As it happened, it was pretty straightforward…  I always keep my data and OS on separate partitions, and get quite anal about backups, so I had nothing to lose and everything to gain;  I’d already installed Win 7 on a virtual machine and was quite impressed – but how would it fare on the Dell?

All in all, it’s been a reasonably pain-free process.  OK, so the email backup corrupted (Recuva saved the day) but that was nothing.  No, by far the biggest headache was getting the Sigmatel Audio driver working…  The original driver disc only had a 32-bit version, so a bit of Googling was in order.  I duly downloaded the suggested driver package (R153910), which appeared to solve the problem.

Until I tried using Skype.  Volume dropouts, auto-levels all over the place, then nothing.  I uninstalled and deleted the driver, rebooted and tried again.  Nope – still problematic.

Further Googling revealed that several people are experiencing the same trouble.  So, I tried a different driver (R171786; direct from the Dell FTP site) and again, things started working.

Until I tried Skype again – same problems.

I had a cup of tea, which helps in *all* problem-solving activities, and then it struck me – Windows 7 Compatibility modes!  Yes – instead of running the  driver .exe file straight from the browser, try this:

1. Save the R171786.exe file to your hard drive.
2. Right-click the file and choose Properties.
3. Click the Compatibility tab and tick the Compatibility Mode checkbox.
4. Select an appropriate version of Windows from the list.  I picked Vista SP2, as the audio was one thing that I never had problems with before.
5. Click OK to close the dialog.
6. Run the .exe file to install the driver.

Hey Presto!  Working audio in Skype (version 4.1.0.179)

It’s not much, but I hope that it helps someone out there…

Mediaman was one possibility, but didn’t have the webcam/barcode scanning feature. Then I found Libra – I haven’t tried it as yet, but it certainly looks impressive.

And the price – nil, zip, nada, gratis, and free[1]

[1] I’m not anti- paying for software, but I am anti-ripoff and even more so when the software I want isn’t available for my platform (WinXP or Ubuntu Linux). Yes, I’m looking at you, Adobe.