Ok...Vista vs XP...help

[Slayer9x9]

Ok.
I gots myself a new spify laptop, but im scared as hell.
I really wanted to keep XP, but the guy at the Best Buy
store said that i may not be able to downgrade because of
system hardware compatibility...

So, should I stick with Vista? If so, what should I do to it to make it
actually worth keeping?
If I should switch back to XP, how might I know if my hardware is
able to support XP?

Thanks for anyone's input...

[mudlord]

First of all, what exactly is in the new laptop? System specs?

[PCXL-Fan]

Hmmmm, a Best Buy employee who pretty much knows what he's talking about? you must be lieing


Problem with many Laptops is they often use manufacturer specific drivers and programs to control the unique buttons and functions of the laptop.

Using anything but the oem operating system will mean you have to download those drivers and programs from the manufacturers website IF they even have them.

If not you can try digging them up off the provided installation dvd, though they might be hidden inside some cab file.

On top of that if the drivers were written for vista they might not work with XP.

[S.SubZero]

Originally Posted by Slayer9x9

Ok.
the guy at the Best Buy
store said that i may not be able to downgrade because of
system hardware compatibility...

Do you honestly believe that any company today would make a laptop that would not work with XP?

[Squall-Leonhart]

no, especially with Vista return's increasing.

[Slayer9x9]

Originally Posted by mudlord

First of all, what exactly is in the new laptop? System specs?

It's an HP laptop with 384 meg of video memory, 2gig ram, 1.5 ghz clock
speed, Intel Centrino Duo processor, built-in webcam and mic...
(anything else I should add?)

Also, right now, I'm trying to figure out a way to duel-boot Vista with
XP. Anyone have any tutorials or something?

[skoreanime]

The Bestbuy guy is either

1 - An idiot
2 - Trying to get rid of Vista laptops asap

You can replace the Vista OS with XP anytime, on any computer. If you want to figure out how to dual boot, just google it. There's lots of guides out there walking you step by step and with pictures .

[DB7]

Originally Posted by Slayer9x9

It's an HP laptop with 384 meg of video memory, 2gig ram, 1.5 ghz clock
speed, Intel Centrino Duo processor, built-in webcam and mic...
(anything else I should add?)
Also, right now, I'm trying to figure out a way to duel-boot Vista with
XP. Anyone have any tutorials or something?

You don't mention what sort of graphics the system has, jsut the amount of memory, so I'm going to guess they wont be very good.

But with the given specs Vista should run very well on that system, you might not be able to run with the full Aero flash though if the graphics aren't up to snuff.

As to whether you can go back to XP, well it should be possible but be aware while not being very clear the Best Buy employee wasn't completely lying.

If the machine carried a "Made for Vista" sticker on it, HP might not carry the XP drivers for it on their site (I had this problem with my iQon PC, they didn't carry the XP drivers, I had to search the internet for them), so before even attempting to switch, hit the internet and check HPs site and see if they do have the XP versions, this will solve a lot of problems later on and prevent a lot of swearing.

and here is a nice little tutorial if you fancy dual-booting on your machine, which would be a good idea until you are sure you have all the XP drivers you need. John Barnett's Windows Vista Support: Install Windows XP On A Machine Already Running Windows Vista

Edit: As to the question in your original post of whether you should stick with Vista, sorry that is going to have to be something you discover for yourself, I know an equal amount of people who both love and hate Vista. I personally switched back to XP, not because of any performance problems (2.8ghz Pentium-D, 1.5gb of RAM and a 8400GS) because for me Vista ran as well as XP but I went back because I hated Vista's new Explorer GUI having used almost the exact same layout since the original Windows 98, it was just too much of a change.

[Slayer9x9]

...You don't mention what sort of graphics the system has, jsut the amount of memory, so I'm going to guess they wont be very good...

Well, actually it's an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100...don't know if
thats spify but whatev...

and here is a nice little tutorial if you fancy dual-booting on your machine, which would be a good idea until you are sure you have all the XP drivers you need. John Barnett's Windows Vista Support: Install Windows XP On A Machine Already Running Windows Vista

Wow...thank you sooo much!

[DB7]

Originally Posted by Slayer9x9

Well, actually it's an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100...don't know if
thats spify but whatev...

Doesn't sound bad at all from what Wiki says about it Intel GMA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia but some games might grumble.

Wow...thank you sooo much!

You're most welcome.

[PCXL-Fan]

Dual booting is a good idea if your willing to spend the money on a second OS that might not work properly with your laptop.

BEFORE YOU GO AND GET XP for your laptop make sure you can download all the drivers needed to support the laptop off of HP's website.

DB7's guilde applies to desktop towers, not laptops which often times require specific drivers to operate fully. There has to be XP compatable drivers to run the laptops on XP.

Of course your system is more than powerful enough to run XP its all a question of drivers and front-end software such as ones used with the thumbprint reader on most new HP laptops.

[DB7]

I believe I mentioned that he should go and check on HP's site for the XP drivers and then the internet if they were not available on there, hit the rest of the internet for them.

The guide is applicable to any system, laptop or desktop, that is already running Vista and wishes to add a dual-boot with Windows XP. You would need specific hardware drivers no matter what system you are running, however at least if you create a dual-boot first and find that a XP driver, such as the one for your modem, does not work you can then boot into Vista and search for an alternative without encounting a problem.

[Borisz]

Intel GMA, from x3000 and up, is pretty good actually. Supports minimal features of a lot of things, even if it lacks any kind of imaginable horsepower. But its more then enough to run say, Vista Aero fine.

[runawayprisoner]

Originally Posted by PCXL-Fan

Dual booting is a good idea if your willing to spend the money on a second OS that might not work properly with your laptop.

BEFORE YOU GO AND GET XP for your laptop make sure you can download all the drivers needed to support the laptop off of HP's website.

DB7's guilde applies to desktop towers, not laptops which often times require specific drivers to operate fully. There has to be XP compatable drivers to run the laptops on XP.

Of course your system is more than powerful enough to run XP its all a question of drivers and front-end software such as ones used with the thumbprint reader on most new HP laptops.

If you can't, you can find out at least the model number, or the chipset serial of the hardware, and then you can download drivers that support equivalent chipsets from the chipset manufacturer. Sometimes, there just needs to be some minor tweaks... (go figured, someone might already have done it for you somewhere!)

By the way, "downgrade"-ing a computer... uh... I'm not sure if that term even exists.

Edit: From what I have gathered, the X3100 GPU is quite a solid GPU. What bugs me is that it's not really enough for DirectX 10. Its benchmarks show that it's about in between a Radeon X300 and Radeon X1300, and for all we know, those are already considered low-end in DirectX 9. That's not to mention Intel's drivers are still not good enough... but anyway, this is a laptop, so that should be solid enough. (:

[Slayer9x9]

Originally Posted by runawayprisoner

...but anyway, this is a laptop, so that should be solid enough. (:

Yah, this new laptop is actually very good.
BTW, I updated Intel's graphics card with a new driver version, and now
all my favorite XP games started to work. I'm actually pretty shocked, Vista isn't all that bad...

[Squall-Leonhart]

its not bad, until you try to do something that you could in XP and find you can't in Vista..... theres several features no longer present in Vista.

PoS.