Any problem w XP to Vista to XP?

[General Mailbox]

Greetings,
I am about to upgrade my mothers WinXP Home to Vista Home. IF she doesn't
like it, is she allowed to go back to WinXP?
She is 69 yrs old and wants to keep up with the Jones, but I'm thinking
she'll get lost with learning new things. The reason I'm asking is I think
I recall reading the agreement with Microsoft during my XP install that says
once an upgrade is done, you can't go back. May be I'm thinking you can't
operate both versions (meaning no activation and/or updates) at the same
time. I would like to make it easy for her to have a dual boot ( one XP and
one Vista ). She has a Dell with OEM XP and upgrade disk to Vista Home. The
computer hardware is Vista compatible per Dell with graphics up to DirectX
9.0c. Mfg in fall 2006. Will there be a re-activation to XP problem for OEM
versions?
Thanks.
Rgds,
Kevin

 

[Guest]

Hang on about graphics; you are mixed up!
Graphics is the Video Card which must be minimum 128 MBs to run vista Aero

System RAM must be min 1024 MBs
Take NO notice of Dell.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

To get the best from Vista, the computer will need at least 128mb dedicated
video memory and 2gb RAM.

You can go back to XP if Vista does not suit, but what you can't do is run
the original XP and the Vista upgrade as either dual boot or on individual
machines.

Your mother will probably get along with Vista better than most techies. Go
for it..

 

[General Mailbox]

To get the best from Vista, the computer will need at least 128mb
dedicated video memory and 2gb RAM.

You can go back to XP if Vista does not suit, but what you can't do is run
the original XP and the Vista upgrade as either dual boot or on individual
machines.

Your mother will probably get along with Vista better than most techies.
Go for it..

Thanks to both of you. I didn't mean to confuse by saying about "up do
DirectX 9.0c." I presume that's all that the video card would go to as I
read the DirectX 10 version cards weren't going to come out until March -
May 2007 and her equipment was made in Fall 2006. Dell sold her the upgrade
before it came out and sent her the disk when it was released, so I presume
it's Vista ready but expect it not to work with Aero because of the video
card. That's all I meant by saying that I expect one limitation.

Thanks for letting me know that she "could" go back to XP.

Happy Thanksgiving!
B.rgds,
Kevin

 

[John Barnes]

Make sure to back up anything you are going to want to have when you go back
to XP. Unless you make a complete backup of XP before you upgrade to Vista,
you will be installing XP in some native version and will at least want to
have data available to reinstall. I would personally recommend you make a
complete backup for two reasons, 1. If the upgrade fails, and some do, you
can restore with no loss and 2, if you decide later to replace Vista, you
can at least start over from the point of conversion and won't have all
those programs and data to reinstall.

 

[General Mailbox]

Boy, have I learned more than one lesson about backups recently! Not only
is Windows unreliable in backups, but unreliable in burning CD's. I'm
advised to use third party applications for these. Without OEMs installing
floppy drives, can't use ASR feature to restore a system, etc.(at least for
me using XP). Currently using Acronis True Image for backups, but did read
about some issue with it recently...can't remember. I'll come by it again.
Thanks for your time in writing!
B.rgds,
Kevin