Windows 7, Dell XPS M1330 with XP, fun movies
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
If you don’t care about Windows operating systems, skip to the bottom of this post for the fun movie stuff.
For the rest of you poor souls: The unveiling of Microsoft Windows 7 last night at the D6 Conference reminded me that I never shared my process for reformatting my Dell XPS M1330 laptop from Windows Vista to XP Professional. If there are fellow XPS M1330 (or similar) owners out there who loathe Vista bloatware and would prefer to easily “downgrade” to XP as the lesser of evils, then look no further.
The process was fairly painless. I’d recommend it if you need to stick with Windows but would like your computing resources to be used a bit less wastefully (since it’s very difficult to find ideal systems with factory-installed Windows XP at this point). Here is the handy guide to finding and installing all of the XPS M1330 drivers you’ll need after wiping Vista and completing a fresh XP installation: “Installing Windows XP on the Dell XPS m1330.” (Note: Make sure to disable AHCI in the BIOS before installing XP.) The only driver I was missing after going through this guide was the Dell wireless networking driver (R151517.EXE), since I received the Dell Wireless 1505 mini-card instead of the Intel wireless card.
Here are a few thoughts about the forthcoming Windows operating system: Windows 7 seems to continue the move toward a look & feel very similar to Mac OS X, with the addition of touch-screen functionality. The multitouch interface that Microsoft is trying to get everyone excited about seems pretty much like what the iPhone and MS Surface already do. Microsoft announced that Windows 7 will be available in late 2009 or early 2010.
Is this new OS a means for Windows users to bypass Vista completely? Sounds like it. PC Magazine says: “Windows 7 Already a Threat to Vista.” Good. Clearly the competition from Apple and Firefox on the respective OS and browser fronts is actually spurring Microsoft to innovate . . . yes, uh, innovate. Go Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8! Here’s to sucking less!
Now for some fun movie news:
Check out this kickass Russian trailer for the movie Wanted. I had to go find an inferior version of the trailer in English to get a better sense of what was going on. Curve the bullet! I’m guessing we just saw all of the awesome parts of Wanted in those two minutes? Dare we imagine the entire movie being awesome? Nah.
A friend reports that Indiana Jones 4 destroyed his faith in life. I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s on my list of movies to see, with fellow blockbusters The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and Iron Man.