In my quest to test/install on Windows 7 on various hardware I decided to try it on a Dell XPS M1530.

Secretly I am eradicating any in-house tech still running Windows Vista.

About the Install 

I chose Windows 7 x86 32 Bit as this machine only has 2gb of Ram.

I booted from the Windows 7 install DVD, deleted all existing partitions (my preference) and installed Windows 7.

Once logged into Windows 7 allow it to go to Windows update where it will grab about 3 or 4 drivers for unrecognised hardware.

In my case the final and last piece of hardware Windows 7 was unable to resolve was the Biometric Co-Processor.

So a quick visit to www.support.dell.com and I drilled down to the security section (pictured below).

The download highlighted in red was the missing driver required.

Windows 7 Tip: If you need a Windows 7 hardware driver chances are the equivalent Windows Vista will work.

So now with 100% hardware detected I went about testing some non business applications like Steam and iTunes.

No problems encountered and the machine is running like a dream.

The Windows 7 Windows Experience Index looks like this.

Note the XPS is running with an Intel X25-M so the hard disk performance is better than you would get from a shipping Dell.

Thoughts

I think Microsoft might actually do some upgrade business from Windows 7. Basically if you have a Windows Vista machine chances are it’s going to be a much better user experience on Windows 7.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 9:39 am and is filed under Tech Tips, Windows 7. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.