i think stoanee is hinting on the windows 7 upgrade advisor program you can download from windows to analyze your machine for compatability.
Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor
upgrade OS's are a pain in the but, but it's hard to argue with the price.
to directly answer your question about the function key drivers and stuff.. 9 times out of 10 the vista drivers will work with windows 7. for the 1 in 10 times that the vista drivers tank, you should try windows 2008 server drivers (which are unlikely in your case because you are running a laptop).