Windows 7 on Latitude E6400

I am really interested in your findings. Just keep in mind that you are using Vista drivers and/or Win7 beta under development, first generation drivers for your devices. Even thus Win7 drivers system is very similar, and perhaps identical. Perhaps they were changes in system libraries or some section of the OS that the drivers needs, and has an issue with or simply not optimized. (which leads to Win7 drivers being in beta).

Also, checkout this page, second item.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/whats-new-work.aspx
This should give you a difference over Vista. Also remember something, don't follow what Windows/Mac OS says as battery life. Again, Windows goes "If you do exactly what you do non stop, you should have xx hours of battery life". An OS can't predict your battery life, as we humans, we do different things that are unpredictable for a machine to... well, predict. Also, if you have USB peripherals attached to your system, that draws powers as well - even a wired/wireless mouse.

 

Hmm, it looks like my findings were right on. At least with this release candidate, battery life isn't much improved.

http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=3557&p=14. I'll try to do some comprehensive battery tests after finals -_-.

 

Installed twice. Couldn't get "personalize" nor control panel to open (it did once after the second install). Restored backup. Much happier.

 

Has anyone been having problems with the smart card reader? In the event log there is a problem related to smart card reader that is causing the system to freeze/hang for a short time on startup

 

YES, there is a pressing need to install the IMSM driver or manger. The native windows 7 driver does NOT work well for this machine, period. It MAY have gotten a bit better since the build 7000 release, but just install it. Check the changelog provided by intel for fixes, etc., or just trust me. but install it.

 

Agreed, my laptop is a pineapple under Vista. It needs Intel Matrix drivers which I can't find.

 

Did you install the Dell System Software? I still don't know what it really does.

 

I did a clean install of Windows 7 on the E6400 and I must say it runs great straight from the installation.

I installed the latest NVidia Windows 7 64-bit drivers for the NVS160M but haven't installed any other drivers. Is there anything urgent that needs to be installed from the Dell website?

Like the IMSM driver for example...?

 

I don't know about you guys, but I found quiet some important bugs in Windows 7 RC. :/

• Moving pined items up/down in the Start Menu, can make the the recent program list disappear all by itself.
  
• Browsing item by item in the Control Panel can result to an error in the panel "failed to load", and then Windows Explorer stop responding.
  
• Start Menu search can't find panels added by drivers (sound card/video card), however it works when looking for other things, and within the Control Panel window search bar.
  
• When DPI is set 150%, IE8 and Firefox crashes when you start typing in any field. (probably affect other software)
  
• XP Mode is not as advertise 100% compatibility, as when you run software that require input other then keyboard/mouse (ie: microphone), it can't use it, which render the software useless.
  
• Windows XP compatibility always run applications as Admin. What if I don't want to run it as admin? Why have the check box to allow you to run the application as admin? (I have an application that works under Vista, but not under Win7... shame.)
  
• Help icon in the mobility panel (Win+X) is still from Windows XP.
  
• Char Map text in the status bar is not aligned properly vertically.
  
• Char Map dropdown box (the one you use to select a font), is not properly centered vertically
  
• Windows Journal.. oh boy... most icons are badly drawn, and the "zoom page" drop down box is miss aligned going over a line separator.
  
• "Phone and Modem" Control Panel, dates since Windows 95. It's not even using Aero buttons.
  
• Blurry Recycle bin icon in the right click menu on the recycle bin icon (when enabled).
  
• Disk loading cursor dates from Windows 95.
  
• Using Windows Standard theme, the crumb-bar (address bar) section are smaller then there field.
  
• Using Windows Standard theme, on the start menu, the blue cancel (X) button that appears next to the search bar when you perform a search is smaller than the search icon.
  
• Tool tip on "Minimize", "Maximize/Restore", and "Close" buttons on windows is still using Classic Windows style.
  
• When expending the "Add gadget" panel by clicking on "Show details", the panel gives this vibrate feel (the window is not drawn properly make it jump during animation)

Feels like missing feature:
You know on the Start Menu, you have 2 items Windows Media Player 12, and Sticky Notes, where it can open up to the left of the start menu to offer some quick actions.. well this is totally incomplete, making it useless.
Look at Sticky note, you have "New Note"... that's it. What is the point? That is what it does by default when you click on the "Sticky Note". How about show the list of notes written down?
For Windows Media Player 12, why not have my playlists, and/or "play video" and "play DVD" when a DVD movie is inserted? Anything to make it useful.

Well that is all for now.

 

Always a good time to submit it to the Bug Reporter.