Should I go from Vista to XP on my new laptop?

[Legaldeejay]

I plan on purchasing a new HP laptop. Practically all new laptops now have
Vista on them. I don't know whether to wipe out Vista and put XP Home on
the new machine. I have read numerous articles and postings about
compatibility issues with programs and home networking problems when
networking PCs with XP and Vista. I also know that you can have both OS's
on the machine, but I prefer to keep just one on there.

My feeling is that the new laptop was really designed to have Vista on it,
and I don't want to screw anything up by putting XP on it, including voiding
any warranties. Also, once I put XP on the machine, I am sure that my free
1 year of tech support won't help me if I run into software problems.

So should I stick with Vista, or is Vista still in development, so to speak,
so that I would be better off using XP? I am leaning toward leaving things
alone and keeping Vista under the theory that "if it ain't broke, don't fix
it".

I appreciate your advice and opinions.

Andrew

 

[Richard]

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I plan on purchasing a new HP laptop. Practically all new laptops now have
Vista on them. I don't know whether to wipe out Vista and put XP Home on
the new machine. I have read numerous articles and postings about
compatibility issues with programs and home networking problems when
networking PCs with XP and Vista. I also know that you can have both OS's
on the machine, but I prefer to keep just one on there.

My feeling is that the new laptop was really designed to have Vista on it,
and I don't want to screw anything up by putting XP on it, including voiding
any warranties. Also, once I put XP on the machine, I am sure that my free
1 year of tech support won't help me if I run into software problems.

So should I stick with Vista, or is Vista still in development, so to speak,
so that I would be better off using XP? I am leaning toward leaving things
alone and keeping Vista under the theory that "if it ain't broke, don't fix
it".

I appreciate your advice and opinions.

Andrew

I have a new HP laptop running Vista & have no problems at all.
My one recommendation would be to uninstall the Norton 360 it will be
bundled with.
Run the uninstaller & then run the Norton product uninstaller which
apparently cleans the PC incl. registry of all traces of Norton.
It's available from their FTP site, maybe someone here has a link?

I would then install a another anti virus app. Many are freeware.
I prefer AVG which has a very small footprint & daily updates.
I actually have their Anti Malware which is a pay version, but very
inexpensive if you buy the 2 year license.

I did consider going to XP when I 1st got the laptop, but am glad I
didn't now.
It works very well, is stable so no complaints here.



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[MICHAEL]

* Legaldeejay:

I plan on purchasing a new HP laptop. Practically all new laptops now have
Vista on them. I don't know whether to wipe out Vista and put XP Home on
the new machine. I have read numerous articles and postings about
compatibility issues with programs and home networking problems when
networking PCs with XP and Vista. I also know that you can have both OS's
on the machine, but I prefer to keep just one on there.

My feeling is that the new laptop was really designed to have Vista on it,
and I don't want to screw anything up by putting XP on it, including voiding
any warranties. Also, once I put XP on the machine, I am sure that my free
1 year of tech support won't help me if I run into software problems.

So should I stick with Vista, or is Vista still in development, so to speak,
so that I would be better off using XP? I am leaning toward leaving things
alone and keeping Vista under the theory that "if it ain't broke, don't fix
it".

I appreciate your advice and opinions.

Andrew,

Since you are buying a new computer that will already have Vista
installed, you should leave it that way. Unless, you are using a
program(s) that doesn't work with Vista, and you absolutely
need those programs to function properly. If that's the case, I
would just wait and see if the software maker plans to make it Vista
compatible, and continue to use what you already have.

While I may be a bit underwhelmed by Vista, I do find it to be
stable and for the most part works well... I have it installed on
three different machines.

Vista is the future, and since you will be purchasing a new computer,
stick with Vista. It really makes the most sense.


-Michael

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I plan on purchasing a new HP laptop. Practically all new laptops now have
Vista on them. I don't know whether to wipe out Vista and put XP Home on
the new machine. I have read numerous articles and postings about
compatibility issues with programs and home networking problems when
networking PCs with XP and Vista.

If it were me, I wouldn't think twice about it, and would stay with
Vista. I think most people should be a lot slower about doing an
upgrade to Vista if they are happy with XP, but for a new
system--absolutely.

Personally, I find vista to be very stable and problem-free. Other
than a couple of older utilities (which is not surprising) I've found
that all my software works fine with it.

 

[huwyngr]

I plan on purchasing a new HP laptop.  Practically all new laptops now have
Vista on them.

HP make good laptops but the critical thing, apart from the PC working on its
own, is the peripherals like printers and scanners: will they work with VISTA
as the do for you now (under XP?).

I'm not sure if HP are offering any of their business grade laptops with XP
still but Lenovo Thinkpads are still available with XP on them (eg the T61)
and so are Dell.

FWIW

 

[Harry]

HP make good laptops but the critical thing, apart from the PC working on
its
own, is the peripherals like printers and scanners: will they work with
VISTA
as the do for you now (under XP?).

I'm not sure if HP are offering any of their business grade laptops with
XP
still but Lenovo Thinkpads are still available with XP on them (eg the
T61)
and so are Dell.

FWIW

My HP laserjet 1020 does NOT work with Vista and I do not know if it ever
will. Be careful!!!!

 

[Cal Bear '66]

Harry, I got the HP 1020 LaserJet to work (flakily though -- won't print on
first attempt, but second attempt works) using XP drivers.

 

[Harry]

Yes I have determined that already some time ago and find it very annoying.
It is a shame that HP as yet have not released a Vista driver for this
printer. They are constantly trying to convince me to buy a new printer,
which I flatly refuse to do. I have therefor gone back to XP Prof and
shelved Vista.

 

[Cal Bear '66]

The HP LaserJet Product Support Matrix for Vista page says that they "hope" to
provide Microsoft certified drives by July 2007 -- for whatever that is worth.

I bought the 1020 when I was running Vista RC2 thinking that since it was a new
printer, HP would certainly proved Vista drivers very soon. They are still
selling the 1020 and it is just a simple laser printer and mostly the XP driver
work. It would seem to be a very simple matter to write fully Vista compatible
drivers. If I have to buy a new printer, it certainly will not be HP.

 

[huwyngr]

My HP laserjet 1020 does NOT work with Vista and I do not know if it ever 
will. Be careful!!!!

I don't know why you addressed me and my message when all you've done is quote
from the person I was replying to and about buying a laptop, not a printer.

As has been pointed out HP say it's on their to do list for availablility by
July 2007. They also say:

NOTE: If your printer currently uses either a PCL5, PCL6 or PostScript XP >

driver, you may download the current XP driver from HP to provide printing >
functionality. Windows Vista printing is very similar to Windows XP and most >
print drivers supported in XP environment for LaserJet printers may also >
work in the Windows Vista operating system.

I and others have used those satisfactorily especially when installed using
compatibility mode - XP with SP2 -- and Run as Administrator.