Disapointed with Vista on new laptop, can I istall XP?

[KingstonU]

Sorry if this has already been addressed in other topics, If so which one(s)?

My mother just bought a new Laptop from Dell: T7500 Dual core, 2Gb 667Mhz Ram, 8600GT, 160Gb HD. A pretty good laptop. But it had no option to come with XP so had to get Vista and now none of the programs she intended to use on the laptop don't work with Vista and it is also slower at startup and overall. Considering the power of this laptop this is very disapointing.

I have an XP Pro SP2 cd, can I install that on instead? And if yes how? Can I just boot from the CD , format the HD and install?

I have heard of lots of people switching back, do they return the Vista CD and get XP sent to them or something?

Thanks a lot

 

[MrChad]

What programs does she want to use that won't work?

 

[KingstonU]

Lotus 123, Quick Books 2000, Word Perfect 2000. She doesn't want to purchase new programs.

She would also like to know, If I reinstall XP, will she lose Dell features like "Dell PC restore"?

Thanks

 

[bruceb]

We would need the Model # or the Service Tag
to see if Dell has XP drivers available.
The model you gave T7500 is not valid at Dell site

Look at this link:

http://support.dell.com/

Enter your Service Code and select the OS you want
(if it is listed) .. then download everything you need

 

[Robor]

Chances are all of the hardware drivers are already installed. Looks like they're having application compatibility issues. Possibly there are patches that make those apps Vista compatible?

To the OP: If you're talking about wiping the entire drive (erasing all partitions) that would delete your restore partition. You could just overwrite the Vista partition but then if you did a restore later on it would just restore the original Vista load.

 

[humanure]

Have you tried running those programs in compatibility mode?

 

[RichNY]

I know it isn't the answer you want, but I'd make the move now to new programs. It'll be less headache and you can take better advantage of what Vista and the laptop offers. Don't buy into the "XP is better" crap. It's better on old machines, maybe, but Vista is the better choice on a laptop made for it. Office 2007 Home edition can be had for $129 and it's easier than older versions of Office for beginners and will give you fewer compatibility headaches when sharing files with others. Quickbooks 2000 isn't supported by Intuit anymore, I'm sure - the new versions might have some useful features.

I'm not an "upgrade every year" guy either. I was using Office 2000 until this year. Eventually, though, you want to move to supported software versions, especially when upgrading your hardware and OS.

Best of luck!

 

[Blazer]

you could contact dell and request an OS reload to XP and also get the recovery and system disk, or ask for a xp replacement laptop.

 

[Cutthroat]

Originally posted by: RichNY
I know it isn't the answer you want, but I'd make the move now to new programs. It'll be less headache and you can take better advantage of what Vista and the laptop offers. Don't buy into the "XP is better" crap. It's better on old machines, maybe, but Vista is the better choice on a laptop made for it. Office 2007 Home edition can be had for $129 and it's easier than older versions of Office for beginners and will give you fewer compatibility headaches when sharing files with others. Quickbooks 2000 isn't supported by Intuit anymore, I'm sure - the new versions might have some useful features.

I'm not an "upgrade every year" guy either. I was using Office 2000 until this year. Eventually, though, you want to move to supported software versions, especially when upgrading your hardware and OS.

Best of luck!

I have to agree, I went through the same thing with my mother recently. She is much happier and more productive with her new software. She especially likes her new Quickbooks. Mind you she is still using XP, I need to go through the hassle of moving her to Vista with the next build soon, it's going to be a hassle teaching her Vista (she still has a bit of trouble right clicking, maybe she needs a Mac:laugh, but it'll be worth it once she gets used to it she'll like it better too.

 

[JWade]

almost all the laptops and desktops have an option of having xp or vista on it, I went through some of the new models and checked on drivers and they had them for both vista and xp. If you have access to a dell oem xp disk, thats the easiest way to reload it, use the dell disk and it wont have to be activated, make sure you download the drivers onto a usb drive before doing it so you will have all the drivers available and not have to download them after you reinstall.

given any thought to dual boot? xp and vista? that way she could use xp and in her spare time use vista to get used to it?

 

[nerp]

Yeah, I'd suggest your mother move beyond her 7-year-old apps and try to learn some new stuff. Just like any line of work, advancements and improvements require a little time to absorb but in the long run, the extra productivity and better interfaces are usually worth it. It's an expense, for sure, but I think once she grows comfortable with the new stuff, she'll be glad she moved on.

 

[jonmcc33]

Originally posted by: nerp
Yeah, I'd suggest your mother move beyond her 7-year-old apps and try to learn some new stuff. Just like any line of work, advancements and improvements require a little time to absorb but in the long run, the extra productivity and better interfaces are usually worth it. It's an expense, for sure, but I think once she grows comfortable with the new stuff, she'll be glad she moved on.

So now she has to spend more money just to use a new OS? That makes no sense at all. New applications also take time to learn those new applications. That's a lot of time wasted in my book. Bad advice on your part.

 

[corkyg]

Contact Dell and see about a return to get them to install XP Pro with all the drivers, etc. Dell now offers that as a choice - Vista is not required.

 

[Nothinman]

So now she has to spend more money just to use a new OS? That makes no sense at all. New applications also take time to learn those new applications. That's a lot of time wasted in my book. Bad advice on your part.

It won't necessarily cost more money, converting from Lotus and WP to O would be free and probably be a good idea in the long run anyway. QuickBooks is another story but as someone mentioned it's been ~7 years since she bought it so it might not be a bad idea to upgrade.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Originally posted by: jonmcc33
So now she has to spend more money just to use a new OS? That makes no sense at all. New applications also take time to learn those new applications. That's a lot of time wasted in my book. Bad advice on your part.

She could use free modern apps instead.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

You guys really have no idea how hard it is for a older person to change over to new software...

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Originally posted by: SoundTheSurrender
You guys really have no idea how hard it is for a older person to change over to new software...

I'm confronted with it every day. All it takes is a little effort.

 

[Nothinman]

You guys really have no idea how hard it is for a older person to change over to new software...

I do actually, but sometimes the lesser of the two evils is to bite the bullet and move on.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

I gave up with my Mom, I tried to get her to use Ubuntu because Windows 2000 crapped out and she refused to use the computer.

 

[Nothinman]

Then either your mom is really bullheaded or you did something wrong because once Ubuntu is setup the basic usage of checking email, browsing, etc is the same as Windows.