laptop OS vs. desktop OS

[BlazingSaddles]

they aren't different are they? like I can pick up any old copy of Windows XP home/professional and install it on my laptop? I thought they are but my dad insists otherwise. reason i'm asking is cause i just got a dell laptop and i hate all the sh!t they install on, and I can use my college msdn subscription and download XP professional.

 

[stev0]

wtf?

 

[DaveSimmons]

42

 

[BlazingSaddles]

sorry stev0 you're too quick for me

 

[Atrail]

My Dell laptop came with XP home. Put XP Pro on there. There is no such thing as a laptop OS!

 

[DaveSimmons]

The OS is the same but you need to download and burn all the drivers for video, audio, LAN, power, keyboard, PCMCIA, etc. before you reformat since they will probably NOT be on the XP.

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: BlazingSaddles
they aren't different are they? like I can pick up any old copy of Windows XP home/professional and install it on my laptop? I thought they are but my dad insists otherwise. reason i'm asking is cause i just got a dell laptop and i hate all the sh!t they install on, and I can use my college msdn subscription and download XP professional.

Go for it, you'll be glad you did.

Viper GTS

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
The OS is the same but you need to download and burn all the drivers for video, audio, LAN, power, keyboard, PCMCIA, etc. before you reformat since they will probably NOT be on the XP.

Actually, XP does quite well. My roommate formatted a bunch of fairly recent Dell laptops & XP recognized EVERYTHING.

Viper GTS

 

[BlazingSaddles]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
The OS is the same but you need to download and burn all the drivers for video, audio, LAN, power, keyboard, PCMCIA, etc. before you reformat since they will probably NOT be on the XP.

Actually, XP does quite well. My roommate formatted a bunch of fairly recent Dell laptops & XP recognized EVERYTHING.

Viper GTS

well, i have all the cd's and stuff that came with the laptop, so if worse comes to worse the drivers should be on there right? But viper GTS, if your pretty confident XP has everything I need, I will probably try and reformat soon.

 

[Atrail]

XP had all my drivers, I didn't have to download anything. I did go and update to the newer ones though.

 

[DaveSimmons]

well, i have all the cd's and stuff that came with the laptop, so if worse comes to worse the drivers should be on there right? But viper GTS, if your pretty confident XP has everything I need, I will probably try and reformat soon.

You might check first, sometimes you just get a recovery CD with a Ghost-type image of an installed OS.

 

[PaNsyBoy8]

do it, when i first got my laptop, the first thing i did was install a clean OS, there's no point in having all the extra software they always throw in

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons

well, i have all the cd's and stuff that came with the laptop, so if worse comes to worse the drivers should be on there right? But viper GTS, if your pretty confident XP has everything I need, I will probably try and reformat soon.

You might check first, sometimes you just get a recovery CD with a Ghost-type image of an installed OS.

True.

If you run into this problem you're best off buying Microsoft Windows XP Pro for $39.95 (I've done this deal and it works).

When I get my Compaq Presario 1500T laptop on Friday I plan on reformatting the hard drive erasing XP Home and the Compaq pre-installed crap and doing a clean install of fresh XP Pro. Then I'll go through the fun task of d/l'ing SP1, Windows Update, patches, new drivers, etc. How do I ghost a copy if the laptop doesn't have a CD-RW? I'll have WiFi, so can I transfer the ghost image via WiFi to my desktop which has a CD-RW then burn the image?

 

[DaveSimmons]

How do I ghost a copy if the laptop doesn't have a CD-RW? I'll have WiFi, so can I transfer the ghost image via WiFi to my desktop which has a CD-RW then burn the image?

If you split the C: into C: and D: with Partition Magic you can Ghost or Drive Image to the D: drive in DOS, reboot and use Wifi.