A Clean install of Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 and 2 installed before the system drivers works fine. 7 is better though. There are much more problems when a clean install is not performed.
If going to Windows 7, run the Windows 7 upgrade advisor before deciding 32 bit or 64 bit. Dell only has Windows Vista 32 bit drivers for your system, these can be used with Windows 7 32 bit all except for the bluetooth, you will need to use another driver for that (mentioned later). There are no official Dell listing of 64 bit drivers although they might be around, some people done it here but don't have a full compliment and the system may not work as well as the 32 bit version.
4 GB of RAM is maximum for this model, you can scan your system here and upgrade if you want, if sticking with the 32 bit OS then you will likely only be able to use 3.25 GB or 3.5 GB so may not get any benefit..
As the maximum memory is only 4 GB there is not much benefit installing the 64 bit version of Windows 7. The 32 bit version and 3 GB of RAM will probably be the most worthwhile.
Thanks for all the great info. I am planning on jumping to 7 but staying with 32 bit and my 3 GB of ram (not MB like my original post said - brain fart - I guess I'm showing my age - :). Ran 7 update advisor and just needed a couple of drivers. No bluetooth to worry about. Printed your Wiki's (wonderful info - you should be a technical writer if you aren't making a living as one already!) and am getting everything ready. I suppose it's like a painting project - preparation is 90% of the job. Out of curiosity, how do you feel 7 is better than Vista?
Last question - does the 7Pro edition really have any advantage over the home version? I'm not sure what programs would need to run in "XP Mode" and don't think I'd need to "connect to company networks more easily and securely with DomainJoin". We just have a home network and firewall and I'll be synching files with a colleague of mine who works out of her house as I do. Would 7Home be sufficient or is it worth the extra $80 to get 7Pro?
Thanks again for your willingness to share your wisdom!
The difference in versions is here. You probably won't need Professional or Ultimate.
I would say its not worth going for Professional because you are not going to run into any of the constrains of the Home Edition on your Laptop and can't attempt to use more than 16 GB of RAM on your unit as your unit supports 4 GB Max.
Personally I use XP Mode quite often, especially for trying out some software or some old software or some software written for Windows XP or earlier versions of Windows. However I use some specialised software, most standard applications will work natively on Windows 7 and I don't think you will need XP mode.
You can download the .iso for different Windows 7 editions here. You get a 30 day trial if you don't enter a product key, why don't you try using the Home Edition before buying it? If you buy a copy of Home Premium later you can simply put in the product key and activate. If you find you need Professional (which is unlikely) you will need to perform a second clean install but if you have everything you need already backed up and a copy of the drivers etc. then a second clean install is easy.
With regards to Windows Vista, when it was first released people bought it and their computers weren't quite good enough to run it, you could install it but it didn't run well - I done that with my old laptop and it was dreadful. With my newer laptop it worked much better, your laptop should be fine also.
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 fixed a great deal of issues that Vista had when it first came out. Unfortunately it also caused alot of issues... I found installing Vista then Service Pack 1 and then the drivers was not the same as installing Vista then the drivers and then Service Pack 1. The former worked perfectly, the later had many problems which is why I emphasised it quite a bit in my wiki. Vista worked really well for me. Windows 7 tends to be more stable than Windows Vista especially with regards to memory consumption. For example my old laptop runs 7 as well as it runs Windows XP, it is slow in both compared to newer machines but runs alot worse under Vista.
For most people that experienced problems with Windows Vista, Windows 7 has worked fine for them right out of the box. I still find there to be better performance having Windows 7 Service Pack 1 before the drivers.
To compare both, for looks they are almost identical. The biggest noticeable difference regardless of performance is the taskbar:
This is Windows 7 default settings. It tends to group every item into squares if you hover the mouse over the square then it shows mini previews of the files, for example I have 2 blank word documents open. You may pin your favourite items to the taskbar as shown. i.e. Quicklaunch is integrated with the applications. You may launch the application by clicking on it however pressing the Windows Key and a # will also launch the application, for example if I press [Windows] and [4] then Excel will open. The notification area is also cleaned up to a tray.
Vista on the other hand doesn't have that functionality and although looks like Windows 7, the taskbar and notification area are very much the same as in Windows XP. There are one or two other minor differences with regard to the start menu and the taskbar.
Actually I tend to customise my Windows 7 to lie somewhere in between the 2:
Aerosnap is also a small but very useful thing
Drag a Window to the far left or right of the screen and it will snap in place to fill only the left half or right half respectively. Drag it to the top and it will fill the whole screen. Alternatively press [Windows] and [←], [Windows] and [→] or [Windows] and [↑] to achieve the same thing. I find this extremely useful.
There are many shortcut keys in Windows 7 associated with the Windows Key. [Windows] and
quickly skims through external monitor, projector settings.
One could say all the differences between the 2 are small quirks but I personally find them to greatly improve productivity. System performance and stability is the main driving force for a Windows 7 upgrade.
Note I have Actual Windows Manager so in that screenshot I have additional buttons beside minimise, maximise and Close (top right), these buttons aren't in Windows XP/Vista/7 but come from Actual Windows Manager.
Thanks for the comment on my technical writing. I don't make a living out of it as I am a PhD student but I am trained to write in that manner and it is very useful in my line of work.
Yes, I clicked on your profile after I sent my last post and it all made sense (I had to make sure you weren't some snotty nosed 10 year old secretly on the computer after bedtime giving bogus advise to needy middle aged moms!). Don't get many papers published as a scientist if you can't write well! So, being a physicist, are you losing sleep at the prospect that Einstein's theory of relativity may be incorrect? Have any other teams duplicated or disproved the findings? I must admit that I get a twinkle in my eye at the thought of going faster than the speed of light (and thus backward in time) now that I am starting to notice a few gray hairs here and there. :)
Thanks for your comparison of the Windows versions - it was very insightfull.
Philip_Yip
9 Legend
•
16.1K Posts
0
May 14th, 2012 15:00
Hi Nicole
A Clean install of Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 and 2 installed before the system drivers works fine. 7 is better though. There are much more problems when a clean install is not performed.
If going to Windows 7, run the Windows 7 upgrade advisor before deciding 32 bit or 64 bit. Dell only has Windows Vista 32 bit drivers for your system, these can be used with Windows 7 32 bit all except for the bluetooth, you will need to use another driver for that (mentioned later). There are no official Dell listing of 64 bit drivers although they might be around, some people done it here but don't have a full compliment and the system may not work as well as the 32 bit version.
4 GB of RAM is maximum for this model, you can scan your system here and upgrade if you want, if sticking with the 32 bit OS then you will likely only be able to use 3.25 GB or 3.5 GB so may not get any benefit..
As the maximum memory is only 4 GB there is not much benefit installing the 64 bit version of Windows 7. The 32 bit version and 3 GB of RAM will probably be the most worthwhile.
For best results follow my wiki A Clean Install of Windows. Note here I mention the bluetooth drivers.
smartsquared
4 Posts
0
May 15th, 2012 22:00
Hi Natakuc4,
Thanks for all the great info. I am planning on jumping to 7 but staying with 32 bit and my 3 GB of ram (not MB like my original post said - brain fart - I guess I'm showing my age - :). Ran 7 update advisor and just needed a couple of drivers. No bluetooth to worry about. Printed your Wiki's (wonderful info - you should be a technical writer if you aren't making a living as one already!) and am getting everything ready. I suppose it's like a painting project - preparation is 90% of the job. Out of curiosity, how do you feel 7 is better than Vista?
Last question - does the 7Pro edition really have any advantage over the home version? I'm not sure what programs would need to run in "XP Mode" and don't think I'd need to "connect to company networks more easily and securely with DomainJoin". We just have a home network and firewall and I'll be synching files with a colleague of mine who works out of her house as I do. Would 7Home be sufficient or is it worth the extra $80 to get 7Pro?
Thanks again for your willingness to share your wisdom!
Nicole
Philip_Yip
9 Legend
•
16.1K Posts
0
May 16th, 2012 01:00
Hi Nicole
The difference in versions is here. You probably won't need Professional or Ultimate.
I would say its not worth going for Professional because you are not going to run into any of the constrains of the Home Edition on your Laptop and can't attempt to use more than 16 GB of RAM on your unit as your unit supports 4 GB Max.
Personally I use XP Mode quite often, especially for trying out some software or some old software or some software written for Windows XP or earlier versions of Windows. However I use some specialised software, most standard applications will work natively on Windows 7 and I don't think you will need XP mode.
You can download the .iso for different Windows 7 editions here. You get a 30 day trial if you don't enter a product key, why don't you try using the Home Edition before buying it? If you buy a copy of Home Premium later you can simply put in the product key and activate. If you find you need Professional (which is unlikely) you will need to perform a second clean install but if you have everything you need already backed up and a copy of the drivers etc. then a second clean install is easy.
With regards to Windows Vista, when it was first released people bought it and their computers weren't quite good enough to run it, you could install it but it didn't run well - I done that with my old laptop and it was dreadful. With my newer laptop it worked much better, your laptop should be fine also.
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 fixed a great deal of issues that Vista had when it first came out. Unfortunately it also caused alot of issues... I found installing Vista then Service Pack 1 and then the drivers was not the same as installing Vista then the drivers and then Service Pack 1. The former worked perfectly, the later had many problems which is why I emphasised it quite a bit in my wiki. Vista worked really well for me. Windows 7 tends to be more stable than Windows Vista especially with regards to memory consumption. For example my old laptop runs 7 as well as it runs Windows XP, it is slow in both compared to newer machines but runs alot worse under Vista.
For most people that experienced problems with Windows Vista, Windows 7 has worked fine for them right out of the box. I still find there to be better performance having Windows 7 Service Pack 1 before the drivers.
To compare both, for looks they are almost identical. The biggest noticeable difference regardless of performance is the taskbar:
This is Windows 7 default settings. It tends to group every item into squares if you hover the mouse over the square then it shows mini previews of the files, for example I have 2 blank word documents open. You may pin your favourite items to the taskbar as shown. i.e. Quicklaunch is integrated with the applications. You may launch the application by clicking on it however pressing the Windows Key and a # will also launch the application, for example if I press [Windows] and [4] then Excel will open. The notification area is also cleaned up to a tray.
Vista on the other hand doesn't have that functionality and although looks like Windows 7, the taskbar and notification area are very much the same as in Windows XP. There are one or two other minor differences with regard to the start menu and the taskbar.
Actually I tend to customise my Windows 7 to lie somewhere in between the 2:
Aerosnap is also a small but very useful thing
Drag a Window to the far left or right of the screen and it will snap in place to fill only the left half or right half respectively. Drag it to the top and it will fill the whole screen. Alternatively press [Windows] and [←], [Windows] and [→] or [Windows] and [↑] to achieve the same thing. I find this extremely useful.
There are many shortcut keys in Windows 7 associated with the Windows Key. [Windows] and
quickly skims through external monitor, projector settings.
One could say all the differences between the 2 are small quirks but I personally find them to greatly improve productivity. System performance and stability is the main driving force for a Windows 7 upgrade.
Note I have Actual Windows Manager so in that screenshot I have additional buttons beside minimise, maximise and Close (top right), these buttons aren't in Windows XP/Vista/7 but come from Actual Windows Manager.
Thanks for the comment on my technical writing. I don't make a living out of it as I am a PhD student but I am trained to write in that manner and it is very useful in my line of work.
smartsquared
4 Posts
0
May 16th, 2012 16:00
Hi Philip,
Yes, I clicked on your profile after I sent my last post and it all made sense (I had to make sure you weren't some snotty nosed 10 year old secretly on the computer after bedtime giving bogus advise to needy middle aged moms!). Don't get many papers published as a scientist if you can't write well! So, being a physicist, are you losing sleep at the prospect that Einstein's theory of relativity may be incorrect? Have any other teams duplicated or disproved the findings? I must admit that I get a twinkle in my eye at the thought of going faster than the speed of light (and thus backward in time) now that I am starting to notice a few gray hairs here and there. :)
Thanks for your comparison of the Windows versions - it was very insightfull.
Nicole