Downloading Precision Drivers Question

I am about to format my SSD and install W8.1 on my M4700 and I had a question regarding reinstalling the Dell drivers.

1. Does the W8.1 do the driver installation by itself or should I do them myself at Dell website after the installation is done?

2. On a new OS, should you upgrade the BIOS first? What should be the general order of install?
Drivers & Downloads | Dell US

3. Sometimes when you go to download page of a driver, you have to choose between "update package" and just the normal exe file. Which one should you go for?
Download File | Dell US

4. Is it important to install the previous versions of a driver before you install the new one? Or can you just go for the newest driver right away?

5. Does the W8.1 have the two-finger tap right click enabled on the touchpad? I currently do not have this on my Windows 7, but other W8.1 laptops I have tried at a store all seem to have the two-finger tap enabled by default. I am not sure if this would be the case on a Dell M4700.


I know these are a lot of questions, but if you could please let me know, I would very much appreciate it

 

1. Windows 8.1 should include most drivers (or find them on Windows Update). Things you'll need install manually are the freefall sensor driver, fingerprint reader (if you have one), and the touchpad driver.

2. Do the BIOS upgrade first if you can.

3. Get the normal EXE.

4. No, going straight for the new driver is fine.

5. If you install the touchpad drivers from Dell you will get to configure different multi-touch and tap functionality. The Windows 8 stock driver won't have this.

 

Okay I just installed W8.1 and I cannot access "Dell Touchpad" program.

It does install on my computer fine, its just that I cannot find it in the program list, or from searching "Dell" in windows.

Any help?

Thanks!

EDIT: The touchpad program was hiding in the notification center. I just found it!

 

It seems that I can install the Dell Controlvault software here but I can never find the installed program in my computer.
Drivers & Downloads | Dell US

I am not sure what is going on here, and yes, I did check the notification center this time as well!

Could someone help with setting up the fingerprint scanner with windows 8.1?

 

Install ControlVault and the ControlVault firmware. Windows 8.1 has built-in fingerprint reading ability. You can access it in the modern "PC settings" control panel, under "accounts" and then "sign-in settings."

 

Okay just one more thing I wanted to ask

I installed the newest touchpad driver and I realized that there is no longer an option to do one finger scroll and one finger zoom at the right and left edge of the touchpad respectively? Is this the case with other users as well?

The original one finger scroll and zoom are replaced by one-finger swipe options for me.

 

This seems to the case, the one-finger swipe options are for Windows 8's "swipe from the edge" features. (I use two-finger scroll which works better IMO, but never cared for the zoom feature.)

 

Thanks Aaron,

I ,too, mostly use two finger scroll, but for zooming one finger was a lot better as it gave me more precision.

Anyways, good to know that my touchpad is functioning normally; I am sure I will adjust to the lack of the one finger gestures.

 

Actually just one more thing, if you don't mind

Do you have the fn + f5 pop up working for the touchpad?

I can turn on/off the touchpad and the pointing stick using the fn + f5 hot keys, but I don't see the popups.

Not a huge deal for me since I rarely ever turn off the touchpad, but I just find it interesting.

Other popups for screen brightness and speaker all work (although it is a different style compared to windows 7)

 

Screen brightness and speaker popups are built into Windows 8. I think you need another app for the touchpad popups (Dell Feature Enhancement Pack?), I don't see them.