New latop came with DOWNGRADE CD

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Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 1:09 am

My new laptop (due any time now) comes with Vista installed. For only an extra $99, Dell will sell me a Downgrade CD which will allow me to use Windows XP rather than Vista. The people from whom I purchased the laptop actually throw in this CD.

I plan to use it. Talk about your religious arguments....

Not quite a Newb Joined: 05 Oct 2008 Posts: 33

Downgrade. Vista may look nicer, but i really miss XP. >_> It plays more games and is a lot easier to use.

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 5:53 pm

I'm used to vista now as both my laptops have it, but having said that I did find XP easier to use in general.

Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 6:59 am

Despite earlier quotation from the ad, the laptop (Dell Vostro 1700) actually came with XP pre-installed and a disk for Vista, plus another for XP. I shall trust in the Gods who ordained this configuration and leave it as an XP laptop. I seem to remember hearing of some problem using Boot Magic or another boot manager unless Vista is the primo OS. Some of my applications are old enough so that Vista would probably be a bad idea anyway.

And yet the Vista disk is sitting in its envelope glaring at me in a most evil fashion.

I really must figure out a way to charge my customers extra for obsolete stuff. It's so darned.....elegant.

Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 8:08 am

^^ Call it 'classic' or 'antique' or 'retro' or 'customized' and add to the price. Wink

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 9:44 pm

Vista looks prettier but uses more ram. I have a friend who swears by it but it is on my daughters laptop and I don't like it!!!
It seems that everytime you press a key you are asked "Are you really sure", "Do you really want to load this?" etc

I did read that Vista is not as popular as Microsoft would like and it is the sale of new machines that is helping sales, rather than it's popularity.

I don't think you can c*py it either!

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 7103 Location: Yes

Moved here from Technical (which if you look closely, is actually a thread about technical questions about Eater).... Wink

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 4:57 pm

Vista takes some time to get used to .. especially if you decide to go ahead with MS office 2007 as well, still not used to that forking 'ribbon' after 6 months .. You could speed up vista by turning off the Aero interface features and get less annoying popups when switching off UAC.

Interesting detail: a Dell vista install dvd will install on any PC/ notebook with a 'vista ready' or 'windows vista' sticker. No registration hassle ..

All and all I still like XP/ Office 2003 better though .. but that might be because I'm used to that for several years ..

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 5:44 pm

XP can now be installed as a downgrade on new PC's until the middle of next year. New machines have been the vast majority of sales, Vista has pretty much been a disaster for MS. Windows 7 is supposed to be out before the end of next year (believe that when I see it) so most people will just bypass Vista.

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 6:20 pm

Rodus wrote:

Windows 7 is supposed to be out before the end of next year

Which will probably be an 'upgraded' vista ... count your blessings Rolling Eyes

..

Might be a better OS though, Windoze 7 .. it's happened before

win95 (crappy) to be followed with win98 (not bad)
.. followed with ME (completely fecked up version) .. followed by XP (fairly OK)

You'd think it's their marketing strategy .. everyone buying new PC's now (with Vista pre-installed) will purchase an upgrade to MS7 later anyway.. so 2 times a revenue on one PC...

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 6:44 pm

^^If they avoid going the cloud computing route (it didn't catch on in the 90's, won't catch on now), use a more robust kernel, ditch the registry and dump the insane amount of legacy support it'll probably be great.

As MS won't do any of this be prepared for yet another bloated hack of an OS with the tagline 'Imitate not Innovate'.

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 10:26 pm

Downgrade.

Bring back 2000 Pro!

Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 3:14 am

^^^ I hear that.

2k Pro was my favorite for a long time till I got hardcore into gaming and stuff. XP was not necessary, but the difference between 2k Pro and Vista is monumental.

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