Windows XP

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legionserial

legionserial

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Not audio related, just a Windows question...

A friend of mine has Vista on her latop and she absolutely hates it. Se's decided she want's to replace it with Windows XP.

As far as buying a copy of XP these days, the pickings are fairly slim from what I can tell. You can get a full version of XP Home for £140. However, there are a lot of OEM XP's out there that are a lot cheaper. My understanding is that it works much the same as a full version of windows, with a disk and all, but it's meant to be used only by system builders.

If she was to get one of these OEM jobbies, would she be likely to face any problems?
 
no problems. The versions are identical. Make sure that she can get xp drivers for everything in that laptop though. You might also consider a windows 7 RC. They are free and will work till march of next year
 
I'd tell her to get over it. I use both and there's hardly a noticeable difference cept maybe Vista has more eye candy.
 
NYMorningstar said:
I'd tell her to get over it. I use both and there's hardly a noticeable difference cept maybe Vista has more eye candy.
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:rolleyes:

Fact: Vista uses more system resources than XP. There is totally a difference. Where dyou think the eye candy comes from, scotch mist?

Either way, she wants to install XP, that's her choice. I'm just trying to help.

She uses XP all day at work on our crappy IT infrastructure on our shit PC's, and goes home to Vista on a better computer and she prefers XP. Telling her to get over it is not a solution, it's just a retarded and uneccessary reaction that accomplishes nothing.

Besides, my personal experience tells me I agree with her. I hate Vista. So do a lot of people. Get over it, as you so succinctly put it.
 
Sorry...I could have worded that more eloquenty....I just quit smoking :o
 
Hey, no problem, congratulations for taking care of you! Good luck with the sustainability.
 
Yeah...just make sure her laptop will accept the XP.

They seem to be making some computers VISTA-only these days.
Not sure if it's just drivers, or the MOBO chipsets are not XP compatible...???

Oh...there may also a BIOS SATA setting then might need to chnaged in order voer XP to install.
 
NYMorningstar said:
Hey, no problem, congratulations for taking care of you! Good luck with the sustainability.
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:) cheers :)

miroslav said:
Yeah...just make sure her laptop will accept the XP.

They seem to be making some computers VISTA-only these days.
Not sure if it's just drivers, or the MOBO chipsets are not XP compatible...???

Oh...there may also a BIOS SATA setting then might need to chnaged in order voer XP to install.
Click to expand...

Yeah those are my chief worries. Because of course, I'll be the one installing it all.

The whole SATA thing concerns me. What with having to install SATA drivers before the xp installer can see your hard drive. That's all well and good for me and my computer, where I have a motherboard driver disc and a bunch of floppies I made. But Her laptop doesn't have a floppy drive as far as I know, and I have no clue where I'd get the SATA drivers for it anyway.
 
I tried to do the same for my wife's laptop. Googled to see if others have tried and many have... unsuccessfully. :( No XP drivers for her laptop.

I don't like Vista, either, and I'm glad it's not on my computer.

Good luck.
 
Who makes the Lap Top?
Some manufacturers can sell you a license and all the necessary discs to backstep to XP. Dell can do it on some of their business models for example (last time I checked any way)

It's still a pain in the a$$ to do but not as much as having to basically rebuild the software from scratch on your own
 
Bristol Posse said:
Who makes the Lap Top?
Some manufacturers can sell you a license and all the necessary discs to backstep to XP. Dell can do it on some of their business models for example (last time I checked any way)

It's still a pain in the a$$ to do but not as much as having to basically rebuild the software from scratch on your own
Click to expand...

It's a Gateway. :( I live in Dell Country. :p Next time I'll get my neighbor to hook me up.
 
If you own a computer with Vista, the license is backward compatible for all 'supported' Microsoft OS's... Meaning, as long as Microsoft still supports XP, she can legally install it on her Vista machine (in place of Vista, not dual boot) as long as she has the media without having to purchase another license for XP .

Usually a call to the computer vendor can take care of getting the media and necessary drivers, but they may charge a little for their service.
 
legionserial said:
Not audio related, just a Windows question...

A friend of mine has Vista on her latop and she absolutely hates it. Se's decided she want's to replace it with Windows XP.

As far as buying a copy of XP these days, the pickings are fairly slim from what I can tell. You can get a full version of XP Home for £140. However, there are a lot of OEM XP's out there that are a lot cheaper. My understanding is that it works much the same as a full version of windows, with a disk and all, but it's meant to be used only by system builders.

If she was to get one of these OEM jobbies, would she be likely to face any problems?
Click to expand...
Keep in mind that OEM versions can only be licensed to ONE machine. Once it's on that computer the install disc can only be used on that particular computer.
 
altitude909 said:
no problems. The versions are identical. Make sure that she can get xp drivers for everything in that laptop though. You might also consider a windows 7 RC. They are free and will work till march of next year
Click to expand...
Not entirely true. While functionally they are identical, sometimes they are keyed off of the BIOS of a certain manufacturer, so might not boot up. It's worth a try, but I've seen this not work.
 
TheGuitarMan said:
Keep in mind that OEM versions can only be licensed to ONE machine. Once it's on that computer the install disc can only be used on that particular computer.
Click to expand...
Not entirely true either. You're alluding to Windows Genuine Advantage. They are keyed off of serial numbers, so they will work on another machine of the same make (sometimes they might be limited to one specific model or a family of models), but they CAN be used on more than one machine.
 
noisewreck said:
Not entirely true. While functionally they are identical, sometimes they are keyed off of the BIOS of a certain manufacturer, so might not boot up. It's worth a try, but I've seen this not work.
Click to expand...

I have never seen a version of XP that was tied to a bios and I have had plenty of OEM discs (Compaq, dell, HP) that would install anywhere. AFAIK, this practice started with Vista
 
altitude909 said:
I have never seen a version of XP that was tied to a bios and I have had plenty of OEM discs (Compaq, dell, HP) that would install anywhere. AFAIK, this practice started with Vista
Click to expand...
I have. Admittedly on business models. There might be difference with consumer models, I don't know as I tend to not purchase OEM computers for personal use, preferring to build my own.
 
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