going back to XP Home

[Ralph]

Bought a Dell 1705 Inspiron laptop back in March '07, with Vista. Wish I
had gotten XP Pro instead. Some of my programs just don't like Vista and I
find my laptop runs very sluggishly.

Wifes Dell Desktop is running XP Pro and works fine. Runs all the programs
as they are supposed to run. Older but faster than my laptop.

I had an older laptop that came with Windows 98. As it got tired, I bought
XP Home for it, worked OK, but then the laptop died.

So, I have a copy of XP Home that I bought and paid for, is no longer
installed on any computer, and I am thinking of using on the 1705. I
assume I am legally entitled to do this.

I understand I will need to partition the HD and do some other things before
XP can be used.

The questions are:

Will I get improved performance?

What kind of problems can I reasonably expect from such a dual system?

Would it be worthwhile?

TIA, Ralph

 

[capitan]

Bought a Dell 1705 Inspiron laptop back in March '07, with Vista. Wish
I had gotten XP Pro instead. Some of my programs just don't like Vista
and I find my laptop runs very sluggishly.

Wifes Dell Desktop is running XP Pro and works fine. Runs all the
programs as they are supposed to run. Older but faster than my laptop.

I had an older laptop that came with Windows 98. As it got tired, I
bought XP Home for it, worked OK, but then the laptop died.

So, I have a copy of XP Home that I bought and paid for, is no longer
installed on any computer, and I am thinking of using on the 1705. I
assume I am legally entitled to do this.

I understand I will need to partition the HD and do some other things
before XP can be used.

The questions are:

Will I get improved performance?

What kind of problems can I reasonably expect from such a dual system?

Would it be worthwhile?

TIA, Ralph

You can try it, but make a backup of all data first. Try to find out
(before attempting the install) from Dell if the 1705 is compatible with
windows xp, as not all of the hardware may have xp drivers. available.
Good luck!

 

[Doum]

Bought a Dell 1705 Inspiron laptop back in March '07, with Vista.
Wish I had gotten XP Pro instead. Some of my programs just don't
like Vista and I find my laptop runs very sluggishly.

Wifes Dell Desktop is running XP Pro and works fine. Runs all the
programs as they are supposed to run. Older but faster than my
laptop.

I had an older laptop that came with Windows 98. As it got tired, I
bought XP Home for it, worked OK, but then the laptop died.

So, I have a copy of XP Home that I bought and paid for, is no longer
installed on any computer, and I am thinking of using on the 1705. I
assume I am legally entitled to do this.

I understand I will need to partition the HD and do some other things
before XP can be used.

The questions are:

Will I get improved performance?

What kind of problems can I reasonably expect from such a dual system?

Would it be worthwhile?

TIA, Ralph

I've just checked the Dell website and there are XP drivers for the
Inspiron E1705.

Why do you want to dual-boot? You don't have to partition the hard disk
and you can install XP "instead" of Vista. Just make sure you can restore
your Vista installation in case you change your mind or sell or give the
laptop (and you paid for Vista).

There must be an hidden partition on the hard disk which contains
restoration data, so be careful if you partition the HD not to destroy
it.

They way to do it, is to boot the laptop with the XP installation CD and
when the installation program shows the partitions on the HD, you choose
to install XP where Vista is install and you format that partition before
proceeding with the XP installation.

Make sure to backup all the data you want to keep and that you have all
your programs installations CDs or files with all your product keys.

HTH
Good luck

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Bought a Dell 1705 Inspiron laptop back in March '07, with Vista. Wish I
had gotten XP Pro instead. Some of my programs just don't like Vista and I
find my laptop runs very sluggishly.

Wifes Dell Desktop is running XP Pro and works fine. Runs all the programs
as they are supposed to run. Older but faster than my laptop.

I had an older laptop that came with Windows 98. As it got tired, I bought
XP Home for it, worked OK, but then the laptop died.

So, I have a copy of XP Home that I bought and paid for, is no longer
installed on any computer, and I am thinking of using on the 1705. I
assume I am legally entitled to do this.

If yours is a retail copy, yes you are. But if what you bought was an
OEM copy (because it was cheaper than a retail copy), no you are not.

I understand I will need to partition the HD and do some other things before
XP can be used.

Not exactly. When you do a clean installation, the first step in that
installation will be to create a partition on the drive. You do not
have to do it first.

The questions are:

Will I get improved performance?

Maybe, maybe not. Without any knowledge of what the hardware is, I
can't tell. Please describe it, and especially tell us how much RAM is
installed. Vista needs more RAM than XP does, and if you don't have
enough, yes, XP will give you better performance. But if it were me,
and you have less than 2GB of RAM, instead of installing XP I'd
install more RAM.

Also, before you do this, be sure that XP drivers exist for this
laptop.

What kind of problems can I reasonably expect from such a dual system?

A dual system? You're planning on dual-booting? You didn't say
anything about that.

Why do you want to dual-boot? If your hardware isn't adequate for
Vista (and my suspicion is that it isn't), my advice is to either
upgrade the hardware or change to XP completely.

Would it be worthwhile?

See the above. It's probably more worthwhile to upgrade the RAM
(assuming that you don't have at least 2GB).