Installing Windows 7 on a Dell Latitude D420

Microsoft released Windows 7 with a big ad campaign that alleged this version of Windows is the most usable version ever. You’ve probably seen the ads, including this sickeningly cute one:

The question on my mind was if this new operating system from Microsoft would run on my trusty Dell Latitude D420.

Dell Latitude D420

If you’ve ever used one, you realize it is no speed demon. The specs were underwhelming when new, and are borderline slow now. These are balanced and in my opinion outweighed by the laptop’s light weight and great battery life. It at very least is more powerful than the $200-300 netbooks available today utilizing Intel’s Atom chip. Besides, the trusty little laptop got me through law school, a bar exam, and is still trucking along months after its warranty expired. It deserved a shot at running Microsoft’s newest operating system.

• Processor: Intel Core Solo U1300 ULV 1.06 GHz
• Memory: 2GB DDR2 PC2-5300
• Video: Intel GMA 950
• Hard Drive: 60GB 4200RPM 1.8″ Hard Drive

Although this system is sufficient for Windows XP, straight from the factory it was not the fastest. Originally the system came with only one gig of ram. Adding an additional gigabyte greatly improved performance in Windows XP. I considered investing in a faster hard drive, maybe even an SSD, but was stymied when I discovered the D420 uses a 1.8inch PATA drive. This increased the cost of upgrading the hard drive beyond what I was willing to spend.

With my laptop’s specifications fixed, I examined Windows 7′s requirements. My laptop exceeded the minimums, suggesting I could at least install the operating system and give it a try. My primary requirement was Windows 7′s performance not be dramatically worse than Windows XP’s performance on my laptop. I could tolerate a slight decrease in performance, but any significant performance loss would just encourage me to spend on a completely new laptop.

That’s the absolute last thing I need at this point.

As Windows 7′s launch date approached, my interest in the new software continued to grow. I also became more sophisticated in justifying to myself that I should upgrade to Microsoft’s latest and greatest. Some highlights were as follows:

• Windows XP was already five years old when I got my laptop, and is now just over eight years old since the operating system was released. The look is getting dated and its time for something fresh. Also, I like the idea of offloading more of the UI to the video subsystem, even though my laptop’s video subsystem was mediocre at best.
• Microsoft has no further plans for additional service packs for Windows XP. (from Windows Service Pack Roadmap)
• Usability improvements in recent products like Office 2007 gave me some confidence that Microsoft finally understood what a well thought out UI really is.

After Windows 7 was released, I checked into the feasibility of upgrading my system to Windows 7. First off, I decided I would wipe my XP drive and install Windows 7 on a freshly formatted partition. This would give me a completely fresh system to work with. Fortunately, I had ample space on my 6TB home server to back up my important files.

My next task was to investigate any issues that might arise from my system’s configuration. I found the Latitude D420 listed as “Tested by Dell for Windows 7 Functionality” which means the system’s various components work fine in Windows 7. This should come as no surprise since the system was certified “Windows Vista Capable” when it was released, meaning its components had Vista drivers. Vista and Windows 7 share the same driver architecture, so even if no Windows 7 drivers existed for a component, Vista drivers would work just fine.

The Vista certification did not give me comfort regarding the system’s performance as “Windows Vista Capable” merely means the system could run Vista’s core features. The Windows 7 developers promised increased performance compared to Windows Vista, but would it be close to what Windows XP provided?

My last task was to run Microsoft’s Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to see if I would run into any problems with the new operating system. The software gave me an all clear, so now I was out of excuses. On a cold Monday in December, I formatted my laptop and installed Windows 7.

As promised by both Dell and Microsoft, on first impression the laptop’s various components were detected by Windows 7 and properly configured with no intervention on my part. After logging into Windows 7 however, I noticed the system’s touch pad was not operating appropriately. Several quick Google searches later, I discovered Dell did not provide any recent touch pad drivers for my system. On a crazy hunch, I downloaded a set of ALPS drivers for a different Dell laptop, hoping they would work for my D420.

The drivers installed and worked!

I proceeded to install my usual applications (Microsoft Office 2007, Paint.NET, Mozilla Firefox, Pidgin, iTunes, and several other essentials. All appear to be running perfectly without a hitch. I managed to transfer my iTunes library over to the new iTunes install as well, so I didn’t lose any of the various iPhone apps I’ve downloaded.

After using the operating system for an evening, I must say Windows 7 feels as fast as XP, but much prettier. Battery life seems comparable to XP as well. I didn’t have any benchmarks to compare since my Windows XP install was pretty broken near the end. But Firefox still loads fairly snappily, iTunes moves along as fast as can be expected on a Windows system, and Microsoft Word seems to work fine on large documents (80+ pages) still. Time will tell if Windows 7 remains on this laptop, but the first few hours of use suggest Windows XP has finally been banished from my laptop!