt-F4 (Alt-Fn-4) repeatedly to close all applications and finally "close" the desktop, which brings up the dialog where I can choose between Shutdown, Restart or Hibernate.
Now confirm the settings and close the dialog.
I prefer this way of shutting down over a one-button shutdown which I cannot entirely control (unsaved data may be lost).

What about Standby?
Standby (or "go to sleep", as it is called sometimes), being a mode which uses more power than Hibernate, but the unit is much more quickly ready for use again after wakeup, can be very useful for a UMPC.
The Viliv N5 does not have a dedicated Standby button. The Power button can be configured to set the N5 to Standby, but I prefer it to hinbernate the unit.
So I made "Shift-Ctrl-H" a hotkey for standby mode using the AHK_local.ahk script.
The orange symbol on the H key is (for me) a good reminder for the standby function (although it has another meaning avtually).

On the left of the power options dialog you find "Choose when to turn off the display". Click this, and configure the time-triggered behavior.
I recommend to let the system go to sleep automatically when on battery, maybe after 5 or 10 minutes, depending on your usage pattern.
When "Plugged in", I turn off the display after one hour, but do nothing else. no dimming, no sleep.

But your requirements may vary. Keep in mind all these possibilities to configure the behavior, and adjust it whenever you find it doesn't fit your requirements exaclty.

It's always a balance between usability, security (password after sleep/screensaver!) and power saving.
You may need to adapt all these settings to your habits.

Note that after Hibernation and Standby, WiFi and Bluetooth are switched off and must be reenabled (Fn-S, Fn-D) in order to be used.
4.4. File sharing over the network
You may want to share a folder or an entire drive, e.g. the microSD card, for use over the network by another computer.
If you do so, consider security, too!

If you work in a network with just Windows 7 computers, you may use the "Homegroup" feature of Windows 7 to share data between computers in the network.

However, in order to be compatible with other operating systems, enabling file sharing with e.g. Linux, Mac, Windows XP etc., I recommend to use standard file sharing mechanisms (SMB protocol) using the "share" tab of folder properties in Windows Explorer, and configure the share's access permissons manually the folllowing way:

Remove the "Everyone" entry entirely,
create a new entry with your username and give it full access.

Then, when connecting to the share using another computer, you need to authenticate using your N5's login user name and password, in order to get any access to the share.

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Note that the network type (or "network location", as Windows 7 calls it) of the network you want to use the share over, has to be set to "private network" ("work network" or "home network").
If it is set to "public network", file sharing over that network will be disabled.
And make sure that file sharing is generally enabled for private networks:

Control Panel --> "Network an Internet" --> "Homegroup" --> "Choose homegroup and Sharing options" --> "Change advanced sharing settings":
Under "Home and work" choose "Turn on file and printer sharing".
Also, make sure to "Turn on password protected sharing".
And take a look at the section "HomeGroup connections": If you are using HomeGroups where you share your drives, you can enable that HomeGroup option.
Otherwise, you should activate "Use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computers".

Under "Public", the sharing options should be switched off, except if you have the explicit need to share drives over the Internet, and then you should be exactly aware of what you are doing.
4.5. Encrypt sensitive data!
As soon as you have any kind of sensitive data on your N5, and this explicitly includes data of other people, e.g. emails sent to you by other people, you definitely should encrypt that data!

A UMPC can easily be lost or stolen, and even if the system is password-protected, it is easy for an expert to access all your data on the SSD or microSD, e.g. by booting a Linux system.
Encryption is the only method to restrict access to your data.

Windows 7 comes with its own file encryption (EFS, BitLocker), but unfortunately, Microsoft has limited the functionality in the Starter and Home editions of Windows 7 that much that it is not sufficient for our UMPC-specific needs. So an alternative must be found:

A very powerful and free tool for data encryption is TrueCrypt.
TrueCrypt uses an encrypted file which contains a file system, which is mounted as an own drive into the system after input of a password.

An advantage of TrueCrypt compared to other encryption tool is that it is available for multiple platforms. So if you need to access your encrypted data from a Linux or Mac system, e.g. if you want to share the encrypted drive with those systems to access the data also from those systems, you will be able to, because TrueCrypt is also available for these systems.

Like all the user data, the encrypted drive should be stored on the microSD card and not on the internal SSD.

I have defined shortcuts for convenient mounting / dismounting of the TrueCrypt volume by just a keypress (and input of the password, for mounting).
See below.


If you often deal with textual information which you want to be encrypted, e.g. your diary, meeting notes, reference information etc., you may consider installing the NoteCase Pro outliner, which I have described above.
NoteCase Pro is a very powerful tool, also available for a variety of different platforms, for information handling, and it has built-in file encryption.
It even can manage your tasks, generate websites or handouts easily, you can structure and write a book with it etc.
The basic version is free. If you need the advanced features, it will cost a small license fee.

If you use software which has built-in encryption, such as NoteCase Pro, you don't need to install that software inside the encrypted drive and thus have easier and faster access to it.

4.5.1. A great use for Portable Applications
I have installed some applications inside the encrypted drive as a portable install, usually used for installing applications on USB thumb drives for easy portability.

I don't do this to make my applications portable, but because these portable applications store all their data in a subdirectory of the application directory, and not cluttered around the entire system.
That way I can be sure that every bit these applications write will be encrypted.

This includes my entire Email setup, including account settings with account passwords, search indexes etc.
Also, I have installed instant messaging programs inside the encrypted drive.

installation is easy: Mount your encrypted drive, generate a "Programs" directory inside it, and when installing the portable applications, choose this "Programs" directory as the target.

Of course you only have access to these applications, as long as the encrypted drive is mounted.


I recommend the following portable applications (all of them, and many more, available on www.PortableApps.com):

For Email, RSS feed reading, Newsgroups: Thunderbird Portable

For instant messaging (ICQ, AOL, AIM and many more): Pidgin Portable

For IRC chat: PCChat Portable

For Skype: Skype Portable

For PIM (calendar, tasks etc.): Mozilla Sunbird Portable

If you want to keep your Internet browsing behavior secret, and dont want to enable "inkognito mode" or delete all Internet tracks each time you use the browser, you can also install a portable browser in the encrypted drive, e.g. Google Chrome Portable, Mozilla FireFox Portable or Opera Portable
Even the temporary Internet files, cookies etc. will then be stored in the encrypted drive.

Consider encrypted container file size to be large enough, if you install a lot of programs in it.
4.6. Backups of data and system
Backups are important!
Backups are very important!

Especially if you work with an ultra-mobile computer, you may lose your data faster than you may guess.

If you follow my recommendations mentioned above, seperating the operating system with installed programs from user data by putting the user data onto the microSD card, you should consider a two-way backup:

Way 1: Operating system and installed programs backup

Way 2: User data backup.




4.6.1. Back up your user data
User data should be backed up frequently, whereas the system and installed programs only need to be backed up before or after major changes.

In the setup suggested here, user data is in two places on your N5: The mircoSD card and in C:\Users (which is the location wihere user profiles are stored).

So you should frequently back up these two items to an external medium, e.g. a USB hard drive.

A quite good free-of-charge software solution for backups and for file synchronization in general is
AllwaySync

After installation AllwaySync is free for private "moderate" use. It will ask for paying a license fee only if you really extensively use it, which won't happen if you just backup your microSD card and maybe have a few more simple synchonization jobs configured.

Upon first startup of AllwaySync, the software is quite self-explanatory.
For a backup, set in two "job" setups (two tabs "BackupSD" and "BackupUsers"):
- the sources ("C:\Users" and your microSD card, probably "D:\") on the left side of each job, and
- the targets (Probably an extermal USB drive's "N5_backup" subfolder, e.g. "E:\N5_backup\microSD" and "E:\N5_Backup\Users") on the right side of each job.

Make the big arrow in the middle point from left to right, indicating that this is not a two-way synchronization but only a one-way backup. Do this in both jobs:

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Click on the arrow to make sure that "Propagate deletions" and "Propagate modifications" are checked:

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This setup will ensure that on the target you will always have a 1:1 copy of your source contents.

However, AllwaySync is capable to do even more for you:
It can store old versions of modified files, so you can "go back in time", after you have done a modification of a file you want to revert for whatever reason.

"Going back in time" is not as convenient in AllwaySync as in "TimeMachine" on an Apple Mac, but it is quickly learned:

In order to activate this feature, choose (in both jobs seperately!) from the Menu "Job" --> "Properties".
Under "Default profile" look for your backup profile and there the subitem "File Versioning Policy".
Here you can choose how to handle deleted and modified files.
Now choose "Move to _SYNCAPP folder" for both.

Note: Depending on the size of the files ou delete or modify, this feature may take quite a lot of additional disk space on the backup target. So make sure you have a large enough drive availalbe for your backups!

Now, whenever you do a backup, files you have deleted or modified on the source drive will not instantly be modified or deleted on the target drive, but instead AllwaySync puts the current backup version of the file into a "_SYNCAPP\Versioning\[current date and time]" subfolder of the folder in which the file resides on the target drive, and only afterwards delete or modify the original backup file.

You can access deleted and modified file archives directly from within AllwaySync using Menu "Job" --> "Old version archive".

Example:

You have run your last backup yesterday on 2011-02-03.
Original file "example.doc" in D:\Documents got modified today on 2011-02-04.
You then start a backup today at 12:00.
Backup target is E:\N5_backups

You will get:
E:\N5_backup\Documents\example.doc
(the current backup file, containing your recent changes)
E:\N5_backup\Documents\_SYNCAPP\Versioning\2011-02-04 12-00\example.doc
(the version of your document backed up yesterday, not containing the recent changes of today).


Tipps:

- Take a look at the advanced settings of AllwaySync.
For example, you can let AllwaySync start the backup automatically when you connect the backup target device (external USB hard drive for example). That way, backing up is as easy as makeing sure that AllwaySync is started and connecting the target hard drive.
Note that AllwaySyn may also start a backup if another than the target drive is connected, as long as it is assigned the same drive letter.

- You can exclude certain folders or files from the backup (e.g. temporary files, large media files etc.) by defining according rules in AllwaySync.

- You can modify the error/warning handling so that you can do unattended backups and later review the log file to see if there were errors.
4.6.2. Create a system repair disk!
Use the Windows 7 feature for creating a system repair disk.
If you want to do it directly on the Viliv N5, you need a USB CD burner. Connect it to the N5.
In case you will ever need that CD, you need a USB CD-ROM drive anyway, so it's always good to have one at hand, in case it's necessary.

Then use
Control Panel -> System and Security -> Back up your computer.
On the left you will find the item "Create a system repair disc".
Clicking this will guide you through the process. It's simple.

You may need this CD (and a USB CD-ROM drive!) in future, in case that your N5 is not bootable anymore (e.g. after experiments with different operating systems or after restoring system partition images).

On the Internet there are tutorials which describe the process of moving the repair disk contents onto a bootable USB flash disk. That way, you can avoid the need of an external USB CD-ROM drive.
4.6.3. Back up the operating system and installed software
The SSD partition with the operating system and installed programs are backed up infrequently, typically directly before or after a major configuration change.
(Backing up C:\Users, being a part of the system partition, more frequently is necessary and covered in the according section above).
You may also use Windows System Protection to make those major configuration steps revertible and make backups of the system even more infrequently.
Or, if you don't mind reinstalling the system and software at all in case something goes badly wrong, you may also omit this backup entirely.

The purpose of such a backup is a relatively quick restore of your entire system in case the system gets corrupted by file system corruption, by a virus or by some malicious software you may have installed.

In order to be able to recover a backup of the operating system, it is the best choice to create a backup image of the entire system partition.
Pure file-based backups don't help much in case the operating system isn't bootable anymore or you suffer file system corruption or even theft of the device.

There are several ways to create a partition image.
Although I prefer to use freely available tools, for as many tasks as possible, in this case I recommend using Norton Ghost™ for saving images of the system partition.
Norton Ghost™ was the only system image creation software, which in my tests was able to safely back up and restore the Windows 7 partition without any problems after restore (such as a non-booting system).

Although Norton Ghost is said to support Windows 7 only from version 15.0, I had success with the backup/restore process of the N5's Windows 7 partition using an earlier Norton Ghost version, too.
However, you should at least once try the entire process in a state where a messed up backup restore does not hurt you too much, in order to be able to safely restore a backup later, in case it becomes necessary.

You need to boot and start Norton Ghost from a separate medium, e.g. a boot CD or USB drive, in order to get full and safe access to the Windows 7 system partition.
Please consult the Norton Ghost manual or tutorials on the Internet in order to learn about usage of Ghost.

Make sure that you back up and restore only the system partition, not the recovery partition, of the N5's SSD drive!
Accidental restoring of the Windows partition backup to the recovery partition will erase the recovery partition forever.

You may as well (maybe at first) create a backup of the recovery partition using Notron Ghost™, so you can restore it in case it gets damaged or overwritten.

4.6.3.1. Norton Ghost™ Windows partition backup guide
Here is a screenshot-oriented guide, which describes the process of creating a backup image of the system partition of the N5.

First, prepare an external memory device which has enough free capacity for holding that image.
Depending on the space used by files on your C: drive of the N5, the needed capacity varies from about 3GB to 12GB (32GB model) or 60GB (64GB model).

The safest option not to run out of space is to connect an external hard drive via USB.

After starting Norton Ghost™, choose
Local / Partition / To Image
from the menu.
(you may as well choose Local / Disk / To Image, if you want to make a backup of the entire SSD, e.g. to be able to always restore the complete factory default state of the N5. I haven't tested this, however.)

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In the following dialog, choose the correct source drive for the image. It's the one with the cryptic name "M911E32GB". Note the "32GB" at the name's end, which reflects the SSD size, and also compare the capacity of the chosen drive in the column "Size(MB)". It has to match approximately the size of your N5's SSD.
The drive name may differ on your N5, though.

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Now, choose the correct source partition on the chosen source drive. It's the NTFS C: partition, not the "Diagnostic" partition. The latter is the recovery partition of the N5. (You may create a backup image of that one too, in a seperate step).

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Now choose a destination to store the image file to, and choose an image file name (here: n5_w7_09.GHO).
Make sure that you choose the dorrect destination drive with enough free capacity!

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Let Ghost compress the image file to save a lot of space on the destination drive by clicking "High":

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Now you can see the progress of the operation:

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Once finished, disconnect the destination drive and the boot medium and reboot your N5.
4.6.3.2. Norton Ghost™ Windows partition restore guide
In order to restore a previously created partition backup with Norton Ghost™, choose
Local / Partition / From Image
from the menu.

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Next, choose an image file to restore from:

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If you created an image containing several partitions, you have a choice for a specific partition now, otherwise just choose the only listed one:

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Now be careful!
Select the correct destination drive to restore the image to.
Selecting the wrong drive here will inevitably and irreversibly destroy the drive's contents.
Use the same drive you used when you created the backup.

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Now be careful again!
Select the correct destination partition on the chosen destination drive to restore the image to.
Selecting the wrong partition here will inevitably and irreversibly destroy at least the chosen partition, maybe other partitions, too! Use the same partition you used when you created the backup.

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In the following screen you can observe the progress:

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After successful restore of the image, disconnect the external hard disk and boot medium, then reboot the N5.
4.7. The "FlashFire" SSD booster
In order to boost the performance of the system by enhancing SSD write speeds, you can try out FlashFire.

http://flashfire.org/xe/

FlashFire is an "intelligent" SSD cache in RAM, which dramatically reduces SSD writes and reads and hence may boost the performance of the N5. I have not tested it yet on the N5, but only on the UMID mbook M1, where it indeed had a big positive effect, but also caused file system corruption a few times, making it necessary to restore a Windows system image backup.
So be careful!
Only try it after you have made a full (system, applications and data) backup!
4.8. Intel SSD Toolbox
There is a software package called Intel SSD Toolbox, which is meant to improve the performance and reliability of Solid State Drives.
You can download it here.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18455

And read its documentation here:
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/18455/eng/Intel_SSD_Toolbox_User_Guide_2.0.pdf

I have note tested it yet, so I cannot yet give any advice about it.
5. Further enhancement of usability and productivity
5.1. Scrolling
The built-in optical pointing device is great and makes usage of the touchscreen almost completely unnecessary.
However, scrolling is not that easy.
By default you have to move the pointer onto a scroll bar, press the mouse button and precisely drag the pointer up, down, left or right.

There is a freeware helper program, which enables easy scrolling in many applications by holding the right mouse button and dragging the mouse pointer up/down while it is located somewhere in the scrollable window:

MouseImp PRO Live

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It does not enable this easy kind of scrolling in all applications, though.
E.g. in Google Chrome, it does not work, but there you can press both bouse buttons simultanously shortly and get a navigation pointer. Then drag the mouse pointer into a direction to scroll the displayed web page.

In applications which have a context menu on the right mouse button, MouseImp Pro Live may also refuse to work.

Also remember the PgUp / PgDn keys as a way to scroll through a text window!
In pure viewer applications, such as a PDF viewer or in Internet browsers, the arrow keys or even the space bar may be used for scrolling.
5.2. Improve keyboard usage / AutoHotKey
If you, like me, prefer the keyboard over mouse and touchscreen for controlling the computer, you should make use of all the useful hotkeys, which are provided by Windows 7, by the N5's BIOS and by the installed programs.
You can almost entirely eliminate the need to use the touchscreen, which does not make much sense on a clamshell device anyway, in my opinion, even more if it has such a great optical pointing device as the Viliv N5 has.

Consider:
The more you need to move your hands back and forth between different input devices (keyboard, optical mouse, touchscreen), the more you dramatically slow down input into your computer.
My personal goal is to eliminate the need to use any pointing device as much as possible and doing as much as possible using the keyboard only.

With the free third-party tool called AutoHotKey, you can easily define your own hotkeys or hotstrings for various kinds of actions (see the below AutoHotKey scripts section for useful example scripts and the following sections of this document, which explain parts of these scripts in detail).
Using AutoHotKey, you can also redefine default hotkeys of Windows 7 and do many other useful things, up to writing whole GUI-based programs using the comprehensive AutoHotKey scripting language.

It may be difficult to learn all these hotkeys, which are not obvious by key cap icons etc., but if you exercise them, you will learn them soon.
If you don't know instantly what hotkey "Date stamp in ISO format" was, don't do it another way, but look up the hotkey and use it. That way you will learn it.

Haven't you also wondered about all the space on the right and left side of the N5's screen? Haven't you also wished the screen would take the entire width of the screen shell?
Well, that's not possible unfortunately.
But you can use that space effectiely, by attaching cut-down post-it notes to them with hotkey cheat sheets. You will find that you don't need them anymore after a few weeks of consequent hotkey usage.

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5.2.1. Start programs using the keyboard
Windows 7 comes with a very handy feature, missing in previous Windows versions:
The search field in the Start menu.
Hit the Windows key and begin to type the application name you are looking for. As you type, the Start Menu will list the search hits, which you can browse using the arrow keys. The marked application will be started using the Enter key.
For example:
Hitting the Windows keym typing "out" and hitting enter may be much faster than choosing and clicking "Outlook" from the start menu using the mouse.

Of course, using Windows' shortcut feature in the program link properties (tab "Shortcut", field "Shortcut Key") or using AutoHotKey you can assign a direct keyboard shortcut to each application.
AutoHotKey is much more flexible, you can, for example, start several programs at once, execute conditional actions, prefill dialog fields etc.
5.2.2. Hotstrings
This section is not about underwear!
Hotstrings are abbreviations for longer pieces of text. E.g. type "btw" and get "by the way" or type "sig" and get your entire email signature.

Hotstrings are good for several purposes:
- to speed up your typing (especially interesting on non-standard keyboards which most people cannot type as quickly on as on standard keyboards)
- to avoid typos (using an automatically expanded abbreviation makes sure that you don't mistype that word). This is also important for later searching for information. If you mistyped "USB doking station" and later search for "docking" in your document, you won't find that instance of the "USB docking station". So it makes sense to also define hotstrings for very important pieces of text, not only to often typed or often mistyped ones or often used blocks of text.

My AutoHotKey script "AHK_common.ahk" contains some default hotstrings, such as "btw", which expands to "by the way" etc.
Additionally it contains a section of code which lets you define new hotstrings on the fly without editing the script manually.

Whenever you want to generate a new hotstring for a word, phrase or even for an entire text block, you can easily do that, if the according AutoHotKey script (AHK_common.ahk) is running.
In the following example, we assign the hotstring "uds" to the phrase "USB docking station":

- Mark the phrase in your text. In the example, "USB docking station" has been marked in NoteCase Pro.
- Hit Win-H ("Win" means the Windows key).
You will see the following dialog:

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The cursor is located at the right position for you to enter the abbreviation you want to use.
Type "uds" and hit Enter:

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That's all.
Whenever you type "uds" now as a word, i.e. followed by a space, Tab, newline, quote, colon or something like that, the script will automatically replace that by "USB docking station", no matter in what application you are typing.

You may define as many new hotstrings as you wish.
In order to change or delete such hotstrings later, you need to edit the script manually. Right-click its tray icon (put the mouse pointer over the green "H" icon and wait for the apeearing quick-tip in order to see which script it represents, because if more than one script is loaded, there are more than one identical tray icons) and choose "Edit This Script". You find the hotstrings at the end of the script. Save the script after editing. If you are unsure about your changes, you may first save a backup copy of the script.
When editing is done, you need to reload the script in order to apply the changes. This can be done via Right-click of the tray icon and choosing "Reload This Script".

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5.2.3. Special characters
The Viliv N5 has a US-English keyboard.
If you often need characters which cannot directly be generated using the keybaord of the N5, e.g. the German Umlauts, you can define hotkeys and/or hotstrings in AutoHotKey to generate them.

See my script AHK_common.ahk:

It defines hotkeys and hotstrings for German Umlauts, and in addition hotkeys (but not hotstrings) for some special characters like the copyright symbol © etc.
The hotkeys use the right ALT key as the assigned modified key.

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In the following, "aaa" refers to a string, i.e. enter "aaa" by pressing the key [A] three times.
The notation [A] refers to a press of the key labeled "A".


The method is as follows:
In order to generate the a-Umlaut (ä), you can either press
RightAlt-[A] (hotkey)
or type
"aaa" (hotstring).
The hotstring variant makes generation of special characters easier when you are thumbtyping and pressing two keys at once is difficult. For example, you can type "Baaar" to get "Bär".
The hotkey variant may be preferable when the N5 stands on the desk in front of you and you are typing with more than two fingers. (Type Shift-[B] then RightAlt-[A], [R] to get "Bär").

The assignments are:

"aaa" and RightAlt-[A] generate "ä".
"ooo" and RightAlt-[O] generate "ö".
"uuu" and RightAlt-[U] generate "ü".
"sss" and RightAlt-[S] generate "ß".

"AAA", "Aaa" or RightAlt-[A] generate a capital "Ä".
"OOO", "Ooo" or RightAlt-[O] generate a capital "Ö".
"UUU", "Uuu" or RightAlt-[U] generate a capital "Ü".

In addition some hotkeys are defined for special characters:

RightAlt-[E] generates € (the Euro currency symbol)
RightAlt-[C] generates © (the "copyright" symbol)
RightAlt-[R] generates ® (the "registered trademark" symbol)
RightAlt-[T] generates ™ (the "unregistered trademark" symbol)
5.2.4. The small [K] and [L] keys and the quotes key of the N5
The keys [K] and [L] of the N5 keyboard are smaller than the other letter keys, which, at least for me, resulted in many typos when trying to write quickly. Often I found myself hitting the quotes key on the right of the [L] key instead of the [L] key.

So I have build a workaround for this. You find it in my AHK_local.ahk script.
For the small [K] key there is no real solution, but it's also not such a big issue as the small [L] key.

This workaround lets the quote key act as a second [L] key (think of it as an [L] key extension to the right).
If you want to generate the quotes, you can still use the quotes key, but you need to press and hold the [Ctrl] modifier key.

That means:
If you hit the quotes key, it will generate an "l" (lowercase L), just the same as if you hit the [L] key.
If you hit [Shift] with the quotes key, it will generate an uppercase "L".
Use [Ctrl] with the quotes key to generate a single quote and
[Shift][Ctrl] with the quotes key to generate a double quote.

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5.2.5. Window movement
Especially on a smaller screen as the one of the N5 it may be necessary to move a window in order to access all handles (e.g. buttons which are hidden beyond the edge of the screen).

This topic has been explained above in the section about ensuring access to all dialog buttons. So it won't be repeated here.
5.3. Work in the office with the N5
The power of the N5 makes it a good candidate for office use, too, but unfortunately, the user interface, meaning the screen, keyboard and mouse, is so small that office use is quite inconvenient for a longer duration.

However, there is a great technology called DisplayLink, which makes it possible to connect an external display to the USB port of a PC.

That way it is easy to assemble a USB docking station for the N5:
Use a USB hub (it does not even have to have a power supply), connect a DisplayLink adapter to it and a USB mouse and a USB keyboard.
You can even add a USB LAN adapter to connect the N5 to your office LAN.
Of course it is also possible to use a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Simply plug the USB cable coming from the hub into the N5's USB port, and, if configured correctly, the Windows desktop will instantly be visible on the external monitor and you can start working with the external keyboard and mouse.

Not that a limitation of Windows 7 Starter does not allow to extend the Windows desktop over two displays, so the N5 display will be inactive as long as you work with the external monitor. Mirroring of the display contents is possible in Windows 7 Starter, so that both displays show the same contents, but such a configuration probably does not make much sense with a UMPC.

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If you search for "DisplayLink" on Amazon, you will find a lot of suitable USB DVI/VGA adapter products.
It is even possible to attach a large FullHD display to the N5, using it with full resolution and having a really big Windows 7 desktop then.
But consider that each step towards a larger desktop will cost more processing power for compressing and transfering the desktop contents over USB. So the larger the resolution you want to use, the less performance you will get.
I have a 19 inch display with 1280x1024 pixels connected using one of the common DisplayLink adapters in the price range of about 60-70 US$. It works quite well and fluently.

Note that DisplayLink is not or only in a very limited way suitable for watching video!
It is not a full replacement for a regular VGA-out port.
5.3.1. USB Keyboard: Layout switching
The N5 keyboard is basically a keyboard with US-English layout.
Some keys are rearranged, but the OS uses the US driver to use the keyboard.

You may want to use external keyboards when working on a desk (USB or Bluetooth keyboard).

If this external keyboard has a different layout which needs a different keyboard layout setting in Windows, you will have not much fun using Windows' own layout switching, because this switching mechanism only remembers the leyout setting per application and not system-wide.

So if you are in program A and switch the layout from US to German using the input language bar, then activate program B, "US" is active again.
If you disconnect the external keyboard and then switch back to program A, "German" is active again.

There is a freeware tool called "keyla" which solves that problem very conveniently:
It lets you globally set the keyboard layout using a hotkey and showing the corrently active layout in its tray icon.

To use keyla, do the following:

1. In Control Panel, "Clock, Language and Region", "Change keyboards..", add the desired input language(s), but don't let Windows show the "Language Bar" (check "Hidden" in the Language Bar tab.)

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2. Download keyla from here. (on the right side there is the download link)

3. Install keyla

4. Configure keyla to your liking. I have set the hotkey for cycling through US and DE layout to Shift-Ctrl-X.
Note that some hotkey settings in keyla can inferfere with hotkeys defined in AutoHotKey. This happens even with hotkeys for which such an interference is not obvious. So after setting the hotkey of your choice, try if it really works.

The tray icon of keyla always shows you which keyboard layout is active.

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In order to ensure that keyla icon is always visible, you may configure the tray accordingly to always show keyla (never hide it):
Right-click on the taskbar's tray area and choose "Customize notification icons".
5.4. Work in the office with another computer using data from the N5
Instead of directly working on the N5 in the office, you can also use another computer and share the N5's data with that office PC.

For that purpose, there must be some kind of network connection between the office PC and the N5.
E.g. a WLAN ad-hoc connection, or both are connected to a LAN and/or WLAN, or a Bluetooth PAN connection.

Once the two computers are connected in one of these ways and are located in the same logical subnet, you can enable file sharing on the N5 using the "Network and Sharing Center" in Control Panel.
You may then share one or more drives or directories of your N5 with network users and access these shares from the office PC.

I won't go into detail here, because this file sharing is explained in a lot of places on the Internet already. There is nothing special about it on the N5.

5.4.1. Work on the N5 via another PC using VNC
There is also a way to work on the N5 "indirectly" by projecting its display into a window of the office PC and using the office PC's mouse and keyboard to control the N5.

This can be done using a technique called "desktop sharing", "remote administration" or similar.
These techniques use the "VNC" standard or technologies similar to it.

I am not familiar with Windows' built-in desktop sharing, but I use VNC. More precisely: TightVNC.

On the N5, install the TightVNC Server, and on the office PC, install TightVNC Viewer.
If the computers are connected over a network, you can connect from TightVNC Viewer to the N5's TightVNC Server and instantly see and control the display of the N5 inside a window on the office PC.

An alternative to TightVNC is TeamViewer, which is even able to connect two computers this way over the public Internet.
This is especially useful for maintenance of remote computers.
5.5. WLAN handling
There is almost nothing special about WLAN handling on the N5.

Make sure the WiFi hardware is switched on (using the BIOS hotkey Fn-S).
Clicking the network icon in the tray will show you available networks then, which you can connect to.

However, there is a speciality about Ad-Hoc networks in Windows 7 Starter, and I show you a tool which makes switching network profiles very easy.

5.5.1. Ad-Hoc WiFi networks in Windows 7 Starter
One of the limitations of Windows 7 Starter is that the possibility to connect to an ad-hoc WLAN has been removed from the network connection wizard.

However, it is easy to establish such a connection anyway:

Go into start menu, type "adhoc" in the search field and click the only hit.
That's it.


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5.5.2. Profile switching with NetSetMan
With a device as mobile as the Viliv N5 you may want to connect to different WLANs which require different IP configurations, e.g. dynamic IP (DHCP) at home and a fixed IP at work.

There is a very useful tool called NetSetMan, which excellently manages such profiles.

It also provides many more useful profile parameters, such as which WLAN to connect to preferably, which printer to use in each network, and even the computer name, work group etc. can be changed depending on the profile.

NetSetMan even has a feature which switches profiles automatically, dependent on which WLAN networks are in range. This works great, if set up correctly. No manual interaction required anymore: Just switch on WiFi with Fn-S and NetSetMan does the rest.

Download NetSetMan here.

The free version is sufficient for most scenarios.

5.5.2.1. Scripting NetSetMan
NetSetMan offers a feature to start external scripts before and/or after activation of a profile.
Those scripts can be batch files or other scripting languages directly being executed by the operating system.

This feature can be used to start a program after activation of a profile (e.g. the web browser and email program, after the general on-the-go WLAN DHCP profile has been activated),
but it can also be used to resolve special issues, for example this one:

The one parameter which I miss to be switched in NetSetMan is the network location, which sets the security level: public network or private (home or work) network.
This is because there is one special case, where you still have to switch something manually:
If you have a WiFi adhoc network to another PC using static IP addresses, Windows 7 does not remember the network location you set ("private network"). Everytime you reconnect, Windows 7 classifies the network as "public" again and you need to reconfigure it to "private" in order to make file sharing work.

NetSetMan's scripting feature, together with Windows PowerShell, can help in this situation.

I have a PowerShell script, which sets network location of all networks to "private" (I'll have to enhance this to only switch on connection to "private". Otherwise it's still a bit dangerous, if there is a public Internet connection active at the same time).
Then I have a script in NetSetNam (being started after activation of the Ad-hoc network profile), which executes that PowerShell script.

Note that in order to make execution of PowerShell scripts work, do the following:

1. Open a PowerShell by choosing "Windows PowerShell" from the Start menu
2. Issue the command:
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

In order to register a script for a profile, check the item "Script" in the according profile and click the dots on the right:

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Then enter the command line to be executed in either the "before" or the "after" tab.
In my case I need to execute the PowerShell script after activating the profile, because the WLAN adapter must be active and the WLAN connection must be established, before defining the WLAN connection as a "private" network:

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5.5.2.1.1. d:\data\scripts\SetNetworkPrivate.ps1
# Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2009/04/03/setting-network-location-to-private.aspx

# Skip network location setting for pre-Vista operating systems
if([environment]::OSVersion.version.Major -lt 6) { return }

# Skip network location setting if local machine is joined to a domain.
if(1,3,4,5 -contains (Get-WmiObject win32_computersystem).DomainRole) { return }

# Get network connections
$networkListManager = [Activator]::CreateInstance([Type]::GetTypeFromCLSID([Guid]"{DCB00C01-570F-4A9B-8D69-199FDBA5723B}"))
$connections = $networkListManager.GetNetworkConnections()

# Set network location to Private for all networks
$connections | % {$_.GetNetwork().SetCategory(1)}
5.5.2.2. Controlling NetSetMan via Batch file
NetSetMan can be controlled via batch file, and this gives us a way to automate even more!

Use the following batch file and put shortcuts to it (with different parameters) onto the desktop or into the quickstart area, in order to instantly activate WLAN with a certain NetSetMan profile using only a mouse click (or a shortcut, using AutoHotKey), even including activation of the WLAN hardware of the VIliv N5, so you don't need to press the extra keyboard shortcuf Fn-S to activate WLAN (using the inpout32.dll function "Set_WifiPower").

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The shortcuts call the batch file with one parameter denoting the number of the NetSetMan WLAN profile to activate (counting begins with #0), like this:

D:\Data\Scripts\WLAN_activate.bat 1

5.5.2.2.1. WLAN_activate.bat
@echo off
:: Parameter 1: Number of NetSetMan profile to activate (0 = first profile, 1 = second profile ...)

echo Enabling WiFi hardware and wait a few seconds...
rundll32.exe "C:\Program Files\vilivManagerSj\inpout32.dll",Set_WifiPower 1
timeout 7 /nobreak

echo Switching NetSetMan profile...
"C:\Program Files\NetSetMan\netsetman.exe" -as %1

echo finished.
5.6. One-key 3G Internet access (MWconn, AutoHotKey)
Usually, accessing the Internet using the 3G modem of the N5 requires several steps:
- Enable the modem using vilivManager or a AutoHotKey
- Start the connection software MobilePartner
- Hitting the "Connect" button of MobilePartner
- Starting the Internet broweser, Email client etc.

You can combine all these steps to be triggered by only one hotkey for quick and convenient Internet access.
What you need for that is AutoHotKey (recommended for a lot of other tasks anyway) and an alternative connection software which I can recommend due to its simplicity and ease of use:

MWconn.

MWconn can replace MobilePartner entirely. It's much leaner and faster than MobilPartner, and it is very freely configurable.

Download and install WMconn, then configure it.
Attention: By default, MWconn is not installed in "C:\Program Files". You should choose this installation target manually, create an "MWconn" folder inside "C:\Program Files" and install MWconn explicitly there.
If you don't do that, you will need to adapt the AutoHotKey script's MWconn path accordingly.

In the configuration dialog of MWconn, enter the following:

Tab "Global":
- Choose your mobile Internet provider from the list, if available. This will prefdefine some important settings.
- in "Regular program window" choose "Terminate program without query".
- Set all other options to fit your liking.

Tab "Device":
- Device Type: "3 Huawei" (the N5's modem is a Huawei EM770W module)
- If PIN is not disabled on your PIM card, enter the SIM PIN into the according field
- In the field labeled "Click here for console inputs" you can enter the command "AT" and hit enter, in order to test if the modem responds. It should respond with "OK". Remember that the 3G modem has to be enabled using vilivManager or my AutoHotKey script.

Tab "Network":
- Nothing to be done here, if your Internet provider was listed in the "Global" tab provider list and you have chosen it. Make sure that the settings, especially the APN, are correct.

The settings in the remaining tabs can be left at their default values, or you can modify them to your liking.

When finished with the configuration, MWconn will ask if it may create a dial-up connection called "Internet". Confirm. This connection is necessary.


Now, if you have Google Chrome installed and use the shortcut Shift-Ctrl-S of my AutoHotKey script, you will have 3G Internet access within a few seconds.

The shortcut Shift-Ctrl-D will terminate the connection, shut down MWconn but leave the browser window open for further reading.

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You can modify the script to fit your needs, e.g. start another browser, an Email program or whatever, or to close the browser on Shift-Ctrl-D.
6. vilivManager
There is a background process running in the Viliv N5's default Windows 7 system called "vilivManager".
There is also a GUI program called "vilivManager", which lets you switch hardware components on and off (modem, WiFi, Bluetooth, Camera) and adjust the screen brightness.

If you want to use vilivManager, make sure that you have at least version 2.0.7 installed, because this one has a feature called "LCD boost", which makes the screen significantly brighter than it is without this option.
On this Viliv download page you will find the latest N5 vilivManager version for download.

However, vilivManager introduces some limitations, which you may not like to live with:

- It makes it impossible to use the 3G modem and WiFi at the same time. As soon as you activate one of them, the other one is switched off. [1]
- It makes some key combinations unusable. E.g. key combinations Alt-1, Alt-2 .. Alt-0 are not recognized anymore by the system or by any application. [2]

So it may be desireable to elimiate vilivManager and use other ways to switch hardware components instead.
To disable vilivManager permanently, close the vilivManager GUI, if it's open, then choose from the Start menu --> "Administrativ Tools" --> "System Configuration".
Open tab "Startup", uncheck "vilivManager" and follow further instructions how to make the change permanent.
Do not uninstall vilivManager, because you will need the DLL file from the vilivManager installation.


Now how to control the hardware components without vilivManager?

The key combinations drawn on the key caps still work, because they are BIOS-driven:
Fn-S for WiFi on/off,
Fn-D for Bluetooth on/off,
Fn-F and Fn-G to adjust the brightness
(and Fn-H/J/K/L for display and volume settings).

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LCD booster, Camera and the 3G modem (and also WiFi, Bluetooth and normal LCD brightness) can be controlled using functions from the DLL file, which vilivManager uses:
C:\Program Files\vilivManagerSj\inpout32.dll
A DLL file is a function library file. In this case, inpout32.dll is the "heart" of the program vilivManager, and vilivManager.exe just builds the GUI around the functions in inpout32.dll and contains the logic to switch off 3G if WiFi is activated and vice versa, as well as deactivating the Alt-number hotkeys, and maybe some other limiting logic which I didn't encounter yet.

Remember that I AutoHotKeyd AutoHotKey for various purposes?
It comes in very handy here, too, because it has a function called "DllCall" which can call functions from DLL files.
I have written an AutoHotKey script which assigns hotkeys for switching on and off the 3G modem and enabling/disabling the LCD booster.
Here is a link to that script.
In order to use that script, save it to disk (e.g. copy and paste into a text editor), create a shortcut to it and put that shortcut into the Start Menu's "Startup" folder. Then, after the next reboot, the hotkeys will always be available.

The hotkeys are easy to recall, as they somewhat correspond to the BIOS-driven Fn hotkeys and their key cap icons are good for remembering the Shift-Ctrl hotkeys created by the script:

Shift-Ctrl-S: Enable 3G modem (and start MWConn connection software and Google Chrome: Internet access with only one keystroke!)
(Fn-S: Enable WiFi)

Shift-Ctrl-D: Disable 3G modem and shutdown MWConn again
(Fn-D: Enable Bluetooth)

Shift-Ctrl-F: Disable LCD booster
(Fn-F: decrease brightness)

Shift-Ctrl-G: Enable LCD booster
(Fn-G: Increase brightness)

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You can change or extend these scripts easily using the inpout32.dll API description below.
I have not implemented camera controls, because I don't need them. If you need assitance in adding camera controls, let me know.

Note: Do not uninstall vilivManager entirely, as this would remove the inpout32.dll file, too, which the AutoHotKey script's "DllCall" function needs to handle the hardware.

___________________________
[1]: Note that Viliv had a reason for not allowing the 3G modem and WiFi to be active simultanously.
I have experienced myself an issue when using both modules at the same time:
I have downloaded a large file (70MB) over a 3G connection, while a VNC connection over an AdHoc WiFi was active. Suddenly the WiFi connection failed (although this could not have been a signal issue, as both WiFi devices were only 10..20cm away from each other). The WiFi module was still active, though, and I could connect both devices successfully again.
So there is probably some kind of current or heat issue if both modules are used at the same time.
Although it is possible to use both modules at the same time, it is not recommended!
Although I have not experienced any major harm from this, i.e. no hardware defects or data loss, this may occur to you if you try to use both modules at once!
Please remember the disclaimer at the top of this page:
Everything you do, you do on your own risk!

[2]: Also for this limitation I found the reason: If vilivManager is not running, and I have assigned hotkeys Alt-1 to Alt-9 to an application, and I use the Fn-F and Fn-G BIOS hotkeys to decrease or increase the LCD brightness by holding the hoteys for some seconds so that the brightness level reaches the lower or upper limit, the BIOS seems to fire some Alt-Number hotkey (Alt-6 for example).
I have no idea why, but it happens regularly. It's only slightly annoying because I have assigned functions to these hotkeys which can be canceled using the ESC key, so this is a minor issue to me.


6.1. API of inpout32.dll

inpout32.dll:

[Device API]

- S7, X70EX, N5 Premium
- Inpout32.dll
- _stdcall function

bool Set_WifiPower(short iPower);
- Wifi On/Off
- On : 1, Off : 0

bool Set_BluePower(short iPower);
- Bluetooth On/Off
- On : 1, Off : 0

bool Set_CameraPower(short iPower);
- Camera On/Off
- On : 1, Off : 0

bool Set_ModemPower(short iPower);
- Modem On/Off
- On : 1, Off : 0

bool Set_DmbPower(short iPower);
- DMB On/Off
- On : 1, Off : 0

char Get_DevicePower();
- Device Power Status (Wifi, Bluetooth, Camera, Modem, DMB)
- Display the binary value.

Return values decimal:

MWbc 8969922 100010001101111011000010
Mwbc 8969858 100010001101111010000010
mWbc 8969794 100010001101111001000010
mwbc 8969730 100010001101111000000010
(to be continued)

M Modem on
m Modem off
B Bluetooth on
b Bluetooth off
W Wifi on
w Wifi off
C camera on
c camera off


bool Set_BacklightLevel_ACK(short level);
bool Set_BacklightLevel(short level);
- Change the backlight brightness (0 – 15)
- Call Set_BacklightLevel_ACK when executing first.
- Call Set_BacklightLevel when executing second.

bool __stdcall Set_LCDBoost(int arg);
7. Special setups
7.1. N5 as a WLAN Access Point for 3G Internet
It is possible to use the Viliv N5 with its UMTS / 3G Internet capability as a WLAN "access point" for other devices which do not have 3G Internet access.
That way, other devices which have a WLAN interface can connect to the Viliiv N5 and use its 3G Internet access. The Viliv N5 acts as an Internet WLAN router in that case.

For example, you can connect a WLAN-equipped iPod or PDA to the Internet this way.

This is no complicated setup. You just need a router software on the N5, such as the free
connectify.me

This is a screenshot of connectify.me running on the N5 with an iPod Touch connected to it.

In die field "Internet" you need to choose the network connection which is used for the 3G Internet connection.
If you use mwconn for dialing into the mobile network, this connection is called "Internet".

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You can download connectify.me for free at http://www.connectify.me

Please note that in the default configuration with vilivManager the concurrent use of 3G and WiFi is blocked, and this is for a reason. Read about it in the section about vilivManager.
Usage of connectify.me makes only sense if both interfaces are active, of course. So if you use connectify.me, be aware that you do it entirely on your own risk, and there is a risk of damaging the hardware or at least of instable connections.

Also note that the WLAN hardware of the Viliv N5 does not support AP (access point) mode. So you can only connect your WLAN-equipped device to the N5 using an ad-hoc WLAN connection.
7.2. Use GPS for time synchronisation
The Viliv N5 has a GPS module built-in.
Due to the form factor if the N5, the device is not suitable for in-car navigation or similar uses.

But the GPS module can have a good use, too.

The GPS system provides the exact time. So why not use the GPS signal for time synchronisation of the N5?

So a background task may be running which checks for a GPS signal in regluar intervals (it may even be available indoors occasionally, especially if you are located near a window), and whenever a signal is available, feed the system clock with the GPS time.

There is software which should be capable of doing this.
e.g. http://www.abstime.com/atomic-clock-sync/ GPS Time and Test (10$)

However, I was not able yet to let this program read GPS data from the N5's GPS.

If anyone has success with that, please let me know!
8. Do a Disk Cleanup and delete TEMP files!
In the meantime, after setting up and tweaking your system, there may be a lot of unneeded data on the SSD drive. Especially if Windows Update has downloaded and installed a lot of updates, the update installation files may still reside on the SSD.

Start the Disk Cleanup tool of Windows 7 to find and erase all that unneeded data.
This could could free up a few hundered MB of disk space.

Disk Cleanup is found in the Startmenu under "Accessories" / "System Tools".


Also, you may delete the contents of
C:\Users\daniel\AppData\Local\temp
I have found about 2GB (!) of unneeded data in that directory!
(Replace "daniel" with your own login name!)
9. My AutoHotKey scripts
In this section you find my AutoHotKey scripts which make life with the N5 easier.
I have inserted comments in order to make the scripts self-explanatory.

Some sections of the scripts have already been explained in this document in detail.
9.1. EasyWindowDrag_(KDE).ahk
This script makes moving windows and dialogs very convenient.
The N5-specific purpose is described in this section above.

This script is not written by myself, so here is the link to the script.
9.2. AHK_common.ahk
#CommentFlag //
#NoEnv

// *******************************************************************
// AutoHotKey script to make usage of a Windows PC easier and
// more efficient.
// by Daniel Hertrich, http://www.hermocom.com
//
// Check the "Run" commands in this script and make sure that they
// point to the correct installation paths of the applications to
// be started.
// Also you may want to read and understand this script (it's well
// commented) in order to adapt the behavior to your needs and
// in order not to be surprised by some unexpected behavior!
// *******************************************************************


// *******************************************************************
// The following lets you easily move windows by holding the "Windows"
// key and hitting th arrow keys. If you see a dialog which exceeds
// the height of the screen and "OK" and "Cancel" buttons are hidden
// for example, use Win-Up to move the window upwards.
// Change the value for S to adjust the step length.
// Usse Win-Alt-Arrow to double the step length.
// *******************************************************************

S=20

WMove(a,b)
{
   WinGetActiveTitle, T
   WinGetPos, X, Y,,, %T%
   WinMove, %T%,,X+a,Y+b
   Return
}

#Up::
   WMove(0,-S)
Return

#Down::
   WMove(0,S)
Return

#Left::
   WMove(-S,0)
Return

#Right::
   WMove(S,0)
Return

!#Up::
   WMove(0,-2*S)
Return

!#Down::
   WMove(0,2*S)
Return

!#Left::
   WMove(-2*S,0)
Return

!#Right::
   WMove(2*S,0)
Return




// *******************************************************************
// For reliable recognition of window titles in the script parts below:
// *******************************************************************

SetTitleMatchMode, 2
SetTitleMatchMode, Slow



// *******************************************************************
// Win-D generates current date (adapt format string to your needs):
// *******************************************************************

#d::
   FormatTime, CurrentDateTime,, dd.MM.yyyy
   SendInput %CurrentDateTime%{Space}
return

// *******************************************************************
// Win-I generates current date in ISO 6801 format (YYYY-MM-DD).
// For further info about this format,
// see http://www.seoconsultants.com/w3c/date-time/
// *******************************************************************

#i::
   FormatTime, CurrentDateTime,,yyyy-MM-dd
   SendInput %CurrentDateTime%{Space}
return

// *******************************************************************
// Win-T generates current time (adapt format string to your needs):
// *******************************************************************

#t::
   FormatTime, CurrentDateTime,, HH:mm
   SendInput %CurrentDateTime%{Space}
return


// *******************************************************************
// The following is a nice, quick and simple note taker application:
// Just hit Win-Q to activate a note window. Hit Esc to quit the
// note window. The text in this window is saved to a file as soon as
// you close the note taker windows with Esc.
// Whenever you hit Win-Q to launch the note taker, the file contents
// are restored to the note window.
// *******************************************************************

SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%
#SingleInstance force

#q::
   IfWinExist AHK_Notetaker
   {
      WinActivate
   }
   else
   {
      Gui, font, s14, Verdana
      Gui, +AlwaysOnTop -SysMenu
      Gui, Add, Edit, x0 y0 w600 h400 vContent,
      Gui, Show, w600 h400 , AHK_Notetaker
      FileRead, Content, MyNotes.txt
      GuiControl,, Content, %Content%
      SendInput ^{End}
    }
Return

GuiEscape:
   Gui, Submit
   FileRecycle, MyNotes.txt
   FileAppend, %Content%, MyNotes.txt
   Content =
   Gui, Destroy
return



// *******************************************************************
// For debugging puroses: Hold Ctrl and Alt and Left-Click a window
// to show the window's title:
// Commented out currently by /* ... */.
// Use this if you want to enhance this script and need to find
// out the title of your application windows.
// *******************************************************************

/*
^!LButton::
   MouseGetPos, , , WinID
   WinGetTitle, Title, ahk_id %WinID%
   MsgBox, Titel = %Title%
Return
*/



// *******************************************************************
// default hotstrings
// *******************************************************************

::btw::by the way


// *******************************************************************
// Win-H:
// generate a hotstring for the selected text and apppend the
// hotstring to this script automatically:
// *******************************************************************

#h::
   // Get the text currently selected. The clipboard is used instead of
   // "ControlGet Selected" because it works in a greater variety of editors
   // (namely word processors). Save the current clipboard contents to be
   // restored later. Although this handles only plain text, it seems better
   // than nothing:
   AutoTrim Off // Retain any leading and trailing whitespace on the clipboard.
   ClipboardOld = %ClipboardAll%
   Clipboard = // Must start off blank for detection to work.
   Send ^c
   ClipWait 1
   if ErrorLevel // ClipWait timed out.
      return
   // Replace CRLF and/or LF with `n for use in a "send-raw" hotstring:
   // The same is done for any other characters that might otherwise
   // be a problem in raw mode:
   StringReplace, Hotstring, Clipboard, ``, ````, All // Do this replacement first to avoid interfering with the others below.
   StringReplace, Hotstring, Hotstring, `r`n, ``r, All // Using `r works better than `n in MS Word, etc.
   StringReplace, Hotstring, Hotstring, `n, ``r, All
   StringReplace, Hotstring, Hotstring, %A_Tab%, ``t, All
   StringReplace, Hotstring, Hotstring, `//, ```//, All
   Clipboard = %ClipboardOld% // Restore previous contents of clipboard.
   // This will move the InputBox's caret to a more friendly position:
   SetTimer, MoveCaret, 10
   // Show the InputBox, providing the default hotstring:
   InputBox, Hotstring, New Hotstring, Type your abreviation at the indicated insertion point. You can also edit the replacement text if you wish.`n`nExample entry: :R:btw`::by the way,,,,,,,, :R:`::%Hotstring%
   if ErrorLevel // The user pressed Cancel.
      return
   IfInString, Hotstring, :R`:::
   {
      MsgBox You didn't provide an abbreviation. The hotstring has not been added.
      return
   }
   // Otherwise, add the hotstring and reload the script:
   FileAppend, `n%Hotstring%, %A_ScriptFullPath% // Put a `n at the beginning in case file lacks a blank line at its end.
   Reload
   Sleep 200 // If successful, the reload will close this instance during the Sleep, so the line below will never be reached.
   MsgBox, 4,, The hotstring just added appears to be improperly formatted. Would you like to open the script for editing? Note that the bad hotstring is at the bottom of the script.
   IfMsgBox, Yes, Edit
return

MoveCaret:
   IfWinNotActive, New Hotstring
      return
   // Otherwise, move the InputBox's insertion point to where the user will type the abbreviation.
   Send {Home}{Right 3}
   SetTimer, MoveCaret, Off
return


// *******************************************************************
// Auto-generated hotstrings (using Win-H)
// *******************************************************************

// here, at the end of the file, the Win-H script from above will put the generated hotstrings:

::vg::Viele Grüße,
::dsom::Dear Sir or Madam,
::sgd::Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,
::mfg::Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
::uawg::Um Antwort wird gebeten.
::dh::Daniel Hertrich
9.3. AHK_local.ahk
#CommentFlag //
#NoEnv

// *******************************************************************
// AutoHotKey script to make usage of the Viliv N5 UMPC easier and
// more efficient.
// by Daniel Hertrich, http://www.hermocom.com
//
// Check the "Run" commands in this script and make sure that they
// point to the correct installation paths of the applications to
// be started.
// Also you may want to read and understand this script (it's well
// commented) in order to adapt the behavior to your needs and
// in order not to be surprised by some unexpected behavior!
// *******************************************************************

// Some configuration parameters. They may affect script behavior.
// Some are commented out. See what you need:

// SetBatchLines, 1000
// SetKeyDelay, -1
// ListLines Off
// SendMode Input //also affects hotstrings!
// Process,Priority,,High

EnvGet, UserProfile, USERPROFILE


// *******************************************************************
// This sets the Capslock key inaktive, use Shift-Capslock instead.
// Prevents accidental hit of Capslock key
// and makes CapsLock free to be used as an additional modifier key
// (use syntax "Capslock & a::" for hotkey definition for "Capslock+A")
// *******************************************************************

Capslock::Return
+Capslock::Capslock


// *******************************************************************
// The following section is for generation of special characters
// on the Viliv N5 keyboard using the Right ALT key (on the right of
// the space bar) and using Hotstrings.
// There is an "if" section for when you are in a GTK application,
// such as NoteCase, Pidgin etc., which do not respond to the
// standard SendInput method below that.
// See http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/misc/Clipboard.htm
// for clipboard functions of AHK
// *******************************************************************

SendTextToApp(Text)
{
   // For GTK applications use the clipboard to insert text:
   IfWinActive ahk_class gdkWindowToplevel
   {
      // Save current clipboard contents:
      // BlockInput On
      // ClipSaved := ClipboardAll
      
      // Use Clipboard and Paste for text insertion:
      // Clipboard =
      Clipboard = %Text%
      // ClipWait
      SendInput ^v
      SendInput {Ctrl up}

      // Restore previously stored clipboard contents
      // Clipboard := ClipSaved
      // ClipSaved= // free memory
      // BlockInput Off
   }
   // for non-GTK applications use the normal SendInput method:
   else
      SendInput %Text%
}

+>!a::SendTextToApp("Ä")
+>!o::SendTextToApp("Ö")
+>!u::SendTextToApp("Ü")
>!a::SendTextToApp("ä")
>!o::SendTextToApp("ö")
>!u::SendTextToApp("ü")
>!s::SendTextToApp("ß")
>!e::SendTextToApp("€")
>!c::SendTextToApp("©")
>!r::SendTextToApp("®")
>!t::SendTextToApp("™")

// Special character Hotstrings (aaa for ä etc.):
:*?C:AAA::
:*?C:Aaa::
   SendTextToApp("Ä")
return
:*?C:OOO::
:*?C:Ooo::
   SendTextToApp("Ö")
return
:*?C:UUU::
:*?C:Uuu::
   SendTextToApp("Ü")
return
:*?C:aaa::
   SendTextToApp("ä")
return
:*?C:ooo::
   SendTextToApp("ö")
return
:*?C:uuu::
   SendTextToApp("ü")
return
:*?C:sss::
   SendTextToApp("ß")
return


// *******************************************************************
// For reliable recognition of window titles in the script parts below:
// *******************************************************************

SetTitleMatchMode, 2
SetTitleMatchMode, Slow


// *******************************************************************
// Win-M starts NoteCase Pro
// *******************************************************************

#m::
IfWinExist, ahk_class gdkWindowToplevel
   WinActivate
else
   Run C:\Program Files\NoteCasePro\app\notecase.exe
return

// *******************************************************************
// Win-N starts Notepad++:
// *******************************************************************

#n::
IfWinExist Notepad++
   WinActivate
else
   Run C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
return

// *******************************************************************
// Win-G starts Google Chrome browser
// *******************************************************************

#g::
IfWinExist, ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_0
   WinActivate
else
   Run "%UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe"
return

// *******************************************************************
// Win-C starts Total Commander:
// *******************************************************************

#c::
IfWinExist, Total Commander
   WinActivate
else
   Run C:\Program Files\totalcmd\TOTALCMD.EXE
return



// *******************************************************************
// Shift-Win-C mounts the TrueCrypt volume (asking for password)
// *******************************************************************

+#c::
   Run C:\Program Files\TrueCrypt\TrueCrypt.exe /v D:\encrypted.tc /ly /q /e
   // Indicator in file system for checking if TrueCrypt is mounted:
   FileAppend TC Mounted, c:\tcm.tmp
return

// *******************************************************************
// Shift-Win-X unmounts the TrueCrypt volume instantly
// *******************************************************************

+#x::
   Run C:\Program Files\TrueCrypt\TrueCrypt.exe /q /dy
   FileDelete c:\tcm.tmp
   SplashTextOn, 200, 100, TrueCrypt Unmount, Truecrypt volume unmounted.
   sleep 3000
   SplashTextOff
return



// *********************************************************************
// FROM HERE, THE SCRIPT IS STRICTLY VILIV N5 SPECIFIC.
// USING THE SCRIPT PARTS BELOW ON ANOTHER COMPUTER DOES NOT MAKE SENSE.
// *********************************************************************



// *******************************************************************
// Make Shift-Ctrl-H a standby button
// *******************************************************************

+^h::
   SplashTextOn, 500, 100, Suspend, Entering Suspend state
   Sleep 2000
   SplashTextOff
   DllCall("powrprof.dll\SetSuspendState")
return


// *******************************************************************
// inpout32.dll controls vie DllCall
// Make sure the vilivManager's inpout32.dll file is available
// and the path is correct,
// and make sure that vilivManager.exe is NOT running, if you want
// to enable usage of 3G and WiFi at the same time.
// *******************************************************************

// Sh-Ctrl-S: 3G Internet ON
// (Sh-ALT-Ctrl-S: Switch only modem power on)
// Sh-Ctrl-D: 3G Internet OFF
// Sh-Ctrl-F: LCD booster off
// Sh-Ctrl-G: LCD booster on

+^g::
   SplashTextOn, 500, 100, LCD Booster, LCD Booster ON
   DllCall("C:\Program Files\vilivManagerSj\inpout32.dll\Set_LCDBoost", Int, 1)
   DllCall("C:\Program Files\vilivManagerSj\inpout32.dll\Set_BacklightLevel_ACK", Int, 15)
   Sleep 3000
   SplashTextOff
return

+^f::
   SplashTextOn, 500, 100, LCD Booster, LCD Booster OFF
   DllCall("C:\Program Files\vilivManagerSj\inpout32.dll\Set_LCDBoost", Int, 0)
   DllCall("C:\Program Files\vilivManagerSj\inpout32.dll\Set_BacklightLevel_ACK", Int, 10)
   Sleep 3000
   SplashTextOff
return


+^!s::
   SplashTextOn, 500, 100, 3G Modem, Enabled 3G modem power
   DllCall("C:\Program Files\vilivManagerSj\inpout32.dll\Set_ModemPower", Int, 1)
   Sleep 3000
   SplashTextOff
return

+^s::
   SplashTextOn, 500, 100, One-key Internet, Starting MWConn and Chrome...
   IfWinExist, ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_0
      WinActivate
   else
   {
      Run "%UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe",,Max
   }
   DllCall("C:\Program Files\vilivManagerSj\inpout32.dll\Set_ModemPower", Int, 1)
   // TEMP: Also enable WiFi:
   // DllCall("C:\Program Files\vilivManagerSj\inpout32.dll\Set_WifiPower", Int, 1)
   Sleep 5000
   // status := DllCall("C:\Program Files\vilivManagerSj\inpout32.dll\Get_DevicePower")
   // MsgBox, Device Status: %status%
   Run, C:\Program Files\MWConn\mwconn.exe,,,mwconnPID
   Sleep 10000
   SplashTextOff
return

+^d::
   SplashTextOn, 500, 100, One-key Internet, Terminating mwconn, switching modem off
   Process, Close, %mwconnPID%
   DllCall("C:\Program Files\vilivManagerSj\inpout32.dll\Set_ModemPower", Int, 0)
   Sleep 3000
   SplashTextOff
   // Sleep 1000
   // status := DllCall("C:\Program Files\vilivManagerSj\inpout32.dll\Get_DevicePower")
   // MsgBox, Device Status: %status%
return



// *******************************************************************
// This section eliminates the problem that I often accidentally
// hit the ['] key instead of the [L] key, because the [L] key is so
// small on the Viliv N5.
// Pressing the ['] key acts like the [L] key now (think of it
// as an extended [L] key), and
// ' is generated using Ctrl-' now.
// " is generated using Shift-Ctrl-' now.
//
// This may be annoying if you use a USB keybaord with a different
// layout though.
// Todo: Find a way to use this only with internal keyboard!
// *******************************************************************

/*

:*?C:'::
   SendTextToApp("l")
return

:*?C:"::
   SendTextToApp("L")
return

^'::
   SendTextToApp("'")
return

+^'::
   SendTextToApp("""")
return

*/

This document has been created using the NoteCase Pro outliner.

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Yours truly,
Daniel Hertrich