M4400 Fresh Install - Dell Applications

I just formatted my Precision M4400 and was going about installing the drivers. Are any of the applications useful? It seems like every driver has a utility or application to go along with it. What do they do?

 

I personally dont have any of the Dell apps installed and i don't miss them. All shortcuts etc. work without the Dell control point stuff, the only thing i miss is the on-screen volume adjustment.
If there's bothm a driver and an app for a hardware component in your system i would say yes, get them both (Gigabit LAN for instance)

btw...do you have the right order in which to install the drivers? VERY important!! http://support.dell.com/support/top...&component=-1&lang=-1&doclang=en&toggle=false

 

What is the point of getting both the driver and the program? It seems like Windows should be able to manage everything as long as they have the driver right? What does the Gigabit LAN application do? Under the SATA tab for the M4400, there is a Matrix Storage Manager driver from Intel, then a Matrix Storage Manager application. What is the matrix storage manager and why do you need both a driver and app for it?

Thanks for the link to the driver order, its helpful!

 

The Matrix thing is a bit different indeed. You'll only need the separate drivers if you want to use AHCI SATA operation in XP because XP won't load these automatically and you have to manually install them through device manager. That said, The app is definetly necessary in both XP and Vista.

I don't know what exactly the Gigabit app does because it's not something i actually use as in opening an app and doing stuff (but i'm never connected to the net through a wire anyway) I just try to stay on the safe side and install the recommended/important drivers AND apps.

Tell us if there's any issues