Sony VAIO P – Windows 7 Drivers and How to get everything working
SONY VAIO P originally shipped with the Windows Vista and later on, after few months, we saw official Windows XP variants of it. Windows Vista, out of box, ran pretty badly due to the large amount of crapware installed by Sony. I went for a fresh Windows Vista installation (at that time) and tweaked the heck out of it and it ran pretty fine. Now that the Windows 7 is finally here, it made perfect sense to try it out. I installed it via USB method that I mentioned here
Installation
Using the USB method, the installation took mere 15-20 mins. Then, I downloaded all the official windows 7 drivers from here.
What is the WEI? It is 1.5 on the VAIO P with Atom Z520 1.3GHz processor.
I know, it sounds pathetic. But, I would suggest everybody not to ever use the Windows Experience Index as the ruler for measuring the machine’s performance. The VAIO P runs Windows 7 very well. Not like a Cheetah, but not like a Snail too. “It runs faster than Vista!”. That sounds convincing enough?
Multi-tasking has improved. Now, I can open more than 2-3 apps and use them concurrently. I also can open more tabs in Firefox and Chrome without the whole system yelling “Dude, close some windows, I am not made to handle all this load!”.
click on the picture to see the full high resolution screenshot
Full screen Youtube video now watchable
Watching full screen youtube video in Vista was nothing more than a slideshow experience. With Windows 7 and new drivers from SONY, it is now possible to watch Youtube Videos in full screen.
Fix for Vertical Aligning windows on VAIO P.
In Vista, Aero was pathetic, has it improved over in Windows 7?
No, blame the crap GMA 500 drivers. But, if you disable a few windows animations, it is fine. I am now finally using Windows 7, that too with Aero enabled on my VAIO P.
What animations you should disable to enjoy Aero on VAIO P:
Is the Windows 7 worth the upgrade? Well compared to VIsta,
- Reduced boot up time
- Significantly reduced hibernation and resume time
- Speedy: although not as much as XP, but better than Vista
- More bling
- Better paint app :)
- Windows Taskbar is much better than Vista
Most importantly, you will spend more time enjoying the Windows 7 rather than spending time in tweaking (like the way you did in Windows Vista)
You may also wish to read:
How to get everything working in Ubuntu on Sony VAIO P
SONY VAIO P review
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[...] Sony VAIO P – Windows 7 Drivers and How to get everything [...]
[...] Being able to run SD videos on a Z520 processor is no big deal as even a SONY VAIO P with a Z520 processor can run HQ and SD videos on Windows 7 (See VAIO P with Windows 7 article here) [...]
Have you had any issues wih Windows 7 and th vetice screen resolution? Even Sony controls seem to disapear under the start bar and I find it constatly a problem to OK or cancel operations, I wonder if there i a driver missing I am using th native 768 resoluion!