Laptops and Vista

[ken]

I need to purchase a new laptop computer for my college-age daughter. It
appears that the new ones (HP, Sony, Dell [I know that there is a higher
end in Dell that uses Vista Business] all come with various flavors of
Vista. My experience is with Win2K and Win XP Pro, which I have come to
know well enough to do most of the support (with help from people here).
I have heard problems about Vista being a memory hog and having
"problems" but I am unclear about what those problems might be. In
addition, I am not sure if these newer computers would run XP Pro (which
I would prefer).

If someone would venture their opinion about potential problems using
Vista as opposed to XP Pro or if I could be directed to info elsewhere,
I would be grateful. My daughter is not a gamer; she uses her
computer for standard Office programs, music storage, iTunes, etc...

Thanks
Ken K

 

[Nepatsfan]

I need to purchase a new laptop computer for my college-age daughter. It
appears that the new ones (HP, Sony, Dell [I know that there is a higher
end in Dell that uses Vista Business] all come with various flavors of
Vista. My experience is with Win2K and Win XP Pro, which I have come to
know well enough to do most of the support (with help from people here). I
have heard problems about Vista being a memory hog and having "problems"
but I am unclear about what those problems might be. In addition, I am not
sure if these newer computers would run XP Pro (which I would prefer).

If someone would venture their opinion about potential problems using
Vista as opposed to XP Pro or if I could be directed to info elsewhere, I
would be grateful. My daughter is not a gamer; she uses her computer for
standard Office programs, music storage, iTunes, etc...

Thanks
Ken K

You can still order a Dell laptop through their Small Business division that
will have XP Pro installed. The base operating system on these computers is
Vista Home Basic. For an additional $99 you can select to upgrade to Vista
Business with a downgrade option for Windows XP Professional. The computer
will come with a license for Vista Business but XP Pro will be installed. I
can't speak for the laptops but I know that a new Dell Vostro desktop
ordered with this option will come with an installation DVD for Vista
Business and a recovery partition on the hard drive to restore XP
Professional.

Business Notebooks and Laptop Computers - Dell
http://www.dell.com/business/laptops?~ck=mn

Note: If your daughter will be connecting to the college's network you
should check to make sure what minimal operating system is needed. You may
find that they only support XP Pro, Vista Business, or Vista Ultimate.

Also, if you plan on asking this question in the Vista General newsgroup be
prepared to deal with a large number of useless responses.

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[DL]

You ought to go for 2gb of memory as a base
My Dell with 2gb, medium CoreDuo & Vista Business is fine, so far

 

[Richard in AZ]

|I need to purchase a new laptop computer for my college-age daughter. It
| appears that the new ones (HP, Sony, Dell [I know that there is a higher
| end in Dell that uses Vista Business] all come with various flavors of
| Vista. My experience is with Win2K and Win XP Pro, which I have come to
| know well enough to do most of the support (with help from people here).
| I have heard problems about Vista being a memory hog and having
| "problems" but I am unclear about what those problems might be. In
| addition, I am not sure if these newer computers would run XP Pro (which
| I would prefer).
|
| If someone would venture their opinion about potential problems using
| Vista as opposed to XP Pro or if I could be directed to info elsewhere,
| I would be grateful. My daughter is not a gamer; she uses her
| computer for standard Office programs, music storage, iTunes, etc...
|
| Thanks
| Ken K

Almost any of the new PC's are designed to use Vista and should perform well for your daughter.
Vista is not really and "memory hog" but does require more basic RAM to run well. Make sure the
computer you buy has a minimum of 2 GB. I don't see any reason your daughter would need any more
than Vista Premium and most likely could get by with Vista Basic.

If you don't buy a Dell, make sure you use the system program to make yourself a set of restore
disks.
This will require a couple of DVD-R, or about 8 CD-R disks. Check any Sony machine to make sure
they did not partition the HD into a very small C drive and a large D drive. Experienced users
know to put program on the D drive (in this configuration) but novice's tend to let program install
in the default C drive and then fill the C drive until it does not work any longer. With a laptop I
like the Compaq feature that lets you turn off the touchpad. Then you can use an external mouse and
not have heavy thumb problems with the touchpad.

Any brand laptop will be expensive to repair since they are all custom designed and require priority
hardware. This said, buy the extended warrantee. Remember that every vendor will have a few
lemons.
You will hear a lot about Vista problems, but the same was said when 95 was introduced, when 98 was
introduced and when XP was introduced. Most of the problems are either due to "I don't like change"
or upgrades to old hardware.

 

[Unknown]

You're in hell with Dell! Sony costs too much. Hp has good reputation. But
there are others such as Lenovo formerly IBM
with a very good reputation. If you order from Dell the sales person will
try to sell you the Brooklyn bridge.

 

[Big_Al]

You're in hell with Dell! Sony costs too much. Hp has good reputation. But
there are others such as Lenovo formerly IBM
with a very good reputation. If you order from Dell the sales person will
try to sell you the Brooklyn bridge.

I need to purchase a new laptop computer for my college-age daughter. It
appears that the new ones (HP, Sony, Dell [I know that there is a higher
end in Dell that uses Vista Business] all come with various flavors of
Vista. My experience is with Win2K and Win XP Pro, which I have come to
know well enough to do most of the support (with help from people here). I
have heard problems about Vista being a memory hog and having "problems"
but I am unclear about what those problems might be. In addition, I am not
sure if these newer computers would run XP Pro (which I would prefer).

If someone would venture their opinion about potential problems using
Vista as opposed to XP Pro or if I could be directed to info elsewhere, I
would be grateful. My daughter is not a gamer; she uses her computer for
standard Office programs, music storage, iTunes, etc...

Thanks
Ken K

Then don't order from Dell *people*. Do it yourself on their web page.
I did, got what I wanted and nothing more or less. Besides, you can
play with +/- options to get it tweaked just where you want it $ wise.

 

[olfart]

I need to purchase a new laptop computer for my college-age daughter. It
appears that the new ones (HP, Sony, Dell [I know that there is a higher
end in Dell that uses Vista Business] all come with various flavors of
Vista. My experience is with Win2K and Win XP Pro, which I have come to
know well enough to do most of the support (with help from people here). I
have heard problems about Vista being a memory hog and having "problems"
but I am unclear about what those problems might be. In addition, I am not
sure if these newer computers would run XP Pro (which I would prefer).

If someone would venture their opinion about potential problems using
Vista as opposed to XP Pro or if I could be directed to info elsewhere, I
would be grateful. My daughter is not a gamer; she uses her computer for
standard Office programs, music storage, iTunes, etc...

Thanks
Ken K

You might want to check out refurbished orr lease laptops from the business
sector. I just bought my grandaughter(who is also starting college) a Dell
D610 ( 1.6gb, 1gb RAM) with WinXP Pro for $350.00 incl shipping. She didn't
want Vista as she is used to using WIN XP on her home computers. The Dell
meets all of her needs...wireless, CD burning....etc and came with some
basis office programs installed. Has a 1 yr warranty. I added some basic
anivirus, antispyware and other utilities to it. It had a 40gb H/D which
seeems to be very quiet. Just in case it fails I gave her a brand new 40GB
(put it in a USB enclosure) to use as a backup in case her H/D does fail.
Several years ago I bought an off lease Dell C610 wuth WIN 2000. I upgraded
it to WinXP and have run the socks off of it with no problems. I did
purchase a new battery for it. I have also bought several other off lease
machines with good results
I don't want to spam this N/G, but if you email me at my olfart65 addy I'l
gladly give you the links to a couple of vendors that I have been satisfied
with.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I need to purchase a new laptop computer for my college-age daughter. It
appears that the new ones (HP, Sony, Dell [I know that there is a higher
end in Dell that uses Vista Business] all come with various flavors of
Vista. My experience is with Win2K and Win XP Pro, which I have come to
know well enough to do most of the support (with help from people here). I
have heard problems about Vista being a memory hog and having "problems"
but I am unclear about what those problems might be. In addition, I am not
sure if these newer computers would run XP Pro (which I would prefer).

If someone would venture their opinion about potential problems using
Vista as opposed to XP Pro or if I could be directed to info elsewhere, I
would be grateful. My daughter is not a gamer; she uses her computer for
standard Office programs, music storage, iTunes, etc...

Thanks
Ken K

The laptop I'm writing this on runs Vista Business and it's fine. I have
shut off a number of the more annoying security features, such as UAC, and
it's fine. With SP1, and any new system will come with that, it is solid
and reliable.

You do have to be sure that the apps you install and hardware you attach are
Vista-compatible, just as you had to with XP.

If you wish to run XP on those systems, you must be absolutely sure that
drivers are available AND have them to hand. Only Vista Ultimate and
Business qualify for "downgrade" licensing, meaning that you can legally
install XP on them (which requires wiping the disk) and get an activation
code from MS. Otherwise, you will have to purchase new XP licenses.

But I think that with a few hours of tweaking, you'll find that downgrading
isn't really necessary.

HTH
-pk