Is there a reason for updating the driver?  Do you know for sure it is out of date?   "I started suspecting that the directions I read in the F6readme.txt file are intended for new installation." They are ... as phillip explained, they are used to help the OS communicate with the controller for the drives during installation and was likely only needed in the very earliest releases of Vista, as subsequent releases have the driver built in (or at least have a compatible driver). It is possible to install the INF from that download (right-click, Install), but I would only do so if you are sure you need to ... normally Dell has a Windows installation package (non 'F6' packages) for drivers needed to update drivers that were loaded during installation.  The lack of such a package also indicates that it is probably not necessary to update it. If there is something specific you are trying to do or solve, then an updated driver may help, but this one may not be the answer ... you may need to try one directly from Intel ... but again, I only would under certain circumstances.
I tried to installed the recommended R197861 driver to my Inspiron 1545 Vista laptop. The installation opened the folder DELL/drivers/R197861, where I saw an F6readme.txt file. I opened this file, and I read:  =========== ... *  CONTENTS OF THIS DOCUMENTThis document contains the following sections:1.  DETERMINING THE PROCESSOR TYPE2.  EXTRACTING THE APPROPRIATE DRIVER FILES3.  INSTALLING THE DRIVER FILES =========== I followed the directions in 1 and 2, and in 3 I read =========== * 3. INSTALLING THE DRIVER FILES Please refer to the Readme.txt for driver installation using the F6 method. =========== I do not understand what I am expected to do next. Where is this Readme.txt file? Thanks, emf 
Installing R197861 driver