XP and Vista

[Louis126]

Hello All,

I am a Computer Networking major at a small community college in the town
where I live. I know that someone else presently has a very similar question,
but I feel mine is specific to my own need, so I will present it here in
hopes someone will be able to help.

My laptop was pre-loaded with Vista Home Basic. However, my wife has a
laptop also (which I gave her when I bought this newer one), which was
pre-loaded with XP Professional. Like the person who has also already posted
a question in this community similar to my question, I too have a software
program (In my case I need to use it for a class I am taking at the college I
am now attending). The program was designed to run in XP, and does not do
well with Vista.

So my question is, can I use the Reinstallation CD (which came with my Dell
laptop), which has Windows XP Professional on it, and create a DUAL BOOT on
my Toshiba laptop which is currently running Windows Vista Home Basis.

I am aware that, one of the things I would need to do in order to determine
if this would be possible would be to find the information on my Vista laptop
which gives a rundown of the partitions and drives. However, for the life of
me, I cannot seem to find that information on this laptop. It seems like
Vista hides stuff like this pretty well (I know that it's much easier to find
stuff like this in XP, in my opinion).

So, if anyone knows anything about what I am asking, could you please
respond, and let me know all of the steps I would need to take in order to
get the ball rolling on this DUAL BOOT (if it would even be possible to do
such a thing, as I have described here).

Thanks!

Louis126

 

[PvdG42]

Hello All,

I am a Computer Networking major at a small community college in the town
where I live. I know that someone else presently has a very similar
question,
but I feel mine is specific to my own need, so I will present it here in
hopes someone will be able to help.

My laptop was pre-loaded with Vista Home Basic. However, my wife has a
laptop also (which I gave her when I bought this newer one), which was
pre-loaded with XP Professional. Like the person who has also already
posted
a question in this community similar to my question, I too have a software
program (In my case I need to use it for a class I am taking at the
college I
am now attending). The program was designed to run in XP, and does not do
well with Vista.

So my question is, can I use the Reinstallation CD (which came with my
Dell
laptop), which has Windows XP Professional on it, and create a DUAL BOOT
on
my Toshiba laptop which is currently running Windows Vista Home Basis.

I am aware that, one of the things I would need to do in order to
determine
if this would be possible would be to find the information on my Vista
laptop
which gives a rundown of the partitions and drives. However, for the life
of
me, I cannot seem to find that information on this laptop. It seems like
Vista hides stuff like this pretty well (I know that it's much easier to
find
stuff like this in XP, in my opinion).

So, if anyone knows anything about what I am asking, could you please
respond, and let me know all of the steps I would need to take in order to
get the ball rolling on this DUAL BOOT (if it would even be possible to do
such a thing, as I have described here).

Thanks!

Louis126

1. If you do, you're in violation of your OEM license agreement.

2. Practically speaking, it's extremely unlikely to work, and will probably
hose your new laptop. Reason? Your new laptop uses new/different hardware
that requires different drivers than those on your OEM CD.

If you intend to take the risk, at least make *sure* the new laptop OEM has
XP drivers for *all* devices in the new laptop.

Also, you have additional adventures coming your way in the boot sector.

 

[Phillips]

Did you try in whatever program you need to go Properties/Compatibility
tab/Compatibility Mode... pick from the drop down list?
Pending your Dell OEM XP Pro CD setup, you might or might not install on the
Toshiba... most likely not since it should be related to the specific Dell
hardware. Of course, legally you should not try that.
Just give your wife the Toshiba and go back to your Dell... that's life
Michael

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

A Dell Windows XP Reinstallation CD can only be used
on the Dell computer it originally came with. If used
on a non-Dell computer, you'll never be able to "activate"
successfully as the license is locked to a Dell motherboard BIOS.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience -
Windows Vista Enthusiast

---------------------------------------------------------------

Hello All,

I am a Computer Networking major at a small community college in the town
where I live. I know that someone else presently has a very similar question,
but I feel mine is specific to my own need, so I will present it here in
hopes someone will be able to help.

My laptop was pre-loaded with Vista Home Basic. However, my wife has a
laptop also (which I gave her when I bought this newer one), which was
pre-loaded with XP Professional. Like the person who has also already posted
a question in this community similar to my question, I too have a software
program (In my case I need to use it for a class I am taking at the college I
am now attending). The program was designed to run in XP, and does not do
well with Vista.

So my question is, can I use the Reinstallation CD (which came with my Dell
laptop), which has Windows XP Professional on it, and create a DUAL BOOT on
my Toshiba laptop which is currently running Windows Vista Home Basis.

I am aware that, one of the things I would need to do in order to determine
if this would be possible would be to find the information on my Vista laptop
which gives a rundown of the partitions and drives. However, for the life of
me, I cannot seem to find that information on this laptop. It seems like
Vista hides stuff like this pretty well (I know that it's much easier to find
stuff like this in XP, in my opinion).

So, if anyone knows anything about what I am asking, could you please
respond, and let me know all of the steps I would need to take in order to
get the ball rolling on this DUAL BOOT (if it would even be possible to do
such a thing, as I have described here).

Thanks!

Louis126

 

[Louis126]

1. If you do, you're in violation of your OEM license agreement.

2. Practically speaking, it's extremely unlikely to work, and will probably
hose your new laptop. Reason? Your new laptop uses new/different hardware
that requires different drivers than those on your OEM CD.

If you intend to take the risk, at least make *sure* the new laptop OEM has
XP drivers for *all* devices in the new laptop.

Also, you have additional adventures coming your way in the boot sector.

No, that's OK. I don't think I'll take that chance.

On another note though, I'd like to add: I'm really amazed at all of the
LICENSE POLICE who hang out in this community. It really amazes me. I think
what really amazes me most about this is, why in the world you think I would
give a rat's butt about any of that. The ONLY relevant LICENSING issue here
is that I have rights to use both of these instances of Microsoft Windows
software. I acknowledge that a license does not give a person ownership. But
it does give user rights to the one who paid for it. That is all that matters
here.

 

[Louis126]

Did you try in whatever program you need to go Properties/Compatibility
tab/Compatibility Mode... pick from the drop down list?
Pending your Dell OEM XP Pro CD setup, you might or might not install on the
Toshiba... most likely not since it should be related to the specific Dell
hardware. Of course, legally you should not try that.
Just give your wife the Toshiba and go back to your Dell... that's life
Michael

LOL --- Well, actually you have a point here. But most likely we will just
share the Dell while I am in this course. Good point though. The Toshiba is a
nicer laptop, you know much faster, and all that, etc. But thanks though.

 

[Louis126]

A Dell Windows XP Reinstallation CD can only be used
on the Dell computer it originally came with. If used
on a non-Dell computer, you'll never be able to "activate"
successfully as the license is locked to a Dell motherboard BIOS.

You know what, I was actually wondering about that. Very good point. Thank
you. I guess the only way to get that work would have been if I had actually
bought a packaged version of both XP and Vista (not specific to either of my
laptop manufacturer's) from a retail outlet. Thanks!

 

[Louis126]

 

[Nonny]

Hello All,

I am a Computer Networking major at a small community college in the town
where I live. I know that someone else presently has a very similar question,
but I feel mine is specific to my own need, so I will present it here in
hopes someone will be able to help.

My laptop was pre-loaded with Vista Home Basic. However, my wife has a
laptop also (which I gave her when I bought this newer one), which was
pre-loaded with XP Professional. Like the person who has also already posted
a question in this community similar to my question, I too have a software
program (In my case I need to use it for a class I am taking at the college I
am now attending). The program was designed to run in XP, and does not do
well with Vista.

So my question is, can I use the Reinstallation CD (which came with my Dell
laptop), which has Windows XP Professional on it, and create a DUAL BOOT on
my Toshiba laptop which is currently running Windows Vista Home Basis.

No. Besides the licensing problem that you would apparently overlook
(judging by your second post), that CD is no doubt locked to the Dell
that is now your wife's.

So your wish to pirate has been foiled.

You wanna dual boot? Buy a copy of XP.

 

[Louis126]

No. Besides the licensing problem that you would apparently overlook
(judging by your second post), that CD is no doubt locked to the Dell
that is now your wife's.

So your wish to pirate has been foiled.

You wanna dual boot? Buy a copy of XP.

Yes, thank you for clearing this up.

 

[Louis126]

1. If you do, you're in violation of your OEM license agreement.

2. Practically speaking, it's extremely unlikely to work, and will probably
hose your new laptop. Reason? Your new laptop uses new/different hardware
that requires different drivers than those on your OEM CD.

If you intend to take the risk, at least make *sure* the new laptop OEM has
XP drivers for *all* devices in the new laptop.

Also, you have additional adventures coming your way in the boot sector.

Well, let me first say, I owe this person an apology for my crass comments
about licensure violations. I was out of line making those comments, and I
apologize. I had been going through a few other posts here, and was finding
that to be a common issue (by which some of the people were needing to be
corrected about). I guess I had always thought licensure issues only arose
under such conditions as whenever someone would make a copy of software and
sell it for their own profit (or even when they would give it away). I always
thought that these constituted what we commonly refer to as 'piracy'. But
evidently I was not entirely correct. Thanks for clearing this up for me.

 

[LVTravel]

Well, let me first say, I owe this person an apology for my crass comments
about licensure violations. I was out of line making those comments, and I
apologize. I had been going through a few other posts here, and was
finding
that to be a common issue (by which some of the people were needing to be
corrected about). I guess I had always thought licensure issues only arose
under such conditions as whenever someone would make a copy of software
and
sell it for their own profit (or even when they would give it away). I
always
thought that these constituted what we commonly refer to as 'piracy'. But
evidently I was not entirely correct. Thanks for clearing this up for me.

On behalf of all who post here, thanks for the apology. We sometimes need
one.

The reason there are so many License Police here is that we are trying to
lower the amount of pirating of software that does happen but more
importantly we are trying to prevent people from wasting their time
installing software that won't work or will fail when the person attempts to
update the software. People just don't know because they either don't read
the EULA, don't understand it or can't find it (granted it is buried in some
of the software packaging.)

 

[Louis126]

On behalf of all who post here, thanks for the apology. We sometimes need
one.

The reason there are so many License Police here is that we are trying to
lower the amount of pirating of software that does happen but more
importantly we are trying to prevent people from wasting their time
installing software that won't work or will fail when the person attempts to
update the software. People just don't know because they either don't read
the EULA, don't understand it or can't find it (granted it is buried in some
of the software packaging.)

Yes, very true. Very good points here. Problem was before I hadn't realized how much more there truly is to what 'piracy' really encapsulates. But I have a much better understanding of it now. Thanks again.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

On another note though, I'd like to add: I'm really amazed at all of the
LICENSE POLICE who hang out in this community. It really amazes me. I
think
what really amazes me most about this is, why in the world you think I
would
give a rat's butt about any of that. The ONLY relevant LICENSING issue
here
is that I have rights to use both of these instances of Microsoft Windows
software. I acknowledge that a license does not give a person ownership.
But
it does give user rights to the one who paid for it. That is all that
matters
here.

Licensing police? Just because we tell you something you don't want to
hear? It doesn't matter to you that it is true?

An OEM license is tied to the computer on which it was installed by the
manufacturer. You can read the consumer_oem license for yourself at
C:\Windows\System32\license on your wife's laptop. It says in pertinent
part:

"2. INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS. The software license is permanently
assigned to the device with which you acquired the software. That device is
the “licensed device.†A hardware partition or blade is considered to be a
separate device.
a. Licensed Device. You may install one copy of the software on the
licensed device. You may use the software on up to two processors on that
device at one time. You may not use the software on any other device."

What do you want us to do, tell you it says something else?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

On behalf of all who post here, thanks for the apology. We sometimes need
one.

The reason there are so many License Police here is that we are trying to
lower the amount of pirating of software that does happen but more
importantly we are trying to prevent people from wasting their time
installing software that won't work or will fail when the person attempts
to update the software. People just don't know because they either don't
read the EULA, don't understand it or can't find it (granted it is buried
in some of the software packaging.)

LV, for future reference you can find the OEM or retail license at
C:\Windows\System32\license. You can also find all the retail licenses at:
http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/useterms/

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hello All,

I am a Computer Networking major at a small community college in the town
where I live. I know that someone else presently has a very similar question,
but I feel mine is specific to my own need, so I will present it here in
hopes someone will be able to help.

My laptop was pre-loaded with Vista Home Basic. However, my wife has a
laptop also (which I gave her when I bought this newer one), which was
pre-loaded with XP Professional. Like the person who has also already posted
a question in this community similar to my question, I too have a software
program (In my case I need to use it for a class I am taking at the college I
am now attending). The program was designed to run in XP, and does not do
well with Vista.

So my question is, can I use the Reinstallation CD (which came with my Dell
laptop), which has Windows XP Professional on it, and create a DUAL BOOT on
my Toshiba laptop which is currently running Windows Vista Home Basis.

No, it is not possible. There are two reasons for this, one legal,
and one technical.

First of all, by your own admission, you have an OEM license for
Vista Ultimate. An OEM license must be sold with a piece of hardware
(normally a motherboard or hard drive, if not an entire PC) and is
_permanently_ bound to the first PC on which it's installed. An OEM
license, once installed, is not legally transferable to another computer
under _any_ circumstances.

To even attempt to do so would be the equivalent of your telling
the world that your given word and your signature on a contract are
completely without value, never to be trusted.

Secondly, if the OEM CD was designed by a specific manufacturer,
such as eMachines, Sony, Dell, Gateway, etc., it will most likely be
"BIOS-locked" to install only on the same make/model PC for which it was
designed, as an anti-piracy feature.

I am aware that, one of the things I would need to do in order to determine
if this would be possible would be to find the information on my Vista laptop
which gives a rundown of the partitions and drives. However, for the life of
me, I cannot seem to find that information on this laptop. It seems like
Vista hides stuff like this pretty well (I know that it's much easier to find
stuff like this in XP, in my opinion).

It's all actually in exactly the same place on both operating systems:
Right-click Computer > Manage.

So, if anyone knows anything about what I am asking, could you please
respond, and let me know all of the steps I would need to take in order to
get the ball rolling on this DUAL BOOT (if it would even be possible to do
such a thing, as I have described here).

First and foremost, if the specific computer model in question was
designed specifically for Vista, there may well be no WinXP-specific
device drivers available to make the computer's diverse components work
properly. If this proves to be the case , installing WinXP in a virtual
machine would be your best option, anyway. Consult the computer's
manufacturer about the availability of device drivers. Secondly, adding
another OS might void any support agreements and, sometimes, even the
warranty. Again, consult the computer's manufacturer for specifics.

If WinXP do device drivers exist, purchase a legitimate license for
WinXP Pro to install.

Normally, the older OS must be installed first unless you wish to
acquire and use some 3rd-party partition and boot management utility.
(In which case you have to follow the instructions provided by whatever
3rd party solution you select.) However, this KB Article (not for the
faint of heart or technically-challenged) explains how to repair the
Vista boot process after installing WinXP:

Windows Vista no longer starts after you install an earlier version of
the Windows operating system in a dual-boot configuration
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529

MS-MVP John Barnett's Guide is considerably more user-friendly:
http://vistasupport.mvps.org/install_windows_xp_on_machine_running_vista.htm

However, dual-booting is no longer necessary in a great many
situations. Why not download a Virtual Machine application, such as
Microsoft's VirtualPC 2007
(http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.asp?) or Innotek's VirtualBox
(http://www.virtualbox.org/) and run WinXP and your legacy applications
within a virtual computer? Both are free and work with Vista.

NOTE: Microsoft does not support the use of VirtualPC 2007 on Vista
Home editions, but several people have reported that it works. Your
results may vary.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Bruce Chambers]

On another note though, I'd like to add: I'm really amazed at all of the
LICENSE POLICE who hang out in this community. It really amazes me.

Because free-loading scum like you raise the prices that we honest
citizens have to pay; that's why.

I think
what really amazes me most about this is, why in the world you think I would
give a rat's butt about any of that.

What amazes is me is that you can come to this newsgroup with that sort
of attitude and then expect free advice and support. You're parents
raised a fine little parasite, didn't they?

The ONLY relevant LICENSING issue here
is that I have rights to use both of these instances of Microsoft Windows
software.
I acknowledge that a license does not give a person ownership. But
it does give user rights to the one who paid for it. That is all that
matters
here.

Those licenses are valid ONLY on the machines with which they were
purchased. (If you can't get you head around licensing, you'd better
look into another career; something simple like flipping burgers. No IT
department is going to hire someone with your slip-shod attitude; it'd
be too likely to cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in
fines.)







--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[LVTravel]

LV, for future reference you can find the OEM or retail license at
C:\Windows\System32\license. You can also find all the retail licenses
at:
http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/useterms/

Actually Colin, I know where all the EULAs are stored but the average person
doesn't, that is why I said they are buried. The license at the location
you specified on the C drive is only available at that location after the
installation has finished. Do you know where to find it on the Vista DVD?
I do! Root of CD\Sources\License\en-us\ and then select the type of
disk(retail=default, Eval, or OEM)\ then select the version of the software.
As I said, buried.

As for the URL you posted, I have known about that site for a long time,
IIRC, I have posted it before in helping others. If you type the URL posted
on the Vista box it also takes you to the site.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

An OEM license must be sold with a piece of hardware (normally a
motherboard or hard drive, if not an entire PC)

Bruce, that is no longer true. The "piece of hardware" rule went out two
years ago when MS revised the OEM (System Builder) license. MS no longer
requires resellers to provide hardware. The present requirement is:

"2. Authorized Distribution and Acceptance. To distribute the Software or
Hardware in this Pack, you must be a
System Builder and accept this license. “System Builder†means an original
equipment manufacturer, an assembler, a
refurbisher, or a software pre-installer that sells the Customer System(s)
to a third party."

The "piece of hardware" rule only applied to OEM pack resellers anyway. It
never applied to purchasers. The present license applies to purchasers so
there is no longer any need for a requirement for resellers (like NewEgg) to
provide any hardware with an OEM pack.

The current license is at:
http://www.microsoft.com/oem/sblicense/default.mspx

 

[Phillips]

I recall that OEM licensing policies were changed quite often. Once, it was
"tied" to some piece of hardware - even an USB cable or such - and not
necessarily to the motherboard. Hence, why not transfer the HDD from one
laptop to another - this is a legal point and I am not discussing the
technological issues.
Michael