Windows 7 on XPS M1530

Intro
Unfortunately Dell does not offer official drivers for Windows 7 for the XPS M1530, probably because they have and probably will never sell an XPS M1530 with Windows 7 preinstalled. Today I installed Windows 7 Professional x64 on my XPS M1530, to replace Vista x64. So far it has been nothing but smooth sailing. I formatted my 125GB NTFS partition which had Vista Ultimate SP2 x64, and installed Windows 7 Professional x64 which I was able to get early through MSDNAA.

Supported by default in Windows 7
By default Windows 7 installed working Wi-Fi for the Intel 4965AGN card and the onboard sound (including HDMI support). However, drivers for the 8600M GT were not auto installed by Windows 7 and did not show up in the Windows Update.

Found by Windows Update
Windows Update found several drivers including the Creative drivers for the built in webcam, and also took the privilege of auto installing Dell Webcam console you are probably familiar with. Windows Update also found drivers for the SD card reader, and UPEK fingerprint reader.

Drivers I downloaded
Some things you will need to install drivers for yourself. In addition to manually installing 186.03 drivers from Nvidia's website (the latest they show for Windows 7 x64 at them moment). I ended up using the latest touchpad drivers for the Studio 1537 which have circular scrolling and work great in Windows 7 with the M1530.

Dell Touchpad Drivers

Nvidia 64-bit Windows 7 8400M/8600M GT drivers (186.81 WHQL)


Native Fingerprint Reader Compatiblity
One cool thing is in Windows 7 you can forget the bloated software by UPEK, Windows 7 supports the XPS M1530's fingerprint reader with the built in Biometric Devices center built into the Control Panel. Logging on works perfectly without the need for the bloated UPEK software you needed in Vista. One thing though is that you can not encrypt files with this built in software, so you may want to still use the UPEK software if you need to password protect folders and files with the fingerprint reader.

Conclusion
I will keep adding more to this as I go on, and let us know how Windows 7 is working on your XPS M1530 and if you got any questions let me know. So far it has been a completely painless process and I would recommend upgrading your M1530 to Windows 7 as soon as you can.

1 Month Update
So it has been a few days over a month running Windows 7 Pro on the M1530 and all the issues I was having have been solved (which was only one issue I can think of). I had a problem getting an internet connection for my guest VMs in VMWare, but that was fixed in 6.5.3 which added Windows 7 support. Other than that I can say that I haven't had any issues. Everything installed fine and is still running great. I'm able to connect to all the wireless networks out there with the drivers Windows 7 found for the Intel 4965AGN, but I still haven't tried the Bluetooth, but I'd imagine that works fine with the Vista drivers. Fun fact: The Dell 355 bluetooth card works natively in Mac OS X Leopard but not in Windows 7.

The media keys all work by default in Win 7, as I did not install anything and they all work as they should. Same goes for the remote (no surprise there). Both audio jacks working with Windows 7 provided drivers. Same goes for mic jack and built in mic.

So is it worth updating your XPS M1530 to Windows 7? Yes. If you cannot get it for cheap/free through school or work, I'd recommend waiting till Newegg is selling OEM copies of Windows 7 Home Premium for around $100. The retail price is a bit too high to pay if you already own Vista.


Last Updated: 9/22/09

 

hmm... my m1330's 8400M GS were found by windows 7 update...

 

The inconsistencies of Windows Update. It is a different videocard though (I have the 8600M GT), but still I've reinstalled Windows on the same machine in the past and had different things show up in Windows Update for drivers and such. Either way, most people will probably want to get the video drivers from Nvidia, especially if they plan to play any modern 3D games.

 

Does anyone know if Dell will ever release Windows 7 drivers for the M1530? Sure Vista drivers will work but official support would be nice.

 

+Rep to the OP.

I just installed the W7 RC as a dual boot on one of my desktops. Now I'm considering to install it as an entire replacement to Vista on my M1530. I was wary about non-existant drivers for the fingerprint reader and other stuff but this thread is reassuring.

Any idea how many activations/installations we can do with the single activation key? I seem to remember three but am not sure.

 

I would also suggest the latest Dell Bluetooth drivers if you want to use advanced features such as Stereo Bluetooth headsets (A2DP) as Windows 7 doesn't include it

 

Wouldnt Dell have to offer support for Win7?

The Win7 upgrade for any computers bought after June 26 2009. the m1330/m1530 werent discontinued until early August. So any m1530 bought after june 26 would be eligible to receive a copy of Win7 from Dell

https://win7.dell.com/Eligibility.aspx

 

It depends what you mean by support though. As has already been pointed out most of the hardware has built in support or Windows Update support - so Dell don't need to provide anything else

It's only really the Display and Bluetooth drivers that need updating for any meaningful reason - but then Dell don't really bother currently, so are unlikely to change for W7

However I would hope that telephone support deals with issues if you have W7 rather than ask you to put Vista back on

Saying all of that W7 driver options may well appear once the OS is offically released

 

Do I want Windows 7 32bit or 64bit? I already downloaded and installed Windows 7 32bit thinking that was the right one. Should I do it all over again with 64bit? I was planning on upgrading the 2GB RAM soon(if it's easy enough?)...

 

You will want 64-bit Windows if you are upgrading to 4GB of RAM. And even if you will be sticking with 2GB of RAM it doesn't hurt to run 64-bit. I'd recommend everyone install 64-bit Windows 7 who has a 64-bit CPU. If you have an M1530 then you have a 64-bit compatible CPU.