Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

Actually, today i got "preparing for shipping" status, so i guess if nothing serious happens i should get my E6400 quicker then oct 7th.

 

Dell usually overestimates their shipping dates. Mine arrived two days earlier.

 

Wow that is great, normally it preps for a day then hits the shipper. Both our units went into production the same day, I wonder who's will ship first.

What kinda of screen and cpu did you get, that will change order times depending on stock, I heard the wxvga+ screens were back ordered.

 

Yea, I was told 30 days! But I got it 5 days later.

 

Question: as of now, all they have is the upgrade version. Is this the same or worse? I really hope they get the stand alone version in...

 

Sorry, I don't undertsand your question properly. Are you asking weather if the upgrade edition will be just as good as clean install, or that if Win7 will be made as an OS option for this laptop and not have the Win7 upgrade option over Vista's, like it is now.

So I'll answer to both, even though the first one is kinda off topic.

Upgrade disk will do a clean install if you pass from 2000, XP to Win7; pass from Vista 32-bit to Win7 64-bit, and if you downgrade edition.

Here is the full detailed technical table:
http://technet.microsoft.com/de-de/library/dd772579(WS.10).aspx

Simplified Table:
http://mossblog.allthingsd.com/files/2009/08/windows-upgrade-chart.png
NOTES:
- Windows 2000 is not shown on this table but is the same as XP
- Custom Install, means a clean install with the UPGRADE disk.

Assuming you do a Vista to Win7 in-place upgrade (this meaning transforming your Vista into Win7 and avoiding a full re-install of your application), and that your Vista was clean, meaning no Virus, or malware, or a corrupted registry, and you, if it's not already, install the latest Win7 drivers for everything in your computer. The end result of the upgrade should be just as good as a Win7 clean install.

Here is I why I think of this:
1- The NTFS version has not changed between Vista and Win7
2- Win7 has the same core than Vista, therefore works the same, therefore applications should not need any special thing to have them work (except of course Anti-virus, firewall, anti-spyware, and other security level software, of course).
3- Win7(NT6.1) is really based on Vista(NT5.0)
4- Microsoft had A LOT of experience with XP Upgrade and Vista Upgrade. So, I believe they should have it working very well this time.

Here is what I suggest to do before upgrading to Win7 from Vista.
- Scan your system for any possible virus, spyware or malware, to ensure that your system is clean and not transfer infected files to your new OS.
- Uninstall any security software (anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, etc...) This one is recommended by Microsoft, If I am not mistaken, if you do the upgrade starting from Vista, it will warn you about this (this is what I read, I have not tried it)
- Ensure that you have the latest BIOS of the system.

If you have more questions related to the above and not the Latitude E series, I beleive it might be best to post it under the Windows 7 section.

Now, for my second understanding of your question: I was told by Dell sales rep, that once Win7 is released on October 22nd, that all Win7 compatible laptop, will not have Vista with Win7 Upgrade, but instead Windows 7 as actual OS. They were unable to comment is weather a Vista downgrade or XP downgrade would exists (I really don't know why anyone would do this.)

If either was not your question, I jope at least it was informative.

 

No way, how long ago did you order yours?

 

Mine was in back in mid-November, at Dell Canada.

 

How is everyone cleaning dust off their screen?

I'm using some anti-static screen cleaning wipes to clean my Dell S2409W desktop LCD and that seems to work fine, would these be ok?

 

I use a soft cloth to remove remove simple dust. Any marks such a finger prints get attacked using the same cloth dampened with water with a hint of liquid detergent. Once I've done the screen then the same cloth is used to clean the rest of the computer.

John