thanks, shakeyplace! this works fine on my pal's XPS 710 tower... (these are huge computers, too!) --> note to others: as with many of these Dell BIOSes, you run the executable (in Windows only; it won't work in DOS) and just WAIT - don't touch anything. it won't look like it's doing anything, but it is! a minute or three later, it should reboot, update the BIOS on startup, and then continue starting Windows. on ours: I ran XPS710.exe from inside a folder on the desktop- it created a whole mess of 'temporary' files that it needs alongside itself in that folder- don't delete any of them until it restarts! I imagine that if you ran the XPS710.exe file without being in it's own folder, as in- directly on the desktop- then it would create all those temporary files and scatter them on the desktop- which might be disconcerting to some. no matter where they are- leave 'em be, and let the computer sit there! anyway- my friend's machine is now running Dell Windows 7 x86. thanks again.