XP/Vista

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0141607

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Hi guys

Myself and my girlfriend are looking into buying a laptop at the minute from Dell. It comes with Windows Vista as standard. It doesn't seem to have an option to change this for XP. If we do buy it how easy/hard is it to uninstall Vista and install XP over it? And if we do this will it affect any compatability issues with the laptop?

Thanks

Chris
 
0141607 said:
If we do buy it how easy/hard is it to uninstall Vista and install XP over it? And if we do this will it affect any compatability issues with the laptop?
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This is something I had been meaning to look into for a few days.

Technically, I know there isn't a huge issue with re-formatting the drive and putting XP onto the machine (assuming you have a legal copy of XP to begin with). You just have to insure you have all the required background information to reinstall.

The issue comes when you go to re-install the drivers. Is there potential for some drivers to be configured for Vista and not be compatible with XP?

I hadn't really considered it until it was mentioned to me by a sales guy when shopping around for a new laptop.
(I assume it was a legit concern as a) if anything saying this would have put me off the sale he was trying to make and b) it wasn't a general comment but in specific to a machine they had tried to roll back for their own use in the shop. In saying that, some of my "technical" [I use the term very loosly as I ain't all that technical] questions left him blank so some concern to the quality of his info)
 
You need to download all the XP drivers before installing XP. Burn them on to a CD and you are good to go. Just make sure everything on the laptop actually has a XP driver. A new laptop might have some hardware that doesn't have a XP driver. I haven't experienced that myself but I vaguely remember some people having a problem with that.

Last time I checked, some Dell models give you the option of XP and some don't. So shop around between the different models. The price of XP varies depending on which. model you pick. Some people have picked the Vostro business line because some of them don't charge you for XP.
 
Avoid Vista like the plague. Visually looks impressive but far too many issues. Google "vista v. XP" and review the results....
 
Can you not get them to give you XP insted I did. I rang them and spoke to a lovely sales rep who would have given me the world and all to make the sale. Your best to ring and get them to email you the spec so that you can go through it. In my experience they will giev you anything witin reason to make the sale. Try it ring DELL sales
 
Is it possible to have a dual-boot system, one for XP, the other Vista? If so, would this not have been a good way for Microsoft to market it?
 
joanod said:
Can you not get them to give you XP insted I did. I rang them and spoke to a lovely sales rep who would have given me the world and all to make the sale. Your best to ring and get them to email you the spec so that you can go through it. In my experience they will giev you anything witin reason to make the sale. Try it ring DELL sales
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I agree with Joanod - i rang dell and they gave me the option of XP...how sorry I am now. They also can give better deals over the phone than the web...
 
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