Windows 7 on Vaio P Series

[FourthProtocol]

Hi,

Am going to install Windows 7 on my P Series Vaio. Obviously I'm a bit concerned about drivers, and everything surrounding recovery disks.

Has anyone done this yet? If so, how did you install the Sony (P Series-specific) drivers in Windows 7?

Many thanks!

[Blencogo]

Hi Fourth Protocol and welcome.

We are assured that W7 is 100% compatible with the Vista Drivers already installed so it should work with your current drivers and utilities.

If I were you, before you do anything, I would buy a copy of Acronis True Image and copy an exact mirror of your Vista hard drive (including the recovery partition) to an external USB hard drive.

[FourthProtocol]

Hmmm.

I did a clean install of Windows 7, and then tried installing device drivers. Pointing Windows 7 at the recovery disks and then the recovery partition didn't yield any results (neither sight nor sound of any drivers).

I then went to the Vaio support web site, and got excited as all the original Vista drivers are there to download. I downloaded them all, and tried installing, one by one.

Windows 7 found the wireless LAN adapter without problems. Some of the drivers installed ok, but others not. I have no Bluetooth. Also, the wireless manager app is no longer there.

Will carry on playing with it to see what I can fix.

So I wouldn't go so far as to say all the Vista drivers work 100% 😉

[FourthProtocol]

Making progress.

All devices now have drivers under Windows 7, and I have Bluetooth working. Bluetooth resolved itself after applying all the updates from Windows Update. Bluetooth behaviour isn't quite as intuitive as on my Nokia E90, but that's a problem with Microsoft's implementation rather than the Vaio.

Four issues remain (no paticular order):

1). Everywair - I never got this to work under the default Vista install either. I was using my 3G -enabled Orange SIM, and suspect that the OS needs some other software from the network provider to make this work. My plan is to get a mobile broadband plan from T-Mobile and try from there.

2). Windows Aero - After updating the display driver using Windows Update, the Windows Experience Index rates the graphics (Aero) capability as a 4.2. I'm assuming a 4.2 isn't good enough for Aero. I will try upgrading the driver using the P-Series display driver, and seeing if that works.

3). The P-Series programmable keys - I haven't given these much attention yet, but suspect (hope, more like) that the drivers are amongst the lot I downloaded from the support web site. Will look into this when the next release of Windows 7 is out.

4). GPS - This is one I haven't looked at at all yet, and will also try and resolve when the next release of Windows 7 is out. I haven't seen drivers, and wonder if I even need any. We'll see. That said, I'm somewhat disapointed in the original Vista build - the US web site for the P-Series says that Microsoft's maps ship with the P-Series. I have a UK P-Series, and it came with Google Maps and a whole herd of Google apps, which I will not use (at least, not until Google change their privacy policies and sort out their business ethics).

Closing comments:

I didn't re-install Instant-On. It's huge, Windows 7 boots fast enough for my tastes, space on a 128Gb SSD drive is at a premium, I'm ambivalent about Firefox, and seriously dislike Linux.

An updated version of Windows 7 (I think it may be RC1) is due in a few days, and when I install that I'm going to bin the recovery partition. It (and the recovery CDs) are about as useful as a paperless toilet. I say that because if Windows 7 works (it does) then all I need are drivers, which I can't get from the recovery disks. Some of the apps (Nero) would be nice, but I can't extract those so what's the point?

All in all I'm pretty happy with Windows 7 on the P-Series. The Start menu is a lot faster than on Vista. Internet Explorer 8 is a huge improvement over 7 (and is noticeably faster). Windows 7 generally seems lighter than Vista, and faster on the P-Series.