After I found that Amazon Fire HD 7 tablet was unsuitable for an always-on screen to display ESA's HTML live tracker for the International Space Station, I moved on to the next piece of hardware in my inactive pile: a HP Stream 7. This tablet was an effort by Microsoft to prove that they would not cede the entry-level tablet market to Android. In hindsight we now know that effort did not pan out.

But at the time, it was an intriguing product as it ran Windows 10 on an Intel Atom processor. This overcame the lack of x86 application compatibility of the previous entry level Windows tablet, which ran Windows RT on an ARM processor. It was difficult to see how an expensive device with a from-scratch application ecosystem could compete with Android tablets, and indeed Windows RT was eventually withdrawn.

Back to this x86-based tablet: small and compact, with a screen measuring 7" diagonally that gave it its name, it launched at $120 which was unheard of for Windows machines. Discounts down to $80 (when I bought it) made it cheaper than a standalone license of Windows software. Buying it meant I got a Windows license and basic hardware to run it.

But while nobody expected it to be a speed demon, its performance was nevertheless disappointing. At best, it was merely on par with similarly priced Android tablets. Sure we could run standard x86 Windows applications... but would we want to? Trying to run Windows apps not designed with a tablet in mind was a pretty miserable experience, worse than an entry level PC. Though to be fair, it is impossible to buy an entry level PC for $120 never mind $80.

The best I can say about this tablet was that it performed better than the far more expensive Samsung 500T (more on that later.) And with a Windows license embedded in hardware, I was able to erase its original Windows 8 operating system (locked with a password I no longer recall) and clean install Windows 10. It had no problems updating itself to the current version (1909) of Windows 10. The built-in Edge browser easily rendered ESA ISS tracker, and unlike the Kindle I could set screen timeout to "never".

That's great news, but then I ran into some problems with power management components that would interfere with around-the-clock operation.