Hi everyone, newbie and windows 7.

[Rodney123]

Hi, I recently bought a Sony vaio vgn-NW11s/s and I`m loving the laptop.

Right now, Vista (home premium) is working fine for me (it didnt on my last laptop) but I am going to order the windows 7 upgrade very soon. I dont think I will install it straight away as I would rather let a few bugs be ironed out first but I have a few questions.

1. Can I delay my installation to when suits me.
2. Will I discover any problems with the laptops standard spec, graphics card etc.
3. Will all my vista running software work fine and pre-installed software.
4. Do I need to ensure my vista has all the latest updates and is this relevant to the download if I do an "in place" upgrade.
5. Is the "in place" upgrade the best way to go forward. I`ve just got all my software and pictures etc back on this new machine so I do not want to go through that again!
5. On the upgrade pages it says that it does not include windows mail (which I use)and outlook express. Does this mean I will lose windows mail? or does this only happen if I do a clean install.

Thanks.

[Blencogo]

Hi Rodney123 and welcome to Club Vaio.

The Sony Windows 7 Upgrade Kit comes with all the drivers etc to make sure everything works with Windows 7 the same as it does for Vista.

Sony only offer an Upgrade In-Place so you will keep all Software, Updates, Data, Settings exactly as you have set up Vista.

1. You can delay the installation until it suits you but you must have ordered your Sony Upgrade Kit before the cut-off deadline of 31 January 2010. You may as well order it now as no upgrades will be done to the kit in the future.

2. No

3. Some older software will not run on Windows 7. I recommend you run the Windows 7 Update Compatibility Advisor and it will tell you if any software will not work. Outlook Express is one of the programs that won't work.

4. Yes, Vista must be fully patched before you upgrade.

5. Windows Live Mail can be downloaded and works OK. Outlook will not work.

The Upgrade Kit removes the Recovery Partition as part of the upgrade process. Make sure you burn at least two sets of Recovery Discs and verify they are OK.



EDIT: Sorry I didn't realise you had two 5's!

5. Yes, an Upgrade in Place will retain all your programs and data.

[ash_c64]

I have a NW11Z/T which has 4gb of ram which yours also has, and sonys upgrade kit will be a 32bit opertaing system only. Before i ordered the kit i test installed the 32bit version of windows 7 very thing worked except my vaio recognised less then 3gb of ram, which i found abit annoying so i purcashed a 64bit windows 7 from microsoft instead. All the new NW models comes with windows 7 64bit operating system so there is pleny of support.

[Rodney123]

I have a NW11Z/T which has 4gb of ram which yours also has, and sonys upgrade kit will be a 32bit opertaing system only. Before i ordered the kit i test installed the 32bit version of windows 7 very thing worked except my vaio recognised less then 3gb of ram, which i found abit annoying so i purcashed a 64bit windows 7 from microsoft instead. All the new NW models comes with windows 7 64bit operating system so there is pleny of support.

Yeh, I think all 32bit operating systems only read just over 3gb of ram (?) and most laptops do run on 32bit (or did until this latest release of windows). Mine is currently running on 32bit vista so it doesnt bother me so much. I have a tv tuner which is compatible with windows media centre and the remote control only works with a 32bit system (strange) so I think I may stay with a 32bit windows 7. Thanks for the comment though.

I assume you couldnt pay extra for a 64 bit win7, and you had to buy it as new?

EDIT: you have me thinking about this now.......If I can pay a small price for 64bit upgrade rather than taking the 32 bit I would be silly not too, i think!

[Rodney123]

 blencogo,
EDIT: Sorry I didn't realise you had two 5's!

 

You passed the test!

thank you for your time and comments.

Is windows live mail any different to windows mail which I use? I thought I was running outlook until I checked last night. It looks the same as at my work to be honest, and thats outlook.

[Oterias]

I have a NW11Z/T which has 4gb of ram which yours also has, and sonys upgrade kit will be a 32bit opertaing system only. Before i ordered the kit i test installed the 32bit version of windows 7 very thing worked except my vaio recognised less then 3gb of ram, which i found abit annoying so i purcashed a 64bit windows 7 from microsoft instead. All the new NW models comes with windows 7 64bit operating system so there is pleny of support.

Which bluetooth and SFEP drivers did you use ash_c64?

The ones off the sony site don't seem to be working properly for me. Just installed the same os on the same system as you. Installed all the 64 bit drivers I could find. Now I keep getting the message that the blue tooth stack isn't working and that my sfep is missing a driver (I have installed settings utilities, event management, power management and sony control centre so all the F and S buttons are working). I got my sfep driver automatically through microsoft update because the sony 64 bit version wouldn't work for me. Also had to look around for a 64 bit alps pointing device driver and SD card drivers because these are not on the sony uk site yet. The sony BD/DVD driver gave the message not compatible with my device so I left the one that microsoft installed. I also notice when watching films that my screen now keeps going dark after 10 mins. Sony support doesn't seem to be working that well for me.

Anyone else had similar problems since installing the 64 bit os?

[Blencogo]

You passed the test!

In the end I spotted it!!

I would Google 'Windows Live Mail' and see if it looks familiar.

Think carefully about 64-bit - you will lose ALL your preinstalled software programs and only a few bits are downloadable. You will have to set Windows 7 up from scratch and reinstall all your settings, programs, data, music, pictures, drivers, utilities etc. It will also cost you £70 for Home Premium or £170 for Ultimate because an upgrade is not possible from Sony because it will break Microsoft's strict rules for the Upgrade Kit.

If you only have 4GB of ram there is an argument that you are not much worse off with 3GB and a 32-bit system because the 64-bit Operating System uses twice the memory to run itself - for every 32-bits of memory used now, 64-bit will use 64 bits. You probably need 6 or 8GB to see the full benefit.

There is no doubt that 64-bit systems are the future and everyone will be using them in a few years' time. They generally run faster but drivers and other software is still not always readily available and I think most people will wait until they buy their next replacement with 64-bit preinstalled.

That said quite a few are taking the plunge into 64-bit. All I am doing is urging you to think about it carefully.

[KrsChris]

Will the 64 bit edition work on a NW11S/s?

Edit: Ok i found the second page, thanks this is the info I was after and delivered instantly

[Rodney123]

Blencogo
  All I am doing is urging you to think about it carefully.

 

Yeh, I noticed later I would have to do a clean install, along with your other advice I think you are correct. I dont really use the Vaio software but I think the best bet for me is to maintain the 32bit system. Thanks for the advice.

I now have enough information to order windows 7 and proceed down the line.

Much appreciated.

[ash_c64]

Hi Oterias,
after installing windows 7 my bluetooth worked fine without me doing anything and had no problem with SFEP drivers...

Things I installed are:
Sony Setting Utilities
Sony Event Service
Sony Shared libary
Chipset drivers

Also installed the Memory Card and SD card Drivers..

I had a UNKNOWN DEVICE which i managed to download from the american website
It was the Original - Sony® Firmware Extension Parser Device Driver.

Also managed to get the the Alps pointing device, camera software from the too.

Yep i had the screen dimming problem to, all i did was go to power settings and changed the setting so it will not dim at all.