XP over Win7

[Mayhem]

Ordered a new laptop to replace the one I'll likely have to give back in two weeks. Was assured by a guy on the phone that an XP disc should come with it given how the listing on the site was written. Laptop arrives, no XP disc, just Windows 7. Not happy. Will be phoning up on Monday to figure out the best way to resolve this, but if I have to go buy my own copy of XP to put on there, I have two questions:

1) Cheapest/quickest place to get a legit copy of XP?
2) How easy would it be to take Win7 off and put XP on?

[eastyy]

no idea where to get a legit cop of win xp cheap tbh

but i imagine would be quite difficult to remove windows and install xp...well unless you format i guess probably wouldnt suggest it though would probably say set up a dual boot system or something

[Hohum]

Do you have software that refuses to run on W7? Otherwise I don't know why you'd want to revert to XP.

[FelixofMars]

Yep going to add unless you have very specific old software that is incompatible there is no good logical reason for not using Windows 7. I can see why people didn't wanting to use Vista but Windows 7 is cleaner and faster than XP

[Mayhem]

Really? I have no idea if anything won't work on W7 but as I will have to give this laptop back in two weeks, I didn't really want to take any chances with something not working. I guess the plan would be to just reformat the hard drive and install XP on it instead. I don't know if drivers for certain hardware I use are available, but I suspect in at least one case (the scanner) the answer will be no.

And besides, I've not used W7 (or Vista much for that matter!) so I might be unsure about how to do certain things immediately. When I'm up against a time deadline here, not a good place to be in either. Just wanted to have something I felt completely comfortable with from the off. If I do decide to upgrade to W7, I guess I have the disc here already for it

[eastyy]

what i would probably suggest i think most modern computers can do this....but install windows xp on a usb hardrive and then you can boot from that......that way you have windows 7 on the main comp...xp on the hardrive so if anything goes tits up you have a back up

[FelixofMars]

I don't know about installing to an external HDD that probably will not work. I am sure it needs a fixed HDD for an OS. However you can make a partition for each and install XP on one and Windows 7 on another and make a third one for data. It's what I did for the RC of 7. To be fair though the biggest user changes to 7 and Vista compared to XP feel cosmetic and its only the networking which is a bit hard to get used to. Pretty much everything else is just a smarter version of the XP setup.

I am guessing the scanner is a relic if you think its not going to work. I can pretty much say that most devices seem to work even if you have to use Vista drivers in some cases.

[smouty]

Depending on your version of Win7 you may be able to download a virtual XP image from Microsoft.com. Works well and is very fast for everything except the obvious - gaming etc.

There are only two files to download and it is easier than you'd think to use

[huxley]

Novatech still have oem xp http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...153pkspli.html

I have a legit oem copy of xp pro going spare but I`m not sure if its legal to resell it?

[Mayhem]

The scanner works fine with XP, if I can use the XP drivers on Win7 then I think things should be okay there. The version provided with the laptop is the Pro 32bit version, pros/cons compared to the Home version? Given the praise elsewhere for Win7 too (where I posted a similar question) then I might stick with it, I was just under the impression I'd also get an XP disc with the machine; might have to contact HP about that and get turned down most likely! Hence why I'll contact the place I bought it from tomorrow and see what is said...

I imagine most of my software should be fine, a lot of it is downloaded (SAS, SpywareBlaster, AVG, Firefox etc) for starters. I still use Photoshop 7, fingers crossed that works fine on Win7. Any suggestions for good (free) firewall software to run on Win7? Does Win7 do Documents&Settings the same way as XP, as there's a bunch of files and settings sitting in there for my profile on this laptop I'd need to move over.

[egparadigm]

Are you sure you haven't got a copy of XP floating about? Perhaps a Dell restore disc?

[Mayhem]

I've got an HP ghost image of XP Pro here, but it's the company build, so it is set up to only allow downloads of patches and updates when connected to their server. Otherwise yes, I wouldn't be concerned about the lack of XP...

[Mayhem]

How bizarre... decided to boot up the new laptop and it's got XP on it! But I've only got the Win7 disc for it... still, best of both worlds I guess

[FelixofMars]

As I said you could probably use some partition software and run both now. something like http://www.partitionwizard.com/ should do the job.

[abigsmurf]

Doesn't windows insist on installing on the primary partition?