The wonderful Sony Z-series notebooks are an optimal blend of performance and size. The VGN-Z555DN is a Canadian-only laptop with an ultra bright high resolution 1600 x 900 display in a mere 13.1″ diagonal screen. This is more than notebooks with several more inches of size. When I purchased it in the fall of 2008 it came with Windows Vista 32-bit.

I made the plunge this weekend and did a fresh install of Windows 7 64-bit. The actual install including reformatting the hard drive took less than 30 minutes. Windows is now very responsive and snappy, though some of that is due to not having all the OEM programs and unnecessary drivers clogging things up.

Basic installation works, but there are many things missing. And on Sony’s drivers & utilities section for the Z555DN there is only a bios update, which applies to Windows 7 Ultimate only. Sony recommends installing the original drivers that come with the machine, noting that 32 bit drivers should not be used with 64 bit operating systems, and vice-versa.

As it turns out, the current model of the Z series, the VGN-Z820DB, comes with Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

I was able to gain nearly all functioning of the Z555DN by installing many of the original versions of drivers and utilities intended for the VGN-Z820DB. I believe that you should avoid the Sony Notebook Utilities and the Setting Utility Series Updates. Possibly after one of these updates the notebook stopped recognizing my battery so I rolled back the installation by a hard power off and reboot, and all was fine.

Some of the keyboard keys don’t function, namely the Stamina/Speed switch, and the blue Fn keys for volume and brightness that are across the top row F keys. These are only convenience keys however, because all of the functionality is built into Windows 7. If you are desperate you can get utilities such as 3RVX to control volume using keyboard shortcuts, and you can always create macros. Adjusting the screen brightness is almost as fast; just right-click on the battery indicator and select Adjust Screen Brightness.

Overall I’m very happy. The best? There is a new Calculator that I can finally use the mouse to click buttons on without feeling like a clumsy oaf. Goodbye calculator circa Windows 3.1, hello accuracy. I’ll be updating the other computers in the office by the end of the year, except for a workhorse of a laptop that would appreciate a fresh re-install of Windows XP.