My Dell Mini Forum

Windows 7 - Ultimate Drivers list and installation

After struggling with drivers for Windows 7 Beta 1, I've decided to make an all-inclusive guide to help with drivers.
You can find out how to install Windows 7 via a USB drive here.

Note: Because Windows 7 is essentially Vista in regards to driver compatibility, it's been pointed by holmes4 out that many of the Vista drivers for the Mini 12 will work under Windows 7 on the Mini 9. I would recommend restarting your computer as recommended by the installation programs before going on to the next driver.

• Enable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth toggling via the Battery Meter/Wireless Switch. No special instructions, just install like normal and your Fn-2 key will work as it did under XP.
• [Added by holmes4] Despite the above saying it includes the Battery Meter function (Fn-3), it doesn't. This does, so install it also if you want Fn-3 to work. The only other thing it does is add a way to disable further charging of the battery while on AC power until the next reboot, so you can live without it.
• New - Updated Bluetooth drivers for enabling additional profiles such as A2DP wireless audio.
• For the wired LAN connection, if you can connect wirelessly to the Internet, just go to Windows Update and it will be an optional download.
  Otherwise, you'll need the Mini-12's vista drivers for the Realtek LAN RTL8102EL. Run the exe to extract the drivers (default C:\Dell\Drivers\R196115\). Setup will attempt to run, but it will inform you that it's incompatible with this version of Windows. From here, go to the Start Menu and [right-click] on Computer and choose Manage. In the Computer Management screen, choose Device Manager from the left side of the screen, and then expand the Network adapters. [Right-click] the Realtek item and choose Update Driver Software. Browse your computer for the software, and go to C:\Dell\Drivers\R196115\WINVISTA\32 and click next. The driver will be installed, and wired LAN will work.
• To enable side-scolling and other features on the touch pad, download either the Dell or Synaptics touch pad drivers. There are more features available if you download from the Synaptics site.
• The drivers for the Jmicron card reader (*updated 2009-08-14) will add Sony Memory Stick and MMS support to the card reader.
• Finally, the Creative Labs web cam driver is optional, as people are reporting that the webcam works with the generic Windows drivers.

Once you're done with driver installations, check out my other post, Windows 7 - Ultimate SSD Speed Tweaks.

I hope this guide was helpful to you in getting all the features of your Dell Mini working under Windows 7.

Have fun with Windows 7!